Every week, we publish a classic PC Gamer review from the '90s or early 2000s. This week, Ben Griffin provides context and commentary followed by the full, original text of our GTA: San Andreas review, published in the July 2005 issue of PC Gamer UK. More classic reviews here.

We're enjoying the height of summer now, but as temperatures plummet and skies darken, Rockstar promise respite from Autumnal misery: GTA 5 on PC. With improved framerates. And increased resolution. And cats! It took no time at all for resident GTA enthusiast, Andy Kelly, to go all CSI on its launch trailer (hammerhead sharks: confirmed).

In light of that, I've decided to delve almost a decade into the past and unearth PC Gamer's San Andreas review. At 94%, it's our highest-rated Grand Theft Auto ever, beating out Vice City by a whole 1%. Why? How? Well, as our reviewer Ross Atherton puts it, the game is, "at once a giant, living playground and a smoothly contoured story. San Andreas still manages to be coherent despite giving the player the opportunity to ditch and pick up the storyline at will."

Pouring over these admittedly rough screens, I'm reminded of a time when a sprawling playing space meant necessary compromise. It was accepted back then look at Morrowind and True Crime. Open world? You'll have a blast, sure, but expect glitches and graphical issues. Since San Andreas the bar's been raised. Even in a game as mind-bogglingly massive as GTA V, we don't expect so much as a stretched texture. And, thanks to Euphoria, we're treated to some of the most convincing physics of any videogame, open world or otherwise.

Nine years on, San Andreas doesn't have great graphics. It doesn't have great physics. It doesn't even have cats. What it does have, though, is a sublime silly streak. It's a bouncing playground filled with sights and delights, whether that's bombing through Red Country on a jet-pack, crop dusting with Guns 'N Roses on the radio, or pumping iron at the local gym. With a staggering amount to see and do, wrapped in in Rockstar's trademark cultural satire, we strongly recommended it then and we strongly recommend it now.
GTA: San Andreas review
Welcome to GTA as it was always meant to be.

Forget the fact that GTA San Andreas started life as a PlayStation 2 game. The ugly caterpillar has become a beautiful (if foul-mouthed) butterfly. The fifth in a series that since its 2D birth on PC (back in 1997) has celebrated despicable gangsters and drive-by/-thru/-into and -over crime. San Andreas reaches new lows of depraved morality, senseless violence and alpha-male aggression. But it s the fact that it s one of the best games ever made that has already propelled it to console ultra-success.

GTA 3 struggled to make the technical leap to PC with its code intact, but months of finger-crossing and animal sacrifices to nameless gods have paid off. San Andreas runs like a dream, with the excellent mouse and keyboard control system of Vice City, extended visual range and atmospheric effects.

Like its two more recent predecessors, San Andreas puts you in the shoes of a central character about to embark on a life of crime. However, CJ aka Carl Johnson is no career mobster in the mould of Vice City s Tommy Vercetti. In fact, he s been away from the hood for five years to try and escape the gang violence endemic in his home city of Los Santos. He s brought back by his mother s untimely death. Hooking up with his brother Sweet and old friends, CJ is inevitably drawn back into the world he had left behind; a world of guns, drugs, territory, casual violence and respect .

Respect is actually a measured factor which is raised by performing notorious criminal acts. High respect means you can reinforce CJ with extra gang members when attempting to take over enemy territory. Although, initially, CJ doesn t even get respect from his brother. It s a good system, which draws you further into the game. As you complete missions, you start to gain the grudging respect of those around you. Eventually they adore you. San Andreas is no conventional RPG, but there s a definite feeling of character progression in this game.


Or is it an RPG? CJ has several other stats which have subtle but noticeable effects on the game. Driving, cycling, stamina, motorcycling, flying, pistol, rifle... every mode of transport and every type of weapon has an associated skill which increases as you employ it.

Better gun skills mean more accuracy with that weapon, while a higher motorbike skill means you won t fall off as easily if you nick a car or lamp-post. There are even scales for fat, muscle and sex appeal, variously dictated by what and how much you eat; your work in the gym; what you wear; your haircut and your tattoos. Some of this is frippery, but it ll also affect whether you can attract girlfriends (and their subsequent side missions), how much damage you withstand (fatties can take more lead, apparently) and some people s responses to you. Like so much in San Andreas, these statistics are carefully woven into the game s structure.

If you thought that Vice City s twin islands offered a huge playground, prepare your mind for a boggling. San Andreas offers a whole new world of largeness. There are three cities: Los Santos, a version of Los Angeles and your home town; San Fierro, standing in for San Francisco; and Las Venturas, a dusty, neon-bright Las Vegas squatting in the desert. Not only is each vast in its own right, but the intervening space is expansive and packed. After the first ten hours or so, you re encouraged out of Los Santos and introduced to a world of hicks, country music, tractors and remote, winding roads. The game s sense of place is so distinct that, as black CJ, you actually feel out of place in the small towns that dot the countryside.

