I personally loved Red Dead Redemption's story. Same deal with Grand Theft Auto V's. I liked them for the same reason: both had protagonists that I loved to hate. John Marston, while definitely out to better his life and redeem his past, was still a pretty shitty guy. And the three protagonists in GTAV are just so hilariously stereotypical that I can't help but like them. I guess I'm just into the whole "anti-hero" thing.

I highly recommend you play Max Payne 3, if at least for the shooting mechanics. I really enjoyed Max Payne 3's story, but the solid gunplay is what really makes that game shine.

*GTAV spoilers may follow*

Spot on BiggCMan. A colleague was just talking about one of the missions on V which sounded good fun but for the life of me I couldn't remember it at all. There's only about 4 missions I can remember and two of those are side quests.

And that ending was pretty terrible it has to be said. Pointless decision thrown in at the end.. Much like the far cry 3 ending.
And who was the bad guy in GTA V? Honestly can't remember.. Was it Trevor? Cause he was definitely the most morally reprehensible.

Max Payne 3's story and the way it was told was better but petty formulaic overall. Great characters helped make the story engaging though. Great game too.

@daBUSHwhaka
As long as it's not GTA Dundee!

I was thinking the upper midwest too. Chicago, Detroit area or something cold and blustery.

There is plenty of city, suburbs, and wilderness.
Can focus on huge lakes and rivers.
You could have Arabs and Canadians as the "minorities"
This would make a great setting for snow and other weather effects.

I think it would be a really good place to go outside the 3 main known locations.

If they wanted to do a female focused game, I would not mind seeing PAM GRIER play a Coffy/Foxy Brown type of character, but I really think that would be best if they ever made a San Andreas Stories.

I doubt many Canadian people would be caught dead in Detroit, but you could have the great Lakes and the boarder at the top fifth of the map. You could buy a passport similar to how you needed to buy the hanger in GTA V to avoid instant 3 stars and getting the RCMP on you. That wouldn't make for a bad character either, another gun dealer but this time you could be the smuggler.

I would love to Detroit as the next location for GTA. but not just Detroit but Flint and Pontiac also. Plus there are a lot of extremely wealthy suburbs just outside of Detroit. Also the automotive industry and corrupt unions would make an interesting story.

its a hard bet to make. hindsight is always 20/20.

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.

Futbol.

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.

Perhaps, and I hope you’re right. A shift is needed IMO