Pop into the Call of Duty subreddit on any given day, and you’re almost certainly going to trip over a few people complaining about SBMM, or skill-based matchmaking, and how it’s ruining Call of Duty. But according to a recent study by developer Activision, getting rid of SBMM would be far, far worse for the game as a whole, and it’s got the data to prove it.
In a 25-page white paper published last week, Activision reveals that it actually conducted an experiment in 2023’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 where it reduced SBMM for some of its players, resulting in more players quitting games or not coming back to the game for more sessions.
Matches Made in…Heaven?
Currently, Activision says the way matchmaking works in Call of Duty is by taking into account a number of factors. Top priority is player connection quality and the time it takes to enter a match, but other factors including skill, platform, recent maps and modes, and other things are considered too. And skill itself is a complex equation that takes into account individual match total kills, kill/death ratios, and kills/deaths by enemy ratios (to ensure players can’t drop their skill levels on purpose by self-killing). Skill levels are recalculated after every match, and Activision says it’s constantly trying to find a happy balance of ensuring players aren’t seeing wild swings in where the game thinks they’re at, but also to adjust quickly if a player’s having an off day or trying out a new loadout. In short, it’s skill calculations and matchmaking are finnicky processes, but Activision is doing the best it can.
In the study earlier this year, Activision ran a “deprioritize skill test” where the developers decreased skill’s importance in matchmaking in the algorithm, but did not shut it off entirely. It ran the test for 50% of its North American playerbase for a two-week period in early 2024, and the results are… pretty conclusive!
In Figure 3 we can observe the percent difference in the number of players returning after 14 days between the treatment and control groups. With deprioritized skill, returning player rate was down significantly for 90% of players. The 10% of highest skilled players came back in increased numbers, but in aggregate, we see meaningfully fewer players coming back to the game. This effect may appear small, but this change was observable within the duration of the test. This will compound over time, just like interest, and will have a meaningful impact on our player population. This is a concern for all players, including the top 10%, as if this pattern is allowed to continue, players will exit the game in increased numbers. Eventually a top 10% player will become a top 20% player, and eventually a top 30% player, until only the very best players remain playing the game. Those original top players will become increasingly likely to not return to the game. Ultimately, this will result in a worse experience for all players, as there will be fewer and fewer players available to play with.
While single-digit percentages might not seem like a lot, given the sheer volume of participants over a relatively short period of time, this is a fairly significant difference in drop-off. What’s more, Activision expects that based on other studies it has done over time, this would compound. If left unchecked, the lowest-skilled players would disappear at higher rates, meaning only players of higher skill levels would remain. Maybe that sounds great for the higher-skilled players, but in the smaller pool of players, those who had previously been mid-level would now be the lowest-skilled, and would themselves start to drop off at higher rates. Basically, it’s bad news for player retention all around, and retention is necessary to keep an online game alive.
Skill Issues
The paper details other data as well, including a similar survey where Activision tightened the skill constraints in matchmaking and saw inverse results: higher-skilled players dropped off at higher rates, but lower-skilled players stuck around more frequently. It also saw a higher rate of “blowouts” (when one team wins a match with a significantly higher score than the losing team) when skill was deprioritized, which players find less fun, and lower kill-per-minute rates with lower-skilled players. Basically, when SSBM was turned down low, the vast majority of players had less fun, and didn’t come back to play the game more as frequently as when SSBM was on.
In response, players have expressed skepticism about the study. Some point out that the algorithm is too aggressive and shouldn’t recalculate skill after every single game, while others point out that a matchmaking system based on wins/losses would be better than the numerical system Activision uses. It’s a controversial subject, one that online gamers and Call of Duty players in particular have been debating for years. Much of it boils down to, it’s fun to win and less fun to lose, and losing a lot feels exceptionally bad. Should players who are very good at the game be rewarded by being allowed to win a lot against random pools of players, or should games like Call of Duty try to balance the experience by pitting players against others of relatively equal skill so everyone wins and loses a roughly equal amount over time? Activision, at any rate, is erring on the side of keeping more players playing Call of Duty for longer.
In our review, we gave Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s multiplayer a 6/10, saying it “reheats and reserves the same multiplayer from Modern Warfare 2 with some extra maps and tweaks as garnishes.” And Activision just dropped its Season 5 update last week, with a long list of balance change and improvements for that multiplayer mode.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
The big Prime Day sale event may be officially over and done with, but there are still quite a few discounts lingering around. We’ve gathered up some of our favorite PS5 deals below, including all-time low prices on PS5 Slim and PS5 Slim digital, and the first (and best) ever deal on PSVR2 which is $200 off. These deals scratch the surface of what’s available now though. Below, you can also find other deals on everything from consoles to SSDs and even information on where to buy a PS5 now.
