When Did You First Play GTA?

wnolan1992

A post in the GTAV thread got me thinking...

When did you first play GTA?

For me, I had the original at a very young age (possibly 7-8) and eventually got 2 and London. Used to spend hours just driving around on the sidewalks listening to tunes. :pac:

I remember the first time I played VC at a friend's house. We'd spent the day messing around with the EyeToy and a few other games, then he'd to nip out for a few minutes and I picked up VC... I was blown away. It was my first exposure to 3D GTA. I didn't have the internet at the time, so I'd no idea that GTA had progressed to that. I remember just running around the place ingame and thinking "Holy f*cking sh*t on a shingle! This is f*cking amazing!"

I remember the exact day I bought San Andreas. It was the day we got summer holidays in 5th class (so yeah, I may have been slightly under the 18s rating :P) and I bought it off the same friend as above who had modded his PS2 so he no longer needed the disc. I bought SA and VC for €20.

As for IV, I had won an Xbox 360 on the radio at the end of May, but had to put it away to do the Junior Cert. The day I finished the JC, IV was waiting for me when I got home. I put 120 hours into it over the next 10 days. Time well spent! :pac:




*ahem*

So anyway, after that trip down Nostalgia Avenue that no one asked for, what are your memories of the first time you played the games?

Kenno90

I remember a friend playing GTA 2 I think, I was about 8 or something , it was the 2D version looking down onto the top of the players head, I remember asking which way do you go.

Being used to Crash and sonic I assumed there was only one direction , so when he said you can go wherever you want , it just blew my little mind.

GTA 3 was like a new world the graphics so realistic :rolleyes: I thought they'd never get better. Though trying to fly that dodo wrecked my head

Vice city was not as memorable I remember flying a chopper for the first time and the first thing I did was fly it into a building, the music content made the game for me

SA is where I became addicted to GTA , I played for weeks at a time , I completed the game then started messing with the chests. Spawning a jet back when ever I wanted , I also loved that hover jet and would fly over area 50 (69) just to dodge the missiles, it was a fantastic game

GTA IV was so so , the graphics where great though after a while I got bored and left it, I never completed the game and just messed around the map , I got really pissed with the constant text from our good ol cousin, I had a lot more fun in multiplayer than I did in the single version

Im hoping GTA V will have components of SA as well as IV while throwing in some new stuff, I think R* took plenty of time into fine tuning the GTA experience. GTA V I hope will be the best one yet

Edit* fecking iPad

Jofspring

Played a little bit of the original GTA's but was very young, maybe between 7 or 8 and Mario/Zelda pretty much ruled my life.

I got GTA 3 as soon as it came out and spent hours and hours and hours just driving around causing havoc. Had cheats for it too that would give tanks etc… and it was just endless fun.

GTA VC came out and again I spent days on end playing it, absolutely loved the music on it and would just drive around causing trouble.

GTA SA was excellent and I played it a good bit, no where near as much as 3 or VC as I didn't have as much time but it still took up a good chunk of my child hood.

For whatever reason I didn't get into GTA IV as much as any of the others. The lack of time I had with work and other things being a key factor.

I really hope I can find the time to get into GTA V properly.

Royal Irish

I played the first ones on the PS1 (GTA, GTA2, and London). I wasn't as young as some of you's though. Think about 15.

Then years later, by chance I played GTAIII on the PS2 in a mates house and I was not into gaming at all back then. It absolutely amazed me and I went out and bought a PS2 weeks later after playing it, just to play that one game.

Probably dumped more hours into the GTA series than any others.

I was never a massive gamer growing up. Brother used to be (and still is) really big into games. He had a PS1 at the time and was really into Tekken and 2D beat em 'ups in general. Can't really remember what games I played, to be honest, but I remember GTA taking my eye from day one.

I vividly recall seeing a news report on BBC where they were talking about the game coming out. They were giving out that it was 'the first time players could be a bad guy and cause harm to the public by stealing cars and crashing into pedestrians' (usual GTA rant) and so on. It showed gameplay footage of it and I couldn't wait for it.

