#sorry got shot with the rpg before I could finish my sentence

[ricketycr1cks]

And if I say Mac grew up equating love to cigarette burns and absent fathers and getting told to toughen up, that Mac doesn’t understand love that isn’t conditional, love without equal parts hate or distaste, that never in his life has Mac understood earnest love, that even though Dennis isn’t trying to, he often ends up re-confirming this idea in Macs head, that love is hatred, that-

[benx101cool]

An idea for a story that I was thinking of trying to make. The Internet Escapades. Chapter 1: The Beginning.

   The day started out like any other day after the first day of summer. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the keys were clicking away on the computers of Nick, Antonio, and Ben. The three of them were friends since they first met in elementary school and they all shared one thing in common. They loved spending time on the internet. Something about the sheer vastness of information combined with the ability to do almost anything seemed so alluring to the trio. 

   Antonio was the typical smart kid who loved math. He spent most of his time online looking at prices of collectibles and seeing how much they were worth as well as using the information to determine trends and interests. Nick was not like Antonio as he preferred action to numbers. He played RPGs and first person shooter games while learning other players moves. Then there was Ben who was neither a smart number cruncher nor a predicting man. He spent his time browsing the web looking at anything that was cool or neat to watch, play, or create. When he wasn’t doing that, he was playing a game that allowed the user to create almost anything out of blocks. This was the game that the three of them spent most of their time on. The three of them spent their time creating their own town in the game. Antonio was in charge of designing the layout, Nick was in charge of gathering materials and fighting any monsters that would appear, and Ben was the person who built anything that would be in the city. 

   The day started out like any other day, they all met at the local library and spent most of their day their, then gathered their belongings and walked back to Ben’s house. “Hey guys,” Nick said, “I wanted to show you something that I found while exploring a dungeon yesterday.” 

    “What is it?” said Ben.

“Nick pulled out a notebook and gave it to Antonio and Nick. The two of them opened it up and looked through the pages as they kept walking down the sidewalk. Inside was lines of different words and numbers lined up to be set up as code. 

“What the heck is this man?” Antonio asked, “you found code just lying around in the game? How? That shouldn’t even be possible with how spawning items works.”

“I don’t know man,” Nick said, “but all I know is that the book said to type the code into three different creation blocks by three different users as well as being put into a code engine on three different computers. Then activate all three at the same time.”

“Dude this sounds like bull, what did the book even say what the code would do. For all we know, this code just corrupts  our world and deletes system thirty-two on our laptops.” said Ben.

“It’s supposed to allow us to view things in the game that wouldn’t be viewable before.” Nick said.

Antonio and Ben looked at each other and then back to Nick. The whole thing seemed too good to be true and the three of them hadn’t done a lot of code besides implementing inventory recovery and duplication glitches.

“Come on guys, just this once. We’ll use some old laptops that my dad has stored in the attic in case anything happens to them.” Nick said. 

“Oh, okay.” the two of them said, “just this once.”

“Alright! Your place Ben? I’ll bring the laptops.”

“Yeah. And lets do this outside on the patio in the back.”

So the three of them separated and went home. Nick collected the three laptops, Antonio read over the code, while Ben prepared the patio for the night. 

Once the three of them were together, the three of them pulled open the game and a coding engine on the spare laptops. They then began to input the code into the creation blocks while also typing it into the engine. 

As the night grew on, the three of them grew increasingly tired, there was no amount of sugary energy drinks that would be able to keep them awake. They kept imputing the code until the three of them typed the last key.

“Alright. On the count of three,” Ben said, “one,two,three!” 

At that moment, they each pressed the enter key on their laptops activating the creation blocks and the code engines. For a few moments, the only sound they heard was from the sound of crickets and the hum of the computers. 

“Well that sucks. Are you sure you two entered it correctly?” Antonio asked.

“Yes I’m sure. I’m not an idiot.” 

“Well, I’m just saying that normally something would happen in the game.”

At that moment, the three screens froze and turned black. It had seemed that the code had crashed the laptops rendering them off. 

“Great. Just great, Look what you made us do Nick.” Ben said.

“Hey! We all agreed to do it and relax, at least it was on a spare and not your main.”

