The ILG Grand Theft Auto Poll

shit, I'm torn between III, VC, and San Andreas.

Strange timing of this thread too, as last night I played III and VC Stories for the first time since playing IV.
How bizarre an experience it was as I initially recoiled in disgust at the visuals, but five hours of still playing them later I humbly turned off my ps2 to go have some tea.

"vice city" is the perfect GTA for me: refined GTA III's model and controls; inclusion of a great soundtrack and voice acting made the world feel very real, and very 80s; hadn't yet introduced all the silly weight gain/loss RPG-lite features into the franchise; great lighting; fun city to goof off in

put in GTAIV yesterday for a spin before I sold it on: it really is gorgeous, isn't it?

it sure is

sod it I've gone with Vice City, for pretty much all the reasons cozwn says.

I think SA would have been perfect if it didn't have the ridiculous hunger system.

IV scores badly with me personally due it's complete lack of hidden sub games. Yes we're all fed up of twelve levels of Paramedic same old same old, but they could have just changed the format surely.

But unforgivable lack of racing checkpoint games, like finding a random parked motorbike that triggers off some hidden timed race. sadness in me.

i guess i have liked each successive main release more than the last, so it'd go 4, SA, VC, 3. and those are the only ones i've played.

Don't get me wrong, I really like IV as a game in it's own right - it's in fact the best PS3 game I own. But if we're comparing against other GTA games, well then ..

san andreas

III and Vice City blur a bit in my memory but I guess VC is superior. I think it's the one I had the most fun just driving round in, either in a Banshee or PCJ 600 - the addition of motorbikes, and aircraft, was obviously a huge plus. One of my favourite memories is flying home into the huge sunrise after successfully completing a mission, and Crockett's Theme coming on the radio. Good times.

I loved the expanse of SA but yeah the micromanagement was a pain, and overall I thought it was just too long - by the time I got to Las Venturas all the missions seemed like such a grind. I got to the final mission, which took forever, failed it once after getting over halfway, and never went back :/

Nikko was definitely the best character to play. I did dig the realness of IV and the multiplayer mode made up for the lack of in-game frolics. I had just as much fun just tooling around the city as in any of the other games, but again the missions turned into a chore.

I and II were great fun at the time but they're not really in the running are they.

Hmm. Still no idea which to vote for.

I kinda have this thing for east europe/russia and NYC, so gtaIV was a bit of a dream in that sense.

Actually enjoyed the missions the most in SA, I thought there was just more variation in them. Perhaps I'm just remembering them compared to IV's oh-so repetetive tasks.

But the 80's of Vice City just do it for me, and it felt so polished after coming so soon after III and I was still in that mode of play at the time. And I spent a godawful amount of time on that game just standing in the chemist destroying tank after tank

I really liked the 3Dness of III, the way that some bits are miles away just because that street is actually over that other street. Vice City, though superior in many ways, is just too damn flat. I should probably play some GTAIV before voting, but that's not going to happen in the next fortnight.

I have to pick SA because I found it the most human of all the games (which, to be fair, is like picking the least fat person on The Biggest Loser). Plus the three cities AND all of the non-city areas = WAOW

But unforgivable lack of racing checkpoint games, like finding a random parked motorbike that triggers off some hidden timed race. sadness in me.

OTMx1000

I vote Andreas because I like RPG bullshit in my games, real talk.

in terms of game mechanics, its got to be GTAiv. Something I've noticed with GTA, is that each further iteration of the game tweaks the engine in a subtle but powerful way, to the extent that, once you've swum in SA, it's really going to hurt when, in Vice City, the merest drip of water will drown you. So, when playing older versions of the game, I've been thrown by the absence of these more 'realist' develoments - and, for me, GTAIV offers the smoothest gameplay.

However, when it comes down to ambience, which is key to these games, I struggle to give GTAIV the prize. Just because the worlds of Vice City and, to a lesser extent, SA, are so vivid in my mind, both in terms of design and layout, and the events that occurred within them. I've had a blast playing GTAIV, but have yet to experience moments similar to those noted above, like completing a vicious bloody murder with the apposite AOR of 'missing you' by jonh waites on the stereo, which seems sublime in a way video games rarely achieve. i got vice city and san andreas on the xbox, because i was missing the nostalgic experience of replaying them too often. and the nostalgia goes deeper, because with those games, there were so many hours of just hanging with housemates as one of us played and the others watched on, entirely sated by that experience. or the hours my brother spent wired on speed, finding all the hidden packages.

but still, in the end, i've got to give the gong to GTAIV overall, and its the multiplayer that assuredly tips the balance. Cops'n'Crooks is just so much fun, to the point where i don't mind if i die early and instead spectate on the game as it unfolds.

