I tried to get into Vice City and San Andreas. I uninstalled San Andreas after like 30 minutes and Vice City after one evening. Not my thing really and AI behaviour is utterly stupid for a game that pretends to simulate a piece of "reality"...

Is seems that what everyone loves about GTA are the things you're not interested in. If you only enjoyed the story missions in SR, that seems to prove the point.

Just different tastes, I guess. Right now, my PS3 controller has to be forcibly removed from my hand to get me to stop playing GTA V and go to bed.

For the record, though, Vice City was my favourite, too. The setting is everything.

i had a lot of fun with San Andreas. I did play GTA 3 and Vice city, one playthrough each back in the day when it was fresh, but i don't really remember any memorable highlights.
I also played GTA 4 but even though it was quite entertaining at some parts, it just got tedious somehow. I had much more fun with Saints row 3 and Sleeping dogs than with GTA 4 despite gta having Lazlow show.

GTAs are games of great potential but I think it was wasted on GTA 4. I got bored driving from place to place.
Fortunately the Episodes were better story wise.

I didn't like the things the game wanted me to do: to hurt/kill persons who seemed to be innocents. Why would I do that?, I had tens of thousands of $. I don't mind killing thousands of people, but it has to be motivated: we are in war and they would kill me unless I finish them first, they kiddnapd the baker's daughter etc.

I don't say GTA are bad games, I give them a 7, maybe even an 8 out of 10, but for GTA 5 to earn 1 billion dollars in 3 days it's a strange thing to me.

I think that GTA 4 tried to be movielike cool and realistic at the same time so it just got boring after some time, while Saints row 3 throws tedious realism away completely in favor of pure fun and humour and Sleeping dogs presents a fast paced, interesting and detailed story with deep characters balancing the seriousness and humour of it and placing it in reasonably large city.

Nah, I don't like GTA. Uninstalled GTA 1 after 5 min, GTA 2 after 10 min and GTA 3 after 15 min. Never going to install GTA 4 or 5 or another GTA at all. :p

Agreed. Tone-wise, I thing GTA 4 was a low point. Mechanically, it was sound, but compared to SR and SD games - and even other GTA games, dull as dishwater.

You're statistically missing 20 and 25 minutes of *fun* ;)

Edit : and on topic : I don't like GTA.

I dont know why people say GTA is weak when it comes to plot, sure it doesn't hit you straight in the face when you pick it up and you need to sort of have to want to follow the plot. San Andreas has some really really cool story parts with one of the coolest voice acting and motion capture ever.

Overall I don't feel they are overall that bad, or good, either. I enjoy them somewhat, but I quite often see myself getting bored playing them.

I think their "sandbox gameplay" feature is a bit overhyped maybe. The stories in the game still seem quite linear, and you can't really affect much in it. Basically it is just a series of missions, some freedom in in what order you must complete them, and then a lots of useless activites you can do on the side just to kill some time (and maybe make a bit of extra money, albeit very slowly).

GTA 1-2: I disliked the gameplay due to the overhead view. I never got very far in these games because e.g. driving felt quite irritating to me, and quite often it felt like a labyrinth maze you were driving in.

GTA 3: I think so far I actually like this the best of all GTA games I've played. Good enough that I even finished it twice.

GTA Vice City: It was ok. But just ok. Quite often I got bored playing it, and had to take long breaks from it.

GTA San Andreas: I've played this somewhat, so far I rate it about as high as Vice City, ie. "ok". I don't quite get the meaning of diners/fast food joints and the gyms though. Do I die if I don't eat regularly, or are e.g. the burger places there only so that I can make myself fat, because some potential in-game girlfriends prefer big-boned characters?

Apparently in the gym you can learn some new hand-to-hand fight moves, but meh. I rather shoot my way through.

GTA IV: Waiting in the backlog.

GTA Episodes from Liberty City: Waiting in the backlog

Saints Row 2: I have played it somewhat, I am bored with it for some reason.

Saints Row 3: Played it more. Sometimes entertaining, sometimes bored.

Mafia: Played this somewhat too. Seems a bit archaic so far, the age shows a bit in this game. But it seems quite a nice, slower paced, GTA game?

What? Who? Why? Nobody sane ever claimed that GTA is supposed to be realistic.

Anyway, not that big a fan of the series myself. I loved GTA1 when it was new and also enjoyed GTA3 up to San Andreas when they were new, whenever I fire them up these days I got bored very fast, though. And GTA4 didn't do it for me. It's a few fun moments in one far too long excruciating... something.

I'm a bit disappointed how linear the story part appears to be, considering how the "sandbox gameplay" is always promoted, as in "you can do anything in the game!". Sure, but the main plot stays exactly the same, without much of nuances from your gameplay either.

Then again, I guess that's what story telling are in most games. Games where the story is affected by your decisions are quite rare maybe, and they seem to be usually RPGs.

I'm not a lover nor hater. But the last GTA game i really enjoyed was Vice City.

Mafia is quite good if you like movies like The Godfather or Once Upon A Time In America and has some very good set pieces, though I have to say that this game has very little to offer in sandbox mode, same goes for Mafia 2.

As for GTA, it is popular because it looks good (entire city well designed) and offers something for everyone I think.
I never could get into any GTA because of the lack of a good savegame system, so if you screwed up a mission that was that or begin from scratch or at least from a long way to get to that point again.