Today, I decided for the first time in a long time, I would load up the first Grand Theft Auto and play a bit of it. I loaded it up and I played for about an hour before I had to work on something. I came back about two hours later and the game refused to load, crashing me back out to the desktop. I did some searching and I found the culprit. It seems Grand Theft Auto makes a change to a file every time it launches. From what I can tell, the game will continue to work fine on x86 machines, however, on x64 the game just crashes with this change. I have created a small little program that changes this file back to a working version for x64 machines and then launches the game. It works with both the free Rockstar version and the Steam version of the game.

Site: Grand Theft Auto I Launcher

The distributor for Rockstar Games in the UAE has come out and confirmed that the UAE's National Media Council (NMC), in other words, the UAE equivalent of OFLC or ESRB, has banned the game due...

...to the game's controversial content, which features strong violence and drug use and is therefore not in keeping with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates.

Although if your dying to get the game, and you're a traveler to the region, then you can still pick it up in any Duty Free stores. This is as these stores are not under the NMC which governs the inner UAE.

Take-Two Interactive, who owns Rockstar Games, is in talks with Former EA President of Asian Online Gaming, Hubert Larenaudie, to become President of Take-Two Asia. Take-Two already has a strong holding in the Japanese market (Rockstar Japan anyone?), but they want to expand into the Asian market and create a "meaningful online game operation" while they are at it, with Hubert Larenaudie spearheading the campaign.

Hubert Larenaudie, who has worked with Vivendi Universal, to make World of Warcraft have the presence in Asia that it has now, and of course EA. He'll be working below Gary Dale at Take-Two's newly created office in Singapore.

"Hubert Larenaudie is an experienced senior executive who has successfully built or expanded Asia Pacific operations for prominent interactive entertainment and consumer goods companies," said Gary Dale. "His in-depth knowledge of the region; his skill in creating the right product development, distribution and marketing strategy for each local market; and his track record of driving growth will help Take-Two realize the tremendous opportunities in APAC."

Mr. Larenaudie added, "Many of Take-Two's franchises, such as Grand Theft Auto, Midnight Club, Sid Meier's Civilization, and BioShock are international hits, and already have attracted large and enthusiastic fan bases in markets such as Japan, South Korea and China. With the Company's portfolio of leading brands, growing sports business, extraordinary creative talent and global appeal, I see exciting potential to build a significant Asia Pacific business for Take-Two, with a particular emphasis on the online game segment of the market."

The main points for Take-Two is:

• expanding distribution in the Asia Pacific (APAC) for the Company's interactive entertainment products.
• developing a strong presence in Japan.
• and establishing a meaningful online game operation, especially in China and Korea.

What does this mean for Take-Two? Are they bringing out the GTA MMO? Maybe even creating their own WoW clone?

Source: Kotaku

TimeSplittA has posted news on the Official UK Playstation Forums that Grand Theft Auto I and Grand Theft Auto II are coming to the Playstation Network. He got this information via the Official Playstation Magazine. Backing up TimeSplittA's claim, Buubar posted a scan of the page. It will be intresting to see how much the two will cost since the PC versions of the game have already been released for free via Rockstar Classics.

Thanks to TimeSplittA and Buubar over at the Official UK Playstation Forums.

"...Love & Money, organised jointly by the British Council and UK Trade & Investment, features twenty projects and designers that balance business ambition and commercial success with the invention and experimentation for which Britain’s creative industries are internationally renowned."

Grand Theft Auto is considered by many to be a benchmark in not just the gaming industry but also modern design values. It's nice to have a brilliant franchise like GTA to be recognised so positively. Well done Rockstar! :)

[Thanks to Unicronic for the images]