Following on from our last slice of Los Santos we look further back into the murky depths of Rockstar and the Grand Theft Auto franchise and see if we can do the title justice and respect by ranking them. Call me a copy cat all you want as I have no doubt this has been done before (I recently read one on kotaku.com) and I have to say I was not impressed what so ever with how they laid it out. Spoiler alert they had GTA V as number uno. will we have the same.....read on and find out.
Alot the of the current chatter pre and post E3 has been around GTA 6 and leaks and what we want and expect to see, probably this has been the catalyst to make my list.
GTA has changed substantially over the years since a couple of dudes put the first concepts together in Dundee, being from Scotland myself I am very proud that the origins of one of the best game francizes in history came from my homeland. despite the obvious changes over the years everything always seems very tied together, a very clever thing the guys at Rockstar have done in the shape of nods to previous games and easter eggs before easter eggs were a thing.
Now I have indeed played every GTA title on offer but I will admit some I played a lot more than others so take from that what you will.
11. GTA 2 - 1999
Yeah right off the bat this was never going to fly with me, limited story, it really just felt like the original but with a whole shiny future themed skin around it. a somewhat lazy offering, which was shame as the you always expect something decent with a follow up to a big title. The less said about GTA 2 the better.
10. GTA advance - 2004
Now I never actually played a lot of this but I am actually glad I did not. from the limited time I spent the biggest most prominent word that come to mind was repetition, games like this at the time were extremely difficult to make on handheld systems, minimum memory for the type of game GTA needs and deserves to be. Needless to say this was a fleeting interest for me.
9. GTA: London 1999
I remember a lot of buzz when rockstar released this title, all the talk was the expansion potential to promote GTA in different cites, to be frank looking at it now im actually glad Rockstar decided to keep the current cycle of cities that they do, this era of gta looking back was all quick capitalizing in the originals success without too much effort put in, it just seemed that 2 and London has a new skin over the same game, makes me glad the guys at Rockstar have become so meticulous about their main title, I am happy to take few delays for a game that will be finely polished at the end. Needless to say once the novelty wore away this game was just well meh.
8. GTA stories & Chinatown (Vice city and Liberty city) 2005/06 & 2009
Now I am possibly being too harsh here having these titles so far down the line and again much like GTA Advance I feel I am giving this spot purely based on the fact they originated from handheld (I know there were ports to ps2 soon after) but I think the game was originally designed for handheld and Rockstar wanted to milk this juicy cash cow for as much as they could, so I am indeed ranking this on the hand held basis (take it or leave it). I was very much a fan of the way these titles gave us some back story from both GTA III and Vice city on console and helped fill in time line gaps etc, but again I owned them all on PSP and it was an enjoyable experience mostly but it just felt like something was missing from what we could have had if they had just been released originally for console and as a secondary on handheld. I will be honest Chinatown was a game I played a small amount of times but never got a great feeling from it, reinforcing to me that I could not buy into GTA on a handheld system, I never got the same excitement upon release day that I have with the console titles. You can call it lazy writing all you want to group them together but I'll reiterate my point GTA on the whole didn't work handheld and it's another reason I never played them on mobile later on.
7. GTA 1997
The original creation that therefore gave us GTA life, I can remember being in 3rd year at high school (15 years old) and thinking there was just something mischievous about the game, the ability to play as a bad protagonist was very rare on this scale, pull people from cars, pile in to pedestrians, I mean just be damn right evil and to not be confined to the parameters of a structured level, very wicked. I loved it, the only reason this is where it is on the list is down to the damn fine work from rockstar in the next gen era of ps2 and above that they continued to pull off epic title after epic title to out do themselves, good job Rockstar.
6. GTA Lost & Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony
This was a hard decision for me to make here, I loved these add ons (probably TBOGT more than The Lost and Damned) also had a friend who was/is a drummer in a band called certain death who feature on the radio stations in the lost and damned, These add ons were a welcome addition to the series of GTA The biker add on was gritty and tough and helped tie up some story from GTA IV, TBOGT gave us clubs, sex, drugs and underground fighting well all that and Yusuf. TBOGT also gave us ridiculous missions that was lacking through GTA IV (and not that makes IV a bad game, I very much enjoyed the gritty realism that the story brought us, but what TBOGT did was give us outrageousness of epic proportions not seen since the final mission of San Andreas, all the while having a feel good bouncing dance soundtrack, sadly we have or never got any add on dlc for V which again explains some of my future rankings.
