When Did You First Play GTA?

Holsten

Christmas 1997 when it first game out.

Hooked ever since!

DazMarz

I was fully addicted to the GTA series from the time I was 7 or 8. The original two games (GTA and GTA: London 1969) were games I played and played and played. I loved them so much.

I still play GTA2 sometimes when I feel in a nostalgic mood! The Silenced Uzi was one of the coolest things ever. And the fact that SWAT teams, the FBI and the Army could start chasing you. Though the army in GTA2 was obscenely hard; tanks that fired on you everywhere, high speed jeeps that delivered soldiers to your location and add in the squillions of machine-gun toting soldiers that swarmed all over the streets and took potshots at you no matter where you were. It was just impossible.

I was 13 when GTA III was released in the Autumn of 2001. I remember buying it thinking that it would be a similar version to GTA2, only slightly tooled up, maybe. Nothing overly special, but it promised to be good craic. The images on the back of the game's box where 3D images, but I assumed they were cut-scenes and that the in-game play would be the old, traditional Top-Down view that had become synonymous with Grand Theft Auto.

How wrong was I...

For the first few days of playing, I was simply gawping and gasping at how unreal the game looked. The third-person view, the gorgeously crafted 3D cars, the interactive pedestrians. I will also admit a good portion of my time was spent clubbing passers-by to death with the baseball bat weapon. Add in the coolness of being akin to Henry Hill at the start, working for the Yakuza and then finally taking on the Colombian Cartel by the end... We had a game that redefined video gaming. Absolutely classic beyond all belief.

A year later, in October 2002, came the follow up that everyone was positively salivating over. GTA: Vice City. My personal favourite and (in my opinion) the best game in the GTA series ever and one of the best video games of all time. All the little things that we wanted in III were there: motorbikes, planes you could fly, more sports cars, bigger map, better gameplay, a protagonist that could talk... everything. Add in that it was set in 1980's "Miami" and it just got better and better. The little nods and in-jokes to 1980's culture were brilliant and the soundtrack was just phenomenal.

I played Vice City until I wore out my controller and had the most muscular thumbs of any man alive! That game just had so much in it, but not too much (which I felt was a huge weakness in later instalments). Add in, it had that wonderfully retro 80's cool to it (the purple suit, black shirt, Italian loafers, no socks; hell yeah) and was just amazing to look at and listen to (the soundtrack was pure aural sex).

After Vice City, I lost interest (though I did like both Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories). San Andreas had too much in it, for me. Too much time spent traipsing around endless countryside, too much meaningless side-mission nonsense and convoluted maps. It was cool and had its moments, but overall, I did not like it.

I never played any of the further instalments with any real degree of seriousness, to be honest. I felt that the series reached a zenith in 2002 and all the lush graphics and awesome storylines can still not top Tommy Vercetti, on a PCJ-500, shooting an Uzi over the handlebars at a green-and-white VCPD roadblock. Or cruising down Ocean Drive in a Ferrari Testarossa (called the Cheetah in the game) with a bit of Jan Hammer blaring from the stereo as the sun sets over Ocean Beach. Or buying that huge apartment in the Downtown district and getting your very own Helicopter!!! Or... or... or...

So many memories... such a cracking series. And I can also be sure that nobody ever murdered someone because they played Grand Theft Auto. Ever.

"TOMMY VERCETTI DOESN'T EVEN OWN A GUN!!!"

EdenHazard

San Andreas broke new ground so I don't se how you say that Vice City was the pinnacle of the game. On replaying the games, GTA 3 just doesn't feel right, the city and feel of the game is far too bleak and doesn't feel alive enough to compensate for this. Vice City is just too Saints Row in style. I never like the feel to this game but a next gen return to Vice City might be what would make it awesome. San Andreas is the best in the series in terms of storyline, scope, and characters.

gnfnrhead

The SA storyline was pretty poor. Your mom died, now go rob a casino, that'll show them! It tried to do way too much. Would have been a better game had they focused on one element of the story rather than constantly chopping and changing it.

Literally the only big thing it had over Vice City was a bigger map. Everything else, Vice City did better. Story, Side missions, characters (main and supporting), even the feel was better. Controls were better, but that's to be expected as the games progress.

There is a reason why Vice City is likely going to be the first Next Gen game. It was the best one.

Penn

EdenHazard wrote: »

San Andreas broke new ground so I don't se how you say that Vice City was the pinnacle of the game.

New features and a larger scale doesn't always make for a better game. San Andreas also had a fair few flaws. Overall I thought Vice City was a much tighter game. It really was the right game at the right time. The setting and time period really brought the city to life and made for a great atmosphere. The story I thought was better than SA. A lot of the characters were better. I always put VC ahead of SA.