As you get sucked further into the nefarious scheming of the corrupt cops excellently voiced by Samuel L Jackson and Chris Penn, you re dragged through the rolling countryside and north into San Fierro, all the time meeting and working for bizarre and intriguing characters. With a much more memorable layout than the first city, it s an even more exciting place to be, and you ll be rushing back and forth between the cities too, through the countryside. Eventually you ll progress to Las Venturas and then back to Los Santos to tie up the loose ends of the story.


Throughout the game, the variety of the 100-plus missions never fails to delight. Steal a combine harvester. Infiltrate a secret army base. Chase down thieves on quad bikes. Rob a bank. Shoot down remote-controlled planes with a minigun. Rescue a bunch of stoned English rockers from the desert. Fly a plane to Liberty City to carry out a hit. From the simple to the devilish, from the grimly criminal to the comedic, from the sublime to the ridiculous, San Andreas retains the power to surprise and entertain throughout its lengthy structure.

Not just in terms of the missions, either: you ll be infiltrating, burgling, flying, following, swimming, and shooting as a passenger as well as the more usual shooting and driving. My only quibble is that CJ never questions the reasoning behind the hundreds of casualties he s asked to inflict. Kill that man? Aiight, sums up his usual response, and at times it s hard to empathise with such a cold-blooded hero.

As in the previous two GTA games, you can invest your cash in properties, some of which will provide an income once you ve established a business there, and others which just act as new save points. These special locations often require you to complete a series of missions, offering yet another avenue to pursue. At any given time you ll have between one and half a dozen mission paths on offer, for you to take up in any order you want, or ignore completely in favour of a spot of pimping, exploring, police-baiting, male grooming or just riding around.

At once a giant, living playground and a smoothly contoured story, San Andreas still manages to be coherent despite giving the player the opportunity to ditch and pick up the storyline at will. The world doesn t have to depend on cutscenes for consistency, because there s always something going on, even if just in the background, to provide colour, life and atmosphere. The radio stations, legendary in GTA 3 and Vice City, are back with a dozen to choose from. As ever, Rockstar s cultural references are spot-on, and anyone older than their mid-20s will be powerfully reminded of their youth with the likes of Public Enemy, Primal Scream and Guns N Roses. The interludes and chat shows are superbly scripted, if not quite as bizarrely hilarious as Vice City s. Again, the PC version enables us to supply MP3s and have them played on a dedicated radio channel.


San Andreas does the simple things well. Just stand on any given street, and within seconds you ll see little tableaux developing. Pedestrians bump into each other, pass comments at you and others, and get run over. If you re in an unfriendly hood, thugs wearing enemy gang colours will swagger up, offering threats, and eventually attack.

Just existing is more gripping than before. Your wanted level is again represented by stars, but here just one star will have the cops shooting and crashing cars like their doughnuts depended on it. Wanted stars are harder to get rid of, and even civilians will react angrily if you nudge their cars. As a result, you can t afford to be too carefree while cruising the streets. This, combined in particular with Los Santos gritty, often run-down atmosphere, makes the overall experience quite different to Vice City s cartoon world. Actions have consequences seems to be the moral message.

That s not to say that San Andreas is humourless: quite the opposite. From the missions and cutscenes, to incidental dialogue and even tiny signs in obscure shops, you ll see Rockstar s trademark comedy style, ranging from the juvenile to the very explicit. San Andreas isn t afraid to say anything. Minor graphical scars left from its painful transformation into a PC game do nothing to dull San Andreas inner beauty. The best of the series, and already a contender for game of the year.

There aren t any big surprises in today s Daily Deals (how many times has GTAIV been discounted?), but cheap games are cheap games and there are some good ones today. There are also some holdovers from previous days, such as the BioShock Triple Pack, which has only lost 8% of its discount since Wednesday. Peek at our picks from previous days to see if any former Daily Deals are still discounted.

Don t forget to check out GOG s summer deals, too.

