A bit late on the ball here but yeah I picked this up the first week it came out. I've got to admit though that I was little dissapointed at first. My initial impressions were 'too linear' and 'not enough fun'. I always felt the GTA series took a big hit in the fun department when they decided to go 3d although I guess the move to polygons was innevitable if they wanted to push the series. I remember putting countless hours into the original GTA, just me a couple close friends huddled around the playstation. Most of the time we weren't even doing missions, just messing around and having fun. Having to struggle with 3d control mechanics and cameras with their limited view angle really removed a lot of the instant gratification of the game imo.
I like to give all new games a fair chance though so I kept with it. After a couple hours of playing I got myself into one scenario which had me almost crying with laughter. It was when I decided to take that lady out for a second date and the whole obsurdness and twisted humour of the game really started to kick in. So there I was trying to make a good impression on her so I figure I'd go to the clothes shop and buy some new garb with my dirty blood money. After getting tarted up I left the shop, took one good look at my car parked up on the street and thought to myself "now who's going to be impressed getting picked up in that scrap heap on wheels". Off I set around the city to find myself a nice sports car to dazzle her with. After spotting one parked up at red lights I casualy strolled over, opened the door, and ragged the driver out onto the street before climbing in myself. At this point, said driver understandably miffed at me starts shouting obscenaties at me. "I'm not standing for that, I'm a big hard mobster" I think to myself so I slam on the breaks, jump out, and proceed to punch the guy repeatedly in the nose till he's on the floor twitching. Still not happy I then climb back into my car and reverse over his prone body only to throw the car into first and drive over him again the other way. "I'm such a nice respectable guy" I think to myself as I go to pick up my date.
So I finally arrive at her house and am faced with the choice of where to take her. I know, I'll take her to a nice bar for a drink, that'll be fun, and maybe if she gets a bit tippsy herself I might get lucky. Shortly after, we arrive at this dingy looking bar, not the best place for a date but it'll have to make do. After a few drinks it turns out I'm completely rat-arsed and she hasn't even had touched a drop, but still I'm the one who's somehow got to take her home .... figures. It would help if I could even get out of the front door since I'm stumbling around all over the place and falling over every few seconds whilst she patiently follows me. I finally manage to get to the car and in the first good idea I'd had all day decided that maybe it wasn't so good if I drive. So there I am stumbling around in the middle of the road shouting all kinds of curse words at taxi drivers to get them to stop. I bet my date is falling in love with me more and more every second she spends with me. Finaly I manage get one to stop by getting run over by it, an effective if somewhat crude method. Its at that point I fumble with the controls and instead of climbing in the back seat I instead proceed to forcefully eject the taxi driver from his own cab right infront of the bird I'm hopeing to get lucky with. Amazingly she climbs in the passanger seat and after running many red lights and ramming many other drivers of the road I at last manage to get her home .... right up to her front door ..... by ramming said taxi into it.
It was at that point the game really clicked with me and I now find it a real joy to play. The missions are still a bit boring and linear in my opinion but I love just pratting about and absorbing the atmosphere of the game. A worthy addition to anyones game collection. Only wish I had more time to play it since I've got so many games and hobbies but so little time.
(wow that turned into a bit of an essay. If you actualy read all that I'm impressed)
