How did you discover GTA?

[gam3r4life]

My apologies if this is a duplicate topic; I searched, but didn't come across this question.

 

Well, I was wondering how some of you became GTA fans because my story is ironic, if not funny...

 

I landed a job fresh out of college, full of all the ideals & philosophies that my professors were paid to pass along as canon.

During my 1st year on the job, I overheard my students' conversations as I was taking roll. I heard snatches of excited conversation like, "car bounces," "get your money back," and then... "prostitute."

 

At that moment, I looked up and asked, "What are you talking about??"

Almost all the students piped up at once to fill me in; but one cleared it all up by saying 3 words that have remained a part of my life ever since:

"Grand Theft Auto!"

 

Gotta be honest: I was mortified. Prostitutes? Cars that bounce after you invite them in??

And so, in my most professional, teacher-y voice, I announced that I would buy the game to examine this terrible thing they were playing.

I was going to make certain that their parents understood what was in the game.

 

One student piped up, "I'm too busy to play lately, I can loan you mine tomorrow..."

 

Two weeks later, she had to ask for it back.

At which point, I bought my own copy.

 

So... how about you?

[Mati]

Well, GTA was one of the first games I ever played. My cousin brought it with him. He forgot his memory card, so we had to start a new game. And soon I saw it: Two guys and a Kuruma on the bombed Callahan Bridge. Amazing. This is where it all started. I did a few missions, then some free roam. I discovered stealing cars, hitting people, shooting people, prostitutes, hidden packages... I <3 GTA.

[Narcis_speed6]

Two guys and a Kuruma on the bombed Callahan Bridge. Amazing. This is where it all started.

Exactly how I first remember gta, I first played it in a internet cafe.

[VercettiCrimeFamily]

I was about 8 years old when my brother brought home GTA III I played it but I did not play the missions but just drove around ( badly ) may add

[shahmen]

Yeah, i remember my big brother got home from the local game store with GTA VC and III he showed me and i did 4-5 mission and then i moved up to GTA San Andreas the best one yet

[Kerlun]

My girlfriend played GTA VC on her dads computer than I get intrested, than I bought it

I still remember that she got angry when she drived a bus and I pressed enter and she got busted and got angry

GTA SA is completely the best/funniest, would have been better if they made SA instead of IV, much funnier map but with more polygons like IV

Edited January 27, 2011 by Kerlun

[Linki]

I was at my sisters friends house and my sisters friend told me to play with her little brother (who was 8, I was 9). He was playing GTA 3 on PS2. I only had a Gamecube at the time. He hogged it like the spoiled little sh*t he was, but I was amazed by the violence and freedom.

 

Anyway, a year later I bought a PS2. I had good selection of games with it because the PS2 and it's games were very cheap at the time. But I decided to get GTA. I told my sister to buy it at our local shopping center while I was at school, I said I'll pay her back. She gave it to me after school. I was ecstatic and nervous because if my mother saw it I don't think she would like it (eventually I told her and she didn't give a sh*t). I put it in and saw all the images of the skanky Misty and guns/explosions, this was my first foray into "mature" games.

 

The game started, I watched the thrilling opening cut-scene and I was told to drive by the injured 8-Ball. I got in and heard the radio start. I drove terribly and it took me much longer than it should have to get to the safehouse. But along the way I was amazed the by the driving, the crashing damage, the city and the freedom. It felt like I was in an actual city, this feeling has only been matched by GTA 4 unsurprisingly.

 

So yeah, I've been immersed in GTA and anything R* delivers ever since.

[StarFyer]

the commercial for GTA III looked cool. i started reading reviews for it and it was getting high praise. i bought it and i've been hooked ever since.

 

 

[XTREME0235]

Mines a bit long, but please don't skip or skim through it.

I remember this distinctly.

 

One day me (about 7 or 8 years old) and my mum (i think my bro as well) went to the local video store to rent out a few movies to watch and of course me and my brother always went to the game section first.

 

So as i was looking around for maybe another racing game or another game that just involved cars; i saw this game art cover that just stood out from the rest, and i saw the big words on the front "Grand Theft Auto Vice City"

 

I said to myself "Hmm, okay." so i picked it up and looked at the back of the cover to see the pictures and at that very moment my eyes just lit up O_O. I went to my mum and said "can we please rent this, please!"

 

At the time she had already rented out a few movies and said no, but lucky for me my birthday was only about 2 weeks away.

I didn't ask for GTA VC for my birthday nor did i ever expect it, but my mum wrapped it up in purple parer inside a purple box, and i still place my copy of Vice City in that box to this very day in all it's glory once i have finished paying it.

 

Little extra: I also remember when i was about halfway through Vice City, i needed to get permission from my mum to shoot the characters heads off I remember being so excited to shoot a characters head off as soon as she said yes and the very first character to suffer was a policemen and my weapon of choice was the M4. I swear the policemen in Vice City look so uptight and ignorant up close...