I played it inside out. I was too young to understand or cop on that the maps actually went anywhere For some reason I had it in my head that the maps never ended and were randomly spawned as you drove along. I thought the same for GTA London.


I remember when GTA 2 came out, I had to go back to EuroVision (the shop where I bought it) twice as it wouldn't load up on my console at home. I eventually got it working and by that point I understood the concepts of the map and stuff (anyone remember the prison that you had to jump a ramp over the water to get into? It was full of prisoners on their orange clothes? :P And the Maibatsu Corporation that you had to do jobs for were really prominent in the game?).

Then I remember hearing about GTA 3 coming out soon, but didn't know when. First time I seen that was when a friend told me he already had it at home, and I didn't believe him. Went over to his house to play it and when I seen the 3D city and driving, etc. I bought a copy the next day. That game was played inside out.

I still remember using the flying cheat, and you'd turn the turret around on the Rhino (tank) and blast yourself into the air and fly around in the tank. Haha. And the cartel had these big Toyota HiLux looking blue jeeps that they used to drive around their construction site in.

What really got me about III was the scope of the game. It was so varied. Boats, planes (admittedly you couldn't really fly the Dodo but it was great fun trying!), vigilante missions, etc. it was just an amazing game. Even simply things like getting to the second city (Staunton Island, I think it was called?) and finding the internet cafe that was all glass on the sides and causing murder with the sniper rifle knowing that the police/army wouldn't be able to get to you.


Then there was a massive build up for Vice City. I still recall the Demo CD that used to come with one of the magazines (CVG I think), had a preview video of Vice City and it had the song 'Summer Madness' in the background. I watched that video so many times. I still remember a lot about it. I got Vice City the day before it was due to come out as XtraVision had it on the shelves the night before and I found out entirely by chance.

San Andreas also got a big hype with me, and was probably the most-played GTA up to that point (but that's understandable, as it had the longest gap between that and the next release). SA kept me occupied for years. Even the mundane stuff like pretending you were a truck driver and getting your truck and trailer from that little haulage company that was in the middle of the country side, and bringing your trailer up through the city and desert into Las Vegas never quite got boring.

That game just had so much squeezed into it. I still recall the first time I was randomly skidding around the trailer park in the countryside in San Fierro and I found the monster truck. Of course, being all excited I got into it straight away, but it was in a trailer park with propane tanks everywhere, and if you drove over them.. well.. i was in the monster truck for about 5 seconds before it was up in flames if i recall correctly. And the worst part is i couldn't remember where I'd found it. Had great fun scouring the place from top to bottom looking for it again.



IV didn't have as much of a build up for me, and I remember before it came out there were justin.tv channels were people were playing the game live before it ever hit any shelves. I was watching these for a while but I wasn't overly excited about the game coming out. Thought the graphics looked great but had given up on gaming at that point. Picked it up on the morning of it's release and went home and was blown away. I still play it to this day and have never tired of it.


These days, GTA is the only game I play and the only game I own a PS3 for. between the cost of a PS3, Hard Drive (it's the 'Slim' version) and game itself, GTA V it'll probably be the most expensive game I play, but I know it'll be well worth it if it's got the lasting factor like any of it's predecessors.

I don't really have the patience for games any more, but GTA has literally been in my life since I was about 10 years old and I've played it non-stop since then.

Royal Irish

Pretty sure I seen the Maibatsu corp in one of the gameplay trailers for GTA5.

Bobby Baccala

I remember first playing gta 3 on my aunties boyfriends ps2 when I was just 5 first memory in it was running over some bloke in an orange jacket and loving the series forever.

Got San andreas when I was 8 and completed it on my own, I was an excellent gamer even back then, rebought the game again when I was 11 and again on the xbox live marketplace last summer.

First played gta 4 when I was turning 12 or so but I remember hating the driving and just wanting to play cod 4 which had come out around the same time, wasn't until I was given tbogt and tlad in 09 for christmas that I started playing gta again, and I have bo complaints about the driving nowadays, I really enjoy it.

Keep in mind I am only 17 and just starting college so this isn't all bollocks talk!

