I'm currently playing GTA V and will go on backwards to the other games once I'm done with it. Honestly I have more fun roaming Los Santos and the desert, and fucking around with NPC's as Trevor since he's insane. The missions are okay, but free roam is more fun for me.
The only localle from GTA history that hasn't been revisited is London 1961 & 1969. I'm hoping that's the next move, Vice City in the 80's again is exceptional. I faintly remember rumors of multiple cities some time ago, so we might all get something to be happy about.
It'd be great if they made a "euro-centric" GTA game. Maybe not London '69, but maybe London in the late '70s or early '80s, that'd be a nice setting. Ideally it'd be something like "This Is England", among other things.
Fun fact, GTA 2 is the only Grand Theft Auto title (not counting the GBC port of GTA) to be rated T for Teen by the ESRB. At least the PSOne version. GTA 2, at the time, was more of a niche game than the hit blockbuster it is today.
I couldn't tell if it was set in the 90s (then present day) or a 90s interpretation of the future. The timeline was ambiguous then. Pure simple fun if you can get past the limitations.
I'll start with GTA 3/LCS. As a kid, I enjoyed Game FM and MSX FM. I didn't appreciate LCS music much.
As I got older, Head Radio & Lips 106 (LCS). 90s pop music, and a few tracks were even created for the game. Honorable mention goes to K-JAH.
>Music Station
>Flash FM, Vladivostok FM, Radio Mirror Park, Los Santos Rock Radio, West Coast Classics, Rebel Radio
>Talk Shows
>Integrity 2.0, Blaine County Talk Radio
Double Clef FM
V-Rock
Flash FM
K-Rose
K-DST
Bounce FM
Flashback FM (Liberty City Stories version)
K109 The Studio
JNR 108.5
Liberty Rock Radio
L.C.H.C (The Lost And Damned version)
Rebel Radio
Los Santos Rock Radio
I loved the two episodes of Beyond Insemination and thought it was funny, particularly the bits involving Andrea, and Charlie. Dwayne Earl really went swinging at Andrea with that "I do not host a relationship show!" Business.
Bless Your Heart is good, but I wish it had another episode like the other two Blaine County shows.
The original Chatterbox in GTAIII will always be my fav talk station, I still laugh about some of the stuff on that, like "Freddy NEEDS a nanny because he's been a very naughty boy!"
To answer my own question and anyone else who is curious, the PS3 GTA4 'Complete Edition' (and I'm assuming other PS3 disc versions) has the original soundtrack if you turn off your internet connection. I also accidentally turned my internet connection on and it says there is an update when I start up the game but I always press 'no' and skip the update. I played through the entire 'The Lost and the Damned' and 'The Ballad of Gay Tony', and now I'm re-playing GTA4 and the original soundtrack is all there. Schweine by Glukoza plays in the intro and Ruslana DJing the Vladivostok radio station.
I'm curious about if the PS3 update has any performance increases, fixes, etc but I don't want to risk getting the gimped soundtrack that I won't be able to undo. It really kills the experience and it's like a whole other game.
If you buy GTA4 on Steam make sure you install the mod that fixes the soundtrack. (The introduction is slightly different but for the rest of the game the original soundtrack & thus the experience is how it should be).
Playing The Lost and the Damned and seeing what they did with the Johnny Klebitz character in GTA5 really bothers me now. It doesn't really jive with how TLATD ends and his general character. Things can change of course and addiction does horrible things but he really has a quick stupid death.
Minor update to anyone who cares. I think they are trying even harder to patch the game with the shit soundtrack. I noticed today after I rejected the update like I usually do, the game said it was unable to load my autosave due to not having downloaded online content and my only option was to start a new game. I was pissed as fuck but luckily you can let if force you to start a new game and then manually load your gamesave. Fuck Rockstar/Take2.
My favorite station for GTA V is the pop station with Cara Delevinge. I can play that one on a loop and not get bored of it. The 90's hip hop station is good as well because they picked some great old rap songs from that time to listen to. I haven't played San Andreas yet, but I really want to hear the music from that one since the 90's songs got me interested in it.
I used to enjoy some of the talk stations on GTA 3 although I can't remember what those ones were. The Vice game had some hilarious talk stations as well.
One thing I really like about IV is how nuanced it is, compared to nearly every other Rockstar game. RDR2 had rather good character and (sometimes) thematic writing, but fell flat in regards to social and political writing. GTA IV, on the other hand, already starts off with funnier political satire. Then, the main thematic element is definitely the American dream and immigration. You'd expect the story to go full on "America isn't any better than Serbia and Niko is completely innocent", but it instead examines whether Niko contributes to his circumstance in any capacity. He didn't like working at the taxi company at all, and he felt a compulsive need to be violent (a very obvious commentary on the player), so he kept pushing situations further and further past the several points he could have willingly stopped. Then, after the game ends on a rather nasty note and scrutinizes the typical "rise to the top" GTA story, it still heavily implies that Niko can still put this all behind him and accept a decent lot in life. It's shockingly good writing on Rockstar's part, and the only game that comes close is the best parts of Max Payne 3.
