had the perfect dark tone
kinda like IV had too but this is bterter imo

it was the first real open world game, and i don't think rockstar knew it would be a pop culture icon yet.
really wasn't until about san andreas when GTA blew up
gta 3 got the general formula right, vc started to understand you needed something that felt alive (music, setting, characters, more human feeling shit instead of a dream sequence)
san andreas put everything together and maxed out the ps2, but i think they maybe went too far with some of the rpg shit

>>747531524
also just to add, you really need to put yourself in a 2001 headspace when playing gta 3. there was truly nothing like it at the time.
kids today don't understand

>>747530846
Finished it for the first time earlier. It kinda sucks. Story is boring and the missions were meh. The mission where you gotta kill the dude in the body cast who falls out the back of the ambulance was funny as fuck though

>>747531675
I thought it was boring back in 2001. Terrible on foot controls, nothing to do in the open world except run people over, blow up cars or drive off ramps. Story sucked and the missions were forgettable

>>747530846
there was nothing like it at the time and it felt special. an open world 3d sandbox where you can just kill random people was unheard of.

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>>747530846
I've been playing this somewhat obsessively for weeks now and I think the answer lies in how it was "british people making a game about america" giving it this weirdly quasi-british feeling to the whole thing
for GTA3's LC they threw everything at the wall when it came to their vision of a perfect east coast city somewhere between Chicago and New York, and they started modelling specifically on NY after it made more sense later in development, but you still have places like Trenton/Portland Docks which are modelled more on the kind of places you find in Leith, Edinburgh, where they were based at the time - which is also the setting for Trainspotting, which was a big movie around that time, the place is literally called T'Renton lol
this "british/scottish" humour persists throughout
there's a massage parlour near the Red Light District called "oily johnny's" which is a reference to a very british slang term for condoms which you might miss but I'm almost digressing here

point is that it's got this other layer on top of it all which is this weirdly british feeling so it provokes a feeling of familiarity and uncanniness at the same time
it's like a British America

for later games they modelled more explicitly on the actual cities they were inspired by but GTA3 still had a lot of London and Edinburgh in it

for me, it's the inexplicably Scottish tramps

anyway here's a traffic light I somehow took a chunk out of earlier

>>747533134
It's always shocking to remember the time between 3 and SA was only about 3-4 years at absolute most. 4 was closer to 7, but still. 7 years ago now is like 2019 and that feels like yesterday.

>>747533461
it was so fucking real waiting two whole years, TWO, while we were all in school for GTA SA to come the fuck out already
hah

we had no idea

>>747533819
The things I would do to be a kid again man. Life sucks and didn't turn out remotely how I thought it would lol

>>747531524
not the first "real" open world game (there are games going back to the c64 and amiga that hold that honor) but it was damn impressive for the time. The cinematics were also in a league of their own and Rockstar were one of the first western studios to use motion capture (even though it was extremely primitive).

>>747534325
yeah I didn't have waiting 13 years for Rockstar to fucking complete the HD trilogy on my bingo card either
I think the reason I'm obsessing on GTA3 right now, not just because it's easy to install, mod and play, is because I'm in some kind of existential grudge match with this series of games and I'm getting my own back for it

like most things in my adult life, surely it didn't need to get so bad before somebody did something about it

>>747530846
i want to like this game but having to memorize the health pickup locations keeps me from finishing it.

SOMEBODY CALL A MEDIC

>>747534961
I SEE PAIN IN YOUR FUTURE

>GTA 3
Dark, smoky atmosphere. Very low quality and gritty textures make it feel like it's made out of glued together magazines.

>Vice City
The same as 3 but with lifted shadows and high saturation. Trails makes it feel like a VHS movie from the 70s and 80s.

>San Andreas
Orange haze in Los Santos. Twilight in the desert. Like an old school adventure game. The proportions are crazy so it rightly feels larger than life. The inherent humor of a black gangbanger listening to country wearing meme clothing.

>GTA IV
Dark blurry textures and lighting combined with impressionistic nature creating a strong visual contrast. They're still designing characters to be cartoonish but they emote much better.

>GTA 5
Dogshit. Looks like a cheap soap opera and fails to capitalize on modern LA looks.


3 > VC > IV > SA >>>>> V

>>747533461
there was less than a 4 year gap between san andreas and GTA 4

>>747531273
Asuka, Salvatore, and others treated the player like a hired gun. Niko is treated as a joke up until the ending.

MY MOTHER'S MY SISTER

>>747530846
claude is silent.

>>747530846
It didn't have a big budget and was mostly based off of GTA2. VC standardized modern GTA.

>>747535406
You can stop pretending to hate V, VI is almost out

>>747541579
It’s very boring across the board and has no replay value. Online is much better but most flaws remain

>>747535406
Actual retard, gta 5 did a grrat job of capturing the sunny LA style

>>747541742
I’m guessing you’re that troll from yesterday because you also have a dent in your brain and can’t spell. V does nothing well when it comes to representing LA and the map is 70% dead space for the views.

IN THE NAVY

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I've been playing this game for 20 years and I've only just found this whole fucking riverside park behind the stadium

>>747531675
Old fuck here. I lived in the middle of nowhere at the time and remember hearing radio DJs that never spoke about gaming before talk about GTA 3.

>>747530846
you were 8

The mafia setting was cool.

>>747546059
Woah....................

>>747545347
Something about the billboard trees speaks to my soul

>>747546059
this is how I see it in my head actually