25 Best Video Games Of The 2000s

1. Grand Theft Auto III

You can look to all manner of titles that came after GTA III as doing certain things better or in a more immediately enjoyable fashion, but developers wouldn't even have had those ideas if not for Rockstar's open-world masterpiece in the first place.

Scratch any on-mission annoyances, GTA is digital anarchy; something that works best when the shackles are off and you're free to do as you please. That became a trait that fuelled your wildest dreams and tapped into a sense of breaking the game for the better whenever you could. See that Banshee, locked up inside a car showroom? Smash the glass and take it.

A mission with a car making a getaway? Put one of your own in the way before triggering it, then you can hop out and take a rocket launcher to their face. Heard about the tiny biplane Dodo being able to take flight? Grab it and see for yourself.

GTA III was a world you could essentially live in, and although Vice City and San Andreas would push Rockstar's original game engine to breaking point, it's this first proof of concept that has within it the potential for all sorts of dastardly deeds, a city design everyone who played has memorised by now - and a string of missions that introduced us to all sorts of celebrity-voiced gangsters to boot.