I have played every GTA before, some even got popular like Vice city for some reason. And I am not as hyped as everyone online. It’s just another GTA don’t make it more deep then it is. Back in the day people made GTA clones as a massive meme to make jokes.
People can have valid reasons for disliking even popular stuff. I could never get into the franchise because all the mechanics are extremely mid, to the point where I’m really not sure why the games became as successful as they did. I put in a few hours with 4 and 5 and wasn’t really having any fun so I quit
GTA 3 was pretty much the first game to integrate driving/shooting/whatever missions seamlessly into a “living” 3D world you could navigate around and interact freely with.
In hindsight it feels obvious that’s where gaming was going, open world games existed to some extent; but Rockstar (North) was there at the right time and did it the right way and it’s secured them an absolutely massive legacy and die hard fans worldwide. Despite their kind of shitty development and business practices which basically everyone acknowledges, they’re basically printing money at this point.