“Yeah, but--” 

He couldn’t finish his sentence as at that moment, the three computers lit up with a blue light. They then began to vibrate uncontrollably and make noise. 

“Get them off the table or it’ll wake my family.” Ben whispered. 

“What the hell is happening.” Nick and Antonio said as they pushed the laptops off the table into the grass. The laptops kept moving after the boys did this, but they also started turning in a circle and faced inward. Light moved out of the screens and collected between the three of them. After a couple of seconds, it shot into the sky. The clouds circled the beam of energy. The laptops circled faster and faster. 

“WHAT THE HELL HAD YOU FOUND IN THAT MINE NICK!” Ben yelled, “WHAT THE HECK IS HAPPENING!”

“I DON’T KNOW! I JUST THOUGHT IT MEANT WE COULD USE X-RAY PROGRAMS!” Nick said, “I’M SORRY!”

At that moment, a voice echoed across the yard, it was shrill and weak, but still boomed with power.

“At last, now the time is at hand, the plan can go into effect!.” 

The voice let out a maniacal laugh, the storm got wilder and the winds got faster. 

“Who was that?” Ben said, “what plan?”

“I don’t know! But I know for a fact that a laptop isn’t supposed to rip a hole in the sky.” Nick said, “We need to end this!’

He picked up a cinder block that was nearby and pushed his way through the wind to the laptops. He lifted the block over his head, but before he could drop it, the voice spoke again.

“Not on my watch! I will be released from my prison and there is nothing you foolish flesh-bags can do to stop me!”

A bolt of blue lightning shot off the central column and collided with Nick throwing him back. 

“NICK!” Antonio and Ben yelled in unison. The two of them rushed over to his side as the block fell to his side. Nick was jerking back and forth, his eyes darting back and forth, his hands moving rapidly. 

“Antonio, restrain him, I’m finishing this.” Ben yelled. 

He grabbed the block and walked back towards the laptops, before he could smash the computer, he swear he could see in the lighting creatures from the game moving towards him. Spiders, zombies, skeletons, dark shadow creatures, and explosive torsos. He could also hear them.

“This ends now!” he yelled as he threw down the cinder block and smashed the one computer he managed to hit. 

“NO! I will leave this prison. You will regret this mortal for I am eternal, I am power, and I will be free!” the voice screamed as it was drowned out until it was quiet. 

The laptops stopped circling and fell to the ground as the lighting shot into the sky and dissipated. After that, the only light was that of the faint glow of the lights from the porch and the faint sounds of bugs crawling through the grass. 

Ben rushed back over to Nick who seemed to have recovered. Antonio was sitting next to him with his hands cupped by his face looking like he was pondering something. Ben fell to the ground and the three of them sat there breathing heavily until morning. 

Across the ocean in England, in a lone room filled with monitors, a man sat in a chair viewing the events that had just occurred. He looked on watching the storm happen, the boys destroy the laptops, and then stop it. He then paused, rewound the video, and looked at the frame that showed right before Ben has destroyed the laptop. The mans eyes widened and filled with a mixture of fear and hope. 

He turned around and opened a tab, he started typing the names of the three boys involved in the incident that tore a hole between the world and the world he had created. 

[imaginekpoplikethis]

7 Years - BadBoy! Jeon Jungkook X Reader - Part 7

Here it is, Part 7. I honestly don't know when this will finish but I'd like it come to an end soon (but not soon) just because I have a Yoongi story ready. As always, thanks for reading guys! ❤️❤️

Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4  Part 5  Part 6  Part 7 - Here  Part 8  Part 9  Part 10.1  Part 10.2  Part 10.3  Part 11  Part 12  Part 13  Part 14  Part 15  Part 16  Part 17  Part 18  Part 19  Part 20 - Final

You were woken the next morning to Jungkook's poking on your cheek and intense stare. Furrowing your eyebrows, you slapped his hand away and buried your head under his covers. You had almost managed to fall back into a peaceful sleep until the covers suddenly disappeared from on top of you and Jungkook grabbed your legs, dragging you out of bed.

"Rise and shine, loser. We've got stuff to do."

Not appreciating the incredibly rude awakening, you kicked him with as much power as you could, striking him dead centre on his stomach. Although his stomach was relatively hard, he still fell to the floor in pain whilst you clutched your foot in agony.

