Grand Theft Auto - Great or Over Rated?

[F0X]

VanceIX said:

F0X said:

VanceIX said:
The only games in the series that deserved the scores they got were GTA III and GTA IV.

You have my attention.

Best story and characters.

Nico was the only protagonist in the entire series you could really feel sympathy for, the rest are just assholes (especially Trevor, Franklin, and Michael from V). 

I love story and character driven games, so I loved GTA IV. GTA V and San Andreas may have been better gameplay wise, but the characters were unlikable and the story meh. The dark tone of IV was amazing.

Also, I hating having to sit through two characters yelling the n-word at each other 15 times per sentence trying to emulate ghetto hoods or something.

True, although I think the narrative suffers quite a bit by being in a GTA game. Mafia II and, to an extent, L.A. Noire felt like better designed open-world strory-driven games (although I don't like L.A. Noire's plot as much as GTAIV's).