I can hardly believe it myself, but it's been 3 years since I founded The GTA Place, which has now become a primary source for GTA modifications and is among the 10 most popular GTA web sites in the world (Source: Alexa.com).

A lot of changes have been made since the birth of the web site on November 29th, 2002, where I had a few very simple bare bones pages with little to no regard as to whether it became popular or not. Originally there was no intention for it to become as big as it has done today, it was just a little project for me to work on, essentially it was my introduction to web design and PHP scripting, which I now carry out on a freelance basis on my personal website. Changes undergone include a few layout changes as well as staff coming in and out of the team.

The forums have also undergone their fair share of alterations, primarily upgrades to the software itself, along with modifications and more recently my own gangs system (currently not active) which I've integrated into the forum. Like other forums we've also been the target of so called "spam attacks", to which had no dramatic affect whatsoever, we've pulled through however, and I'm now in a position where I can provide substantial evidence (including: full names, addresses, telephone numbers and IP addresses) the spammer's have failed to cover up. Our growing team of staff have always been at hand to clear things up though, a special thanks goes to Xenon of TTPN for his dedication to help the forums do well, as well as Righty (formerly Millermagic) for administrating while I wasn't around, Spaz for being the most loyal member we have, and also Adriaan for helping with things along the way... and of course a thanks goes out to all the current moderators of the forums for their continued efforts, plus all the loyal members who continue to actively post there and make the community a pleasant one.

The GTA scene is often inactive around this time of year though, with a lot of people coming to the end of the year's GTA game, in this case Liberty City Stories for the PSP. But the return of critically acclaimed modder Switch Designs as well as all the other great mod makers out there who continue to provide fun modifications for the games, adding to their replayability. And we mustn't forget the array of multiplayer mods due for release in the not too distant future, which will hopefully fulfil any boredom induced by playing the game on your own for too long.

Over the festive season I will be making a few noticeable changes to The GTA Place. A brand new layout is slowly being worked on also, with variations for each game's section. Updating old content and adding content we have missed (there's a big to-do-list somewhere) is another objective we have. So by January the site will be improved quite a bit.

I hope you have all appreciated the work we have put in, and rest assured we will be continuing to bring you all the latest GTA news, downloads, and whatever else there is pertaining to GTA.

Happy Birthday The GTA Place!

Edison Carter has somehow found a way of hacking Liberty City Stories. Quite how he has managed this remains a mystery but nevertheless it's a nice little program he's made.

Edison explains how to use the device on his website:

I implemented a few basic cheats to start with. There's much more to come!

US/Canada version for firmware 2.0 and 2.01 only

Unzip the archive to your memory card so the files go in PSP/SAVEDATA/ULUS10041S0. This replaces the first save on the card.

To start CheatDevice, simply load it like a saved game. Do not load CheatDevice again when it's already running! Your game will probably crash! If you need to load again, press L1+R1+UP to unload CheatDevice from memory first.

You're supposed to be able to load another game save while CheatDevice is running, but it sometimes crashes. At least you can load the CheatDevice save and play around in there. For me at least, I can load another game save once after loading CheatDevice, then if I need to load again, I press L1+R1+UP to unload it, then load it again.

Some of the spawn choices like FERRY, AEROPL, and HELI will crash the game.

Disclaimer: THIS CAN CRASH YOUR GAME, SO USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK. Don't use this for doing missions or when you're planning to save your game.

Download CheatDevice 0.1, which is only for US/Canadian PSP's with 2.0 or 2.01 firmware.

Edison Carter's Site: MaxBot

This is my 3rd San Andreas Mod for PC and it changes your spray paint can into a more realistic spray paint can.

Download it here

And here is a preview shot of the model here.

I'm back! And I've just made a new mod which changes the remote grenades in San Andreas to some PSP related items.

Download it here

And I just want to say i'm very alive (for those who thought i was dead) and I am glad to be back here after disappearing into ffxi 11 online for so long (which i still play) so sorry if i'm not around as much as i should be i'm working on fixing that.

This mod is my second San Andreas Mod for PC and it changes your satchel explosives and their remote detonator into a Sony PSP remote detonator and UMD Cd explosives.

Most of you probably know lil' old Jack Thompson by now. Taking on the gaming industry, most importantly the GTA series, for years now. It seems that he just can't get enough of Take Two's Grand Theft Auto that he is starting to move over to the newest title in the series - Liberty City Stories. Thompson has petitioned Troy King, Attorney General of Alabama, to have GTA: Liberty City Stories declared "a nuisance".

One can not understand such claims from him as already JT himself is a nuisance to both him and every living human being on this planet. Well, according to the dictionary:

Nuisance: a bothersome annoying person

Yep, that seems like him. Apparently JT is complaining that Take-Two is marketing what he describes as a "cop-killing game" on daytime T.V. during programs aimed at children. Firstly that doesn't mean anything at all. As far as I know the commercials for Liberty City Stories that is displayed on the tv doesn't contain violence or anything else that will offend those little children. Besides it is not as if they are going to get up, walk to a local retailer and say: "Whadup G, give me a copy of Liberty City Stories".

What he will do next is a mystery and Dave Thomas from online mag The Escapist describes it very well:

Keeping track of Jack's activities is like trying to document an evening of binge drinking for an entire fraternity on a lost weekend in Vegas.

Source: Livejournal

Earlier this week a few news articles were seen on numerous gaming websites about the next GTA for next-gen consoles being an 8 month exclusive for the PS3. Most of them being from fairly unknown websites, which already raised a few red flags. However as always a rumor like this should have a starting point and throughout the days I sniffed around the web to find it.