"Why the hell is your stomach like a brick wall?!" He let out a cocky smile through the pain and flexed one arm.

"I work out, I wasn't just born with these." Bulging arm muscles was what you were greeted with. You supposed this was his attempt to impress you and demonstrate how much he had grew in the past few years.

It didn't have that much of an effect. Or so you told yourself.

"You could at least compliment me, you know." Standing from your seated position you began to make your way downstairs but not before sending him a mock dirty look.

"And boost your ego more than it already is? I'll pass. What happened to the shy and awkward Jungkook I knew?"

"He's still here. Just shy and awkward around certain people." His smooth voice followed you downstairs and you entered his kitchen looking for something breakfast worthy.

"Jungkook, where's your parents anyway?" Emerging from behind you, he hopped on top of the counter and grabbed an orange.

"They're always on business trips lately. I practically live by myself." Not seeming to be all too bothered about the topic of discussion, he peeled the orange and began eating the pieces.

"But don't you get lonely?" Smirking, he peered into your face, making you take a step back.

"Aw, is little Y/N worried? Don't worry I have you and hyungs to keep me company."

Opening your mouth to reply resulted in Jungkook stuffing a piece of orange into your mouth, chuckling at your shocked expression. Slowly chewing the orange, you took one of the cereal boxes stored in the cabinet and began searching for a bowl.

"And you have your many girls." Sliding off the counter, Jungkook pulled a bowl out of his dishwasher, handing it to you.

"You're the only girl that matters." Shuddering at his cliché sentence, you directed a glare at him. "That was so cringeworthy, please don't say that again."

"Okay, you're the only girl that isn't friends with me because of my status."

That sounded way more sadder than it should have.

"What about Areum?" He shrugged his shoulders, throwing away the orange peels he had left on he counter.

"I guess Areum too. But then that takes away the importance of your role in my life!"

Flushing, you pushed the butterflies down to the pits of your stomach.

"We're not in an RPG game, Jungkook."

He placed a hand on your shoulder and stared at you with a seriousness you had never seen him use with you.

"Or are we?"

"You're asking to be hit."

-

When you had eaten and had changed into your now clean clothes from the dryer, Jungkook forced you to sit down and wait for him to have a shower, insisting in taking a walk with you.

Slowly but surely, Jungkook was taking up all your time and he seemed to love every moment of it.

Jungkooks soothing voice travelled through the bathroom door and you immediately recognised the lyrics to Tori Kelly's song paper hearts. The raw emotion that was evident in his singing made goosebumps rise in your arms and you pulled your phone out, recording the beautiful singing as best as you could.

He was definitely going to be a singer one day with a voice like that. He was much more confident in himself and his abilities, had it been 7 years ago he wouldn't have been able to look anyone in the eye whilst singing.

The sound of the shower turning off grabbed your attention and you stopped recording, patiently waiting for him to get dressed.

When he stepped out, you grabbed your bag and once again, headed downstairs. Slipping your shoes on, you watched him grab a pair of Timberland boots and begin untying the laces.

Some things never change.

-

You had ended up taking the long route home, Jungkook walking you all the way. He declined your invitation to come in, claiming he had to meet up with someone and bid you a farewell, shooting a wink in the process.

For the remainder of the day, you didn't do much except from compete unfinished work and chat with Areum. When the evening arrived, you made sure to go to bed early to save yourself from distraction the next day.

Upon waking up the next morning, the faint sound of your younger sisters obnoxious singing drew you out of bed. Taking a shower, you quickly dressed into your schools uniform and headed to the kitchen. Greeting your younger sister and mother, you sat opposite S/N and checked your phone for messages.

"Your father is on another business trip for the week, Y/N." Raising your head, you glanced at your mothers back before returning your attention to you phone screen.

"That's not anything new."

One message from Areum and another from Jungkook.

'Hey Y/N don't forget to bring your homework.'

What would you do without Areum's concern over your school performance? She was the reason you avoided getting detentions every week.

'Y/N, come to school early. I need to be entertained.'

Rolling your eyes at Jungkook's bluntness, you quickly typed out your reply.

