Poll: Your favourite 3D GTA title | Why?

[sky pies]

Now it's no secret that GTA V is a very popular, well made game. What is also no secret is that pretty much every previous entry in the series was a very popular, well made game.

Rockstar know their stuff. Anyone who has played their ping pong simulator knows this. What they may not also know is that GTA rocks.

This series is so good that I needed to write two introductory sentences.

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I have been big on GTA since the second instalment, which I did indeed play before GTA 3 was released. If not very long before then. I also saw GTA 1 being played in the same cousin's house as where I first watched MGS1 being played, and as such it holds a pretty unique place in my gaming history.

GTA 3 was one of the very first games that I really idolised, if only because I loved Lazlo [sic] so much. Vice City took a while to grow on me because I was a puritanical little shit in those years and staunchly defended GTA 3 as being the superior game. I have long since abandoned this view. San Andreas went the same way as Vice City, with me objective to the drug and rap culture before eventually coming to love the balls out of it.

I enjoy GTA IV and am currently replaying it, and I am sure GTA V is great too.

Anyway, I'm just hoping to hear your thoughts on your top GTA title, and why you like it so much. Feel free to discuss more than one title.

 

[DeadProxy]

San Andreas for sure. Nice, big city, good character customization, and dont forget that it was the last gta that had FUN cheats. I would actually have way more f fun doing nothing but causing chaos in the streets with the "cars fly" and "riot mode" cheats than I ever did playing the story missions, its why I almost never made it out of the first island in gta 3/SA.

4 was missing fun cheats and a good story and didn't even have worthwhile customization. The only reason I beat it was because there weren't any cheats worth screwing around with, plus, the driving was horrible. It always felt off, and you had to get used to it every time you picked up the game.

5 was great though, don't get me wrong, but you cant jump 200 feet in the air with a bunny hop like I could in gta sa....the bike was the best.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

As far as character freedom (not counting GTAO) San Andreas was the best overall. Great customization options, which Saints Row 2 took to the best extreme possible (and fucked up with SR3), the car customization was great too. Maybe the way to unlock it was a bit annoying (driver school? REALLY?) but it worked out in the end.
Overall as much as I like the world of GTAV, San Andreas did the underlying tidbits sooooo much better. I was pissed off to no end by how gimped GTAIV was (story did not make up for the lack of awesome).

 

[sky pies]

I'm holding off on saying which is my favorite until I let you guys persuade me.

GTA 2... I really really loved that game. I actually think they had a number of missions that are a lot better than the ones they offer these days. I will never forget the mission where you drive a bus route then take all your passengers to a hot dog plant. Sooooo cruel! Nightmarish! Awesome. And the missions in all the other suburbs of the city were equally fantastic. DAMNATION! NO DONATION - NO SALVATION!

GTA 3... As I said I really only remember Laszlo from this game. I loved the game, though it had lovely graphics, great atmosphere especially in the rain, and some great missions. Sadly, however, I just didn't play it as much as the other pre-GTA IV titles.

GTA Vice City... Potentially my favorite. The only one that I have really wrung every ounce of gameplay out of. I loved the graphics, the feel, the radio stations, the gunplay, the missions, the city, it was all just wonderful. Gotta play it again.

GTA San Andreas... This game will always be a kind of mirage to me, a seemingly endless offering with tons and tons of great gameplay, varied landscapes and things to do. I love this game with a passion, but I just never completed it. I tend to lose my way after I move to the second city, through the countryside, and the asian missions just confound and annoy me.

GTA IV... To be honest, this is the first GTA game I didn't really have strong feelings about. I don't think you could possibly have a less interesting or charismatic protagonist than Niko "Probably Smelly" Bellic. That is all.

GTA V... Haven't played it. Probably never will.

 

[RealRT]

Vice City forever and always. The look, the feel, the music, the story and still the most well-rounded GTA protagonist of them all.

 

[MiskWisk]

San Andreas for sure. There was always something to do and it never felt grindy to me. Apart from the "schools" anyway. I get they were meant to be like tutorials but my god did some of them get nightmarish. If they weren't required then I'd have enjoyed them a hell of a lot more.

 

[Xeros]

As much as I adored GTA IV, I have to say my favorite is San Andreas. The amount of content was staggering. Even after completing the game, there was always something to do, and that's not even accounting for everything the modding community brought to the table. I loved everything about IV, but it just didn't have the content to make it as endearing and enduring as SA.

 

[Something Amyss]

well made

Ya lost me. Though I suppose it depends on what counts as "well made." The games are often buggy with poor controls, hackneyed stories and whatnot, but at least there's an open world to explore.

To the topic at hand, GTA V. I've probably put as much time into GTA V as 3, Vice City and 4 combined.

I haven't really played around much in SA, so maybe that will change my mind. But I can only rate the games I've played, and I haven't played enough SA to rate.

