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Game Debate #4: Grand Theft Auto III


Reed Rothchild

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44 members have voted

  1. 1. See below for explanation of ratings

    • 10/10 - One of your very favorite games of all time.
    • 9/10 - Killer fucking game. Everyone should play it.
    • 8/10 - Great game. Maybe one of the best released that year.
    • 7/10 - Very good game, but not quite great.
    • 6/10 - Pretty good. You might enjoy occasionally playing it.
    • 5/10 - It's okay, but maybe not something you'll go out of your way to play.
    • 4/10 - Meh. There's plenty of better alternatives to this.
    • 3/10 - Not very good.
      0
    • 2/10 - Not your cup of tea at all. Some people might like this, but you are not one of them.
    • 1/10 - Horrible in every way.
      0
    • 0/10 - The Desert Bus of painful experiences. You'd rather shove an icepick in your genitals than play this.
      0
    • Never played it, but I'm interested
    • Never played it, never will


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Hmmm... @Reed Rothchild now where did you happen to get the idea to debate THIS particular game I wonder?! 😛

I remember when this game first came out, I think I was maybe 15 or 16, the PERFECT age to really get into the GTA humor and edgy gameplay. As others have mentioned it blew the doors off of the PS2 and ushered in a whole new genre with the freedom and openness of the open world design. I used to spend COUNTLESS hours playing this game, mainly just wandering around the open world, driving and crashing cars, beating up pedestrians and exploring the environment whilst getting in trouble with the cops. It epitomised the "make your own fun" gameplay style in a way that really few games had before it. And FUN indeed it was, it was a whole new experience honestly, a feeling like you were really in that environment and that anything could happen. I absolutely loved it.

However, as SOON as Vice City came out maybe a year or two later it immediately exposed a TON of shortcomings in the original game and even as far back as then, I really felt going back to GTA 3 was a bit underwhelming... So this isn't to say the game has aged poorly as such, but everything it did right and everything it did that was new at the time completely eclipsed the flaws that were already there, and as soon as Vice City came out it kinda contrasted and made them blatant. 

Specifically, the main flaws of GTA 3 (other than technical issues such as camera, controls, glitches etc.) which Vice City highlighted were:

- Lack of interesting protagonist.

- World design. The first island was the best, the following two were more of the same, with very little actual interesting stuff to see or do in the environment compared to Vice City.

- Lack of variety in the vehicles. Cars and trucks, and some slow boats and an airplane that COULDN'T FLY, lolololol. Compared to Vice City which had a much better selection of cars, as well as bikes and helicopters, planes that FLY and other interesting stuff.

- Interaction with side characters and other NPCS, compared to Vice City the game feels a lot less like a real lived in world. Same thing for the buildings, which in GTA 3 you couldn't enter, but in Vice City you can and you can even OWN businesses and buildings in that game.

 

I would say it was worth a 10 when it came out, no question, but basing it on the game that you can play today I would probably only rate it as high as a 7. To be fair I will give it an 8, which acknowledges both how it plays today, AND how revolutionary it was at the time.

Also, if I HAD to choose a favourite GTA, it would probably be San Andreas, that game was just unbelievable and it's still great today!

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3 hours ago, OptOut said:

Hmmm... @Reed Rothchild now where did you happen to get the idea to debate THIS particular game I wonder?! 😛

I remember when this game first came out, I think I was maybe 15 or 16, the PERFECT age to really get into the GTA humor and edgy gameplay. As others have mentioned it blew the doors off of the PS2 and ushered in a whole new genre with the freedom and openness of the open world design. I used to spend COUNTLESS hours playing this game, mainly just wandering around the open world, driving and crashing cars, beating up pedestrians and exploring the environment whilst getting in trouble with the cops. It epitomised the "make your own fun" gameplay style in a way that really few games had before it. And FUN indeed it was, it was a whole new experience honestly, a feeling like you were really in that environment and that anything could happen. I absolutely loved it.

However, as SOON as Vice City came out maybe a year or two later it immediately exposed a TON of shortcomings in the original game and even as far back as then, I really felt going back to GTA 3 was a bit underwhelming... So this isn't to say the game has aged poorly as such, but everything it did right and everything it did that was new at the time completely eclipsed the flaws that were already there, and as soon as Vice City came out it kinda contrasted and made them blatant. 

Specifically, the main flaws of GTA 3 (other than technical issues such as camera, controls, glitches etc.) which Vice City highlighted were:

- Lack of interesting protagonist.

- World design. The first island was the best, the following two were more of the same, with very little actual interesting stuff to see or do in the environment compared to Vice City.

