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Ignoring the upcoming VI, which GTA thus far is your favorite, visually? Why?
Skel1ingt0n
Member
Oct 28, 2017
11,418
Is it the neon lit streets and synthwave colorsof Vice City?
The thick haze and smoggy filling a modern pseudo-California?
Was 3D a mistake? Maybe you like the classic overhead 2D games? Simplicity.
Or maybe in a perfect world, it's a mixture of the two?
Or maybe it is simply the raw technical achievement of IV as it pushed its consoles of the time to their knees.
Maybe it's something else entirely?
Maybe you have a soft-spot for III?
Something else?
MadLaughter
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
14,506
Vice City, I think. I struggled with the haze in San Andreas, I remember being young enough to wonder if my TV was fucked up or something.
RockmanBN
Visited by Knack - One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
31,791
Cornfields
San Andreas by far. I love the orange
SecondNature
Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,717
San Andreas
Its so cozy
Mass Effect
One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 31, 2017
19,115
Maybe I'm weird, but it's 3. There's something about the foggy (smoggy?) streets of Liberty City that I just love.
rashbeep
Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,223
vice city
The Unsent
Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,289
GTA V, Hollywood is a great and a colourful setting and I love the way the highway looks at night with all the car streaks.
Black Mantis
Member
Oct 30, 2017
3,677
I've been replaying the series and am currently on IV, but I'm going with VC. I just love the neon look and so glad we get to revisit it next year.
Count of Monte Sawed-Off
Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,048
Definitely Vice City. Perfect atmosphere.
Derbel McDillet
▲ Legend ▲
Member
Nov 23, 2022
23,796
I'd honestly like another crack at 2D in the realm of Chinatown Wars as like a nice holdover. I like the main games, I just find them a bit cumbersome in the grand scheme of things.
Yes, Chinatown Wars is my answer to the question about visuals.
Chance Hale
Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,136
Colorado
Edit: misread the title because I'm a dipshit.
Last edited: Yesterday at 7:33 PM
Kenny_Blankenship
Member
Jun 1, 2023
2,387
Probably the original PS2 version of GTA3.
DrFunk
Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,665
Definitely Vice City
CloseTalker
Sister in the Craft
Member
Oct 25, 2017
37,997
Visually? Vice City by such a wide margin it's borderline comical. It's still my most preferred GTA overall, despite kind of playing like ass.
TaySan
SayTan
Member
Dec 10, 2018
36,467
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Vice City will always be my favorite for its setting and time period
Caesar III
Member
Jan 3, 2018
1,380
Derbel McDillet said:
I'd honestly like another crack at 2D in the realm of Chinatown Wars as like a nice holdover. I like the main games, I just find them a bit cumbersome in the grand scheme of things.
Yes, Chinatown Wars is my answer to the question about visuals.
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It also had the best police system with takedowns to remove stars. That was amazing
RockyBalboa_
Member
Apr 28, 2018
1,686
Vice City
But I love the water effects in V
Last Jon Standing
Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,270
Brazil
I love San Andreas's vibes, but GTA2 is my favorite. Yeah, the three cities look kinda samey, but I love the near future setting, with older and futuristic car models running on the streets.
m_shortpants
Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,189
They're all so good. I love the variety of OG San Andreas. San Fierro was foggy and gray, San Andreas kind of orange and hazy.
GTA4 blew my mind due to the sheer detail and depth of Liberty City. I still love that game despite what people say.
NinjaScooter
Member
Oct 25, 2017
60,458
San Andreas nailed the early 90s Southern California gangsta movie/rap video vibe.
BasilZero
Member
Oct 25, 2017
39,791
Omni
V
I just love the overall design and setting.
Strike
Member
Oct 25, 2017
30,416
That's tough. Of the 3D GTA's, it was III. Loved the grittiness of it. Worst city in America. HD era, it was V.
WildGoose
Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,238
GTA2 has the most... unique? style of all of them for me, I love the way the cars look and how grimy and dystopian the city feels. I slightly prefer the nebulous "near future" setting over the more pronounced "satirized USA" of the games that came after.
Greywaren
Member
Jul 16, 2019
12,923
Spain
Obviously V is the best looking one (yet), but Vice City's aesthetics are so memorable.
AfterZero
Member
Oct 27, 2017
394
V for me. I enjoyed the characters a ton. Lamar was a riot!
Jaymageck
Member
Nov 18, 2017
2,821
Toronto
Probably San Andreas. Vice City is my favourite overall vibe but visually the orange of Los Santos is hard to beat.
