The Ultimate GTA Poll

[Officer Pulaski]

i dont know why people like GTA3 so much

yes it started the whole series, but it was still pretty boring

i played GTA3 after VC (which i beat like 5-6 times or something)

and after playing VC, i found GTA3 quite boring

didnt like the radio stations and the missions werent fun at all

and i hated the auto-aim so much

it just aimed at a random person, it didnt go for people that shot at you

and when youd re-aim it would go back to the same person

and on SSV, what kind of idiot would design streets like that?

and the fact that like every gang hates you is a real piss off

the only safe places are like the airport, south Stauton and no ped spawn zones

 

I played VC on my comp so the graphics were AWFUL for me

but still the atmosphere was great and the missions were good

the controls were good, the mini-games rocked!

RC Baron, Hotring (its REALLY easy), sticking up stores,

cop chases were WAY more fun cuz cars were actually durable as opposed to GTA 3

then i had played it too long and i got tooo good at cop chases

i even used to purposely blow out my tires and drive like that

and i got very good at that

 

SA was WAY better than anything i had seen

tons of properties, you can climb, swim

the auto-aim was way better, the shooting actions were way better

recruiting people rocked, Gang turf was fun

the missions were great, i loved all the cities and exploring

i say the bigger the game the better, exploring is fun

i remember trying to get my map of SA in the menu "un-fogged"

man i spent like half an hour just going through LS and red county

only problem is that theres not much fun after the main missions

 

my vote goes to SA

id expect VC to be in first or second though

Edited June 11, 2005 by Officer Pulaski

[Bigs]

lol, who voted for GTA: Advance?

 

@guy above me: I think you're just pissed because you only have 83% on III..

[zinklesmesh]

I voted for GTA1 simply because it owns and it was my first M rated PC game

[Uno Carb]

GTA2

 

GTA2 was my first Grand Theft Auto game. Ever since then, I've been hooked on the damn thing. I would say GTAIII because it became the first non-top-down GTA game that made everybody say, "holy sh*t". But GTA2 f*cking owns all.

 

Oh, and the Remington 12-Gauge Pump Shotgun in GTAIII is the f*cking sh*t - straight up.

[Smellton]

 

Huge Maps don't make great games, Vice City was just perfect.

 

In my opinion I'll go for map over missions anyday.

[Smellton]

It looks like GTA: London is the dud game.

[Tsuroki]

All three games in the latest installment are classics.

 

GTA3 broke new ground in the GTA series by offering more depth to both the characters and gameplay. A three-dimensional environment brought a whole new breed of gamers to the table (namely the console generation). The cons? Short storyline, some dull and unintersting characters, and a very small city.

 

Vice City had an awesome storyline that both followed the Scarface theme while being unique. The improvement in graphics was superb, the music was amazing, and the voice acting/characters were spectacular. The cons? The city pretty much sucked ass, and the storyline (albeit a good one) was short, and somewhat complex.

 

San Andreas improved everything. Better graphics, bigger maps, longer story, more character development. The cons? Mount Chiliad and the military base. Both were hyped up, but were a bit of a yawn. The music could also use a touch up, and the casino's were overhyped as well. (And no carwashes).

 

Overall, though, I'd have to say GTA3 gets my vote for the best GTA installment thus far. It just blew my mind so much when I first played it.

[street cheetah]

I say Vice City. It had better features upgraded from GTA3 and the story and atmosphere were great. The atmospheres of GTA3 and Vice City were my favorite. Being in the hood for San Andreas was okay, but I didn't like traveling so far through the country roads and sh*t during missions..

[(yber])ragon10]{]

I'd say GTA 3. Because when I first got it I was so surprised such a game exists. I liked how it was realistic and not too realistic. IMO GTA 3 has yet not to be touched. The characters and overall story is just amazing. The missions were also good and well thought in diffuculty and fun. Take grand theft areo and kingdom come for example. And it has my fav main character....claude.

