World size? Lots of open world games are as big or bigger.
Graphics? I thought this too, but then I had another look (been a few years since I played it) and its quite dated looking now. Not bad, but definitely not on the same level as more recent games. Understandable though, it came out an entire console generation ago!
Even gameplay-wise, yeah, it has much better driving mechanics than most non-racing games, but shooting and such is fine, but nothing special.
Its a great game and was absolutely fantastic for when it came out. I'm not at all surprised that its as popular as it is! But "most games still don't come close" just isn't true, at least for large AAA titles.
On each individual point, you're right. But I'm curious which titles you think do better than GTA V on all of those points? Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Witcher 3 are the only two that come to mind.
Ghost of Tsushima and Horizon: Zero Dawn immediately springs to mind. Both are huge, graphically fantastic, mechanically great. Days Gone, too, was an incredibly good game, large, pretty and had fantastic gameplay. Not quite the same replayability as GTA though.
Does it have to beat it on all points for it to be valid? I mean, since the games aren't trying to be GTA, they're not going to have the exact same priorities.
What about large, beautiful, but not open world games? God of War 2018 and Dark Souls 3 meet that criteria for me.
Or open world games that aren't as large as GTA but hit all the other points? Spider-man 2018 is a great example.
Or maybe large, graphically gorgeous, but the driving is terrible? Cyberpunk 2077. (Buggy too, but I assume that will eventually be fixed)
Those are just some games that spring to mind. I'm sure I can think of some more, especially on PC (the games I listed are all ones I played on PS4 -- so I'm comparing GTA V on PS4 against these PS4 games, perhaps GTA V on PC could be modded to visually beat these games)
World size? Lots of open world games are as big or bigger.
Graphics? I thought this too, but then I had another look (been a few years since I played it) and its quite dated looking now. Not bad, but definitely not on the same level as more recent games. Understandable though, it came out an entire console generation ago!
Even gameplay-wise, yeah, it has much better driving mechanics than most non-racing games, but shooting and such is fine, but nothing special.
Its a great game and was absolutely fantastic for when it came out. I'm not at all surprised that its as popular as it is! But "most games still don't come close" just isn't true, at least for large AAA titles.