I'm not a series fan myself. I like GTA 3 and 4 the most and it's entirely down to tech novelty and in the context of my age at the time. I was 11 when 3 came out and 18 when 4 came out.

4 was my favourite at the time because of the game engine and car physics. 5 disappointed me because they neutered the cars and I didn't like the character hopping bank heist story that kept taking all my money away for story related reasons.

I've tried replaying 4 recently and got bored DNF'd so yeah idk if it holds up especially well.

Cut to present day and we got Rockstar who is a giga rich anti union corporation making a satire game about a country in which satire is dead. In a series they've not added a new game to since the PS3 generation because multiplayer became the golden goose. I don't have the highest hopes.

I'll go one further: I've never liked GTA.

Most of that is a mismatch of the series to my tastes in games. It just takes a lot for me to like open-world games, and GTA has never hit the mark.

The other small part is just my preteen self being resentful that GTA3 was the game that brought all my classmates into the hobby, instead of a game that I actually liked.

I dislike many games people love. It’s not that the game is bad, it just doesn’t work for me.

I loooove GTAV, but never finished the previous ones.

And what hype for VI? I’ve not seen anything about it here on Lemmy besides the occasional news.

And yes, GTA has always been a game about mocking the United States. Which… is no longer very funny at this point.

I’ll probably play it at some point but I’ll wait for it to be on sale unless it turns out to be absolutely fucking amazing or something. V was fun but it wasn’t life changing or anything and I felt like anything I could really do in a GTA game I’d done by then, having played them since the very first one. I recently revisited V and I was bored in about 30 minutes despite not having played it for years

Given its foundations I just don’t see what it can do that I haven’t seen already.

Understandable.

What I'd suggest is avoiding places that hyperfocus on GTA 6, or whatever the current hype is, and seek games less talked about, like indies and retro games. Things get calmer once you avoid being bombarded by hype 24/7.

I loved Vice City. I thought IV was tolerable but I felt like the mechanics were feeling dated. I hated V, couldn't get halfway through it, I'm surprised I even bought it given that IV didn't wow me, was probably the hype. I won't buy VI unless it's on sale for $9.99 or something in five or six years or whatever. It's all so boring, every time just a marginally better looking world with the same dumb jokes.

If I want to drive I've got Cyberpunk, which I did in fact pick up for under $20 on GOG during some sale a while back.

Don't think I've ever finished a GTA game, they're good simulators for driving recklessly and seeing how fast you can get a 5-star wanted rating. I'm sure some people are head over heels for the story or the multiplayer. At this point Rockstar knows it's their money printer, if they keep making it people will keep buying it.

Played all the GTA games - entertaining for a while, but nothing that special IMO.

I also find myself not giving a fuck about GTA VI because it won't be coming to PC until who knows when. I don't own an Xbox or PS5 and I have no plans to purchase either one. Off topic, that also sucks because there are a few PS5 exclusives announced that I'd like to play, but I'm not going to reward Sony for the recent shitty stance change on bringing their games to PC.

GTA v was pretty darn good! I mean it still going on and has been one of the most successful games. I can’t wait for GTA VI ! I think it’ll be different eat after so much time lol

I'd visited Los Angeles for the first time after having played GTA V/GTAO a lot (~1000 hours). It was such a surreal feeling, as if I had been to this place before like in some kind of past life, it was so strange it was almost haunting to me. Santa Monica, the downtown and the skyline from far away, the airport, the stadium, the canals, the Hollywood sign and blvd, K-town, everything. All the major points of interest lined up and were modeled quite well in GTA.

It's also a fun driving and flying simulator. Not too interested in GTA6 at the moment, they are probably going to limit Linux from playing anyway.

I honestly wish they'd release some side stories in the form of small GTA 2 style top down 2d games.

We don't need the latest graphics and best shit all the time. GTA1 and 2 were awesome in their own right.

Same tbh. I've always heard raves about the story side of GTA, and as someone who primarily plays single-player, story-driven games, i just dont get it. RDR1 and 2 showed me Rockstar (anyone, honestly) can do so much better. The story serves the purpose of putting players in quests and that's about it. V was a treat, but mainly because I grew up in and around LA and it was pretty accurately recreated. Otherwise, you're right, it's pretty much the same shtick but more modern.

I'll probably play VI in a few years if it goes on super-sale or i sail the seas for it, but I'm right there with you on not getting the hype.

I played the hell out of GTA 3... played the others, but, yeah, it's basically the same loop with better and more involved graphics.

I played a bit of GTA 3, Vice City, San Andreas. GTA IV and V were the first ones I completed. I went on to RDR2.

Honestly if you’ve never played RDR2, you should. That game is phenomenal and is what got me excited for VI. I wasn’t too hyped for it before I played RDR2 because simply put I found V to be kinda boring outside of story mode, with IV having the most to do outside of it but still not complete.

I am playing RDR2 still to this day and finding new shit. If Rockstar goes for a more serious tone with the immersion of RDR2 plus more, I’m gonna lose my mind.

That said I still understand your sentiment OP. Typically Rockstar tries to simply make each game a little more immersive but the same core mechanics and I can understand how that would get boring. But if you haven’t played RDR2 I would seriously reconsider the hype. I think ultimately that game was a sneak peak at the level of complexity and immersion Rockstar is going for here. I would not expect it to be “GTA V but better graphics”.

GTA V over IV? Just how??