“Aw cuss, here we go again!”
There’s no shortage of great games of Game Pass, but losing a juggernaut like Grand Theft Auto V is still a big deal. Fortunately, there are plenty of games left to scratch your open-world crime itch.
Crackdown 3 takes GTA V’s open-world mayhem and cranks it up to 11. It’s ultimately a pretty shallow game, but if you ever wished you had superpowers while causing chaos in GTA V, Crackdown 3 has your back.
For a very different kind of open-world game, Fallout 3, 4, and New Vegas are all on Game Pass. They’re much heavier on RPG elements than straight-up action, but all feature worlds you can easily get lost in.
If you liked GTA V’s heists, Payday 2 is a must-play. From clandestine safe-cracking to desperate firefights, Payday 2 is the best way to feel like a bank robber without, you know, actually being one.
The closest you can get to Rockstar’s GTA V is, unsurprisingly, Rockstar’s Red Dead Online. Its Wild West setting gives it a whole different flavor, and you’ll be dealing with real players, so there’s no end to the bizarre encounters you can have.
If GTA V’s open-world carnage felt a little too tame, it’s time to meet Just Cause 4. Its story is packed with spectacular set pieces, but its real joy is in roaming the massive map and shaking things up with an arsenal of tools and weapons.
At a glance, the Yakuza series looks a lot like Japanese Grand Theft Auto, but it’s a much stranger, funnier series overall. Yakuza has a lot more story and less chaos, but GTA fans should enjoy this different take on a criminal underworld.