GTA 3
Is it true that GTA III was the first free roam game that came out? Or was their anything before that? I don't mean something like Turbo Esprit but a game that had a world you could explore and do what you want.
When i first saw it in 2003 i was amazed and thought 'those graphics looks great!' :))
When i first saw it in 2003 i was amazed and thought 'those graphics looks great!' :))
The trouble with tribbles is.......
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Maybe it was the first 3D textured sandbox game (but I highly doubt it).
Before that, you could roam aimlessly on many text (and graphic) adventures, games like GTA 1 and 2 (I'd like to know why they are unobtainable now) and space soaps like Elite (3D, but wireframe), Privateer and Starflight.
An' you know what they said?
Well, some of it was true!
As for buying them, shopping for old copies seems to be it now, surprised they've never been released on a digital format like PSN, XBL, or Steam/GOG?
Yes, I know it, but that was not what I was thinking of.
GTA 1 and 2 used to be offered in a pack on Steam (but not the expansions), but they're not sold anymore (although anyone that bought it can install it). Also, both games were offered for free (on Rockstar classics web). Again, now they're not downloadable.
So, it was widely available (even for free)... but now there are no means to get it legally.
An' you know what they said?
Well, some of it was true!
I remember though when I first got GTA: London, a mate from college brought ti to my house and we installed it, played it for a few hurs, then we caught up with a load of other mates and went to the pub.
When I got home I went to play GTA, and the install of London had wiped my save from GTA 1.
I was most annoyed.
I used to just wander about trying all of the vehicles out. I though it was quite good at the time.
One of the cracking teams released it with a huge cracktro trainer that let you have infinite items (and pick which ones you wanted infinite amounts of individually) and invulnerability, which made it much easier to doss around on as it was quite easy to get killed in jittery vehicles like the helicopters, but with the invulnerability cheat on, you could smash them into the ground and walk away.
Although, I guess, if you think about it, 'Mercenary' was probably the first real sandbox game.
Pretty basic, but you could wander at will (and it was essentially open-ended except for the lifespan of your creature). Quite sandboxy :)
Hunter was brilliant. Really weird atmosphere.
But even so, GTA III was one of those few, true genre defining events. Seeing it on my mate's PS2 was a staggering moment (like when seeing Knightlore, or Doom, or Super Mario 64 for the first time). GTA III was *everything* you'd ever dreamed of when playing Turbo Esprit on the Spectrum in the 1980s. It was so realistic, so alive, and you could do anything you wanted, go anywhere at all, and the world was fully alive and immersive.
Alright, so after a while you realised that you couldn't go in the buildings, the pedestrians weren't intelligent and didn't have realistic seeming lives, and the other cars and vehicles mostly stopped existing when they left your field of view, but it was still a staggeringly enjoyable and immersive world. And even though various games have built on this since, and added interiors to the buildings, more intelligent pedestrians, swimming, many more types of vehicles, better game storylines, etc, they've not made major enhancements to the games. And it's difficult to see what else can be added that still leaves the game fun.