Grand Theft Auto III

Grand Theft Auto III brought the series into a genuinely three-dimensional world and arrived on PC in 2002 as a port of the console version, published by Rockstar Games. The player finds themselves in Liberty City, a fictional metropolis inspired by New York, in the role of a silent criminal named Claude, who fights his way up the mob hierarchy to power after a botched heist and betrayal. The game combined a third-person action shooter with an open world that could be freely explored, cars that could be stolen, and linear as well as side missions completed at the player's own pace and preference — a concept that, in 2002, hardly anyone on PC had seen at that scale.

The core of the gameplay is a combination of vehicle driving, shooting, and completing missions assigned by characters scattered around the city, complemented by radio stations with their own hosts, ads, and music spanning multiple genres, which lend the world a surprisingly authentic atmosphere of a crime-ridden metropolis. The PC version offered higher resolution and better draw distance compared to the consoles of the time, and it also became the foundation for an extensive modding scene, thanks to which the game still maintains an active community of creators adding new vehicles, missions, and technical improvements to this day. Mouse and keyboard controls brought more precise aiming, making the game even more accessible on computers to a wider audience of players used to other genres than action-adventures.

Upon release, GTA III received extraordinary acclaim as well as controversy over its violence and the ability to commit crimes without immediate punishment, sparking public debates about the influence of video games on society and attempts to ban it in some countries. It fundamentally defined the open-world action genre and influenced dozens of later titles that adopted its formula of a free city full of opportunities and side activities. Even years later it remains playable and historically significant, though its controls, camera, and artificial intelligence feel archaic today compared to the sequels it itself helped launch and define for years to come.

Why play it: For anyone curious where the modern open-world genre was born — but expect archaic controls, camera, and AI compared to later entries.