3 best games to play while you wait for GTA 6

The biggest video game story of the year so far isn’t about a game that is coming out in 2025, but one that isn’t.

Last month, Rockstar confirmed that Grand Theft Auto VI now won’t arrive until May 26, 2026, which we don’t need to tell you is nearly a whole year away.

The struggle is real, but luckily, there are more than enough games out there to turn your frown upside down while you wait for what will surely be the biggest and most technically impressive release of all time.

Here are three we recommend to help you pass the time.

Mafia: The Old Country - “Whatever it Takes” Gameplay Trailer | PS5 Games - YouTube

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Mafia: The Old Country

In some ways, Mafia: The Old Country can actually be viewed as the anti-GTA 6 option.

This upcoming entry in 2K’s long-running series is absolutely also a game about criminals stealing and shooting each other, but unlike Rockstar’s eye-wateringly cutting edge epic, this one notably isn’t open-world, and the developer is on record saying it won’t demand too much of your precious time to experience the story.

A less intimidating campaign than the one GTA 6 is bound to have isn’t all The Old Country has in its favour either. The setting of 1900s Sicily and classic mob movie billing also make it well worth keeping an eye on.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Launch Trailer - YouTube

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Red Dead Redemption 2

If you’re struggling with the wait for the next gigantic Rockstar game, we feel your pain. But it’s worth remembering that the last one is still an absolute masterpiece.

Red Dead Redemption 2 might be seven years old now, but this sprawling tale of a gang of outlaws struggling to adjust to a new world arguably hasn’t been surpassed in this medium, nor its mind-blowingly detailed Wild West setting.

Whether you’re exploring the far reaches of the enormous open world on horseback, robbing trains, or just kicking back in the saloon, every minute spent in the battered cowboy boots of Arthur Morgan is time well spent. We just hope the swirling rumours of a much-needed next-gen console patch are accurate.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii | Launch Trailer - YouTube

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Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii

Grand Theft Auto 6 is undoubtedly going to be outrageously entertaining, but it does not let you A) go to Hawaii, or B) be a pirate.

Both of these things are possible in Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, the latest entry in the Like a Dragon (formerly known as Yakuza) series, and bonkers even by the series’ own decidedly bonkers standards.

In this spinoff, you play as longtime series fan favourite Goro Majima, who in an ingenious twist that actually makes the technically 24th entry in Sega’s series quite an inviting one for newcomers, finds himself stranded on an island with no memory of who he is.

So naturally he forms a pirate crew, and for the next 20+ hours you’ll be fighting your fellow scurvy seafarers, battling other ships and completing typically wacky side quests. It’s all very silly and stupidly good fun.