If all you want is the hardware itself, you can pick up this bundle that includes the headset, two PSVR 2 Sense controllers, and all the cables you need to play. This is a terrific deal, landing it at $150 less than the price of Meta Quest 3 (see at Amazon).
PSVR2 Horizon Call of the Mountain Bundle for $399.99 (was $600)
The bundle that includes the PSVR2 hardware, along with the flagship title Horizon Call of the Mountain, is also on sale. It costs $50 more than the non-bundle (and is probably worth picking up, imo; check out our Horizon Call of the Mountain review for details).
SSD prices have been rising in 2024, making now the perfect time to buy with significant discounts available. This is one of the best deals on a 2TB SSD post-Prime Day: Amazon is offering the TEAMGROUP MP44Q 2TB SSD for just $104.99. It, unfortunately, does not have a heatsink so you’ll have to invest in one, but you can easily do that here for under $10. It also offers transfer speeds of up to 7,400MB/s read and 6,500MB/s write.
PS5 Slim Consoles on Sale (Save $50)
Sony’s Back to School Sale on several of their PlayStation products even includes the consoles. The PS5 Slim Disc Edition has dropped to $449.99 from its $500 MSRP and the PS5 Slim Digital Edition has dropped to $339.99 from its $450 MSRP. These deals will all expire on August 3.
Best PS5 Headset Deals: 33% Off the HyperX Cloud Gaming Headset & More Deals
There’s no shortage of PS5-compatible headsets. If you’re constantly having to turn down the volume when you play, you might want to pick up one of these, then you can listen to your games as loud as you darn well please. And if you’d like to see even more options that are worth buying, check out our collection of the best gaming headsets.
If you’re looking to trade in your old PlayStation consoles, you can do so at select retailers in-store and online. Often, the most widely available retailers are GameStop and Best Buy. However, you can also trade your used devices online at retailers such as Amazon and Microsoft.
Some retailers will offer you cash for your used goods, while others may provide you with a gift card that can be used in-store and online. This is a great way to offload your old gaming gear and get some money that you can put towards a newer console and games.
While trading devices in at retailers will often net you the lowest amount for your used consoles, there are also online marketplaces such as eBay, Craigslist, and OfferUp that may fetch higher prices, but you’ll often be responsible for packing and shipping costs, or be required to meet someone in person for the transaction, the latter of which poses its own risks.
With how expensive gaming is getting in 2024, we’re trying to save you as much money as possible on the games and other tech you actually want to buy. We’ve got great deal roundups available for all major platforms such as Switch and Xbox, and we keep these updated daily with brand new offers. If you’re trying to keep costs down while maintaining your favorite hobby, stay tuned for more incredible discounts.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
Amazon has dropped the price on the officially licensed WD Black C50 1TB Expansion Card for Xbox Series consoles. Right now it’s only $129.99, an 18% off price drop from its original $150 MSRP. It’s currently $10 cheaper than the Seagate model. The C50 is one of the best SSDs for the Xbox, which isn’t surprising since your options are pretty limited.
WD Black C50 1TB Expansion Card for Xbox for $129.99
The WD Black C50 expansion card is essentially a 1TB NVME SSD encased in a specialized Xbox-compatible shell. Unlike the more complex PS5 SSD installation process, which involves opening up the PS5 to access the SSD slot, the Seagate expansion card simply plugs into its dedicated port on the back of the Xbox.
This expansion card offers the same speed as the internal SSD, ensuring that you won’t sacrifice performance or encounter extended load times as you might with a regular USB drive. With a 1TB expansion card, you can double the storage on your Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S Carbon Black Edition console, and triple the storage on your OG (white) Xbox Series S console.
In contrast to the PS5, there are no alternative methods for adding high-speed storage to your Xbox console. Your options are limited to either the WD or Seagate expansion cards, underscoring the importance of seizing a good deal when one becomes available.
When it comes to the best Star Wars board games, you have a lot of great choices. The Queen’s Gambit, for instance, recreates the multi-front finale of The Phantom Menace. Star Wars: Rebellion captures the breadth of the original trilogy in a three-hour epic. The Mandalorian Adventures is the latest tabletop take on Star Wars, and it’s shooting for a somewhat smaller scope. This new release is content to capture several key moments from the first season of The Mandalorian, presenting these encounters as 40-minute firefights with color, tension, and a minimal amount of overhead. Just like the show upon which it’s based, this is a splendid slice of Star Wars that packs some new surprises while managing to call back to the spirit of the franchise.
This is a very straightforward and approachable game. The Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game immediately comes to mind, as the structure here is similar. Play is focused around a spiral-bound book that forms the board. Each new scenario moves on to a subsequent page, allowing for quick setup and minimal storage space. While there is a main rulebook, missions themselves introduce new rules and tweaks that are printed alongside the map. It’s a relatively seamless experience to work through the book and internalize the additional details.
