Your First GTA Memories

[thehambone]

I'm curious to know your first memories of GTA!

 

My first memory of GTA occured at my cousin's house in the summer of 2004. I was rather young at the time -- about 9 years old. My cousin was probably 14 or 15. I remember him telling me how he had this awesome game and wanted to show it to me. What he had was Grand Theft Auto III for PS2. I watched him play for a bit and was completely amazed by the game. The cars, the 3D world, the ability to roam around the world freely; all of that caused me to immediately fall in love with the game!

 

At that time in my life, I had a PS1 and I played car-themed games like Need for Speed and Driver. I think Driver 2 was my favorite game when I was introduced to GTA III. Being a PS1 game, Driver 2 is very restrictive: there is a very limited selection of cars, very poor graphics, sluggish gameplay, etc. GTA III immediately hit home with me because it had all that Driver had and so much more! (minus the incredibly sh*tty storyline)

 

One thing I distinctly remember doing on one of my first plays of GTA III (I played it a hell of a lot after he showed it to me) was pushing a Trashmaster into the water near Portland Harbor by running into the back of it on foot. I thought to myself, "Wow! You can't push cars like that in Driver 2. Awesome!" I simply loved the game mechanics because they were so much of an improvement to what I had been used to playing. I also remember my cousin picking up a hooker in a Landstalker or some other truck. I probably didn't understand what he was doing at the time, but I didn't care!

 

Since my cousin lived across the country, I was kind of bummed when my family and I left for home. For some reason, asking my parents for a PS2 wasn't something I wanted to do. Maybe because I knew that GTA was a "bad" game and that they would've most likely rejected if I had asked them to buy me a PS2 and GTA III directly.

 

In an awesome chain of events, I discovered a few weeks after I got home that one of my best friends had GTA III. We were playing HORSE or some other game involving a basketball (but not actual basketball lol) when he did some fake fall on the ground and uttered the word "wasted". He kind of whispered it under his breath. I thought to myself, "Where have I seen or heard that word recently?" Then the light bulb went off in my head and I quickly asked him, "Wait a minute, do you have GTA III?" He replied "Yeah! You want to play it?" and we dropped the basketball and ran inside to play it.

 

Since then, GTA III has been and always will be one of my most favorite games.

[The Deadite]

I was little and i went to a internet cafe with a friend,they had some games and i choose to play gta 2.

Nedless to say i was really amused,i loved just f*cking around there,never played a game where you just do "nothing", i always found the hidden tank via friends tips ,shoot the npcs from close,to see them fly to the screen,never bothered to pass the second mission,i remember a bank robbery (stick guy enters a biilding ,everyone screams, he leaves), the wasted screen and the engaging dialogue of those masterpieces.

 

Not to mention that the guy farted a lot.

Edited March 20, 2015 by Midnight Hitman

[Yu Jian]

It's a little hazy. I had a PS2 and bought GTA III/VC within the same time period, at a very young age. So I guess I should say my parents bought it. I loved GTA III, the gameplay was incredible, second to none. I didn't get very far into it until I replayed it 6 years ago. Vice City got me hooked, I loved the music and the way the game felt. Would spend a lot of time driving up and down the beach. I found it relatively easy so I did complete it after I bought it.

 

PSP came out, I was stoked to get it. Here comes LCS, and it's awesome, back in Liberty City with another Italian guy who was overshadowed by Salvatore Leone, who took the spotlight. Gameplay was great...loved the side missions, all of it. I was still obviously hooked. So I was ecstatic when I VCS came out the following year. I think to this day, VCS is the best of the III era. I never mentioned SA, but I didn't really "love" it until I started SAMP in 2007. I wasn't a fan of the plot and never enjoyed the black gang culture thing so it didn't stick with me. Back to VCS, I couldn't put it down. Getting chased by Sharks, haha. Lance/Vic are both stellar characters.

 

So after the two PSP GTAs came out is when I'd say I was hooked. I would lurk here often and be modding, playing SAMP servers.

[Osho]

My first introduction to GTA, right?

:

Introduced to GTA when I was around a very young age. It was vacation at that time when I was playing Battle city with my friends, and one of them bought GTA 2 to try. It was like just another game to waste my time at first, but once I started playing it, I was f*ckin' impressed and got addicted instantly. Simple on looks yet still keeps me entertained even after so many years.

 

E: To remove the off-topic portions.

Edited March 20, 2015 by Osho

[Miekka]

Fall 2003 playing Vice City with my brother. Was his birthday.

[universetwisters]

This.

 

[GTA-Biker]

The first time I´ve heard about GTA was around summer 2003,when one of my friends from school got GTA 3 and told me about it,how you play as a thug,roaming the city,stealing cars,shooting people,beating up hobos with a baseball bat...As I mostly played platformers (like Super Mario,Crash Bandicoot,Spyro The Dragon) and some other genres of games like fighting games,racing games or first person shooters on my old PS1 and SNES before,I had no idea open world games like GTA even exist and was instantly impressed by what he told me.