'Am I a circus performer? Get Hye Mi to entertain you or something.'

"She's smiling at her phone so she's messaging Jungkook." Whipping your head up to glare at S/N, you tucked your phone into your pocket and took a sip of water. "Why do you assume it's Jungkook? I have other friends."

An innocent smile spread on S/N's face and she shoved a spoon of cereal into her mouth. "You have friends? That's a surprise."

You'd have thought that being fifteen years old would have made her somewhat mature. You thought wrong.

"The next time you want something from me, you can ask your imaginary friends. I don't deserve this kind of disrespect from a little girl."

She scoffed and narrowed her eyes at you, a slow smirk taking place of her smile.

"Little girl? You need t-"

She caught herself when she noticed the deathly glare your mother was sending both of you.

"You two have the mentality of 5 year olds. Can't you just get along?"

You were thinking of a witty reply to come up with when you took notice of the time on your watch. You shot out of your seat and bounded to your front door, shoving your feet into your shoes.

"Gotta go! Bye mum, bye sis! Have a good day!"

S/N merely grinned whilst your mother shook her head, a smile present on her face.

"She's in a hurry."

-

Arriving at school, you were greeted with an empty classroom, which was weird considering the fact Jungkook had, oh so kindly, asked you to come in early. A sudden vibration from your jacket pocket alerted you that you had received a new message from Areum.

'Y/N! FRONT GATES!'

Now, Areum very rarely used capital letters in her messages and when she did she was either fangirling or scared. She definitely wasn't fangirling.

You grew stiff with worry and dropped your bag, speed walking to the schools entrance. Upon reaching the front doors, you noticed a small crowd had gathered around and you pushed your way through. In the middle was Areum, Hye Mi and one of her lackeys.

Trying to get closer proved to be futile as you were barged back by another student. You knew it was only a matter of seconds before something kicked off and Areum would definitely not be able to stand-up for herself. It wasn't in her nature.

"I can't stand to look at you. You're so pathetic that you can't even apologise for dropping my shit! What the fuck is wrong with you?" Areum was noticeably cowering, not used to having someone insult her. She looked up at Hye Mi, tears gathering in her eyes and her lips quivered as she tried to reply.

"S-sorry..." The whisper was barely audible and Hye Mi snarled at Areum.

"I don't speak fucking whale, speak the fuck up." Hye Mi proceeded to shove Areum causing her to stumble back. It seemed that within the next few moments Areum gave up as she turned on her heel and made a move to leave. She was immediately stopped, however, as Hye Mi's hand shot out, taking a fistful of hair.

At the action, your face heated with anger and you dove through the masses of gasping students who stood in your way.

"Leave Areum the fuck alone!"  Everyone's eyes were suddenly on you and a relieved look spread on Areum's face for about a millisecond before she winced at the harsh jerk inflicted onto her hair.

"Look who decided to show up. You must think you're a fucking hero, Y/N." Clenching your fists, you felt your temper grow. Hye Mi's friend took that as her cue to take a step forward and crossed her arms, standing in your way.

"I'm going to flip if you don't let go of Areum in the next few seconds, Hye Mi." Her reply was a snicker, proving to you she didn't take your words seriously.

"Really? I'd love to see that. What do you think Areum?" Contrary to popular belief, the next few seconds did not go in slow motion. They were over before you could even blink but that didn't stop you from taking in every action that occurred.

Hye Mi had all but swung Areum by the hair with a force you didn't think was possible and it didn't help that she didn't let go all the while. She just dragged her back and forth with enough power for Areum to fly around like a ragdoll before she landed on the floor, scraping her legs off the concrete.

A chorus of 'oohs' were heard from the useless, gossiping students who stood around you like vultures and your eyes widened at the few tears that slid down Areum's hidden face, dotting the floor.

You didn't see red.

All you saw was Hye Mi smirking and that was the last straw. With near inhumane strength, you flung Hye Mi's companion to the side, ignoring the loud shriek that escaped her. Within a few moments your fist had collided with Hye Mi's face, something she clearly was not expecting.

You were not one to fight with slaps and now she knew.

