Grand Theft Auto III is an action-adventure game released in 2001. It was created by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games. This game was the first in the Grand Theft Auto series to use 3D graphics. The story takes place in Liberty City, a fictional city inspired by New York City. The main character, Claude, is a silent hero who becomes involved in crime, drug use, gang conflicts, and corruption. Players control Claude from a third-person view, moving through the game world on foot or in vehicles. The game’s open world design allows players to explore Liberty City freely.

The game was developed by DMA Design in Edinburgh and Rockstar in New York City. The team worked to create a fully 3D version of the Grand Theft Auto series for the first time. The game was delayed after the September 11 attacks so the team could change parts of the game that were considered inappropriate. Grand Theft Auto III was released for the PlayStation 2 in October 2001, for Windows in May 2002, and for the Xbox in November 2003. Mobile versions were released in 2011 for the game’s 10th anniversary, and a remastered version was released in 2021 for its 20th anniversary.

The game was praised for its creative ideas, gameplay, sound effects, and visual quality. However, it also caused controversy because of its violent and sexual content. It received top honors from many gaming magazines at the end of the year. It is considered a major milestone in open-world game design, one of the most important games of the sixth generation of consoles, and one of the best video games ever made. It was the top-selling game of 2001 and one of the best-selling PlayStation 2 games, with over 11.6 million copies sold. The game has sold more than 14.5 million copies worldwide. It was followed by Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) and two earlier stories: Advance (2004) and Liberty City Stories (2005).

Gameplay

Grand Theft Auto III is an action-adventure game played from a third-person view. Players complete missions—tasks with specific goals—to move forward in the story. At times, players can choose from several missions, as some require waiting for instructions or events to occur. Outside of missions, players can explore the open world and complete optional side tasks. The game begins in the borough of Portland, and as players progress, they unlock access to Staunton Island and Shoreside Vale.

Players can run, jump, or use vehicles to move through the game world. During combat, auto-aim helps players target enemies. If players take damage, they can recover health by collecting health items. Body armor can protect players from gunshots and explosions, but it weakens over time. When health is completely lost, the game pauses, and players restart at the nearest hospital, losing armor, weapons, and some money.

If players commit crimes, law enforcement may chase them, as shown by a "wanted" meter on the screen. The number of stars on the meter shows the current wanted level. For example, at six stars, law enforcement becomes very aggressive. Officers will search for players who leave the area where they were caught. The wanted meter decreases over time when players hide from officers.

Players control a character named Claude, who interacts with criminals in the game world. As players complete missions for different gangs, members of the same gang may help, while members of rival gangs may attack on sight. While exploring freely, players can participate in activities like a vigilante mission, firefighting, paramedic work, or taxi service. Completing these tasks gives rewards related to the activity, such as the ability to bribe police to lower the wanted level.

Players can fight enemies using melee attacks, guns, or explosives. Available firearms include the Micro Uzi, M16 rifle, and flamethrower. The game’s 3D environment allows players to see the world from a first-person view when using the sniper rifle, rocket launcher, or M16. Combat was redesigned to let players shoot enemies from the side of a moving vehicle. Players can obtain weapons by buying them from dealers, finding them on the ground, taking them from dead enemies, or collecting them around the city.

Plot

Small-time criminal Claude is betrayed and shot by his girlfriend, Catalina, during a bank heist in Liberty City. Claude is arrested but escapes during his transfer to prison when members of the Colombian Cartel attack his transport to abduct another prisoner. During his escape, Claude meets 8-Ball, an explosives expert and fellow convict, who provides shelter for Claude and introduces him to the Leone Mafia family for work.

Claude helps the Mafia with different tasks, such as winning a gang war against a local group of Triads, which earns him the respect of Don Salvatore Leone. After learning that the Cartel is making and selling a new street drug called SPANK to expand into Liberty City, Salvatore orders Claude to destroy the Cartel’s floating drug lab. Claude completes this mission with 8-Ball’s help.

Later, Salvatore asks Claude to handle a minor problem, but Claude’s girlfriend, Maria, reveals it is a trap. Maria explains that she told Salvatore she was having an affair with Claude to make him jealous, and now Salvatore wants to kill him. Claude escapes with Maria and Asuka Kasen, the co-leader of the yakuza, to Staunton Island. After killing Salvatore to end his ties with the Mafia, Claude begins working for the yakuza. During this time, he also helps corrupt police inspector Ray Machowski and influential businessman Donald Love.

