GTA’s Vehicles Are Still The Gold Standard For Open World Traversal

thegamer.com:

I loaded up GTA 3 for the first time on the morning of October 23, 2001. It was a school day, but the pre-order dropped through the door and I booted up my PS2. There was an opening credits scene to endure, stylish as it was, but I had a bus to catch. As soon as the bank robbery FMV finished we were set loose in Rockstar’s open world. The very first thing you had to do: get in a car and drive.

It was dizzying to drive around this Liberty City. The roads, traffic lights, and shadows cast by the streetlights all felt as if they’d always been there, even though this was a visual revolution in terms of GTA. The car itself sounded meaty, weighty, and was a pleasure to drive.

Related: We All Miss The Old Rockstar

I’d played Grand Theft Auto and GTA 2, on the PS1. Their vehicles were fun too, although the top-down view and wild speed meant crashing was frequent. The shift to 3D meant the cars also took on a new dimension, literally as well as figuratively. But it had a rival. Ubisoft Reflections’ Driver contained impressive visuals for a PS1 game, and was rightly acclaimed for its ambition, but crucially you couldn’t just get out of the car, run around, and steal another.

Grand Theft Auto realised something very early on about open world exploration, and it’s a lesson that developers are still learning from today, from the likes of CD Projekt Red in Cyberpunk 2077 to Game Freak and Pokemon Scarlet & Violet.

Exploring an open world can be arduous and boring. Walking or running long distances can be mind-numbingly dull, and if the landscapes happen to be tarmac and looming towers, an existentialist ‘why am I doing this?’ can rapidly set in. Rockstar knew this instinctively and made sure its cars were enjoyable to maneuver and