This GTA is a real GTA, no problems with it. The characters we meet and the hero are fun, and are still the GTA spirit. But the port is probably the worst never seen, we have lots of inexplicable FPS drop, crashes, various bugs,... Even capcom did better port. You need a high end Graphic card to play the game, with low settings. The game is very long, probably too much, there is a long beginning, and many "useless" missions. The friends, and social thing we have ingame are quite fun and new, but sometimes get boring. You want to call friends NPC all day, and have dinner with them, and enjoy sending mail ? Buy sims3, we are in GTA... Conclusion : Pro : -NPC and hero are cool, as usual with GTA -story is interesting enough -the awesome amount of extra content is really cool (from cinema to tv show and internet) -graphism are not too bad, but not specially good con : -FPS drops on most graphic card (i have a nvidia 275GTX and i need to play on very low to keep my fps above 20) -bugs, bugs, and sometimes, bugs -the "friends" system become more and more boring further you go in the game. Expect to do something with one of them at least once by half an hour to keep them friendly. Spending about 10m to do so. So it make 1/3 of the game involving social things with IA. -many repetitive missions, slow beginning -all the copy protection there is, rockstar social club + windows media live,... Honestly, i guess there is far less trouble if you hack it. Advice : buy it, and download an illegal copy for installation purpose. I guess on console i should have note 6 or more, but im PC user, and your port is total garbage.… Expand

This is game really good if you have an AWSOME COMPUTER and that may cost a bit but i can run it great but my comp is really good Intel i5 2.7ghz GTX 260 4gb ddr3. Everything is good except that when you have an sportscar the car you have comes up everywhere but when you change car you just cant find more when you change car idk if thats an bug or something but its bad... And i have a really weird bug cant higher my shadows in graphics or view distance anyone know why?… Expand

GTA IV for PC has so many errors its not even worth trying out. I hade over 15 errors in this game and it ended up in me sending this shitty game back to the store saying it was broke. If you whant GTA IV buy it for the PS3 or 360 otherwise its not worth one single penny.

The game is great. It has brilliant graphics, but it is a rubbish port. It doesn't support SLI, and it needs a very high power computer to do what is only above average by modern standards. It's almost as if Rockstar couldn't be bothered with the PC market.

This game, regarding game-play only, is a strong 7. That gets halved thanks to the Rockstar "club", Microsoft Live "club", and technical issues. Average, but there are better and more extensive sandbox games out there. The PC implementation of this game is HORRIFIC. Truly terrible in just about every way imaginable. Completely unplayable out of the box. Required re-installation of video drivers, special tuning and de-tuning just to get textures and shading to look like something half resembling the Xbox 360 version. Frame rates are terrible even on modern high end PCs. I can see no reason for this to have a metacritic score above 75 for game-play, or above 40 once you account for the failed PC conversion. Unbelievable.… Expand

One of the best games of the year, if you can't install it on your computer somthing is seriousy failing on it. I hvae a 3Ghz Duo Core, 8600GT, 3GB of RAM, and it works PERFECTLY fine. So to all the people that give this game a bad score, stop having a winge because you can't even install it on your fail-computer, and stop saying the c ritics were 'paid' to give it a good review, they obviously know how to build a computer properly.… Expand

Worst PC port ever made. The game runs horrible on my high end desktop. Its unbelievable that a huge company like rockstar could produce something like this.

horrible horrible horrible (x20) port. My computer meets the recommended requirements, yet when i finally got to play the game (used 2 days to get around different crashbugs) the fps were so low even though i had set the graphics to the lowest (it was first at my 5th try to change them that the game didn't crash here). Seriously i feel cheated like whore who never get paid, for paying for this garbage game. tottally useless… Expand

I like the game the gameplay is realy nice and it makes lot of fun Its a nice map , nice and dinamic story / world and the multiplayer is fuckng nice too I know there are lot ofs proplem with instaling the gam and and and.... but thats has nothing to do with the gameplay so 9 points - and I didnt had any proplems with the installing and I didnt get One error message