Reminder: if a game isn't a daily deal or a flash sale, it could pop up later in the sale for an even lower price. If you want to be safe, wait until June 30 to pick up a sale-long deal.
5 - Resident Evil 4: Ultimate HD Edition
40% off: $11.99 / 8.99 - Steam store page

Resident Evil 4 got a terrible PC port once, long ago. It's a sensitive topic. We don't like to talk about it. But the Ultimate HD Edition does justice to one of the greatest shooters of all time, with cleaned-up textures, a 60 fps option and responsive keyboard and mouse controls. The game is just as intense and brilliantly crafted as it was in 2004. The port has even gotten some substantial updates since release to fix bugs, improve some graphical effects, and eliminate a few of our complaints, like allowing us to remap the keys used for QTEs. RE4 is always worth playing again, and this is the version to play.
4 - Grand Theft Auto Complete Pack
80% off: $9.99 / 6.24 - Steam store page

Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, and Grand Theft Auto IV that s a lot of Grand Theft Auto. If you re only interested in GTAIV, the Complete Edition is also 80% off and half the price of the Complete Pack. It s been a while since GTAIV released (has it really been six years already?), so there s a decent chance you have no need for it, but it s a nice gift for anyone who hasn t yet seen a horse take it to the limit.
3 - Age of Empires II HD
75% off: $4.99 / 3.74 - Steam store page

Teutonic Knights. In HD. What more can you ask for? If that isn't enough, there are a few more benefits to this HD port of one of the greatest strategy games of all time, like online multiplayer and Steam Workshop support? How about a new expansion with five new civilizations? Twitch streaming? Modern Windows support? If you like Age of Empires II, well, you should probably own this.
2 - Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut
75% off: $4.99 / 3.24 - Steam store page

It was no small feat to bring back a franchise as beloved as Deus Ex. Eidos Montreal took on the task in the best way possible, creating a prequel that hints at the future from the first game, but puts its own stamp on the world. The director s cut here includes the full game and its Missing Link DLC, plus optional developer commentary. It s a great package for very little money.
1 - System Shock 2
85% off: $1.49 / 1.04 - Steam store page | Flash deal: buy before 8 p.m. EST

A bonafide classic of PC gaming, Irrational s first game set the template for its modern shooters, BioShock and BioShock Infinite. There aren t a lot of moments in the halls of the Von Braun when you don t feel vulnerable and alone, listening for the groans of mutants or worse, the babbling of cybernetic midwives and wondering how you ll get past them. Yes, the game is 15 years old, but this new release includes an improved engine, and the game s passionate fans have made plenty of mods that improve textures and models. If you ever wondered where the seeds of Rapture come from, you can find out here for less than the price of a cup of coffe.

Other deals today
Remember that games not categorized as Daily Deals or Flash Sales may be reduced further later in the sale.

Payday 2 (80% off) $5.99 / 4.59
BioShock Triple Pack (75% off) $14.99 / 9.99

Rockstar say the long-awaited PC version of Grand Theft Auto V will take full advantage of the power of PC and feature across-the-board graphical and technical improvements including increased draw distances, finer texture details, new wildlife, and upgraded weather. So I thought I d take a closer look at the E3 trailer to see if I could find any evidence of this. It s also worth noting that Rockstar captured this footage on a PlayStation 4, so it might look even better on PC.

The trailer opens (0:04) with a shot of some waves crashing against a cliff. This looks like the east coast, which boasts some of the game s most beautiful natural scenery. It s an ideal place to show off the improved lighting, which dances across the waves as they swell and break. Like Liberty City in GTA IV, the world map is essentially an island with water on all sides. The reflections on the ocean seem to have been ramped up on PC, making the water look, er, wetter. I can t say the wetness of the water really affected my enjoyment of the game on Xbox, but it s a nice addition all the same.

In the next shot (0:06) we see a cougar stalking deer in what is probably the Chiliad Mountain State Wilderness, a large forested area to the north-west where you can go big game hunting as Trevor. The biggest difference here compared to the last-gen version of the game is that grass, which sways in the wind and is disturbed as the cougar creeps through it. There s a lot of extra foliage in these countryside shots, which makes the rural areas of San Andreas feel much wilder.



Then we get our first glimpse of some of the new wildlife in the PC version: hammerhead sharks (0:09). If they re anything like their great white cousins, they ll eat you if you get too close. If you re feeling brave, it s possible to kill one up close with a knife or if not, you can snipe them from a boat. The ocean floor is littered with detail, including shipwrecks, crashed planes, shoals of fish, and a few other secrets I won t spoil for you. You ll need a diving suit or a submersible to see it all, though.

The biggest mountain in the game is Mount Chiliad, but there are others, as you can see here. In this clip (0:12) a couple of coyotes dash through the scrub as the sun casts a hazy glow over the landscape. It isn t always this foggy, though on a clear day, from Chiliad s peak, you can see the skyscrapers of downtown Los Santos poking through the clouds far in the distance. Cycling to the peak on a mountain bike is a lot of fun, and increases your character s stamina in the process.

The next few shots (0:17) show a lumber mill, a stone quarry, and a factory, with workers going about their daily lives: nosing through clipboards, driving dump trucks, and taking coffee breaks. The variety of pedestrians in the world is dizzying, and you can interact with all of them hikers, bodybuilders, drunks, pensioners, bikers. I spent a good few hours just wandering the streets talking to people. Insult a group of gangbangers on a street corner in the rough part of town and they ll pull their guns. Do the same to a yuppie downtown and he ll fling his coffee in the air and run away shrieking.