You were no 'one punch man' or Jungkook for a matter of fact so she wasn't instantly knocked out, much to your displeasure. She did tumble onto the floor though, so that pretty much was a form of victory. Hye Mi sat in shock, hand holding her cheek and suddenly a teacher broke through the crowd, seemingly out of nowhere.

"What is happen- Y/N?! What- Hye Mi!? Both of you come with me right now!" It was that moment when she noticed Areum's fragile form, still on the floor and she crouched down to help her up.

"All of you get to class! The shows over!" The crowd muttered in disappointment and soon dispersed, leaving the four of you alone. Even Hye Mi's, so called ally had left her behind at the sight of a teacher.

Serves her right.

Minutes later you found yourself staring at your feet, listening to a lecture you never thought you'd have to hear. By the end of it, you and Hye Mi had both landed yourselves in detention for a week.

You supposed that's what you get for fighting but you didn't regret it one bit. As soon as she laid her hands on innocent Areum, her fate, as well as yours, was sealed. Now you just had to try and cope with her for the rest of the week.

-

The day passed by deathly slow, Jungkook and the boys nowhere to be seen. You were irritated to say the least. He was the one who called you to school early in the morning. Fair enough, Areum ended up being in trouble but the fact he was MIA only made your bad mood worse.

Shuffling into your classroom for your first day of detention, you noticed Hye Mi avoided looking in your direction. If anything she seemed to stiffen up at your presence.

Obviously she had underestimated you.

Sighing as you sat as far as possible from her, you trained your attention onto the window beside you. Now all that was left was to try your best to zone out for the next hour or so. The door to the classroom slid open and in stepped your Physical Ed teacher.

"These lot were caught skipping school and spray painting highly inappropriate phrases onto the side of the school building so now they're all yours for the next week." His words were directed at the teacher supervising your detention and she simply sighed in exasperation. Motioning for the students to come in, they entered with their heads held high and you would have been completely confused if it hadn't turned out to be Jungkook and the boys.

When their eyes set on you, they one by one dragged themselves in your direction, sitting themselves all around you. You furrowed your eyebrows in bewilderment but were greeted with grins, well from most of them.

What the hell are they doing?

[easy-win-games-blog]

STILL GOOD? — GRAND THEFT AUTO III

This is ‘Still Good?’, an editorial series in which I look back at both favourites games of mine and classics that I somehow missed, working out how these titles stack up today and whether or not they’re worth going back to.

tl;dr — has <insert game> aged well?

That said, let’s dig into Grand Theft Auto III.

Originally released in 2001 for the PS2 GTA 3 was hailed by critics and fans as a landmark in video game design. Its core gameplay mechanics — driving, shooting and navigating an open world — had all been seen before, but this marked the first instance of these mechanics being put together in a seamless and (for lack of a better word) good way. Mix this with elements of The Sopranos and the popular gangster movies of the time and you’ve got one spicy meat-a-ball.

Upon its release it received fantastic reviews across the board, sitting on an aggregate score of 97% (Metacritic) for the PS2 version. It was called, "a luscious, sprawling epic,” a, "technological marvel ... that captures the essence of gritty city life in amazing detail,” and "on a scale that's truly epic” (quotes lifted from Wikipedia). From here on out, aided by various other releases of the time, the gaming landscape was irreversibly shifted towards a focus on cinematic storytelling and open-world settings. It’s become difficult to not find traces of GTA 3’s DNA floating around a most modern releases.

It’s also very easy to get ahold of today. A mobile version was released for its 10th anniversary, but if you prefer something more solid it’s also available on the desktop App Store for Mac, Steam and on Xbox 360 through backwards compatibility if you can find a hard copy.

This sure is a celebrated classic, but it really hasn’t aged well.

If you’ve gone ahead and put in the work by reading my About page you’ll know I go hardcore with the GTA series. GTA 3 especially introduced me to mature video games in a way that I’ll never forget, but unlike other classics of the medium like the 2D Mario games it’s really tough to go back. I finished the game in high school on a MacBook using a trackpad, and recently bought it and Vice City on eBay for Xbox (these versions received various graphical improvements over the PS2 version) and have played maybe half of 3 so far since then.