Absolutely not worth it. The download took a very long time, and unless your PC is running well above the minimum specs (which are already pretty high, and easily knocks out any non-gaming built PCs), then this game will lag terribly with severe glitching and control issues (and yes, I am talking about rock-bottom bare-minimum visual and audio effects). Sadly, I was unable to get past the 4th cutscene before my computer gave in on me.… Expand

Why a 4? I tell you they said in most reveiw That you need a good computer to run well. I dont agree. Since a pc 2.40mhz 4GB ram and 1GB grafic does not help the issues the game has. Small graphic glicthes. They said. Major Graphic problem I say. I say I have seldom got so annoyed when I playd a game. In apartment after save I always have to tab out and in the game again since the screen goes all blur. Same in Internet cafe, some times under the bridges and I think it is the wheater motor in the game, its when its raining and sunset time. And the game lag if I have more then 1600-1200 and max out on the rest. And the fact no patch for dual graphic cards its s big time. And the game play. Sorry I'm not in to have to play some one that cant even speak proper English I'm a Swede but playing a Bos-Serb does not make me goo Who! And have to look like potato nose guy. Give me a plastic surgen in the game, and not have the good stuff to look forward in the old games like buying property. What is this? Its not GTA. … Expand

Dear Grand Taxicab Auto, please, please, stop with the cut-scenes already! Give your script editor a red pen and ask him/her to "X" out big chunks of dialog next time, won't you? And won't my darn phone ever stop ringing? Especially when I answer it and then I can't run but instead have to walk... slowly... oh so very slowly....? I play games to escape from everyday chores such as deleting texts, ignoring emails and pointlessly driving across town during rush hour with a car load of social lowlifes. Only to arrive at my destination and be served a mediocre third person shooter. I never finished GTA San Treadmill for much the same reasons, and I was hoping your older siblings would've taught you a few lessons, but alas, I guess not. At least you let me hail taxis to skip the Auto part and get right to the Theft bits, but why oh why isn't there a cab around when you really, really need one? All said, you're a pretty game to look at and even to play sometimes, but only when you'll stop boring me with mundane tasks and actually let me escape with you, that is.… Expand

The game is a total waste of money. If your Rig costs less than 5000 bucks don't bother. I play Crysis on Med-High with around 20-25 fps on my laptop. I can't run this game in LOW with more than 8 fps, it is so buggy it is not even funny. Rockstar, this is a BIG dissapointment, it is one of the worst, or even THE worst game ever ported to the PC. I can say even the port of Resident Evil 4 was better. The graphics s****** big time BUT at least I could PLAY the game FFS!!!!… Expand

WARNING: REQUIRES A LIGHTNING-SPEED COMPUTER. I have a Windows 7 from a few months ago. It came with a great video card, which could run almost every game I put on it, like Bad Company 2, COD, and Mafia 2. Every game, except, GTA IV. The file size is like 14GB, and it runs slow as a bad server on COD Black Ops, even on the lowest settings. What's even worse is that you need to get a Windows Live account in order to SAVE. The Windows Live thing hasn't been fixed in over 4 years, and Microsoft doesn't even care about it anymore. DON'T GET THIS ON PC. GET IT ON PS3 OR XBOX 360… Expand

I just can't believe that users are giving this game a low rating. Yes there are some bugs with getting the game running on your pc. Yes it comes with an intrusive and slow game launcher. Yes it forces you to use games for Windows Live. Does it have high minimum specs to play at a smooth frame rate? Sure does. Are these issues a major pain in the butt? Sure they are. But none of those issues changes the fact that this is one of the best games ever to come to a PC. If you are looking for a PC game for the holiday season - this is it. Period. This game is incredible, it offers dozens of hours of gameplay - and because of its scalability, it will look even more incredible on your next PC. It would be a shame if someone didnt buy this game because of all the whiners taking out their frustation by giving it a low score. If you are smart enough to read and know how to use google- you should be able to get this game running in a few minutes without any problems. One of the best games I have ever played on the PC. Right up there with Bioshock, Half Life series, Crysis, and Doom series. Just buy it now and be happy.… Expand

The port is not so good as it is on ps3, well yeah. but still it's one of the most breathtaking games. i love it. rockstar, failing too much can cause you out of business, next gta will not be wanted so much as this one, this is for sure now.

