Beta Releases in GTA III

Before the release of Grand Theft Auto III, there were features that were removed from the final product. These changes range from deleted vehicles and player skins to the removal of entire characters and mission strands.

Characters

 * Claude's appearance went through many different designs. Some screenshots show a poorly detailed Claude, who looks completely different from the final version. Other pictures show a more final Claude with different hair and a chubbier appearance.
 * The character Curtly was cut.
 * The character Darkel was also cut.
 * Tom Novy was meant to make an appearance in the game as himself.
 * 8-Ball's real name was going to be Mullan, as shown on alpha screenshots.
 * Joey Leone's original surname was Sorvino.
 * Salvatore Leone's original name was Frankie Sorvino.
 * Asuka Kasen's original first name was Kemuri.
 * There was a Butler but he never made the final cut, no one knows what his purpose was but he was supposed to appear in the mission Waka-Gashira Wipeout! as Donald Love's Butler
 * Kenji Kasen's original surname was Kassen as evidenced of this site, although it's possible this could be a typo.

Weapons

 * The Land Mine was cut.
 * The Baseball Bat originally was red and yellow, with a red grip.
 * The Nightstick (pictured to the right) was cut.

Vehicles

 * The Panto from GTA 2 was meant to appear but was deleted. It was based on a Fiat 128. It returned in GTA V's "I'm Not A Hipster" update but based on the Smart Fortwo.
 * In "Gangcar Round-Up" King Courtney mistakenly says "Diablo Infernus", suggesting that the Infernus was going to be the Diablos' gang car, instead of the Stallion, but was changed likely because it would have been too fancy for a Hispanic street gang to drive such an expensive car around the streets of Portland.
 * The police cars were originally light blue instead of black, just like the real life NYPD patrol cars. This was changed after the 9/11 attacks to avoid controversy that may arise of the player destroying and stealing patrol vehicles similar to those seen in real life.

Pedestrians

 * Children may have been planned for the game, although Rockstar Games claims that this isn't true.
 * Police Officers originally had mustaches and looked more cartoony.
 * Fire Fighters originally had yellow uniforms as seen in the earlier screenshots. Portland_Triads_-_beta.jpg originally sported black outfits and had tattoos.]]
 * The Triads originally sported black outfits and had tattoos.
 * The FBI had a different uniform.
 * Buskers (pictured to the right) were cut/disabled from the game and later introduced in GTA IV. Existence of buskers in GTA III, can be seen in default.ide file at the bottom line that says "#83, busker1, busker1, CIVMALE, STAT_BUSKER, man, 0" . Note that the " # " marks the line as "disabled". The busker with the bongos has the same appearances as a college student at the Liberty City Community College in Liberty Campus.
 * There were originally going to be female taxi drivers.
 * Due to an unknown glitch, the models for B_WOM2 and B_WOM3, accessible through the "Change into Pedestrian" cheat code, go unused in the original PS2 version of the game.

Missions

 * Originally, when doing Vigilante, Paramedic, or Firefighter missions, the vehicles radio could go out of range - requiring the player to drive closer to the nearest police station/hospital/fire station.
 * Originally, several missions could not be taken at any time, since the leaders were busy.
 * Toni's missions originally had to be completed before advancing to Salvatore's missions.
 * In "Give Me Liberty" a purple Sentinel was used instead of a teal Kuruma.
 * In "Grand Theft Auto", Claude was additionally meant to deliver a Banshee and a Landstalker, evidenced by the game code.
 * In "Kanbu Bust-out", Claude could be rewarded by allowing him to obtain two bodyguards from the Hyaku Dojo after completing the mission, according to an unused string in the AMERICAN.gxt file, "KM1_D".
 * In "The Exchange", Maria Latore had a long and really annoying speech compared the one featured in the final version.
 * According to a Q&A that Rockstar Games did about Grand Theft Auto III in 2011, a mission referencing terrorism was cut after the 9/11 attacks.