Donald hires Claude to kill Asuka’s brother, Kenji, under the pretense of a Cartel attack to start a gang war and allow Donald to gain construction sites for his businesses. After successfully completing the job, Claude helps Donald with another task that leads him to meet Catalina, now the leader of the Cartel, at a construction site. However, Catalina betrays and shoots her partner, Miguel, and escapes. Asuka suspects the Cartel is responsible for Kenji’s death and takes control of the construction site. The yakuza capture Miguel and force him to talk about Cartel operations, allowing Claude to attack the Cartel.

Angry, Catalina kills Asuka and Miguel and kidnaps Maria, demanding $500,000 for her release. Claude meets Catalina to pay the ransom but is tricked again and trapped. Claude escapes, rescues Maria, and destroys the helicopter Catalina uses to flee, killing her. As Claude and Maria leave the scene, Maria begins to complain about the kidnapping but is silenced by a gunshot.

Development

The main group of developers for Grand Theft Auto III was about 23 people working at DMA Design in Edinburgh. They worked closely with Rockstar Games, the publisher, based in New York City. An early version of the game was created for Sega's Dreamcast near the end of Grand Theft Auto 2's development in 1999. Rockstar encouraged its teams to create a 3D open world, and the DMA team behind Space Station Silicon Valley (1998) started a separate project from the Grand Theft Auto 2 team. Alan Jack, a DMA support engineer, said this project combined elements from Body Harvest (1998) and Space Station Silicon Valley.

The team avoided using the Grand Theft Auto name to prevent confusion with the Grand Theft Auto 2 team and called their project "Godzilla." After Take-Two Interactive bought DMA from Infogrames in September 1999, the teams working on Space Station Silicon Valley and Grand Theft Auto 2 were merged. The combined team first planned to make Grand Theft Auto III for the Dreamcast but later switched to the PlayStation 2 after four months. Technical director Obbe Vermeij said the change was not because of hardware limits but because the Dreamcast was not commercially successful. He noted that DMA Design staff were fans of Phantasy Star Online (2000).

During the Dreamcast phase, DMA Design created city blocks with brownstones, docks, and retail areas, along with vehicles and pedestrians. By early 2001, the team had designed the city, cars, and some weapons. Producer Leslie Benzies described Grand Theft Auto III as a "crime simulation game." Rockstar offered the game to Microsoft Game Studios as an Xbox exclusive, but Microsoft refused because of the game's mature content and poor sales of earlier Xbox games. The game was released for the PlayStation 2 on October 23, 2001, in North America. The Windows version was delayed until after the PlayStation 2 release to ensure a high-quality port. Zoo Corporation published the English version for Windows in Japan on June 28, 2002. After the publishing deal ended, Capcom released a Japanese-language version for PlayStation 2 and Windows on September 25, 2003.

Grand Theft Auto III was the first 3D game in the series, using Criterion Games' RenderWare engine. Executive producer Sam Houser wanted the series to move to 3D, and DMA Design had tested 3D worlds in games like Body Harvest and Space Station Silicon Valley. With the release of the PlayStation 2 in 2000, the team believed creating a large 3D world was possible. Art director Aaron Garbut said other games were "things you played," but he wanted Grand Theft Auto III to feel like "a place you lived in." A planned online multiplayer mode was removed due to time and resource limits.

When designing the game, the team expanded ideas from earlier Grand Theft Auto games. Benzies said the goal was to recreate the "freedom and diversity" of previous games in a "living, breathing 3D world" using the PlayStation 2's power. The console's support for DVDs, instead of compact discs, gave more storage for animations, music, and environments. However, the team faced challenges with the PlayStation 2's 32 megabytes of RAM, which limited the game's scale. Testing was also difficult due to the variety of scenarios. Benzies said creating a living city was the "underlying principle" of the game's concept. Sam Houser believed the 3D element allowed the team to work together more effectively for the first time.

Developers struggled to integrate all game elements into a 3D world, such as sounds, radio stations, and the many non-player characters in the open world. Producer Dan Houser said there were about 8,000 lines of recorded dialogue, while audio programmer Raymond Usher estimated about 18,000. By mid-2000, the team had working prototypes for the carjacking mechanic and a stable streaming model. Streaming was initially used for music and map geometry but expanded to include other elements as the team realized more data needed to be processed.

