Grand Theft Auto V

Rockstar's 2013 crime epic is built around three playable criminals you switch between mid-mission: Michael, a retired robber in witness protection and unhappy about it, Franklin, a repo man looking for a way up, and Trevor, an unstable dealer in the desert who exists to make the other two look reasonable. The switching is the structural idea. Heists are planned, cast and executed with all three in position, and the camera hopping between them turns a shootout into something closer to a directed sequence. Los Santos and the surrounding Blaine County remain the studio's most detailed environment: a satirical Los Angeles with radio stations, a functioning stock market tied to mission outcomes, and enough incidental detail that driving somewhere is rarely wasted time. Its afterlife is the more remarkable part. GTA Online turned a single-player game into a decade-long service that funded its own sequel, which is why a 2013 release was still getting updates and platform re-releases well into the 2020s.