Your True Opinon On... (#4): Grand Theft Auto

Los Santos: 10/10
Badlands: 10/10. Starts off a bit slow but the races and Catalina (robbing the gas station... "You can just fuck off BITCH" LOL) make it something else. The Truth is just icing on the cake.

San Fierro: 5/10. Just too long and some of the missions really blow (ZERO!!!!!!!)

Las Venturas: 8/10. Again some of the missions are stupid but also has some awesome ones, like when you return to Liberty City or ride your motorcycle into the back of the plane as it's taking off.

Los Santos #2: 8/10. It was awesome when Toreno told you he had last one thing for you to do. Go and pick up your brother. Oooh yeah. ONLY loses points because of the territory mission, it was a lot of fun but got a bit old after awhile.

Betting on horses to get rich: EPIC

I think that I still remember most of the character's names and what they were like shows how amazingly well done this game (and VC) were.

fraggle said:

GTA London. I really hope they do a modern remake of this at some point.

The Getaway series on the PS2 was a pretty close analogue, although a lot more modern in terms of setting too, which did kind of remove fro mthe charm a little.

Anyway, GTA games... I've played pretty much all of them I think (aside from London 1961 and any of the handheld versions or GTA4 expansions) and here's a brief rundown of opinions:

Grand Theft Auto: Great game from my childhood. Plenty of humour, lots of arcadey goodness. Haven't had any luck running it recently, but sometimes these things are best left to nostalgia. The scoring system seemed even better than money in the newer games to me. Playstation port seemed to have crap colours compared to the PC game, so I'm glad I owned the PC one. Fun Fact: They spelt son of a bitch as sonofabitch, convincing both me and my brother that "s'-noff-a-bitch" was a pronounced word.

GTA: London 1969: Very short as a I remember it, but a real classic if you liked the original game. Can't get enough of being sworn at by the most cockney van drivers in the world.

GTA2: I liked this one, and the graphics were amazing for a sprite-based game... but I never really got into it too much. Quite liked messing around on the rampages from what I remember.

GTA3: I've tried this on both the consoles and PC. It was pretty good, though obviously the graphics haven't aged well at all. Practically revolutionary at the time, it definitely ushered in something new for GTA. Don't remember ever actually finishing it, as the PC version I had was definitely a bit buggy.

GTA Vice City: Fan-fucking-tastic. Definitely my favourite, and so good on the PS2. (You can manual aim BTW, you just had to aim first, then move the right stick I think)

GTA San Andreas: Really disappointed with this one. I didn't care for the characters, the setting or all the extra random game features like having to actually feed and exercise your character. Did kind of like being able to swim for once though.

GTA IV: Haven't played this one too much, but it looks alright and certainly handles well compared to the older games. Does seem plagued by mini-games like bowling and pool that detract from the GTA though.

San Andreas was the best GTA game, and then Saints Row overtook it.

Yay, a game series I've actually played thoroughly, and even own all the (main) titles.

GTA I got when it was first released for free. It's kind of fun, but the controls always felt awkward to me. I also hate how you can't save. Never got very far in this game.

GTA 2 I got when IT was released for free as well. It had similar controls, though I remember having a lot more fun with it for whatever reason.

GTA 3 was a ton of fun back in the day. It was one of the few games I ever bought soon after its (PC) release, and literally the only game I've ever been carded for (and it was like 1 month after I turned 18 :P). This is the only GTA game I've actually beaten, so obviously I found it fun. However, the graphics and gameplay are both horribly dated and it's nearly impossible to come back to.

Vice City I only recently tried playing, and also found it just as dated, but I hear it's a lot better, so I should probably give it another shot.

San Andreas I played about halfway through (several missions into San Fierro). I had a lot more fun in this game than GTA 3, and it seems so much bigger, too. The dating and gang war missions are annoying, but luckily you can just skip those, so meh. Also, running into Catalina and the protagonist from GTA 3 was kind of lol. Still need to finish it some day.

GTA 4 raped my old video card, and I haven't played it since I got my new one. I kind of want to play it, but have mostly heard bad things, so I haven't.

I really wish they would release RDR and L.A. Noir to the PC. They both look extremely fun. Why do you hate us PC gamers, Rockstar? I mean, aside from giving us the first two for free? Whats with the mixed signals?

In conclusion, I fucking love sandbox games. The GTA series sort of invented it and really set a good precedent for them.

Danarchy said:

In conclusion, I fucking love sandbox games. The GTA series sort of invented it and really set a good precedent for them.

