Six degrees of freedom

I think it was Elite that first grabbed my imagination by the throat and refused to let go.

As soon as launched my ship from the docking bay and flipped round to see the space station slowly rotating above the planet Lave I was hooked by the glorious sense of freedom. I could go anywhere in the galaxy, trade goods, smuggle contraband, hunt pirates for bounty, be a pirate myself if I wanted to. If I'm honest, I never quite made it to Elite status, although if you added up all of the kills from all of the various versions of the game I've played over the last 25 years from the original BBC Micro onward I'm probably close.

There were other games with a similar scope - Sid Meier's 'Pirates!' for one - and I must make an honourable mention of the early incarnations of Microsoft Flight Simulator. Just firing up the engines on a Cessna Skylane and taking off from Meigs Field to fly around the Chicago skyline was a wonderful experience, even in the glorious monochrome CGA graphics and buzzing pc speaker technology of the day.

I've been playing Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas again recently, and it still gives me the same thrill of interacting with an open world. From the sun bleached streets of Los Santos, to the foggy hills of San Fiero and the dust storms and purple skies of Las Venturas it's a delight just to drive, bike or fly around. I remember that some reviews criticised the sheer scale of the game where you could be driving for ten minutes or more to get to a mission start point, but that is really the point for me. If an open world game is not enjoyable simply for the act of travelling through it then you are missing the point.

One element that I particularly enjoy is the flying, where the sheer variety of aircraft available beats the handful of helicopters in GTA IV. Taking off from the airstrip to the north west of Las Venturas and flying around the desert canyons and mesas of Bone County before turning south to fly under the iconic Carver bridge and then perhaps buzzing the Naval base to pick up five wanted stars is always enjoyable.

The excellent soundtrack is always an enjoyable feature too. I have been listening to some old favourites on SF-UR which take me back to the late 80s and early 90s - A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray, Joe Smooth and of course 808 State whose Pacific Flight is particularly appropriate for taking the GTA equivalent of a Lear Jet for a spin along the coast line before baling out and parachuting back to earth.

If you haven't played GTA:SA, then I would urge you to pick up a copy cheap on PC, PS/2 or Xbox Live, play through the early stages as quickly as you can until you open up the whole state and then kick back and enjoy it.