Best GTA Games

The list makes sense. I’m surprised 5 isn’t on top, but the order makes total sense, even if I prefer
Vice City to San Andreas.

The original game was brutally difficult and it always seemed a bizarre choice to have limited lives too.

The fact a tank could blow up multiple cars but then be destroyed by a single bullet always made me laugh though. As did being able to out run police bullets at times.

GTA5 is still the most fun I’ve ever had with a game online. I just wish they’d included the “GTA races” from GTA4 where you started on foot and had to get to a checkpoint on the other side of the city by any means necessary.

Can't argue with the top 3 though i would have GTA V 2nd and VC 3rd.

Chinatown Wars is way to low though, its a fantastic game and i actually preferred it to GTA IV at the time. I would most likely put it in the top 5.

I agree with enough of this that it makes me tempted to check out GTA5 (I was so turned off by 4 that I dropped the series there) I'm sure I should be able to find a veritable mountain of discs at my local landfill site, given how consistently it has sold...

I give them all a 7/10.

San Andreas is the g.o.a.t 🐐 👑.gta best video games franchises ever.word up son

Yeah I agree with this list. Pretty solid.

If you switch san andreas with vice city and 4 with 5 then it will be a perfect list for me.

Vice City will always be number 1 for me. You cannot beat that Scarface vibe and incredible soundtrack.

Well guess I'll send Tommy round! LOL.

I knew it would be close call between Vice City and San Andreas but for reasons I just 'can't' get the vibe with SA when you have the excellent story and soundtrack of Vice City.

At least GTA V got 'regulated' to III, not sure how I'd feel if it had come top!

@BoldAndBrash I'm a big defender of IV, and I'm disappointed it's so low, but I can kinda see why V would be higher.

Mechanically it's the superior game, I think, like how they perfected the driving that was just a bit too off and floaty in IV, and the mission variety was greater, etc.

But I preferred the setting, story and characters of IV and it's got a special place in my heart for that.

Also, if you pressed the melee button while walking, Niko would push rather than punch, and I spent an inordinate amount of time pushing npcs down stairwells and watching rockstar's fancy ragdoll physics do their work 😂. No idea why that popped into my head, but I hope they bring that little feature back for VI...

@Thrillho I actually made one of those in V using the race editor, it was even called 'By Any Means'!

Fond memories of struggling up the mountain to the finish on my dirt bike, thinking I was miles ahead, only to see my mate fly right over me in a harrier jump jet

Chinatown Wars would be top five for me. Amazing game, and worked a lot better as a portable GTA experience than the Stories subseries, IMO.

But definitely agree with San Andreas at #1.

Usually in life, the anticipation of things last much longer and is more impactful than the thing itself.

But GTA SA is the only game I can remember that flipped that completely for me. It's head and shoulders above every other GTA game for so many different reasons.

I have only beaten Vice City and GTA5. Can't wait to replay the trilogy next week. Gonna finally play and beat SA on Xbox and 3 on ps5.

You can prefer Vice City to San Andreas all you like but it's not half of what SA was, deal with it.

4 was the worst. Never finished that one.

I hope at minimum the remasters of 3 and Vice city adopt the improvements that San Andreas had. I know they’re taking the controls from 5, and that missions will be more functional. But having flying vehicles and bikes in 3 would be nice too for example. Even if it may break the game… 🤷‍♂️

Never played Chinatown Wars or Vice City Stories (despite own the latter) but one day I'll take the time to finish this series just like I am Final Fantasy. San Andreas was the first open world game I ever 100%, though so absolutely number 1 for me. GTA 4 crashed on my 360 back in the day, destroying 3 hours of progress since my last save, stopped playing after that. It was good until then, though. Need a remaster for ps4/5 that works properly.

Yo San Andreas, I'm really happy for you, I'mma let you finish but Vice City was one of the best video games of all time…one of the best video games of all time!

@theheadofabroom I enjoyed 4 but I fully understand where you're coming from. I would definitely give 5 ago for sure. I loved the story, the characters, the environment. It's a lot of fun and definitely worth a try.

That is my top 3 and in that order so can't argue a bit. I enjoyed this topic and was keen to see what would come out on top, what is clear is that the top 3 are all very strong games that most of us appreciated. From the comments the top 2 are interchangeable but not for me

Vice City is one game i really liked the 80's will always be my favorite the music alone makes it a winner.

