Grand Theft Auto just turned 25 years old! My first memories of the series were from a demo disk I got with the Official Playstation Magazine, and yes, I feel ancient.
The GTA games have always brought quality to the table, as long as we pretend the ‘Definitive Editions‘ never existed. The series’ Metacritic scores are staggering, and many are among the highest-rated games for any given system.
Many players’ first experience with Grand Theft Auto was on the original PlayStation. Even if you didn’t play it, you would definitely have heard about it, as it was an incredibly controversial release at the time. The British House of Lords were even in talks to ban its sale in the UK, but as the saying goes, ‘any publicity is good publicity’. GTA went on to sell over 3M copies worldwide!
It’s fascinating looking back at the older titles, and how the series has grown into the juggernaut it is today with GTAV and GTA Online.
The original is a stark contrast to the sprawling 3D worlds you’re used to seeing nowadays. It’s still a fantastic game where you can see many of the series’ staples in their infancy. If you have the means, GTA holds up, and I recommend giving it a go.
Several people involved in creating GTA have taken to Twitter to celebrate. Steve Hammond, GTA Co-writer, even released a sneak peek at design documents predating the iconic GTA name.
If you’re looking for an excuse to revisit Liberty City or San Andreas, there’s no better time to do it.
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