Grand Theft Auto was first released by the American Game producer Rockstar Games in 1997. Since then, 14 additional titles in the series had been released. Many people regard these series as among the best video games ever released.
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The Setting
The GTA's first title is set in three fictional cities, but the cities are modeled after real American cities. San Andreas is modeled after San Francisco, Liberty City after New York City and Vice City after Miami. However, the latter series focus on only one city, which consists of different districts. The setting is an open world, and players are free to explore the city. By completing tasks, you can unlock more cities and venues like restaurants and gyms.
Modeling the fictional cities after real-life cities gives players a sense of familiarity. Making it an open world makes it even more fascinating. The story takes place between 1960 and 2010, with each series being set in a particular period in history.
The Gameplay
All the series follow similar gameplay, but each is unique. The ultimate aim is to earn points, sustain your life and progress the story. There are different levels. At each level, you will be given the task to complete, and completing it will earn you points, move you to the next level and progress the story. The majority of the tasks are crimes which may include stealing cars or dealing with drugs. However, you are also free to carry out any mission that can earn you points, including killing and causing traffic destruction.
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As you commit crimes, you will be wanted by the authority, and you will also have to protect yourself from the authority and the local rivals. The more crime you commit, the higher your "wanted meter" reads, and the more aggressive the police will be towards you. In some series, you will be able to disable police car to evade them. However, If you get wounded, your life power gets reduced, and if you are killed, you will lose a life. Losing all lives means the game has ended at that level, and you must restart the level.
You don't need to complete all tasks successfully, but you will be awarded points based on the level of success you achieved in completing your tasks. In some series, you can redo a task to earn better points. After each successful completion of the task, you will unlock more challenging tasks and earn more points. To carry out your mission, you can use various weapons you can find as you go about your missions. If you lose a life or get arrested by the police, you lose all your weapons.
Sales
Grand Theft Auto is rated as the fourth highest-selling video game of all time. Since 1997 that the first title was released, the game has sold over 280 million copies and earned over 9 billion dollars. But apart from this overall figure, GTA made some astonishing sales that surpassed everybody's imagination.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas sold over 2 million copies in the United States just six days after it was released and about 680,000 copies in the United Kingdom within two days, equivalent to a sale of 24 million pounds. It was released in 2004, and by 2011 it has sold 27.5 million copies worldwide.
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Grand Theft Auto IV was released in 2008 and sold 3.6 million copies just 24 hours after it was released. This is equivalent to a sale of 310 million dollars. It sold about 8.5 million copies in a month, and by 2013 when another series was released, it has sold 25 million copies.
But the greatest of them all is the latest edition, the Grand Theft Auto V. It sold over 11 million copies within 24 hours and earned over a billion dollars within three days. In five years, it earned over 6 billion dollars, and by February 2021, GTA V has recorded a sale of over 140 million copies worldwide.
The Awards
Almost all series of Grand Theft Auto are multi-award winners. The Grand Theft Auto III won was the Game Developers Choice Awards Game of 2001, and Game Revolution's Best PlayStation 2 Game and Best Action Game. I was also the best Playstation 2 Game of IGN, GameSpy, and GameSpot. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City also won the Best PlayStation 2 Game and the Best Action/Adventure Game at the British Academy Games Awards, as well as the best design. It also won GameSpot Best Music and the Ultimate Game at the Golden Joystick Awards, among many other awards.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas continues the accolades. It won IGN's PlayStation 2 Game of 2004 as the Best Story for 2004. It also won GameSpot's Readers' Choice, Best Action/Adventure Game, and Best PlayStation 2 Game. Othe awards of the series include Spike TV Game of the Year 2004. Grand Theft Auto IV was IGN's best story for PlayStation 3 in 2008 and Digital Spy's Game of the Year 2008.
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But Grand Theft Auto V won more awards than all of them, including Game of the Year at Golden Joystick Awards 2013, Spike VGX 2013, D.I.C.E. Awards 2014, and Game Developers Choice Award 2014. It also won the Best Multiplayer Game at the British Academy Video Game Awards 2014, among many other awards.
The Controversy
Despite all these achievements, there are many controversies generated by this game. In fact, the Guinness World Records put it as the most controversial game of all time. The controversy is mostly about how the game glamorizes crime, and many critics believe it can negatively influence gamers.
There are also lots of controversies surrounding the depiction of women in the game. Some series of the game include prostitutes which a player can employ their services and pay them. The player can also kill them to recover his money back. There are also controversies about hot scenes and some of the game's characters' likeness to real-life personalities. Several lawsuits were filed against the game developer, although most of them were settled out of court.