The Saboteur is my fav alongside SR2 and GTA:SA/VC, you should try it.

Did anybody try GTA: London 1961? Some of the missions in that were insane! "Get to the other side of the city in a Morris Minor in 10 seconds with a full wanted level while running a gauntlet of 100 people shooting you oh and theres a bomb in the back so dont crash GO!"

It also had loads of hacky stuff such as "drive by shooting" (in one mission and if you miss the guy you fail) and "super armour" which can take 100 hits, except actually it's just a "fake" display covering up normal 3-hit armour (and that didn't always work). You still have 100 guys shooting at you though.

On a side note, did anyone here play grand theft auto chinatown wars? that game looked pretty sick.

deathbringer said:

Did anybody try GTA: London 1961? Some of the missions in that were insane! "Get to the other side of the city in a Morris Minor in 10 seconds with a full wanted level while running a gauntlet of 100 people shooting you oh and theres a bomb in the back so dont crash GO!"

It also had loads of hacky stuff such as "drive by shooting" (in one mission and if you miss the guy you fail) and "super armour" which can take 100 hits, except actually it's just a "fake" display covering up normal 3-hit armour (and that didn't always work). You still have 100 guys shooting at you though.

I've not played it, but I know what you mean about the hacks. The changed vehicles are usually just weird registry edits and graphics alterations, such as the wheelchair actually being the moped from 1969, but with slightly altered behaviour. It was a free gift for if you had 1969 though, as I remember it, so we can forgive its hackiness a bit.

GTA1/2/London: Never finished them, but played them to death during social gatherings in my house where we all got drunk and took turns trying to cause as much mayhem as possible. Great fun.

GTA3: I remember being completely blown away by this when I first played it on a mate's PS2. When I finally got it for myself, hours were spent just cruising around listening to Lazlow.

GTA Vice City: At the time I was amazed at how huge this game seemed, and finally having a protagonist who spoke (and did he ever). Crowning moment was definitely unlocking the Hunter helicopter and the ensuing "Brown Thunder" mission.

GTA San Andreas: STILL by far and away the best in the series. I 100%-ed this game numerous times and actually got to the stage where a friend and I actually started to come up with our own missions using the various vehicle and weapon spawns around the map. We found it a fun idea, but it never caught on.

GTA Liberty City Stories: Basically GTA3 with a more involved set of missions, and the reason I own a PSP. Best part was setting up the huge explosion that took out an entire section of the city, thus paving the way for the construction site in 3.

GTA Vice City Stories: Once again, an enhanced re-rub of Vice City. I also really enjoyed this one. The business mechanic was a lot of fun, although the game had a huge number of technical issues, particularly on the PSP's limited UMD format. Many fans over on GTAForums thought that this game messed with Lance's character too much, whereas I think it just compounded how much of an asshole he actually was.

GTA IV/Episodes: Going downhill, sadly. Still very good games, but the Real Is Brown approach to the visuals and the simple fact that there is so much less to do than in the others only serve to drag them down. Further proof that lavish visuals and a great story are only part of what makes a great game.

GTA Chinatown Wars: Haven't finished it (yet), but it harkens back to the old top-down games. Set in the same Liberty City as IV, but it's actually more fun to play. The drug trafficking element is a bit of a pain in the arse, but other stuff like bin-hoking (dumpster-diving) and having to manually hot-wire parked cars to get them going does add to the experience, and indeed, the tension during a police pursuit.

40oz said:

On a side note, did anyone here play grand theft auto chinatown wars? that game looked pretty sick.

I've owned it for like 2 years and haven't opened it yet. :/

The most GTA I've played would be 3, but I got tired of it and never finished it. I own San Andreas and recall starting a game there.

Bought GTA3, VC, San Andreas & GTA IV, never completed one of them.

Ended up entirely spending my time playing the multiplayer hacks, combined with map hacks like cudda! world and sooped up bikes where you could do crazy jumps across sections of the map. Good times, still play from time to time.

For GTA 4, I will fire it up and solely screw around with the swingset glitch.

They are superb genre defining games though, just never got around to finishing any of them.

Quast said:

You've never actually played gta 3 have you?

NO, I have. Just not a whole lot :P

Belial said:

The Saboteur is my fav alongside SR2 and GTA:SA/VC, you should try it.

Yeah, I honestly haven't played any sandbox games aside from the GTA series. I've seen plenty of gameplay from RDR, LA Noir, Assassin's Creed, Infamous, and that one game that was just like Infamous, but that's about it.