The first GTA I played was GTA 2,that same guy borrowed it to me a few weeks after telling me about GTA 3.At the time I didn´t have PC,so I couldn´t play GTA 3.

The first GTA game I got for myself was GTA VC,around the summer 2005 (I´ve actually heard about it in late 2004,but I couldn´t find it anywhere at the time).Since I just got a PC in 2004 and I still didn´t have the internet,so at the time I didn´t know there was already GTA SA until I read about it in some magazine a few months after hearing about VC.

[ROCKSTAR MANIC]

This.

 

 

That Give's me Goosebumps to this day... The memories that will never be forgotten.

 

GTA 2 being the first game i played. After some time.. I totally forgot about video games. a year later i heard 3 was soon going to be released. But I didn't not one time research how the gameplay was going to be. You know topdown to 3d. So when i first played it that transition to 3d had me to shock and awe moment.. Never forget Guru's (8 ball) Most Famous lines.

[/\rdooZ]

Ah,my first memories.Good times,good times...
My first GTA was GTA San Andreas.I played it when i was 6 years old.That week,i had bought my first PC and one of my friends gave me SA.When i just entered the game,i knew it would be a masterpiece.Three cities,customizable protagonist,much cars and weapons,living the dream.My friends had it too,but since english wasn't our native language they just blew sh*t up on the streets with cheats.In the entire neighborhood,i was the only one that actually played the story.My mom and dad didn't know about the violence and when they would come in my room i just drived peacefully in my car or entered the menu.I never played in a PC before,so i remember getting stuck in Drive Thru for 1 week.The airplane school took me 6 FREAKING months,while one of the heist missions with an airplane and a Salvatore's mission with airplane(jump from one to another)took me 3 months each.After i completed the game,i played GTA VC and III and started getting really interested in GTA.Hell,i learned english from GTA.Anyways,i will always remember the first game that i ever played in a PC:Grand theft auto:San Andreas,a true masterpiece.

[woggleman]

I was one of the first people in my circle to get a PS2 and I was looking for games after I just beat MGS2. I saw GTA III and I decided why not. I got home and must have played it at least six hours straight. It blowed me away. Here was this game where you can do anything and make your own fun. It was also fun playing a crime based game based in NYC where I was living at the time. Since then I loved the series and they have yet to let me down.

[.Ryan.]

 

 

Even after nearly 2 decades I can still remember this song word for word.

[D418]

When I was about 6 or 7, my sister’s boyfriend at the time(in their 20's) gave me GTA: Vice City and San Andreas for my new PS2. They were a lot different than playing Spyro on PS1. I’m surprised my parents let me play them. I remember my dad playing SanAndreas and having a shootout with police under the Mulholland intersection. I also remember not being able to pass Cesar Vailpando and Life’s a Beach for months, then getting stuck on the flight school for years, I was so happy when I finally passed it…then I accidentally deleted my save file instead of loading it……R.I.P controller. A while later, I replayed and finished the story with no problem. I also loved playing the 2player mode with friends.

In Vice City I mostly messed around at the beach and police station, I later tried to complete the story but got stuck at the part where you have to buy all the businesses and had no idea what to do, so I gave up and went back to playing Burnout 3 and Spider-man 2.

I played both SA & VC so much that they stopped working; I rebought San Andreas a year or so later along with Liberty City stories and Vice City Stories.

Edited March 22, 2015 by D418

[lastmanonearth]

I was ten or so years old and I played it at a cousin`s place. It was the first GTA but I didn`t even know its title, all that stuck was how thrilling it was to free roam indefinitely without the game being over if I didn`t kill all the enemies in a certain time and such, like how most games of that time were. This was way back in `98 I think. Later, as soon as I found out that the game was called GTA, I got GTA II and couldn`t let go of it to go eat, so I began to suffer blackouts from malnutrition. When GTA III came out, it wasn`t publicized so it caught me as a big surprize to hear that the local internet cafe had it. I went to play it with the kid who told me about it at school and I couldn`t believe my eyes when I saw it, so they almost had to pry me out of the internet cafe because I wouldn`t leave it was so much fun! It was the first open world 3D game I had ever seen and it felt like cheating real life. LOL

Edited March 22, 2015 by bored_killed

[Niko Montana]

"After five years on the east coast, it was time to go home..." - CJ

Even after an entire decade, this still gives me chills down my spine.

[lastmanonearth]

"After five years on the east coast, it was time to go home..." - CJ

Even after an entire decade, this still gives me chills down my spine.

I`m glad I didn`t start with SA like you because then I don`t know if I`d appreciate the earlier GTAs like III and I and II. Still, there`s no such thing as late to the party.