All GTA Stories Ranked 

Vice City’s biggest issue in hindsight is that we don’t get to learn more about Tommy’s background, learn of his family in greater depths, his relationship with Sonny, more details on the going-ons of Vice City that wasn’t really explored much and so forth in the same vein as IV.

Glad to see GTA VCS's story being respected as it deserves

love seeing appreciation for VCS' storyline

I think Vic Vance, Luis Lopez, Huang Lee are probably the most relatable characters since they’re grounded in reality and didn’t have bad intentions in the beginning. They weren’t gangsters, mobsters, or big time drug dealers, they’re just regular guys who are in bad situations till push comes to shove

Glad to see Chinatown Wars up so high. It really surprised me with how good the story actually gets

13. GTA 2 (1:32) 12. GTA 1 (3:50) 11. GTA: London 1969 (6:58) 10. GTA: Advance (9:15) 9. GTA: Online (11:50) 8. GTA 3 (14:02) 7. GTA: Liberty City Stories (16:32) 6. GTA: San Andreas (20:40) 5. GTA: Vice City (23:43) 4. GTA: The Ballad of Gay Tony (27:08) 3. GTA 5 (31:55) 2. GTA: Vice City Stories (35:23) 1. GTA 4 (38:45)

honestly yes, if you look at GTA IV's DLCs as their own separate story i understand the placement, but if you look at them as an extension of GTA IV's story i think they enhance each other perfectly, by for example contextualizing why Luis showed up during the transaction with the Jewish mafia, or just the way it expands on Johnny's side of the same story.. and that in and of itself is why i love GTA IV's story even more than i already do.. because ngl, the diamonds arc would've otherwise been the least interesting arc of the main game (still decent on its own tho)

CJ was saving money to leave town when he was working with Truth, that's why

I didn't think VCS would have ranked soo high on this list! I was honestly scared that this would have been ranked lower!

A minor correction for a part of your discussion of GTA 4: the main character of the Brother movies is named Danila and the character Sasha you mentioned is actually from the movie Behind Enemy Lines. Niko's likeness is taken from the actor thay plays him. He was even offered to voice Niko himself. Also the Las Venturas portion of the San Andreas plot was the only part that felt disjointed. Though Ryder's presence may be limited, CJ building up his influence in San Fierro served as a good contrast to him infiltrating the Loco Syndicate. If the Caligula heist and Toreno's later missions weren't a part of the LV storyline, the 3rd act would have been more streamlined with the rest of the narrative.

GTA IV is my favorite story. But I’m not going to crap on V at all. In fact, I’m more impressed they were able to create a great story that revolved around THREE main characters!

great list, and happy/surprised that VCS was so high up. Such a great game.

41:03 - Huh? It works on all the Xbox's and PC, I just recently did an achievement run on my Series X (that's always connected to the internet lol).

Why does the GTA 1 main character sound so op he took out every body just because he can 😂

i replayed gta san andreas after years and there was such a strange change before and after the Caligula's casino heist, the missions after is just them getting territories and then helping cesar, I really like the country side part, the san fierro part, but I feel like in the las venturas part the plot was getting a bit weaker, and then they came back to los santos and the missions felt like they were fan-made, I felt like there was a lot of potential wasted there

Guinness you excited for GTA 6

My only real problem with V is that Franklin feels very shallow with his character and story. That and my dislike of multi-protags scrambling the story spaghetti everywhere keeps it as my Number 3.

Hey could you make a character analysis video of Packie Mcreary? He’s just so underrated i loved him both in IV and V since you haven’t made one about him yet. Btw great video keep it up! ❤❤❤

Really good list, what you mentioned about the gta 4 fanboys hating on gta 5 just because it’s not super dark is bang on. Both are good and different

May I just say I've been a fan of your channel for a while now. I would love to see you do the Yakuza series as well.

Thanks for another video, man! Good stuff as usual! :D

For me, it’s: 1. IV (the undisputed king 👑) 2. VCS 3. TLAD 4. TBOGT 5. SA 6. VC 7. V 8. CW 9. III 10. LCS 11. Advance (haven’t played Advance but vaguely know its story and already know it’s at the bottom) Haven’t played the OG GTAs from the PS1 so won’t speak on those at all. By the way, major respect and props to you putting the VCS story at number two because it was easily the one of the best stories of the entire series and it deserves that recognition that many people overlook.

Can we get a Tony Prince bio ? There’s a lot of interesting stuff with him in the lore that gets overlooked.

