I remember my 15-year old self being hooked with the story of friendship, family, and betrayal, and it made me think of games in a way I hadn’t previously – they could be movie-like experiences with deep narratives and characters that I cared for. San Andreas was a big leap forward with a massive map, an RPG-style character system, and a story that was surprisingly good. Now we do, and they just don’t stack up, and I’m left wondering why Rockstar even bothered? Oh, money. Cumbersome and clunky in a way that was new and exciting when they were released, but just plain bad in this day and age.

I’ll be straight with you – I’ve barely touched GTA 3 and Vice City. But the point still stands: you can’t dress up the dead and pretend the innards are still good.

Dragging them up into the present with a fresh coat of paint is like me dragging my dead granny from the grave, throwing on a bit of lipstick and a pretty dress and calling her a freshly born beauty. The underlying systems have long been made redundant, and a few quality of life tweaks, like the weapon wheel or GPS in the maps, doesn’t change the fact that these games were designed and built for another time. What this trilogy needed wasn’t a facelift that looks like it was done by some random Russian YouTuber with a handful of dodgy mods it needed a full-on remake from the ground up. Availability: Microsoft Store, PSN, Steam, Retail ( Amazon USA/ Amazon UK)

Gta trilogy xbox one