I would say (SPOILERS):
1) Grand Theft Auto: Vice City: The greatest of them all. Probably the best dialogue in terms writing and voice acting that I have ever seen in a video game. Look at the cast, look at the cast! It is unbelievable. The storyline is also pretty straight forward, just a mash of some 80's, early 90's crime movies/TV series, Scarface, Carlito's Way and of course, Miami Vice (among many others). This element, the dialogue, writing, and voice acting is also a strong suit of GTA III.
Just a lot of fun to play and highly underrated thanks to its simplicity. I simply love missions like: pick up person X and drive them to place Y. Snipe person X. Go steal X's car. Go steal X's car, rig it with a bomb and place it right back. Today a day some GTA's missions can be unnecessarily complicated. Again, this is also a strong suit of GTA III.
Always felt the map needed to be 5 to 10% bigger and it would have been perfect.
Also, let me not end this without talking about the fabulous soundtrack and the excellent radio dialogue. To this day, I can just sit and listen to Pressing Issues. It remains, for my money, the best and funniest radio dialogue that has ever been recorded for a GTA game. It is the pinnacle.
2) Grand Theft Auto III: The (3D) one that started it all. My relation with GTA III is funny; I an Xbox owner so we didn't got the GTA series until the famous GTA Double Pack release. I knew Vice City was the most recent iteration and that if I started playing it before III that it would be a long long time before I ever got to it so I decided to "force" myself to play III before City for as long as I could. Well, good job by me! It showed me III's dialogue and mission design were just as good as City's (or at least as good as a predecessor can be with the inherent advantages that a sequel has on to which build upon).
Again, look at the cast. Listen to the radio talk shows. The combination of play and dialogue/narrative remains as a clear number 2 for me. The first two remain clearly as the top 2 (San Andreas, as part of the "original trilogy" is clearly a step below) in terms of actors and voice acting. It is truly a treat and top notch.
On the downside I would point out to the game breaking my heart with the mafia Don betraying me (I thought the game would be all about the mafia) and the fact that after you end the game you couldn't freely roam through some sections of the game (close to the Don's mansion, close the Yardies stronghold). This would be a persistent blight on an otherwise stellar series.
3) Grand Theft Auto V: I'll admit it, I thought I wouldn't like the 3 character system and that it was a unnecessary gimmick (I still believe that part). It was no problem, it allowed the game to explore 3 different characters while intertwining their stories cleverly for different points of view in a mission. It is difficult to compare a game of this scope and magnitude to the early ones, it is almost unfair. Better graphics, more cars, more mini games, more variety in type of missions, planes, boats, submarine, bikes, hunting. The heist storyline/design is taken right out of perhaps my favorite movie of all time (Heat) so that's always a plus.
The best "mature" dialogue of the series thus far it makes me long for the more arcaey, satirical, not taking itself so seriously storyline of the first 2 3D entries (see what I did there?).
On the downside, the game tried to fix the "NPC will continue to hassle you by calling and leaving you messages even after you complete the game" but not entirely in a satisfying manner. The game still pops up with tasks every 20 minutes or so that you feel like you have to attend to (like "so and so gang is attacking your bar" or whatever, "we need you to come"). No, don't need me to come back to anything you silly game, when I finish the game I just want to roam around without anyone annoying me. Which is also a problem ironically, once you finish the game, there is really not much else to do in terms of mini-games or the like. Like, I can only drag cars out of railways so many times before it becomes stale.
4) Grand Theft Auto IV: A tale of 2 games, basically one of my fondest memories from this game is realizing right away that it had fixed everything that I hated about San Andreas. It is the first of the more "grounded" style gameplay, less arcaey and more "mature" or more "adult oriented" tone.
A highlight of the game is the 2 DLC's packs: specially The Ballad of Gay Tony with the Lost and Dammed being a worthy addition too. Loved to just go around and complete the parachute mini-games over and over and over again.
On the downside I would point out to the dreaded constant calls/messages from NPC's after you complete the game which you had to accept a task and then call them back to say you couldn't complete said tasks because if you simply ignored the call you lost some "friendy" thingy points that I don't remember. Also felt that the storyline was a little bit too dramatic with the wedding and whatever.