I definitely agree that SA < VC in terms of the story. SA had better mechanics, better gunplay, ever better physics, was an upgrade on every technical level. But I played both VC and SA on release in my early teens, and even 10 years later when I was in my early 20s I still remembered the VC story vividly from start to finish, while the SA story started to become kind of a blurr in my memory, except for the 1st act which I did remember pretty well. Like you said, it becomes a bit convoluted and messy in the 2nd and 3rd acts, and for me personally was kind of forgettable, at least when I first played it in early 2000s as a teenager. I did replay the entire 3D trilogy in my mid 20s, and then again more recently when the "definitive edition" came out in 2021 (by then I was 30), and it did refresh my memory of the story. And out of the 3 games, SA still holds up the best in terms of gameplay, but for me VC to this day is one of the best stories in a GTA game (as well as the best soundtrack). Though SA did have fantastic voice actors, and one of the best villains in the franchise. I'd rank them both even higher, probably above both GTA4 expansions, as those were even more forgettable to me. Purely storywise my top 5 would be: 1. 4 2. 5 3. VC 4. SA 5. VCS GTA Online I don't even consider a proper GTA entry to be honest. It's just a continuous stream of ridiculous and over-the-top advenures combined with busy work, all designed to keep the new ADHD generation of GTA "fans" (mostly edgy kids and teens) playing and buying shark cards with their parents' credit cards.

My personal order is: 1. IV 2. VCS 3. TLaD 4. SA (I actually prefer the Bone County / Las Venturas act storywise) 5. TBoGT 6. V 7. CW 8. VC 9. LCS 10. III 11. Advance Never played the first ones

Vic’s acting in the final cutscene in VCS is so good

Great GTA story story ranking 🔥

Great Video! Personally my favorite was TLAD, followed by IV and VCS

Hell yeah, another awesome video to relax to after a long day. Thanks bro

I have to agree with San Andreas. I was about to go off but you are right the second half of the game is kinda boring. I love the different cities like you got Vegas and could visit the casino. But the excitement of the game died down. I many played just to get past it and get back to the hood.

Great video, one small correction though, the protagonist of “Brat” is named Danila, not Sasha

Isn't Sasha the antagonist of the movie behind enemy lines?

I think that my biggest problem with GTA Vs story is that the story is the best thing about GTA V by a long shot, and when I play GTA V I don't really feel the insentive to do anything but the story missions and maybe a few strangers. I wish that GTA V was given some of the same attention as GTA online and that there were more interesting and profitable side hustles you could do, I can't help but feel that GTA V was left intentionally shallow so that people would view GTA Online as the gameplay focus.

Great video! However, a couple corrections need to be made: 1. I think the guy who robbed the bank with Claude and Catalina was not Miguel, but some random cartel mook. Also, in the cutscene, you see his body next to Claude's, meaning she killed him too 2. Sasha is not the protagonist from Brother (his name is Danila), but rather a character from a movie Behind Enemy Lines. He was played by a russian actor Vladimir Mashkov, and rumour has it that he was asked to be the voice for Niko, but he declined because he did not know much about video games at the time.

Honestly your issues with SA are my issues with GTA 4. I know everyone thinks it's the best but it's just so all over the place for me. Niko is a great character but I feel like the actual story is kinda non existent. It's mostly just Niko doing jobs for various people. I love the characters a lot but they feel almost detached. The Playboy X stuff is really great but you don't even have to do them to complete the game. And the game just kinda wonders on with no real purpose or motivation until it just decides to be over. Like Dimitri is the main antagonist and he is hardly a part of the story. And in the revenge ending suddenly Pegerino just becomes the main target. The stuff with Darko is really interesting but it takes up so little of the actual game I kinda forgot about it halfway through. The game is really great and Niko is a fantastic character but the story is very overrated I think.

Thought it was just me always felt the SA story was bloated and I always lost interest after awhile. The initial grove st missions is the peak to me. Also I’d prefer if Gay Tony was the main story over Niko. As a native NYer I relate to Luis way more. And Gay Tony is just better. Better guns better things to do. More potential for a better story TO ME. VCS is CRIMINALLY underrated.

I remember watching you over a year ago. Idk why I never subbed, I meant to, then youtube mustve hid your channel from my recommended. I’ve just seen your Lazlow video in my feed and had to watch some videos and sub.

