Buckethead
Banned
As soon as gamers stepped onto the streets of Liberty City, a fictitious amalgam of New York, Chicago, and Boston, it was apparent that gaming was about to change forever.
With the exception of the occasional World War II clone, gamers had always gotten revenge on their enemies by dwindling down hit-points or hitting the boss in the glowing
red spot. In Grand Theft Auto III, however, DMA Design created something fresh and unique by providing the player with unparalleled amounts of freedom - and choice, when
seeking revenge on their enemies. Want to shotgun blast that pimp who needs to get whacked? Go right ahead. Or if you'd rather, snag a drink and throw a Molotov cocktail
into that crowded assembly of two-bit hoods. For the more professional lot, grab a sniper rifle and pop a few Yakuza heads before speeding back to your apartment in your
Mitsubishi Spyder. Whatever the combination, it was sure to be fun for gamers, and deadly for their enemies.
A fully-realized open world full of guns, fast cars, and mayhem would have probably been enough to get the industry's attention but GTA III also revolutionized the gaming
world with the next step in interactive storytelling. Never before had gamers been able to play out a revenge fantasy centered around the Italian mob. This gritty crime drama
was something that older gamers had been wanting for years but it wasn't until Rockstar's GTA III that they got it. The formula for mature storytelling and over-the-top
gameplay was later imitated, and quite often, by knock-off franchises like True Crime, Driver, and The Getaway, but never successfully duplicated.
If that weren't enough, players were given dozens of side missions and countless hours of radio stations featuring custom music and a hilarious talk radio show featuring a
wise-cracking doofus named Lazlow. This overwhelming amount of content led Grand Theft Auto III to fly off shelves everywhere, to the chagrin of parents and congressmen.
To date, GTA III has sold nearly 14 million copies.
Nobody forgets their first.
For the sequel to Grand Theft Auto III, Rockstar's mantra was seemingly "bigger, badder, better" and where else is a better locale for decadence and self-indulgence than
Miami in the 1980s?
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City only took 9 months to make but Rockstar made good on it's promise, providing gamers with a broader arsenal of weapons, vastly improved gun
controls and melee combat, and a far more polished presentation. An improved lighting engine allowed DMA, now Rockstar North, to bring the glitz and glamour 1980s Miami
to life in stunning fashion. Liberty City's earthy hues had been replaced with vibrant pinks and oranges, murky grey water swapped out for a sparkling clear blue ocean. But
this was more than GTA III with a new coat of paint, Rockstar hired top-notch Hollywood voice talent to provide a even higher level of quality than before and amassed a
staggering amount of hit 80s music to set the mood. Players could even enter (and buy!) houses and businesses, something never possible in GTA III.
Borrowing heavily from Scarface and Miami Vice, the story of Vice City quite appropriately focused on a cocaine deal and brotherhood gone bad, ruined by a out-of-control,
ego, no doubt fueled by the imfamous narcotic itself. With a masterful lead performance by Ray Liotta as the lovable sociopath Tommy Vercetti, an unforgettable score, and
mood in spades, Vice City is often regarded as Rockstar's best story.
Never snort your own supply.
Rockstar had revolutionized the gaming industry with GTA III and delivered a killer follow-up in Vice City, what more did the mad geniuses in Edinburgh have up their sleeves?
Surely Rockstar would taper off, rest on their laurels, and deliver another competent follow-up, right? Savvy fans predicted the game would take place in San Andreas,
the third city from GTA 1, and be based of Los Angeles or San Francisco.
As it turns out, the fans were only half-right. Rockstar founder Sam Houser dropped a bomb on fans in May 2004 when he said, "San Andreas isn't a city - it's an entire state"
and "is made up of 3 cities complete with countryside and desert in between". Clearly Rockstar had no intention of ceding any ground to the competition. San Andreas was a
massive state with shell versions of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas, each with their own distinct features, activities, and side-missions. This was Grand Theft
Auto on a truly epic scale. The cities were mission fodder and interesting in their own right but it was the expansive countryside that cemented San Andreas in the gamer's
hearts as the definitive GTA game.
San Andreas also provided the deepest amount of character customization to date. Players could deck out their avatar in an obscene amount of clothing including pants, shorts,
hats, jackets, sunglasses, jewelry, even flip flops and socks with sandals. Not that you should ever wear the latter. Ever. Fashion faux pas aside, you could even change your
hairstyle and lose and gain weight, get jacked at the gym or gain tubby tits at one of San Andreas' fine deep fried restauranteurs. Oh, and I forgot to mention the fighter jets,
the tagging side-quests, the jet pack, the dual-wielding, the vehicle customization, and gambling mini-games.
San Andreas was closest thing to magic that exists in the world and in the minds of most fans, is an experience yet to be topped.
Perhaps here, things will be different.
These words, soulfully delivered by protagonist Niko Bellic could aptly sum Grand Theft Auto IV and Rockstar Games' effort bringing Grand Theft Auto into the HD-era.
Players were re-introduced to Liberty City, this time a full-on replication of New York City (and New Jersey but hey, no one cares about NYC's ugly sister). The muddy textures
and dodgy animation of yesteryear were replaced by crisp graphics, beautiful lighting, and an amazing looking Havok physics system that gave each action both a physical and
dramatic weight.
Just like the city, the game's protagonist was different as well. The voiceless hired-gun Claude Speed, was replaced by the richly textured immigrant Niko Bellic. No longer were
GTA leads amoral murdering machines, now characters could be seen reflecting on their life, the work they had been doing, they had pondered about making the right decision
when the right one was unclear. The story of Niko Bellic's journey to America and the fight for his soul was contradictory at times but the most engrossing and competent
one to date. While it lacked the panache of Vice City, what it lacked in style it certainly made up for in substance.
And Rockstar finally delivered expansion packs in the form of The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, following Johnny Klebitz and Luis Lopez, two characters that
Niko met in IV in the missions "Blow Your Cover" and "Three Leaf Clover", respectively.
Things were different indeed but not everyone welcomed the change.
After Rockstar released GTA Vice City to record sales and critical claim, they could have taken it easy and delivered another competent sequel. What they did instead,
was create the largest GTA game to date with the most amount of content. They publicly admitted shortcomings in Vice City (roads were too flat and straight and as a result,
driving was not as fun) and vowed to improve them.
Fast forward to 2013. Despite record sales of Grand Theft Auto IV, a sizeable amount of the GTA fanbase is crying foul at "Vanilla IV". Once again, series creator Rockstar North
is looking to out-do themselves. Their goal? To surpass San Andreas by making the "largest and most ambitious game Rockstar has yet created". According to Sam Houser,
"GTA V is larger than San Andreas, GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption combined".
That sounds like a pretty good start to me.
