10 Best GTA Games - Ranked

5. Grand Theft Auto IV

As mentioned earlier, GTA IV represents Rockstar trying to force the franchise to grow up - completely misreading that the reason so many of us adored playing it, was because of how ridiculously OTT and fun the 3D trilogy was.

GTA IV swapped the majority of that tonality for a remade Liberty City that was awash in a sea of brown and grey. Niko Bellic was witty and sharp enough, but his comments and attitude towards the criminal life were forever at odds with the way we wanted to play him.

It gave birth to the critical term, "ludonarrative dissonance" (when playing a game in a certain way breaks the character as they're established), and is at the heart of why this instalment just didn't click.

Still, Rockstar's debut of the RAGE engine powering everything did make for some brilliant physics-based fun, with driving that was very skid-happy, factoring into brilliantly 70s cop chase-esque vehicle sequences.

Gunplay is some of the best in the franchise and you still have to admire what Rockstar were trying to do - it just didn't hit home.