I usually find it unfair for a game to receive "0" because it rarely deserves such a rating but for this game, I'll gladly make an exception. Why? Because of the way Rockstar have been treating us PC gamers from day 1. First of all, they kept us hanging, hoping we'd buy the console version first which I did. When they thought most people had already bought it, they announced the PC version, knowing that die hard PC gamers would want the PC version next to the console version. A dirty move if ever I saw one. But now that it's finally here, it's even WORSE than the horrible launch of GTA3 which was bugged and failed to run on many PCs as well. Have they learned NOTHING? No, they have learned something: they have learned that crappy, buggy, crash-prone ports sell regardless of their problems. And GTAIV is the pinacle of crappy ports. Horrible performance on top end systems, instability, many people being unable to load the game, graphical errors, tons and tons of bugs, etc. etc. This is UNACCEPTABLE. I don't give a damn about the game behind this when the attitude of Rockstar is so smug, so arrogant, as to admit spending $200k on copy protection instead of getting the thing beta tested! Not that you'll give a damn after having paid off all those reviewers to give you high scores.… Expand

I feel I have to defend against some of the negative views here - I'll try to present a more balanced review. In short, GTAIV, if you get it running, is a fantastic game, and I would rate it 9/10+ if it were not for the technical issues. The city is amazing, the cars handle brilliantly, the story is interesting, the characters are entertaining and the humorous dialogue regularly has me laughing out loud. There are bugs, but nothing close to game breaking for me. The bad: Fortunately I upgraded not long after getting this, but my old PC (1.86GHz Core 2) would not run it in any playable way. My new comp (3GHz core 2, HD 4870) runs it at 1680x1050 without any problems. So basically, unless you are well above the min specs, or are planning to upgrade, it's probably not worth getting just now. To me the worst thing is having to sign in to windows live (horrible system, doesn't always connect - and why should i have to always be onl) and rockstar social club to play. It is a rubbish system and I hope sales are hurt by it and rockstar seriously revamp things for their next release. So there you are, I'm sure it could have been many times better than it is had more time/resources been spent on the port than on the copy protection, but if you can get it running, it's a great game.… Expand

i don't know if the game is good or not becouse simply I cannot play with my computer. and actually i can play to any other game,it's not a bad computer. i would like to know what machines did the people use that sored it as a 10 (or magazines with 100). this is not a game, is a no-game.

I'm not a very technical person, but my computer IS above average and yet it still ran into many issues. Liberty City is undeniably beautiful, you can't find a more realistic city in any video game. The story is also a good strong point, for while in a lot of the other games I found a few plot holes and other events that don't make sense, I couldn't find any of that in GTA 4. However, Rockstar failed at the very core, the gameplay. This *isn't* a fun game, but more worringly still is that you are denied most of the freedom a sandbox game is supposed to give. For instance, you are denied about 3/4 of the whole map until you completed a certain amount of missions, and that certain amount is a LOT(and even then, you still have a third denied until you do some more). It also seems that no matter how long you wait the weapon stores never sell any new guns. But the greatest flaw is that GTA is *too* realistic. The average gamer doesn't want something completely realistic, he plays games because he wants to escape reality for a while. On one mission for instance, you need to approach a target by a job interview. To do so, you need to send a job application by email, get an answer by phone, receive a time for the interview, and be there on time. It's completely unnecessary and many other aspects of the game (such as the social interactions) are a chore. In the end, after my game crashed oh-so-many times while I was trying to finish a very exciting mission, I said to myself "do I really care about what happens next?" As soon as I thought "No", I disinstalled it immediately and now its new job consists of being a dust accumulator.… Expand