But it’s hard, man. I love GTA but I’m honestly struggling to continue. It’s a weird case because I can look past its dated graphics and the driving is fine, but nearly everything else is just frustrating. My major gripe with playing this game now is that the controls are absolutely shitted. Locking on to enemies is vague, both in the sense that it only sometimes works with certain weapons and that the lock on rectangle is very transparent. Combat lacks any kind of possible finesse and relies upon a lot of dumb luck and blind button mashing, and moving Claude around feels like I’m controlling a marionette puppet.

And the camera…

There’s a strange feature I’ve found both in GTA 3 and Vice City on Xbox, and I’m not exactly sure if it was apparent on PC or PS2 (but I’m probably wrong). The option to rotate the camera around your player, whether you want to focus on enemies or check out the scenery, is gone. Completely. Instead, when you move the right stick, the camera jumps into a first-person perspective from which you can’t actually do anything. No walking, no combat. Its only really purpose is to change what direction you’re looking (duh), which is just slow and painful. Especially in combat because you have to stop, change the camera, and then move or perform some kind of action to go back out to third-person.

Imagine, if you will…

A mission tells you to go into Chinatown.

Easy, you get there.

But uh oh, you’ve been ambushed by gun and baseball bat-wielding Triads!

You pull out your Uzi and pump a clip into one guy at your 12 o’clock, but three more guys on your 6 you have opened fire!

You act fast, and duck into first person mode.

Five seconds later you’ve turned to face your foes, and have lost half of your health in that time. Now, to lock on.

In a daring move, you lock onto Triad #1 on your right, shoot two rounds and wait for another three seconds while you automatically reload (something that can’t be done manually).

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

You got him! Well done! You’ve also got next to no health.

Time to aim at the next pistol-packing Triad.

But uh oh again, you’ve locked onto someone with a baseball bat instead. You can’t switch your target on the fly, silly, and now you have six guys in total all around you shooting and beating you to death.

You’re dead, good luck next time.

As 2K18 gamer bro, this is frustrating as hell. And this happens constantly. A lot of combat scenarios, in my case at least, came down to me trying over and over again and succeeding only by shepherding the AI into a tight pack and using up the five molotov cocktails I’d scrounged to burn them all alive like a pack of zombies.

I was too young to be involved in the original hype of this game, but I imagine there was a big emphasis on strategy and player freedom in the marketing leading up to the game’s release. I get that, and GTA 3 sure is revolutionary on that front, but by today’s standards it just isn’t good. When the game at hand has a focus on combat and action it’s not a good thing when success comes from manipulating the infrastructure of the game itself. I don’t feel like I’m playing it the way it was meant to be played, but I don’t see any other option.

To make my point clearer, take the example of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. There are a lot of points in this game where you’re surrounded by enemies, who mostly all have guns. There’s no cover-based shooting or anything of that sort in San Andreas, but the fluidity and freedom of the movement with the ability to crouch, walk while crouched, jump and vault over obstacles, strafe, free aim and lock onto and attack enemies without having them in your immediate line of sight really make the difference. Just the ability to freely rotate the camera around CJ and switch lock-on targets make combat scenarios infinitely more strategic and playable than GTA 3.

Sure, San Andreas only exists because of 3’s legacy, but in three short years so much of the Grand Theft Auto formula was refined by intuitive but glaringly obvious improvements for San Andreas, making it now so much easier to go back to than 3. I would put San Andreas, a now 14 year old game, in front of any gamer in 2018, tell them to play it and be confident they would have fun and play with a full sense of control.

The other area where GTA 3 really lacks is in its narrative elements.

In the game you play as Claude, a mute blank slate of a man who wasn’t actually given a name until a one-off skippable phone call in San Andreas. At the beginning of the game we find Claude robbing a bank with his girlfriend, Catalina, who betrays him as they make their getaway with the line, "Sorry babe. I'm an ambitious girl, and you're just small time.”

Immediately, there’s confusion. Stylistically, it’s cool for sure. There’s shotguns and convertibles and action, but who is this lady? Why do her ambitions stop her from robbing banks with her lover (something they have been doing together for around nine years)? She must just be psycho or something, because she jumps in a sports car with some other guy, so to her it’s more beneficial to share the money with the getaway driver than with your long-term boyfriend. What’s more, Claude can’t explain any of this because he can’t talk, so these questions linger for the whole game and never get answered.