The core system is simple and surprisingly interesting. Players cooperate to take down game-controlled foes and accomplish the scenario objective. You can choose between characters such as Mando, IG-11, and Greef Karga. Each possesses their own unique deck of cards and abilities. On your turn you perform two actions, but the effectiveness of each action is variable and depends on the card you play. So, if you play a four-strength card to move, then you will move four spaces. A two-strength card to attack means you inflict two damage, and so on. Some cards include special ability text that offers additional benefits. This system is interesting because it’s a blend of a straightforward two-action turn with variance in action points. Furthermore, the way enemy response plays off this card system is splendid.
These action cards are played in slots on the board. All of the cards any player spends to move go into the “move” slot, for instance. Once one of the slots receives a total of five or more strength total, the enemy phase triggers and a card is drawn. This emphasizes the strength of the game in presenting tense and nuanced systems with the absolute minimal amount of rules weight. It enforces timing constraints and facilitates discussion between players, because you may hold off on throwing down that powerful card so that one of your buddies gets to go before the enemies trigger.
This is a very straightforward and approachable game.
This tension is important, as it’s the primary source of drama. All damage is set by the power of your attack card or the activation card drawn for the enemies. No dice are rolled, so the dynamism is entirely encapsulated in the card play. This works to increase the speed of the game and achieve that brief playtime at the expense of a more nuanced combat system. That makes sense, as this game is aimed at less experienced players as well as dedicated hobbyists.
Despite the relative simplicity, Mandalorian Adventures has an almost puzzle-like feel. The difficulty, while able to be tweaked, is formidable enough that it requires thought and discussion on how players will approach their turns. Often, you will use what information you have in combination with gut instinct to formulate a plan. Analyzing the board state is essential to success.
One of the most intriguing aspects is in how it bridges the gap between those two levels of players. Each scenario is standalone, as this is not a campaign game. However, it wants you to engage the missions in order on your first playthrough. This is because there is an accompanying deck of cards that gives you step-by-step instructions on what to play next. It’s a key component in introducing new rules in bite-sized pieces, rules that you can then apply to all games going forward. New content is also added to play and the system adjustments are considerable. By your fifth session, the game will have grown quite a bit in density, but it will have been an effortless journey.
In addition to this large deck of cards, there are two full-sized envelopes. They contain additional ways to play or modify existing scenarios. Once you have finished revealing everything, you will have numerous ways to enjoy the game. It’s an interesting concept, one indicative of publisher Unexpected Games’ design philosophy. They presented a similar approach with their debut title, The Initiative (see at Amazon). That game also presented new content during the course of play and shook up expectations.
This methodology, of breaking up the experience into a gradual arc of play, and then throwing in several optional modules to re-experience existing scenarios, is very effective. One such example, mentioned in the game’s core rulebook and hence not technically a spoiler, is the inclusion of a traitor mode of play. This is a set of cards where players are given a randomized loyalty with the chance of one character being a traitor to the group. This is excellent as it touches upon the themes of trust and honor present in the television series. You can add these cards into any existing scenario to spice it up. This mode is completely optional and not the standard way to play. In fact, it’s probably best to hold off on this until you’ve played several sessions, as the traitor mode is somewhat fragile and can result in uneven plays. Yet, when it comes together with a perfectly timed reveal, it’s wonderfully cinematic.
There’s a good deal of depth here in exploring the system and additional content. It manages to elevate the experience, achieving a status above the comparably mellow Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game. The Mandalorian Adventures is not likely to supplant Star Wars: Rebellion or Imperial Assault for fans of those more robust and weighty titles, but it’s a surprisingly devious game that captures a solid amount of tension with simple and interesting systems. It is very flexible, supporting solitaire play or even multiple participants sharing characters by shuffling all of the cards into a single deck. This really is a stellar box that offers much more than appears on the surface.
Today, Amazon is offering the Stonemaier Expeditions board game for only $63.50, a 25% discount from its original $85 MSRP and the lowest price we’ve ever seen for this 2023 release. This is a limited “Lightning Deal” that will expire when a certain number have been sold.
Stonemaier Expeditions Board Game for $63.50
Stonemaier is no stranger to the board gaming world. They’ve produced some excellent games like Wingspan (and its spinoff Wyrmspan), Scythe, and Viticulture. Expeditions was released in 2023 and it is the sequel to Stonemaier’s popular Scythe game. It takes place in the same mecha-industrial setting as Scythe, but with complete different game mechanics and goals. This time around, there’s more of an emphasis on exploration over warfare with a more horror feel. Scythe is a very complex board with many moving pieces, and Expeditions is no different. Check out our Expeditions review for more details.
