Drive around, shoot people, blow up police helicopters. At their most base level, GTA and Saints Row are one in the same. I needed something to fill that open world itch that was willing to get silly in ways GTA no longer seemed willing to. The sequel to Saints Row was a game I picked up on a whim, after finding Grand Theft Auto IV to be lacking. I’m of course talking about Saints Row 2. No, I want to talk about the game that showed me the open world career criminal game could be done better. It was in the media constantly at the time, the number-one game to shit on when it came to games “destroying our youth.”įor those reasons, Grand Theft Auto will always hold a special place in my heart, but that isn’t what I’m here to talk about.

It was a weird moment for a twelve-year-old, to feel like you’re getting away with something by playing a video game, but Grand Theft Auto was taboo. Sometime when I was in middle school, a friend brought over a copy of Grand Theft Auto III.

My relationship with the car-jacking hooker-mugging series we all know as Grand Theft Auto began the way it does for a lot of people.