[Wing Attack]

Vice City is bad. Delete all the votes for Vice City, anyone who voted for it is a hologram.

 

San Andreas is pretty good, just I wasn't a fan of the rap and the countless numbers of coloured folk. I don't have a problem with them, it's just weird for me because gangs and sh*t are unheard of around here, hicksville.

Good game though.

 

My vote was secured with GTA3 because it's great.

[Zairious]

I think Grand Theft Auto 2..

 

Why? Because its the GTA I first started off with.

 

Started off with GTA2 in the GTA series back in '99... Still playing today in '05.

[TRN4L]

Vice City is bad. Delete all the votes for Vice City, anyone who voted for it is a hologram.

 

San Andreas is pretty good, just I wasn't a fan of the rap and the countless numbers of coloured folk. I don't have a problem with them, it's just weird for me because gangs and sh*t are unheard of around here, hicksville.

Good game though.

 

My vote was secured with GTA3 because it's great.

dont refer to us as colored... I voted SA cause the enviorment is so immersive.

[Mankind]

Vice City got my vote, and let me tell you why.

 

First of all, VC's atmosphere and setting was awsome. I felt like I was going back in time and experiencing the 80s.

 

Secondly, VC's radio is far superior to those of any other GTA. I never got tired of listening to the talkshows in VC. Also, I loved blowing stuff up while listening to the heavy metal featured on V-Rock.

 

Thirdly, I loved VC's missions. Although there were a few annoying missions, most missions were a blast to play. I have not yet completed all of the missions in SA, but there were quite a few so far that greatly annoyed me.

 

Finally, I believe that VC featured the coolest main character seen in a GTA game. Tommy has a lot of style and flavor, and a great personality. And I love how Tommy is voiced by Ray Liotta, one of my favorite actors. This is why I voted VC over the other GTAs.

[Fireman]

I think Grand Theft Auto 2..

 

Why? Because its the GTA I first started off with.

 

Started off with GTA2 in the GTA series back in '99... Still playing today in '05.

I'm still playing gta2, I also started with it. I voted for it because of the missions (which were really fun to do) and because of the gang system. I also like gta1 since the rest is based on the first game.

[Sniper.]

My vote goes to GTA: SA. You can do a ton more. Plus the game kicks ass.

[Medallion Man]

It’s not the size, it’s what you do with it that counts...

 

Vice wins for me but it is a toughie.

 

GTA3 was an eye opener of a gaming experience and that’s for sure. I bought it by accident because EB had no copies of Jet Ski Riders instead I got GTA3 and the rest as they say was history. GTA3 came along at a time when I’d lost all interest in games and got a PS2 pretty much just for DVD’s and the odd copy of FIFA and reminded me what it was to feel childlike awe again. For me GTA3 has to be up there with playing full 3D environments in Tomb Raider after years of 2D side-scrollers or the moment I plugged in my N64 on release day and sat gazing awestruck at Mario 64 or the first time I rode around Hyrule field on Epona in Ocarina, one of those truly rare moments of video gaming marvel.

 

No doubt about it GTA3 was revolutional but we all know that already...

 

Whilst GTA3 was the groundbraking original that invented it’s own genre I’ve broken my rose tinted glasses and for me it ain’t the best. It’s all just opinion of course but for me (whilst I loved the mafia portion) GTA3’s story was less entertaining than Vices, I definitely never liked the whole late nineties bad ass, leather jacket wearing, outcast with attitude vibe that permeated GTA3’s every sinew and I’m no fan of Claude, the dude can’t even talk, I’ve met planks of wood with more personality than that guy. Saying that I still love the game and it was the originator and Liberty is still the best city, but for me, that alone don’t make it the best.

 

San Andreas is a great game don’t get me wrong and from a technical standpoint it is unquestionably the superior game in the series but that’s just because it is the newest and comes at a time when developers have reached a complete understanding of what is possible on the current generation of hardware.

