3. Refined Combat System
Rockstar/AKI CorporationSleeping Dogs proved many things, but the most pertinent going forward for free-roam games is that environmental interaction is key in immersing the player in just how gruesome and visceral a street fight should be. In GTA whenever you have to take someone down with your fists it's an incredibly clunky system of badly animated dodges, half-skip walk-runs, and punches that land with the impact of a mashed potato. The groundwork is already there with the fantastic RAGE engine the game is built on to have ragdoll physics that have real weight to them, but we've never actually had fun faffing around without weapons. Let us finish chasing a guy across town in an alley by throwing them into a collection or a caged wall, or straight through a window. Better yet just employ what so many other third person actioners have and simply give us a 'throw' button, letting the brilliant physics engine do the rest.