Is Grand Theft Auto III THAT influential?

[Kresnik]

Hmm. Interesting topic to discuss, no doubt, but I'm not sure how much I agree with what you put in the OP.

For example, saying GTA's foundation was laid by Zelda. I saw the overworld exploration part of Zelda much more in line with something like the world map in any Final Fantasy game. You can go to various different places but there's not always a whole lot to do in them. For example, in FF VII you could go to the Gold Saucer and play mini-games at any time, much like you could go to Hyrule Market in Ocarina and play some of those mini-games. Other than that, you were simply traversing a map - occasionally stopping in a town or fighting some monsters.

I saw a whole lot more interactivity when I played GTA III for the first time. I dunno, like The1 mentions I was just blown away when I first got the game at all the things I could do. I would spend hours running around doing nothing in particular. I personally wouldn't call GTA 'Zelda in an urban setting' in the same way I wouldn't call it 'Final Fantasy in an urban setting', it was much more diverse than that (to me, at least).

I think it probably was very influential in the industry, but maybe for the wrong reasons. It wasn't a massive revelation from things past, but it certainly felt like it at the time!