The game's protagonist, Claude, never says a single word throughout the entire game; you only hear his grunts when he falls or drowns. Rockstar Games later admitted that they decided to create a silent protagonist so that the player would identify with the character more strongly.
Every song played on Flashback FM is taken from the 1983 film Scarface. Robert Loggia, who voices Ray Machowski, had appeared in the same film as Frank Lopez.
The protagonist's name, Claude, was revealed for the first time in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004) — a full three years after GTA III's release.
If you fire a sniper rifle at the moon, you will see its size change.
There is a 'glitch' that lets you do taxi missions with any vehicle: if you hold R3 in a taxi, get out and leave it in another car, it also works for ambulance missions.
It was the best-selling video game of 2001. In 2002, it ranked second, behind Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
Lazlow's career progresses in the following order: 3D Universe Timeline: 1984 - intern at V-Rock in Vice City and co-host with Couzin Ed (GTA: Vice City Stories); 1986 - host of the rock station V-Rock in Vice City (GTA: Vice City); 1992 - host on the Entertaining America program in San Andreas (GTA: San Andreas); 1998 - field reporter on the Chatterbox program in Liberty City (GTA: Liberty City Stories); 2001 - host of Chatterbox in Liberty City (GTA III). HD Universe Timeline: 2008 - host of Integrity in Liberty City (after a long suspension for rudeness) (GTA IV); 2013 - co-host on WCTR and host of Fame or Shame (GTA V).
There is a movie poster in the game titled 'Badfellas', a nod to Martin Scorsese's GoodFellas (1990). Frank Vincent (Salvatore Leone) and Debi Mazar (Maria) had appeared in the film. GoodFellas has a major influence on the game's story and atmosphere.
Donald Love's fate after his disappearance is unknown. Love appears only in GTA: Vice City, set in 1986, and GTA: Liberty City Stories, set in 1998; both take place before this 2001 game. Since GTA IV, set in 2008, rebooted the series and contains no recurring characters (except Lazlow), Love's fate will probably never be resolved. In GTA V he is remembered only with a star on the Vinewood Walk of Fame.
In the newspapers found on the ground throughout the game, the headline 'Elvis Zombie found' can be read.
Three prisoners are clearly visible in the opening scene: the protagonist, 8-Ball and the elderly oriental gentleman who is a friend of Donald Love. He is kidnapped by the Colombians for ransom; Love asks you to rescue him in the 'Liberator' mission. Ironically, the Colombians, the protagonist's constant enemy, unwittingly help him escape and take revenge on Catalina.
The game was temporarily withdrawn from sale in Australia for re-rating. The objectionable content was that when the player picks up a prostitute in his car and stops in a secluded spot, the vehicle shakes violently (implying sex). The real problem was that the prostitute could be killed after the act; this was deemed 'sexual violence'. A censored version was released for Australia; the same applied to Vice City.
Tony Cipriani's relationship with his mother is a nod to Tony Soprano's relationship with his mother in the HBO series The Sopranos.
The gay construction workers in Liberty City sing lyrics from Village People songs: such as 'young man', 'there's a place you can go', 'you can sail the seven seas'.
A caller on the Chatterbox station shouts 'FREE KEVIN', a reference to the famous hacker Kevin Mitnick. The program's DJ had discussed Mitnick's case on his radio show.
Tanner, the undercover cop from another driving game, Driver (1999), appears in a small role in the 'Two-Faced Tanner' mission; the Yakuza expose his true identity. Driver shares similarities such as the in-car camera angle.
In the 'Waka-Gashira Wipeout!' mission, Donald Love quotes his mentor Avery Carrington: 'Nothing can lower property values like an old-fashioned gang war, except maybe a plague... but then we'd be going too far.' Love tries to lower property values in the area by pitting two rival gangs against each other. In Vice City, set 15 years earlier, a young Donald Love is present as an apprentice in a similar mission Carrington gives Tommy Vercetti, and Carrington tells him to 'pay attention so you can learn'.
In Grand Theft Auto Online (2013), you can choose Claude Speed or Niko Bellic as your online character's father and make them resemble them.
