I have always felt Vice City was/is easily the best GTA game. It just felt right.
I never actually beat Vice City, I played all the way until maybe the third to last mission and couldn't get it to start, and then years later I found out why.
You were supposed to lure two cops into your garage to get their uniforms, apparently, and you just were supposed to get them to come into the garage. The problem? I'd kill one as soon as they were in there, then go out and lure another one in...and the first cop had disappeared. I tried this for weeks, because the cinematic before hand said something like "we lure the cops in, kill them, and take their uniforms", so it pissed me off quite a bit that doing so didn't work.
This was a good decade ago and I was just 15 or so. Anyway, I just downloaded it on my phone, so I might play it now and again and hopefully I'll finally beat it. Although I noticed something in one of the first cinematics the other day I didn't notice playing the game in 2002.
When you're talking to Sonny immediately after the bust, he's sitting there with money and cocaine on his table. This was the family's first time getting into drugs, which is why Tommy was doing it, but unless I misread it, they tell you in the beginning of the game that Sonny fucked you over.
Anyway, I liked San Andreas a lot more (finished it pretty quickly) and I liked IV a
lot more, and did several full playthroughs (two when I first got it to get both endings, and once every few months for a few years after that). I only played the add-ons once each, but I enjoyed them. If I fix the problems my PS3 is having (or don't, but have enough money to get a PS4 in the fall), I fully intend on picking up V.