The excitement is mounting, the hype is growing – the release of the next Grand Theft Auto title is just days away. To celebrate, we've asked journalist and GTA obsessive Dan Dawkins, co-presenter of GTA V O'Clock, to trawl through the history of the series, picking out a selection of key moments, from favourite missions to outrageous cut-scenes and bizarre Easter Eggs.

Today, we're starting out at the fabled rebirth of the series, Grand Theft Auto III (we have something else on the way for the earlier titles...), and through the week we'll edge toward the series' latest instalments. Please let us know your own favourite moments in the comments section – we'll add the most popular to each day's post.

For now, let's head back to 2001...

Press Triangle to steal car

It seems unremarkable now, but in 2001 the idea of tapping the Triangle button on your DualShock 2 controller to enter any car in GTA III's 3D open world was a revelation. "I think the first time I saw a wireframe of a 3D carjack, I was like, 'That is it, right there'" said Rockstar Games president Sam Houser at the time. "Just, 'Oh, my god'. Just amazing." From nowhere, GTA III became one of the best selling games of 2001.

Sniping at the moon

Traditionally, video games reward expertise by rote, with repeated play yielding optimal routes, faster times and higher scores. Rockstar challenged the paradigm with its 'toy box' approach and emergent play – a collusion of physics and 'hidden' rewards – where experimentation yields unexpected results. If you were mad enough to take a sniper shot at the moon, for example, it grew in size to reward your lateral thinking.

Is that the soundtrack from Scarface?

"Puuush it to the limit" growls Paul Engemann on the defining track from GTA III's Flashback 95.6 radio station. 1997's 2D Grand Theft Auto featured in-car radio, but GTA III was the first full game release to feature licensed music (update: as pointed out in the comments section, the GTA London 1969 mission pack featured licensed tracks from Trojan Records). Significantly, every track on Flashback 95.6 featured in 1983 gangster flick Scarface. 'Push it to the limit' is as much a licensing landmark, as a series' manifesto. GTA's fusion of emergent play, cult movie nostalgia and a potent soundtrack was taking shape.

Park and ride: gaming's most controversial mission

"The game mechanics of that – looking at it completely isolated from the fact that it involves a hooker – were brilliant, I thought", Sam Houser told Edge Magazine in 2008. However, the Australian Censorship Board didn't feel the same way about GTAIII allowing you to pick up a prostitute, pay for sexual congress… and – optionally – whack the girl to get your money back. The game was temporarily removed from sale in the country until this feature was removed, and ever since, the sequence has been highlighted by moral campaigners looking to have the GTA series banned or censored.

'Flying' the Dodo to Ghost Island

GTA III's wingless Dodo plane was notoriously hard to get airborne, but dedicated players turned the handicap into an art form. Using Mario-style swoops, the Dodo could be flown to an almost-mythical 'ghost' island on the edge of the map. Rockstar denied rumours that the Dodo's wings were removed as a result of 9/11. "The Dodo was never meant to be flown… it was a fun thing that people went crazy with when they figured out various bugs that let them fly it".

Bomb da boat

One of the classic GTA missions, 'Bomb da Base', sees the player teaming up with scarred explosives expert 8-Ball to detonate a drugs factory on a ship docked at Portland harbour. While 8-Ball plants the bomb, it's your job to snipe enemies from the shore – and if all goes well, the smoking hulk of the cargo boat is all that's left as a reminder of your destructive genius. It was so popular, Rockstar added a sequel in GTA IV.

• 30 most important moments in GTA history – part two

• 30 most important moments in GTA history – part three

• 30 most important moments in GTA history – part four