I’ve done my time in major MMOs like Final Fantasy 14 and World of Warcraft, but outside of that I’ve only dabbled in the various other forms this subgenre can take. So when I say that Throne and Liberty isn’t quite rising to my past experiences with massively multiplayer dungeon-diving, loot-grinding, and boss-slaying, it’s an opinion coming largely from a “normie.” That said, both FF14 and WoW have big expansions launching the same year as this, NCSOFTs Guild Wars 2 follow up, and though its world is beautiful and its combat grows into a compelling and active ballet of skill interactions, the largely boring story and repetitive quest design I experienced in my 10 or so hours with the Open Beta makes me worried for Throne and Liberty’s chances at unseating the kings of the genre.
It is a great-looking game, though. The character creator lets you customize your avatar with some commendable levels of detail. And no matter what you put together, the end result will look fantastic, and shows no signs of the sort of player character uncanny valley that some games suffer from, where the overall quality of your PC is lower than the handcrafted NPCs from the developers. The world is pretty stunning, too. Once you see the huge flying whale for the first time, you’ll go quite a few hours before you see something that majestic again, but the environments you’ll travel through on your journey are rich in color and detail. I really loved the swampy forest overrun by spiders and the colorful plains with giant wild birds that are Definitely Not Chocobos. Even better, all of this runs remarkably smoothly. Becoming your own mount and morphing into a wild cat to sprint through cities or fast traveling from location to location loads lightning fast and in real time no matter how many people are on screen.
You’re going to do quite a lot of traveling from place to place, guided around by a completely unremarkable story about magically blessed youngsters growing into warriors of destiny, and the various factions in the world of Solisium that want to use them for their own gain. I didn’t get too far into it – only around chapter 5, which is halfway through the available content at the time – but none of it stood out as compelling. Thanks to a reliable narrator that recaps important parts of the story I did soon after doing them, I found myself skipping through much of the bland dialogue in non-cinematic exchanges.
The bulk of the quests both on the main path and side missions are pretty run-of-the-mill MMO fare.
The bulk of the quests both on the main path and side missions are pretty run-of-the-mill MMO fare. You’re gonna be collecting pieces of the local wildlife to make a potion, find missing people, do a stint as a mail carrier, etc. There’s a steady pace of new things to learn and do as you go along, but Throne and Liberty treating the main story as an elongated tutorial gave me a bit of anxiety about how to use all of the random stuff I was getting as rewards, to the point where I was very conservative with how I spent any loot because I didn’t what to spend it on upgrading something if I was only going to learn that I could have spent it on something else in the next couple of quest phases. Every region of the map has its own specific side tasks, which are worth completing for their rewards even if you aren’t usually the type to make sure all of their boxes get checked. These are more likely to feature more interesting missions or puzzles to solve than the main quest, but there’s plenty of “kill X of Y” here, too. I didn’t get to see too many of these myself, but I chatted with a few folks in my travels who described some more complex platforming missions in instances that I definitely wanted to try out myself.
You’ll do a great deal of fighting on your journey, of course, and its active combat is Throne and Liberty’s standout feature. Players aren’t restricted by classes. The pair of weapons they choose to wield determines what abilities are available to them. Similar to NCSOFT’s other big MMO, Guild Wars 2, fights require lots of positional awareness, and skills have lots of synergies with one another both within and across weapon types, and encourage lots of trial and error to figure out the best combinations for getting the most out of them. Every weapon has an auto attack pattern and can parry enemies’ big attacks so long as you hit the button prompt just right, and each weapon has their own set of follow-up attacks that take great advantage of the opening you made. This mechanic seems ancillary against smaller foes, but against bosses and other strong enemies, defense is a must if you’re going to make it out of their clutches alive. Mastery of it was an absolute must in the Bloody Palace-style boss rush mode where you face off one-on-one with tough foes that have lots of power and small margins for error.
I used the greatsword and the staff, giving me lots of power and health in melee and also some escape tools and long-range magical options. I used them mostly to charge into close combat, blast all of my abilities, then use a magical freezing cloud to leap me away from enemies and blast them with fire and lighting bolts until they closed the distance. These abilities have more direct synergies, too. Greatsword players have access to a skill that can stun targets, and can follow it up with another skill that does bonus damage to stunned foes. The staff can put burning conditions on your opponents, and a second bigger fire spell will do more damage to enemies with burning stacks on them. Late in the beta I experimented with some cross weapon synergy with other weapon options like the wand, which focuses on debuffing and healing, with some promising results.
Most of the stuff I got up to like big world events where I had to race other players to collect the most macguffins from orcs, or smaller, more simple fetch quests, rewarded me mostly in money and gear upgrade materials. . It’s a double-edged sword, because though much of the source of your ever-growing power outside of your characters leveling up also comes through leveling up your gear, but a lot of that gear is bland and boring through much of your climb. I was around the mid-to-late 20s in level when I logged off for the last time from the beta, and I had only picked up two different swords – neither particularly impressive in looks or stats. Armor was a bit more dynamic, but I had almost no connection to the loot I was grabbing at all outside of making the numbers go up. I can’t speak to how that shakes out towards the higher levels, where one would expect equipment to get more exotic, but trudging there means that the only things you’re slaying are bad guys.