5. GTA III - 2001
The original GTA title along with III and IV must have a special place in every GTA fans heart, each title set the tone for the GTA titles to come on the respective generation of consoles that we had at that time. GTA III set a massive precedent the guys at Rockstar took the aerial shot of above the car and blew that sucker sky high and it came back down all multi dimentional, and to that I say thank you. GTA III sees you play as Claude our mute protagonist, and until recently I never understood why he couldn't speak then I learned it was due to the game being packed with so much that the developers needed to leave somethings out, looking back I get it, it meant we could have some of the comical pedestrian speech we got "MY mothers my sister" if you play thought it now admittedly the game has not aged well in the slightest and some of the graphics are even a bit highly polished minecraft like but it was a break out/re boot title if you like, it helped to bring us what we have now on current gen and that's why it (for me) sits higher that the episodes from liberty city games.
4 GTA vice city - 2002
Now bear with me I am finding it very difficult to rank the last of the titles on the list, they are all in their own way stand outs and each brought something to the party and if it were a points system as opposed to a ranked list you would find the remaining titles pretty much neck and neck. Vice City for me was a special game, a genre that resonated with me I guess, I mean I was born early 80's so have a recollection of the music that the game brought so that for starters made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, a stellar sounds track and a stellar cast to go alongside it, the minute I knew Ray Liotta was in as our Protag Tommy I was in, then add in the list of William Fichtner, Tom Sizemore, Dennis Hopper, Burt Reynolds, Luis Guzman, Robert Davi, Danny Trejo, Gary Busey, Lee Majors, Danny Dyer, Jenna Jamieson and Debby Harry you knew Rockstar were going all out, the downside to this is I always thought from that point on each GTA Title would have this amount of names in it, sadly future releases did not, I mean they had a handful of names but not on the same level that Vice city had. Vice City was also released when I was just out of my teens so a 20 year old with a liking for movies such as Goodfellas and Scarface, so safe to say this was one of the more memorable titles for me.
3. GTA V 2013
Damn son leaving the big one out in 3rd spot, how dare I right? To be fair I feel quite justified in my assessment of my top 3, I mean all 3 are top games and deserve to be higher than the rest and as previously mentioned there is not much between any of them. Now GTA V has had the biggest life span despite the lack of story, it's all been about the evolution of GTA online that has given it longevity, if we look at story mode then it was good, it was unique having 3 very different protagonists but in the end I just didn't rate the storyline as high as the two that are coming up, that's it really, take online out of the mix and it was a solid but not ground breaking game.
2. GTA IV 2008
Rockstar introduced us to a highly polished HD version of Liberty City a much improved version from our 3d version from the PS2. A gritty story of immigration and trying to make the American dream. Yes we had a limited online version which in all seriousness was pretty fun. We were given the chance make Niko a lothario and romance multiple lucky ladies at the same time. The question is why did I put this ahead of V, well again it was a breakout trailblazer Rockstar turbocharged all that was good about previous games and wrapped that polished bow around it and gave it a gritty feel, a feel that was just sadly lacking in V and I also believe that by giving us the episodes of liberty city add-ons turbo charged this ahead of V.
I enjoy online gaming but the gaming purist in me still favours and loves single player story mode and I honestly can't see that changing, having the extra content on top of an already great game gives IV a few extra points, I reckon had Rockstar given me some extra content for Franklin, Michael and Trevor then I reckon I could say been swayed to having V above IV and even up at number 1, but sadly the end in in sight now for v with next gen coming and with it GTA 6 so we will never know, I have no doubt that the clever writing Rockstar give us will have enough Easter eggs to fill a trolley in 6 in relation to nods to out V protagonists but I would have enjoyed more character and story with V.
1. San Andreas 2004
Wow shoot me now a PS2 version of GTA out ranked all that came before and after it. It lacked in graphics I agree but it just won they day in every other department. The map at that time was like anything we had seen before likened to LA, Vegas and San Francisco all in the same game. The ability to eat so much pizza and cluckin bell that our protagonist would eventually throw up and start to jiggle and even have NPC's poke fun at him, we could even go the exact other way, hit the gym and give CJ a physique that fitness instagrammers would be envious off. Romance the lady's to the point off hot coffee and customise cars, gang turf wars and this is all before I have gotten to the actual story which was lengthy at interesting all the time with a epic soundtrack that was my era.
What made this game special is the fact that it felt to me ahead of its time in 2004, I mean we see some of this content in GTA titles after San Andreas but this was a pioneer. What Rockstar have is a evolution of GTA within the same console span, well done Rockstar, keep doing you.
