Something about Grand Theft Auto digs into your brain. Whether it’s the gleeful moments of parody that send up American crime classics, the freedom to go on a rampage across an open world urban sandbox, or little cinematic touches that remind you Rockstar’s characters go beyond surface level, it’s almost impossible to forget.
It’s impressive in part because every GTA is huge. Even if you go back to the very first game in the series on PS1, you’ll find a sweeping, expansive ambition that remains incredibly moreish, your path through a city very much your own. And yet, so much sticks with you. To celebrate it, we’ve cracked the window on every game in the series in order to rummage through all those shiny memories, and stashed the best of the best right in our boot for you to have a gander at.
Taking Chop for a walk
GAME GTA V / RELEASED 2013 / FORMAT PS5, PS4, PS3
100 Easily the strangest protagonist in GTA history – briefly controllable in single-player, and during a GTA Online Halloween event – Chop is a rottweiler notable for his loyalty in a game full of double-crossings. In fact, the only crossing he does is over the roads near the Clinton Residence should you throw his ball too far. His companionship is welcome when the plot starts blowing up, even if he’s behaving badly because you didn’t bother to train him via the iFruit app.
But go the other way and you can put plenty of time into building the bond between man and best friend, making sure that Franklin shows love and care to his stalwart companion. Ditch all the crime and take a trip down to Vespucci Beach where you can go for walkies and play fetch.
While some of GTA’s detractors will call the series a hedonistic sandbox that brings out the worst in players, it’s hard to believe that after we’ve spent a good hour hanging out with our canine pal. For as sinful as your GTA life can be, it can also be quite mindful. Why not put the weapons away, dutifully park your convertible, and hit the sands with Chop while you take in some digital sun?
“Notable for his loyalty in a game full of double-crossings – the only crossing he does is over the road.”
Getting a call from your cousin Roman
GAME GTA IV / RELEASED 2008 FORMAT PS3
99 “Niko! It’s Roman. Let’s go bowling.” The phrase became notorious among Grand Theft Auto fans in the years following the fourth game’s release – one of the truly enduring early game memes alongside the arrow to the knee and the cake being a lie. While writer Dan Houser later protested that those calls didn’t happen nearly as often as players believed, they were new and significant – a calling card for a relationship system. An important step forward not just for this game, but for many others too. And you’d better enjoy bowling. Strike!
Blasting your ice cream van’s jingle
GAME GTA: VICE CITY / RELEASED 2002 FORMAT PS5, PS4, PS2
98 In Rockstar’s satirical take on Miami, even the most innocent occupation is a paper-thin veneer concealing rampant corruption and criminality. So it proves when Tommy Vercetti buys the Cherry Popper Ice Cream Company (*sigh*), and discovers a burgeoning drug distribution operation. The juxtaposition of sing-song chimes with the sight of grown adults running from the sidewalks for their favourite white-coloured, tooth-wrecking fix remains one of the most grimly comic scenes in a series stuffed with them.
Discovering the coral reef
GAME GTA V / RELEASED 2013 FORMAT PS5, PS4, PS3
97 The act of hitting the ocean bed near Los Santos in your submersible might be driven purely by greed – as hazardous as it might be, nuclear waste fetches a high price, and that means more moolah to put towards your next field hangar or golf club. But once you’re down there, you discover that some of Los Santos’ beauty lies there, below sea level, brightly coloured and alien.
It’s the lone chunk of on-land coral reef, however, found halfway up a mountain, that has bewitched players – for nine years and counting.
Sniping the moon to change its size
GAME GTA III / RELEASED 2001 FORMAT PS5, PS4, PS2
96 Shoot for the moon, so the saying goes. In GTA III if you do, you won’t land among the stars as the rest of the saying claims, but it will get bigger. It’s a bizarre fact of life in Liberty City that presumably has dramatic knock-on tidal effects for the planet as a whole. But don’t worry – snipe enough times and it’ll return to its usual size. That this bizarre Easter egg was ever discovered is testament to the sheer amount of time bored teenagers spent in GTA III, taking potshots at the scenery.
Watching Michael’s movie at the cinema
GAME GTA V / RELEASED 2013 FORMAT PS5, PS4, PS3
95 The premiere of the film Michael ‘produces’, or rather enforces, over the course of GTA V goes awry on the red carpet, when another of its backers orders a hit on his family. That’s Hollywood, baby, possibly even more vicious than a life of crime. But you can head back to the cinema at a later date and watch Meltdown in full – 11 and a half minutes of oddly watchable Wall Street pastiche, impossible car physics, and driving monkeys. Who said gaming isn’t a storytelling medium?
Attempting to steer in cinematic cam
GAME GTA III-V / RELEASED 2001-2013 FORMAT PS5, PS4, PS3, PS2
94 There are a couple of entertaining yet unusable camera options in GTA III. There’s the ’90s-style top-down view that’s a recipe for flipped vehicles, but best of all is the cinematic camera – a favourite feature of Sam Houser, who was determined that GTA should look and feel like the crime movies of his childhood. The view periodically switches between various cool and flattering angles, all pretty much guaranteeing a gnarly crash. The very definition of style over sense.
GTA’s greatest business names
Deliver Me Timbers
GAME GTA IV / RELEASED 2008 FORMAT PS3
93 Just a straight-up great name for a company in the business of logging and logistics. You’ll spot it on a passing van, and that’s about it. A throwaway line, and funnier for it.
Sex Club 7
GAME GTA: LIBERTY CITY STORIES RELEASED 2005 / FORMAT PS2, PSP
92 You had to be living in the UK between the years of 1998 and 2003 to know why this was naughty – it’s a reference to post-Spice Girls pop group S Club 7.
Ammu-Nation
GAME GTA III / RELEASED 2001 FORMAT PS2
91 Rockstar North’s
