Immature, antisocial, obscene and fun as hell, that's Grand Theft Auto. Boy, what a tough decision. :argh:

I gotta hand it to the game that astonished us all, when I think Grand Theft Auto, my memories invariably lie with III. So many first-time moments of absolute wonder and amazement. And as much as Rockstar raised the bar and upped the ante, there is just something magical about III that can't be matched.

I like the games cos they all get me nostalgic when I remenisce. In order of preference, San Andreas wins cos I remember R* were hyping it with their spoof sites and the progressive unveiling of screenshots just got me into the excitement. More vehicles, bigger world/ocean, Mt.Chiliad, parachutes, bikes, no censoring, mini games, emphasis on stats, cool soundtrack and total freedom! The graphics were also awesome for me. I remember having dreams of me playing the game before the release date. Awesome times I'm already reliving with the unveiling of upcoming GTA4. :P
Vice City would come in 2nd cos I'm a Scarface fan and Tommy & Lance were awesome characters! Loved the 80's theme, R* nailed it with the neon lights, cars, and especially the music. I have fond memories of this fun game. I feel like playing it again!
GTAIII was awesome, like Mach said, its the game that started it all. But I arrived kinda late into the craze and never owned the game myself, I played it but never made it mine so I never really got into it. The character was less interesting compared to Tommy and CJ. Still a good game.

SA FTW!

I loved GTA3 even though it seems like the prototype compared to the later games.

Also loved Vice City because I'm a sucker for the 80's and it gave an enhanced experience over GTA3

But I chose San Andreas because it just rose the bar so much higher, with bicycles, body building, a FREAKIN JETPACK, a whole range of character customisation, the ability to rip through the country on a dirtbike, Mt Chiliad, parachutes, 3 entire cities, hovercraft and swimming.
There is just so much to do in San Andreas, I still haven't gotten around to finishing it 100%

Here's hoping that GTA4 takes the best bits of all three games, packages them up into a huge beautiful glitch free environment and makes the ultimate gaming experience (now I've just raised my expectations too high)

Vice City. Two words: Ray Liotta. :D All gta games are amazing but Vice City had a decent, gripping storyline and it reminded me of carlito's way and scarface which are two of the best movies ever.

GTA 3, it's the one that started the whole transformation. Despite the other 2 being brilliant titles, they still felt like expansion packs with new features.

GTAIII here, I agree with slashy the other two are kind of like expansions rather than full sequels, I guess thats why only now we are actually getting GTAIV ;)

Expansions pfft

Fire up GTA3 and try to jump out of a car while it's still driving, or jump on a motorbike. Or jump in the water for a swim. Or climb over a fence.

It seems SO limited compared to San Andreas and while all the games are based on the same graphics engine I still consider VC and SA to be sequels.

The PSP games on the other hand, they're the expansion packs :P

Oh shit, this is a difficult one. I can safely rule out Vice City as I wasn't a fan of the overly flat landscape and it doesn't seem to have anything that sets it apart from the others.

GTAIII started it all and I was blown away when I first played that game. It was so addictive.

San Andreas however, unlike Vice City, was a huge improvement. Just the amount of new features, the size of the game...everything about it. That said it didn't have the same feel as when I played GTAIII.

ARGH...can't...choose...

*decides not to vote* :P

SA is probably still under the GTA3 series (its not GTA4) but its NOT an expansion! Like Steevo pointed out, comparing the games clearly shows that SA is a whole new game. It used a good engine, NO LOADING TIMES BETWEEN CITIES when it was 1000 times bigger than VC!! Its mind boggling how R* managed this!! They managed to stuff more content into one DVD than any other GTA game. I wouldn't call that an expansion. GRAW2 is an expansion. lol! :P

Admittedly I havent played SA so my thoughts on the later games feeling "expansion" are really exclusive to Vice City.

Your species is rare, borgy. :P

More like extinct. :P GTA III all the way by the way. It's why a bought my ps2 and my godfather it was a good decision. :D

Another tough one this week.

Like many I have to give the nod to San Andreas. While yes GTA III started it all and can be considered special because it was our 'first time' (so to speak), San Andreas is just something else. 3 cities that were all designed brilliantly, Mt. Chiliad in all her glory, countryside, ocean, hell even parachuting - it had it all and it was fantastic. Alright so we all know that GTA has some shoddy controls, doesn't look like the best game in the world and has a few other flaws but I always found that whenever playing San Andreas none of it mattered. If San Andreas can be pulled off like that on the PS2, I really, really can't wait to see what Rockstar have done with GTA IV later in the year. It's going to be awesome.

As for Vice City, well I thoroughly enjoyed that too and I played that after San Andreas. Loved the 80s vibe it had, the soundtrack kicked arse and yeah it was just a brilliant game as well. All three have been, really. :D

:lol: Yeah I know, couldn't be arsed with SA for some reason, even though it's supposed to the best one in the series, just never got around to it.

Vice City, though GTA3 was the original and GTA:SA had so much more, Vice City by far had the coolest setting. I still find it the most fun of the 3.

Vice City had the best music imo, but that depends on personal taste I beleive.

San Andreas perfected the sandbox gameplay, which is why I'm voting for it.