While it's safe to say that an awful lot of players are desperate to see something different from Rockstar, there's no denying the allure of Grand Theft Auto. It's all but confirmed that the studio's next title will be the sixth main entry in their flagship franchise, and with rumours swirling that it'll be set in seventies/eighties Vice City, it's already primed to be a fan favourite.
But while fans eagerly await the next Grand Theft Auto, there is a pattern starting to emerge here. The last two GTA games have both revisited settings previously utilised in older entries, and that's kind of disappointing given there are so many potential areas GTA could venture to.
Why not a GTA game set in Tokyo? What of different time periods, like the US in the fifties and sixties? There are plenty more locales and eras Rockstar could tackle if they chose to, and it would help break up that feeling of familiarity fans get when they return to the likes of Liberty City and Los Santos.
Obviously it's fine to go back, but going forward, it'd be nice to see Rockstar take greater risks with Grand Theft Auto.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
