This is the first entry on the list that was sort of silently decided by the gamer. The controversy surrounding the phone in Grand Theft Auto IV was that it was SO grating and SO annoying, that it kept over 70% of the gamers who bought the game from finishing it. I am not kidding, Xbox Live started accumulating some of the achievements on XBLA, to see what games people were finishing the most, and guess what? Only 30 % of gamers who purchased GTA IV finished it. I am not kidding. So, what went wrong?
The freaking phone, that’s what.
Suddenly, gone from GTA was the feeling that you were some cool part of the crime underworld, replaced by the feeling that you were everyone’s bitch. Honestly, I loved my cousin in that game, but the dude called me more times than even my psycho girlfriends. He just always wanted to play darts or bowl, and it hovered over anyone who played the game’s head. The worst part was, if you blew them off, they would call you out, or cut you off, or treat you like shit, and suddenly, GTA games went from being fun games to being relationship simulators. It also didn’t help that all the mini-games they wanted you to do sucked ass.
Darts? Sucked ass.
Bowling? Sucked ass.
At least in GTA V the mini-games are fun, but they are also f**king OPTIONAL, and the phone actually makes sense. Hell, taking selfies in GTA V is an art form. Nice to see they addressed the one gripe that most of us gamers really had with the series.