I have all the GTA games (on console and PC), but I've actually never beaten any, though I have played them much. I always start over because I stop for a good amount of time before attempting again. Anyways, since Grand Theft Auto, from GTA3 to San Andreas is in a separate universe as GTA4 and up, and the stories for the most part won't collide into GTA5, do you think it's worth taking the time to go through all three of the 3D universe GTA's? I assume most would say yes since they're good, but the whole story thing has me hesitant.

There are more signs in my opinion that say it's worth it, but the gameplay by now on the older ones is a bit archaic, or at least the shooting is, and again, just the fact that the story doesn't connect entirely conflicts with my want to do it. What would you do? I still love the older ones and they're still impressive, but I imagine all three of those are around 20 hours as well, which I guess shouldn't take that long if I sit down and go at it, but for some reason I could never do that with GTA; I finish a few missions and then I'm done.

Red Dead Redemption was the first Rockstar game that I could sit for a prolonged amount of time and get through it because the way it was set up. I could have decided this for myself, but I feel like this is a good way to express what I'm thinking, and you can help if you want. I also didn't beat GTA4, though I'm very close to it I believe, or Chinatown Wars on DS. Oh yeah! I don't have all of them, I don't have the expansions to GTA4, which I do want, but didn't get since I hadn't beat four. OK, bye now.

Play them if you have fun playing them, don't play them if you don't have fun playing them. Why have a huge debate about it?

just play them!

I'm not really sure what you're trying to get here, but here is my say: play Vice City and San Andreas, since both are pretty fucking great games.

I have 100% completed every GTA game (as well as Bully and Red Dead Redemption) since GTA3 except for GTA Advance. It sounds to me like you could enjoy playing them all but don't want to commit to playing 8 games and 2 expansions, which is understandable. I'd say start small. Play Vice City Stories and then Vice City so you get that complete story. If you make it through that then move onto either San Andreas or the 3 Liberty City based games. I'd say that they are probably close the the same length, with the Liberty City stuff taking a bit longer but only because it's 3 games. If you make it past that then do the GTA4 era stuff. Chinatown Wars and the GTA4 expansions are more fun than GTA4 in my opinion. If you've made it as far as the bank heist in GTA4 then you are good to start the expansions without spoilers.

If you are having trouble and are getting frustrated by having to redo missions then don't feel bad about using cheats. The sudden appearance of a tank, rocket launcher, full health or full armour can be real useful and make a bad situation fun again.

Just finish IV and get the DLC. The Lost and the Damned is really good. Gay Tony is pretty decent too. It's funny and adds dome stuff like base jumping.