It was a long summer between college and university, so naturally, I spent a lot of it inside wasting my time. After initially playing through, and loving San Andreas, I thought to myself why stop there? and that was when I decided to fish out this classic set of games, and proceed to play through them. Its safe to say that I was not disappointed by my experience. The GTA III era, in my opinion, is the finest era to date, providing a delightful cocktail of characters, settings and plots (which all interlink between games), coupled with enjoyable gameplay and innovative missions. The GTA III era provided the fun element that many felt was missing from GTA IV, and was a time where accomplices only called you for storyline purposes, and not to ask you to go bowling, which was possibly the most annoying feature ever included in a GTA game. Whilst I still acknowledge that GTA IV was a great game, and provided quality graphics with an immersive environment, that sadly seemed to be the focus, as the 2008 instalment split opinion throughout the gaming world. Rockstars attempt to take a more serious tone with the series disappointed a lot of people, including myself, and left the game feeling without character, and a protagonist with very little personality. This article aims to celebrate the time before Grand Theft Auto became too serious, and look back on the games that made the series so great throughout the 2000s.
Honourable Mention Unfortunately, I never had the pleasure of playing on GTA Advance, but without sounding too harsh, it doesnt seem like I was missing much. Released around the same time as San Andreas, the 2004 GBA title was a prequel to GTA III, and received fairly mixed, reasonable reviews from critics. Taking into account the technical limitations of the GBA, providing a game for the platform can still be regarded as an achievement, but the game will not be remembered in the same way that other GTA titles are. So that out of the way, lets get on with the countdown