GTA1 and 2 were both revolutionary for their time. Even with the lack of graphics they were great, which is what made it so special. The realistic themes, freedom, detail was extremely high in a game with such low quality graphics. I had all of the games you mentioned and none of them had replay value like gta 1 and 2... Just the pure fukkery and freedom of those games made it more playable. Once I beat those other games you mentioned, I was done with them. As for the dreamcast era, I owned the NFL 2K and NBA 2K series but the improvements on GTA2 made it worth the purchase. and Shenmue came out toward the end of the Dreamcast's run so it didn't really overlap with GTA2's release...first GTA game I played was GTA3.
The first 2 games just never appealed to me and looked garbage compared to other games out at the time.
first GTA came out during the PS1 era where we had Tekken, Crash Bandicoot, Metal Gear Solid, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil etc so it wasn't getting any burn from me with those primitive visuals it had
GTA II came out during the dreamcast era ,wasn't nobody gonna put down Sonic Adventure, Shenmue, NBA 2K and NFL 2k to play that sh1t man.
GTA III came out and changed the entire gaming industry tho
Game is in the same league of importance to gaming history as say Super Mario Bros, Pong or Pacman.
I still own GTA 1 and London for PS and GTA2 for the DCast and they both still get burn from time to time. I guess with the improvements in gaming that we've had you probably wouldnt enjoy them, but I would give them a try if you have never played. They are actually difficult games to play to... even more difficult then the newer GTAs which makes it more fun...
I agree GTA is definitely a definitive series in Videogame history. It created a new genre.
with the birds eye view. But then I enjoyed the game. You can even fart or barf on every pedestrian you pass 
