10 Amazing Games (With ABYSMAL Combat)

If there were an actual Video Game Hall of Fame then the original versions of Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City and San Andreas would deserve to be enshrined there, resting comfortably on plush silk cushions. And if you actually tried playing any of them in this day and age, you could use those cushions to muffle your screams of rage whenever their woefully inadequate game mechanics screwed you over.

The PS2-era GTA trilogy may have been milestones in the history of the medium but - as a recent Edge retrospective on Vice City explained - at the time it was clear that developers Rockstar were more interested in creating worlds to be explored rather than games to be enjoyed. Each game suffered from stringent mission design and unwieldy gunplay, resulting in many a failed mission due to dodgy lock-ons, strict time limits and woefully inept companions (I was following the damn train fine, Smoke - you're the one with the aim of a Stormtrooper in the middle of an absinthe binge).

Thankfully, the cities those missions took place in made up for any shortcomings in game design. San Andreas remains a staggeringly ambitious feat of worldbuilding, while few games before or since have nailed a period as definitively as Vice City (piloting your personal helicopter over a Miami beach lit by a neon pink sunset, while Toto's Africa plays in the background, is as close to a religious experience the medium can over).