Important to point that this is was where Rockstar starting to use B and C level voice actors instead of AAA voice actors which is a loss for all of us. It isn't that the voice acting in IV and V is bad, it is that in III and Vice City is spectacular.
5) Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: I will summarize my main problems with the game. It is a 2 prong problem which end up compounding themselves.
First: I felt the map was big for the sake of being big. It is like the developers went like "oh, we have all this new disk space, lets make the game as big as we can!" for no rhyme or reason. Clear case of just because you can it doesn't mean that you should.
Second: the controls/ camera. It was a close mess, they changed them so you could drive-by shoot but in the process they nearly broke them.
So in the end I'm left driving I don't know how many miles for one mission that started all the way in one spot of the map while doing it with ****ing crappy controls and I wanted to throw the control through my TV. It was such a frustrating experience. I think I still have nightmares about it.
Which is a shame because the game had so many things going for it: a kind of Boyz n the Hood storyline, still a some good voice actors (albeit not as much as in the previous 2) including Samuel L. Jackson, the game is still funny as hell (Loc was hilarious), the beginning of car modification in the GTA series, the dancing mini-game, the introduction of parachuting!, the introduction of being able to complete some missions with a stealthy approach, finally learning to swim!, and probably the most "weighty" flying gameplay up to that date and arguably the best of the series (I'm talking specifically about the jet).
On the downside I didn't like the whole you have to go the gym to learn how to fight/get pumped mini-game. Too much time wasted on that, it wasn't permanent (you had to keep doing it) and some of it wasn't fun (too much button mashing).
I also felt that the connection to the previous game, while good (they chose to bring back the best possible character: Rosenberg) I felt it came too late in the game. By the end of the game I was zombie playing wanting it to be over and just doing it because I wanted to be able to say that at least I had finished the game. It wasn't a good experience and it stands alone with the dubious distinction of being the only GTA that I haven't finished 100% (looking for all the packages etc.).
Wikipedia summarized well my first point about San Andreas and IV:
1) Grand Theft Auto: Vice City: The greatest of them all. Probably the best dialogue in terms writing and voice acting that I have ever seen in a video game. Look at the cast, look at the cast! It is unbelievable. The storyline is also pretty straight forward, just a mash of some 80's, early 90's crime movies/TV series, Scarface, Carlito's Way and of course, Miami Vice (among many others). This element, the dialogue, writing, and voice acting is also a strong suit of GTA III.
Just a lot of fun to play and highly underrated thanks to its simplicity. I simply love missions like: pick up person X and drive them to place Y. Snipe person X. Go steal X's car. Go steal X's car, rig it with a bomb and place it right back. Today a day some GTA's missions can be unnecessarily complicated. Again, this is also a strong suit of GTA III.
Always felt the map needed to be 5 to 10% bigger and it would have been perfect.
Also, let me not end this without talking about the fabulous soundtrack and the excellent radio dialogue. To this day, I can just sit and listen to Pressing Issues. It remains, for my money, the best and funniest radio dialogue that has ever been recorded for a GTA game. It is the pinnacle.
2) Grand Theft Auto III: The (3D) one that started it all. My relation with GTA III is funny; I an Xbox owner so we didn't got the GTA series until the famous GTA Double Pack release. I knew Vice City was the most recent iteration and that if I started playing it before III that it would be a long long time before I ever got to it so I decided to "force" myself to play III before City for as long as I could. Well, good job by me! It showed me III's dialogue and mission design were just as good as City's (or at least as good as a predecessor can be with the inherent advantages that a sequel has on to which build upon).
Again, look at the cast. Listen to the radio talk shows. The combination of play and dialogue/narrative remains as a clear number 2 for me. The first two remain clearly as the top 2 (San Andreas, as part of the "original trilogy" is clearly a step below) in terms of actors and voice acting. It is truly a treat and top notch.
On the downside I would point out to the game breaking my heart with the mafia Don betraying me (I thought the game would be all about the mafia) and the fact that after you end the game you couldn't freely roam through some sections of the game (close to the Don's mansion, close the Yardies stronghold). This would be a persistent blight on an otherwise stellar series.
