20 Mind-Blowing Things You Didn't Know About Grand Theft Auto 3

Including an unexpected cameo from Batman's The Joker himself!

By Dan Curtis /

Can you believe it's been over 20 years since Grand Theft Auto 3 was released on the Playstation 2?

Advertisement

This was a game lightyears ahead of its time; it gave birth to the open world genre that we know, love and sometimes hate nowadays, and is rightly considered to one of the most influential videogames of all time.

We all know what it's about. You drive around, you cause some mayhem, you do missions, and you shoot a lot of people. But what you don't know about Grand Theft Auto 3 might really surprise you.

There's a lot to this game that isn't readily apparent. Whether it's content that was left on the cutting room floor, bizarre easter eggs or quirks that remain unexplained or heavy amounts of censorship so it could actually go on sale, there's so much more to GTA 3 than what you know on the surface.

Ready to delve into the secrets of Liberty City? Let's get started.

20. Taking To The Skies - Airplane Missions Removed

While they've became mainstays of the series from Vice City onwards, there's no aircraft missions to be seen in Grand Theft Auto 3.

Advertisement

In fact, there's no pilotable air vehicles at all, unless you count the Dodo (which, technically, you can't - more on that later in the article!).

During development, Rockstar did originally plan for Grand Theft Auto 3 to be the first instalment in the series to feature some form of aircraft mission. What these might have been is anyone's guess, but we can only surmise that the development of air vehicles was shifted over to Vice City in order for GTA 3 to meet its 2001 deadline date.

There are planes which exist within the game and they land and take off from the airport, but it's impossible for the player to interact with them in any way (they even ghost through the player if you stand directly in the middle of the map!).

Advertisement