It was always my wish that Rockstar Leeds could have finished the "GTA Stories" series.
The two PSP games were some of my favorite GTAs (they also eventually got ported to PS2, but then R* forgot about them in the various remaster/classic dl releases, though LCS seems to have a mobile port.) A third game in that huge state-sized map would have been a lot of fun to mess around in again (especially if it had been on a portable again, although PSP was pretty much maxed out with VCS,) plus it'd bring back mechanics dropped as the series moved on. Maybe more importantly, it would have allowed the storyline to be reframed around parts of the map underseen in the original GTA:SA. A good percentage of players probably never got far enough in missions to leave the first city of the game, so maybe SAS could have flipped where the game focused. If the third GTA Stories game could have started in maybe Las Venturas and worked backwards through San Fiero and eventually Los Santos, it would have had a totally different vibe; instead this would have been probably a Vegas crime/riches story, where you work casinos and rob transports until you have enough capital to take over Hollywood. (More like some kind of play on the Oceans movies, whereas GTA:SA was a Boyz n the Hood riff.)
It never happened back in the day, but I actually think this could be an amazing product
today...
Imagine; a new PS2-style Grand Theft Auto. A "small-scale" GTA throwback made using the GTA Definitive Edition version of the old engine, with GTA:San Andreas assets/map modified for the timeline of the game and mission scenarios. (There are mods out there trying to do this, but that scale of production is difficult without studio backing even if a modder knows what they're doing.) Upgrade the tech and materials in some ways where possible, with texture improvements and more modern animation rigging, but
keep it at that roughly PS2 level of detail and complexity (for budget reasons, but also the GTA5 mechanics are different and it'd take work to port SA systems to the current engine plus it'd cost a ton to remake Las Venturas or San Fiero areas at GTA5 levels of quality/scale.) Make wider use of the gameplay systems of GTA:SA (and maybe also the territory system of GTA Vice City Stories) to do new or underexplored types of mission design to the old GTA model. Find an independent studio that can work in this capacity, write stories around new and popular characters from this area, budget smartly, put some songs on a playlist, price it right and maybe release it as a companion/follow-up to a GTA:LCS/VCS/CTW package,) and get a new GTA out for the first time in over a decade...