Grand Theft Auto IV is a game I can respect but not appreciate. The enormous sandbox city and lifelike interaction are definitely impressive, but much of what I loved about GTA San Andreas was lost to me here. The game shifts very far from cars now as you no longer have a garage and customization is limited if not completely removed. Fortunately the graphics are fantastic, especially with a good PC, and the story is pretty good. I hope to see more of an automobile focus in GTA V, because c'mon, the game is named Grand Theft Auto!… Expand

Great game but my computer is pretty close to top of the line and has problems with this. I know how to configure it to work optimally but really this game must have some poor programming. Kind of sad as it could have been much better.

I held off for a long time before buying this game. I must say that after 2 years of waiting. I wish I would not have bothered buying GTA 4. First off It took 2 days just to get Microshaft live to work properly just so I could save. I cant even use my Philips gamepad, because MS basically paid R* to monopolize on full support for xbox controller for pc ONLY. I am almost done with the game (mission 85), and I am flat out bored of the same thing over and over again. All missions are the same. If this is the direction R* is taking GTA then count me out for future releases. On a score of 1 - 10 I give it a 1.5, and that is being fair. It seems R* now has a trademark. Every GTA game I have played I would find this http://www.drxdesigns.com/screenshots/rstrademark.jpg I am a freelance 3d graphic artist, so it is easy for me to find these faults. VC, SA both had texture stretching. Of course all this is just my opinion, just the same as everyone else, and I am entitled to that! R* use to be my favorite game company, now very bottom of the list. 2 Thumbs down to GTA 4, and Rockstar.… Expand

good game, even on pc i still find it very enjoyable compared to console, the only problem i have is with crossfire support, the game wont allow you to use dual graphics cards and thus making me change it back to use of one graphics card everytime i want to play it.

What Cool-Aid are all of these reviewers drinking? Did they have to fuddle with the install like everyone else? People who meet the recommended system requirements subjected to watching Niko do the herky-jerk all over Liberty City. The game in this state eats my CPU for breakfast and all it can display is a stuttering slideshow. Do you want to play online? Well then you have to install the R* social app and Games for Windows Live if you intend on doing so. More process going on in the background are always a plus! I would rather wait longer to have a playable game over just shipping in out the door and fixing it later because of the holiday season frenzy. The game will be fine, come six months and a couple of patches later.… Expand

