When GTA V was first announced, Rockstar shied away from mentioning a potential release on the new consoles, instead saying the game would ‘feel’ next-gen. Back then, it felt like marketing spiel. It turns out it wasn’t – almost a year on, GTA V is still the most technically impressive open-world game . Even without the upcoming remaster, GTA V puts InFamous: Second Son - the most advanced open-world game on the new generation consoles – to shame. How many PlayStation 4 games have you seen where the character’s flip-flops actually flop, its characters visibly sweat when they’re running, and hair grows over time?
InFamous: Second Son, beyond the glitz of the rain-soaked streets and the dazzling particle effects, doesn’t do anything new. There’s more to a new generation than extra stuff happening on the screen and better reflections. A new generation should bring new experiences, new features. Yet InFamous is missing features we’ve come to expect from open-world games over the last decade.
O'Dell Harmon Jr. writes: "Before we say goodbye to 2025, let’s take a look back and see what were the most downloaded games of the year. It was a great time for sports, shooters, and some new PlayStation VR2 games. Sports favorites topped the charts in US/Canada and EU, with NBA 2K26 and EA Sports FC26, respectively.
Juggernaut GTA V found a home in the top three for both regions, with new 2025 release Battlefield 6 claiming second place in the US. Fortnite took top place for free-to-play games, and Beat Saber continues its PS VR2 success."
I think it shows how shortsighted it was for Sony to let go of Evolution and not get them to make some sort of competitor (open world Driveclub?) 10 years ago.
After Driveclub's reception, hard to say it would have done well enough to compete. It's easy to dream of such a thing, but to make it happen? It's taken how long for CoD to be dethroned? And it was dethroned by Hogwart's Legacy and has gained it right back just the next year.
It’s funny to watch the only games EU and USA agree on was Minecraft and back ops 7 both regions on 6 and 7 spot respectively other than that FIFA rules EU
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I would like to see a list that has both free to play and paid games together, but at least we have this.
To this day GTA5 is a top downloaded game and it makes me wonder if the industry is really ready for GTA6. I imagine almost nothing else will sell during that game's release window.
Another night of Fortnite with the boys then?
I’ve never played Fortnite GTAV or CoD BO7 but I do own GTAV for PS4/5 because I got them cheap.
What exactly are we not getting?
Did we not just have a 2025 filled with nice games like...
Silksong, Doom TDA, Expedition 33, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Ghost of Yotei, Dispatch, Split Fiction, Hades 2, DK Bananza, and so many more?
Agree that all you just posted are great games. Expedition 33 is one of my favorites. Spent a large chunk of time on BG3 in 2023. Another for my all-time list.
My point though not well articulated in the OG post is that we would get more of the games of the quality you mentioned if so many valuable resources were not allocated to FTP slop and/or heavy monetization schemes. Some of what used to be my favorite franchises have been ruined by them.
To sum it up, I would like to see games like 33 outperform the profits made by games like Fortnite so more resources are allocated to great games. When heavily monetized FTP games are at the top of the list, we end up being stuck with a significant chunk of games that are not good. Or worst case scenario games that spend years in development, but get cancelled due to industry trend chasing.
Popsicle, I actually think we're getting more great games because of the slop. Developers are seeing that people aren't happy and taking advantage of big AAA studios not delivering for people.
Revolution Team, the modding team behind GTA Vice City NextGen Edition, has announced GTA: San Andreas NextGen Edition.
I'm surprised modders haven't taken GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas and connected them as one big game. I remember GTA 3, you had to complete so much of the game to open up the other part of the city, which was connected by a bridge, although there was a flying car cheat.
Perhaps I'm missing the point, but surely all of GTA V's advancements are ridiculously simple flags within the coding? As a veteran coder, I know that all that's required is to trigger a sample as the foot hits the floor plane. The sweat is also a simple trigger - if character speed > x then alter texture by overlaying sweat. Same for the hair - if time played > x then alter hair texture.
For me, advancements need to be more than if statements and triggers. It should be about handling, responsiveness and, to a certain degree, those particle physics becoming realistic enough that you don't pay much attention to them when they're there because they blend seamlessly with the scenario but powerful enough that you'd notice if they were gone.
Just an opinion, of course.
Stupid comparison. The only things these games have in common is their open worlds.
Infamous SS is a superhero (or villain) game that is set in an open-world, whereas GTA is a thoroughbred open-world game, meant to portray real-life as accurately as possible (in terms of detail/authenticity) given the hardware. Of course GTA is going to have the most attention to detail and little authentic touches. GTA depends on it's world (it's commonly said that the biggest star of a GTA game is the world itself). Infamous doesn't.
That said...I think GTA V is the better game by a country mile :P
As an open world game, there is no comparison. GTA 5 totally eclipses Infamous: Second Son's open world, which feels completely barren and hollow compared to the former game. From pedestrians, to scale, down even to details within the world, Infamous does't come close. Comparing it to GTA5 aside, I was still unimpressed with the open world in Infamous Second Son.
Dumb comparison. The real shame goes to "Watch_Dogs", wich adds nothing new to the formula and feels like a real generic sandbox. And I remember it mocking about GTA V as part of its publicity. Thats the real shame.
The writer of this article is a dumbass.
Better comparison would've been with Watch Dogs. But gotta show that fanboy stupidity somehow.