Illustration by Stephen Maurice GrahamRockstar Games created a monster when they decided people just wanna fuck around and be gangsters in a video game. Think of all the hours swallowed by the Grand Theft Auto series—each a best seller, each a classic in its own right—and of all the pop-culture references shaped. Boring dads in band T-shirts and shitty jeans have Star Wars, we have Grand Theft Auto. I know which I would prefer.
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Mafia fantasies, jackknife betrayals, and murdering people with a purple rubber dildo. Pimps, two-bit hustlers, and fast money of the most illicit means possible. Big guns, exploding cars, and soundtracks that became instantly iconic. Each GTA game blessed players with a huge, weird sandbox in which they can cause chaos and lose themselves entirely. Full of cultural references and cartoon mayhem, the series has mixed humor and a genuine love for the crime genre and created several games that have kept gamers glued to their controllers.Here are just a handful of the series' greatest moments.I suppose we should've all seen it coming. In the chunky lines of pure gangster movie cliché that we'd been chopped out thus far, we should've guessed that a double-cross was likely. But not like this. It caught me cold, like a gut punch—even though the name of the mission was a pretty huge clue. Regardless: Fuck you, Lance Vance, and fuck your Lance Vance Dance."You sold us out…" said Tommy Vercetti—still (for me) in that stupid blue Hawaiian shirt; stuck in the wardrobe stasis that was the sixth generation of consoles—on learning of his mate's siding with Sonny, Tommy's ex-boss and now enemy."No… I sold you out, Tommy," said Lance. "I sold you out." Then, with everyone in their place, Tommy starts shooting.For a 13-year-old me, with the culmination of this many references I didn't fully understand, living my life by the thrilling chameleon hue of Tommy's HUD and the buzz of hairspray rock, this was pretty much the best way you can end a game: murdering a friend who betrayed you in a massive mansion in a hail of lead. It was amazing.
Being betrayed by Lance Vance – 'Grand Theft Auto: Vice City'
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Unlocking a motherfucking jetpack – 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'
Three Leaf Clover – 'Grand Theft Auto IV'
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It starts with you, Niko, walking wherever you're walking, and getting a text from one of the McReary brothers, an in-fighting gang of Irish-American cokeheads that you've somehow fallen in with. Next thing you know, you're in a suit with a massive shooter and a bag of C4, about to take the Bank of Liberty for a cool $1 million. How did this happen? This was supposed to be the game of small-time crooks and grubby apartments."Three Leaf Clover" is a thrilling mission that requires you to shoot every person in your path, and every car with flashing lights that comes screaming into your view. Every single set-piece in the mission becomes an event: Michael's death, the hostage killed in retaliation, the first NOOSE chopper that comes into view, the getaway through Chinatown. It takes everything that's good about the series and pounds it deep into your brain, with a slick narrative and a sound mix that'll make you shit your pants.Going 3D – 'Grand Theft Auto III'I think I said "Fuck" or maybe "Fucking hell." I was ten and sitting on my mate Tyler's bed and he'd put Grand Theft Auto III on and let it load. That loading time seemed to last 20 minutes. And then I saw it. "Fuck."I was adamant, seeing this guy on the screen in an alley wearing a battered black leather jacket and army trousers, that nothing would ever top this game. My eyes stood on stalks, and nearly fell out of my head. This wasn't a video game—this was a movie that I controlled. The dialogue was slick and sharp and funny, and the music was brilliant (I'll never forget driving around in a blacked-out Sentinel listening to Double Clef FM as long as I live), and the missions were hard, violent, and just a little bit crazy.
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But for all its bells and whistles, the game had a mood. It felt nasty. It felt dangerous. Like, Resident Evil had a mood that suggested horror and pure evil and guts and gore, GTA III had a mood that dripped dirty needles and burned-out cars and taking baseball bats to those who crossed you. That game hit me like a bat when I played it. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. The moment I took control of this little shark-eyed thug with squeaky sneakers, I knew I loved this game.You're way out in the weeds and Johnny, our beloved biker protagonist from GTA IV expansion The Lost and Damned, is chatting to some geezer, Trevor, clad in a vomit-y wife-beater vest and with a pretty severe look in his eye. See, Trevor just fucked Johnny's missus, and Johnny has taken exception to that…Until now Grand Theft Auto V had been almost a little bit underwhelming. The scale was immense, the detail was extraordinary, but the story? Eh. It felt like maybe there was a little too much going on under the hood to make much of a show on the surface. And then Trevor came along.Far from being the series' best character—or even this particular game's—Trevor was an absolute weapon. He was as close a manifestation of evil as you're ever likely to see from the series and he's on your screen and he's got his cock out and he's kicking a well-remembered character from a previous game's head into watermelon chunks in a hick half-a-town while screaming "Cunt! Cunt! Cunt!" like Sexy Beast's Don Logan. And you—sitting there in your boxer shorts playing this game on a Saturday morning—got to control this fucking guy. He was a character that held a mirror up to the genre and showed us what real villainy looked like: bitter, spiteful, and cruel.
Meeting Trevor – 'Grand Theft Auto V'
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Kent Paul and Maccer – 'Grand Theft Auto: Vice City' and 'San Andreas'
The introduction – 'Grand Theft Auto II'
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Killing Vlad – 'Grand Theft Auto IV'
More 'Greatest Moments' pieces, here._Follow Sam Diss and _Stephen Maurice Graham_ on Twitter._