• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

GTA3 did not age very well

I only played GTAIII and Vice City on PC, until years later. On PC I think III would still hold up 100%. But on the PS2 the controls are absolutely horrendous.
 
But yeah, the gameplay is wonky as fuck, always has been. The shooting mechanics are just not right, the targeting system only works some of the time and you end up shooting at a random pedestrian or a wall as opposed to the thing you want to hit. Nobody reacts properly to getting shot until they keel over and die. Then there's just random unfairness/annoyances like certain areas where gang members recognise you with laser precision and a couple of shot gun shots later and your car is blown up, or being in about 5 feet of water and drowning, or trying to jump on to a boat to do a mission and the main character falls through the gap between the boat and the pier because the jumping mechanics are completely fucked.
So it's just like GTA IV and GTA V then.

And I love the games nowadays. But the movement, jumping, shooting, and AI sharpshooters are not very good.
 
So it's just like GTA IV and GTA V then.

And I love the games nowadays. But the movement, jumping, shooting, and AI sharpshooters are not very good.

Rockstar's games are doomed to age badly with the shitty controls they saddle them with. At least with GTA V they're most of the way to proper left trigger/right trigger dual analogue controls.
 
I agree lol but I still kind of like the nostalgia of the shit you know? Like it plays SOO BAD and I can't believe as a kid, I was in love with it but Idk, I have played that game over and over 10 different times and I still love it.
 
I'm playing GTA3 on PS4 right now (bought the trilogy from sale, going for a platinum in each of the 3 games) and I think that it aged very well. There are two things about GTA3 I don't like: PS2's shooting controls are terrible (PC version is much better in this area) and the fact that in the latter part of the game, when gangs hate you, there are some places in Liberty City, where being for more than a few seconds means instant death. Great example of bad game design. However, the city, soundtrack, missions and even graphics hold up really well.
 
The PS2 trilogy was on sale last week & I bought them, & I don't remember GTA3 being this bad, playing it is like torture, I first wanted to 100% it, but after playing it for an hour, I decided that I'll finish the main quests only, & it's still a slog to get through.

I'm not sure if I wanna play Vice City & San Andreas, I'd rather they stay as GOATs in my head than play them & realize how awful they are.

1. Get III and Vice City on PC.

2. Download the "Xbox Mods" for both, widescreen, and Ginput (Xinput)

3. ???

4. Profit

23732358124_5ca50dd0c8_o_d.png


24252324822_21cf97de42_o_d.png


Same can be done for GTA San Andreas, but with PS2 to PC mods (which have better car shaders than other versions).

24389814911_72df57f545_o_d.png
 
As others have pointed out, it still has this really particular atmosphere that holds up. Its uncanny valley instead of pure parody, and it has this rainy, grimy old modern pre-9/11 New York City feel that no other game has (Max Payne comes closest).
Yeah, the atmosphere in GTA3 is still unmatched. Pure, raw, and still feels like 90's
 
Replayed 3 last year, and had more fun than I did playing V

Yeah, the atmosphere in GTA3 is still unmatched. Pure, raw, and still feels like 90's
Definitely, 3 very much feels like old New York.Im amazed they managed to do that with such limited technology.
 
gta 3 aged poorly even when san andreas came out. The ps2 versions of these games are also pretty poor compared to later editions.
 

Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy X-2, and Ico just to name a few.


Super Mario World YO

Most don't, that's true. You'll get people listing some games but they're being very selective.

Many 2d games play just as good.

Half Life says hello.

First we need to accurately what we define as "aged". Graphically? Gameplay? Mechanics? Overall?

Second we need to take into account people's nostalgia factor, a lot of the games I see listed are no doubt something you grew up on, or played extensively. A game that has aged well is not something you enjoyed the most at the time, or it's in a soft spot in your heart.

The way I see aged, by definition, is that it stood the test of time, that it is on par with games of today, or as close to possible of whatever goal post we think in our minds that it should be. The whole idea of something ageing well in the end will just come to what we remember fondly with our rose tinted glasses. In other words there is no definitive way to say something has aged well or not, it just comes down to personal preference, there is no way to look at this objectively.

My 2 cents. I could be wrong on the whole matter as well, if so tell me how?

EDIT: If I were to really look at things from a neutral standpoint, no game has aged well at all. There are too many mechanics and improvements that has happened over the past decade+ that no game can truly stand up to what we consider the norm today.
 
There's a distinction between aging well, aging badly and just aging. Most games just age, their mechanics are improved upon, their controls refined, they still have frame rates passable by current standards etc.

Those that age well are the ones which still play the way you remember them - their controls still do exactly what you tell them, the frame rates are exactly the level the need to be and so on.

GTA 3 has aged atrociously. We put up with the fucked controls, lack of camera, barebones combat and what have you because it was so unbelievably ambitious for the time and was quite unlike anything we'd played up until then. The same can be said for GoldenEye and its astonishingly bad framerate.
 
I'd prefer remakes of that trilogy with current gen graphics rather than a sequel.

The series, for me has gone a little stale and i feel it has been overrated for a while.

Any other game with awful controls like in gta4/5 would get heavily criticised.

Gta3 was probably the best gta title in terms of characters and atmosphere as well as the game world design that could be memorised after mulitple plays.
This is how I feel. GTA4 was kind of a boring slog, and GTA5 was even worse. Most overrated overhyped game of all time by far (imo of course).

I have zero interest in a GTA6 at this point but a GTA3 remake with modern mechanics, etc may tickle my fancy.
 
This may vary nby person but to me of all issues with gta3 the main annoyance and number one problem is the camera.

The same issues that makes playing Vice City an issue for me.
 
When I try SA again I'm probably going to try my PS2 copy. I bought it on Steam when it was like $1 or something one time, but then I heard of everything Rockstar did to that version and what you have to put up with just to get it to the same state as the PS2 version.
 
Yeah I agree, but I also played GTA4 and GTA5 prior so the bar was set higher...for what they eventually improved on with the game.
 
That soundtrack though.

Head Radio with DJ Michael Hunt! The classic GTA theme from GTA 1 on Lips 106! Chatterbox! Double Clef FM!

GTA III has always had my favorite radio stations of the entire series, but I realize that has been a minority opinion since the day Vice City released.

Fucking Chatterbox, all of those bits are memorable and hilarious. Killer bees, Fernando's New Beginnings, Citizens Raging Against Phones, the guy that admits to eating the carrier pigeons the CRAP members were using to arrange meetings ("they're like little fortune cookies with wings"), the Australian-American war veteran, Reed Tucker trying to chop a desk in half, Freddy needs a nanny, finger puppets, the rally about nothing. So good. God damn.

I loved how they were able to get Lazlow and Fernando back into Vice City's radio.
 
I still remember playing GTA3 for the time around 2002. The sense of freedom was just amazing.

Soundtrack-wise, it was all about MSX FM for me - pure London pirate radio vibes.
 
Head Radio with DJ Michael Hunt! The classic GTA theme from GTA 1 on Lips 106! Chatterbox! Double Clef FM!

GTA III has always had my favorite radio stations of the entire series, but I realize that has been a minority opinion since the day Vice City released.

Fucking Chatterbox, all of those bits are memorable and hilarious. Killer bees, Fernando's New Beginnings, Citizens Raging Against Phones, the guy that admits to eating the carrier pigeons the CRAP members were using to arrange meetings ("they're like little fortune cookies with wings"), the Australian-American war veteran, Reed Tucker trying to chop a desk in half, Freddy needs a nanny, finger puppets, the rally about nothing. So good. God damn.

I loved how they were able to get Lazlow and Fernando back into Vice City's radio.

It surpasses VC and SA just off of nostalgia, hell the entire game still brings such fond memories of killing hookers and mobsters.
 
Trying to finally finish Vice City right now on the Trilogy pack that was on sale on PS4. Yeah it's definite jank at first but I've gotten used to it and it's perfectly capable.
 
Does any game age well after 15 years? I mean come on.

They age well if the mechanics are sound. GTA 3 mechanics were downright poor. As someone that played GTA 1, I was always amazed how infatuated people were with 3 considering 1 it had the similar jokey adult tone, radio stations, etc. Dat 3D perspective was enough to get people engrossed even though the mechanics of it all sucked

GTA 5 really is the first one that will hold water for while IMO. Controls were actually pretty good
 
I replayed GTA 3 on PC recently, and it's still one of my favorites. The driving and shooting never felt right to me until 5, but I really like the world and atmosphere in 3 and 4. I liked the silent protagonist, he didn't complain as much as the later ones. The cutscenes were short and to the point and kept things moving quickly, which is especially great for subsequent playthroughs.

I do kinda wish there was an in-game map, and the "find a mafia van" type objectives were bullshit in pretty much every game they showed up in.

Also, the shotgun is garbage, and the game suffers from technical issues like just about every GTA PC port.
 
You guys are all crazy. I boot up GTA3 every few months or so and drive around and do a few missions. It's such a solid game.

Then again I'm playing the PC and Android versions, which have some improvements that the PS2 version lacks.
 
I found that San Andreas didn't age that well when I bought its re-release recently. Then again, it was the mobile port and didn't run well.

I want Vice City remastered. If all three were it'd be amazing. But they are a bit dated nowadays.
 
I can't find any reliable info about the GTA series on the og XBOX. I know that the PC version of San Andreas has many graphical effects missing compared to the PS2 version (like the reflections on the cars). But what about the XBOX version?
 
I can't find any reliable info about the GTA series on the og XBOX. I know that the PC version of San Andreas has many graphical effects missing compared to the PS2 version (like the reflections on the cars). But what about the XBOX version?
Xbox version has better graphics I believe.
 
gta v is the only one that plays well to me

it's the only one of the campaigns I finished

the others were just about goofing off and digging the soundtracks until I got bored
 
It's aged better than San Andreas. God that game sucks why does everyone love it? The story is terrible. I literally hate every character in that story. There is not a single one you root for because they're all idiot douchebags.
 
Top Bottom