 

However SA will be made technically obsolete by the time that the PS3 gives birth to GTA4 and when that time comes the bells and whistles that put SA infront of Vice and III in so many people eyes will be eclipsed and made to look antiquated, quaint and irrelevant. If you ignore the new features and beett0r grarffix and look at what really makes the game and with SA it’s lacking in all the more important areas.

 

The art direction in SA is not a patch on Vices, looking at the peds it could just as easily be set today as ‘92, swap Ice Cube for Fiddy cent and you wouldn’t notice the difference. San Andreas’s story is stretched and pulled all over the place beyond any level of credulity by the necessity for the game to repeatedly slap it’s gigantic map into our faces on top of that its misguided attempt at moral hand-holding doesn’t suit the franchise and falls down on the many inconsistencies that show up all over the story and in the attitudes of it’s protagonist. The soundtrack, compared to Vices is also rather underwhelming and fails to capture the early 90’s zeitgeist the way that Vice perfectly nailed that of the 80’s.

 

In terms of the environment the extra size both adds to and detracts from the game, naturally the extra space to cruise around in/stunt over/explore genuinely adds to the game however as a result of size over substance approach that the game takes the story ends up as a disjointed mess and most of the extra space is little more than a dead background that whizzes past at high speed. Also, in my opinion, with the exception of the ghetto section of Los santos the cities in SA lack the atmosphere, style and character of Liberty or Vice and none of them can match Vice for sheer stylistic pizzazz. Aside from all that, for me, the game just didn’t live up to the hyperbole that preceded it.

 

As I say in the long run SA’s extra bells and whistles will be irrelevant and as such should not be part of the equation when considering which game in the franchise has the greater legacy.

 

Vice City for me is the special one for many different reasons whilst GTA3 pretty much invented a new form of video game and introduced us all to what a video game could be Vice took the concept a ran with it like Ben Johnson on crack.

 

The art direction in Vice was spot on and it proverbially pisses all over that of SA, the story was entertaining, well paced, consistent and conceivable, the characters were perfectly GTA cartoony and perfectly suited to the excessive and flashy 80’s environment, not to mention fantastically well voiced. Vices missions, in my opinion, were the best, they built on those in GTA3 and fit in with the flow and narrative in a much more convincing way than those in SA. Vice took the rough and unrefined concept lain down by GTA3 and buffed it up into a showroom sheen.

 

On top of all that seeing as I was born in 81 Vice’s nostalgia struck a very many chords with me from the moment the press play on tape and LOADING intro screens (my first system was a Commodore64) through to the soundtrack bursting with tracks that evoked all kinds of child hood memories by way of the peds decked out in the kind of clothes that screamed 1980’s with the whole thing infused with neon lights and art deco style. O.K the city was flat but then It is based on Miami, (swamps are swamps for a reason people) and contrary to what many of you generation Z kiddies believe, the 1980’s kicked your daddies anus.

 

Vice was everything that a GTA game should be, it was a gloriously over the top cartoon, packed with R*’s wicked and twisted humour with faultless art direction, a fantastically OTT storyline, well constructed and considered missions and of course the greatest soundtrack and voice acting in video game history.

 

 

If I was going to rank the games (excluding the originals, which I overlooked as I was spellbound by the ‘newer’ 3D approach of their contemporaries) and I am going to rank them, then it would go like this:

 

1 Vice City

2 GTA3

3 San Andreas. (Doubtlessly this will win but it really shouldn’t)

 

 

 

Yeah, so basically, in short, like Vice City got my vote.

 

 

(Until R* make me GTA4 London, naturally)

[Chalkstar]

It's still a pretty close battle between GTA:SA and GTA3. Still plenty of members who can vote though so anything can happen.

[gtasanandreasmaster]

i have voted sanandreas just because it realy is my favirout i carnt explain

[Urban Legend]

The poll should end like this:

 

1. Vice City

1. GTA III

2. San Andreas

 

[Wolfwood]

It has to be my personal favourite GTA III. It was the one which revolutionised games and the whole GTA series, there is just something about Liberty City.