For the game world's design, the team first created a "hybrid city" described by Dan Houser as a mix of post-industrial Midwest and East Coast cities. As development progressed, they realized basing the design on a real location allowed for more storytelling. They redesigned Liberty City, previously featured in Grand Theft Auto (1997), to be loosely based on New York City. DMA Design worked with a Rockstar team in New York for cultural references, which required long hours to ensure accuracy.

The city is divided into three islands: an industrial section resembling Brooklyn and Queens, a commercial center like Manhattan, and suburbs similar to New Jersey. These areas unlock as the story progresses, allowing players to "start out feeling poor and work to being richer." Dan Houser described Liberty City as a mix of generic American cities, including Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit, New York, and Philadelphia. He said the realistic setting allowed the team to make social commentary. Sam Houser cited films and shows like Heat (1995) and The Sopranos (1999–2007) as inspiration, along with Legend of Zelda, Super Mario 64 (1996), and Goodfellas (1990), calling the game "a cross between a gangster movie and an RPG."

The team developed the story and game design at the same time. Dan Houser said, "we use the story to expose the mechanics, and we use the mechanics to tell the story." However, he found it hard to create a narrative because the game focused on player freedom. He wanted the story to be more nuanced than a simple "rise and fall" of a villain. The game's script focused on mission objectives, aiming for high interactivity. Dan Houser said each mission was "its own short story" and part of an "overarching story." He and co-writer James Worrall drew inspiration from films like The Warriors, Taxi Driver, Scarface, and Payback, as well as portrayals of mafiosos in Martin Scorsese's films. When writing the story, they met with designers and used post-it notes to shape the plot.

Many characters were animated using motion capture, filmed at a rented studio in Brooklyn Navy Yard, though technical limits restricted this. Character movement was treated as cinematic, but limited polygons made this challenging. Animating non-player characters entering and driving cars was difficult due to the variety of vehicle designs. Software engineer Alan Campbell said this required "chaining together dozens of different animations and altering key frames in code." The team used different camera angles in cutscenes to evoke emotions. For voice acting, the team aimed for "natural, subtle performances," which was difficult as many of the characters required…

Reception

Grand Theft Auto III was released and received high praise from critics. Metacritic gave it an average score of 97 out of 100, which means "universal acclaim," based on 56 reviews. It shares the highest rating with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 as the best PlayStation 2 game on the site and is tied with others as the sixth-best game overall. Reviewers praised the game's sound, gameplay, and open world design, though some criticized the controls. Tom Bramwell of Eurogamer called it "a luscious, sprawling epic," and Official PlayStation Magazine named it "the most innovative, outlandish, brilliant video game." GameSpot's Jeff Gerstmann described it as "an incredible experience that shouldn't be missed by anyone," and IGN's Doug Perry called it "one of the best titles of the year, on PlayStation 2, or on any system."

Many reviewers noted that the 3D graphics were a welcome change from the 2D style of earlier games. GameSpot's Gerstmann especially praised the character and vehicle models, as well as the city's texture quality. GameSpy's Andrei Alupului found the graphics "really rather impressive," saying car models were "greatly improved" compared to Midnight Club. Eurogamer's Bramwell thought the graphics were "generally pleasant to look at" but less advanced than games like Gran Turismo 3 and Ico. Justin Leeper of Game Informer described the game world as "stunning in scope and detail," and Perry of IGN called it "on a scale that's truly epic." Game Revolution's Ben Silverman called the city a "technological marvel … that captures the essence of gritty city life in amazing detail."

IGN's Perry said the game's sound was "unbelievably and meticulously delivered," especially praising the soundtrack, voice acting, and sound design. Eurogamer's Bramwell agreed, calling the city sounds "perfect" and the soundtrack "monstrous." GameSpot's Gerstmann and Game Revolution's Silverman both called the sound "terrific," and 1UP.com appreciated the subtlety of the in-game radio stations. AllGame's Scott Alan Marriott named the music "the true star" of the game.

