Honest Thoughts
The story of GTA starts off playing as Franklin dealing with surroundings and his rather foolish childhood friends and family. Continuing down the main path you are allowed to meet Michael who's family is nothing more than stereotypical idiots and life is a crumbling column of what was his great criminal past. As for Trevor he isn't introduced until much later in the story line and you can tell right from the start is a sociopath with a trigger finger and a past connection to Michael. Each character is extremely fun to play as with each of their personalities fitting quite well into the regular Grand Theft Auto experience, with the only downfall of the characters being that during the work they do to pay off their former enemies they grow soft constantly obeying every order they are given after they would just get done murdering 50 police men. While their personalities don't always match what's going on it's often forgiven for how good the overall story is.
The side missions for GTA can be summed up pretty shortly. They are the highlight of the game next to the heists that you actually got to make money on. They are funny, often intense, and always enjoyable so if you find yourself getting distracted with the other things with the game that don't have anything to do with the main story, then keep going in the direction your going