3. Music
Music had always been a big part of gaming. Back as far as we had been putting it in our games, our brand of music was immediately recognisable with the medium. Even to the most uninitiated member of the public could probably figure out that the music from Mario Brothers, or at the very least associate it with video games. As time has gone on, soundtracks have grown to be massive in production, rivalling most film scores. However GTA did something different. When you think of GTA it is hard to devoid the images in your head to the music in the games later editions. The games famous radio stations are chocked full of songs that can play for hours and hours. It really set its tone by using music to tell the player things about the world they were in. By getting the rights to tons of great 80s music, we immediately knew the time period but also what kind of city we are in. Through pop culture and real life occurances in Miami, the 80s music in Vice City made us aware of what we were getting in for. We happily pushed coke, killed drug rivals and all to the sound of David Bowie's "House of Fun".