The latest beta version of GTA: State of Liberty, entitled 69.3 (BoykaBull) was released online recently, with the confirmation that the next release will not be out until at least Auguest 2012.

But until then we have a selection of new media files for you today, including fourteen screenshots and two gameplay videos taken from the latest build of GTA: State of Liberty.

Check out the new screenshots in our gallery below :

Also be sure to check out the two gameplay videos below, taken from Beta 69.3 of GTA: State of Liberty :

GTA SOL - Beta 69.3 Gameplay Video 1 (PC) Download MP4 720p : 173mb MP4 360p : 39.9mb Embed

GTA SOL - Beta 69.3 Gameplay Video 2 (PC) Download MP4 480p : 178mb Embed

The next beta version of GTA: State of Liberty, entitled 69.3 (BoykaBull) has been released online, with the confirmation that the next release will be out within two weeks, which is at the end of the month.

Changes
GTASOL Beta 69.3 does not have any of the features shown in the online version of GTASOL Online, and is instead starting from a point in time from before the merge with VC0 back in 2010, and is seen as the true successor to GTASOL Beta 51.9.

Important
version 69.3 of GTASOL has a lot of bugs, especially with the water tables, and no paths are created for the Pedestrians or Vehicles so if your not into empty lifeless maps then this mod is not for you!. This mod does not work from Vice City Downloaded from Stream or any pirated version of the exe.

So is this being released?
New beta versions are released every so often to give the community access to the mod thus this allows other members to contribute towards this project.

Installing GTASOL Beta 69.3
Providing you installed your copy of Vice City from disk and ran this at least once with your desired settings. Following this example of how to install the mod might be easier then how it is written in the mods documentation. (Readme)

There are 2 ways to install the mod : The first would be to install Vice City as a Clean copy on your Harddrive and make sure all the files was not set as read-only as this would create issues over writing the files later. Start the GTA ViceCity.exe and check your settings for the display and run the game once. Quit GTA ViceCity, Startup Devconsole.exe found in the tools folder. Copy the mods folder over your installed GTA Vice City replacing all the files. You should be good to go so just run the gtasol.exe instead of the gta-vc.exe Now the Second way that works best for Linux users. Unpack all the mod files into an empty folder called GTASOL69.3. Drag the Anims, Icons, Mp3, Mss, Movie, Skins, Text, Txd (but keeping LOADSC0.TXD) folders from your installed VC install into your GTASOL69.3 folder, also the files from your Vice City root folder like the Mss32.dll, gta-vc.exe and readme files. Copy the Audio folder from Your Vice City Play Disk (Disk2) into the GTASOL69.3 folder. Run the mod from the gtasol.exe with devconsole if you are having problems.

Having problems
On some systems the mod will sometimes crash when it is run first time and this reason to this is unknown but running it from a second time, the mod should run without any issues.

Download Link : GTASOL 69.3 (VodkaBoykaBull)

UPDATE : GTA: State of Liberty Beta 69.3.2 (VodkaBoykaBull) has been released online as an update to Beta 69.3 (BoykaBull), with the confirmation that no more releases will be outsourced till April-May 2012.

Download link : GTASOL 69.3.2 (VodkaBoykaBull)

Hybrid Games Round-Up
I'm currently downloading this latest version of GTASOL, and I intend to play it over the weekend on both my Windows XP 32Bit system as well as my Windows 7 64Bit system, and upon which I will report back next week with my thoughts and opinions on this latest build.

Back in November 2010, we broke the news that two of the biggest mods in the Grand Theft Auto community (GTA: State of Liberty and GTA: Vice City Online); were merging together to form one super project called Grand Theft Auto: State of Liberty Online (GTA: SOL-O) and it seemed like things were going well after the release of a handful of screenshots, development videos - with Hybrid Games even netting some exclusive content along the way - and even a closed beta build of the game, but unfortunately, it wasn't to be, as Keith Mc-Kay (X-Seti) - owner and key developer of GTA: State of Liberty - has informed me that both projects are going their seperate ways due to issues in development and complicated situations throughtout the team, that I won't bore you all with.

