I sat in front of my first Xbox, drove around Vice City, and tried to turn a car into a plane. Most of the time, it didn't result in a particularly elegant flight. But that was part of the fun.
Today I'm 35 and I'm looking forward to GTA 6. When I think about where this enthusiasm comes from, I always end up thinking about moments like these.
When Vice City suddenly made everything possible
During my primary school years, I was particularly fascinated by Driver. Being able to simply drive through a city without having to follow a fixed racetrack was something special to me. I could turn, stop, and find my own way.
Then I saw GTA Vice City at a school friend's house.
Palm trees, pastel-colored houses, the sea, and music from the car radio: there was something about this city that immediately captivated me. Back then, the graphics seemed almost photorealistic to me. Today, you can see the angular characters and simple textures. But back then, I saw a world I desperately wanted to enter.
What impressed me most were their small reactions. If a passerby was injured, an ambulance would appear. Paramedics would get out and take care of him. Details like these made Vice City feel alive to me.
And unlike the driver I knew back then, I could simply get out. Continue on foot, take another car, walk into a different one and see what happened. A city to drive through became a city to discover.
I spent many hours playing it on my first-generation Xbox. And cheats were added quite early on.
One code, and the evening took a different turn.
Of course, cheats could make a difficult situation easier. But for me, they were primarily an invitation to experiment.
Especially after the story ended, Vice City gained a new appeal. There were no more missions to complete. I could set my own goals – even if it was just trying to stay airborne as long as possible in a sports car.
Take a run-up, accelerate, take off. Then find out if this time it was a usable flight or a rather unusual landing. A failed attempt wasn't a lost opportunity. It was a reason to try again.
Vice City already offered astonishingly absurd possibilities with its built-in code. Cars could take off or, with the right cheat, drive on water. The familiar city thus gained new paths, new rules, and new stories.
With San Andreas, this playground became even bigger. Multiple cities, country roads, airports, and landscapes where you could wonderfully lose yourself. Added to this were features like a jetpack that could be activated via cheat codes. Suddenly, even traveling across rooftops was an option.
What I later found particularly impressive about GTA IV was its driving physics. The cars had weight, and even a fast drive through Liberty City could be an experience.
The expansion "The Ballad of Gay Tony" demonstrated just how absurd the series could become: the Super Punch cheat turned a fist punch into an explosion. Liberty City still looked like a serious metropolis – only suddenly some rather peculiar rules applied.
GTA V eventually took me back to Los Santos and the surrounding area. There, too, super jumps and altered gravity offered ways to use the world in a completely unique manner. A fence, a car, or a low roof could suddenly become an opportunity to take a running start with the right code.
Why cheats are part of GTA culture
For many fans, cheats are as much a part of GTA as radio stations, car chases, and the spontaneous decision to postpone the next mission. These are the built-in codes in single-player mode: ways to modify your own game world.
Their appeal lies in the fact that they spark new ideas. What can be combined? Where can this lead me? How long will it last?
Such questions give rise to the experiences that are later recounted. No author wrote this specific scene. No mission objective demanded it. It happened because one was allowed to try something new.
That's precisely why I would never reduce cheats in GTA to simply "cheating." They extend the fun, change your perspective on familiar places, and give you a good reason to return after completing the story. For me, they're part of what makes GTA so unique.
That's why I'm looking forward to GTA 6 with this expectation: to discover a new world, learn about its possibilities, and hopefully be able to bend its rules again someday.
Perhaps the best evening will begin again with a sports car, a long road, and a rather stupid idea.
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