Legacy of Valor

The original GTA’s prehistoric brand of open-world freedom is fascinating in the context of everything that’s come since, but it demands patience, precision, and a paper map by your side.

I am not a Tomb Raider expert - my memories go about as far back as playing the bulk of the original and its sequel at a friend's house, aged something like seven to 10 years old, and attempting to break free of the same demo disc level for a few too many hours on end. But what I've always taken from my fuzzy recollections of late-90s Lara is that one of classic Tomb Raider's defining traits is its precision. Jump exactly here. Land exactly there. Manually press a button to grab the ledge. If you miss you die - or at least get very frustrated. Read more

Grand Theft Auto 2 boasts a number of noticeable technical improvements over the original and feels far better to play, but I'm glad its odd and unrecognisable setting was a one-time experiment.

Rat's all, folks.

Replaying the pioneering 2001 classic 25 years later and paying tribute to the game that didn’t just change the trajectory of the GTA series forever – it changed the business.