Agree with me or not? I'm all about a healthy exchange of opinion and I'm sure many could make a case for other titled ranking higher on the list but hopefully many would agree with my list.
Alot the of the current chatter pre and post E3 has been around GTA 6 and leaks and what we want and expect to see, probably this has been the catalyst to make my list.
GTA has changed substantially over the years since a couple of dudes put the first concepts together in Dundee, being from Scotland myself I am very proud that the origins of one of the best game francizes in history came from my homeland. despite the obvious changes over the years everything always seems very tied together, a very clever thing the guys at Rockstar have done in the shape of nods to previous games and easter eggs before easter eggs were a thing.
Now I have indeed played every GTA title on offer but I will admit some I played a lot more than others so take from that what you will.
11. GTA 2 - 1999
Yeah right off the bat this was never going to fly with me, limited story, it really just felt like the original but with a whole shiny future themed skin around it. a somewhat lazy offering, which was shame as the you always expect something decent with a follow up to a big title. The less said about GTA 2 the better.
10. GTA advance - 2004
Now I never actually played a lot of this but I am actually glad I did not. from the limited time I spent the biggest most prominent word that come to mind was repetition, games like this at the time were extremely difficult to make on handheld systems, minimum memory for the type of game GTA needs and deserves to be. Needless to say this was a fleeting interest for me.
9. GTA: London 1999
I remember a lot of buzz when rockstar released this title, all the talk was the expansion potential to promote GTA in different cites, to be frank looking at it now im actually glad Rockstar decided to keep the current cycle of cities that they do, this era of gta looking back was all quick capitalizing in the originals success without too much effort put in, it just seemed that 2 and London has a new skin over the same game, makes me glad the guys at Rockstar have become so meticulous about their main title, I am happy to take few delays for a game that will be finely polished at the end. Needless to say once the novelty wore away this game was just well meh.
8. GTA stories & Chinatown (Vice city and Liberty city) 2005/06 & 2009
Now I am possibly being too harsh here having these titles so far down the line and again much like GTA Advance I feel I am giving this spot purely based on the fact they originated from handheld (I know there were ports to ps2 soon after) but I think the game was originally designed for handheld and Rockstar wanted to milk this juicy cash cow for as much as they could, so I am indeed ranking this on the hand held basis (take it or leave it). I was very much a fan of the way these titles gave us some back story from both GTA III and Vice city on console and helped fill in time line gaps etc, but again I owned them all on PSP and it was an enjoyable experience mostly but it just felt like something was missing from what we could have had if they had just been released originally for console and as a secondary on handheld. I will be honest Chinatown was a game I played a small amount of times but never got a great feeling from it, reinforcing to me that I could not buy into GTA on a handheld system, I never got the same excitement upon release day that I have with the console titles. You can call it lazy writing all you want to group them together but I'll reiterate my point GTA on the whole didn't work handheld and it's another reason I never played them on mobile later on.
7. GTA 1997
The original creation that therefore gave us GTA life, I can remember being in 3rd year at high school (15 years old) and thinking there was just something mischievous about the game, the ability to play as a bad protagonist was very rare on this scale, pull people from cars, pile in to pedestrians, I mean just be damn right evil and to not be confined to the parameters of a structured level, very wicked. I loved it, the only reason this is where it is on the list is down to the damn fine work from rockstar in the next gen era of ps2 and above that they continued to pull off epic title after epic title to out do themselves, good job Rockstar.
6. GTA Lost & Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony
This was a hard decision for me to make here, I loved these add ons (probably TBOGT more than The Lost and Damned) also had a friend who was/is a drummer in a band called certain death who feature on the radio stations in the lost and damned, These add ons were a welcome addition to the series of GTA The biker add on was gritty and tough and helped tie up some story from GTA IV, TBOGT gave us clubs, sex, drugs and underground fighting well all that and Yusuf. TBOGT also gave us ridiculous missions that was lacking through GTA IV (and not that makes IV a bad game, I very much enjoyed the gritty realism that the story brought us, but what TBOGT did was give us outrageousness of epic proportions not seen since the final mission of San Andreas, all the while having a feel good bouncing dance soundtrack, sadly we have or never got any add on dlc for V which again explains some of my future rankings.
