The Grand Theft Auto series has had its fair share of ridiculous missions. From falling out of the back of a cargo plane on an ATV, to weaving around in a helicopter around the business district of Liberty City, there's no shortage of deranged moments in any of the games from developer RockStar's flagship franchise. Whenever it seems like it cant be topped, Grand Theft Auto not only exceeds expectations, but leaps ahead of them.

Every mission has something to offer, whether you're talking about the specific tasks at hand, or what your reward may be for completing a certain objective. That being said, sometimes the prize does not compensate for the task at hand. What I'm about to show you are fifteen moments that fall flat in the end. Fifteen times where players have endured more than they've needed to (both in difficulty and boredom), and came away virtually empty-handed. These are the fifteen missions in the Grand Theft Auto series with the worst rewards.

15 This Is Why Nobody Uses Payphones Anymore

Many of the missions in Grand Theft Auto III have you played make-shift errand boy as Claude. Given that Claude's character never speaks in the game, there's no argument to ever be had, and the next thing you know you're getting in your (probably stolen) car, taking whatever package or briefcase of money to one of your bosses partners. Being Liberty City's number one delivery man is one thing, but what the game's "Payday for Ray" mission takes quite the obnoxious, anticlimactic, and mundane turn with very little in return for the player.

In the mission, you're tasked with delivering payment to an inside man for Asuka Kasen, who works for the Yakuza. As you arrive to and answer the designated payphone, you're told to head to another payphone on the island. Then, you have to head to yet another payphone. Then another, and another... until you finally meet with your inside man, Ray Machowski, inside a public restroom in order to transfer the funds to him. Your reward? $11,000. By this point in the game, $11,000 is nothing and can be blown with relative ease. The only bright side is completing the task unlocks two other missions for you to partake in. Luckily according to the GTA wiki page, both of those missions offer much more financial benefits to you.

14 Bank Heist Gone Wrong

Grand Theft Auto IV's "Three Leaf Clover" mission starts off as a bank heist with you being part of a group of four, so if the mission's name isn't any indication, you already know that someone's pushing daisies by the end of it. Niko gets himself working alongside three local irishmen to pull the traditional bank job. There's a little bit of everything, from cops and helicopters and subway stations to fight through. But given the lore of GTA IV, the way that the mission unfolds can have to thinking about this heist from the different perspective.

One thing that you may notice during the bank cutscene is that Luis, the main character from the game's expansion The Ballad of Gay Tony is one of the hostages. Once you gain control of Niko again, Luis is still there as an open target to execute and is an obvious flaw in the gameplay to allow that to happen, given he his story goes in the DLC goes far beyond the bank incident. Next, during your runaway from the police, you're instructed to head down into the subway station in order to avoid the helicopter that's just appeared. Again, the helicopter CAN be taken down and is another indicator that some of the loopholes in the game aren't closed. Finally, given that Michael died during the heist, the one million dollars that were taken should have then been split three ways, right? Nope, despite the chaos, exploding vehicles and hundreds of bullets fired, Niko is still stuck with only a quarter of the cash, even though it was Michael and his brother's fault for his ultimate undoing.

13 The Chase Is More Exciting Than The Rewards

If you want to go back and play some of the older Grand Theft Auto games, you'll notice quickly so poorly each one has aged. Even going to the last major title, Grand Theft Auto IV, the game doesn't control as well as it does now, with driving and shooting feeling like major downgrades compared to 2013's Grand Theft Auto V. So if you find yourself in the mission "Paper Trail", making sure you've had an opportunity to tinker with a helicopter or two in GTA IV. Otherwise you'll be in for a rough and short flight.

With your rasta friend Little Jacob riding shotgun, Niko has to chased down a Russian businessman's helicopter throughout the city before Jacob eventually shoots it down. The helicopter chase can get tricky at times while trying to maneuver over and around the taller buildings in the city's business district. Once you've steering clear of the public, you have to line your chopper up alongside the pursuee, so that Jacob can blast it down with an RPG.

Congrats! For flying around the city and blowing up a helicopter, you've early yourself a measly $7500. Oh, and maybe you've boosted your helicopter flying confidence up a few notches.

12 Ice Cream Men Get No Respect

Roaming around any of the cities in the Grand Theft Auto series is great, but being able to run errands and side missions at your discretion can act as an incentive for players to sometimes stray away from the game's main story. Your freedoms range anywhere from being a taxi driver in Los Santos to playing as a paramedic in Liberty City. Every game is full of options. So GTA: Vice City took a stab at trying to mesh some of those freedoms and errands into the story, and boy did it leave a sour taste in people's mouths.

As one of the many assets that Tommy has to obtain in order to unlock the penultimate mission for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, you're forced to spend $20,000 to purchase The Cherry Popper Ice Cream Company in the Little Havana region. In order to start pulling in revenue, Tommy must take the wheel himself and begin selling "Ice Cream" to pedestrians without attracting the attention of either the police or rival gangs. To complete the mission, you have to sell 50 "Ice Creams" without leaving the truck, or else your counter will reset to zero. Oh, but don't worry because the company only takes in a maximum of $3000/day. Have fun keeping the company afloat with those revenue streams.