But i was kinda shocked how little GTA games i finished or played. I bought GTA 3 after Vice City and didnt finish it. Never played 4 and 5 and i never even played San Andreas.

@elvisfan1 I really liked Vice City but it cant even compare to Dino Crisis, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy the older ones, Parasite Eve 2, Devil May Cry 3, Legend of Dragoon, Valkyria Chronicles, Breath of Fire 4, Final Fantasy Tactics, Metal Gear Solid, Demon Souls, Legend of Legia and i left out quite a few. 🤪

I couldn't even bring myself to play through far enough to even meet Trevor in 5, but Vice City is chef's kiss

You've to update the order once GTA 6 is released.

So be ready for revisiting this in 2040

Technically speaking GTA V is the best of the entire series since you can do the most things, looks the best, best gameplay and just has the most content overall.

Since I don't really care about how much different things I could do GTA IV is my best for the story and characters along with the dlc episodes.

I absolutely loved the 90s original GTA games. In fairness I guess all the other games are better but doing ruthless ***** in a video game for the 1st time was epic.
When you think I was playing Alex the kid, Mario and sonic, then got my hands on GTA , things were never quite the same after.

IV is my favourite from memory, haven't played it for a while so it may have aged, but at the time felt like walking through a real bustling city, I think maybe i'm just a fan of skyscrapers though.
Getting a little tired of remakes/masters, but I'd be all over IV for ps5.

I can’t stand these games. The latest one at least fixed the terrible combat controls, but I find them very vanilla.

Switch vice City and San andreas and I agree completely. SA was brilliant but vice city is in a league of its own

@Iver Harsh? They're popular games, but hardly transcendent. 9 is a really good score. Almost, but not quite, perfect, for what it attempts.

Probably the most overrated series ever.
I mean they're good games (at least the ones I've played), but their perceived quality is blown way out of proportion by non-enthusiasts who think video games are limited to this, and by the fact that the first games were pretty raunchy and controversial for the time.

If you take that out of the equation, GTA V for example is nothing more than an averagely fun game with clunky controls and barely serviceable shooting, but also awesome writing and arcade-y driving, that nonetheless got old after 15 hours or so of playtime.

I know it’s cool to not like GTA V these days, but it is a far better game than the ones that preceded it. If “setting” really means so much to you, then I could see picking a different title, but GTA V is an incredibly fun and impressive piece of software.

As an avid 80’s fanatic I put Vice City at the top for me. San Andreas is where I quit the series because I’m a stickler for 100% of games and that game had so much to do that it, at the time, gave me anxiety. I completely IV but have never played V. Just not into the series anymore.

@Iver I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I'd just say that the three games remastered in the new trilogy were hardly the most graphically impressive games at release, and the controls have never been quite as slick as other contemporary games.

GTA3 did something that hadn't really been seen in the mainstream at the time, for which it deserves credit, but by the time Vice City came along we had Mafia, which granted had terrible console ports, but was streets ahead on PC.

Don't get me wrong, when it came out I spent hundreds of hours on San Andreas, really enjoyed it. I'm still not even sure it was my game of the year, and there were certainly parts that felt lacking

Like others have said, I feel GTA V is probably the best of the series, purely by virtue of being the most advanced, polished iteration, that, unlike IV, doesn't come with caveats like an overly realistic tone and atmosphere.
As far as which one I liked the most though, it's a toss up between it and Vice City (though I'll admit I've never made it very far in San Andreas).

Definitely agree Chinatown wars was robbed here. Probably voted down by people that didn’t play it…

This list makes a lot of sense to me. Sure, I probably remember more of Vice City than San Andreas but in the end I still think SA was the better game.

Feels like nostalgia's playing a big role here. GTAV is the only one that's really playable today. The rest of the games I'd rank in order of their release - they made massive leaps from game to game.

@Enuo okay casual

I grew up in the 80's watching Miami Vice, so Vice City is better than SA for me. I think the preference between SA and VC is a matter of how much you like things like Scarface and similar movies, 80's music and nostalgia vs. the game innovations and the 90's urban black movies which was so in moves like Boyz in the Hood. Plus SA has the awesome Samuel L Jackson as the corrupt cop.

Vice City, San Andreas and then V. My favorites.