Now, in March 2012, with GTA: State of Liberty back on the forefront as a single project again, Keith has informed me of the changes to the project and where it will be going from this point onwards, so I thought I'd share all of the juicy details with you all.

A New Future for GTA: SOL
The Project will become a community project for GTAForums and only GTAForums (with Hybrid Games nabbing all media rights). The modding files would be open for everyone else to use in there own projects, including all coding (exe hacks, game soft hacks), all mapping (models and textures), and all animations (vehicles and peds). All that is asked by Keith and his development team is that people give the necessary credit where credit is due. (because I know that I'd feel pretty cheated if someone used something of mine without my permission or thanks).

Please remember that the project files and everything else within GTA: State Of Liberty will become propriety of GTAForums, except content owned by Rockstar Games and Take 2. Keith has also given rough details on a timeline for the project, so that once he's done, he can then move onto other game engines, including Rockstar's Advanced Game Engine (RAGE). The timelines are still open to debate, so plans may change, but have a look at the timeline below :

2012: 1 more year for the Vice City engine but the development does not have to end there. 2013: Hoping to be ready for RAGE or Better. 2015: Who knows, but what ever we are doing the future looks bright.

That is enough for now, but the next part comes down to the readers, and those with skills in game development. Here is how you can show your support. You can help find the right people who might be interested in spending some time on this project, or you can model and map in order to improve what is already built-in, or you can help with the EXE Launcher so that the team can move on to mapping.

Joining the Team
GTA: State of Liberty will also have an open door policy where people can come and join in without commitment to being on a team, which could also lead to the offer of leadership, so that something might one day take control of the project from Keith and keep it going in the years to come. The only conditions for working on the project will be to have at least one mod of your own before considering to join up, and you do not have to ask to be on the team, just join this thread and start posting.

How to join the team Well anyone can and you don't even have to ask as this is a community project. All you have to do is type either on this thread that you are in and what you would like to do or add Keith to your Skype. His ID is: X-Seti and say !optmein All you need to do is download the mod and start posting in this section on the board and of course in the correct thread. Bugs, Glitches - tell us about these issues and even better that your able to fix these.

The Team Structure
Members of the development team are not always around - due ot other circumstances in their lives - so it's important to handover what has been done (bugs fixed) and what members are working on. It is important that the Team Leaders maintain there group within the team so that everyone knows what has to be done.

For those who are waiting for tasks, instructions may not always be given out, but there are plenty of bugs to be fixed by anyone. A place to upload work once complete is provided so that all work can be added to the main body of the project.

Team updates and news letters
For now Skype is the main means of keeping in contact with other team members, So everyone can get updates about the project, however if your on the list and you do not want to receive team notices, you can opt out by typing !optout, or you can remove yourself from Keith's list by typing !removeme and you will be deleted from his Skype contact list.

The Community

Mod Leader - X-Seti Co - Platinumserb Co - ALMOST610 Head Of Coding - Swoorup Co - SilentPL Head Of Scripting - (Looking for Applicants) Head Of Mapping - X-Seti Co - rmws Co - RacingFreak Co - atfburner Co - Platinumserb Co - Mark01 Co - solom Co - Adel_dexter Head Of Vehicles - ALMOST610 Co - RacingFreak Co - solom Head Of Forum Media - Matt Stanyon Co - Adel_dexter

Simple rules; Please keep this in mind.
Everyone is welcome on the team as long as everyone keeps in contact, and just like we mentioned before, you do not have to ask to be on the team. However Idle members can and probably will create issues for others when tasks are left undone, Please keep in contact when working with others when making your contributions.

Those left idling without any given reason for longer then 4 weeks will be ejected from the team as it's not hard to let other community members know whether your due for hospital, studying or unable to help on the project. All that is required for a reason of absence is something along the lines of "I will be away for a given day, mouth - time in a PM", then it can be marked and passed onto the the rest of the team.

The list below is a status of the current staff that are involved in the general weekly goings on with the project and certain people will be counted out if you don't keep in contact.