 

XTREME0235.

Edited January 27, 2011 by XTREME0235

[Nefarious Money Man]

I must've been about 9 or 10 and I remember walking down the road to hear two of my friends (who were about two or three years older than me at the time) talking about a game that at first I thought they had made up since it sounded like one big pre adolescent fantasy as they described working for the mob and killing prostitutes and drug dealers with Uzis and rocket launchers.. I just remember thinking "I have to play this game!!". I got a loan of it off one of the parties involved and was sternly warned by him not to let my mother find it as if it were one of those grainy old VHS tapes containing 3 full hours of intercut scenes of outdated hardcore eastern european pornography that we used to pass around back in the day.

 

I remember putting the game into my bulky first generation playstation (1) console and starting it up. I was initially a little bit disappointed at being met with a cartoonish top down fusion of loud and garish colours that my brain was attempting to formulate into something tangiable rather than the borderline psychotic pre teen wet dream that I had conjured up after hearing the game described by my two friends and quite frankly I would've rathered being given a copy of budapest bush fest '89 but as I began to play it more and more I grew increasingly addicted to it's brash humour, comic violence and unparralelled freedom, which I had never before experienced in a game.. and the fact that playing it was somewhat forbidden also spurned on my addiction even more. As much as I played I could never actually advance very far (until I entered the words "hangthedj" into the cheat menu after being advised to do so by a classmate) but I never really got bored of the game which is something that I still find with GTA IV today.

 

At that time I was very young and easily impressed (although I was still able to laugh at the newspaper reports which made the game out to be the most detrimental thing to childhood development since spina bifida) but I still loved GTA more than most of the other games I played.. something that has stayed true as I grow increasing older and eagerly wait to play the next installment. In some ways I wish I had've been coming of age around the release time of GTA III as I would've avoided my initial disappointment when playing the game due to the more realistic 3D rendering of the Junkies, Uzis and Prostitutes that it contained but I'm still glad I was around for the mass hysteria and OTT media backlash that came with the original.. an equally enjoyable experience.

[Mokrie Dela]

i HATED gta

 

my mate played #1 and he told me on the way to school about "driving into a spray thing and losing the police"

I thought WTF?

I played it and it wasn't bad. Wasnt a massive fan, but it was alright.

 

Then GTAIII came along and it blew me away. played it round a mates on his PS2. WOW he had a ps2! i had a gameboy color....

We loved it so much we started drawing our own gta maps

 

Then Vice - i spent AGES looking at trailers and screenies pre release - i became known as a nerd obsessed with the game

 

SA i managed to go months without even touching, waiting for it for christmas. I got it and that too was amazing.

 

Now IV is here and its even better. I've JUST bought SA for the 5th time on XBLA, at half price, in a "R* sale" Now, is there an invincibilty cheat for it? haha

 

WIN

[LuisBellic]

I first played it when I was at my homie TJ's house in maybe 2005 or 2006. We first played VC and San Andreas, I killed someone with flowers but the first time I played I thought it sucked that's only because I wasn't good at the game.

[Kwandilibro]

I'm pretty sure the first time I played GTA was III. I remember playing it at my mom's friend's house with her song, who was at least 10 (I was only 6). Of course, I thought "Whoa, this is awesome. You can kill people, steal cars, and drive tanks!". So I proceeded to f*ck around and get killed a few times, on top of shooting the sh*t out of police officers who felt the need to chase me for no reason.

[EvilDynasty]

my first gta game was vice city and first thing i did was go to the mall and shoot the P.I.G.'s

 

then I got gta 3 1 year later

 

this was around in 2002-2004 era

 

gta 3 was awesome but f*cking tough I couldn't get past the E2G mission where u have to blow coffee stands damn near impossible

 

then I got san andreas my fav one

 

I like gangsta sh*t and the intro mission was so cooool (am trying to get it for ps2/pc again because my disc f*ckd up, it's so hard to find it in some stores, so I'm trying to find it in some indy stores)

 

then i got gta 4 with a ps3 back in 2008 where gta 4 just came out

 

and EFLC in april 2010 and that was cool

[kailomonkey]

Didn't hear about it, just played it. GTA the original on a friend's PC, and his brother (and brother's friends) set up a LAN for playing it against eachother sometime. Flame thrower on Hare Krishna's was the highlight of gameplay. Liked it so got it for my PS when I saw it at some point; I didn't have a PC. Got London for PS a while later.

[Finn 7 five 11]

I remember going into my brothers room when i was like 8 (i think) and he was playing the PlayStation1 and drinking Redbull, he left the room and said i could have a go, and i played for a few hours, but i didn't play again, since my brother moved out shortly after, and he was never around to set-up the PlayStation for me when he did live there.

