Christmas Memories - Grand Theft Awesome

Christmas will always be the most exciting time of year when it comes to gaming for me. As a kid it meant I could list the games I had wanted all year and try to persuade Santa and his Elves that I had been good, and as a slightly older kid it means I can play games for 2-weeks without feeling the guilt of neglecting my potential career opportunities.

About a month or so before Christmas itself, I would always receive the Game catalogue through the post, a result of spending too much time in the high-street store. This would feature all of the ‘must have’ games of the year, tons of accessories, gadgets and all the other game related crap that they couldn’t flog throughout the rest of year. Then, in something that resembles an SAS black-ops mission, I would meticulously circle all the games I wanted and sneak it into my mum’s handbag in hope she would stumble across it while she was at the shops. This would stop the onslaught of questions like ‘why do you want this?’ ‘how do you say that?’ and ‘isn’t that a little inappropriate?’... and this particular year, it was the latter I was trying to avoid.

Flicking through the various gaming mags I had accumulated earlier in the year, I remember
coming across a screenshot of what I could only describe as the most realistic game I had ever seen. Grand Theft Auto III. A fully 3D world where you could do whatever you wanted, what could be better? Of course this was the only game I wanted for Christmas, so with sharpie ink still wet, Grand Theft Auto III was circled and in position, now I had to play the waiting game.

Christmas morning came and mum was good to her word. Granted, Grand Theft Auto wasn’t in my stocking, but requesting an 18 rated game and getting it works out in your favour when you have older siblings. Once all the standard, ‘well it’s my game, it was in my stocking’ arguments had died down and the PS2 was set up in the lounge (it was christmas so we weren’t shipped out into Dad’s tiny office) we turned it on and were all awestruck.

To this day watching the opening cut-scene, watching 8-Ball detonate the bomb on the bridge and seeing him and Claude escape the prison truck, send shivers down my spine, its hardly festive but it screamed out Christmas to me.

We all took it in turns playing missions and causing mischief on the streets of Liberty City, stealing cars, manning taxis and fire-engines, and killing innocent bystanders, it was the ultimate Christmas treat for an 10-year old like me. It may not be all the tinsel and baubles you’d expect of a Christmas memory, but for me, nothing says Christmas quite like beating up prostitutes, stealing money and running away from the police… awwww the Holidays!