GTA VI: 10 Lessons It Must Learn From The Competition

3. A Female Protagonist - Saints Row

It's been a funny old week or so in gaming over the past few days, as as series of debates has broken out all about how 'transparent' the gaming press are when it comes to delivering review scores, among other things. You can read all about it here, but one of the biggest hot-button issues in the industry that was also frequently mentioned was the portrayal of women in video games. Regardless of how you feel on how sexed up the majority of women either are or aren't, the very idea of playing as a female in a Grand Theft Auto experience is an extremely enticing one. For one, how would the story play out when your character is surrounded by increasingly secular groups and gangs that are dominated on various levels by males? Rockstar are long overdue a strong female protagonist in any of their games, as the nearest we've got to someone who can hold their own in 'a man's world' is Red Dead Redemption's Bonnie McFarlane, but even she only plays a role in the opening string of missions for that game. Since the second Saints Row we've seen fully customisable female characters who can hang just as well as the males, with the female Boss from Saints 3 being a real fan-favourite thanks to some biting humour and an overall presence of just owning every room she went into. For those who thought GTA V's Trevor was one of the most disgusting, played-out characters they'd ever seen, doing practically anything from a woman's perspective in GTA would be a most welcome breath of fresh air.