 

My dad bought me a PS2 i think it was at christmas, 2000, (we needed a dvd player so it sort of doubled for that).

Anyway GTA III was released around the time of my 10th birthday (29th of October), my older Brother bought it for me a few days after my birthday, i have been genuinely hooked ever since, buying each succession of Grand Theft Auto as they came out.

Thinking back i am wondering how my brother managed to get gTA III in Australia so shortly after it was released considering they didn't sell it in Australia until like a year later, he must have gone to a bit of effort to get that...

 

 

At the time she had already rented out a few movies and said no, but lucky for me my birthday was only about 2 weeks away.

I didn't ask for GTA VC for my birthday nor did i ever expect it, but my mum wrapped it up in purple parer inside a purple box, and i still place my copy of Vice City in that box to this very day in all it's glory once i have finished paying it.

 

Wow, You still have your original disc? Unfortunately for me my Vice city was totally trashed by my sister, and San Andreas was wrecked because i stupidly lent it to friends.

I still have my Original GTA III though, had to buy another PS2 to play that just a few weeks ago.

[kailomonkey]

 

...and San Andreas was wrecked because i stupidly lent it to friends...

I hate how this always happens. If i borrow something I treat it so carefully and respectfully. What are people's problems!

 

Oh and the only GTA my mum bought me was Liberty City Stories which she got by mistake when i spotted San Andreas as a recommended buy in this catalogue/club thing which made it worth getting. I hated it as Ihadn't played GTA III at that time and being a PSP convert it just seemed really below the game I was looking forward to. Once I bought the old-school GTA III some years later though, I appreciated it much, much, much more...

Edited January 28, 2011 by kailomonkey

[Raptomex]

My uncle had Vice City and I fell in love with it.

[G The Generous]

when i was a kid,i always go to internet cafe to play game,and just saw some guy play GTA III.i'm very like it because you can do anything you want,i just can play it for a few time because people won't allow kid bellow 18 to play that game

and when i got my own PC,i start to looking for this game,but it very hard for me to get this game because i haven't 18 yet.for a long time later i ask my brother to borrow his GTA cd,and my dream come true,i remember i was so happy since i got the cd

[bobgtafan]

Somehow throughout all the years I still have the orginal Vice City my granddad bought for me all those years ago, it was the first GTA I ever played and my life has been changed ever sense. I will always keep that damn copy.

[Magic_Al]

Saw San Andreas for Xbox after it was a "platinum hit" (bargain bin) and recognized the name from Hillary Clinton saying something about it. Decided to see what the fuss was about and accidentally discovered the best game ever.

[RIGHT FOR ONCE]

I think it was from seeing Lewis Black's segment "Back In Black" on the Daily Show shortly after State of Emergency was released. He went through a bunch of games then at the end of the segment, he showed a clip from GTAIII and said "This is GRAND THEFT AUTO THREE..." and it got a huge ovation from the studio audience.

[NickRad]

Played it at a friends house and was amazed

[australiadreamin]

I first played GTA I on my PC. It didn't seem like much then, but I always knew there was something more to it.

[grand theft awesome]

Haha playing GTAIII and VC at dad's when I was definately not old enough, haha.

[Mr.Anonymous]

The first time I played GTA ( GTA I ) was when I was, like, 6 or 7 years old in a internet cafe. So, yeah, that was how I discovered this amazing video game.

 

Good times.

 

[buzbegone]

I remember when I was 5, my brother and sister were 8 and 4 years older, respectively. My brother downloaded the demo I think when it came out and we played the absolute sh*t out of it and one shopping trip, he finally bought it, unlocking all 3 cities. We were all sh*tting ourselves with joy.

In about '02, I accidently came across GTA2 installed onto our PC. Fired it up and couldn't believe it had been there all this time.

Didn't actually get hooked into GTA pre-teen until '04 when I asked my parents to buy me VC for my birthday. I remember getting lost into the rain, leaf links and the upbeat jingle popups that show you how to jump.

[Girish]

My friend introduced me to GTA III. He showed me how cool it was to have complete freedom in a game and blow up random stuff. Back then, it wasn't like any game that I had experienced before and I was completely in awe of it. I immediately borrowed it and tried it out on my PC. But alas, my old PC was too weak even for III. I had to give up. After that, I only played it in bits and pieces at my friend's place. A year or two later, I upgraded my PC and discovered this new GTA game called San Andreas. There was no looking back. I have been hooked ever since.

[Vercetti27]

my friend bought san andreas and I had a go on it, ever since I've been addicted as hell, going back to play the earlier games

[na89340qv0n34b09q340]

San Andreas was very popular back around 2005ish, so one day i decided i'd go out and buy it. 'Twas a good choice.