I was tempted to go on an angry rant, but I want to be objective and fair here. Overall, there will be one thing I will *never* forget and always associate with this game. It has one supercritical flaw: -It runs like sh*t- I'm not exaggerating one bit. Ive been building and repairing pc hardware for over 10 years now, and have always been an avid gamer. I play many brand new titles and have few problems, often able to play 1900x1200 with every option enabled including antialiasing and plenty of texture post-processing on other new titles such as All source games (including L4D, TF2 etc.), Fallout3, Mirror's Edge and the list goes on... Obviously this is not because my hardware is not up to task. This is one of the worst pieces of software I've ever encountered. The game is very, very, VERY poorly programed. To boot, GTA IV doesn't even look good. The graphics look very dated in comparison with titles released recently. It crashes... alot. This program has managed to generate more faults and errors than any other application I have ever installed. I'd even go so far as to say known malware runs more stably. I wish I was exaggerating, but this is the sad, sad truth that is GTA IV for PC. I attempted for days to improve the performance and stability of this program using every workaround and trick I know of including: 1) trying over a dozen different combinations of drivers 2) both versions of the game 3) manually editing nearly every configuration in the program directory 4) multiple OS's (vista and XP pro) 5) multiple bios and firmware combinations 6) alteration of my OS (killing services, disabling/enabling access, security, automatic memory remapping apps, cache utilities) 7) I even cleared out enough room on my scsi 15k rpm HDD... No effect on performance. (Oh let me add that the install directory is rediculous. 15 gigs!? of *what* may I ask?) 8)multiple brand new graphics cards including an ATI 4850 overclock addition (asus) and XFX nvidia geforce 9800. Did any of this work, at all? Actually, somewhat. But the performance is unbelievably bad even when I take the best results from all of the above. Given the Xbox 360's hardware, (http://hardware.teamxbox.com/articles/xbox/1144/The-Xbox-360-System-Specifications/p1 if you're curious) most modern PC gaming rigs shouldn't break a sweat running this software. However, my problems with this awfully coded mess are not isolated, but rather the typical experience. Ludicrous. How did rockstar miss these problems? Greater than 50% of users are having awful issues, how many different pcs did they playtest this on? One? None? Grand Theft is an apt title. I feel no better than grifted, swindled and conned for purchasing this garbage. The programmers should be truly ashamed. Rockstar has also made no attempt to repair their broken software nor have they even *acknowledged* that these severe issues exist to this degree. The finale of this ridiculum is that once I was able to stabilize the software to the point that I could play through an appreciable portion of the game, it was really pretty average. The gameplay is alright... Pretty similar to san-andreas, with the notable exception that the animations are vastly superior. You are able to traverse objects a little better, and the cover system does add some substance to combat. I'd give the gameplay a 7/10, its decent, but still sort of the same old thing. Vehicle mechanics are really very good, with notable attention to realistic traction, but the general physics still have a very toy like, very poor quality. They really didn't think outside the box too much, alot of the mission content is completely rehashed from the original GTA III engine titles. The plot is actually pretty good, and the voice actors seem to be above average. Its pretty entertaining plot wise. Nearly all of the new content additions are terrible though. The cellphone is an abomination. People bother you on your cellphone too much. I hate this in reality, let alone in a leisure activity. I don't want people calling me all the time and being obligated to do what they ask me. I can only play the stupid ingame pool once or twice before it becomes extremely tiresome. To make it worse, you're punished for not doing this by losing reputation. Dating a computer character? Give me a break, this doen't even resemble fun. A virtual internet complete with virtual spam? What the hell did they bother spending time on this for? Does anyone actually appreciate this? Its really *not* clever, I wish they would have spent this time play testing this garbled up mess of code. -Bottom Line- This software is almost completely broken, and riddled with issues. It barely works. To quote the great philosopher James Rolf (AVGN), "What a sh*tload of f*ck" It comes packaged with all this bloatware that makes irritated as well. I don't use 'windows live' for anything, and its nothing but a marketing ploy with no substance. 'Rockstar Social Club' is equally useless or worse, as I suspect these applications present very serious security flaws. They run scripts and leave open ports, and I feel there is a high likelyhood that these applications will be exploited as entry points. Its really just the insult added to injury.… Expand

This is a very great game,I recommend this game to those who like a open world action game. I was a little disappointed on how you could not mod your car or play some b-ball like in GTA San Andreas.But the city feels alive I also love the the story line.

First of all how come this game is rated with a solid "9"? No doubt, rockstar gave them a pile of money to do so. This game is utterly crap on the PC. I mean, i rarely rate a game with a 0, but this game sux so much that I stoped playing it after 30 minutes. everytime you start the game you get all that highly annoying windows Live crap + you it is mandatory to create an Live account where you have to give your email and personal info. I mean seriously... I bought the freaking game and just want to play it without all that stuff. Also you have to first start the story mode before you can go in MP mode, don't get that really... why not just give that option on the main page. It plays like crap on my decent dual core, controls are retarded, driving is a load of bull with these controls + you constantly adjust your camera with the mouse with every corner...so no auto camera lock, sux too. I tried MP, but the game freezes half the time + I have to wait like 10 minutes or more for other people in the lobby. Securom is also freaking annoying and unwanted... I mean you can't stop pirating so don't try, securom only makes it annoying for the people that actually bought the game............. I really liked san andreas on the PC, well it had issues as well, but it still was an enjoyable game, with GTA4 they made it 10 times worse.... So 1, I will never buy a game anymore with that windows live crap and securom and 2, I will think 3 times before I buy an other Rockstar game. Like many big game (infinity ward for example) companies they went in the wrong direction and made games that could gave cool sequels that are even better... they made it 10 times worse. I'm getting sick of buying games where I feel ripped of and let down.… Expand