Overall, I certainly enjoyed most of my time with Throne and Liberty. There are big, late-game things that I want to come back and participate in, like large-scale PVP battles between guilds and raid dungeons. The story and quests won’t upend any long-standing MMO conventions. The inner voice that usually commands me to make sure every task that can be done must be done very quietly let me skip through slow dialogue and turn a blind eye to many menial side tasks. I never skipped an opportunity to fight, though. The parry system mixed with the joy of discovering sick skill combos across the various weapons available to you was by and large the most fun I could find in my time with it, and might be enough for me to come back to test my mettle against the cream of the crop when Throne and Liberty finally launches in September.
SSD prices are trending upward for 2024, but there are still some excellent deals to be found if you’re vigilant. Today, Amazon is offering the PS5-compatible TEAMGROUP 2TB PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 Solid State Drive (SSD) for only $104.99. You’ll need to supply a heatsink, but you can easily get a PS5 heatsink for under $10. All of the other best PS5 SSDs cost $140 or more.
TEAMGROUP 2TB SSD (PS5-Compatible) for $105
The PS5 is an outstanding gaming console, but the 1TB SSD is a real bottleneck. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, for example, can exceed 200GB alone. NBA 2K23 weighs in at 150GB and even older games like God of War: Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West require 90GB of space. Future games like Grand Theft Auto VI will undoubtedly demand even more space. The advantage of a PS5 console over the Xbox Series X is that the SSD slot is not proprietary; you can install most third-party PCIe Gen4 x4 SSDs as long as they are fast enough. Slower drives WILL work, but they may bottleneck the original SSD.
Although TEAMGROUP isn’t as well-known of a brand as SanDisk or Samsung, this brand has been around for a while and is a legitimate manufacturer of flash-based storage. This particular model has plenty of good reviews on Amazon. This particular SSD meets all the requirements for your PS5 upgrade. This is a PCIe Gen4 x4 SSD with an M.2 2280 form factor and transfer speeds of up to 7,400MB/s read and 6,500MB/s write which is well above the 5,500MB/s minimum threshold. It also makes an excellent boot drive for your gaming PC, especially with its 2TB storage capacity.
It’s hard to talk about modern video games without mentioning the influence of Grand Theft Auto. Rockstar’s iconic crime franchise has grown from a controversial PlayStation 1 classic to a universally recognised cultural behemoth, with its most recent entry, Grand Theft Auto 5, becoming the third best-selling game of all time.
However, the series didn’t grow into a landmark success overnight. Rockstar has been slowly building its iconic crime series for over two decades, creating hyper-immersive open worlds that players explore for years after their release. With over sixteen Grand Theft Auto games dropping since the franchise began in 1997, new players are probably wondering where to start. To help you get stuck in, we’ve listed every GTA game in chronological order so you can plot the best route through the timeline of this crime-riddled world. You will have to wait unil 2025 for GTA 6, though.
There are a total of 16 games in the Grand Theft Auto series – eleven on home consoles, one on PC and four on handheld devices. We also already know that GTA 6 will be coming out in 2025.
Before we dive into the list, it’s first worth noting an important detail about the overall continuity of Grand Theft Auto. As confirmed by Rockstar back in 2011, the GTA series is split into three unique timelines: the 2D timeline, the 3D timeline and the HD timeline. Although events in these timelines might be similar or even identical, Rockstar doesn’t consider all of them canon to each other. As such, we’ll separate the games into their respective universes.
Which GTA Game Should You Play First?
If you’re wanting to get into the Grand Theft Auto games before GTA 6 arrives, you will likely want to start with the latest in the series: GTA 5. You can certainly go back to previous games, but GTA 5 is a masterpiece in it’s own right and is playable pretty much everywhere. You can also take advantage of GTA Online for multiplayer.
Where Is GTA 6 on the Grand Theft Auto Timeline?
With the recent reveal trailer confirming that GTA 6 will be taking place in what appears to be a modern day Vice City, it seems like there won’t be jump in time either forward or backward. References to TikTok and modern vehicles pretty much confirms this, but we don’t have more information than that yet.
The Grand Theft Auto 2D Timeline
Below, we’ll list the Grand Theft Auto games from the 2D universe. These blurbs contain mild spoilers for each game, including characters, settings, and story beats.
1. Grand Theft Auto: London 1961
The second expansion released for the original Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto: London 1961 is one of only two GTA releases to not hit a PlayStation console, with the DLC only available to PC players.
The mission pack acts as a prequel to Grand Theft Auto’s first expansion, Grand Theft Auto: London 1969. It follows a nameless criminal rising through the ranks of the London crime families by completing jobs for a mobster called Harold Cartwright.