3) Grand Theft Auto V: I'll admit it, I thought I wouldn't like the 3 character system and that it was a unnecessary gimmick (I still believe that part). It was no problem, it allowed the game to explore 3 different characters while intertwining their stories cleverly for different points of view in a mission. It is difficult to compare a game of this scope and magnitude to the early ones, it is almost unfair. Better graphics, more cars, more mini games, more variety in type of missions, planes, boats, submarine, bikes, hunting. The heist storyline/design is taken right out of perhaps my favorite movie of all time (Heat) so that's always a plus.
The best "mature" dialogue of the series thus far it makes me long for the more arcaey, satirical, not taking itself so seriously storyline of the first 2 3D entries (see what I did there?).
On the downside, the game tried to fix the "NPC will continue to hassle you by calling and leaving you messages even after you complete the game" but not entirely in a satisfying manner. The game still pops up with tasks every 20 minutes or so that you feel like you have to attend to (like "so and so gang is attacking your bar" or whatever, "we need you to come"). No, don't need me to come back to anything you silly game, when I finish the game I just want to roam around without anyone annoying me. Which is also a problem ironically, once you finish the game, there is really not much else to do in terms of mini-games or the like. Like, I can only drag cars out of railways so many times before it becomes stale.
4) Grand Theft Auto IV: A tale of 2 games, basically one of my fondest memories from this game is realizing right away that it had fixed everything that I hated about San Andreas. It is the first of the more "grounded" style gameplay, less arcaey and more "mature" or more "adult oriented" tone.
A highlight of the game is the 2 DLC's packs: specially The Ballad of Gay Tony with the Lost and Dammed being a worthy addition too. Loved to just go around and complete the parachute mini-games over and over and over again.
On the downside I would point out to the dreaded constant calls/messages from NPC's after you complete the game which you had to accept a task and then call them back to say you couldn't complete said tasks because if you simply ignored the call you lost some "friendy" thingy points that I don't remember. Also felt that the storyline was a little bit too dramatic with the wedding and whatever.
Important to point that this is was where Rockstar starting to use B and C level voice actors instead of AAA voice actors which is a loss for all of us. It isn't that the voice acting in IV and V is bad, it is that in III and Vice City is spectacular.
5) Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: I will summarize my main problems with the game. It is a 2 prong problem which end up compounding themselves.
First: I felt the map was big for the sake of being big. It is like the developers went like "oh, we have all this new disk space, lets make the game as big as we can!" for no rhyme or reason. Clear case of just because you can it doesn't mean that you should.
Second: the controls/ camera. It was a close mess, they changed them so you could drive-by shoot but in the process they nearly broke them.
So in the end I'm left driving I don't know how many miles for one mission that started all the way in one spot of the map while doing it with ****ing crappy controls and I wanted to throw the control through my TV. It was such a frustrating experience. I think I still have nightmares about it.
Which is a shame because the game had so many things going for it: a kind of Boyz n the Hood storyline, still a some good voice actors (albeit not as much as in the previous 2) including Samuel L. Jackson, the game is still funny as hell (Loc was hilarious), the beginning of car modification in the GTA series, the dancing mini-game, the introduction of parachuting!, the introduction of being able to complete some missions with a stealthy approach, finally learning to swim!, and probably the most "weighty" flying gameplay up to that date and arguably the best of the series (I'm talking specifically about the jet).
On the downside I didn't like the whole you have to go the gym to learn how to fight/get pumped mini-game. Too much time wasted on that, it wasn't permanent (you had to keep doing it) and some of it wasn't fun (too much button mashing).
I also felt that the connection to the previous game, while good (they chose to bring back the best possible character: Rosenberg) I felt it came too late in the game. By the end of the game I was zombie playing wanting it to be over and just doing it because I wanted to be able to say that at least I had finished the game. It wasn't a good experience and it stands alone with the dubious distinction of being the only GTA that I haven't finished 100% (looking for all the packages etc.).
Wikipedia summarized well my first point about San Andreas and IV:
Although smaller than San Andreas, the main setting for Grand Theft Auto IV's predecessor Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Liberty City is comparable to it in terms of scope when "the level of verticality of the city, the number of buildings you can go into, and the level of detail in those buildings" are taken into account.<sup id="cite_ref-slab_56-1" class="reference">[53]</sup> The goal for Liberty City was to have no dead spots or irrelevant spaces, such as the wide open deserts in San Andreas.
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