The Good, The Bad (Ass), and the Ugly

I've been a fan of Rockstar games for a long time. I thoroughly enjoyed Max Paine (one of the few PC games at that time that I played through to the end--ignoring family that had come to visit during Christmas). But what really got me hooked was when I picked up GTA: Vice City back in the summer of 2003 for the PC. The sandbox feel, the music, the missions, the gritty story with lots of dark humor. This was my type of game.

GTA San Andreas really expanded on the notions that I loved in Vice City, with three distinct cities to unlock and explore. The sheer size of the state of San Andreas was mind boggling but awesome. There were many nights where I'd simply get into a car and drive, just to find random things to jump off of and listen to the fantastic variety of music.

GTA 4 came out 2 years ago and I was again drawn back into the new world that had been created. So much time was spent re-creating a living breathing video game version of New York City, that you couldn't help but want to spend time just messing around with all of the various modes of transport. Car, truck, motorcycle, helicopter and to even some extent subway cars. The city was vast and ripe for exploring and exploiting. I've played through the game two times (the first time I played through without trophies and a second time more recently to try and earn what I could before the next big Rockstar title would consume my play time).