GTA VI: 10 Things It Must Learn From Sleeping Dogs

5. Celebrity Voiceovers

Remember when GTA had celebrity voices behind their major characters? III featured legendary actors Joe Pantoliano and Michael Madsen, Vice City's Tommy Vercetti was Ray Liotta - and San Andreas had more celebrity appearances than a few seasons of The Daily Show. Then for IV, Rockstar proclaimed that they were doing away with the idea; under the reasoning that people were hearing the actor/personality behind the character, rather than the character themselves. "Fair point", you might think, but that seems to miss the point of casting an actor in the first place - you write the role first and find the best talent to bring it to life, just like in film. Some of the funniest and most memorable performances in past games were from notable names, primarily as a mix of whoever they've been typecast as in the past, or just through delivering a solid performance. For Sleeping Dogs, United Front brought in a bevy of celebrities to back certain characters; Emma Stone is the first girl you meet and introduce to the city, Tom Wilkinson is your main commander - even Lucy Liu turns up across the main campaign as a mainstay for a few key missions. Minus Wilkinson, some of these inclusions felt a bit more like cameos than fully-fledged characters, but it's always fun to have them pop up regardless - especially if like with Pantoliano and Madsen they're highly regarded within the crime genre anyway.