GTA Free

Much as we love Grand Theft Auto, we've always had our doubts about Rockstar. Not the developer, which shines like a beacon across the whole of Scotland, but the company as a whole. There's definitely an Umbrella Corp. vibe about the place, with seedy goings-on and outbreaks of concentrated evil (State of Emergency, for example), timed to inflict massive damage in the aftermath of a big release.

But as the dollars pour in, the New York-based publisher is obviously starting to feel a bit more philanthropic, and late last week seized on the opportunity to placate anybody pining after another GTA game by giving away the whole of the original Grand Theft Auto, to which it obviously now owns the rights, for free.

You can download the entire game (clocking in at around 340MB) from Rockstar Classics, which promises to expand in coming months to include more of Take-Two's extensive back catalogue. (Assuming the site can stay online - we can't get through at the moment.)

Those of you with long memories may well recall that the original GTA was somewhat popular, although admittedly it didn't sell eight million copies. Had it done so, we doubt Rockstar would ever have gotten their hands on it. Built by DMA Design (who are without doubt no longer 'just' the developers of Lemmings) and published by Gremlin, it inspired a massive online following, despite being single player-only, and spawned expansion packs and several sequels - some of which you may be familiar with. It even appeared for free on a website called Freeloader.com, which went the way of "DMA" before "FreeLoader" became synonymous with something else entirely.

For those of you who never played the original GTA, consider this a history lesson. A bloody entertaining one.