2. Grand Theft Auto: London 1969
The first expansion for the original Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 marked the series’ first visit to London.
The tale follows a nameless British criminal who fights against various crime syndicates while building their legend on the city’s streets. These include Harold Cartwright’s gang, which the player joins forces with in Grand Theft Auto: London 1961, as well as a pair of sinister crime lords known as the Crisp Twins.
3. Grand Theft Auto
The first entry in the mainline series, Grand Theft Auto follows the adventures of a nameless protagonist as they make their mark on the criminal underworlds of three locations: Liberty City, San Andreas and Vice City.
Set in 1997, the criminal’s adventures see them complete bank heists, assassinations and getaways, building their reputation while aiding various sinister gangs. Along the way, they meet a host of high-ranking criminals, including Robert Seragliano, El Burro and Uncle Fu.
4. Grand Theft Auto 2
The second mainline entry in the series, Grand Theft Auto 2 is arguably the biggest departure for the series to date. Shifting away from the setting of the first GTA, it takes players to a nigh-on futuristic metropolis known as Anywhere City, which bears no striking resemblance to any other location in the series.
The adventure follows a criminal named Claude Speed, who works with various crime syndicates around Anywhere City to make money and earn respect. The game’s position on the timeline is tricky, mainly as in-game references allude to it taking place in both 1999 and 2013. Regardless, it’s the final game in the 2D timeline.
The Grand Theft Auto 3D Timeline
Below, we’ll list the Grand Theft Auto games from the 3D universe. These blurbs contain mild spoilers for each game, including characters, settings, and story beats.
1. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
A prequel to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the PSP’s Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories takes place in 1984 and follows US military soldier Victor Vance who, after being framed by his sergeant, is dishonorably discharged.
Fresh out of a job, he decides to enter Vice City’s underworld, quickly becoming the head of a crime family with the help of his brother, Lance. The pair embark on an adventure to disrupt Vice City’s crime scene, meeting and recruiting a variety of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City’s supporting characters along the way. By the time the game wraps up, Vic’s story catches up with the beginning of Vice City.
2. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
The fourth mainline iteration of the series, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City takes place in 1986; two years after Vice City Stories. It follows Tommy Verceti, a notorious gangster from Liberty City who is sent to Vice City to oversee the expansion of his boss’ drug trade after being released from jail.
Tommy lands in hot water after a supposedly simple drug deal goes horribly wrong. Losing the drugs and money exchanged in the deal, Tommy is given one last chance to make things right.
To redeem himself, he dives into the seedy underbelly of Vice City, allying with Lance Vance to take on its various crime families and find the drugs and money stolen from him. As he becomes a bigger name around Vice City, he slowly creates a growing criminal empire, which doesn’t go unnoticed by his former employers.
3. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
The fifth mainline iteration of the series, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas tells the story of Carl ‘CJ’ Johnson and the Grove Street Families.
Set in 1992, San Andreas follows CJ as he returns to Los Santos after his mother is killed in a drive-by meant to assassinate his brother. Reuniting with his friends, family and local gang, The Grove Street Families, it doesn’t take long for CJ to get stuck back into the criminal underworld, vowing to get revenge on the gang that murdered his mother.
While CJ attempts to rebuild the Grove Street gang’s former glory, it becomes clear that something shady is happening behind the scenes. Pursued by a crooked cop named Officer Tenpenny, CJ deals with betrayal, corrupt law enforcement and the various factions vying for control of Los Santos and the neighboring cities of San Fierro and Las Venturas.
4. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
Set in 1998, Liberty City Stories acts as a prequel to Grand Theft Auto 3 and follows a gangster working for Salvatore Leone named Toni Cipriani. Returning to Liberty City after fleeing to Italy to escape the repercussions of assassinating a member of the mafia, Toni gets stuck back in working for his former boss.
Along the way, he meets several high-level mafia contacts and climbs through the ranks of Sal’s gang, murdering rival crime lords and assisting Leone’s attempts to gain political sway with the mayor. The story concludes with Salvatore Leone’s family standing as one the most powerful crime syndicates in Liberty City, setting up the events of Grand Theft Auto 3.
5. Grand Theft Auto Advance
Taking place in 2000, Grand Theft Auto Advance was a Grand Theft Auto 3 prequel released on the Gameboy Advance. It follows a criminal named Mike as he attempts to get revenge for the death of his partner, Vinnie.
Deciding to leave Liberty City and find new opportunities elsewhere, the story begins with Mike and Vinnie completing jobs for the mafia in an attempt to tie up loose ends and fund their escape. However, the plan falls apart when Vinnie is killed with a car bomb, driving Mike to find and kill his murderers. In pursuit of vengeance, Mike teams with various Grand Theft Auto 3 characters, including 8-Ball and Asuka Kasen.