There are countless references to films and Broadway shows all over the city: 'BadFellas' (GoodFellas), 'Fannie' (Annie), 'Saturday Night Beaver' (Saturday Night Fever), 'Duck Pond' (Swan Lake), 'Rats' (Cats), 'Half-Cocked' (police films like Dirty Harry), 'Top Down City' (Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone action films; also a reference to the top-down view of the older GTA games), '69th Street' (42nd Street), 'Soldiers of Misfortune' (war films), 'Pirates In Men's Pants' (Pirates of Penzance).
Borgnine Taxis, which operates the Cabbie-type taxis in the game, is a nod to Ernest Borgnine, who played 'Cabbie' in Escape from New York (1981).
Some vans bear the logo 'Toyz And The Hood', a reference to the film Boyz n the Hood (1991).
Catalina remains the series' only female main antagonist.
Two characters were cut from the final version of the game, but their names remained in the manual and credits: Darkel (voiced by Bill Fiore) and Curtly (Curtis McClarin). It is thought that Darkel gave terrorist-like missions and was removed because of the September 11 attacks, or that he gave rampage missions but skull icons were preferred instead. In December 2011, Rockstar stated that the character had been removed long before the attacks.
Police cars were originally going to use the New York Police Department's blue-and-white color scheme. These screenshots can be seen on the poster included with the game. It is thought that, because of the September 11 attacks, they were changed to black-and-white so they would not resemble NYPD cars.
The movie posters in Liberty City reading 'Top - Down City' are a nod to the earlier top-down GTA games (1997 and 1999).
The '1000 Chestnut' audio clip on the emergency radio channel is taken from the Dirty Harry sequel The Enforcer (1976).
The taxi company 'Mean Street Taxis' is a reference to two Martin Scorsese films: Mean Streets (1973) and Taxi Driver (1976).
While the first two GTA games were played from a bird's-eye view, this game is the first in the series to be fully three-dimensional.
Frank Vincent (Salvatore Leone), Joe Pantoliano (Luigi Goterelli) and Robert Loggia (Ray Machowski) had played Phil Leotardo, Ralph Cifaretto and Feech La Manna, respectively, in The Sopranos.
The slogan on the fire trucks: 'Putting Out Since 1999'.
This game was one of the first titles to truly show off the power of the PlayStation 2.
The speculation that the main character Claude is the same person as Claude Speed from GTA 2 was never officially confirmed. Even if they are the same character, the 2D and 3D universes are separate in the GTA world.
Even before Rockstar was a brand, it managed to bring well-known character actors such as Frank Vincent, Joe Pantoliano, Michael Madsen, Michael Rapaport, Debi Mazar, Kyle MacLachlan and Robert Loggia onto the cast.
Rockstar initially was developing an expansion pack for GTA III titled 'Grand Theft Auto: Miami'. The 'Visit Miami' billboards and Ray Machowski boarding a Miami plane in his final mission are hints of this. However, the team moved the story to the 1980s and renamed the game Vice City.
This game and GTA 2 are the only games that do not include motorcycles. A forum user discovered a failed motorcycle physics attempt in the game's .exe file. A newspaper article in Liberty City Stories provides an in-universe explanation, saying that motorcycles were banned as a result of a campaign for four-door cars and SUVs.
According to Seamus Blackley, the game was at one point pitched to Microsoft as an Xbox exclusive, but Microsoft turned it down.
All license plates in Liberty City read 'LC R29'.
The phone number for Fernando's New Beginnings is 555-9292.
It became the first British game to receive the ELSPA Diamond Million Seller award.
It is the first GTA game to offer a first-person point of view when looking around and when aiming with an M16 or a sniper rifle.
All games in the 3D universe refer to the FBI, CIA, DEA and SWAT by their real names, unlike their parodies in the HD universe: FIB, IAA, DOA and NOOSE.
Online multiplayer was initially planned, but it was shelved early on in order to focus on Vice City. Text related to it and the 'Powered by GameSpy' logo are still in the game's code. The series only got official multiplayer with GTA IV.
According to the book Jacked: The Outlaw Story of GTA, the Houser brothers discussed canceling the game, thinking it was too early to release such a violent game set in a New York-like place. However, Rockstar released the game with some cuts and changes out of sensitivity.
Design documents revealed that the game was actually being made for the Sega Dreamcast, but it was moved to the PlayStation 2 due to the system's falling sales.
The game was so successful that a sequel that is actually a prequel followed: Liberty City Stories, released in 2005, offers narratives that complete the original characters and stories.