Skill set - Basic team list - Status Adel_dexter - Away Studying ALMOST610 - Vehicles (Updating the old vehicles with newer models) Ashwin the new boy - Modeling, Vehicles, Scripting - Away Studying atfburner - Modeling, Mapping, Texturing, Lighting - (unknown - pending) Mark01 - Mapping, Modeling. - (unknown - pending) Matt Stanyon - Media, Web support, Advertising, Mich - Media, Post Editing - (Passive - When needed) Platinumserb - Mapping and Modelling - Away Studying RacingFreak - Everything. - (unknown - pending) rmws - Everything. - (unknown - pending) SilentPL - Coding - Away Studying solom - Collisions, - Mapping and Modelling (Active) Swoorup - Coding - Scripting - Away Studying X-Seti - Mapping, Modeling, Coding - Away for 4 to 5 days

Should you have a question for a certain part of the mod, try and direct your question to
the person who is Head of the Department on which your question is regarding. If you're enquiring about situations concerning media, web support and advertising, then all of your questions can be directed to me here on Hybrid Games. This is because of my continued support for GTA: State of Liberty, Hybrid Games will now be one of the main places to go for all things related to the project, as I am now the head of Forum Media, which also covers media, web support and advertising.

Now, if you do wish to join the development team for GTA: State of Liberty and want to apply through Hybrid Games, then please send your email to us via our contact us section, with the header as "GTA: SOL Join Up", and I'll pass it onto Keith Mc-Kay (X-Seti) myself, and he will contact you from then on.

This is a big day for Hybrid Games, because every Grand Theft Auto fansite has had a particular GTA mod that they have been close with, and seen the development along the way, like TheGTAPlace had RealGTA3 back in the day, and GTAGaming is currently working hard on the GTA: Vice City Online (VCO) mod, and now Hybrid Games is the only website (besides GTAForums) that is covering every aspect of GTA: State of Liberty (GTASOL) and we're happy that we're involved in the project.

That's right. Where the map is concerned, it's all about optimization and fixing at this point. The map is on a “feature-freeze” and over the last month X-Seti and the mapping team have taken steps to simply repair problems and optimize the models, in order to deliver a higher frames-per-second rate than ever before experienced in State of Liberty!

Shortly after State of Liberty and Vice City Online got together in April 2010, a decision was made to remove all the game's LODs, in the hopes of speeding up engine performance. The pros were supposed to outweigh the cons, but the reality is, they didn't, and now the focus is shifting towards being on optimization, and the LODs are making a comeback!

However…well…it will take a little bit more time to get them quite right! Given a short amount of time they will be fixed and fps improvements will be quite evident due to a lesser need of a stupidly high draw-distance to be set on the regular models. In addition, the custom areas of the map (Liberty Main / Mainland Liberty, etc.) will be introduced to LODs for the first-time ever! So that means those of you with CPUs and GPUs dating back to 2004/5 should be better able to play the game.

For more info, visit : Official Site Official Forums Facebook YouTube

The team behind GTA: State of Liberty Online (SOL-O) have released the Second Alpha Test Video for the mod.

This video focuses on melee and player damage state synchronizations. They are now both comparable to fighting pedestrians in single-player mode, but are implemented in a multi-player environment. The possibility to decapitate other players has now been implemented, along with instant death (instagib) when the players are shot or chopped in critical-hit body parts (the legs, arms, and head). Thus, if you feel compelled, you are now able to shoot a player's limbs one by one!

Additionally, swinging weapons are now working properly on both a local (internal) and synchronized level. Essentially, this means that you are not only able to damage other players with swinging weapons, but are also able to be damaged by them!

Furthermore, the name tag system has been re-done, both in code and in aesthetics, and is now up to the industry's standards. Notice how the name tags follow the player animations, are not able to be seen through objects (clipping) , and are also dependent on the internal player's camera position. These factors allow for perfect stealth modes, those of which are foreign to Vice City's multi-player scene. The weapons that are featured in this video are fists, sniper rifles, M4s, katanas, chainsaws, golf clubs, hammers, baseball bats, and machetes.

This video was shot on 25th November 2011.

GTA SOL Online - Second Alpha Test Video - Melee & Player Damage (PC) Download MP4 720p : 30.3mb MP4 360p : 8.61mb Embed

For more info, visit : Official Site Official Forums Facebook YouTube