1. Grand Theft Auto III
Rockstar North | Rockstar Games | 2001
The car-stealing, hooker-beating, free-roaming rampage that challenged absolutely everything we knew about videogames
What made it so great?
Grand Theft Auto III is the game that finally gave players exactly what they'd been craving for years: complete freedom to do whatever the hell they wanted, whenever they wanted to do it. Revolutionary in its design, GTAIII offers up an entire city to explore, putting its people, buildings and vehicles at your disposal. You're free to be as horrible as you want, hijacking tanks, stealing cars and killing indiscriminately until the cops gun you down and you revive outside a hospital without any of your stuff. Or you can keep to yourself, speeding over hills and finding creative ways to wreck other people's cars in spectacular fashion.
Unlike some of the knockoffs that followed, though, GTAIII is more than just an open world ripe for mayhem - it's also a superbly written black comedy, with top-notch acting and an engaging organized-crime story. So far, its razor wit and high production values have only been successfully replicated by four other games, all of them GTA sequels.
Perhaps more significantly, GTAIII is a cultural touchstone, marking the point at which the game industry's balls finally dropped and it moved out of its mother's basement. It also highlighted a cultural divide between gamers and non-gamers, inviting Congressional scrutiny and endless news flashes about "the game that rewards children for beating hookers," all of which continue today.
For better or for worse, though, GTAIII stands as the most important, significant game on the PS2, the game that defines the console - and its chapter in gaming history - in the minds of millions.
Get ready to play
For all its groundbreaking status, GTAIII is hella clunky by today's standards. People might complain about the fugly graphics or poor aiming in Vice City and San Andreas, but they were beautiful and responsive compared to this urban nightmare. If you can get past all that, though, the diabolical dystopia of Liberty City is a blast to explore - just make sure you take on the story missions, or you'll never see most of it.
Been there, done that?
It doesn't offer GTA's level of freedom, but The Getaway was one of the earliest knockoffs, and it's still one of the best. It's prettier than GTAIII by a long shot, with an accurate model of London crafted from thousands of photos, and it sports a more believable plot, tighter action and incomprehensible cockney slang - always a plus in our book.
Be sure tocheck out the rest of our Games that Shaped a Generation coveragehere.
