The first two had a slow burn story where the semi open world progresses through time so it was a character in itself. Cars felt like cars of the era esp 1 there’s like one mission you get to rip around town. 3 squandered an interesting time and setting for saints row like open world full of nonsense
It was a play on the Eric Andre meme, following Swen Vincke’s comments recently and his speech at the game awards “We don’t have shareholders, but we also don’t think about them,”. Which maybe got through to a few studios that have the ability to take back their independence, especially those under the likes of Embracer, who are currently haemorrhaging money.
I spent so much time in path of neo’s hacking game. Warriors still holds up, Final Fantasy X, Burnout 2/3, Tony Hawks underground, Okami and Shadow of the colossus. Those are a few off the top of my head.
Essential for some of the ones that have become too expensive 007 - Agent Under Fire for free mcboot