City

 * The city during development stage was very different from the finished version and has more streets and roads. The airport was once in Staunton Island and there were many roads in Shoreside Vale. Callahan Bridge was also absent.
 * Punk Noodles was originally just with a small grass park with two statues. The statue model still exists in the game's files.
 * The Callahan Bridge was going to be named West Port Bridge (taken from a sign in Atlantic Quays).
 * The Callahan Bridge also had two suspensions rather tan just one.
 * There were other area names that supposedly going to be included in the game. These are The Towers, Sewers, Swanksville, Projects, Luigi's Place, Little Italy and Industrial Park. Waterfront Promenade, Westport and Westport Bridge could be seen in some directions going to Trenton and Atlantic Quays.
 * A penitentiary, where Claude and 8-Ball were being transported to in the Introduction, was originally planned to be located on a peninsula in north-east Portland.
 * 8-Ball's Garage was supposedly be in the area names on the screen (Observed in the archives of the PS2 version).
 * In the beta also, the Shoreside Lift Bridge has many roads leading to the bridge. However, a picture of GTA III has the beta picture without the lift bridge. It is possible that the Callahan Bridge took its place in the beta.
 * The Hope Medical College had the same size and width as the Sweeney General Hospital, being a perfect copy.
 * The center of the Liberty City Community College campus building looks different as seen in the pre-release screenshot.
 * The Cochrane Dam was originally smaller.
 * The tall stone walls located in Hepburn Heights were originally chain-link fences.
 * The Portland Big Brown skyscraper in Portland didn't existed.

Gameplay

 * The Airtrain was originally destructible with weapons, much like the DeadDodo. This was likely changed due to the controversy of 9/11.
 * The ability to blow limbs off of non-playable characters was cut, but only from the PS2 version of the game. This can still be activated in the PS2 version via cheat codes.
 * Claude could originally run with the baseball bat.
 * Online multiplayer was cut.
 * Originally, if the player picked up money, the script showed how much money was just picked up. This feature still exists in files, and it's possible to enable it.
 * However, this feature was later implemented in Grand Theft Auto V, with the amount of money picked up shown in the corner under the total amount of money.

Graphics

 * The graphics were originally "cartoonish".
 * A very early HUD was very different (pictured to the right), there was a life bar next to the radar instead of percentage.Gta3 interface.jpg
 * The radar was light blue instead of orange.
 * Location names had a different color.
 * Blue coronas/markers originally were red domes.
 * Stunt jumps originally had sliding "success" screens.

Radio Stations

 * Head Radio had a different logo and at one point, shared the same one as GTA 2's Head Radio.
 * Lips 106 had a slightly different logo.
 * K-JAH had a different logo with the slogan "Reggae To Rock".
 * MSX FM was originally called "Moving Shadow FM".
 * A radio station with Metal and Rock music was cut. This might have been the station that Lazlow mentions on Chatterbox FM.
 * Three radio stations under the names of Liberty FM, WLLC The Zone 34.9 FM and Liberty Soul FM can be seen advertised on billboards throughout Liberty City. As they are not available for selection at any time during the game and have no songs or DJs associated with them, it is possible that these stations were originally intended to be actual stations in the game but were dropped during development, or if they were simply designed to sit alongside other fictional brands advertised in the game.
 * Another possible non-selectable station is what has been referred to as Orbit FM. However, close inspection of the ad (both in the game and in the instruction manual) shows that the correct name is either Orbit or OR-Bit. There is no ‘FM’ and no evidence that it is a radio station.

Soundtrack

 * Tom Novy - Back to The Streets, originally intended to air on Head Radio.
 * Conor and Jay - Carry Me Off, originally intended to air on Head Radio.
 * Marydancin - Wash Him Off, originally intended to air on Lips 106 though a sample is played at the start of the station previewing some of the songs that are intended to be played on the station.

Commercials

 * A commercial for Ammu-Nation was cut but was later reworked into Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
 * A commercial for the Military was cut . The commercial had originally intended to air on both Head Radio and Lips 106.

Others

 * In the recent interview about GTA III, the logo was used to be stencil font and other one, a pill-shaped logo similar to GTA 2 logo.
 * Unused lines of text within the game's text files contain phrases, such as "You're perfectly healthy, get out of here!" and "I'll just fix you up". These lines of text seem to imply that the game's hospitals were, originally, accessible/usable.
 * Like Grand Theft Auto 1 and GTA 2, the player could originally rename Claude.
 * A Camera pickup can be found in game files and even activated, but it is unfinished. Its icon was later re-used for snapshots in GTA San Andreas. Its original purpose is unknown.