I've never been into GTA in the past just because I never found it appealing due to the premise, with the release of GTA 4 I've given it another chance and am considering getting it at some point.
I don't think GTA is a bad series, given their popularity it's clear that they're well made games even if the genre hasn't captivated me yet (though that may be changing). My biggest problem with GTA results from it's popularity and the subject matter of the games. As we all know GTa has had its share of controversy, which has made its way into the mainstream media on more than one occasion. This has lead people to sterotype all games as being like GTA, when we know this isn't true. GTA is one of the few franchises popular enough to get media coverage, and I feel that it's the one game that shouldn't get this kind of attention because it is a poor representation of what most games are like. This is mainly due to the game being very serious with its M rating. Unlike other games which seem to be given an M rating based on technicalities, like Halo being M rated simply because there's blood (the swearing is relatively minor and apart from the fact that there's blood at all this game isn't that violent). GTA on the other hand is probably the most legitamately M rated game out there, the content is comparable to what you'd find in an R rated movie. I just don't like that this is the image get when ever video games make the news, since this is just one franchise that happens to be a bit more extreme than the others. That is my biggest gripe with GTA.
Again I have not played any of the games. Pretty much everything I know has been gathered from reading posts and watching videos I can find showing gameplay and trailers. I'm in no way hating the franchise, I just don't like the image it has given gaming in general due to its popularity.
Edit: Just to be clear. I don't have a problem with any of the content in the GTA series. It's more extreme than I'm used to (which is again part of the reason I've stayed away from it in the past) but part of that has to do with it being a more "legitamate" M rating. I don't have problems with it as long as it fits the context of the game, but that could be said about lots of elements of game design.
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