Worlds
11/30/1

I was reading a review at ps2.ign.com about Rockstar Game�s upcoming State of Emergency, a game where you induce riots in New New York, and it occurred to me why Grand Theft Auto 3 has such an appeal.

It was when they said that in State of Emergency, you can choose to play in Freestyle Mode.

In Grand Theft Auto 3, there are no menu screens to pick the difficulty or choose what mode you are going to play in. There are no modes. Sure, you can go into a menu and change the volume levels or reload the game after you die. But there�s nothing where you can change the game, or should I say, the world.

It�s an immersive experience. And now that I�ve finished the game and don�t have missions where I have to kill kill kill, Aisai can actually sit there reading while I�m playing since all I�m doing now is collecting cars, trying to find packages, and jumping jumps. There are some missions I haven�t done, but I have to get past these two drive by shooting missions, and I suck at drive by shootings.

But you drop GTA3 in the machine, you wait until the title credits start rolling, which are very subdued for such an actiony game, hit the X button to skip it, and it starts loading while showing you cartoon versions of previous bosses and FBI agents.

Then you are there. There�s your man, standing next to his garage or outside his apartment. You may have some cars in your garage or you may have to jack some. And the feeling is, �So, what do I want to do?�

You can go to the airport and try to fly that piece of junk plane, the Dodo. You can try to find Unique Jumps that will get you 60 to 80 thousand dollars for doing them. You can search for packages that will unlock power-ups at your hideouts. You can get a police or army vehicle and get rid of criminals. You can get a taxi and ferry around people for money. You can get an ambulance and rescue people. You can get a fire truck and explode, accidentally and repeatedly, since you keep running into the fires rather than putting them out.

Currently, it�s my mental vacation in a box.

Aisai got the Playstation bug a few weeks ago too. She�s played Spyro and is now on Spyro 2. She stayed up until 1:30 last night playing.

Spyro and GTA3 are both very similar. In Spyro, you don�t choose �Freestyle Mode� or anything; you just are in that world. But rather than a gun toting sociopath, you are a young purple dragon and you collect gems in your spare time. You also go on missions.

Last night, I watched Aisai collect Cowliks [they�re like big tapirs that moo], do a few flying missions, free a village of evil metal ball people, and try to clear a trolley line of explosives and spare gears. She wasn�t able to, and I love driving things, so I did it for her.

Diversity. Mini-games. That�s what makes a good game great.

I love Gran Turismo, but what game do I think I�ve played more. I�ve played the heck out of Grand Theft Auto 3.

If people just wouldn�t curse at me when I steal their cars, I�d recommend it to everyone.

Except kids...and other people who don�t need to see that much blood and chaos.

And to them, I�d recommend Spryo.