With each generation there’s always a hand full of games that define the generation of consoles. As a lifelong Rockstar fan though, I hang my hat on GTA and Red Dead Redemption being the generation defining games for the past 16 years.

Grand Theft Auto 3 changed the 3rd person open world game forever when it released on PS2 in 2002. Gone were the days of top down twin stick shooting that I grew to love with GTA, GTA 2 and GTA London on the PlayStation 1. I remember the first time I played GTA 3 on PS2, it absolutely blew my mind.

3D games were the in thing with Mario 64, Goldeneye and others paving the way to what we now know as the 3D generation, but none with the same scale, design and depth of GTA 3. Its lush open world, fully voiced cutscenes and gameplay are still the definitive 3D experience everyone had to play. Rockstar had gone from a small game developer to one of the biggest gaming developers in the world.

Rockstar went on to improve the 3rd person open world game even further with the hugely successful GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas on the PS2. Both games really pushed the PS2 and Xbox to the limits with a host of mini games and activities. Rockstar had proved with Vice City & San Andreas that it wasn’t a flash in the pan and the GTA name would become a gaming legacy.

Rockstar published a plethora of games for the PS2 and Xbox including Max Payne, Midnight Club, Manhunt & The Warriors, one of my favourite games from that generation. Rockstar’s games always have such a high polish to them, that when you played one of their games you know you are playing a Rockstar game. Something they continue to do to this day. No game developer for me has the polish and attention to detail like Rockstar.

In 2008 Rockstar launched Grand Theft Auto 4 on the PS3 and Xbox 360. While GTA 4 was praised by critics and is the highest rated PS3 and Xbox 360 game on Metacritic, it divided some fans including myself. The game is stunning in scope of design and execution, but it had some rather annoying bits added in too. From your cousin inviting you bowling every 5 minutes like his life depended on it, to you trying to date a girl, I just didn’t care for these additions. Then add in the annoying driving mechanics where one bump would see you fly through the windscreen like a crash test dummy rammed into a sidewalk at 200 mph, it just took away the fun factor that Vice City and San Andreas had so perfectly nailed the generation before. GTA 4 still holds up graphically and for its sheer scope and scale, but it’s fun factor had been tossed to the bottom of the river bed like Michael was when I’d finished with the game.

Then came Red Dead Redemption and oh my god did it blow my tiny little mind. I remember the day Red Dead Redemption launched in 2010, I was at college and rushed to Game on my break to buy it and then rushed home skipping my afternoon lecture. I had spent the last two weeks before its release watching the intro to Red Dead series that Rockstar released on YouTube. I would watch the videos that much that I had most of the script engraved into my brain.

Red Dead Redemption was in a way a redemption itself of Rockstar’s original Red Dead game. Unlike the original though Red Dead Redemption was a massive open world with a thousand things to see, do and kill. From riding around killing coyotes to playing horseshoes, Red Dead Redemption was full of character and stories around every corner.

I was hooked and played constantly for weeks. The story and depth of the game are just breathtaking, even today. The story has so much emotion and drive that you want to keep nailing the missions out, but with so much to see and do it kept finding main missions put on the backseat. This is what GTA 4 should have been for me.

In anticipation of Red Dead Redemption 2 I have been playing RDR on my Xbox One X with the new 4K upscale patch. The game still looks and plays beautiful to this day with so much polish and shine that we’ve come to expect from a Rockstar game. RDR made me fall back head over heels for Rockstar again and was the turning point in the generation for me. Yes Oblivion has changed my perception on the open world games 4 years prior to RDR, but not with the story and push that RDR brought to the table.

Towards the end of the Xbox 360/PS3 life cycle, Rockstar launched the much anticipated GTA V. GTA V wasn’t just a game release, it was a worldwide phenomenon. It got coverage on news sites to magazines, everywhere you looked in late 2013 you would see GTA V and for good reason too. GTA V sits one point lower on the Metacritic overall list and takes second place on the top rated games from that generation, but for me it’s the first glimpse into the next generation.

It’s robust story, multiple playable characters, enormous map and a million and one things to do, GTA V took everything that Rockstar had learnt from RDR and brought it to the GTA universe. While the story wasn’t the best in the GTA series it was still an excellent thrill ride through a parody of LA. GTA V brought back the larger than life characters, it’s sureal take on LA and made a mock of it all, but in such a way that the city felt alive and believable as a real life city. From its vast open freeways to the inner city, its so well designed that it’s a pleasure to exist in the world of GTA V.

It’s at that point that Rockstar really nailed. You don’t just play GTA V, you can live in GTA V and nothing proved this more than the online mode released not long after launch. From buying cars and getting them insured to buying houses to plan heists. Playing golf with a few friends or doing crazy stunt races with other players. GTA V online took all the crazy things that everyone loved from Vice City and San Andreas and turned it up to 11.

It’s little wonder that Rockstar ported the game just over a year after launch to the new generation of consoles. GTA V also broke records worldwide from making all of its budget back on the first day to being the third best selling game of all time. 5 years after launch its still on the best selling list nearly every single week, that’s just crazy! GTA V came at the end of the Xbox 360/PS3 generation, but it’s easily the definitive moment in that generation. Rockstar only spruced up GTA V a little for the Xbox One/PS4 release, and it still holds up today, proving that even though it launched on last gen consoles, it broke the perception of last generation games.

Which brings us nicely round to Red Dead Redemption 2 launching in two weeks. It’s the first game built from the ground up for this gen of consoles from Rockstar. It also comes towards the end of the generation life cycle with many predicting Xbox Scarlet & PS5 in the next couple of years. With the new generation of consoles being two years out though, is Rockstar preparing us for what the next gen has to offer on current gen hardware?

Let’s break it down. From the NES to the PS4, the main jump each generation has always been graphics and power. From 8 bit to 16 bit to 64 bit and 3D, graphics has always been the big selling point. With 4K slowly becoming the standard and this generations half cycle system updates though, gone are the massive upgrades you’d only see with a new system. The PS5 will play 4K games better and smoother but it won’t be drastically different from the PS4 Pro. The next generation isn’t going to be the PS2 to PS3 jump.

What I think the big upgrade in generations is going to be is scope and depth in games. With so much power available to Rockstar they have been hot on the heels of nailing details. News articles have been doing the rounds recently about your horses testicles and how they shrink in cold weather. It’s that depth of detail that make Rockstar games, but is that what the next jump in generations is going to be? A world where every door is open, every character has some way to react to you. A world where every corner offers something so interesting that you forget you’re playing a video game. The seamless transition from gameplay to cutscene shown in the demo is another breakthrough. Too many times we are taken away from the immersion that’s just happened to a loading screen while the cutscene loads. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is a great example of this. I’ve been sucked in by the incredible fight scenes and then yanked out to a black screen while the cutscene loads completely breaking my immersion.

It’s this type of depth and detail that make me believe Rockstar is laying down the gauntlet of what next gen is 2 years before it’s even released.

Red Dead Redemption 2 launches October 26th on Xbox One and PS4.