Surely nobody actually watched the traffic lights?

The original Morality and Rule of Law wasn't as groundbreaking as later installments like Morals and the Law, Vice City, San Andreas, or even Los Santos.

Its success is largely due to its superior quality.

The dense map provides players with a playground where they can truly do whatever they want without restraint.

In particular, this amusement park is modeled after a real city.

After getting used to the game's controls and graphics, Pauly started paying attention to the UI on the screen.

Compared to other mainstream games, its UI is much cleaner.

At first glance, it might even give the impression of an arcade game.

Aside from the few numbers in the upper right corner whose meaning is currently unknown, all that remains is the pager icon in the lower left corner of the screen.

Answer the public phone in South Park to get your first job.

Open your eyes wide and do things beautifully.

[Remember, if you mess things up, we'll mess you up.]

The threat was very clear. Pauly's eyes narrowed slightly.

He was, after all, a first-generation Italy immigrant, and deep down he still carried a bit of Sicily spirit.

These words gave him a fleeting illusion of returning to his family.

However, families are not as cold-blooded and ruthless as this place.

Following the arrow on the screen, Pauly to set off to see what was going on.

But after running a few steps, he suddenly realized...

That destination is way too far away!

It's said to be in the southern part of the park, but how vast is this park?

With his muscular legs, who knows how long it would take him to run.

"Wait a minute, this car..."

He returned to the alley where he was born, and his gaze suddenly locked onto the light blue sports car parked on the side of the road closest to the alley.

"Grand Theft Auto..." Pauly muttered the game's name, grabbed the instruction manual, glanced at the operation instructions, and suddenly noticed the [Get in the car] function.

Could it be?

He tried to get closer to the car and press the interaction button.

Suddenly, his character slammed his hand on the roof of the car, and with a very light leap, he flipped over to the other side of the car.

Because the driver's seat is on this side.

After all, the current version of "Morality and Rule of Law" is still 2D, so it's impossible to create real in-car animation.

To avoid creating an unnecessary sense of incongruity, the developers chose this more visually appealing implementation method.

If the player is on the other side of the driver's seat, he will either flip over the car or go around it.

Otherwise, they would simply open the car door and get in.

"Click"

"Bang"

Pauly could even clearly see the car door open, his character get in, and the door close again. The simple 2D animation was executed with incredible smoothness.

As soon as I sat down, a small label popped up on the screen.

[chevrolet-camaro-z28]

[Chevrolet Camaro Z28 (Third Generation, 1992 Model)]

It even displays the car model the player is driving!

Okay, actually, according to the original design of the first game, the player's starting vehicle should have been a car called "Bulldog".

According to official information, its prototype should be the Aston Martin DB7.

A luxury car model that only went into production in 1994.

Considering that the car hadn't even been launched yet, Lin Lixin simply changed the model to General Motors' flagship Chevrolet.

It is also a national treasure brand of the United States.

After all, with an official authorized partnership, players can start the game with a Chevrolet, which is enough to give many people a good first impression of the brand.

[West Coast FM] "Oh!"

Before Pauly could even accelerate and set off, a strange cry suddenly came from the stereo, followed by a gangster song with a very strong West Coast flavor.

This was something Lin Lixin specifically asked Game Records to do.

This refers to the Gamenova record company he co-founded with MJ, which was formed by merging and reorganizing several original record companies, including MJJ Music, Enigma, and Elektra.

Given the large number of artists under his wing and their distinct styles, Lin Lixin simply set up multiple car radio stations within the game.

Gamenova is already far ahead in audio compression technology, so it could have done even better in this area.

Depending on the style, car radios can include a whole host of different stations such as gangsta funk, Bruce, pop rock, metal rock, electronic, psychedelic electronic, and pop.

Players can adjust the settings according to their needs.

It even includes a large number of singles that have not yet been officially released.

It's almost like they just bundled in the music library from all their games.

This is one of the advantages of having your own copyright library.

Unlike car models, which require obtaining authorization from various sources, this doesn't. Go to Bing and search for "flagship" to see the latest chapter!

With just a word, a vast collection of music can be provided to the game department.

This is also the resource integration and industrialization process that Lin Lixin has been trying to achieve.

To be honest, Sony was indeed a remarkable pioneer in this regard.

Sony owns Columbia Records and Columbia Pictures.