I have a 360 that’s never been connected to the internet. And a copy of GTA 4 and all the DLC.😊

I'm a San Andreas fan, but as much as I love it and enjoy it every time I replay it, I agree in the fact that its story gets kind of weird. Everything about LS is great, it stablishes the plot in an incredible way, and I can still remember how amazing was the day I first got to The Green Sabre mission, after which we are taken to the woods of Angel Pine, in a completely new territory. San Fierro was very good too, as it was all about starting from the ground again and preparing to take on Smoke and Tenpenny. But Las Venturas... well, that's where everything turns into a weird direction, thanks mostly to Toreno's missions. I understand we are doing that because Toreno has promised us to set our brother free in exchange, but it feels just weird to be doing all those "Mission Impossible"-like missions. But I think the game improves again the moment we go back to LS. On the other hand, I can't help but disagree about your ranking of GTA V's plot. For me, it is one of the worst of all. It's just so silly and absurd, it almost never takes itself seriously, except from the moment Trevor discovers Brad is dead (that mission is sick) and the other two endings. The villains are just lame, and it feels very anti climatic when you have to kill them. I don't think Devin was memorable at all, as he was introduced to us very late in the game, while Steve Haines and Stretch could barely be considered villains.

I remember when I was the weird guy who loved gta 4 I didn’t care about blurry hd video it was mind blowing . Did u know if you shoot someone in the leg in gta 5 they will get up and out run you … if you shoot someone in the leg he will limp or lay on the floor and beg for his life or bleed out 🔥🔥🔥 something simple from 2008 hasn’t been redone in gta 5 or gta online lol

Zaibatsu.......like Shinra. Me and every Tekken fan watching: *spontaneously implodes into a black hole*

Vice city stories is an underrated story

While I don't disagree that San Andreas's story falls off after the return to Los Santos I don't agree that it fell off immediately after leaving in the first place. I used to think that just like you but I don't anymore, mainly because I used to misunderstand the purpose behind CJ's work with Jizzy B and how he was taking down Smoke's crack distribution network across the state from another city, along the way he made new contacts and pursued investments in Las Ventures. The reason why I accept the story now is that everything that CJ does makes sense. The contacts he makes and the work that he does throughout the game are sll either to make money, free his brother from prison, or damage Smoke's crack empire from afar. With all of that being the case I can't say it is a bad story because it is at least justified in being all over the place. I think the main reason people dislike the story of San Andreas is because it fakes you out in the first act with a very authentic gangland focused story but then quickly transforms into the usual free agent gun for hire affair we see almost all the time, and that is a valid criticism because the game betrays your expectations. If there is more to it then that your going to have to explain because I feel that for me that really is the only big problem I had with San Andreas and it was my own expectations.

My main issue with San Andreas's story isn't the direction of it. But how dumb CJ is. Don't get me wrong, he's not a bad character, and he was designed that way. Anyway, CJ gave Tenpenny the dossier. which, in my opinion, is the dumbest decision made by a GTA character. Tenpenny would've been ruined. He was already under investigation with some evidence against him, which was held by the guy with the FBI agents whom CJ killed. And he was already on his way. Even if Tenpenny made connections to kill Sweet, he still wouldn't be able to. because Sweet was under protection by Toreno anyway. It's unbelievable to me that CJ took Tenpenny's threats seriously and not Toreno's promises.

GTA 3 is even more dark and brooding than 4 is. So no, it’s not 4 and TLAD that are the only exceptions.

Glad vcs is highly ranked u are a true gamer

Good to see that the stories have somewhat improved with later games as they evolved with technology and the writing team's skills.

I literary just skipped to make sure GTA iv was the top of the top come on now best story best tone best comedy in the game best radio it’s just by FAR the best GTA

4 has the best story but I love Vice City's story. It's just so fun!

AAAAAAA can believe my man did some homework on the 2d universe ❤❤❤

Did you forget that GTA IV and TLATD/TBOGT were on physical disc for the (superior) PS3?

GTA 2 is basically Gotham City

I studied for a long time the Rodney King protesting and riots and how it tied in with affiliated gangs in the same area across Compton, Inglewood, etc. so I will always appreciate how the story of San Andreas so closely mirrored that region of Los Angeles during that time and how crack being funneled into low income areas by police enforcement and gangs ultimately impacted the social climate, but not so close that they couldn't still make it satirical and fun and silly and everything we know and love about Rockstar games. They really knocked it out of the park with CJs character and the political climate of that time.

