Bada Bing!
What can I say here, boys & girls? It's Grand Theft Auto. It's the one that 60% of all the games ever made afterwards have compared themselves to in some way, shape, or form. It's strange, because unlike other huge groundbreaking titles, like Zelda or Super Mario Bros., GTA III hasn't exactly aged well. The Liberty City found herein is so laughably small compared to the Sahara Desert sandboxes we get to play around in today that it's almost a little claustrophobic at times. There were no motorcycles, no helicopters, only a handful of songs on the radio...but still, the magic was there.
And the magic is what's kept us coming back over and over in future installments. GTA III is like the grandpa of the series who fought in World War 2; sure, it may not be as entertaining hearing about his mess tent exploits now as it was a decade or two ago, but if it wasn't for him, we wouldn't be playing games today. So he gets all the respect he deserves.
And considering this game is about the Mafia, I'm sure it knows a thing or two about respect, you follow?