GTA IV is the first GTA I've played without the game music, mostly because I just didn't enjoy it very much. I pumped in my own tunes, which allows the additional benefit of music playing when you're just walking around. I mean, in the next game they should at least get Niko an iPod.

really? i fiend for radio fusion, and also the afrobeat station...

(THE JOURNEY + the techno station) > ("Kids in America" + "99 Luftballoons" + "Billie Jean" + "Reign in Blood") >>>> San Andreas stations, most of which I can't remember.

I haven't even played GTA4's multiplayer yet! Well, something weird's wrong with the wireless network, that's one mitigating circ.

I'm really struggling to love GTAiv - yes it's beautiful but....there's something lacking and I can't work out what, some sort of lack of fun maybe, san andreas was fantastic, excellent span and characters but for fun and sheer wtf-ness, vice city was fantastic, I remember that mission where you had to bump off three or four people, one was on a hoarding, another on a boat. You had the sniper rifle and a good motorbike and it was almost worth failing it to play it again (did take me about 5 goes too).

See, I'm sure I'd love those stations if they existed in San Andreas, but now I can play my own music, and frankly my afrobeat station is better!

mission where you had to bump off three or four people, one was on a hoarding, another on a boat. You had the sniper rifle and a good motorbike and it was almost worth failing it to play it again (did take me about 5 goes too)

This mission was the top tits !!

porkpie, you should see if you can get a loan of someone's copy of saints row 2; it's like the older GTA games inasmuch as it's fun and goofy (hella buggy tho, which is why I wouldn't buy it just yet)

Something I've noticed with GTA, is that each further iteration of the game tweaks the engine in a subtle but powerful way, to the extent that, once you've swum in SA, it's really going to hurt when, in Vice City, the merest drip of water will drown you.

Yeah, and "Where is the climb button? Come on, it's just a fence, get your ass up there!"

havent played IV, but SA is easily the best of the PS2 iterations

san andreas had the best stations btw, i mean the country station + new jack swing + ice cube + house station w/the crazy german DJ, all gold - my only beef is that some songs were neutered by cutting out the best portions, like the rockin part of freebird bein excised (wtf!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) or fading out on rusty cage right before the monster breakdown at the end, wtf is that shit. not that there isn't an argument to be made for vc (kate bush + lawrence taylor + slayer) but imo the variety of sa is better and also 80s music is just kinda depressing to me.

these are the only games that made me wish i had a HUEG tv

I also love that even knock-off games ave actual thought put into them EG Vice City Stories having the option to see on the map all of the jumps/packages/rampages that you've done = YES THANK YOU JESUS!

oof, why'd it take them so long to make that a feature?

Vice City Stories having the option to see on the map all of the jumps/packages/rampages that you've done

ok. what? is this true? i've completely missed this feature if so.

It's definitely on the PSP version - I think it's hold down X on the map, or something?

i'll check it out on ps2 now.

well I'll be damned.

Another good feature of VCS was the checkpoints for the secret missions, so you could get up to level 5 or level 10 of the Paramedic and you'd be able to continue from there on your next attempt.

Yes! Not so much the Paramedic, which I appear to be the only person in the world to find really easy, but definitely the Fire Engine and Vigilante ones.

The paramedic isn't so much hard just, loooooooong. and if you accidentally drive over one of your patients it's time to log onto Amazon to order that new controller.

^hahaha.

I voted for IV 'cuz it's the only one I could tolerate for more than an hour or so.

I'm torn between SA and VC (haven't yet played 1V, probably won't unless they put a PC version out) - III is a bit crude & also unfunny compared to the later ones, although the map is ace. Pro-VC is that I love the location, the colours & lighting, the music, and it has the best story, voice acting and music of the three. Pro-SA is that massive map, it's completely convincing as a real place, I mean you could imagine living there, you know? Anti-SA is that it did drag a bit in a few places, and the humour was a bit overdone (EG compare heli cops in III w/heli cops in SA) Think I'm going to vote for SA anyway, because if I was going to just drive around in one of the maps, it would be there everytime, or at least I would if both of my discs hadn't cracked (my III disc cracked as well, wtf R*)

<a href="http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/data/952150.html";>Sooner than you think</a>, Pash!

