Flash-MX: News

If anybody finds themselves bored this holiday season and wants to relive some marginal gameplay from years past, Rockstar has released Grand Theft Auto 2 for free on their website; http://www.rockstargames.com/classics/.

And because laziness is the word of the day, I'll copy-paste their text and pawn it off as my own:

Respect is everything.

In 1999, Rockstar Games and Rockstar North (then known as DMA Design) furthered the groundbreaking gameplay concepts established just two years prior in the original Grand Theft Auto - with the release of GTA2. GTA2 expanded on the top-down, open-ended crime world gameplay formula with a host of new features including the advent of multiple rival gangs – seven, to be exact, including the Yakuza, Scientists, Looneys, Rednecks, Zaibatsu, the Russian Mob and Hare Krishnas. Earn your respect with each gang. Reap the benefits with all manner of shady work-for-hire gigs contracted your way. And climb your way to the top of the criminal pile.

Now, longtime Grand Theft Auto fans can revisit this classic entry in the series - and new jacks who missed out on this early franchise title can further discover Grand Theft Auto’s roots - absolutely free. GTA2 has been completely optimized for play on modern PCs and is available gratis for all registrants to the Rockstar Games mailing list (rest assured your information will not be shared with any third parties, you will only receive information from Rockstar). Simply fill out the form below and check your email for a direct link to the file (353 MB .zip file, includes install .exe, readme .txt file, and a .pdf of the original PC game manual).

While the game definitely looked better than its predecessor (GTA 1, of course) it still was a top-down game, and not the free roaming, whore punching fest that it has matured into today. But you can still run around and shoot people, carjack some people and get yourself into some trouble.

For those of you unfamiliar with GTA 2, I offer this page of screenshots, located over at firingsquad.com.

And while we're on the subject of Grand Theft Auto (or GTA), the latest news is that Rockstar will be releasing their latest GTA incarnation, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, simultaneously on the Xbox and PC in North America on June 7th, 2005 and in Europe on June 10th, 2005. (via TeamXbox.com)

Or, if you want something a bit more recent, I highly encourage you to download the demo for Half-Life 2, which is winning awards left, right and center.