Then we see (0:26) the first of the game s three protagonists, Trevor. When you leap into a character you ll find them in different situations Michael will be lounging by the pool, Franklin will be washing his car but Trevor s are always a little more eccentric. Here he wakes up with a killer hangover at the top of a mountain. Sometimes he wakes up wearing a dress. We also get another glimpse of that new grass here, and a different angle on Mount Chiliad and its surrounding peaks.

After a brief glimpse (0:29) of Sandy Shores, the rustic desert town Trevor calls home (and cooks meth in), we cut to an impressive shot (0:31) of a freeway at night. The increase in traffic here over the 360 and PS3 versions of the game is pretty dramatic, and it actually feels like a freeway now, rather than a wider road with slightly more cars. The city looks fantastic at night, incidentally; a sea of lights stretching for miles into the distance. A quick shot (0:34) of a tanker truck driving through a puddle shows that the rain effects have improved too, because it isn t always sunny in San Andreas.

A bug log which leaked from Rockstar last year suggested the game would have DirectX 11-powered smog effects, and that s what I think we re seeing here (0:36). I don t remember the 360 version ever looking like this, although it could just be a result of the extended draw distance. Los Angeles is notorious for its choking smog, so it seems likely they d include it as part of the weather system. The following shot (0:38) of a group of homeless people sheltering under a bridge shows off the new dynamic shadows and lighting. Los Santos is going to look amazing as you cruise the streets at night.



Next up, another shot (0:41) of the city, this time at sunset. This is Strawberry based on the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles and home to Franklin, the second of the game s three anti-heroes. As Franklin washes his car (0:43) we see a woman in the background walking what looks like a pug, and if you look closely at the orange wall in the background you ll see a cat dropping down. Both are new additions to the PC version, so we may also see other city-dwelling animals like foxes and raccoons. The next shot (0:45) of Franklin shows him walking through Strawberry at night with his dog, Chop. The sidewalk is packed with NPCs, including a prostitute lingering by the curb. Yes, you can still pick them up.

Santa Monica Pier is one of Los Angeles most recognisable landmarks, and now we see (0:47) its Los Santos equivalent, Del Perro Pier. Each district of the city has a very different atmosphere. As you stroll past the perfect lawns and palatial homes of Rockford Hills you ll hear wannabe actors braying into their phones about auditions; on the golden beaches you ll see bodybuilders flexing to impress sunbathing ladies; in the poor areas you ll bump into twitchy meth-heads and stumbling drunks. It s an exaggerated parody of a modern American city, but also an incredibly convincing one.

Looking over Rockford Hills now (0:49), we see the shadow of a passenger jet. That s new, and likely a result of that new lighting. Jets can be stolen at the airport and flown, as well as crop dusters, fighter jets, and an array of helicopters including one you can use to pick up cars, which is a lot of fun in multiplayer. We then cut to (0:50) protagonist number three, Michael, a retired old school crook in witness protection. He s doing yoga here, an optional minigame, and also an important part of one of the game s best, and funniest, story missions. As you might expect, he doesn t stay retired for long.



More shots (0:53) of the city at night now, including a glimpse of the interior of Michael s car, which shows the dial on his speedometer moving another new addition for PC. The original was sorely missing a proper in-car view, so does this mean we ll be getting one? It would be quite a feat for them to model interiors for all of the game s vehicles, but I d love them if they did. The final shot (0:58) of the trailer shows the city at night with another teeming freeway. You can see the skyscrapers of downtown Los Santos in the background, as well as the Maze Bank Stadium. Just look at all those cars.

And that s the trailer. It s testament to the amount of detail in the world that I was able to squeeze 1,000 words out of just under two minutes of footage. If you re wondering, the music is a remix of a track called From Nowhere by Dan Croll. This was on the last-gen version s soundtrack, on Radio Mirror Park, but we'll probably be getting new music too and hopefully a customisable station that allows us to import our own music, with added DJ chatter, like in the last game. Grand Theft Auto V is being released in autumn/fall on PC, and I can t wait to explore its incredible world again.

If you feel like being Batman these days, there's no shortage of options. There's a new Batman game. There are several old Batman games. You could buy a heavily discounted Batman Halloween costume, put it on, and start punching crooks. Or, you can do what I did this week: install a Batmobile mod for GTA IV, and bring a little Gotham to Liberty City.
Let me tell you about the features of the Batmobile mod. Ha ha! No. If you've read my other superhero adventures in Liberty City (Iron Man, Hulk, and Superman), you know by now that I like to have a reason for being a superhero, and despite that reason being absolute nonsense, it still often takes several long and pointless paragraphs to reach. I can't just get in the Batmobile and drive around and tell you about it. I first must become... the BATMAN.
By now we all know what turned an simple, ordinary billionaire child into a nocturnal vengeance machine: tragic alleyway violence. So, I’ll start there. I run into the nearest alleyway and wait for something horribly traumatic to happen.


