Original Grand Theft Auto 'almost canned'

@DanielL5583 That is a very good point. And very well played too, i think you've had this kind of argument before...but either way we are both going on theory. I don't believe video games can cause people to become criminals but it is possible for them to inspire a criminal. For example if a guy is planning on doing something crazy but doesn't know what yet, its very possible that he could play GTA and think "yeah, im gona do that" but that doesnt mean the game caused it. That guy could have easily decided to watch a movie instead and copied the movie.

Memories. I remember playing this when I was 9, though it was my cousins so he didn't care.

@Danagan I later said "I know there isn't enough evidence to prove violent video games lead to violent behaviour...", so effectively, you may see it as contradiction, whereas I view it as self-correction.

@DanielL5583 No you said that regular people who are already criminals don't play the game for escapism. You also said "this game is effectively a playground for the next generation of criminals." That seems to me like your implying games make criminals.

Ah yes, the old school GTA. I remember playing this at LAN parties when we were all Quaked out for the night/early morning. High school senior year. Gotta love it.

I had the first game for playstation, I remember you could load it up and you could take the disc out and still play(as long as you didn't 1. load a mission 2. get wasted or 3. get busted... anywyas =P) just imagine a world without Grand Theft Auto, or more like let's DON'T! =) Right now GTA is Rockstar's best seller and when GTA V is released I'm sure it'll be even more, can't wait, way to go Rockstar for sticking with your dreams.

Only played the first on the computer when it was free to download from the developer, and didn't play it much due to the bad controls for the PC imo, but I loved GTA2 on the PS and all the 3D iterations since GTA3. Makes you wonder what possible gems did get axed and us gamers never got the privilege to play. :(

I wonder where Rockstar and DMA would be today if GTA was canceled or if psyco cops wasn't as fun as they thought and the game flopped.

@Danagan I believe I already referred to that.

That would've been a fatal mistake....

I've enjoyed all of the GTA games. They are all classic games that will be remebered in the same light as Super Mario and Pacman 30 years from now.

I thought the original GTA games were awesome.

They had a button dedicated to farting or burping if i remember correctly. Whats not to love? Well... Maybe the fact that stealing a fast car and flooring it was a sure way to get yourself killed... Hmm thats still the same though...

@TheJamin You really need to ask how IV improved over the previous games? You must not have played them if you don't know. As far as the cops go, before they couldn't even find their way around a fence to get to you. Now they not only navigate around objects but they manage to get up stairways and over other more complex obstacles to get to the player. You can't be saying they haven't improved. It's not about how they recognize what you did. It's about how they act once they get after you. They used to be totally stupid. At least now they are somewhat challenging. The old games sucked in comparison to IV. Maybe not the characters or story but the over all game is what I'm referring to. Graphics, physics, AI, weapons, city design, water, ect. Everything was improved on the new game engine by a huge margin.

@DanielL5583 Ok its your opinion and thats cool. But video games do not make you violent. They may give you an idea but so do movies and books and anything else you use for entertainment. If you play GTA and decide to run over some people then you are already messed up to begin with. The game doesn't mess people up. And its incredibly ignorant to think otherwise. Every generation has something people say cause murders, music, tv you name any form of media and i guarantee you crimes have been blamed on it.

I had fun with the first GTA.

@DrKill09 ya similar thing with me. Vice city's the only game my dad's ever been worried about me playing.

GTA 1 was awsome

I always thought GTA 1 was meh. Not the worst game ever but nothing that horrible.

@MrV4 Thanks for the info!

GIVE us GTA 5. PLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLZZZZZZZZZZ tons more cars, more online customization to the characters. COPS AND CROOKS all the way MONKEYS.

Glad it wasn't canned. Been a fan of GTA since the first one. But had this game been canned I wonder if DMA would have lasted long enough to make Body Harvest. Body Harvest in many ways was the prototype to GTA3.

I bought my first PlayStation when this game was released. So I'm glad it was not canned because it's what got me back into gaming.

