A while ago, the GTA subreddit came together to decide the best entry in the lauded franchise. The first comment speaks to me personally by saying "Brain says San Andreas. Heart says Vice City." Which is very much how I would choose.
There's no denying the power of GTA: San Andreas. It was a beast we'd never witnessed before; a game so gargantuan in size and one that revolutionised the industry as a whole, improving on what came before in GTA III. There are so many reasons to choose San Andreas. Perhaps chief among them, the notorious infamy of the game which captured news cycles across the world with discussions of game bans and adult content.
Reddit starts off by saying "San Andreas due to a good story, great protagonist and has a lot of badass missions." Another user followed up with "Best map, most things to do, awesome story and characters." San Andreas often leads the way because it revelled in classic Rockstar humour - some of which landed the developer and game in hot water due to a sex mini-game mission - and GTA IV seemed to eschew the humour for a more cinematic and gritty take.
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Of course, we can't forget that San Andreas was the first GTA to feature a black protagonist and embraced the hiphop generation that was just starting to grow as rap music and culture took hold of the world.
While many in the comments are saying San Andreas, or nodding to GTAIV as a close second, the discussion often warped into a chat about the state of GTA V with one Redditor saying "From GTA V's launch until now, it's been 9 years (it's now 10) that's the same amount of time going from GTA II until GTA IV, which encompassed GTA III, Vice City, San Andreas, China Town Wars, as well as Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories."
Topics: Grand Theft Auto, PlayStation