Hey folks, Dream here with my brand new column! It’s called investigating a good game, and it will look into the development, aftermath and quality of a random good game. This will feature a number of platforms and generations and will cover a wide variety of games. So let’s crack on with it! This weeks Investigating A Good Game looks at:

 

 

 

Rockstar have pioneered the sanbox genre with their critically acclaimed Grand Theft Auto series. The series has released a high number of games, from handhelds to PCs, and none of their games has ever received a low score. Many, almost everyone actually views San Andreas the greatest Grand Theft Auto game ever. I happen to think Vice City is best - but San Andreas is also amazing.

 

So how did this game come about? Well on October 29th 2009 - two days before Halloween (coincidence), Take Two Interation, Rockstars parent company made the announcement that an unnamed GTA game was in the making. Under the pressure of the press and public, Take Two and Rockstar were tight lipped on the details, and gamers lived for any drop of information they could get.

 

After a couple of weeks, ongoing guesses of the location of the game were made by gamers, but Take Two refused to let any info out. Many speculated it to be located in a Las Vegas type Sin City, whilst others even thought it could be located in California.

 

On the 1st of March 2004, Take-Two finally let out some information and said the game would be released on October 19th and 22nd in North America and Europe respectively. The also announced that Xbox and PC will get their own versions of the game, as well as the already confirmed PS2.

 

Take-Two finally relieved gamers of their curiosity be releasing the first information of the game ten days later when it was announced that it would be set in San Andreas, and it wouldn’t be a fictional city - it would be an entire state made up of three cities.

 

After that bomb that Take-Two dropped about the location, gamers were getting more excited about this game by the day. On September 9th, Take-Two upset gamers by pushing the game back by a mere week. Not that big of a deal? It was then.

 

The game was released as expected, a week after the initial set date to critical acclaim. Many called it a masterpiece that took gaming to new heights, and many regarded it as the best GTA yet, and that’s a great achievement considering past triple A titles. IGN gave the game a 9.9/10, making it the highest rated PS2 game ever.

 

It became Game Of The Year 2004, and joined the ranks of some of the greatest games in history (along with some GTA games). Metacritic have the current rating at 95%, a very high score.

 

Not everyone thought it was great, however. Along with every GTA release, it followed major criticism from the concerned mothers, and of course the one and only Jack Thompson.

 

The game has since gone on to become one of the most legendary video games in history by introducing RPG elements into a criminal sandbox game. Rockstar proved they can get better and better, and this game pioneered the sandbox genre. If this game wasn’t released, we wouldn’t be where we are today with gaming.