Submitted 6 months ago by gregorum@lemm.ee to retrogaming@lemmy.world
GTA 3 is shit compared to Vice City
Like… Duh? Vice City came later. They figured more shit out. By the time San Andreas dropped, they practically perfected the formula. Then for some reason they forgot that formula when they released 4. But their amnesia wore off with 5.
Well… Technically that shit was 3D. Buildings, signs, and fences had perspective. And the streets looked pretty sweet in level editors that allowed one to move the camera to ground view. If one didn’t mind seeing flat cars and flat people, because those were 2D.
Anyway, I’m just being annoyingly pedantic as an excuse to share some nostalgic memories of that game. Don’t mind me.
gta 1isthe best
goruanga!
I had a similar feeling when replaying 3, VC and SA a couple years ago. I thoroughly enjoyed SA and VC, but 3 just had a kinda... depressing atmosphere? I don't know how to best describe it, I guess it's due to the main character never talking and thus having very little personality. Claude basically does whatever he's told by whatever person he's working for at the time, at some point there's a falling out and Claude leaves everyone dead in his wake. When I play VC and SA, I get the feeling of playing in a world that is alive, where the main character makes friends, but in 3 after the story was finished I had a hard time thinking of any characters that were still alive. I still think 3 was impressive from a technological standpoint.
Of course, I might be remembering this wrong since it's been some time, and there's also some nostalgia since I played SA and VC when I was young, but not 3.
Games, as with all creative media, by default improve over time as people learn what makes something enjoyable. I think people tend to forget that. So I think for older games, you have to keep 2 “ratings” in your head - how was it compared to the games at the time, and how is it compared to games now?
I loved GTA3 when I played it. But that was back then. I’m not sure if I would say the same thing now, comparing it to modern games.
I get that people like to clown on all the remakes and remasters that are coming out, and for the most part, rightly so. But I also think it’s really important to encourage high quality remakes for this exact reason - when a good game ages poorly, it doesn’t feel quite right to just tell new, younger players to deal with it if they want to figure out what the hype is about
In no way am I advocating that they change the game. I appreciate your view on the matter.
Yeah, 3 is -rough-
I loved it in its day, but it did not age well.
“early gen” 3D - ps2 era, really didn’t age well imo. like you’re finding with GTA3
Even at the time I found the contortions they put themselves into to avoid your protagonist from either speaking or having a name to be equal parts sad and hilarious.
I wasn’t big on it at release, but a lot of people were. In hindsight, there was still too much of the earlier DNA in the game: a lot of people just talking at you, and otherwise mostly a focus on driving around and shooting things. It wasn’t engaging enough for someone like me that mostly played RPGs.
The move to 3D was impressive, though, and a necessary step for not just the series but a lot of games of the generation. Now that they had a big hit, they were able to take big swings by bringing in Ray Liotta and all the elements to make an amazing period piece with Vice City.
I never liked missions in any of the GTA games I’ve played (haven’t played 4 and 5). Even as a kid I hated doing those missions. Don’t think Vice City is much better in this respect than 3.
snooggums@midwest.social 6 months ago
You are making a comparison of a groundbreaking first attempt at a new type of open workd game to the later versions that improved on the model. That means the first one wasn’t trash, because you enjoyed it at the time, it just isn’t as good as what followed.
Pistcow@lemm.ee 6 months ago
The voice acting in NES Super Mario Bros. Was absolute shit compared to Mario Odyssey…
gregorum@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Wait, GTA III came before VC?
PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Yes
over_clox@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Yep. Also, in case you didn’t know, they made something of a port of Vice City for the PSP, called Vice City Stories (VCS).
It’s effectively the same exact map and loosely the same game, but with a different main character and totally different missions. Some changes to the available vehicles as well.
Bonus points for VCS, they added in a BMX bicycle as an optional vehicle, and you can even do some crude bike tricks on it! 👍