Glico Man

Played GTA 1 at my neighbours when I was about 11 or 12 (back in 98/99). Sat in their small living room running people over for hours and laughing maniacally, I'm sure they weren't far off calling the gards. Asked my parents to get it for me for Christmas, they didn't But I was hooked. Took a loan of it off my neighbour for most of the next year. Then, for my 13th birthday, my parents bought me GTA 2 and played that for about 2 years until I got GTA 3 on PS2.

Vice City wasn't far off being released by the time I'd finished GTA 3. I used to read all the OPM magazines and the previews and was getting so excited for VC, and I can remember taking the day off school in October that year to buy it at the local video shop. Thems were the days where shop owners didn't give a rats arse if you were 18 or not buying games :P I also took the day off to buy San Andreas.

When IV came out, I can remember the hype among my class mates in college. We'd all seemingly grown up with this series and I was one of the first to buy it in my class. Mainly because it was released about 2 weeks before the start of our exams. To this day I remember the queue of 15 or so lads who had taken the day off from studying to wait for me to get home with the game that morning. Was a great day and we all sat in silence at the opening sequence :pac:

gnfnrhead

As soon as they were released, bar Episodes.

Cant remember many specifics about the first three, just general game play.

GTA III was where it took over. I got stuck on Bomb Da Base as I kept running onto the boat and trying to shoot my way through. The lack of a cover system meant it was a suicide mission each and every time. After months of fcuking around because I couldnt get any further, a mate told me you were supposed to use a sniper rifle. Took a few more attempts but got it once I figured out the vantage point. Felt like a right thick :pac:

There was a race then for El Burro that I kept losing. In future plays I would block up the road outside the hospital with tanks. The other racers always went the same way and couldnt get past them. I simply went the long way and strolled the rest of the race. Got stuck again on the mission where you kill Kenji. I'd either slow down too much and get blown up, try to run him down and meet the same fate, or go too fast and miss him altogether meaning I had quite a fall before trying again. Next was shooting down that plane before it lands. Cant remember the name of it but it took fcuking forever to get it. The last mission obviously took a fair few attempts but I just kept going until I got them.

In Vice City, my first mission to struggle on was Demolition Man. Got really annoyed with it before figuring out you could kill all the guards with the blades before picking up the first bomb to start the timer.

The Driver at the Malibu also took quite a while due to being given a piece of crap car. Struggled to save Lance a few times as well as the boat race. Never copped the short cut until years later. Shooting from the heli at Starfish Island was tough too. Dildo Dodo or something, the film studio mission, used to be a personal enemy of mine. The one where you fly though the checkpoints and drop the leaflets. Dont recall too much trouble after that.

San Andreas...... Follow the damn train! The mission made me stop playing the game for a few weeks. Dont know how I did it the first time but I fcuking hated it. Zero was the only issue after that until we hit the flying school. That led me to stop playing it again. Unlike in previous games, the hard missions werent just hard. They were annoyingly hard. III and VC were challengingly hard and as such, much more fun to play. I also much preferred the hidden packages.

IV I didnt take to the first time. I played roughly half of the story before I got bored. Went back to it a couple of years ago and finished it. A whole lot more enjoyable than my first play. The lack of taxi, firefighter etc was a let down and made worse by the fact they seemed to have been replaced by the social activities. They were not fun after the first time. The pigeons were even worse than the gang tags. Four Leaf Clover (I think) was a brilliant mission. The choices were good but ultimately meant nothing.

Gay Tony was okay but nothing special. The only game I wouldnt bother doing again.

TLAD is the winner but hopefully not for much longer. The only problem I have with it is how short it is. A full game like that would be amazing. A lot of the missions were hard, but like III and VC, they were challengingly hard rather than the SA annoyingly hard.

GavRedKing

I remember my cousin had GTA 1 on loan from a mate and playing it a few weeks after it came out, I was hooked ever since and had to get it, I think I was about 12 or 13 at the time.

Does anyone else remember the Vice City postcards that used to come with magazines? 'Wish you were here' and a photo of a beach or lady rollerblading, etc.?