As for me, first played GTA1 in my cousin's house in 98. A few months later, I bought a PS1 and GTA1 was the first game I got (well, joint first along with Crash Bandicoot). Played GTA1 to death. Got GTA London69 a few months later but never got into it as much as GTA1.

Got GTA2 shortly after it came out. Never had the love for it that I had for GTA1 but still played it to death too.

Got GTA3 when I bought my PS2. Rest as they say is history. VC, SA, LCS, VCS, GTAIV, TLAD and TBOGT pretty much all bought on release. Never got Chinatown Wars though as I'd sold my PSP and just couldn't really be bothered to play it on DS. Considered getting it but just decided to play through GTAIV again instead

Hoop66

ferrigan101 wrote: »

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

I was in my 30s.

Does that help?

Got GTA for PS pretty much when it came out, and the same for GTA2.

Then I got hitched up, and games took a bit of a back seat. Got GTA3 in about 2001 I think.
GTA VC - the wife loved the music from that so I was able to play it fairly constantly in the living room without complaint.
GTA SA - I was living away from home itn eh week due to work so it got some serious time.
Had kids by the time GTA IV came out and I didn't have a PS3, so took a while to get into it - borrowed a PS3 froma mate when he went to thailand for 3 months - now I do the same every year.

shrewdness

Got the lend of the original GTA PS game off a friend in the late 90's, just spent hours pissing about on it, don't think I ever did a mission! Running over the Hare Krishna was a particular favourite activity. When I got a PS2 it was just after GTA 3 was released so got that, and got VC and SA on release then. Got the PS3 along with IV at launch then. Played Chinatown Wars briefly too, it was better than I thought it would be. The drug dealing aspect of it was very well done, I'm surprised it hasn't been implemented in any GTA's since, maybe V might have it.

aaronjumper

Nobody read the box when I picked it up, had never heard of it before. No one saw the 18 certificate, myself included
(was around 12 at the time) and I have been a fan of all but London ever since.

eyeball kid

Think I 16/17 when the first one came out. Loved it. Played them all except the London one.
Think I enjoyed Vice City the best. Just thought everything about it was great.
Also loved SA but just could not get into GTA 4. Can't put my finger on it but just couldn't get into it. Maybe it was the story or Nico or maybe that the whole thing looked so dark.

Hoping that V will be a return to form.

CiDeRmAn

gnfnrhead wrote: »

The SA storyline was pretty poor. Your mom died, now go rob a casino, that'll show them! It tried to do way too much. Would have been a better game had they focused on one element of the story rather than constantly chopping and changing it.

Literally the only big thing it had over Vice City was a bigger map. Everything else, Vice City did better. Story, Side missions, characters (main and supporting), even the feel was better. Controls were better, but that's to be expected as the games progress.

There is a reason why Vice City is likely going to be the first Next Gen game. It was the best one.

Couldn't agree more overall, although I think the character customisation was the one advantage, well the inclusion of 3 cities plus hinterlands was pretty awesome too.
But the biggest flaw was the entirely unlikely trajectory from gang banger to attack chopper pilot, just so much nuts stuff, where VC stuck to a story pulled from the popular media of the 80's, SA just got lost and didn't really drag me along to the ending, so I gave up all those years ago.

GTA4 was amazing though, and while I only truly finished it last month it was and remains extraordinary.

I've had all the GTA titles, from the original on the PC through the tragically underplayed GTA: London and on into the brilliance of III, VC and disappointments of GTA SA.
The handheld titles, the two Stories games on the PSP/PS2 and Chinatown Wars are in my collection but have gone unplayed, just haven't made the time!

By the way,
There's something slightly unnerving about people here raving about getting GTA when they were 7, that's just wrong, my son is 10 and I wouldn't let him near the series.

Ruu

Also played GTA I on the PC demo, played 2 and 3 on the PC. A friend had Vice City on his PlayStation. The lens messed up on it (common) so he bought the a new box. I took his old one and managed to get it working again. I haven't played San Andreas or any others. Play Vice City on Steam at the moment.

rustedtrumpet

Jesus this thread reads like a memorial for a dead girl friend. Fond fond memories... pfft.

youreadthat

I played the 2D GTAs when I was 9 or 10 I think. Don't remember them that well. I kind of only think of the 3Ds as the "true" start of the series though. I remember my older cousin showing me GTA III when I was 11 and I thought it was the best thing ever! So I was playing the 3Ds at about 11/12. I liked SA the most when I played it originally, but the jump in graphics from SA/Vice City to GTA IV is huge and makes it a lot less fun to go back to. IV has pretty good graphics and I can see me going back in a few years, even with exposure to Next Gen graphics by then, and still having a good time on it.

For me it was GTA3 and I was hooked.

Gotten everyone since. GTA:SA was simply amazing. Still go back to it, because IMO, no game has done free roam better since (I haven't played V yet). Hours of endless fun.