In addition, with the numerous cultural and entertainment copyrights acquired over the years, Sony's resources are no less than those of Gamenova.

In some areas, the number is even greater.

Even in the realm of music, a large portion of the mainstream copyright libraries are controlled by Sony.

After all, Sony Music has always been one of the industry leaders.

Although Lin Lixin's side relied on Michael Elvis and Elvis Presley and the Beatles to carry half the show, the number of new generation artists who could actually hold their own was not actually that many.

More often, they are niche, stylized bands like alternative rock.

"Beep!" The car horn blared, interrupting Pauly's reverie.

The car radio, paired with the highly realistic car model, had given him such a stunning audio-visual experience that he was momentarily stunned.

To be honest, Pauly was indeed somewhat disappointed when he first saw that the game was 2D.

However, as the game progresses, the graphics become the least noteworthy aspect of the game.

Look at the traffic flowing through the streets!

This city feels like it's really alive!

Each NPC has their own tasks to perform.

In previous games, he always had the feeling that the entire game world revolved around him.

It was as if everyone was playing along with him in this charade.

It's not that it's bad, but occasionally, I do feel a strong sense of role-playing and detachment.

But this game doesn't have that feeling.

Regardless of what extraordinary things he was about to do, the passersby in the city were completely unaware.

They were just busy with their own things.

Perhaps they were about to drive to work, or perhaps they were simply going for a drive around the city.

The only thing that annoyed them was this rude guy who stopped in the middle of the road.

"Bang!!!"

This time, the horn seemed even more angry.

Several cars in front and behind were honking their horns frantically, seemingly urging Pauly to get out of there.

Pauly tried to operate the vehicle, pressing the direction keys and the accelerator, and the car drove off as he expected.

Because it's a top-down 2D perspective, he couldn't feel any obvious sense of physics.

But the car's damping, the smooth acceleration curve, and the sounds of tire friction and engine noise accompanying his revving all gave Pauly a peculiar sense of immersion.

The car suddenly lurched forward, leaving a beautiful arc of tire marks at the corner at the end of the road, executing a spectacular drift.

With the help of the car, he reached his destination much faster this time. The Camaro drifted and steadily brought the front of the car against the concrete wall.

If it weren't for the loud crash that followed, that move would have been quite impressive.

"Ring ring ring--"

It was as if someone had been secretly watching him all along.

Pauly had just gotten out of the car and walked to the public phone when it rang on its own.

[That crazy Jimmy parked a car on the northeast side of the park.]

Find it before the police, or die.

"What?"

Well, thank goodness I was driving.

I've spent the whole morning doing absolutely nothing but wandering around the park.

"Vroom!" He got back into the car, floored the gas pedal, and was about to blast the car away.

But this is, after all, a main road, bustling with people and traffic.

No one expected that the car parked on the side of the road would suddenly go berserk and reverse wildly.

A motorcycle that happened to be passing by was caught off guard by this impact, and the entire vehicle was sent flying and landed sideways on the ground.

The rider also fell to the ground and immediately fell silent.

In an instant, a sense of guilt overwhelmed me.

"Hey, it's all my fault for not following traffic rules!"

Look at him, what a fine young man he was! All because of his own carelessness, he's left to rot in the wilderness!

He then noticed that there were actually Red Green on the city streets.

Well, Red Green aren't anything new; many games include them.

But this Red Green is actually working! Pauly carefully drove over the other car, stopped at the side of the road, and carefully observed the traffic Red Green at the intersection.

The NPC's car was parked at the intersection, and it was actually waiting quietly for the traffic light.

They didn't continue until the light turned green.

That's so cool!

Just as he had sensed before, this city truly came alive.

It's not the kind of macroscopic, self-expanding Urban Dynamics found in SimCity.

Instead, it's a more microscopic, more life-like "reality".

Pedestrians hurried along the road.

Several people nearby were screaming and running away because of their own violence.

Everything here is responding to itself.

But this isn't the feeling of everyone playing along with my act, as they used to.

It was more like they had always lived here until this uninvited guest, this external factor from outside the simulation system, intruded and completely shattered the city's orderly tranquility. No matter what he did, the simulation system would immediately provide feedback.

However, this feedback was very restrained and knew when to stop.

This restraint actually enhances the sense of realism.

That's just how the world is.

At least for now, he's just a nobody working for the gang.

Everything else in the city should have remained as usual.