Come ON. How long do I have to wait for a life-shattering event? MORE than five minutes?
Of course, nothing happens. In Liberty City, if anything horrible happens in an alley it’s most likely me doing it to someone else, often with a flamethrower. Still, I run into a couple different alleys in search of someone who will start a fight with me or at least give me an excuse to start a fight with them which I would then deliberately lose, thus experiencing life-altering crime-related trauma. Finally, something does happen: as I’m running from one alleyway to another, I cross the street and get hit by a cab.


And a hero is born.

Yes! Finally! TRAUMA. This will make an awesome flashback.

I've seen these cabs all over the city. They must be part of some merciless TAXI GANG. Will the cops do anything to stop them? They won't. They can't. But I can. I will become a vigilante and bring down the Taxi Gang.

I press the Insert button, bringing up the mod menu, and change into... THE BATMAN.

I AM THE BATwait, wait, uh, what the shit, who the hell is this guy?
Um. Well, it looks like the Batman skin I tried to install earlier isn't working, or perhaps just isn't recognized by the Batmobile mod. Instead of the Batman cowl and cape and utility belt and muscles, I appear to be a somewhat portly fifty-seven year old grocery store manager named Douglas.


Just like a bat, I... beat up cab drivers.
Oh well. This column is supposed to be about Batman's car, not Batman, so let's just roll with it. It’s time for Douglas to VIOLENTLY JUSTICE THINGS. I spot a member of the Taxi Gang driving around in his car, drag him out, and start punching him. He goes down easily, and I begin running from cab to cab, pummeling all the drivers. It’s not long before the local cops notice, and now, like Batman, Douglas is a wanted vigilante. Even though Batman and the cops are on the same side, Batman must often flee from them. Time to make my escape. I call in... the Batmobile.


Or is it just Doug's car? I'm not sure at this point.
From the mod menu, you can have the Batmobile deliver itself to you, just like in the movies, often through whatever obstacles (poles, people, other cars) are in the way. This is the 1989 movie version of the Batmobile, back when Michael Keaton was Batman and plastic models were used instead of CGI and perhaps when we first began to realize that Batman is kind of a boring humorless sulk-monster and that his enemies are always far more interesting.


I think that was a cab. Probably.
The Batmobile has twin machine-gun turrets that are fun to use, and much more effective than GTA's "stick your arm out the window and shoot" feature that you can do while driving. You can also switch to rockets that let you lock onto nearby targets and fire, also fun. But we're running from the cops, not trying to kill them, so let's talk about some defensive features.


I'm sure those cops'll be fine.
You can blast fire out of your rocket engine in the back of the Batmobile, which is a great way to discourage pursuers. Who is going to be stupid enough to keep driving when there's a thirty foot gout of flame pouring out of your car and onto the street? Well, LCPD, I guess. If you don't like the idea of roasting police officers, you can also use your jet engine as a jet engine. When you really throttle up the Batmobile, you can escape from the police radar in no time.


Unless they get in front of you.
You've also got grenades that pop out of your wheels. Speed off and let them detonate on their own, or trigger them yourself. Either way, it's another great tool you can use to lose law enforcement officers who insist on chasing you even though you're just trying to make Liberty City safer by punching taxi drivers to death.


Like that's a crime or something.
My favorite feature, though, is the smoke screen. If the cops are closing in on all sides, just stop the car, hit the smoke button, and foooooooosh, within moments the air is filled with smoke and the Batmobile completely vanishes from sight. The cops are baffled. "Where did that crazy car go? All I see is smoke! Let's look elsewhere. Let's not look in the giant cloud of smoke. That's the one place I'm sure Batman isn't."


NOBODY HERE BUT US MYSTERIOUS CLOUDS OF SMOKE
When the smoke clears after a bit, they will come running back to shoot you, but in the meantime, you can use the mod menu to repair any tires that have been shot out, or climb out and try to escape on foot. One word of advice: if you happen to flip the Batmobile onto its roof and then try to get out, you may fall through the world.


And here Douglas thought the weirdest part of his day was that he was Batman.

Installation: Here is the mod's page, with several mirrors for downloads. Just be careful, they're those Adfly/Mega type download pages, where you have to wait for five seconds before getting to the actual download you're looking for.

