Personally I hated the whole gang warfare mechanic in San Andreas, so I never finished the game.

GTA IV was filled with details and graphically very good at the time. But the constant hounding by your companions was a major turn off. Fuck that “cousin Romain disliked you didn’t pick up your phone while you were being chased by the police” shit.

V was okay, but I also never finished it. Both GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 just feels like a chore at some point. As much as I’d want to like them they just fail to hold my attention.

For me Vice City was the part I enjoyed most, not overly long and absolutely I loved the 80’s vibe. 🤤

Wasn’t my favorite. I loved Vice City and GTA3.

San Andreas was peak GTA, but it did get to be a bit much after a while.

My fondest memory of it was in college, shortly after the game released, everyone was listening to hip-hop and talking like a gangsta.

It’s my favorite of the series, though I never played V.

San Andreas struck a great balance between serious and ridiculous. Some of the gang rivalry story hit pretty hard for its time, but also there was a mini Las Vegas and a goofy jetpack and tons of dumb Cluckin’ Bell jokes. It even had RPG elements like CJ getting more fit if you work out or fat if you fed him tons of fast food. Not everybody loved this and not surprisingly it was cut from later entries but I thought it added to the world. And the map was great, lots of variation between city and countryside. Great soundtrack too, rivaled only by Vice City IMO.

IV just didn’t do it for me. The phone (cousin Roman!) was obnoxious, the cars felt too heavy, the story just wasn’t very funny, and the map was pretty much all city.

Maybe I’d enjoy V since it’s huge and supposedly the vehicles are more fun, but I hear the story isn’t great.