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Rockstar Games' GTA 3 came out in 2001 for the PlayStation 2 and was shortly made available for Xbox and PC too. Unfortunately, an official Sega Dreamcast port of the popular title never saw the light of day. Nevertheless, an unofficial fan-made Dreamcast port of Grand Theft Auto 3, named DCA3, has recently surfaced to a lot of praise and awe from gamers.
The port, still a work in progress, seems very similar to the original game on many fronts. However, there also look to be some differences in this early version of the fan project. In this article, we will take a look at five differences reportedly found in the GTA 3 Dreamcast port by fans.
Note: Some aspects of this article are subjective and only reflect the writer's opinions.
Here are 5 differences reportedly found in the fan-made GTA 3 Dreamcast port
1) This seemingly is not exactly Grand Theft Auto 3
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This fan project, titled DCA3, is commonly referred to as Grand Theft Auto 3's Sega Dreamcast port, but it is not exactly the original game. Although it reportedly has the story missions, radio stations, cars, and characters as GTA 3, there seems to be a major difference at its core.
As per the fan-made Dreamcast port's website, the game was built on some reverse engineering projects. DCA3's website further states that while the game looks, feels, and plays like GTA 3, it is not the original game, which is pretty interesting.
2) V1 Trails look more spaced out than on the PS2
The GTA 3 Dreamcast port by fans features an option to enable trails. This is a visual effect that causes mobile assets to be closely followed by a trail of their own blurry textures.
In a recent DCA3 analysis video by Digital Foundry on YouTube, it was shown that individual trails in the V1 option of the feature look more spaced out as compared to the PlayStation 2 variant of the effect. This makes the overall visuals in the fan-made Dreamcast port look a bit unimpressive compared to the original.
3) Textures are not as sharp as the official game
Given that Grand Theft Auto 3 is a 2001 game, it isn't expected to look stunning by today's standards. However, it was quite impressive at the time of its release and doesn't look "bad" even today.
Unfortunately, the textures in the Dreamcast port aren't as sharp as in the original game. Light effects (like car headlights) and even the moon can clip through other assets, as suggested in the Digital Foundry video, which is seemingly not an issue in official GTA 3 ports.
Having said that, this doesn't look to be something that should hamper the overall gameplay in the fan-made port.
4) Audio is a bit muffled at this stage
As mentioned, the Grand Theft Auto 3 Dreamcast port by fans is still a work in progress. So, a big difference that those playing right now would encounter is with the audio quality.
Cutscene dialogues can sound very muffled, especially with other sound effects in the background. The Digital Foundry video mentioned above showcases how 8-Ball's lines in the opening cutscene are hard to hear. Additionally, radio advertisement voice-over also sounds raspier compared to the official ports.
5) Performance isn't as good yet
The Digital Foundry analysis video shows that while the original PS2 version generally plays between 25 and 30 FPS, the GTA 3 Dreamcast fan-made port hovers around the 15 FPS mark, especially with V1 trails enabled. Even the port's website mentions terms like "decent gameplay" and "fair performance".
This could get worse in denser areas of the map, but turning trails off does help with performance a little bit, as per the video in question. However, given that this port is in its early stages, performance might improve over time, but that remains to be seen.
Also check: GTA 3 Sega Dreamcast port by fans gets praise from an ex-Rockstar dev