 

[Trucken]

I think I'll have to say... GTA IV. I loved all of the 3D games (never finished any of the top-down games 'cause they bored the hell out of me) but GTA IV is the one that I replayed the most, think that I've played it five times or so (The Lost & Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony three or four times). Now, GTA V is a better game (like Ezekiel said, the newest always has a lot of fine tuning) but for some reason I didn't quite enjoy it as much as I enjoyed GTA IV. Still playing the hell out of it though, especially GTA Online.

 

[Worgen]

Vice City, the 80s works perfectly for gta. It really is the last decade that really fits it so well, early 90s kinda works but really anytime after that just doesn't have the same feel as the 80s for the game.

 

[distortedreality]

Top three -

V
VC
SA

V just seems the most complete to me. I think the humour in VC may have been slightly better, possibly the missions as well, characters are pretty even. But the sheer amount of stuff to do in V, plus the MP which can be a ton of fun, puts it at the top for me.

 

[Poetic Nova]

GTA2 for me, thanks to its setting they never re-used in newer GTA's (damn them). I love the retro-futuristic style 2 is going for, and it has more freedom of choice than some of the later GTA's have.

GTAIII comes a close second, even if its later missions are kind of a pain. And the fact that I miss the mission structure GTA2 offered.

My least favorite, which is rather a unpopular oppinion, is GTASA.
Taking the piss at gangster culture or not, I rather stay far away from it. Dunno. To this day it is still in my books as least favorite. But do like its large varied map though. On the other hand, the muddy visuals it, LCS and VCS had ruined the immersion aswell cinsidering III and VC aged better

 

[WSTommy]

GTA Vice City, hands down.

The atmosphere, the killer 80's soundtrack and overall style just make this game a true timeless classic.

 

[WolfThomas]

GTA Vice City is probably the version I played the most back in the day. I liked it a lot.

I actually really enjoy GTA : Online. V's story was meh and I felt locked in as those characters. But GTA lets me play my own custom character and team up with friends. It's pretty awesome and I'm not the sort of person who plays online stuff.

 

[Barbas]

Yep, Vice City for me too. There was no matching that beautiful sunny aesthetic, those brightly coloured supercars growling down Ocean Drive or tracing lazy circles above Leaf Links in the seaplane while listening to Flash FM.

As for GTA V, well...look, I've been busy wandering the wastes and dispatching vagrants, okay? Lots of raiders, plenty of work to do, bye-bye!

 

[sky pies]

Yep, Vice City for me too. There was no matching that beautiful sunny aesthetic, those brightly coloured supercars growling down Ocean Drive or tracing lazy circles above Leaf Links in the seaplane while listening to Flash FM.

Somehow they managed to make VC's city feel more alive than the other ones which used the GTA 3 engine. San Andreas was wonderful, wonderous, legendary, but i just missed a bit of the charm.

My big memory is just cruising around the streets with my custom playlist going. For some reason I was in to A Perfect Circle at the time and since then I've always associated their songs with Vice City cruising. Ha~

Vice City, the 80s works perfectly for gta. It really is the last decade that really fits it so well, early 90s kinda works but really anytime after that just doesn't have the same feel as the 80s for the game.

I think you've got it right on the 80s there. I had similar thoughts about San Andreas when it was first announced, though at the time I didn't know much about gangsta rap etc.

It's funny, GTA 2 seemed to have no fixed time... I mean some of the cars were pretty 50s, 60s, some were also more contemporary, but a lot of the buildings seemed pretty brown'd out and stuff, I don't know when the game was supposed to take place~

 

[stroopwafel]

GTA5 for me as well. For the simple fact it's simply the most fun game to play and the one most consistent in tone in relation to story and gameplay. Everything from the previous games have been improved and perfected.

As far as story goes I think I enjoyed the more solemn, New York crime drama of GTA4 the most. Even if that story was a bit jarring in a GTA sandbox.

 

[Poetic Nova]

It's funny, GTA 2 seemed to have no fixed time... I mean some of the cars were pretty 50s, 60s, some were also more contemporary, but a lot of the buildings seemed pretty brown'd out and stuff, I don't know when the game was supposed to take place~

Depends where you are looking at really. Some sources say 2012, but others (like in the booklet I believe) tells that it is always a few years in advance.

 

[sky pies]

It's funny, GTA 2 seemed to have no fixed time... I mean some of the cars were pretty 50s, 60s, some were also more contemporary, but a lot of the buildings seemed pretty brown'd out and stuff, I don't know when the game was supposed to take place~

Depends where you are looking at really. Some sources say 2012, but others (like in the booklet I believe) tells that it is always a few years in advance.

You think GTA 2 was set in 2012? The books say so?

Wow, I never would have guessed. I mean some of the cars are really 50s, some of the other cars are quite 60s, and I don't remember any more recent cars than that in the game.. even the cop cars were wagons... I dunno ur probably right but it still strikes me as weird...

I guess the science gang's cars might have been kinda 70s?

Always the newest. Each one brings a lot of improvements and fine tuning.

You thought GTA 4 was a better game than SA and VC? Regardless of various 'refinements' I don't think I'd hold this rule to be entirely accurate...