Reviewers noted that the game's missions were a fresh change from earlier games. 1UP.com described the missions as "wonderfully creative," and GamesMaster appreciated their variety. IGN's Perry praised the missions' variety and scale, as well as the number of side missions. GameSpy's Alupului said the story was "well-paced" and "coherent," with plot elements similar to a mob film. GameSpot's Gerstmann found the missions entertaining and challenging, but also noted that exploring the game world was "a great deal of fun" for players.

Reactions to the game's controls were mixed. GameSpy's Alupului said the game "controls beautifully" during driving and on-foot. Game Revolution's Silverman identified control issues as the game's only flaw, though he praised the responsiveness of the driving mechanics. Matt Helgeson of Game Informer called the driving "great" but noted "clunky" combat. GamePro's Four-Eyed Dragon found the cars easy to maneuver. Edge described the combat as "an awkward system that stymies play." 1UP.com pointed out flaws in the targeting system, explaining it "often focuses on the wrong guy."

When Grand Theft Auto III was released for Windows in May 2002, it received similar praise. Metacritic gave it an average score of 93 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim," based on 20 reviews; it is the highest-rated 2002 Windows game on Metacritic. Reviewers liked the visual improvements and better controls, but criticized the port for requiring powerful hardware.

The in-game features and controls in the Windows version were generally well received. IGN's Tal Blevins praised the higher precision of mouse controls, finding the aiming mechanic more accurate. GameSpot's Erik Wolpaw also commended the mouse controls but disliked the replay system, especially the lack of timing and camera options. Extended Play's Andrew Bub appreciated the addition of a custom radio station and custom skins. Daniel Morris of PC Gamer praised gameplay improvements in the port but criticized the lack of major new features, such as an overhead map of the city.

Reviewers praised the port's visuals. GameSpot's Wolpaw appreciated the improved textures but criticized frequent pop-ups and high system requirements. IGN's Blevins also criticized the need for advanced hardware but said the port "looks a bit nicer" than the original. GameSpy's Sal Accardo said the port "looks much sharper" than the PlayStation 2 version but noted "choppy" animations. Extended Play's Bub mentioned that advanced settings caused slowdowns and crashes. Game Informer's Matt Helgeson saw little difference between the original and the port's visuals.

When Grand Theft Auto III was released on mobile devices in December 2011, it received mostly positive reviews. Metacritic gave it an average score of 80 out of 100, based on 26 reviews. Reviewers liked the improved visuals but criticized the touchscreen controls.

IGN's Peter Eykemans praised the port's smoother textures, especially on mobile screens, while Destructoid's James Stephanie Sterling noted better character and vehicle models. Mark Walton of GameSpot wrote the game runs well on high-end devices like the Motorola Xoom and Samsung Galaxy S II but had frame rate and texture issues on the Xperia Play. Pocket Gamer's Mark Brown noted the game's short draw distance caused sudden pop-ups but said models and textures were "given a tune-up" in the port.

The touchscreen controls received mixed reactions. Eurogamer's Dan Whitehead liked the driving mechanics but found on-foot movement "a flaky way of navigating" and criticized "clumsy" shooting mechanics, as most guns couldn't be manually targeted. IGN's Eykemans said the controls "make half the experience frustrating," and Destructoid's Sterling called them "by far the biggest barrier toward enjoying" the port. Pocket Gamer's Brown said the touchscreen "hasn't hindered [the game] too drastically," praising simple movement and "effortless" driving. Some critics noted better controls with external gamepads but felt this reduced the game's portability.

Grand Theft Auto III received many nominations and awards. It won Game of the Year at the 2nd Game Developers Choice Awards and from GameSpot and GameSpy. It was named the Best PlayStation 2 Game by Game Revolution, GameSpot, GameSpy, and IGN. It also won Best Action Game from Game Revolution, GameSpot, and IGN; Most Innovative from GameSpot; and Excellence in Game Design at the Game Developers Choice Awards. GameSpy also awarded it Most Offensive, Best Use of Radio, and tied for Best Artificial Intelligence. At the 5th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, it won Outstanding Achievement in Game Design and Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering and was nominated for Console Action/Adventure Game of the Year. The following year, the Windows version won Computer Action/Adventure Game of the Year and was nominated for Outstanding Innovation in Computer Gaming. The game was among ten honourees of the Award for Excellence at the 8th CESA Game Awards in 2004.

