The seriousness in the promotional material was always a guise, and it's always been 'interactive movie' ever since Take2 took over from 3 onward to the point it's a lot of crime-movies-at-home The Game with varying amounts of blatantness

UCyborg wrote on 2026-04-05, 20:46:

Just stumbled upon the two trailers for Grand Theft Auto VI. All the details, the lighting, the acting...the alligator in the whatever that place was?...is this a game or interactive movie?

I seem to remember the days when GTA was more on the quirky side. Perhaps I'm just too old for this shit. Or maybe it's my depression talking. I just remembered I got GTA V for free somewhere years ago, but never cared to play it. Though I played III, Vice City, San Andreas and a bit of IV.

I don't know where I'm going with this TBH, my mind is blank, so the question in the title I guess.

totally normal phenomenon

you want to have fun and not care about a history.

i had fun until San Andreas, after that was just meh

[quote=UCyborg post_id=1415223 time=1775422018 user_id=31848]
Just stumbled upon the two trailers for Grand Theft Auto VI. All the details, the lighting, the acting...the alligator in the whatever that place was?...is this a game or interactive movie?

I seem to remember the days when GTA was more on the quirky side. Perhaps I'm just too old for this shit. Or maybe it's my depression talking. I just remembered I got GTA V for free somewhere years ago, but never cared to play it. Though I played III, Vice City, San Andreas and a bit of IV.

I don't know where I'm going with this TBH, my mind is blank, so the question in the title I guess.
[/quote]

im a miserable old fuck who needs gta 6 to treat it like a people simulator.

I enjoyed GTA IV a lot and personally, I think the series peaked with that title. GTA5 was already a bit over the top and produced more like a Hollywood movie, with the switching between characters. I still enjoyed it, but not as much.

I'll probably give the new game a chance, but there are already some rumours that it's gonna be extremely massive in scope. If that title will be too lengthy or made like a service game that lures the player in to spend massive amounts of spare time and money, it's not gonna be for me. I never gave a rats' ass about GTA5 Online, heists and earning virtual money. Also, a game has to end in a reasonable timeframe (<50 hours) or I'll feel like I'm wasting my time.

GTA IV is not that serious. It's more serious than the RenderWare trilogy or GTA V, but still has plenty of quirks. It's more like the base tone of the game because of the color pallet and the Balkan War veteran as the main character is a bit bleaker, but there are stuff to contrast that.

Maybe you should try Saints Row the Third?

I enjoyed GTA V a lot, I've played all of them and I wouldn't say it's that serious at all. A lot of the situations and missions are absurd and there's a lot of humor in it. A lot of what's in the GTA VI trailer is drawn from viral memes about things happening in Florida from social media - It's definitely targeting a younger audience. One of the people that was caricatured in the trailer from a viral video tried to sue Rockstar.

I always found the GTA serie to be mostly boring and for me the concept was already like that in the early versions. I only admire the level of graphic complexity and optimization that was done for the Xbox 360 with GTA V.

I wasn't even sure what I meant with "serious" as it could be interpreted in the context of game content or technical excellence. I guess the latter with my mind being stuck in the past.

But then, I've been an anhedonic mess for years, it changes perception of everything.

Suppose I'm still curious a bit about whether there's any excitement here about GTA VI. I'd say there are at least few here.

I second Saints Row and it's joyful wackiness. Get yourself an XB console and you can enjoy them all, as that's the only platform that has the entire OG run. The 2022 reboot was awful and has nothing going for it, beyond being "new".

I'm not really a fan of GTA 3 games, but I do like The Saboteur, it's a great GTA 3 style game, where you have to help liberate Paris from the Nazis during World War 2.

The Simpsons: Hit and Run is sort of GTA 3 for kids. You can't run over pedestrians (they always jump out of the way), and you of course don't do anything too illegal, but it's sometimes funny, it does a nice job of portraying Springfield, and it's very enjoyable. The only Simpsons game I've ever tried that I liked.

Sleeping Dogs and Scarface are two that I've never tried, but often see recommended.

Hm...

Why GTA 6 will suck.

Edit: But then some things were probably taken out of context and some people just post to cause drama.

I reserve judgement until the games come out, but I agree it's very likely with the size of Rockstar that the game unavoidably got caught up in the movement of sterilizing entertainment.

leileilol wrote on 2026-04-05, 21:12:

The seriousness in the promotional material was always a guise, and it's always been 'interactive movie' ever since Take2 took over from 3 onward to the point it's a lot of crime-movies-at-home The Game with varying amounts of blatantness

Yeah I can definitely feel this. Vice City has always received rave reviews on its ambientation and soundtrack, yet when it comes to the gameplay itself its a smaller GTA3 where you just play as an unlicensed Tony Montana

As long as Rockstar doesn’t go realistic vehicle physics people will still have fun.

On taking it too serious...

British TV Show, "Misfits" (Youths in probation community service accidentally become superheroes, along with some of the neighborhood) Season 2 Episode 4 .... a clip...

https://youtu.be/pnwFCHYQdJQ

what's modern? i prefer the "game world" aspects of 3/vc/sa but i still liked gta 4 and 5 enough, that open world thing lets you decide the level of seriousness in some ways

NeoG_ wrote on 2026-04-24, 00:44:

I reserve judgement until the games come out, but I agree it's very likely with the size of Rockstar that the game unavoidably got caught up in the movement of sterilizing entertainment.

indeed, rockstar went from being "cool" to being mainstream quickly, now that its organisation is so much more public and so much easier to raise a lot of fuss about it might well be sterilizing entertainment in a risk averse corporate culture kinda way

Kerr Avon wrote on 2026-04-11, 23:50:

Sleeping Dogs and Scarface are two that I've never tried, but often see recommended.

i played both of those, sleeping dogs was good but for me i couldn't get into it - it seems more "openish world" RPG, like oblivion/gta with complicated fight moves. its well regarded though. Scarface i really liked, though it is "open world" it doesnt really reward GTA type play much, it plays best when building up the empire and doing smuggling runs etc, the gun play features are a bit crazy (where protagonist goes crazy and becomes immune for a bit i remember!) ,

gerry wrote on 2026-04-27, 14:30:

what's modern?

Considering apparent sudden passage of time, it's a good question. Same for what's retro.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-04-27, 13:45:

On taking it too serious...

British TV Show, "Misfits" (Youths in probation community service accidentally become superheroes, along with some of the neighborhood) Season 2 Episode 4 .... a clip...

https://youtu.be/pnwFCHYQdJQ

I should probably give it a watch some point.

I really enjoyed GTA 3 -> SA, Vice City is a classic which I've played multiple times. I find the older trilogy is a nicer balance between arcade and reality.

GTA 4 was pretty good, 5 was a bit more meh i don't personally care about a massive overarching story in these types of games just fun missions with interesting characters and setup. The constant 50GB patches and sign into Rockstar really soured me on 5 as well since back then a 50GB patch was not trivial and by the time it had downloaded I'd gone and done something else in the free time i had.

I'll try 6 but i have a feel the Renderware GTAs will always be the best ones in my eyes.