6. Grand Theft Auto 3
The final entry in the timeline but the first game of the 3D era by release date, Grand Theft Auto 3 takes place in 2001 and follows a new Claude, a bank robber that’s shot and left for dead by his girlfriend, Catalina, during a heist.
Claude survives but is arrested and sentenced to life in jail. However, while en route to prison, Claude manages to escape after the Columbian Cartel raided his convoy in search of another prisoner. Fleeing the scene, Claude is soon inducted into the criminal underworld of Liberty City, working with the mafia, the yakuza and various other syndicates.
Although he rises to become one of the city’s most notorious gangsters, Claude’s goal quickly becomes one of vengeance, as his path eventually crosses with Catalina, setting up an inevitable confrontation between the former couple.
The Grand Theft Auto HD Timeline
Below, we’ll list the Grand Theft Auto games from the HD universe. These blurbs contain mild spoilers for each game, including characters, settings, and story beats.
1. Grand Theft Auto 4
The first game of the HD era, Grand Theft Auto 4 takes place in 2008 and follows an Eastern European ex-soldier named Niko Bellic as he makes his way to Liberty City. Coming to America to reunite with his cousin, Roman Bellic, who has allegedly found fortune after moving to Liberty City, Niko is shocked to find Roman is actually broke, living in a cockroach-infested apartment and running a failing business.
It doesn’t take long for Niko to find work and amass cash through less-than-legal means, meeting and befriending an arms dealer named Little Jacob and working off Roman’s debts with a Russian loan shark named Vlad Glebov. However, after discovering that Vlad has been sleeping with Roman’s girlfriend, Niko kills him, sparking a chain of events which puts him and Roman in the sights of the Russian mafia.
To survive, Niko allies with the crime families of Liberty City, where he becomes tangled in their politics and becomes one of the city’s most feared criminals. All the while, Niko has an ulterior motive, wanting to track down and murder a former comrade from his days in the military that double-crossed him and his squad.
2. Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and The Damned
Set during the events of Grand Theft Auto 4, The Lost and the Damned was GTA 4’s first expansion. It follows Johnny Klebitz, the Vice President of a revered motorcycle gang called The Lost MC.
Released from a long stint in rehab, the story opens with The Lost MC’s President, Billy Grey, returning to the gang and reassuming his position as its leader. During his time away, Johnny led The Lost MC, forming a truce with the gang’s main rivals, The Angels of Death. Once reinstated, Billy and Johnny begin to clash after Billy orders The Lost to break the truce with the Angels of Death, starting a ruthless gang war.
As the two gangs battle it out, Billy begins to lead The Lost down a self-destructive path, guiding his brothers into increasingly dangerous situations. With civil war brewing in the group, Johnny is forced to consider where his loyalty lies.
3. Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony
The second of GTA 4’s expansions, The Ballad of Gay Tony also takes place alongside the core Grand Theft Auto campaign. The story follows bodyguard Luis Lopez as he tries to save the life of his boss and legendary nightclub owner, Tony Prince.
Although Tony is a fixture of Liberty City’s nightlife scene, his businesses are failing. To make matters worse, he’s also in debt to the Ancelotti crime family, who are ready to collect what they’re owed. Swearing to help his boss, Luis tries to square Tony’s debts, helping out his various criminal acquaintances.
It all crescendos with a risky plan from Tony, who decides to acquire millions of dollars worth of smuggled diamonds and exchange them in a deal. However, the plan falls apart, leading Luis on a wild goose chase around Liberty City in an attempt to retrieve the diamonds and keep Tony’s debts from catching up with him.
4. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Taking place in 2009, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars tells the story of Huang Lee, the son of a murdered Triad leader who is tasked with flying to Liberty City to deliver an ancient sword to his uncle.
After arriving in Liberty City, Huang is ambushed, with his attackers stealing the sword and shooting Huang. Believing him dead, they dump his body, allowing Huang to escape alive. Reuniting with his uncle, Huang embarks on an adventure to track down the sword and deliver it back to the Triads. Along the way, he works with various gangs and the FIB, learning that the sword’s theft may have been an inside job.
5. Grand Theft Auto Online
Although it’s difficult to judge where exactly it falls on the timeline, Grand Theft Auto Online begins shortly before Grand Theft Auto 5 and has, over the course of ten years of updates, shifted to a period of time long after the game’s main campaign.
The core story follows a player-created criminal that heads to Los Santos to find fortune, reputation and fame, creating factions, buying property and taking part in criminal ventures. The story has evolved over the years, with one of the latest updates revisiting the character of Franklin years after the events of Grand Theft Auto V, as he tasks the player with helping him in his business ventures.
6. Grand Theft Auto 5
Set in 2013, Grand Theft Auto 5 follows the story of three criminals: Franklin, Michael and Trevor. After staging his death during a bank robbery in the small town of North Yankton, Michael Townley enters a witness protection programme, moving to the sunny city of Los Santos to live a life of luxury in a giant mansion with his family.