You'll also need OpenIV, which you can acquire here. Once you install and run OpenIV, open the tools tab, select Package Installer, then navigate to the Batmobile .oiv file that came from the mod’s zip file. Then start the game! Pressing the Insert key will bring up the mod menu.

Reinstall invites you to join us in revisiting classics of PC gaming days gone by. This week, Marsh embarks on a two-dimensional crime spree in GTA 2.

PC gamers needn’t wait to sample Rockstar’s vision of current day America. GTA 2, released in 1999 by the developers then called DMA Design, was set in 2013 – although not a 2013 you’d necessarily recognise. In fact, it’s not even a GTA you’d necessarily recognise.

Every other instalment of the series has pointedly evoked a place and a time, gleefully refracted through the multi-faceted lens of crime fiction. GTA 2 marks a loss of focus: a weird sojourn into the pseudo-futurism of Anywhere, USA, a city of perpetual dusk and neon, peopled by clone armies, lunatics and Elvis impersonators.

That it takes place in 2013 is only confirmed by digging through cross-media backstory bumf on the game’s archived website. Elsewhere, one reference puts it perpetually ‘three weeks into the future’ and others place it near the eve of the millennium. The city has its own ideas of when it is: the cars and the arsenal you use to detonate them have a whiff of retro-sci-fi, while the all-powerful corporations, crime networks, cults and clones all suggest a notquite- cyberpunk tomorrow, more akin to Mega-City One than Los Santos.

In other words, GTA 5 might now look quite different if Rockstar hadn’t backed out of the road they turned down in GTA 2. It might even be that they have a slight sense of shame about it: Rockstar have yanked the free download of the game from their website, and delisted it from Steam – although it remains an unmentioned extra in the Grand Theft Auto Complete Pack. Once obtained, it takes a little coaxing to run: I had to set my monitor to 16-bit colour and reduce my resolution, and suffer occasional crashes and a good deal of screen tearing.



It starts with a live action movie – another oddity for a series that has since insisted on in-engine cinematics – starring a young Scott Maslen (Jack Branning to Eastenders fans). Perhaps it was this cinematic aperitif that consolidated Rockstar’s stated ambition in GTA III to beat Hollywood at its own game, and with a game. It’s slickly produced, albeit suffering dated delusions of cool and bearing little resemblance to the cartoonish game that follows.

It’s not the only innovation in GTA 2 to be discarded by its successors: the major mechanical difference between this and the first game is the introduction of a faction system. Instead of leading players on a narrative thread, the game lets you bounce between the three different power groups in each district, fostering trust with one by slaughtering the soldiers of another. At any time you can switch allegiances, building up your trust meter with another organisation by murdering your old allies. Once the respect of one faction is gained, you can access their missions – some of which unlock simultaneously, depending on your degree of respect, others sequentially.

Not that completing missions is even strictly necessary: the end goal is simply to gain enough cash to buy your way to the next district. Early on, completing missions is the most lucrative option, but you gain cash from pretty much any action in the game – a high speed fender bender will get you $100, and score multipliers awarded for mission completion mean that causing chaos becomes an easy means of profit. It’s this arcadey vibe that the series has latterly retreated from in all but its novelty side-missions. In Anywhere, USA, anything goes and points mean prizes. There’s even a gameshow-style announcer, who bellows out your achievements over blasts of celebratory onscreen text.

It’s primarily a chaos sandbox, not a crime story or city simulation, and that’s perhaps partly because the mechanics of the game resist anything but mayhem. The driving feels either stiff or overly twitchy, the collision physics makes the cars feel like they’re covered in velcro, and the top-down perspective leaves you little time to react as you hurtle along. Erratic, suicidal AI pedestrians throw themselves beneath your wheels, making tussles with the law an inevitability. You have no choice but to embrace these frustrations, ploughing into traffic, detonating pile-ups with glee, and basking in the heat it brings.



In some ways, this arcadey, destructive spirit helps GTA2 avoid that uncomfortable dissonance of later GTA games. It can afford to be blithely, bleakly callous when its civilians are little more than scuttling sprites: hence the joyous reward for running over a conga-line of Elvis impersonators, or the memorably grotesque mission in which you pose as a bus driver, dumping hapless commuters into a meat processing plant to be disposed of between two white buns at a local diner. It’s hard to imagine such a thing surviving into the high-definition era.

And yet some things have survived: sidemissions as municipal workers paved the way for the simulatory aspects of later GTAs, and even then the game prided itself on its soundtrack, its radio stations full of too-cool licensed tracks, hot-headed shock-jock blather and wilfully puerile advertisement spoofs. Never ones to resist a good knob-joke, or even a bad knob-joke, mission titles are often terrible sex-puns, like, for example, the groaningly obvious Blow Job (it’s an assignment involving explosives, you see).