TechnoDisaster
Member
Oct 29, 2017
3,307
USA
San Andreas
It nailed the vibe it was going for and still holds up in my eyes.
maze001
Member
Sep 18, 2024
568
Vice City and V are tied at #1 for me. SA #2
Suede
Gotham's Finest
Member
Oct 28, 2017
14,868
Scotland
Always going to be Vice City, that OST is a monster and I just like the vibe and heat of Miami.
Vanguard
Member
Jan 15, 2025
502
I have a soft spot for San Andreas and Vice City, the art style was unique. But GTAV looks undeniably better fidelity-wise and I have to pick it because I enjoy the feeling of immersion that gives me. There is a wide variety of scenery and NPCs and it still looks great.
AuthenticM
Son Altesse Sérénissime
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
34,985
Definitely Vice City, yeah. The neons and the 80s vibes.
God, that game really was incredible at the time, wasn't it. I remember watching the first trailer for it constantly. It was *the* hype game after MGS2 and FFX the year before it.
Shan
Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,800
Vice City if only for the killer lineup of songs on radio. Also the only GTA where I know where, at least, 60-70 of the 100 hidden packages are by heart. I played it quite a bit lmao.
I finished a playthrough again a few months ago.
goflyakite
Member
Jul 21, 2023
1,437
The PS2 was my first console, so I don't think I could fully appreciate the graphics of GTA III/VC/SA.
GTA IV was revolutionary to me in many ways, including visually, and it's my favourite GTA too.
TheUnsungHero26
Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,970
Canada
It hasn't aged amazingly, but I was blown away by GTA IV at the time. Seeing the Algonquin skyline at night for the first time was a sight to behold.
Jimnymebob
Member
Oct 26, 2017
22,008
San Andreas for me, probably followed by IV, as surprising as that is for even me to admit, as someone who doesn't really like IV's Liberty City.
I like Vice City's vibes, but I'm glad they're finally revisiting it, as I don't particularly like the map itself. The entire west island is just kinda there, which made the introduction of Vice City Stories absolutely suck, as you have to do like half of the game before you can legitimately get back over to Vice Beach. Driving down Vice Beach at night listening to Flash FM is absolute vibes, but that's kind of as far as Vice City truly shines for me in terms of visuals, and because Vice City is so tiny, it only takes about 40 seconds to do that drive lmao.
data west
Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,785
San Andreas
something about it. so simple and so crude but perfectly captures that era
4 is up there but only at night. That vasoline smear really hurts daytime
Jubilant Duck
Member
Oct 21, 2022
9,141
Slow-driving to an assassination target as sheets of rain beat down on Liberty City and Phillip Glass played over the car stereo was a genuinely transportive moment for me.
IV has to take the aesthetic cake.
Falchion
Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,253
data west said:
San Andreas
something about it. so simple and so crude but perfectly captures that era
4 is up there but only at night. That vasoline smear really hurts daytime
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Yeah daytime GTA IV didn't feel canon.
skeezx
Member
Oct 27, 2017
23,576
"for its time" i was probably most impressed with San Andreas, though the character models did take me out of it a bit
Bucca
Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,254
GTA4s Liberty City is genuinely a cozy city. I can't explain why, but it just feels right.
Vex
Member
Oct 25, 2017
25,484
San Andreas had the best world by far. Only limited by the hardware it was made in at the time. Still an absolute technical achievement to get a world of that size running like that on a PS2.
Edit: I still have a soft spot for GTA 3. Best mood imo.
kenjieno
Member
May 31, 2023
1,605
San Andreas holds its vibe proudly. Orange lushness.
Condwiramurs
Member
Nov 10, 2020
1,787
JigglesBunny
Prophet of Truth
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
35,932
Chicago
Vice City, easily. Vice City meshed with GTA IV would probably be the best open world game ever made for my money.
Barrel Cannon
It's Pronounced "Aerith"
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
11,061
For me it's GTA4 easily followed by San Andreas and then Vice City. The atmosphere of 4s visuals are just something else. On an HD CRT GTA4 still looks so good.
MADSUPERVILLAIN
Member
Jan 11, 2018
1,633
Dunedin, New Zealand
4 was the first to real do the scale right. Liberty city is dense in a way earlier cities weren't.
TheMadTitan
Member
Oct 27, 2017
29,688
San Andreas since it has the best melee combat once you get the martial arts gym unlocked.
Richietto
One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
25,895
North Carolina
I have intense nostalgia towards Vice City's look.
Mxlegend99
Member
May 20, 2018
721
Vice City was my favourite for the time it came out. Best vibes as a kid. Billie Jean in your first stolen vehicle. Csnt wsit for Vice City again with the visuals of GTA6 on my LG G4 screen.
Bishop89
What Are Ya' Selling?
Member
Oct 25, 2017
42,499
Melbourne, Australia
Vc has always been my favourite, largely due to setting/visuals