However, he’s lured out of retirement when he meets Franklin Clinton, an ambitious small-time criminal sent to repossess Michael’s son’s car. Forming a friendship, Michael begins to mentor Franklin, eventually leading the pair to rob a jewelry store to pay off a local crime lord. However, the act doesn’t go unnoticed.
On the outskirts of Los Santos, Michael’s former friend and criminal associate, Trevor Phillips, watches a clip of the heist on the news. Realizing that his seemingly dead partner is still alive in Los Santos, Trevor heads to the city, joining Michael and Franklin to stage various elaborate heists. However, Trevor’s animosity towards Michael’s betrayal begins to drive a wedge between the group, as tensions rise and the truth behind the pair’s past comes to light.
According to last year’s reveal trailer, the new Grand Theft Auto game will be set in Vice City and feature two protagonists, though not much has been confirmed about the next installment’s gameplay. This may be one of the biggest game releases to date, and we’re all hoping it’s worth the wait.
Tony Pankhurst, the UK actor who became a recognizable face in Supermassive’s horror series The Dark Pictures Anthology, has passed away aged 67.
Supermassive’s X/Twitter account revealed that Pankhurst had passed away. In a tribute page published by his family (spotted by GameSpot), it was revealed that Pankhurst had passed away on May 9, with Supermassive Games learning of the news today and providing a recent donation to the family. As the tribute page reveals, any donations would be provided to “Hospice in the World,” as the organization “provided such love and support to [Pankhurst] in his final weeks.”
We are all saddened to hear of Tony Pankhurst’s passing. He was the face of The Curator, and we loved working with him. 🤍 pic.twitter.com/ZZQbeViE8S
“We are all saddened to hear of Tony Pankhurst’s passing. He was the face of The Curator, and we loved working with him,” Supermassive said.
Pankhurst is best known for his work on The Dark Pictures Anthology series. Although Pip Torrens has done both motion capture and voice work for The Curator, Pankhurst’s likeness inspired the fictional character’s appearance. Pankhurst even played the character in a live-action trailer for 2021’s The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes.
The Curator is a recurring character in The Dark Pictures Anthology series. While he appears polite and calm, his presence, combined with the dark and ominous room he is in, is unsettling. He records players’ stories as they endure horrific and supernatural events throughout each game.
The Curator has appeared in every installment in the first season of The Dark Pictures Anthology, starting with 2019’s Man of Medan, and most recently appeared in a cameo in the 2023 PlayStation VR2 spinoff The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR.
The Dark Pictures Anthology series concluded its first season following the release of The Devil in Me in 2022. A second season is planned, and the first entry in season two, Directive 8020, is currently in development.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
Astro Bot is getting a limited edition PlayStation 5 controller, Sony has announced.
In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Nicolas Doucet, studio head at developer Team Asobi, offered a first look at the Astro Bot Limited Edition DualSense Wireless Controller.
PlayStation’s upcoming platforming celebration, due out September 6, features over 50 planets, new powerups, lots of enemies, secrets and PlayStation-infused characters to collect. It also features a DualSense wireless controller turned into a living character in the game.
The controller design features Astro’s blue accents on the handles and buttons, carved-in, sci-fi lines, and Atro’s pair of eyes on the touch pad.
Starting Friday, August 9 at 7am PT in the U.S. and 10am local time in the U.K., France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Portugal, players can pre-order the DualSense wireless controller – Astro Bot Limited Edition through direct.playstation.com, as well as from select retailers, priced $79.99/ €79.99 / £69.99 / ¥11,980. It launches alongside the game itself on September 6.
In the blog post, Doucet outlined how Astro Bot uses the features of the DualSense.
“First, as many of you expect from an Astro game, you can feel the surfaces that Astro runs and slides on, from grass, sand, metal to more squishy textures or water,” Doucet said. “That was already the case with Astro’s Playroom, but we have increased the number of textures you can feel through the controller.”
“Next, we doubled down on the adaptive triggers combined with haptic feedback, by tying them tightly to Astro’s new powers. For example, when using Barkster, the bulldog Jetpack, you can feel the thruster ratting against your finger in synch with the animation, giving a very dynamic and immersive feeling. Every new power up has been given that same special treatment so you will be able to experience various expressions through your fingers.
“Finally, given the number of enemies and boss battles we added to this new adventure, it was important to work on battle and impacts by combining all of the above. Whether it’s stretching, pounding or pummeling hard surfaces, there are many new types of impacts that can be experienced in Astro Bot.
“And of course, we could not finish this post without mentioning the Dual Speeder, one of Astro’s most recurrent gadgets, allowing him to fly into various planets. The Dual Speeder makes full use of motion control, adaptive triggers and haptic feedback.”
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
