2. Lack of Cameos
The Grand Theft Auto III trilogy gave games a great insight into the development of characters, not least due to the fact that it spanned three separate decades. Who can forget Phil the arms dealer, who lost his arm due to an unfortunate incident with his own merchandise and a bottle of moonshine? What about Claude Speed, the mute manservant who falls in love with a beautiful girl named Catalina at the beginning of the nineties? Character cameos like this really tied the trilogy together and gave the passage of time a small semblance of meaning. And it's absent here. It would be wrong, of course, to say that there are no cameos in GTA V, although none of them will be mentioned here for the sake of avoiding spoilers. What can be said is that these cameos are not as comprehensive as they were previously, which is a real shame considering the number of ways in which they could have been implemented. There are taxis in GTA V, there are gangsters, there are drug dealers... so many opportunities missed out on to add a little humour and nostalgia into the game.