![]() Most remarkably, the franchise continues to be a money spinner, shifting a cool five million copies over the summer of 2023 alone. Paying tribute to the likes of Michael Mann’s Heat, The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men, and prestige American television series Breaking Bad and The Wire, GTA V is a pop culture obsessive’s dream, rewarding the inner brain goblin that makes us retain lines of dialogue from Miami Vice and The Simpsons but not useful information, like our national security number or how to change a fuse.Īs of April 2023, the game had made $7.7 billion for Rockstar, a figure that’s bound to have increased since. ![]() This clear nod to Lethal Weapon 2 might have passed some players by, but developer Rockstar has developed a reputation for their cinematic approach to video game storytelling. But the demolition stunt also brings him to the attention of former colleague Trevor (Steven Ogg, putting in the unhinged performance of a lifetime), a sordid psychopath living in a squalid trailer who thought Michael died nine years earlier in a bank heist gone wrong. This wild moment of retribution is the catalyst for the game’s plot, as Michael makes some powerful enemies with his little hissy fit, and recruits Franklin to help him make some quick cash. Using nothing but a tow truck, a winch and pure unbridled rage, they pull the cliffside house he’s hiding in down by its support beams. The moment I was hooked is still permanently etched in my mind: it’s when retired crime boss Michael – a blatant but charming Tony Soprano rip-off voiced by Ned Luke – and rookie gangster Franklin (voiced by Shawn Fonteno) enact some street justice on the tennis coach Michael’s wife is having an affair with. But as well as breaking commercial records, GTA V was a critical smash too, earning perfect scores from various review outlets including Edge, IGN and GamesRadar+. By then, the franchise was already one of the most successful – and infamous – in gaming history, but GTA V took things up a notch: in its first 24 hours on sale, the game made a reported $800 million – it surpassed the billion-dollar mark in less than three days. Released in 2013, it was a cultural behemoth. The first Grand Theft Auto game I played was GTA V. The ‘Hot Coffee’ controversy around Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – in which particularly dedicated fans of the franchise restored a cut mini-game which allowed them to have semi-graphic sex with player character CJ’s girlfriend – blew our tiny, religion-conditioned minds. Until that point, our Gameboys and PlayStations were for catching Pokemon and locking Lara Croft’s butler in the walk-in fridge. Outrage and intrigue flooded the hallways: it was 2005, and for a group of 12-year-old Catholic school kids, nothing could be more scandalous than the idea of a video game where people had sex. When I was in my first year of high school, rumours swirled around the playground about a video game where you could see people naked. ![]()
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