I don’t get the hate for gta5? I think S.A. Is the. Best though , don’t remember 3 very well so I’m looking forward to playing it again

I played the original at launch and thought it was awesome fun, if far too difficult.
I then played GTA 3, 4, VC and 5 all circa 2016-2018, and found that GTA5 blew them all out of the water in every way, though 4 has a great story. I do appreciate that the 3D trilogy were revolutionary at the time, but without nostalgia they are clunky frustrating games to play. Perhaps the remasters will solve that.

Yeh, vice City for me I think, even 3 tho, it's hard to choose 😅

Vice city by far, just the music alone. The setting, the city, the time period, the clothes. Everything. Reminded me of Scar face.

This updated list is absolute crap. Top 10 has GTA V listed 3x. Ridiculous. Get rid of the repeats and redo this making just the best version of each title listed.

Resident Evil games ranked :

5. Resident Evil 4 (PS Vita)
4. Resident Evil 4 (PS2)
3. Resident Evil 4 (PS3)
2. Resident Evil 4 (PS5)
1. Resident Evil 4 (PS4)

😁

@Uncharted2007 That, or make at least the technical best version (PS5!) number 1.

I’d pick Vice City as #1 but it’s been years since I played it. Someone playing it now for the first time probably wouldn’t rate it as much (especially if it’s via that Definitive Trilogy monstrosity).

I still love the very first (top-down) GTA too. I’ve never played San Andreas. Thought GTA4 was alright. Ballad of Gay Tony was pretty good. Didn’t like GTA5 really but I think it was because I 100% completed Sleeping Dogs just before GTA5 came out and Sleeping Dogs was just so much better in every way.

V is easily the best

"Ported to the PS2 shortly after its initial six month run on the PSP, GTA: Liberty City Stories lost a lot of its handheld novelty on Sony’s ageing home console. The return to Rockstar’s fictional New York City was appreciated, but by 2006 the PS3 was right around the corner, and the multiplayer modes from the portable version were inexplicably stripped from this port"

And yet it not only gets a separate place on the list but ranks ABOVE its handheld original. Same with VCS.🤔🤔🤔

IMHO this makes for an odd list overall, to be honest. Multiple nigh identical versions of the same entries like GTA 5 x3, but still two items short of a round 20 which only accentuates the lack of GTA Advance and - if we go by the list's own logic - the original Chinatown Wars on NDS which barely gets a passing mention despite its own unique gameplay bits that were inevitably lost on PSP.

Hmm. My favourite gta is not on the list: GTA6

GTA IV is underated. I'm replaying it now on my Xbox Series S and it handles and controls suprisingly good. Yes it's drab looking at times but I'm enjoying this more that the arcadey style of gameplay than the recent games. I wish R* would remaster this.

@Shokwave2 IV is definitely underrated.

but i cant lie about the controls pissing me off several times

PS2 era GTA remains the best GTA IMHO. (Enjoyed original top down GTA on ps1,though it obviously aged). Never quite jelled with GTA IV, Nico just didn't appeal enough to stick with it...unlike RDR 1 & John Marston which i couldn't put down!

GTA V changed things around with the triple protagonists...but have never liked,(just like RDR 2),how they baked monetisation in for the cashcow that became the online mode with the stock market mechanism...which puts me firmly in the minority,I know!😅

Would place GTA LCS over GTA 3,if only as getting mowed down for passing through past areas in GTA 3 waa a pain in the butt.

Vice City & VCS will remain my favourites for soundtracks & atmosphere,(albeit Vic Vance not quite as appealing character vs Vercetti or CJ). San Andreas just behind Vice City,just those dreaded RC missions were truly nightmare fuel only matched passing the "schools" for cars, planes & boats!

Nitpicking aside,they parodied the 80's & 90s so well,not to mention other games etc. You just wanted to cruise around to hear the DJ chatter & music.👍
Its a shame Take-two & Rockstar think so little of their single player era the Trilogy was offloaded (& one suspects probably RDR would've been too),to the likes of Grove Street Games who were woefully out of their depth & should've been handled in-house.

How can the PS3 an PS4 version of GTA 5 be ranked higher than the PS5 version!? They’re the exact same game but PS5 version has more stuff, better visuals an higher fps!! For me top 4 are 1. GTA5 (PS5 version being the best), 2. San Andreas, 3. Vice City, 4. GTA 4.

Vice City for the soundtrack alone... But really three of the top 6 slots is GTA 5? What is this IGN? Jesus.