- Lack of variety in the vehicles. Cars and trucks, and some slow boats and an airplane that COULDN'T FLY, lolololol. Compared to Vice City which had a much better selection of cars, as well as bikes and helicopters, planes that FLY and other interesting stuff.

- Interaction with side characters and other NPCS, compared to Vice City the game feels a lot less like a real lived in world. Same thing for the buildings, which in GTA 3 you couldn't enter, but in Vice City you can and you can even OWN businesses and buildings in that game.

 

I would say it was worth a 10 when it came out, no question, but basing it on the game that you can play today I would probably only rate it as high as a 7. To be fair I will give it an 8, which acknowledges both how it plays today, AND how revolutionary it was at the time.

Also, if I HAD to choose a favourite GTA, it would probably be San Andreas, that game was just unbelievable and it's still great today!

It's hard to believe it was only a year or so after that Vice City came out. That game was so much more fleshed out.

Like you said island 2 and 3 of GTAIII are kind of dull.  I'm sure I could still drive the first island no problem, but that's it.  Vice City is just memorized at this point.

Also the NPCs and their comments on the streets made it feel alive. I still go around say "Looks like rain today," and "Move it ***hole!"

 

Unrelated but did anyone else take the bus and pick up passengers only to blow it up, run it into the water, or put it in the compactor?  You could do some wild stuff in those games.

Edited by zeppelin03
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I'm personally just not into GTA but I acknowledge what GTA3 brought to the game world. Vice City was the only one I fully played,I guess because of the 80s theme. The ones set in a modern setting just bore me. I love running around the cities and exploring but I just don't care about the stories in any of them. But anyway, 6/10 for me.

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16 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I played it enough that I got 97 hidden packages, without any outside help.  Never could find the last few.

I never even came close to that. Never been huge on that sort of thing in these games. But, IMO the absolute worst one was hunting for clams in San Andreas. Just swimming around endlessly, slowly, under water in very samey environments... What were they thinking!

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1 minute ago, Jeevan said:

frigoff lol, no its not that, i just didnt like the bicycle aspect of it.  

Thumb got sore hammering the button... 😏

Anyway that's like literally the first mission dude! That game is so awesome seriously give it another go! Just download a save file starting at like mission 2 or whatever, lol!

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Events Helper · Posted
Just now, OptOut said:

Thumb got sore hammering the button... 😏

Anyway that's like literally the first mission dude! That game is so awesome seriously give it another go! Just download a save file starting at like mission 2 or whatever, lol!

give me time, im trying to seal a nes deal 😛

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9

My favorite GTA game.  I used to spend hours just driving around.  Definitely the GTA game I've spent the most time with.  I actually knew my way around the city as well as my own hometown.  I've enjoyed nearly all of the GTA games I've played since then, but never quite as much as GTA 3.  

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I don't enjoy any of the GTA games, but they have become a little better over the years. I did play 4 till the end because the world had enough stuff going on that it had me slightly intrigued. 5 was almost a good game (again, entirely through the game's "world", which really felt alive this time around, but the missions were still awful).

GTA3 was the first attempt at doing a 3D one, and it just wasn't pretty. The city was an empty repetition of the same grey blocks with nothing to explore, and the missions are the same repeated busywork that has come to design the series. If I wanted to run errands for people, why not do it in a real-life setting where I can actually get paid for doing boring work?

 

2/10, but I struggled not to give it a 1/10.

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On 7/3/2020 at 6:28 PM, ICrappedMyPants said:

I blame this game for bringing this tedious and boring side job game genre to the forefront on consoles.

Good point. At the time, GTA3 was constantly brought up as the forerunner for all of that, but it's become so standard now that it's easy to forget.
Yet another reason to hate it. Imagine a world with the same amount of high-end polish put into AAA titles, but none of that tiresome padding.

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Events Helper · Posted
3 hours ago, Sumez said:

It's a question of taste, I guess? Personally I prefer video games being enjoyable to play. 🙂 I don't care about their selection of cars.

It uh, wasn't fun to play?  🤣  what isn't enjoyable about getting hookers and going on a rampage to see how many stars you can get.......

Honestly, it was great, and I mean to go play it again, I bought a copy of it and will get to it in due time.  Been awhile, but like @TDIRunner said, i could navigate the city just as well as my home town.  I played this well into my college days.  Looking forward to playing it again now!!!!

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  • 1 month later...

Hmmm... 6/10

I enjoyed it back when it came out, but trying to go back and play it a couple years ago, just really couldn't do it. I don't know, but comparitively the lack of polish and improvements to later editions is too apparent. Vice City was great, San Andreas is still one of my favorite games. Liberty City & Vice City Stories are even better. It's simultaneously too plain/generic with it's story while being way to involved in all the minutiae. It's got my respect but really, everything since has been way better.

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