Sales

In the United States, Grand Theft Auto III was the most popular video game in 2001, selling over 1.4 million copies by December and 2 million by February 2002. The company that made the game, Take-Two, saw its stock price rise a lot, and the game was added to PlayStation's Greatest Hits collection. Within one year, the game sold 6 million copies and earned more than $250 million. By January 2003, it had sold 7 million copies and earned over $350 million. It was the second-best-selling game in 2002, after its sequel, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. In the United States, the game sold 5.35 million copies by June 2004 and 6.55 million by December 2007. The version for Windows sold 420,000 copies and earned $16.9 million by August 2006, making it the 34th-best-selling computer game in the United States over the previous 6.5 years.

In Europe, sales of Grand Theft Auto III matched its sales in the United States by December 2001. It was the first game to receive a "Diamond" award in the United Kingdom, which means it sold more than 1 million copies. In Italy, the game sold 75,000 copies in its first three months, which was more than five times what its distributor expected. In Japan, it sold about 75,000 copies on its first day, 120,000 in its first week, roughly 300,000 by December 2003, and more than 350,000 by January 2008. A bundle called Grand Theft Auto: Double Pack, which included Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City, sold over 1.59 million copies in the United States and more than 1.25 million in Japan. The game was one of the best-selling PlayStation 2 games, with 11.6 million copies sold, and it sold 14.5 million copies worldwide by March 2008.

Controversies

Grand Theft Auto III caused many controversies. GameSpy gave it the title "Most Offensive Game of the Year," calling it "absolutely reprehensible." They said the game rewards players for causing chaos and killing many innocent people, raising questions about its appropriateness. Because of the attention it received, American retailer Wal-Mart began checking identification for people under 17 who wanted to buy mature-rated games. Shira Chess noted that the game allows players to avoid consequences for violent actions, as they can restart after dying or being arrested, which she said ignores the reality of death. Benzies claimed the violence was meant to be humorous, and Dan Houser said the team knew the game might be offensive but never promoted it in a way that exploited that.

The game lets players engage in sexual activities with prostitutes and then kill them to get their money, which caused widespread controversy. It also faced criticism for showing crime and allowing violence against police officers. Psychologist David Walsh said the game "glamorizes antisocial and criminal activity" and claimed its purpose is to encourage crime. Kotaku writer Owen Good argued the game does not reward players for being skilled at crime, despite accusations. Joanna Weiss of The Boston Globe said players feel excitement when committing crimes in the game, and she believed the mature rating made the violence acceptable. In January 2002, the National Organization for Women asked Rockstar and Take-Two to stop selling the game, saying it "encourages violence and the degradation of women." Matt Richtel of The New York Times wrote that the game's content "crossed the line into bad taste."

Grand Theft Auto III was first released in Australia with an MA15+ rating, but the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) later banned it after reviewing its sexual content and violence against prostitutes. After Take-Two appealed, the OFLC kept the ban in December 2001, following a review with a forensic psychologist. Take-Two removed the game from sale in Australia, and Rockstar made changes, releasing a revised version with an MA15+ rating in January 2002, which removed scenes of sexual acts with prostitutes. In September 2019, the game was re-rated as R18+ due to "sexual activities related to incentives and rewards." In Japan, the game was labeled "harmful" for children in Kanagawa Prefecture in June 2005, which limited its availability. Capcom criticized the decision but did not take legal action, and the label led to increased sales.

On June 25, 2003, teenage stepbrothers William and Josh Buckner shot at drivers, killing Aaron Hamel and injuring Kimberly Bede. In statements to investigators, the men said their actions were influenced by Grand Theft Auto III. In October 2003, the families of Hamel and Bede filed a $246 million lawsuit against Rockstar, Take-Two, Sony Computer Entertainment, and Wal-Mart. Rockstar and Take-Two asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing that the game's ideas and the actions of the perpetrators are protected by the First Amendment's free speech rights. Jack Thompson, the lawyer for the victims, disagreed and tried to move the case to a state court to consider it under Tennessee's consumer protection laws.

