The last time I legitimately played a Rockstar game on PC, I lost internet for a couple days, and after a short while the “offline mode” of the game suddenly stopped working and it demanded me to go online again. For GTA V. Fortunately I had The Saboteur DRM-free, so I played that to completion instead, and I had so much more fun. Point is I’m not going to pay for the privilege of a multi billion dollar game company dangling the ability to play another open world crime sim in front of me.

I wouldn’t even pirate it, let alone play it.

I got a Windows license key back when Windows 10 launched. It works even with a fresh Windows 11 installation. You can end your search now.

(Funny thing is a couple years later, I would main Debian for about two or three years and it is still installed on my laptop)