I quite liked TLAD but it felt incomplete and rushed compared to TBOGT, like it was written for a 60 mission arc but only got 30 while TBOGT fit its length a lot better. So a more compelling story but not executed as well as it needed to be, imo. Vice City Stories was the first GTA I ever played, on my PSP when I was 12. I wish there was a PC port so I could play it again, I've appreciated every game in the franchise more as I've replayed them over the years but never had that chance with VCS. Also worth noting that it's pretty easy these days to get the GTA 4 PC port to work great and have everything (plus some fixes) from the original console versions, fusionfix + a downgrader to recover the music is all you really need.

I really can't consider GTA: O content as a story, sinceI personally will not engage with some of its DLC or heists. I'm just there as a respectable nightclub owner that often...dabbles...with some illicit trade. To me San Andreas and V share the same problem: a meandering ton of missions past the first act that dilute what was an interesting setup in its the opening hours of the game. I'd much prefer a shorter amd more focused main narrative and pad out the gameplay with unrelated sidequests and activities. Yeah, I'm one of those guys that don't jive with the cringy humor elements of the franchise. Sorry but not sorry.

I agree with the San Andreas placement. It's probably my favourite in the series, and probably one of the best games of all time and excels at literally everything (especially for a 2004) game... except the story. Starts out with gang warfare, sets up a really good premise that takes you across Los Santos and the various hoods... and then you're stealing jetpacks, taking on the military, flying RC vehicles, weird character behaviour (I know Ryder was due to IRL problems so they had to change it), just felt a little unhinged after the midway point. I guarantee that despite being one of the best selling PS2 games, I doubt even 30% of those people have even made it through the story.

Lost and damned should have even behind ballad of gay tony

Keep up the Fantastic work Mr. G dub!!!🫡

very well made video this must of took so long to make

As someone who’s played every single GTA from 3 to 5. I must say IV is my least favourite because of the story. It’s too grim, and feels more like Mafia than GTA.

12:00 wait, wait, wait! Gta Online has a story? Really?

Anyone know why Guiness says that the best way to experience GTA IV is on an Xbox 360 that wasn't patched since 2008 at 41:02?

Although I disagree that the San Andreas story went downhill after the Green Sabre mission, (and San Andreas is only my 3rd favourite GTA,) I'm glad someone else mentions that after Big Smoke's betrayal, you don't see him again until the last mission. How people can call him an all time villain when he goes missing for well over 50 missions and doesn't actually appear as a villain between the betrayal and finale I don't understand. Tenpenny is the true San Andreas villain.

I think your list is quite controversial but I respect it nonetheless. I would like to ask you what platform you’re playing the Stories games on

Everybody’s got different preferences to be fair, San Andreas story will always be #1 for me, but I respect your opinions too

I think GTA 4 has the best story (including the DLCs) and GTA 5 has the 2nd best. San Andreas is the most fun in the series because of having 3 cities and lots of things to do but the story is ok, I prefer Vice City's story a little bit more. I kinda view GTA 4 in the opposite way, GTA 4 has a strong story but not many side activities or options for customization. And GTA 5 is kinda in the middle between the seriousness of GTA 4 and the humor from the 3D universe. I think overall the 3D games were very creative by introducing more and more game mechanics each release, but the HD games have better stories.

The old gta's were crazy as if you failed a mission you could not replay it

It’s not a gta game if a corrupt cop doesn’t try to blackmail you

Replaying V for the first time in about 4 or 5 years. V annoyed me but I blame GTAO for that. Story could have had stronger antagonists. But I like the multiple endings (C forever) and the bountiful things you can do. I’m a IV die hard so 😅

You're right, as a GTA4 fan, i do hate 5 for being so silly. But i disagree that it's closer to the old ones. In the old games there were only a handful of characters that acted like cartoon morons, whereas GTA5 is chock full of them. That's my biggest problem with it. I do admit that when GTA4 came out originally, i hated it for being so gritty, but now it's one of my favourite GTA games, mainly because Nico is so relatable compared to many of the other series protags. Also, didn't Catalina betray Miguel in the opening cutscene of GTA3 as well? Wasn't Miguel that guy in the blue shirt and hat?

Idk if I would put the lost and damned above the ballad of gay tony. To me, it had a pretty weak story. But hey, gta 4's in first place and that's all I care about.

