9. 3D Graphics
What a shock to the system old-school fans of the Grand Theft Auto series must have had when they picked up a PlayStation 2 in 2000 and, a year later, found the Grand Theft Auto series had evolved from its crude, top-down graphics days into a three-dimensional open-world sandbox. Very few fans today will fully appreciate the dawn of 3D in the GTA franchise, with many modern day gamers complaining that "the graphics are no good" over recent years. GTA III was every inch a game-changer for the franchise, and set the bar for every sandbox game out there. Though many have tried to emulate it in recent times, very few have succeeded in doing so.