11 Show Me The Money!

Video games' selling point is that it gives the person control. Control over their character on the screen, what they do, who (if there are shooting mechanics) they can gun down, and so on. But when playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' "Wrong Side of The Tracks" mission. You don't have that much control at all. Smoke is riding back seat trying to gun down all of the Vagos shooting down from the top of the runaway train, and falling off your bike by any measure will result in eventual failure since the train's speed is too consistent.

It's still one of the classic chase sequences in any Grand Theft Auto game to date, but the return on investment is dismal at best. All you earn for your efforts is a boost to your respect. By this point, you've had missions that give much more back in return than just added respect (money of course, it's always money). But for a mission designed to break up a drug deal between two rival gangs, there has to be some sort of monetary reward, don't you think?

10 TMZ Wouldn't Do This To You

Sometimes one mission isn't enough to realize how bad it is. Sometimes you have to keep pulling horrible favor after horrible favor in order to understand how much you've really messed up. Playing as Franklin Clinton in Grand Theft Auto V, you're going to have that chance. As part of the game's optional side missions categorized as Strangers and Freaks, Franklin befriends a paparazzi photographer by the name of Beverly Felton. As you'd expect, your goal in these missions are to expose in-game celebrities typical Vinewood style.

But what happens when you pull all of your favors for Beverly? Turns out by the time you done what you can to earn his trust, he's moved on to work on a new reality TV show. Since he's now got bigger fish to fry, you're of no use to him. This leaves you with two options, either leave and let him be, or take him out! If you choose to take him out, make sure to walk over and grab the money he's owed you, which is a whopping $251! All that hard work, from spying on a drug deal to chasing a suspect alongside police, and you come away with barely a quarter of a grand.

9 Dance Dance Revolution This Ain't

The mid to late 2000s felt the shockwave that was rhythm based games. The likes of Guitar Hero and Rock Band created their own follows and made their marks during that time. You can certainly find other iterations of the genre from a much earlier time period with games such as Parappa The Rapper and the arcade favorite Dance Dance Revolution.

But a GTA game with rhythm based mechanics? Maybe not the best idea. During Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas's "Life's A Beach" mission, CJ is forced to steal a sound system for his friend/ex-convict/aspiring rapper OG Loc. In order to persuade the DJ to let you check out her van, you have to do well enough in a horribly choreographed dance off with her before she'll let you in the truck. Once you've stolen and hidden the goods, the are simply rewarded with a respect boost. As if the mission itself wasn't already cringeworthy to begin with, the prize at the end isn't much to gloat about either.

8 This Just Seems Like Menial Labor

Much like the previous asset mission "Distribution" that I talked about, "Checkpoint Charlie" follows suit in the list of obtainable assets in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Only you've acquired the boatyard in the Viceport region, you'll have to race through the city's bay on one of the speedboats to snatch up a couple dozen packages located throughout the water. Completing the first difficulty challenge marks off the boatyard as one of your assets, as well as award you with a daily income of $2000.

But there's more to the challenges after you've completed the first one, though. There are a total of six possible difficulties that you can take on in the boatyard. Some of the tweaks in the difficulty include less time to collect all of the packages, and even different weather patterns that make the speedboat harder to handle. Even if you complete all six of the challenge modes, your daily revenue for the boatyard doesn't increase. Yes, that's right. You've pretty much done all of that hard work (or wasted time if it wasn't hard for you) for nothing extra in return.

7 Even E.T. Would Refuse This Ride

Who doesn't love collectibles in games? It makes you more aware of your surroundings, and forces you to explore areas that you may not have thought to before. More often than not, you're the one to reap the rewards if your able to find every little last trinket on the world, whether it be a new weapon or character skin that you've been itching to try out. That would be the premise of Grand Theft Auto V's "Far Out Strangers and Freaks" mission.

The goal of this side mission is to make your way around the entirety of the state of San Andreas (and we all know how much time that's going to take) trying to find all fifty spaceship parts for Omega. Once you've found them all, Omega will finally show you what he's been working on with all the parts you've been collecting, which ends up being a spaced-out dune buggy. The buggy offers no special features other than a strange UFO sound for a horn, and its apparent jet turbines are made out of trash cans.

Well, at least you got an achievement/trophy for completing it.

6 Nobody Likes Being Stuck In Traffic

A lot of the missions that you'll find on this list were poorly designed at a micro level. Maybe Rockstar could have just given us a better reward, or made the sequence of events in a mission not be so drawn out and mundane. This time however is an example of a panned mission due to the game's technical flaws that leaves the situation out of your hands and hoping for a spot of luck.