5. GTA III - 2001
The original GTA title along with III and IV must have a special place in every GTA fans heart, each title set the tone for the GTA titles to come on the respective generation of consoles that we had at that time. GTA III set a massive precedent the guys at Rockstar took the aerial shot of above the car and blew that sucker sky high and it came back down all multi dimentional, and to that I say thank you. GTA III sees you play as Claude our mute protagonist, and until recently I never understood why he couldn't speak then I learned it was due to the game being packed with so much that the developers needed to leave somethings out, looking back I get it, it meant we could have some of the comical pedestrian speech we got "MY mothers my sister" if you play thought it now admittedly the game has not aged well in the slightest and some of the graphics are even a bit highly polished minecraft like but it was a break out/re boot title if you like, it helped to bring us what we have now on current gen and that's why it (for me) sits higher that the episodes from liberty city games.
4 GTA vice city - 2002
Now bear with me I am finding it very difficult to rank the last of the titles on the list, they are all in their own way stand outs and each brought something to the party and if it were a points system as opposed to a ranked list you would find the remaining titles pretty much neck and neck. Vice City for me was a special game, a genre that resonated with me I guess, I mean I was born early 80's so have a recollection of the music that the game brought so that for starters made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, a stellar sounds track and a stellar cast to go alongside it, the minute I knew Ray Liotta was in as our Protag Tommy I was in, then add in the list of William Fichtner, Tom Sizemore, Dennis Hopper, Burt Reynolds, Luis Guzman, Robert Davi, Danny Trejo, Gary Busey, Lee Majors, Danny Dyer, Jenna Jamieson and Debby Harry you knew Rockstar were going all out, the downside to this is I always thought from that point on each GTA Title would have this amount of names in it, sadly future releases did not, I mean they had a handful of names but not on the same level that Vice city had. Vice City was also released when I was just out of my teens so a 20 year old with a liking for movies such as Goodfellas and Scarface, so safe to say this was one of the more memorable titles for me.
3. GTA V 2013
Damn son leaving the big one out in 3rd spot, how dare I right? To be fair I feel quite justified in my assessment of my top 3, I mean all 3 are top games and deserve to be higher than the rest and as previously mentioned there is not much between any of them. Now GTA V has had the biggest life span despite the lack of story, it's all been about the evolution of GTA online that has given it longevity, if we look at story mode then it was good, it was unique having 3 very different protagonists but in the end I just didn't rate the storyline as high as the two that are coming up, that's it really, take online out of the mix and it was a solid but not ground breaking game.
2. GTA IV 2008
Rockstar introduced us to a highly polished HD version of Liberty City a much improved version from our 3d version from the PS2. A gritty story of immigration and trying to make the American dream. Yes we had a limited online version which in all seriousness was pretty fun. We were given the chance make Niko a lothario and romance multiple lucky ladies at the same time. The question is why did I put this ahead of V, well again it was a breakout trailblazer Rockstar turbocharged all that was good about previous games and wrapped that polished bow around it and gave it a gritty feel, a feel that was just sadly lacking in V and I also believe that by giving us the episodes of liberty city add-ons turbo charged this ahead of V.
I enjoy online gaming but the gaming purist in me still favours and loves single player story mode and I honestly can't see that changing, having the extra content on top of an already great game gives IV a few extra points, I reckon had Rockstar given me some extra content for Franklin, Michael and Trevor then I reckon I could say been swayed to having V above IV and even up at number 1, but sadly the end in in sight now for v with next gen coming and with it GTA 6 so we will never know, I have no doubt that the clever writing Rockstar give us will have enough Easter eggs to fill a trolley in 6 in relation to nods to out V protagonists but I would have enjoyed more character and story with V.
1. San Andreas 2004
Wow shoot me now a PS2 version of GTA out ranked all that came before and after it. It lacked in graphics I agree but it just won they day in every other department. The map at that time was like anything we had seen before likened to LA, Vegas and San Francisco all in the same game. The ability to eat so much pizza and cluckin bell that our protagonist would eventually throw up and start to jiggle and even have NPC's poke fun at him, we could even go the exact other way, hit the gym and give CJ a physique that fitness instagrammers would be envious off. Romance the lady's to the point off hot coffee and customise cars, gang turf wars and this is all before I have gotten to the actual story which was lengthy at interesting all the time with a epic soundtrack that was my era.
What made this game special is the fact that it felt to me ahead of its time in 2004, I mean we see some of this content in GTA titles after San Andreas but this was a pioneer. What Rockstar have is a evolution of GTA within the same console span, well done Rockstar, keep doing you.
Agree with me or not? I'm all about a healthy exchange of opinion and I'm sure many could make a case for other titled ranking higher on the list but hopefully many would agree with my list.
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