You can see here by making Claude the blank slate that he is that it’s likely the intention from Rockstar was to let the player use the mute as a vessel through which they could project themselves, personifying the game with their own personal flavour. Only, there are numerous and very definitive displays of Claude’s character throughout the game that the player might not agree with.

Character defining moments for a character who isn’t meant to have character.

For Christ’s sake, it’s implied he shoots a woman point blank at the end of the game because she talks too much.

It’s a weird half measure. It feels like Rockstar were trying to toe the line between an open world RPG packed with player personalisation and a fully scripted cinematic experience like Goodfellas. They’ve learned since, and their campaigns have been largely compelling ever since, but this feels like a big misstep.

Also, a minor issue I have; the cutscenes and cinematic moments of this game look like dog shit. The direction, cinematography and pacing of nearly every cutscene is awful. Claude will walk to someone’s door and knock, only to be answered an instant later by immediate talk as if this other character intuitively knew he was there. The shots will cut out parts of character’s faces, sometimes ending at their forehead or mouth, and as the cutscenes conclude it isn’t uncommon for Claude to start heading for the exit as the mission boss is still mid-sentence, as if he also intuitively knows the conversation is about to end. Even if the mission parameters haven’t been outlined yet. It’s almost as if the residents of Liberty City have been endowed with psychic abilities (but only in 2001 because Liberty City Stories is much more aligned with the rest of the series in this regard [maybe it’s something in the water]).

Coming from later GTA games, this just doesn’t feel like GTA.

The story overall is also just bland. It’s the most generic revenge plot you could imagine, with some out-of-nowhere betrayals such as that of Salvatore Leone — the local Mob boss.

After completing a number of tasks, both extremely dangerous and tedious, the Don congratulates you on your achievements and your loyalty to the Leone family. This feels pretty good, especially since the missions immediately preceding this moment are a hellish cluster fuck full of shoddy AI and stupid mission design. And you know what? He’s right. You have been loyal to him. You’ve done literally everything he’s told you to do and more. As this happens, he asks you to collect a car parked somewhere Downtown. So, like the good little Mafia errand boy you are, you skip down the hill to get it, only to be sent a page from Salvatore’s girlfriend of all people that the car is a trap and that you’re about to be murdered. Surely enough, the car is rigged with explosives, so your only option is to actually betray Salvatore and flee the first island with his girlfriend as you plot your (second) revenge.

It’s simply not good writing. There’s no cause and effect, no setting up of any kind. You are blank man. You work for blank Mafia man. But blank Mafia man turns on you, because he is bad Mafia man after all. You get blank revenge. It’s high school shit.

Just like Catalina. Take that blank man example, but substitute ‘black Mafia man’ with ‘blank girl’. It’s bad writing.

When it comes to games and movies it becomes hard to define what is good, especially in cases where legacy and nostalgia are involved. Super Mario Bros. 3 or World or whatever might be a better game than OG Super Mario Bros., but you might see OG Super Mario Bros. as the better game because it gave birth to what came after it. In my opinion that’s a really weird viewpoint to have, especially since gaming culture is so focussed on iteration and improvement. Some see it as sacrilege to say an old classic just doesn’t play well, but that’s the case because games as a medium inherently get better as we improve the craft and polish the development process.

With this in mind, and everything else I’ve already said, Grand Theft Auto III is not a good game in 2018. It’s not fun and it doesn’t control well. The story is bad and the moment-to-moment writing is no better. From a historical stance, I think it’s definitely worth playing, but if GTA V was your first introduction to the series and you want to explore its past GTA 3 is not the place to start.

STILL GOOD?

Not really, no

Am I completely wrong? Is my subjective opinion too subjective? Did I forget to mention how much San Andreas fleshes out both Salvatore Leone and Catalina and their character arcs in this game? Shoot (pew) me a message up top through the Ask Me Anything link OR hit me up on Twitter @easy_win_games.

Illustration left-to-right: Catalina, Maria, Asuka, Kenji, Donald Love, Toni, Luigi, 8-Ball, Salvatore Leone. Claude in the foreground.

- Editorial & illustration brewed in-house -