In a new interview about his history with gaming, actor Dominic Monaghan explained how GTA III changed how he perceived games. Plus, the star revealed he continued to play GTA as recent as GTA V and shared his thoughts on the best-selling story.
Reported by Kotaku, as part of GameSpot’s new series “Star Players”, host Lucy James interviews celebrities who love games and they share their gaming timeline. This week’s episode sees Dominic Monaghan join in. Monaghan is known for his roles in The Lord Of The Rings, LOST, Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker plus games such as Quantum Break.
To start off with, the actor confesses he played Pac-Man and Pong when he was very young but as he grew up, he was never a big gamer unlike his siblings and friends during the 1990s. In the early 2000s, Monaghan moved to LA and fellow The Lord Of The Rings star Elijah Wood advised him to purchase a PS2 over a standard DVD player. Dominic insisted all he was going to do was watch DVDs and had no need for a gameplay.
GTA III changed the game
However, one of his friends brought over GTA III to his house and that’s when it all changed. Monaghan explains that he could not believe how games had improved and that the soundtrack in Liberty City was “incredible”.
I could not believe that games got to this level, It was huge! The leap was just extraordinary and you know the soundtrack is incredible, all the options were incredible.
So from that point on, up until this day now as opposed to just TV and movies which is what it used to be now I was like “oh well you could play games as well.”
Dominic Monaghan
Another thing he appreciated was the fact that GTA III offered so much freedom. The example he gave was how you could hop in and steal any vehicle whereas in other games it was limited to certain cars. Speaking of cars, Dominic said he felt like he got very good or rather felt like he got good at driving in GTA III.
Monaghan’s opinions on GTA V’s story
His love for GTA continued and he played through GTA V’s story mode. The actor specifically called out his love for Franklin. Though he did reveal Michael rubbed him the wrong way saying “Not crazy about Michael. He’s okay, he’s like a little obnoxious”. As for Trevor, Monaghan sometimes felt dirty and needed a shower after playing as him but did also enjoy him at other times.
V was very, very cool. Incredible game.
Dominic Monaghan
You can watch the full interview here. For more news on GTA VI and GTA Online, stay tuned to RockstarINTEL and sign up to our newsletter for a weekly round-up of all things Rockstar Games.
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