In Grand Theft Auto III's "Rigged to Blow" mission, Claude has to drive an explosive-packed sports car all the way across the city in order to have it removed. The car's fuse is extremely short, and the slightest bump will leave your character sitting in a pit of fire. To add insult to injury, the game's traffic A.I. is woefully terrible (plus car handling in the game is brutal), and a lot of times car will actually turn towards you to turn and avoid a collision. With these two factors in mind, you're left with two options. One: You play it super safe and spend ten minutes practically tiptoeing around the occasional Liberty City gridlock. Or two: take things like you normally would, and hope for the best.

5 Namaste, Michael

Grand Theft Auto V takes the series to new heights and in different directions that we've never seen before. A gigantic sandbox, three dynamic and dysfunctional characters, mission setups that are more elaborate than ever. GTA V makes a case as a strong building block for what the franchise has achieved over two decades. With some of its missions being the best in the series.

So why would anyone, with all of the chaos and shooting and reckless driving want to do a mission involving yoga? Apparently they thought it was a good idea, but some of us may have different views on it. In the mission, "Did Somebody Say Yoga?", the game takes a somewhat lighter tone (Amanda continues to bicker however) with Michael attempting a series of yoga poses. This mission is way out of left field for what the game had been doing up to this point, with multiple heists , shoot outs, and drive-bys taking place.

But don't worry, by completing the mission you can go back and play the yoga mini-game back at Mike's house if it helps you "find your center".

4 Rather Fly A Real Plane

It one thing for a mission to have little in reward, like the ones on this list. It's another thing for mission to offer little in return AND be objectively difficult to complete. Whether it's a time limit that seems brutally unfair, or it becomes a numbers game with too many enemies to handle, there are a ton of ways for a mission to make you want to chuck your controller at the screen.

When I first tried to play Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' "Supply Lines" mission, I liked the idea of having a remote control airplane with a mounted gun to mow people down with. But here, it's done all wrong! The mission tasks you with killing five individuals that your friend Zero wants taken care of. As if each of them being spread out around the region isn't bad enough, the plane controls take be tricky to adapt to. If you're having trouble getting a handle on things, get ready to take a few retries, since there's a fuel gauge that's terribly leveled and can begin to wreck havoc on a player, especially if they can't make it back to Zero's shop in time before the fuel tank empties. The mission was so heavily against the player that later editions of the game (Xbox 360 and Mobile) increased the fuel tank capacity, giving players more time to complete the mission before plummeting towards the ground.

3 He's Got No Rhythm

Like I said previously, there's a time and place, or in this place a game to use rhythm based functions. It's something that's excellent when used correctly when used in the right setting, but can feel disjointed if it's not. For whatever reason GTA: San Andreas took not one, but two stabs at missions using rhythm mini-games. Both times, they suffered because of it.

I've personally panned "Life's A Beach" due to the bad choreography with the music and dance moves. Here with "Cesar Vialpando" it's the same general idea, but by using a low rider it felt even worse than before. If you happened to play the game on PC, you've probably noticed the glitch in the game's arrow prompts being inverted, meaning players had to figure out on their own that using the opposite direction was going to get them through this "dance off" so to say. As far as the reward is concerned, that's on you. By winning the low rider dance off you get back double whatever amount you wagered.

2 There Are Nicer Apartments Out There

Each of Grand Theft Auto V's big heists are the culmination of missions of preparation. Whether you're Michael casing the jewelry store in the beginning act of the game, to having to steal a construction vehicle to help you drill a massive hole in the side of the Union Depository... every preparation mission is a building block to the end goal, a massive payday for all of your companions. Some, however, drag on a little longer than others.

At least the worst of the worst set up missions takes place only a few hours into the story. As part of the Merryweather Heist set up, the mission "Scouting the Port" offers the most tedious of tasks as Trevor, Wade, and Floyd have to blend in with the harbor workers so that they may be able to scout a nearby freighter. All you receive in the end are a few photos on Trevor's phone, a disgusting apartment in the aftermath of everything, and a brief introduction to harbor labor. Not much to give you here, and it's not like the mission is short by any means, running about a half hour if you're not trying to get through it as quickly as possible.

1 What's With GTA And Remote Controlled Things?

A lot of the trouble when you go back to play some of the older Grand Theft Auto games is that the controls can be tough in the beginning. Vehicles can spin out much more easily, getting the camera in the right spot so you can see who shooting you is a hassle, and trying to remote control a mini helicopter through a half built building while carrying explosives as dozens of enemies shoot at you can be a tough task. You see where I'm going here... the most awful mission in the Grand Theft Auto series: "Demolition Man."

So I've already mentioned the main task required for the mission here, though I forgot to add that there's a time limit implied once you've planted your first bomb. You can bypass some of the difficulties by taking out all of the enemies in the building before you start to plant the explosives, but even then you can run into the problem of some tight navigation once inside. Your reward for destroying a building in mid-construction is a not so lofty one thousand dollars. That'll barely get you some articles of clothing in the game, let alone anything else you may want to splurge on.