[dills]

I voted for San Andreas. I like the charcters, it's a massive area to explore and the missions are a lot of fun. Also there is so much stuff you can do outside of missions.

[meta187]

I agree with many in that Liberty City is just a special place for many of us and people are just itching to go back to an updated version at this point at the same time Vice City kicked in the 80's nolstalgia for me and made me really think of where I was at and what I was doing when much of that popular music and culture was going on (a lot of you were like 0-2 years old or something at the time). I remember getting on the PCJ for the first time and just riding around on it for hours thinking, "for a game that isn't necessarily about streetbikes this is the best street bike I have ever driven in a console video game". Also playability, I played Vice City avidly up until San Ans release (well after 100%) exploring every nook and cranny and stunting in every way imaginable, for all of San Ans new bells & whistles and increased size I just completed it at 100%, wrote a massive review and have only played it occasionally ever since. That's not to say it isn't an incredible effort, something's just..missing is all, though it escapes me just what it is.

 

So all things considered, Vice got my vote.

[Com:Sense]

GTA 3, due to its dark and original feel and its classic dub reggae sounds.

 

 

 

[street cheetah]

 

It’s not the size, it’s what you do with it that counts...

 

Vice wins for me but it is a toughie.

 

(plus) a bunch more writing...

 

This man knows what he's talking about.

 

 

[Medallion Man]

It’s not the size, it’s what you do with it that counts...

 

Vice wins for me but it is a toughie.

 

(plus) a bunch more writing...

 

This man knows what he's talking about.

You got that right.

 

Unfortunately it looks like the majority disagree with us, at this point it seems the inevitable is happening and San Andreas is walking away with it.

 

Oh well, they do say there’s no accounting for taste...

[~Neon~]

GTA:III, by far!

 

I started playing GTA back when GTA came out and loved it sooo much but I never realy got into it. I just loved it for the freedom and the fact that you could kill people and steel cars (I was young back then). Ultimatly, the best GTA of all time would have to be GTA for the sole reason that it was the begining. But, as the first post says, this is about my opinon.

 

And for me, the best GTA is GTA:III. I have so many great memories of that game, right from playing it for the first time around my friends house to modding the crap out of it till it would crash on PC and up to now being able to play through the whole game to 100% in a week.

 

The thing is, I never had a PS2 when it came out, so I never followed the release of it on PS2, but when I played it for the first time, I was hooked, my obsession had started. For months after I waited for evey bit of news I could about the game on PC, waiting hours to download every movie I could in high res over a 56k modem. I waited months and months for that game.

 

All of a suddon it was time for the game to come out. But no, it couldnt quite be as simple as that. It came out during my exams. I had to spend a whole day, sitting in a hot exam room doing crap exams I couldnt give a sh*t about and waiting for the clock to hit 20 past 3, time for me to run home to my PC to start playing, little did I know thats where I would spend the rest of my summer.

 

I was already a member here from befor it came out as a different name. So I was here when the modding section got big. I modded it so much. Waiting for those classic mods such a Odies great stunt park, one of the first map mods with custom objects in it. And illspirits Honda CRX I think it was, his first car, and my best modded car for any GTA.

 

Anyway, yeah, thats why I love GTA:III so much. For me, its just the game that game me the most fun over the years, and still does.

[CrazyDude]

GTA 2.

I could play that game for ever.

It was simple and fun.

[Trashguy]

GTA 3 Why: because it started the GTA3d ara.

[Bartleby]

 

Vice City is my all-time favorite. Some of my favorite missions reside in this game, and the storyline was great. A rags to riches crime game that was rather believable. Though GTA3 and San Andreas both have their own advantages as well, I think VC is the best one thus far.

 

[Tchuck]

I voted for the original GTA... It was more enjoyable to me, and was neverending, never got bored of it. After beating GTA3 and VC, they became pretty boring.