Legacy

Grand Theft Auto III is often listed among the greatest video games ever made. In 2007, GamePro called it the most important video game of all time, noting that its open-ended gameplay changed how video games are designed. IGN ranked it among the "Top 10 Most Influential Games," and GameSpot included it in its list of the greatest games of all time. In 2009, Game Informer wrote that the game "changed the gaming landscape forever" with its open world design. In 2016, GamesRadar+ named it the "most important game" of the 2000s. Time magazine also named it one of the greatest video games of all time in 2012 and 2016. The game was displayed in the Game On touring exhibition, which showed its development plans and artwork. In 2016, the Strong National Museum of Play added Grand Theft Auto III to its World Video Game Hall of Fame.

Grand Theft Auto III played a major role in making sandbox games popular. It inspired games like Crackdown, Mafia, Saints Row, True Crime, and Watch Dogs. The term "Grand Theft Auto clone" is often used to describe games with similar open-ended gameplay. While earlier games used open world designs, Grand Theft Auto III expanded this concept into a 3D world, offering many side activities and missions. Journalist Tom Bramwell said the game did not invent many of its features but combined them effectively. Because of its success, it helped make open-world games a popular genre. Dan Houser said it made the genre "one of the most vibrant today," and Garbut noted it influenced later Rockstar games, including Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption 2. IGN’s Jack Harwood mentioned the game’s radio station inspired similar features in games like Mafia III and Watch Dogs: Legion.

Grand Theft Auto III also led the trend of mature video games. Dan Houser said it allowed other developers to create violent shooters. Hal Halpin, president of the Entertainment Consumers Association, called it a key topic in debates about violence in games. Metro’s Roger Hargreaves said it encouraged games focused on violence and gang culture. Greg Ford of Electronic Gaming Monthly noted the game helped video games handle serious themes and improved classification systems for games. King said the game showed the medium could include adult content, not just be for children or nerds.

After its success, Rockstar created more games in the series. Vice City and San Andreas are set in their namesake cities in 1986 and 1992, respectively. Grand Theft Auto Advance (2004) takes place in Liberty City one year before Grand Theft Auto III. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (2005) is set three years before Grand Theft Auto III in the same version of Liberty City. A redesigned version of the city was later used in Grand Theft Auto IV (2008), The Lost and Damned (2009), The Ballad of Gay Tony (2009), and Chinatown Wars (2009).

Grand Theft Auto III was released on May 21, 2002, for Windows, with higher screen resolutions and more detailed textures. It was expected to release on GameCube but never did. It was bundled with Vice City in the compilation Grand Theft Auto: Double Pack, released on Xbox in 2003 and 2004. The Xbox version had improved audio, 3D models, and reflections. Double Pack was later bundled with San Andreas as part of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy, released in 2005. The Trilogy was also released for OS X in 2010. In 2011, War Drum Studios ported the game to iOS and Android for its 10th anniversary, with enhanced models and touchscreen controls. This version was later released on Fire OS in 2014. A PlayStation 3 version came out in 2012, and the original PlayStation 2 version was released for PlayStation 4 as a PS2 Classics game in 2015. In 2021, an enhanced version of The Trilogy, called The Definitive Edition, was released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S to celebrate the game’s 20th anniversary. It was also released for Android and iOS in 2023. Older versions of the game were temporarily removed from digital stores but later restored as a bundle on the Rockstar Store.

A group of six fans reverse-engineered the game and released it as an executable in 2020, working on the project since 2016. The project, called re3, allows the game to be unofficially ported to platforms like Nintendo Switch, PlayStation Vita, and Wii U. Take-Two asked to remove the project in 2021, but it was restored after the team filed a counter-notice. In 2021, Take-Two sued the programmers for copyright infringement. In 2024, fan developer SKMP began creating a Dreamcast port, which was released in December.

Literature

• Chess, Shira (2006). "Playing the Bad Guy: Grand Theft Auto in the Panopticon." In Nate Garrelts (ed.), The Meaning and Culture of Grand Theft Auto. McFarland & Company. Pages 80 to 90. ISBN 978-0-7864-2822-9.
• Crookes, David (November 2013). "The Making of Grand Theft Auto III." Retro Gamer, Issue 122. Published by Imagine Publishing in the United States. Pages 58 to 83.
• DMA Design (2001). Grand Theft Auto III Game Manual. Rockstar Games.
• Kushner, David (April 3, 2012). Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto. Turner Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-4709-3637-5.
• "The Top 200 Games of All Time." Game Informer, Issue 200, December 2009. Pages 44 to 79. ISSN 1067-6392. OCLC 27315596.