Bah

I really love the vast empty spaces of SA. I wish the city spaces were more developed, but they're still cool. GTA IV's Liberty City is obviously the best city space they've ever created, but I too would love to see them go back to Vice City, and maybe include the bayou and the keys this time.

All the ones from GTAIII on are good, even the "stories" series.

But when it comes down to it, there's only one game that I can look back upon my life and say, "And then there was the period where I played GTA: San Andreas," in the same way that Mark Twain could say, "ANd then there was the period where I wrote 'Huckleberry Finn'."

haha, i have the same with SA, but that's because i finished the game in the week between xmas and new year when i was back at my parents' with absolutely nothing to do in the daytime.

I played GTA III to death, and even thought it was a revolutionary game, and wanted to write long articles about it. The others in the series seemed like they'd taken the template of III and improved on it, and for that reason I always thought III was the most impressive as a work of art. And one of the things about IV that disappointed me was how little it deviated from the template III established, after all the talk about how it was the first true sequel to III. Then again, the online play was an incredible innovation.

developing online play is the major thrust of current generation of games, so i wouldn't overlook how significant that is overall. ill admit i too would've liked something more radical, though.

but now I can play my own music

Wait, what? For PS3?

XBOX, but I'd be surprised if you couldn't for PS3 also. Just load some music on the hard drive, or connect via USB to an external drive, or etc.

or just turn the music off and put your hifi system on, you could then listen to a real radio

Vice City. The blue-skies GTA game.

Sorta got to rep for 1 and 3, no others had the sheer amazement factor. VC was great but the city was a bit small.

Also at the moment on the wikipedia page: As of 26 March 1678, the franchise has sold over 70 million copies worldwide; according to Take-Two Interactive.[1]

I've got to go for San Andreas. It's still the version of the game I want to turn on if I feel like killing time by driving around.
I think III and Vice City were ruined for me because I played San Andreas first. I've got IV but while it's beautiful it's never really grabbed me so far.

or just turn the music off and put your hifi system on, you could then listen to a real radio

No, I want to listen to the game sounds, minus the game music, plus my music, on my hi-fi system.

Which I do, and enjoy greatly.

you can do that on ps3 too.

but you could also listen to both if you COULDNT by turnign off game music but keeping game sounds on.

yes thats what i meant, i do it often.

Ah yes, I see.

I feel like the music feels a little different when it's piped into the 360 instead of playing concurrently, but that's a minor quibble.

I've battered both San Andreas and IV over the past few days, and just now only finally managed to 100% SA.

There's still a lot to be said for San Andreas, so much to it with absolutely bags of gameplay. Having said that I think the realism in IV is most welcome especially when it comes to cop fights and such, a relief from having an infinite amount of the buggers just appearing out of nowhere.

Although I went with VC in the end

I vote for Vice City. Though it's probably the one I'm least likely to return to now it's the best game.

<a href="http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/data/952150.html";;>Sooner than you think</a>, Pash!

― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 28 October 2008 17:40 (1 week ago) [] Bookmark

Ooh shit. Time to start speccing up a new M$ box, I fear. Thx for the headsup.

I just started San Andreas, but wow, I'm completely reminded how engrossing these games are. Was there a connecting highway system in previous games? This blows my mind for some reason. The RPG stat-boosting only makes it even more addictive.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

III is IV on steroids

The world is yours!

re: the music thing, you can't just play your own music your real life stereo! the best bit is when it goes quiet after you leave a car, or when like rage against the machine is on or something and you'd just like stay in that car a bit longer just to hear the whole thing. it's kind of atmospheric in a way.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

voted for SA by the way. it was way better than the other PS2 ones, except i can't remember if the ending was a bit underwhelming. but like, there was so much to do in it, like flying a plane over the whole place, or swimming around random places, and um parachute jump off the jumbo jet lol! i liked the original GTAIII where the guy never talks.

i'd proabbly love IV if i have a 360 or PS3 but I don't.

i kept thinking that this was a terrible cover, until i made the connection.

http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/27/m_c004ba0a01a749f9a0da6a93562b57fc.jpg

actually, it's still pretty terrible.

haha