GTA IV Is Coming/ My Intro to GTA 3

I have an hour before I go to a nerve wracking doctor's appointment so thought I would post about my all time favorite series to get my mind off it.

GTA IV is around the corner (April 19th)! Hurrah!  My addiction with this series started with GTA III (still my favorite installment thus far). My brother gave it to me for a birthday present the month it came out and I hadn't heard a thing about it. I have to say I was reluctant to try it out because generally, I don't like car games. I'm a first person shooter gal, and even in Halo 3 I'll avoid vehicles like the plague because I just don't have as much fun as I do running and gunning.

So my brother sat and watched me play it for the first time and not without some groans of frustration and eye rolling. I was driving this ultra cool Mob car like a grandma, slowly puttering down the street with music from Scarface blaring out of the car's radio. The irony was not lost on me, but it was the best I could do at that time. I then accidentally ran someone over! Now in the past, when you ran someone over in a video game, they'd pop back up smiling and keep walking. This dude pancaked on the road with a very audible 'splat' sound. "Oh My God!" I said. I pulled the car back and sure enough, there was a bloody mess on the ground. "Oh wow, this game's insane" I said laughing.

That was the beginning of a beautiful love affair that changed gaming for me forever. The living, breathing city in GTA 3 was totally new and incredibly exciting. I spent just as many hours wandering around it with no particular purpose as I did playing the game as it was meant to be played. The phony radio stations, the excellent soundtrack, the hilarious dialogue. I was hooked. I was a much better GTA driver when my brother returned to visit several months later. I had played it enough to where I avoided a real accident while I was driving one day because I knew which way to turn my wheel to straighten out a skidding vehicle.

I was equally obsessed with Mario and Zelda when they first came out. I was given these two drugs for my birthday, and all the neighborhood kids crowded my room while we stared wide-eyed at shiny graphics and sound. GTA 3 brought that feeling back for me.

I'm secretly hoping that they keep the formula of the series and don't wander TOO far, while still evolving and bringing us something new. We shall see!