OmG, I never though the first gta was awful; actually, it was one of my favorites games; gta 2 too, I still have the disk, played and finished it a hundred times... I think I'm getting old... lol!

I had madd funz with GTA2

First GTA I played was GTA III ... loved it ...

Bah, we all know that the first two GTA games WERE awful. It wasn't until the 3rd game came out that the series really went somewhere.

DanielL5583 the below comment was for you. Forgot to mention your name in it.

So... look where's BMG interactive is now...?

You have link as your avatar, do you know how many things you have to kill before you get to save the princes ? Like thousands of life breathing things you slay before you rescure that princess for the 50th time. So GTA is no different, its a game for adults that which is rated M for Mature so if you were eight how did you get that game ? Did your mommy buy it for you ? Thats terrible parenting if you ask me.

it's funny to go crazy in gta city and make those pedestrians scream haha

@drswank also needs to stop being a hypocrite.

I absolutely LOVED the first GTA. Still play it and GTA2 all the time. It was the only game my dad wouldn't let me play. Duke 3D, Blood, Quake, Loaded, Auto Destruct (where there were cheats to run over pedestrians and leave blood pools), all fine. But no GTA... so I played it at a friend's for years, and eventually found out how to download it on the pc in 2000. He was pissed! :P

There are other games you could play for escapism. The only people that aren't playing this game for escapism are those that were criminals in the first place. I first played this game when I was 8. I turned the game off after a few minutes of play because the game was hard to control, and I couldn't work out what it was to do. I hate it! Also, this game is effectively a playground for the next generation of criminals. Seriously. I know there isn't enough evidence to prove violent video games lead to violent behaviour, but in almost every news paper article concerning a crime associated with a video game, the likelihood is that game is Grand Theft Auto. Thumb down my comment all you want, but seriously, it's my opinion. Get over it. You don't like it, leave it.

I remember playing the first on the original playstation. It did suck, glad the series improved as time went on. yep the controls were awful.

I'll believe it. The cops are still psycho and the driving still sucks.

I had to make my mother buy me this game, the only time that's happened. I played the demo(5 minute timed version) for weeks on end. If this game hadn't been released it would have been a crime worse than anything that you can commit in game.

@Darnasian Oh I see what you mean. To my knowledge, I don't believe that either the full game of GTA IV nor the episodes had extra content as in solo missions or something. I dont think they did. I know they had some type of DLC but nothing in the sense of extra missions just literally "content". However, I can say that the GTA Complete edition on PS3 at least comes with GTA IV plus the two extra episodes all on 1 Blu-Ray disc. Because of that exact reason its Blu-Ray and can fit 25gb on at least a single layer (50gb dual). Anyway hope that answers your question..........

The first GTA game I had was GTA 2. That game was good but not as good as the ones of today but still good.

@Dasim64 how did 4 improve at all? you hit a man in the back alley where no one can see and suddenly you have the police on to you. fail. I want a london remake! i still play GTA London. epic

@DanielL5583 you're right. why cant they make a sandbox game where you just decorate houses instead? that would be fun wouldn't it......

those were the days. the days when rockstar actually cared about the PC platform. Bunch of (*&_(*&_ers

I still have THE gta on cd

@Gallesh I meant if there are game features like bonus missions or something like that or side missions missing from the CE or if there are all of them! Something like that I meant!

I really never got into the original and the expansion. GTA 2 was when I started getting hooked, but still had many flaws with underdeveloped ideas and execution. GTA 3 finally got it right.

I really hope they make a new city. I'm sick and tired of playing in the same previous cities tbh.

@im-a-roustabout: Funny, the very same thing is what made me go out and buy a PS2 and a copy of GTA III -- played it over my cousin's house on Thanksgiving, found a baseball bat, beat some guy until he turned into a puddle and the rest is history. I had gone completely PC-exclusive prior to that moment. Now Civ V is the only PC game I play. As far as the original goes, yeah it doesn't stand the test of time, but back in the day there was really nothing like GTA and I must've blown up that tanker truck inside the police station 100,000 times before moving on to something else.

hope they make a sequel to gta san andreas. that game was the best gta i played.