By the looks of it, it must have started between PS3 Updates and Gamer Andy. An editor called Clay was contacted by an unknown source about the next GTA for next-gen consoles (otherwise known as GTA4) being an 8 month exclusive for Sony's Playstation 3. He appeared to have said that both Sony and Take Two Interactive will announce this closely to Xbox 360's release.

That was October and two days ago he was contacted by one of the companies mentioned in the previous article (possibly Take 2) and they confirmed to him that it is in fact true. This comes as no surprise though as throughout the years Take Two and Sony had a good relationship when it came to Grand Theft Auto. GTA: San Andreas for instance was a 7 month exclusive for the Playstation 2.

So if you plan to buy yourself an Xbox 360 later this month, bear in mind that there is a big possibility you will have to wait a very long time after GTA's PS3 launch to play it on your 360. For now we'll just have to keep an eye on Take Two's press release page.

Links: PS3 Updates and Gamer Andy

This morning I received an email from Tash who created a nice hidden package guide for Liberty City Stories. Not only does he explain how to get each package, but he has also posted screenshots with it to show its location on both the map and in the game. This guide is currently a work in progress, but when it's done it should look great. Thumbs up Tash!

Link: Teliko21's LCS Hidden Package Guide

It seems that the force was too strong last week for Take 2's PSP breakthrough, GTA: Liberty City Stories. It's been almost nothing out of the ordinary the past few years for a GTA title to shoot right up to the top of the charts in opening week. This year however Lucasarts' Star Wars: Battlefront II managed to overcome GTA: Liberty City Stories by being the number one selling game in the UK.

It is not all bad though for GTA: LCS. The game is currently the top selling PSP game in the country and it had sold more copies than Grand Theft Auto: 3 on the PS2 did on its opening week. You have to remember that the PSP only recently launched in the UK and Star Wars: Battlefront II is available on the PS2, Xbox and for PC, which more people own than they do PSP's.

As the days go by to this years christmas holiday season GTA: Liberty City Stories will most likely still be at the highest point of the charts around the world!

UK Top 40 Entertainment Software: Click here!

UK Top 20 Sony PSP Games: Click here!

Source: Prodigious Gaming

On Friday the team working on GTAT released version 0.2 of their multiplayer mod for San Andreas, it includes various bug fixes and improvements from 0.1. Check out the full details on the gtaT website, you can download gtaT 0.2 from our database.

<img src="http://www.thegtaplace.com/images/news/goldenjoystickawards05.gif" border="0" align="left">Winning awards is a very common thing for a Grand Theft Auto nowadays. Today GTA: San Andreas stole the show yet again at this years Golden Joystick Awards held at Park Lane Hilton Hotel in London. Rockstar's epic title took home 5 awards including "Best PS2 game of the year" and "Best Sountrack". The following awards were given to the game:

Playstation 2 Game of the Year

Best Soundtrack

Hero of 2005 - Carl Johnson from GTA: San Andreas

Villain of 2005 - Officer Tenpenny from GTA: San Andreas

Nuts Magazine's Ultimate Game of 2005

More on the results of the show should be up later in the day at the official website for the Golden Joystick Awards

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

If you've ever modded Vice City you will surely remember a modder by the name of Switch Designs. He made over 100 mods for the game, all of which can be downloaded from our downloads database.

After a very long absense where lots of people presumed he had died or something tragic, Switch has now come back to the website and to the San Andreas modding scene. He's started off with a simple modification to the BMX.

Lots of tweaks have been made to the bike, first of all obviously the frame shape has changed, as have the handlebars and the overall size of the bike, there are many more tweaks you'll find on it.

I'm sure Switch himself will come and post about the great mods he will be making in the future.

For now, download the new BMX.

Also in download news, I've added a few Porsche's and Mercedes Benz's made by JVT & Tomekk, so be sure to have a look at those. I also added the Detailed Map & Radar mod by BaygoN which uses Ian Albert's fantastic maps of San Andreas which are almost like satellite images, to replace the standard map and radar map. It looks great and is definitely worth downloading.

Take 2 Interactive have provided a financial update with some pretty interesting news in it. As always the full press release is on their site if you want to read the whole thing.

Also in the press release was a little insight into the reasons behind the European release delay.

Take-Two is reducing its fiscal 2005 guidance to reflect several factors, including the movement of the launch of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories for the PSP™ handheld entertainment system in certain European territories from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2005 to the first quarter of fiscal 2006, due to unexpected delays in final product testing and submission. Shipments of the title have been made to the UK in the fourth quarter, with the title expected to ship in the remaining European territories in late November.

So the end of November is unfortunately how long we have to wait until we can play the game. But don't get too upset, they also announced a brand new GTA title for the PSP, due to launch during next year. The title of the game still remains a mystery.

For Fiscal 2006, we are well positioned for the opportunities to extend our brands across the large installed base of current generation platforms, as well as next generation hardware including the two previously announced Rockstar Games titles for the PSP, one of which is a new Grand Theft Auto title.

By the sounds of it we will be enjoying 2 new Grand Theft Auto's next year. Hopefully one for the Playstation 3 and definitely one for the Sony PSP!

While it may be a bit early to discuss this new portable title, we have made it its own forum for discussion in our newly upgraded Invision Forums. We've also made a topic for discussion of the game's title, I've started by listing some domains owned by Rockstar and their possible uses (such as gtamiami.com). Please read that and post your own thoughts.