Call of Duty; Modern Warfare 2
It seems as though every year the Call of Duty franchise makes its way into the mainstream news, just for releasing a new installment. This is a series that has made the leap from the gaming world into pop-culture, and is often referenced in movies and TV shows and blamed for acts of violence. Modern Warfare 2 has been the most anticipated in the series so far. It seems as though interest in the series (outside of its diehard fans) peaked with this title as it was perceived that the series was still able to do new things. Later titles haven't been able to get most gamers as excited in quite the same way.
GTA: San Andreas
This is perhaps the most obvious title to compare with GTA: V. A previous installment in the same series, San Andreas was the third 3D GTA game, and it got us gamers riled up. San Andreas came towards the end of the Playstation 2's lifetime, much in the same way that GTA: V is a last hurrah for the current generation. Both games attempt to squeeze every bit of power out of the aging hardware. San Andreas promised a massive world, far bigger that that of GTA III and Vice City. At the time, such a large gaming world was hard to imagine and we couldn't wait to get our hands on the disc and play through the games 90's inspired three cities.