Spring of Grand Theft Auto

[Neon Ignition]

Now Ballad is complete which puts to bed the IV saga. I've done the first couple of missions of San Andreas getting used to the much brisker movement and slightly different controls, not too jarring though. So far I'm 3/8's of my GTA revisit in and it's:

-Ballad of Gay Tony
-Grand Theft Auto IV
-Lost and the Damned

In that order

[hudson]

I'm currently downloading III, Vice City and San Andreas from PSN (currently on sale). Never finished these games, but I'm back in the mood for them.

I loved IV. Especially (and strangely) pigeon hunting .

[Neon Ignition]

I:m just about getting reaclimatised to the driving in San Andreas but struggling with the shooting. I'll get there though, starting to make more use of the greater freedom. Los Santos is still the series weakest city though.

[hudson]

'Turismo' mission is tricky on GTA3. The AI cars are crazy and I always end up smoking and not first or on fire.

[nonny]

Man I hated GTAIV. Loved GTA3 and of course Vice City as it was the same but with 80s gloss and polish.

I'm not sure how to feel about GTAV. The trailers have made it look interesting enough but right now I'm conflicted as to whether I even care. The problem is two fold for me. On the one hand we're looking at the tail end of a generation and new consoles arriving by the time this game releases. Part of me wants to hold out, even 6-9 months if possible and simply buy this once all the hype has died down as a better version than the PS3 or 360 can handle.

On the other hand I've absolutely adored Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3 which surely point towards some revised shooting mechanics and major lessons learnt by Rockstar as to how to make this instalment really sing in terms of gameplay? So I'm conflicted. I hope it delivers and based on previous work it could be amazing... But I think I'd rather it come out on next gen.

[Party boy]

I hate GTA with a passion. For me it heralded the death of Japanese gaming. I tried out 3, and found it hugely repetitive. Moreso than anything I had played prior. COD is the bastard child of GTA IMO.

I'd agree with all of that, I thought the car controls were a step forward in 4 since they weren't completely shallow like they were before. I thought they were a mess technically before 4 as well with a terrible draw distance etc.

[Party boy]

Grand Theft auto III was pretty groundbreaking at the time - i remember playing it on launch for the original xbox - i think it was the first 3d sandbox game of its time (for the xbox anyway). i remember a group of us having great fun with that game; Graphics and gameplay were excellent - we were blown away. Probably seems bit antiquated now, but back in the day it was the mutts. I remember a mate commenting that the sky in the game was getting very dark and it looked like it was going to rain; and it did, then a thunderstorm occured. Variable, realtime weather was very ununcommon back then (or even unheard off?)

Things like that are soo taken for granted, nowadays. Lets not forget how GTAIII defined a new genre - the sandbox, and the 100s of game that have copied it, or its elements.

Any of the GTA games that suceeded it, were pretty much copies (bar graphical improvemens) and the series has been flogged to death since. But they are a laugh, for a while. I think the series has made some people very rich....

What do you mean by on launch, launch of the game? When it finally came out on Xbox it was as part of the double pack with Vice City.

I thought the original was ground breaking if anything, not 3.

[Neon Ignition]

I've enjoyed the nostalgic air of what I've done of San Andreas but there's a distinct feeling that the PS2 era entries have aged to a point that my enjoyment is being hit. I think I'm going to call this one a day before my positive series mood is spoiled ahead of V and refocus on finishing the Winter of PS2 drive ahead of the final season.