Journal du Geek advises against the earliest GTAs as too dated, and says GTA 3 has aged badly. Here is what to take from it, and whether you need the series' past at all.
Sources journaldugeek.com
A month before November 19, newcomers keep asking which GTA to play while they wait. Journal du Geek has a feature on it, and its first verdict is blunt: the earliest GTAs are not the way to discover the series in 2026.
Not the first one. According to Journal du Geek, the original Grand Theft Auto from 1997 was already outdated at launch in technology, graphics and gameplay. It sold on its edgy premise, with more than 4 million copies. The London 1969 and 1961 expansions reuse the same engine, and GTA 2 (1999) still lagged behind its contemporaries. The feature adds a practical hurdle: these games are close to impossible to find, except on their original consoles or through emulation. It says the same about GTA Advance on Game Boy Advance in 2004, which it finds far below Rockstar's standards.
GTA 3 is a subtler case. The outlet grants that it was a revolution in 2001 with its 3D Liberty City, but says it has aged worst of all: repetitive, archaic gameplay, a silent hero. Without nostalgia, it argues, starting there today looks very hard.
The feature praises GTA Chinatown Wars (2009) as perhaps the most inventive GTA, with mechanics built around the Nintendo DS, while noting the top-down view and the lack of voiced cutscenes. The excerpt we could read stops there, so we do not report what Journal du Geek recommends for Vice City, San Andreas, GTA IV or GTA V, and we put no ranking in its mouth. The link to the full feature is above.
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One piece of context the outlet recalls: GTA V came out in 2013 on PS3 and Xbox 360, thirteen years before GTA 6. For many players this will be their first GTA, or close to it. The game follows Jason and Lucia in Leonida.
No, and that is the real answer. Rockstar has announced nothing that requires knowing older entries, and every GTA since 2001 has told a self-contained story in a new city. What older games give you is reference: Vice City is the setting of GTA 6, as we explain in our piece on the Miami Vice inspiration, and the era's radio stations have a place in the game, covered in our radio article.
Nothing changes for the launch, but the feature is right that nostalgia is not enough: a classic can age badly. If you want a warm-up, music and atmosphere matter more than mechanics, and our music page offers a taste. GTA 6 launches on November 19 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with no PC version announced.
Sources journaldugeek.com
Reported Reported by the press, not confirmed by Rockstar
By Gabriel Janvier · GTAVIFRANCE newsroom
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