More information on Grand Theft Auto 3 for Android on a Kal-El tablet

DigitalTrends happened to stop by the Rockstar Games office and managed to get a bit of a hands-on preview of Grand Theft Auto 3 for mobile, specially this time on an Android quad-core Tegra 3 (Kal-El) tablet. It was being shown off at New Yorks Comic Con but on an iPad 2 only as far as we know.

According the the hands-on that DigitalTrends had, which they played via a HMDI-out onto a big screen while using an Xbox controller, actually looks better than the PS2 version people played not too long ago. This let's us know a couple of things, the first being that GTA 3 will support gamepads when it is released. For those of you who were curious, that answers that, which is good since Ice Cream Sandwich will support the use of gamepads on both phones and tablets.

This also tells us that Rockstar has improved the graphics of GTA 3, at least when concerning the quad-core Android devices. Obviously they may be toned down a bit for the iOS platform and single-core Android devices.

The visual boost comes as a result of Rockstar using a combination of newly created textures — particularly in the case of signs and vehicles (which now feature fully 3D-modeled engines) — and the higher resolution assets from the game’s PC release. Character models are more complex as well, sporting a higher poly count.

Content-wise though, the game won't be censored or anything like that so those wonderful scenes where you can pick up a hooker and do what you do with them in the back seat of your stolen car, before robbing them, will remain in place. This is also good news considering it wouldn't be GTA if people weren't able to play it like the original version.

On a final note, Rockstar Games has mentioned it's "very possible" that we could see mobile ports of Vice City and San Andreas which would be awesome. GTA 3 sounds like it's almost ready from release, according to the hands-on DigitalTrends had, with only some tweaking left to do with the HUD and other minor control items. If you want to check out the whole hands-on, just head over to DigitalTrends, linked below. Unfortunately they were unable to obtain any footage or screenshots of GTA 3 on this Kal-El Android tablet.

Website Referenced: DigitalTrends