Is GTA III underrated/forgotten?

[Retrogamer0001]

I actually bought a copy of this at a yard sale for a dollar a few weeks ago...haven't played it yet, but I might find the motivation soon.

[D.D.D.]

I haven't played it since it came out (2002?) but it was great then.
(The issue I have with GTA is that it's too empty. We need tons of cars on the road, more people, more AI, more buildings you can go into and do stuff inside, make it really a living city.)
On GTA3 though, I'd like to play the remake but isn't only IOS right now?

[J T]

Three letters: M.S.X.!!!

I played GTAIII in its heyday. It was such a bold game. It was a big open world to be an antisocial psychopath in. And it took chances. The game design, the violence, the music... it was all cocksure and edgy. MSX is but one example, but the fact that they had an entire radio station devoted to drum n bass when that wasn't even a hugely popular style at the time just speaks to how the game was something that did whatever it wanted. It was like this big giant leap of a game that said, I'm doing something new and I'm doing it my way all the way. I love GTAIII for that.

I like Vice City, San Andreas, and GTAIV pretty well too, and while some of them were better designed, none of them compared to that first experience of playing GTAIII.

[Xeogred]

GTAIII was a huge deal back when it was new. Good times. But yeah, I'd say VC and SA just took that formula and improved upon it entirely.

[Gamerforlife]

Yeah, GTA III was a defining moment in gaming history. It changed the game in a big way, and it was a memorable experience for me. No one can take that away from it, but Vice City was a better game. From a historical perspective, it's less important than GTA III I'd argue, but it was more refined overall. I finished Vice City 100% with no arrests or hospital visits. I gave up on doing that in GTA III. It was too frustrating. Those goddamn ambulance missions were hell, but were much more manageable in Vice City.

I got my fill with those two games though. I never played the other GTA games, and mostly don't bother with sandbox games anymore. GTA III was amazing to me at the time because it was so different, but I would later lose interest in the sandbox style when every single game on the planet started doing it.

[Erik_Twice]

Have to say, I never liked SA much, it had more stuff, it was bigger and bolder but it didn't quite clash together as well as VC did for me.

[ZeroAX]

And don't forget about the Scarface soundtrack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpGxrm_m ... re=related

Goood, this has made me nostalgic :'(.

The bad thing about these old games is that you remember your school years when you were playing them for the first time, and you get nostalgic.

[johnnyonthespot]

Three letters: M.S.X.!!!

What?! You're crazy. It's Chatterbox all the way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrTmcsnB ... re=related

[Luke]

One of my favorite things about the entire GTA series (well, III and on) is "beating" the AI. There seem to be endless ways to complete missions. True, some missions have to be beaten a certain way (sniping missions for sure) but other wise it really is your own world.

One of my most hated turned favorite missions in III is when a mobster exits the back of a building, and four car car chase ensues. After failing a few times, I did a little recon to find out which building the guy was leaving.

Soon as he exits, a grenade to his car, and mission over in seconds.

Still haven't gotten into IV yet. I've played it a lot, and it is gorgeous, but it always feels like something is missing. Could be that the previous installments really set a feel and captured a moment of time. IV does a good job of "immigrant story", but it doesn't seem as genuine for some reason.

Or it could just be that the main character sounds like he's doing an Ill Mitch impression.

[Xeogred]

Have to say, I never liked SA much, it had more stuff, it was bigger and bolder but it didn't quite clash together as well as VC did for me.

Yeah I'm going to agree with this. As much as I love SA and the amount of content offered... well it was just overload for me I guess, I never finished that one. Vice City I thought had better pacing and a cooler main story, plus SA had some incredibly annoying missions (anything flying related...). But yeah, they're both amazing. I was replaying SA last year on the PC for awhile and that was awesome, although a real pain mapping the controls to a controller, so many damn keys for that game lol.