True Crime: Streets of LA

oh man..True Crime:Streets of LA. if i remember correctly, it's one of the first games i got for my PS2. i went in not expecting much (at that time.. i wasn't wowed by GTA3 or anything like that yet, though i LOVED GTA2 at the time). but holy shit, i was amazed at how awesome this game was.  
 
i think in this game, you played as some asian dude (nick kang, was it?) and the game had a solid story. lots of crazy moments, and they even added in some super natural elements which was a good change (i think at one point you were underground shooting at some crazy Chinese fire dragon XDD) and just driving around solving crimes was fun as hell.  
 
the soundtrack was great. seriously, as much as i'm not a big fan of rap/hiphop, the soundtrack was very well done.   also, the game was ridiculous. i remember one level you were fighting a bunch of chicks that were on fire XD, and another one where you had to beat up a bunch of strippers that were trying to kill you, and then you had to beat up their manager. you could also hold ANY dual weapons (ANY..like shotgun + assault rifle which was cool) 
 

  
 
i think what they tried to sell this game with was the fact that the game had Fighting, Shooting AND Driving all in one!!   it did all of that well.  
 
did any of you play TRUE CRIME:STREETS OF LA? what did you think of it? i'm not sure if it was a popular game or not :\  
 
now excuse me, i'm off to EB games to find a used copy. 
 

It seems that those 2002-ish games made a lasting impact on the game industry, with so many games now combining elements from any two of them to make something new.

Everyday there comes another new title, set in an "open world", requiring you to sneak past enemies, climb tall buildings, and slice through foes in the third person, starring a jaded hero wearing something like a hooded sweatshirt. And then comes the games that are further clones of the first set, like inFAMOUS and Prototype are to Assassin's Creed, which itself was to the 2002 games.

And I'm not saying it is a terrible situation, those four games were, well besides Spiderman, great. But I think the formula is set to run dry. And before long, games like Final Fantasy VS. 13 will give way to, "well what if we made a Devil May Cry God of War type game set in the Lego universe? With a hoodie and 5:00 shadow?" Its like we can simply break down games announced at E3 nowadays as "well here a GTA sandbox game. Heres a new Devil May Cry type game. Here is a stealth action game only this time starring a sexy woman. Here is a World War 2 FPS, only this time you play from Ireland's perspective, heres a Superpower game in NYC only it takes place in the 1950's..."