If there are 15 GTA games, GTA 5 is at #15. I hated the story so much in 2013 and recently seeing the first hours again, I could not feel ever stronger. Cringe, corny, and try hard acting with 3 doofus actors of CUCK cop, crackhead and fake thug.

You kinda did San Andreas dirty😭

"Begins working for the GTA Universe version of Donald Trump" 😂😂

GTA 3 still bas the best story for me imo. Straightforward mafia game no crazy shit going on

LCS came out in 2005 VCS came out in 2006

GTA4 is hands down the best Next i would go with GTA5 its not serious but well written. San andreas would be Third then Vice city then GTA3.

love your vids. and you are scratching my GTA hyperfixation i've got going right now. getting hype for 6. I hope they condense the narritive unlike 5. hated the narrative of 5 compared to 4

Why is it important to play the original unpatched disk version of 4?

I still don't believe Diaz was the one that set up the ambush

I'm not mad at the list although I would say GTA V had a weaker story than the HD trilogy

I am at least glad that you did rank TLAD's story a bit higher

GTA V has a shit story 3 protagonist is what’s convoluted

You was knocking Ballas off with a crossbow?

The protagonist of the two Brat (брат) movies is Danila, not Sasha

Why is the best way to experience GTA4 to play it on an xbox 360 that has never been connected to the internet?

Vice City Stories ❤❤❤ An excellent story with the mechanics of GTA San Andreas

Can you post a link to the livestream you mentioned? New fan here- replaying all the gta’s and happy to find your content! 🎉

What makes the story different if i never had my xbox connected to the internet?

12:05 don’t you mean of the HD games? there’s the 3D universe and HD universe

As a San Andreas diehard, i'll have to disagree with you on the 2 later acts of the game, i believe that they're essential for CJ's character and the story. I'm convinced that the main value of GTA SA for Carl is to not be a buster, and to not run out on people and problems and take the pressure and face them, and him running out on Grove Street at the end of the first act after The Green Sabre builds the same buster mentality that he had 5 years ago running away from brian's death, away from all the trouble and the pressure which effected his friend and family views on him, most importantly Sweet. So he came back to win back his brother's respect and appreciation by sticking to The Grove and helping it get stronger which he does directly before The Green Sabre. After the fall of The Grove with The Ballas ambushing it and C.R.A.S.H and Big Smoke teaming against Sweet and getting him arrested, CJ found no choice but to leave The Grove once again and run out on it, progressively straying off in every act from it, and seeing the better world he missed out on by staying in the hood and working with Sweet, all the commitments he made in San Fierro and Las Venturas made you progressively forget about your original home, and all the friends of different ethnicities and backgrounds expands the themes of San Andreas further to the player and CJ so much so that at the end, Carl just didn't care about The Grove anymore, he just left it to crumble and so we're reminded once again by Sweet and forced by him to go and build it back up. I think it all builds up nicely not only to expand the world of San Andreas in which it has done an AMAZING job at, but also complete the circle of Carl Johnson's character and comes in resolution with Sweet at that cutscene in End of the Line (the scene with them in the car). Besides, The antagonistic forces aren't completely removed from the story once you leave LS, don't forget that Big Smoke's crack empire was supplied by The Loco Syndicate, an organization set in San Fierro, by destroying it and its leaders + take out Ryder, Smoke's right hand man, Not only do we cause immeasurable damage to Smoke's business but to his mental sanity as well. That and in the LV desert, Mike Toreno (who he got to know through the Loco Syndicate, i think is a great link) tells CJ about his brother and gives him a chance to get him released after doing his missions. Add that on top of Tenpenny and his unit showing up everytime around to remind the player of the constant powerful force that keeps pushing CJ around between their fingers. The story in San Andreas is linked beautifully in my opinion even in the 2nd and 3rd acts of the game, in fact i enjoyed them much more than the first act but that's just me.

Okay but can you please do a explanation/timeline video of GTA online tho???

