I want to play GTA4, so I'm starting at the original GTA3 for story or whatever. But damn, this game sucks.

submitted by Anman from self.Gaming

Seriously, how was this so popular? I am not looking at this from a modern perspective, almost all the games I play are old because new games are shit. But this game is horrid. I know this is the foundation of all the style of games that came after it, but why? There is just so much shit to list I cant be bothered. Game came out in 2001? So much terrible game play and even something as simple as a stamina bar were invented way before this.

I played GTA 1 and 2 a fair bit and they were way better. Im hoping vice and san andreas are better.

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[–]Tarrock 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

3 was always my least favorite of the 3d games. Mute protagonist, story is kinda eh, annoying difficulty spikes. Vice City gets much better in all those regards, plus the setting and soundtrack are amazing.

[–]Anman[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

annoying difficulty spikes.

Hnnnggggg

[–]MeatCommercial 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

GTA 3 was pretty revolutionary for the time, from top-down camera to open world 3rd person was a big jump at the time, but yeah it does not hold up very well. Vice City if anything had a banging soundtrack and a more Miami Vice/Scarface story.

However, you don't need to play any of these games before playing GTA4 as, pretty much after 3, they all have standalone stories.

[–]Anman[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

revolutionary for the time

See, this is the part I am having a hard time getting. It really isn't.

Insanely better games came out before this. While they do not have all the aspects of GTA3 in one game, they have all the things GTA3 has amongst themselves and they are way more fun.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Agreed, I have a scathing review on Steam. Its ONLY strong point is the ability to drive wherever in a 3D world. That's it.

The quests are built on a "try again" fake difficulty a la Super Mario: try once, fail. Now you know what to do. Undergo the unskippable cutscene again, and do the thing you learned to do. And then you fail because you don't know the NEXT thing you need to do. Rince, repeat, and remember, THE CUTSCENE IS UNSKIPPABLE.

Oh, some of the music was nice.

And frankly for me, I really enjoyed Vice City, San Andreas was pretty fun, but 4 felt too damn stiff and serious, so I stopped there.

I remember playing Saints Row 2 immediately after GTA 3 and man was that ever a 1000x better game!!! I didn't get as much from SR 3 & 4 though. I hope the reboot is more like the second. And I keep wishing I could play the first without having to get an original xbox.

[–]Anman[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I am looking forward to the next two games. Other people have also said 4 is a bit meh. But that goal is what started me down this road.

Common, saints row 4 was amazing. I will be going back to the start of that too at some stage, since Ive only played 4. Will take a while though.

saints row 1 was also released on 360.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Yeah I had a mind fart I guess. There are emulators for the 360, I might be able to play it!!!

[–]Anman[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It was one of those "classic" releases on the 360.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Hah, it's a frustrating game, it's hard as shit and handles different than nearly any other GTA. Although I thought GTA4 and its relatively slow, poor handling cars were reminiscent of GTA3. GTA3 I think you have to kind of let it grow on you. Driving perfectly is required to make a lot of the time limits.

GTA3: San Andreas is imo the best GTA in the entire franchise. And Vice is a lot of fun, but it's probably the easiest and therefore shortest one to play through. Particularly if you use a helicopter instead of a car you can blast through a lot of the missions.

[–]Anman[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Driving perfectly

Impossible in this game. Absolutely. People and cars will jump in front of you randomly.

time limits

I want to die already.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

People and cars will jump in front of you randomly.

Yeah, you can get fucked by random chance no matter how good you are in the game, but you still can't hit shit and pass the missions. Just gotta retry till you do it perfectly and the RNG God smiles upon you.

[–]ShekelPa 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Thats literally the only reason why it was good at the time, because it always topped the game before it which are always used as arbitrary reference points.

That said, it was the first huge popularization of open-world games. It was so popular that linear games suffered badly for it. Though that has since changed since people now fondly look at those games and regard them as "set pieces" whose rigid structure was intended to achieve a specific reaction fromt he gamer.

[–]Anman[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

There were plenty of open world games before this. Including GTA 1 and 2. Which is why I am having a hard time figuring out why it was so popular. Perhaps because it was the first 3d open world crime game.

[–]filbs111 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I enjoyed it a lot at the time. Are you playing the real deal? Or the disastrous "remaster"?

[–]Anman[S] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

10 year anniversary. I was going to get the new remaster, but windows 10 only and Im not a fag.