6. Social Satire
The defining aspect for the GTA franchise for me, aside from all that wanton mayhem, of course, is the social satire; these games serve to lampoon various aspects of American life in particular, notably the flawed notion of the idealistic American Dream. As is evident from the various TV shows, radio stations, bilboards, buildings, assorted NPCs and so on, the game leaps off to mock just about everything it possibly can, regardless of political persuasion; the beauty is that everyone is fair game. The mockery of vapid celebrity culture and reality TV has been pronounced throughout the series, and it reaches its apex here with shows like Lazlow's Fame or Shame, while the class satire permeates through to an utterly hilarious exchange if Franklin is caught snooping around in Michael's house early on in the game (his wife Amanda screams loudly while the tennis coach shouts, "Help! He's blaaaaack!"). Then there's the additional mockery of facets of contemporary life that just weren't really around when GTA IV was in development, namely Facebook (repurposed here as Lifeinvader) and the whole social networking boom.