Now I haven't quite finished replaying the GTA V story yet, but it seems like the endings only detract from the game. The player is heavily pushed towards option C, but the game is designed with the options nobody's gonna pick in mind. Now for the narrative aspect. Option A looks like it's going to have a solid narrative base, at least for now. Option B could be the best ending, but i don't think it's even going to make any sense. Option C I'm not a fan of, feels like the Yes-Man ending. I also don't think Franklin should be the one to choose, it just further singles out option C as the only option. Now for Devin Weston. Appears in your life uninvited, makes you do his dirty work, you betray him to free yourself from him, he tries to kill you, dies anticlimactically along with the guy who only appeared once. That's Steve, the guy who actually feels like the main villain. I'm almost at the end of the game, and Devin doesn't feel like one at all. For real though, there should've been more Stretch, it feels like the families were just fanservice in this one. I feel like the game could use some mission chains, especially there. I also like the Act 1 dichotomy between Michael and Lamar, even if I made it up. Franklin's role is to be a vehicle to get into the story and be shafted after he served his purpose, which is a shame. The thing i noticed about the game in general is that one of the protagonists feels like the main one in each act. First Franklin, then Michael, Trevor, and Michael again. Trevor's act is much more fun than i anticipated. Still at the Bureau though, so my opinion might change.

41:08 You can still play gta 4 on Xbox Series X but you still need the orignal game disc as all Xbox 360 games will not longer be for purchase from July of this year. 😢

I thought I was the only one who noticed the odd similarities with gta online and gta 3 😂😂😂 especially when I'm driving around in the banshee

I'm gonna show my favoritism here and say I completely disagree with San Andreas placement, for me its the second best followed by Vice City Stories, I genuinely can't wrap my head around how people might find the story to be over the place or unfocused when, for me at least, has always been so straightforward and easy to follow: CJ comes back home for his mother's funeral and helps to rebuild his gang to its former glory because he feels like he owes that to Sweet after letting his little brother die and then running away for 5 years, he then gets betrayed and forced to remain away from Los Santos and in the country side so he can make some money while trying to figure out what to do about his brother who's now in jail, then he goes to San Fierro where he starts his own business which ends up being quite successful all the while he's strengthening his friendship with Woozie and infiltrating and eventually destroying a criminal organization that supplied with drugs his former friends back in LS, then there's the little intermission with Toreno in Las Venturas who promises to free Sweet, then in the actual city of LV CJ helps Woozie set up a casino in which CJ owns a share of while also plan and eventually pull a heist on a mafia casino, in the final stretch of the story Sweet is released and convinces CJ to help him rebuild the gang once more despite not truly wanting to because CJ feels like he owes that to Sweet, eventually he puts Grove Street back on top and gets rid of Big Smoke and Tenpenny. I know this long ass paragraph can make the story seem complicated but if you play the games its incredibly easy to follow, it's the story of a man who comes back to gang life after running away, after being cast away unwillingly by the antagonists he finds other opportunities and eventually realizes that leaving the hood was the best that could happen to him, some people might say that CJ goes back to the hood in the end but he shows how he doesn't want to go back to that life in almost all the cutscenes after Sweet is released, he only helps out because of Sweet, it doesn't mean he's going to stay forever, people don't give Carl enough credit, he's not so dumb that he'll go back to being a gangbanger when he's a wealthy businessman by the end of the game. It may not be the best story in all of GTA, that place belongs to IV, but it's definitely the best in the 3D Universe by a wide margin. I know I probably sound like an angry fanboy but this is just how I truly feel about these game's stories, they're all easy to follow, even GTA V despite having 3 protagonists, some of the stories are better than others but the story of San Andreas is definitely near the top.

Nothing will top the GTA 4 story for me

i feel like i had a great experience playing gta 4 on my pc, and i have access to play it on 360, i just genuinely feel like i had a better experience on pc, but i do run a mod that downgrades the version of gta 4 to an earlier build from years ago so i can fix the few bugs the game has like flickering lights on high fps

Very Good list and agree with a lot of these picks and general order! I do think LCS is slightly under-rated here and VCS slightly over-rated here. I am aware that I am likely a tad bias here as I adore the (now considered overdone) Italian-American Mafia stories, plus I find Vic Vance a tad on the boring slightly goody-too shoes side. My favourite GTA story is GTA IV, but I still love GTA V's story, but would be lying if I said I didn't wish for the GTA series to stay closer to the gritty and realistic side. I think off the top of my head, my top 3 would be; 1 - GTA IV 2 - GTA LCS 3 - GTA CW I don't think they have any bad stories in general, gameplay wise I would have it; 1 - GTA IV (I love the heavier game feel and yes, I adore the driving ha!) 2 - GTA V 3 - GTA III (Bias again because it was my first GTA, I love the arcade feel and the difficulty when I'm in the mood!)

I'm curious, why do you say playing it on a 360 on disc without updates is the best way to play IV? It plays pretty well on series S or X, digital or disc, minus one bug at the end that is easily fixed.