YOSHINORI ONO

CAPCOM

Grand Theft Auto III is not just an incredible game – it gave birth to our current games market, where open world is a given. I lost myself in it and used it to escape from reality many times, and it gave me the freedom to do what I wanted in the ways I always wished I could when I played games as a child. The great thing was that you never felt the game was pushing you into doing things – it was just designed to support and prompt the player’s desire to do anything. I clearly remember thinking to myself, ‘Wow – so this is the kind of thing that’s being developed outside of Japan’.

To think that today we can play this game anywhere on our smartphones! Remembering the game for this piece inspired me to give it another go, and obviously the graphics have dated and the number of side missions and so on pale in comparison to the latest GTA games, but its design still shines, and you can feel its impact. That’s why, after careful rumination, I’ve chosen Grand Theft Auto III as the best game released during Edge’s lifetime.