Kenno90

Oh the nostalgia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYy69qOJWoM

nullzero

1998 GTA on PC. I was 16 at the time and it was a multiplayer favorite in tech drawing class.

SV

Original GTA when I was 10 and it was released. Played it first in my cousins house, then managed to have it bought for me..mother with no idea what it was about! Have bought and played every single version of it since and can't wait for the next

Beefy78

Christ I feel old. I would have been 17 when I first played the original GTA.

2Mad2BeMad

i was about 4/5 years old at the release on gta 1,
my friends older brother bought it and he hated it, where as I myself owned the first need for speed game which i didnt like ( at least i dont think i liked it )
anyhow my friends bro came around said do i have any car games as he is a car fanatic, i said yes , we swapped

1 day later my da asked were did i get that game
he freaked out and made me swap back haha

, wouldnt mind but it wasnt long after that i got all the other games, while i was still very young and he didnt care
i didnt really understand the game anyway, was way to young to know anything about consoles and their story lines

ferrigan101

I would have been 17 when I first played GTA. Feeling kinda old now....

Duggy747

GTA 1 demo on a disc from PC Live! I think it was. I got my money's worth out of that demo, so many hours playing and modifying it.

Downloaded an editor for it where I changed a few vehicle's damage sprites through Paint Shop Pro, one was the school bus which had pedestrian sprites hanging out the windows. Depending on where you hit it, the sprites would lose their heads / limbs and if you hit it head-on then a pedestrian would appear on the bonnet :pac:

When I got bored of that I just set the mass really low on vehicles so it was like the Carmageddon videos you see for GTAIV with cars spazing out at light speed and blowing up everything they touched. Hilarious trying to stay alive and hearing all the funny quips and screams from pedestrians.

brianregan09

I remember being 10 or 11 i think it was and i was on hols over at my uncles in reading in the the UK and going into the gameshop down the road and been absolutley gobsmacked at being asked for id for a game.. Obviously being 10 i just asked my dad to get it much to the annoyance of you're man behind the counter

Loved it so much running over the rows of hari krishnas or sumthin I think it was, The graphics were terrible for even the PS1 but jesus the gameplay was addictive as hell

2 was more of the same with a bit more polished graphics and gangs for the 1st time the Zailbatsu fellas russian mafia and a few others great great intro too in it

GTA 3, San Andreas and Vice City were all release day purchases and amazing games loved 3 and San andreas but Vice City was always my favourite loved Tommy Vercetti in it , Still hold out hope he'll reappear at some stage in one of the games

GTA4 like many people said looked amazing but seemed to have lost a bit of the sparkle of others and probaly took itself a tad too serious aswell

Skerries

on a FAS course in 98 and we loaded up the demo of the first game on all the machines and played it when the instructor wasn't looking

Gavin "shels"

Still have all the GTA's to date and the PS1/2/3! :cool:

First time playing GTA was my 7th birthday iirc, got the first GTA for the PS1.

Never forget walking into an Xtravision at the age of 9 and buying GTA London!

Paco Rodriguez

I remember a friend had the 1st GTA and we used to play it all the time. I think I must have got it myself too. I remember the lads in the orange suits that walked in line.
And when you could sell the stolen cars at the docks.

SV

Paco Rodriguez wrote: »

I remember a friend had the 1st GTA and we used to play it all the time. I think I must have got it myself too. I remember the lads in the orange suits that walked in line.
And when you could sell the stolen cars at the docks.

Hahah aw those guys, if you managed to kill them all you got a message on screen saying GOURANGA!

EdenHazard

I played the 2d games when I was like 8 and thought they were terrible, then played GTA 3 in my cousins and man was I blown away. I think I got a PS2 a few months later on the first day of secondary school, I remember having no idea what to do in the first mission at the bridge, had to ring my cousin who told me to get into the car and drive you man to where you needed to go haha

PC live demo for GTA 1 too here! When I finally played GTA III I was blown away though.

