10 Greatest Programming Milestones In Gaming History

2. Grand Theft Auto III

The first two GTA games used a top-down perspective due to hardware limitations, but once Sony's PlayStation 2 released, DMA Design finally had enough processing muscle unleash their true vision for the series; a fully 3D city that could be freely explored by the player with hardly any loading times. This wouldn't be an easy task on any console and the complexity of Sony's new hardware didn't help. Using Criterion's Renderware engine DMA successfully brought Liberty City to life. It had pedestrians on the road and street going about their day, law enforcement, fire engines and ambulances, a day/night cycle, dynamic weather systems and 10 radio stations. Getting the PS2 to run all of this simultaneously was about as easy as getting a cat to conduct an orchestra. In order to maximise performance, the developer's implemented a LOD (level of detail system) that reduced or increased the amount of polygons that made up object within the environment depending on the player's proximity to them. And yet, somehow DMA (now Rockstar North) managed to pull it off, creating a gloriously detailed city that was as much fun to explore as it was to blow up with a variety of firearms.