The engine sound effects of the Diablo Stallion and some other cars in the game are the same as those of the Joker's car in the film Joker's Wild (1992).
The first four cars seen in the 'Give Me Liberty' mission (Rumpo, Police, Enforcer, Patriot) have no drivers.
It is the first GTA game with a third-person point of view, with the camera positioned behind the player.
Michael Madsen, Debi Mazar and Michael Rapaport had previously appeared together in the film Money for Nothing (1993). Although none of the three are of Italian descent, they play Italian characters in GTA III.
Claude's character shows similarities to Ryan O'Neal's character in Walter Hill's The Driver (1978): Claude is mute, and O'Neal's character barely speaks; neither is addressed by name, their pasts are unclear, they show no emotion, and they work as getaway drivers for criminals. Years later, Rockstar adapted another Walter Hill film, The Warriors (1979), into a game.
In the beta version of the game, Francis International Airport was at the northern tip of Staunton Island, but it was later moved to Shoreside Vale.
Two songs were cut from the game: 'Back to the Streets' by Tom Novy, which appeared in the German trailer, and 'Wash It Off' by Marydancin, which was planned to play on Lips 106.
According to a design document, Kenji Kasen's name was originally Toshiro Kasen, and he was not going to be killed by Claude on Donald Love's orders. He was to give missions once Shoreside Vale opened and would eventually be killed by the Colombian Cartel.
Various rumors circulated among fans about the original version of the game: that Claude was considered as a speaking protagonist (because a leftover voice from GTA 2 could be heard in the trailer), content cut after September 11 (such as crashing a plane into a building in Donald Love's final mission), a drivable version of the Maibatsu Monstrosity, Fernando Martinez being a mission giver, and Claude being able to reach the lighthouse and the observatory.
Unlike the previous GTA games set in the 2D universe, this game is a soft reboot and takes place in the 3D universe; no character from the 2D universe appears in this universe.
Although it is known that Lazlow brought his real radio experience to the game, the real syndicated radio show he had been hosting since 1995 covered the same topics, from electronics to video games. Rockstar Games, meanwhile, was only founded three years later.
The planes at the airport were coded to explode when hit with a rocket launcher, but this feature was hastily disabled after the September 11 attacks. It is possible to restore the function by editing the code. In the next game, Vice City, this feature returned only for the airship and only with an attack helicopter.
The game was to have alternate endings, with Claude having the option to spare or kill Catalina; these two concepts were later used in GTA IV.
The game was initially banned in South Korea by the Korea Media Rating Board, but with the 10th Anniversary edition it was made available for purchase and offered with a Korean localization. When the Game Rating Board replaced the KMRB, the ban was lifted, and GTA III became the first 3D GTA game to be officially translated into Korean.
On two computer screens on the ground floor of the TWA@ Internet Cafe in Belleville Park on Staunton Island, previous GTA games are visible.
In a 2012 question-and-answer session, Rockstar revealed that the sound of pedestrians being run over was made by crushing fruit and raw chicken. In the same session, to the question of whether the gunshot in the final scene was Claude shooting Maria, the answer given was 'probably yes, probably no'; Maria was planned to give a speech but it was removed during the sound production stage. It was also stated that the man with the baseball bat on the cover art was an early concept drawing that reflected the spirit of the game.
In 2001 promotional documents, Dan Houser had hinted that the original GTA characters Brother Marcus and Bubba and the GTA: London characters would return, but these were not added to the game. Designer James Worrall had said the mob boss's name would be Frankie; this character later became Salvatore. Houser stated that because only four people were motion capture actors, the emphasis was placed on voice recordings.
In pre-release screenshots sent to the British media in 2000, a vehicle with the same body as the Volkswagen Beetle was visible. This did not appear in any GTA game until it was introduced as the BF Weevil in the GTA V universe.
In GTA IV (2008), on the walls of the multi-story building surrounded by Dukes Blvd, Hooper St and Stone St, there are fully detailed murals of the GTA III cover art characters.
In 2024, Lord of the Rings actor Dominic Monaghan admitted that, encouraged by Elijah Wood, he bought a PlayStation 2 and played GTA III, and that the game's open world system, driving and music started a new era since the Pac-Man days.
In 2024, designer Obbe Vermeij explained that the parallel road west of Portland Hospital was initially continuous, but due to the PS2's recurring streaming issues it was replaced with buildings that would make the character go around them.