But this humour is scattershot: there’s no single thing being satirised here, because the city and the larger world is no coherent place. The recurring cliché in describing GTA is to say that the city is the game’s main character, but here it’s hard to know what that character is. It doesn’t really riff on gangsta stereotypes, mob stories, or cop capers. It’s not really science fiction or contemporary satire. Anywhere, USA – in 1999, or 2013, or three weeks into the future – is truly a city out of place and time.

Remember when buying a game didn’t feel like a guarantee of seeing the ending? There are still hard games out there, Dark Souls flying the flag most recently, but increasingly, the challenge has dripped out or at least softened, often leading to sadly wasted opportunities. What would Skyrim be like, for instance, if its ice and snow wasn’t simply cosmetic, but actually punished you for going mountain climbing in your underpants?

With a quick mod – Frostfall in this case – you’re forced to dress up warm before facing the elements, and things become much more interesting. That’s just one example, and over the next couple of pages you’ll find plenty more. These aren’t mods that just do something cheap like double your enemy’s hit-points, they’re full rebalances and total conversions. Face their challenge, and they’ll reward you with both a whole new experience and the satisfaction of going above and beyond the call of duty.

Misery
Game: Stalker: Call of Pripyat
Link: ModDB



All those weapons scattered around? Gone. Anomalies? Now more dangerous. Magic mini-map? Forget it. Valuable quest rewards? Good luck. Things you do get: thirsty, and factions who send goons after you if you anger them. On the plus side Pripyat is much more active, with a complete sound overhaul, and new NPCs to meet – who all have to play by the rules too, with no more infinite ammo. If you can survive here, you’ve got a good chance when the actual apocalypse comes.

Project Nevada
Fallout: New Vegas
Link: Nexus Mods



Nevada is a good example of making things more difficult without being openly psychotic. Levelling is slower, players and NPCs get less health, and obvious features are now in, such as armour only being a factor in headshots if the target actually has head protection. It’s also possible to toggle some extra-hardcore options, such as food no longer healing and taking care of hunger/thirst/ sleep on the move. There’s a sack of new content, and an Extra Options mod is also available, offering even more control.

Brutal Doom
Game: Doom
Link: ModDB



Despite what modern ‘old-school’ shooters would have you think, Doom was a relatively sedate experience – fast running speed, yes, but lots of skulking in the dark and going slow. Not any more! Brutal Doom cranks everything up to 11, then yawns and goes right for 25.6. We’re talking extra shrapnel, execution attacks, tougher and faster monsters, metal music, and blood, blood, blood as far as your exploding eyes can see. It’s compatible with just about any level you can throw at it, turning even E1M1 into charnel house devastation. The enemies don’t get it all their own way, as Doomguy now starts with an assault rifle rather than simply a pistol, and a whole arsenal of new guns has been added to the Doom collection – including the BFG’s big brother.



Full Combat Rebalance 2
Game: The Witcher 2
Link: RedKit



This streamlines the combat and makes the action closer to how Geralt’s adventure might have played out in the books. He’s more responsive, can automatically parry incoming attacks, begins with his Witcher skills unlocked, and no longer has to spend most fights rolling around like a circus acrobat. But he’s in a tougher world, with monsters now figuring out counterattacks much faster, enemies balanced based on equipment rather than levels, and experience only gained from quests, not combat. Be warned this is a 1.5GB file, not the megabyte Hotfix that’s claimed.

Requiem
Game: Skyrim
Link: Nexus



Elder Scrolls games get ever more streamlined, and further from the classic RPG experience. Requiem drags Skyrim back, kicking and screaming. The world is no longer levelled for your convenience. Bandits deliver one-hit kills from the start. The undead mock arrows, quietly pointing out their lack of internal organs with a quick bonk to your head. Gods hold back their favour from those who displease them. Most importantly, stamina is now practically a curse. Heavy armour and no training can drain it even if you’re standing still, and running out in battle is Very Bad News. Combine this with Frostfall, and Skyrim finally becomes the cold, unforgiving place it claims to be.

Radious
Total War: Shogun 2
Link: TWCenter



Not only is this one of the most comprehensive mods any Total War game has ever seen, its modular nature makes it easy to pick and choose the changes that work best for the experience you want. Together, the campaign AI is reworked, as are the skills and experience systems, diplomacy and technology trees. There are over 100 new units. Campaigns are also longer, providing more time to play with all this, with easier access to the good stuff early on in the name of variety. There’s even a sound module that adds oomph to rifles. Add everything, or only the bits you want. It’s as much of a tactical decision as anything else on the road to conquering Japan.

