Not only has the core game sold so well, butGTA Onlinehas become such a powerhouse that the developer needs to keep a core contingent of their team working on content updates, patches, and new features for those gamers who choose to play each and every day.
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GTA: Vice City - Rockstar Games
It’s not enough to make those numbers again, they have to be better. Almost 10 years is a long time to wait for a game that, for many, will be one of only a handful they’ll play this generation. But ifGTA VIis going to go big, then Rockstar Games needs to focus on what made the games so engaging and popular in the first place, satire.
Across the history of Grand Theft Auto, the series has been a middle finger to American society, although that has slowly expanded to take on societal norms. Social media isn’t where it was a decade ago, neither is politics. We’ve had a whole pandemic and multiple worldwide scandals sinceGTA Vcame out.
Rockstar Games has never shied away from taking a snapshot of America and hoisting it up for the world to see. It’s one of the main reasons that the franchise would never step away from American shores, which TheGamer hasexplainedwell. Over the years, Rockstar has taken aim at racism, reality TV, politics, and the idea of the American Dream, down to the ideals of liberty and freedom.
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GTA: San Andreas - Rockstar Games
Whether it’s through radio station chatter, billboards that line the roads, or main story missions, there is always an eye on the ever-changing state of the country and, in the periphery, the world. Now, more than ever, we need Rockstar Games to lay it all on the line - to skewer the politicians that are making the world feel so unsafe, take aim at influencers, the constant fluctuations in our economies, the idea of what it means to be free, and the state of our environmental impact.
You can read this and scoff at that if you don’t want a ‘woke agenda’ in your GTA, but Rockstar Games has always looked out for the oppressed and those without a voice. Hell,GTA IVwas about an immigrant coming to the shores of the US to chase the American Dream only to see beyond the facade and fall into the criminal underbelly.
GTA: Vice Cityis the epitome of a country being built on sin and exploiting it for pleasure. Setting it during the 1980s when excess was running high was a shrewd move because it showcased that so many in society turned the other way, towards drugs and the idea of fame, rather than look at what both of those things were doing to the world.
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GTA IV - Rockstar Games
If you look at today’s America, no matter what side of the political fence you fall on, it’s a goldmine for satirists, and when it’s done well, which Rockstar Games tends to do, it will succeed. But neglect that, and pretend that world doesn’t exist and suddenly you’ve lost the spark that once ignited the engine of the series.
To swerve away from the politics and social commentaries,GTA VIneeds to do more. It needs to excel and overtake every aspect of what has come before it. I’m not saying anything that the Rockstar Games development team doesn’t know, but when you’ve come to define not only a genre but, for some, the entire industry, there are a lot of boundaries to push.
Whether you look at the core mechanics, the motion capture, the voice work, the characterisation of the cast, the exploration of the open world, or the personalisation of the journey, it all needs to go above and beyondGTA V.
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It’s not just the fans that are setting the game up to be the biggest and best game ever created, but history too. If we look to Metacritic, which gives us an average review score, taking into account opinions from critics the world over, we can see just how monumental the series is.
The Metacritic score forGTA IVis 98 out of 100.GTA Vis only one point behind that with 97, and this is tied withGTA 3. If we look atGTA: San Andreas, which is often cited as the favourite of many, it scores 95 out of 100, the same asGTA: Vice City.
GTA V - Rockstar Games
This is a prestigious level of quality and a legacy that has stood for decades. And GTA hasn’t just defined a genre, it defined the PlayStation 2 as a console because so many people bought that console just to experience the series. Let’s not forget that even when Rockstar Games moves away from Grand Theft Auto, they can still get a 97 withRed Dead Redemption 2.
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There are already fans claimingGTA VIwill score a 99 or a perfect 100 on Metacritic upon release. Can you imagine working to that standard? And I feel I should mention that I don’t doubt thatRockstar Gamescan do all of the things I’ve said in this article, but we’re looking at a game coming out next year that should, and likely will, sink everything that came before it and set a new standard for the industry. All eyes are going to be on this and the past 10 years. As I said at the very start, the pressure is on Rockstar Games.
Topics:GTA,GTA 5,GTA 6,GTA Online,Grand Theft Auto,Retro Gaming,Rockstar Games,Opinion