LuckyFinigan

I remember playing the first one at a friends house on the ps1 shortly after it came out. I didn't think much of it when I first saw it, it just looked like a stupid driving game with awful graphics, I remember thinking it looked more like a mega drive game that a ps1 game. Once I saw the tank in action something just clicked, it was just so much fun. There was an island in one of the cities that had a tank on it. I used to always go straight there to get it, definitely my favorite thing to do in the game.

I wanted to get the game myself, but because I was 8 or 9 at the time I knew I would never be allowed get it with the big 18 rating on the box. I was in smyths one day looking through the games and I saw GTA but the ratting on the box said 15 instead of 18 for some strange reason. So i chanced my arm and asked my dad and he let me get it.

I got GTA 2 on PC then, I remember it was a huge step up with the verity of missions in it. There were some crazy ones, there was one where you had to pick up a bus load of pedestrians and bring them to a meat processing plant where they were then herded off the bus and turned into hog dogs to feed a gang of hungry Russians.

EdenHazard

LuckyFinigan wrote: »

I remember playing the first one at a friends house on the ps1 shortly after it came out. I didn't think much of it when I first saw it, it just looked like a stupid driving game with awful graphics, I remember thinking it looked more like a mega drive game that a ps1 game. Once I saw the tank in action something just clicked, it was just so much fun. There was an island in one of the cities that had a tank on it. I used to always go straight there to get it, definitely my favorite thing to do in the game.

I wanted to get the game myself, but because I was 8 or 9 at the time I knew I would never be allowed get it with the big 18 rating on the box. I was in smyths one day looking through the games and I saw GTA but the ratting on the box said 15 instead of 18 for some strange reason. So i chanced my arm and asked my dad and he let me get it.

I got GTA 2 on PC then, I remember it was a huge step up with the verity of missions in it. There were some crazy ones, there was one where you had to pick up a bus load of pedestrians and bring them to a meat processing plant where they were then herded off the bus and turned into hog dogs to feed a gang of hungry Russians.

GTA kind of lost this hasn't it? The protagonists once they developed the graphics seemed to have mellowed and seem to represent more morals so to speak. They may kill but by and large they kill the 'bad guys' CJ, Niko and Claude seem to be relatively 'good' guys, I can't remember much about Vercetti. Maybe I'm talking nonsense but I don't think they'd have a mission like that now. The series changed, in what way I can't describe but it has.

LuckyFinigan

EdenHazard wrote: »

GTA kind of lost this hasn't it? The protagonists once they developed the graphics seemed to have mellowed and seem to represent more morals so to speak. They may kill but by and large they kill the 'bad guys' CJ, Niko and Claude seem to be relatively 'good' guys, I can't remember much about Vercetti. Maybe I'm talking nonsense but I don't think they'd have a mission like that now. The series changed, in what way I can't describe but it has.

They definitely matured if you could call it that. Probably had a lot to do with the fact that the jump to 3D allowed them to tell better story's. I suppose that's where the Saints Row games came along and kind of filled that gap. Theres a really good documentary I watched on Youtube a while ago about the evolution of the series, I must find it and post it.

gnfnrhead

GTA III had a series of missions where you bring people to a dog factory and they don't come back. Go figure. :pac:

steve_r

I was about 13/14 when I played GTA 1. It was a game changer in the whole approach to gaming, and the rules it broke at the time.

I've always felt that the difficulty level in I/II/London was a lot harder than current gen. I'd love to see them show up on mobile but not sure how the controls would work.

I missed GTA 3 altogether first time around for various reasons. Got back in at Vice City which I think is the most fun of the games. SA is the most rewarding, and really stands up on replay.

Playing through IV now. There is nowhere near the amount of fun/mission variety/athmosphere as the other games. At the moment the graphics etc make it the best game to go back to but I wonder if people will still play it after V, in the same way as SA is still played now?

GTA 1 was a game changer, III as well for its time, but IV not so much.

Chinatown was (DS/Mobile) is the forgotten game of this series which is well worth a go!

LifeSaabItch

Was about 10 when I got GTA III.
Have had them all since except Chinatown wars.

V is the first GTA I can buy legally. :cool: