At least 3 caveats before I begin:
1) I just finished Morrowind, the most open ended game I have ever played.
2) I am a self proclaimed PC snob, I have owned Atari 2600, 5200, Nintendo, Super Nintendo and Genesis but my gaming world changed when I purchased my first PC.
3) The last console port I bought was FFVII.... sorry but it was fair at best and the cutscenes on my Voodoo 2 card plain out made me want to gag, so I have been tainted before.
Those things said, I couldn't resist buying GTA3 based on the incredible reviews I have seen on Game Rankings in the recent months for the PS2. If you want to save yourself some time and forget the rest of this home spun review, go pick it up if A) you like a little violence in your games and B)You believe half of what you hear about the PS2 and now the PC version of this game. I will break this into 4 areas Graphics/Sound, Gameplay, Bang for Buck and Personal View.
Graphics/Sound - Not seeing the PS2 graphics and knowing I have the ability to run at higher resolutions(and do) I must say I am still impressed, if not by the graphics themselves then by the differences in the areas, the damage on the cars and the graphic but semi cartoonish amimations on all the inhabitants of Liberty City you massacre at your whim during the game. I thought I was getting another please help me FFVII port but was pleasantly surprised. The sounds are great, not the people who repeat themselves constantly but what can be expected when you are running over hundreds every game day, I have enjoyed the subtle sounds of the city the people interacting, the birds, the screeches of cars, and the regular sounds of people being run over. One note on the sound I have had many occasions when the sound becomes like a poorly tuned radio signal but do not know if it is me or a common prolem in the game. Overall 7.5 NOTE: I HAVE HAD ZERO PROBLEMS WITH MY GAME CRASHING OR SEVERE SLOWDOWNS DURING RAIN OR HEAVY ACTIVITY BUT DO KNOW THEY EXIST AND CAN SEVERLY HAMPER GAMEPLAY.
Gameplay - The missions are easy, IMHO, they get more difficult (I am at the last main mission) but still basically easy (I use MOHAA Omaha Beach and Sniper's Last Stand as my current standards of difficulty) and are only difficult due to the inability to save during the mission it adds a great deal of time to each mission. I can not tell you the number of times I have finished 2/3, 3/4 of a mission only to either have something stupid happen (i.e. cars pulling in front of me as if I wasn't driving and actiing like a complete maniac) or stupid things I do (i.e. think I can get across a jump only to miss and either swim with the sharks or explode) The missions have been wonderfully varied and because there is not a particular order that they must be played in gives you some control on how you personally want to attack the game. Overall 8.5
Bang for Buck - This is a SINGLEPLAYER game and still appears to have 40 plus hours of game time, so although it is not Morrowind (I made Morrowind my full time job for a while in early June) it is much longer than recent games of this type that I have played. Overall (guess) 8.
Personal View - This would be a great game even as a PC only title due to the openendedness of mission completion, a great variety of types of missions, solid if not cutting edge graphics, and the differences between vehicles (I still can't get over how each car 'drives' differently and how I have choosen my favorites to steal). To me, this is not the greatest game to ever grace planet earth like I have read about the PS2 version (hell maybe for the PS2 it is the greatest game ever) but all the same it is a must buy if only to get the foul taste of FFVII out of my mouth after all of these years. Overall 9.
Last notes for everyone who has bothered to stick with the review this long. I believe at this point that GTA3-PC is the same game as GTA3-PS2. If this is true (most reviews I have read indicate that this is the case and one personal friend who sickly enough has both states the same) then why does the PS2 get higher marks? My thought? Console games are for some reason held to a somewhat lessor standard than PC games... Why does it matter? because some of us (me included) who are big PC gamers but don't give in the the console market (even for Halo) believe that games like BG1, Half-Life, Dues Ex, either Thief, High Heat, or even System Shock 2 are as good as anything the console offers but don't get the same accolades (and in my opinion better games). Sorry, I jumped on my pulpit and preached. Enjoy the mayhem of GTA3.
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