Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto 6 should definitely bring back the RC car missions from GTA 3, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and GTA: San Andreas. While these may have been the absolute worst mini-games and, especially in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' San Fierro, some of the series' worst side-missions ever, there is a way to make the RC car, helicopter, and plane missions much less irritating.
The worst of Grand Theft Auto's RC missions peaked in San Andreas, but that wasn't the first time 3D GTA games have tried to implement them. Before Zero's unforgettable (and frustrating) missions in GTA: San Andreas, players were finding vans hidden around Liberty City and using remote-controlled helicopters to help Avery Carrington and a young Donald Love sort out construction permissions. Every time they were utilized, however, these GTA RC missions were nothing if not frustrating.
It was the camera and the controls, more than anything else, which made the RC missions in Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, and San Andreas difficult to use. Flight, especially for planes like the Dodo and those modeled after it, was never an easy task in the early 3D GTA games, and the fuel limitations placed on players did little to encourage any amount of experimentation or exploration during Zero's missions in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The amount of engine refinement in the realm of flying that has happened since San Andreas' release, however, coupled with the real-world proliferation of drone usage, means Grand Theft Auto's RC missions are primed for a return in GTA 6.
GTA 6 Can Make Drone Control The New RC Side-Missions
Ubisoft's Watch Dogs series has gotten a lot of mileage out of mining current and future technology advancements, and - if Grand Theft Auto 6's setting happens to be in the present day or near future - this would be a great template for developers at Rockstar to take note of. Grand Theft Auto 3 allowed players to drive radio-controlled cars underneath other vehicles and blow them up. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City let Tommy Vercetti use a radio-controlled helicopter to destroy a building. San Andreas saw players recreating WWII-style battles with these explosive, dangerous toys - and GTA 6 should allow players to do the same, albeit with some upgrades to match the times.
Drones are infinitely more maneuverable and controllable than the radio-controlled vehicles of the 1980s, and could even utilize a first-person camera to help players navigate though subways, buildings, or other hazards safely. The explosive and dangerous nature of these controllable vehicles should not be ignored in GTA 6 - if anything, Grand Theft Auto should finally implement fully destructible environments so players can use them to level the landscape to their heart's content - but they also don't need to be frustrating and irritating to utilize. GTA: Vice City tried to spice up RC missions by making them both necessary for the story and also incredibly difficult, but the game's janky controls were likely not an intended part of that difficulty.
With both Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, Rockstar has proven it knows how vehicles (and rideable animals) should control, how they should feel, and what the best way to express that to the player is. The same amount of control can easily be given to drones in GTA 6 to emulate the RC car, helicopter, and plane missions of Grand Theft Auto games past, and it would be both an enjoyable and explosive way to add more gameplay to what will likely be a massive open world experience.