Game of Thrones
Game: Crusader Kings II
Link: ModDB



Real history doesn’t have enough bite for you? Recast the whole thing with Starks, Lannisters, Freys and the rest and it will. This doesn’t simply swap a few names around, but works with the engine to recreate specific scenarios in the war for the Iron Throne. Individual characters’ traits are pushed into the foreground, especially when duels break out. Wildlings care little about who your daddy was. It’s best to know a fair amount about the world before jumping in, and the scenarios themselves contain spoilers, but you’re absolutely not restricted to just following the story laid down in the books.



Realistic Weapons
Game: Grand Theft Auto IV
Link: GTAGarage



Guess what this one does. A bowling league for Roman? Cars that drive themselves? A character who appears to tell Niko “You have $30,000 in your pocket, you don’t need to goon for assholes” after Act 2? No, of course not. These guns put a little reality back into the cartoon that is GTA. The missions weren’t written with that in mind, obviously, but there’s nothing stopping you from giving it a shot. Worst case: murdering random civilians on the street is much quicker, easier and more satisfying. At least until the cops show up to spoil the fun. Range, accuracy, damage, ammo and fire rate are all covered, though be warned that you shouldn’t expect perfect accuracy from your upgraded hardware. This is GTA after all. Realism is not baked into its combat engine.

The Long War
Game: XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Link: NexusMods



You’re looking at eight soldier classes, many more missions, invaders as focused on upgrades as your own science team, and a much longer path to victory. Research is slow, not least to make early weapon upgrades more useful, while the aliens are constantly getting more powerful. Their ships are better, their terror missions are more regular, and more of them show up for battle. In exchange, you get to field more Interceptors, the council is easier to appease, and the ETs don’t cheat as much.

Ziggy's Mod
Game: Far Cry 3
Link: NexusMods



Ziggy makes Rook Island a more natural place, removing mission requirements for skills, cutting some of the easier ways to earn XP, increasing spawn rates to make the island busier, and throwing away the magic mini-map in favour of a compass. The second island is also unlocked from the start. Smaller changes include randomised ammo from dropped weapons, being able to climb hills that you should realistically be able to, and wingsuit abilities made available earlier to get more out of them.

Terrafirmacraft
Game: Minecraft
Link: Terrafirmacraft



Minecraft has a Survival mode, but it’s not desperately challenging. Terrafirmacraft takes it seriously, with hunger and thirst that must be dealt with at all times, and key elements added such as the need to construct support beams while mining to prevent cave-ins, and a seasonal cycle that determines whether or not trees will produce fruit. Many more features are to be added, but there’s enough here already to make survival about much more than throwing together a Creeper-proof fort.



Synergies Mod
Game: Torchlight II
Link: Synergies Mod



This adds a new act to the game, over a hundred monsters, new rare bosses, a new class – the Necromancer – more and tougher monsters and the gear to take them on. There are also endgame raids to add challenge once the world is saved yet again, and more on the way – including two new classes (Paladin and Warlock). It’s the top-ranked Torchlight II mod on Steam Workshop, and easily the most popular. Be aware that it’s still in development, and has a few rough edges.

Civilization Nights
Game: Civilization V
Link: Steam Workshop



While Brave New World has officially given Civ V a big shake up, for many players Nights remains its most popular add-on. It’s a comprehensive upgrade, adding new buildings, wonders, technologies and units, with a heavy focus on policies and making the AI better. The single biggest change is how it calculates happiness, citizens adding cheer simply by existing, but the slow march of war and other miseries detracting from the good times. Annexed a city? Don’t expect too many ticker-tape parades. Yet keeping happiness up is crucial, as it’s also the core of a strong military. This rebalancing completely changes how you play, while the other additions offer plenty of scope for new tactics and even more carefully designed civilisations.

Ultimate Difficulty Mod
Game: Dishonored
Link: TTLG Forums



This makes Dishonored’s enemies more attentive, faster and able to hear a pin drop from the other side of the map. When you get into a fight, it quickly becomes an all-out street war. The biggest change is to Dishonored’s second most abusable ability: the Lean (Blink of course being #1). Corvo can no longer sit behind scenery, lean out into an enemy’s face and be politely ignored. He’s now much more likely to be spotted – especially in ghost runs, where his advantages are now limited to the Outsider’s gifts rather than the Overseers’ continued lack of a local Specsavers.

Hardcore
Game: Deus Ex
Link: ModDB



New augmentations! Altered AI! Randomised inventories! Also a few time-savers: instead of separate keys and multitools for instance, a special keyring has both, while upgrades are used automatically if necessary. Difficulty also changes the balance considerably, from the standard game to ‘Realistic’ mode where you only get nine inventory slots, to ‘Unrealistic’, which makes JC Denton the cyborg killing machine he’s meant to be, but at the cost of facing opponents who warrant it. In this mode he gets double-jumping powers, and automatically gobbles health items when he gets badly wounded. Good luck though, I still got nowhere.