A Confession
May 3, 2008 |
I have a confession to make. I like Grand Theft Auto. I know, it’s pretty much the sum total of everything wrong with the world: sex, violence, drunk driving, murder, etc, etc, etc… but it’s a lot of fun.
I first started playing the Grand Theft Auto series back in 2001 when the original, bird’s eye PC game was released for free online to drum up interest for GTA3. It worked. After hours of playing GTA against each other, my neighbors and I jumped right into the vast new 3D world of Liberty City in GTA3. Stealing cars, beating up hookers, impressing gangs, it was all a ton of fun. But after all the missions, races, and car theft orders were done, the GTA world opened up with all of the “cheats” built into the game. GTA3 is one of the few games that does cheats right. With the right combination of codes, a full size passenger bus could actually fly through the air. Maybe it’s the whole “God-Mode” complex, but GTA3 was a boat load of fun.
A few years later, when Vice City was released, it was like everything that was great about GTA3 was made bigger and better, and given a sweet 80’s glaze. Now I could rule Miami in a leisure suit and do it all while listening to Journey! How can you get any better than that?
There had been a lot of hype leading up to Tuesday’s launch of GTA4, and for the most part I managed to stay away from it. It’s been years since I played Vice City and thought that the GTA series was no longer for me. That was, of course, until I read the 360 achievement list. After reading through the list, and seeing all the different mini games my interest was peeked. I then read online somewhere that there was well over 100 hours of gameplay in GTA4. I then found that Rockstar has not given up on adding “cheats” like just about every game developer has. And then it hit me. I really enjoy the GTA series.
Needless to say, I purchased GTA4 and spent a few hours driving around the city this evening. Just like the prior games, it’s pretty easy to get lost in GTA4. The city is massive, the cars are many, and the game is just plain fun. I’ll be playing it for awhile.
And now you know.