Rockstar's December 2000 development plans included the following: shipyards with forklifts (inspired by the Leith shipyards in Scotland), chemical and power plants in northwest Portland, a waste site full of scrap vehicles, an auto junkyard with a stolen vehicle delivery mission, a pimp named 'JJ' in Red Light, a dog food factory with an interior, a rainwater drainage area, Salvatore's bodyguards, an airport in the north of Staunton, a city hall modeled as an art museum, a Wall Street area, a ferry dock, a boatyard, a member recruitment mission at the cathedral, Yakuza leader Toshiro Kasen giving Donald Love's missions, an illegal fight ring, Ray Machowski giving missions in a cafe, a skate park, a golf course on Cliffside Drive, a car dealership in Shoreside Vale, a hearse, a larger Morningstar Industries presence, a military base and Major Hale, the return of the Zaibatsu Corporation, Nixon Island prison, Maria giving missions at the hotel, the Yakuza rescuing the prisoner in the opening scene, a rocket launcher roadblock, street names in 'The Fuzz Ball', a Molotov cocktail in 'Taking Out the Laundry', the Triads being named the Thongs, the FBI targeting Claude in the 'Sniper Surveillance' mission, the PHUQU-2 tank, Japanese and Portuguese subtitles, a country music station, pedestrians being arrested, police informants, a pedestrian who could rob Claude, traffic density changing during the day, the 'Grand Theft Auto' mission being named 'Gone in 60 Seconds', bus and train stops, Duncan's Body and Paintshop, the blue seating area of the Liberty Memorial Coliseum, airbags, windows that open and close, a special weapon for each vehicle, a Fiat 128-like Panto, two modified vehicles.
In 2023, Obbe Vermeij said that missions came before the story and that the bank robbery scenes were added later. Characters and locations were constantly changing; things became clear once the voice recordings were finished. He explained that Donald Love was not there at the beginning, that cars in garages disappeared for memory reasons, that textures were reduced because of PS2 limitations, and the reason planes were absent. He stated that Leslie Benzies separated missions with yellow sticky notes, connections with green, and locations with pink. He described how vehicles out of focus were deleted when the player looked back and then forward again, that newspaper litter existed only in this game, that the fog effect had four stages, and that tree shadows were absent for performance reasons.
Brian Baglow, the writer of the original GTA, was involved in script production for the first three months.
Lips 106 in the game mentions Carcer City, the setting of another Rockstar game, Manhunt, and implies it is close to Liberty City. The Liberty Tree newspaper ran a story about a police chief being cleared of corruption.
In 2011, Dan Houser said the game was initially planned to include additional US cities besides New York, such as Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. He described the development difficulties not as 'problems' but as 'challenges'; such as streaming data from the disc, motion capture, and the transitions between driving and combat in a game that was not level-based. The final mission taking place near a dam in the suburbs was planned from the very beginning.
In 2025, Obbe Vermeij stated that he designed the hidden packages, stunt jumps and the train camera; that the train camera was initially conceived as an exterior view of the car roof without showing the player, that skipping stations would strain the infrastructure, that this was possible in GTA IV, and that GTA V had an interior view and a glitch for moving into the cockpit.
In 2006, Sam Houser said the name Rockstar Games reflected the intention to make top-tier, flashy games like the arcade and PC games they had loved since childhood.
Lead artist Aaron Garbut stated that in the first weeks of the prototype the game already had brown stone buildings, docks, shops and traffic as in the final version; that the game being 3D was Sam Houser's idea, and that this was the first sign of their ongoing collaboration in the future.
In 2024, former PlayStation Europe executive Chris Deering admitted that GTA III being exclusive to PS2 was a move against Microsoft Xbox competition, and that with the deal at the end of 2001, three GTA games came to PS2. While GTA SA became the best-selling PS2 game of all time, GTA III was in fifth place.
In a pre-September 11 beta gameplay video, a bus with the 'Felly Tours' brand, which is not in the final version, was visible. Although the word 'Felly' means wheel rim, it is thought to be a pun related to oral sex.
