Grand Theft Auto

As one of apparently 5 people who played APB going into this, I actually dug the missions. It was mostly a toy for everyone else (and me, let's be honest): do horrifyingly violent things for a laugh, find a level skip code and do it again in fake Miami or not-San Francisco. It was a primitive game, even by its contemporary standards (it uses the same gameplay style as APB — an arcade game from 10 years earlier that was good, but no one's favorite), but there was something there...

Still in awe of this game. A top-down sandbox with the wonkiest camera of all time, and yet I couldn't put it down. And how well rendered everything was despite its camera. Like, I never got lost, never thought a better angle would've made certain locations or environments clearer. It's still so well done.

I recall this and the first sequel being all the rage in my high school days, but the fundamental experience has never changed: 1)Install and load the game. 2)Try doing the missions but realize they're a finicky, overly demanding waste of time. 3) Get a few different kinds of vehicles into big police chases since that's the one thing that's kind of fun to do in this game. 4)Get bored within 20 minutes or so and uninstall the game.

Fun for a while.

Wears thin after about 20 minutes.