In GTA IV's 'The Cousins Bellic' mission, Roman does not get out of the car like 8 Ball; if Niko gets in through the passenger door, he passes through Roman. As Niko gets out and back in, Roman says additional dialogue. 8 Ball, however, never speaks, and the system says 'Hey! Get back in the vehicle!' The police cars in the Callahan Bridge scene never get out, and even if they explode, no new unit arrives. Because the mission has two stages, police response is not programmed; the fire cannot be extinguished, the bridge view loads automatically, and Claude can swim to the other islands to collect hidden packages.
In 2024, Lazlow explained that he went to the first creative meeting for GTA III with a yellow notebook, but immediately started using a laptop to catch the brainstorm, and continued this way until the end of the game. This is not surprising considering the tens of thousands of lines of dialogue.
Code designer Obbe Vermeij explained that traffic lights worked on a north-south, east-west cycle, that pedestrian traffic and model orientation controlled the cycle, and that even a knocked-over light worked the same way. Running a red light leading to being stopped by police was only considered in GTA III but never implemented in any game. The feature of cars appearing in the air before physical contact, as in GTA IV, also comes from this code.
In 2013, Obbe Vermeij said that the innovative approach of the 1998 game Space Station Silicon Valley, which focused more on exploration than objectives, was carried over to GTA III. Every detail was present even before missions began; gangs became more aggressive with each betrayal mission.
The point where it connects with the HD Universe IV was that in both Liberty City games, realistic spent shell casings were ejected from fired weapons; this was not present in the 2001 version.
Designer Obbe Vermeij stated that the police's behavior of crashing into other vehicles was initially a bug, but was kept because of the content it created; that road nodes directed police behavior, and that this did not apply in places without nodes (such as parking lots).
Despite the simple physics compared to later games, there was a bug at Francis International Airport where a car stuck on the stairs of the helipad would free itself with sparks and drive away.
Donald Love, who mysteriously disappeared in the 2001 universe, was never explained in any modern-day game. The scene in the second trailer in 2025 where Jason and Lucia joke on the pier resembles an episode of the animated series Archer; in that episode, the character Burt Reynolds voices Burt Reynolds. Reynolds had voiced Avery Carrington in Vice City and appeared in the same mission as Donald Love. Reynolds died in 2018, and Carrington was never seen again. Kyle MacLachlan said in 2024 that he believed the theory that his character survived. Aspatria, which Love mentions in the 'Liberator' mission, is a town in England and the hometown of a bus manufacturer from the 1800s.
A taxi driver's line in III, 'I don't deserve this!', is a line spoken to a taxi driver by a character in The Color of Money (1986). 'what in the name!' is the line of the black police chief in RoboCop 3 (1993). The city of Atlanta is connected both to the film and to Atlanta, Cass County, Texas, which took its name in 1845.
Marco's Bistro in the St. Marks area features in the car bombing mission targeting one of the Forelli Brothers. The name Marco is the Italian version of Mark and fits the Italian mafia presence in the area.
The first 3D NYC model contains realistic media references specific to 2001: the Millennium Medieval Fair resembles the Newport Folk Festival in South Africa; the German dancer/destroyer named Hans evokes Spokes Mashiyane, who played the pennywhistle against Bob Dylan's use of electric instruments in 1965. The El Salvador, Paraguay, Zambia, NFL founded in 1959 and Central African Federation references in the HEAD Radio advertisement point to that era. The founder of the NFL, George Wein, is also the founder of the Newport Jazz Festival. The 2001 release date precedes Dylan's 2002 return. Mississippi John Hurt is also connected to the 1963 change. Claude Williamson's 1958 album 'Kwele Claude' and the West Side connections with the first black character in GTA SA are also part of this network.
Robert Loggia was the oldest actor in GTA III's voice cast; he was 71 when he voiced Ray Machowski.
In Liberty City, recreated in 2008 with GTA IV, Sam Houser said that although the second game did not directly reference the September 11 attacks, the theme of terror was handled throughout the game. In 2025, a code programmer stated that a remote-controlled plane being able to pass through a building was preserved in the Definitive Edition, but that the plane was planned to disappear after a certain period of time, and that he prevented this outcome by changing the flight path with his own coding.
The Greyhound bus line in the game is parodied as Whippet Express Coach. Whippet Coach is in reality a bus company based in Cambridgeshire, England, and its founder used an American ambulance as its first vehicle. Unrelated to the Australian-American War references on Chatterbox radio, the company was bought by an Australian travel company in 2014 and sold again in 2018 to a company based in England.