Bought this on steam holiday sale for €7,49. Great game. I've got a system that can handle it; only thing annoying me is the loading screens that frequently occur (eg taking cabs to quickly 'teleport' to waypoint destinations). And re-attempting failed missions can sometimes be a pain in the arse as well, as it usually involves spawning @ hospital, driving to a weaponshop to get yourself new armor, buying ammo and doing some insane amount of driving to get the mission started again. At this moment I've had about 40 hrs of playtime and GTA IV's stats inform me that i'm @ about 62% ot total game (story) progression. Good fun so far. But sometimes I feel like I'm kinda playing a sims game, having to pick up the npc ingame friends to take them out to some establishment and take them back home, just for some ++ % in respect and friendship. Had some fun missions up till now. Some a bit hard, others rather easy. Can't help but wonder what a crapload of work has gone into this game... thumbs up for Rockstar, even though I came accross some glitches, but nothing noteworthy. I can recommend this game to anyone, just make sure you got a PC that can handle it, before actually buying it.… Expand

Whats with all the 0? I had very few problems with the game and it runs fine and smooth.But....windows live and rockstar social club is annoying.First it takes about 5 mins to load up the game so by then im on Counter Strike or sumthing and the "play"menu pops up and freezes my computer.Another thing is the cops.There AI is so dumb it will be like fighting a piece of paper.Installing was a pain.It took about 5 hours to complete.After i got all that out of the way i was happy with gta 4 and i recemend this to anyone!… Expand

To be fair this game deserves an 8 if it were polished sufficiently. The details of the gta 4 world is first rate and the pseudo-realism of the whole game. The bad part is that it wasn't optimized properly for the PC (blame over-hyping). If you've got a minimum spec PC, be prepared to play it on low textures and a lower screen-size (800x600 or 800x484). Things look and play better at that resolution. Don't push it all the way. Graphics are if-fy due to poor optimization with ATI cards. Rockstar should have done a better!… Expand

This is a brilliant game. How can you winge and winge about it's technical issues? Get the console version if it just don't work on ur pc. Yes the technical requirements are criminal but u should always be prepared for trouble if your pc only just scrapes them. A decent graphics card and a fairly clean hard drive should make the game play fine for a whle. Mine occaisionally crashes and comes up with a message saying "Fatal error please re-install" but i just ignore it and load it again and it's fine. This game has a fantastic story and recently been on offer on steam. A tenner i got it for . Bonus. Good luck to those who can't get it to work. Maybe a console version would be more desirable.… Expand

This game can easily score a 10/10 - all Rockstar had to do was polish the game a bit and not remove critical things from the game like Ambulance etc etc missions. Other than that the game is insane fun and comes highly recommended from my side. Multiplayer is also a blast with friends and a hit at LAN parties. It runs quite smooth on my 2.5Ghz Q9300 PC. Now we just need to wait for R* to patch the game up a bit to remove the minor glitches and to allow weaker/older PCs to play the game as well.… Expand

Great game, apart from the lock up problems and the archaic use of DVD copy protections (having to leave the dvd in the drive is the most annoying concept ever invented). Looks great, plays great, great story. I do understand the criticisms though, the cars are a bit boaty... bit more realism in handling would be nice. However, the frame rates are fine on my 280 in 1920x1200, so I don9;t know what Joel is on about.… Expand

Only 7 for PC port. It's not too bad PC port. But the problem is: I reside in Russia and I can't play multiplayer without headache with Hamachi or OpenVPN because... LIVE is not available in many developed countries! Another problems conclude in: poor framerate, bad optimization, f***cking DVD protection with activation and many more..

First, I'd like to point out you need a good PC to run this game well. Please, do not attempt to run this on your GeForce 5200FX and then complain about how the game crashes. Most minor issues with this PC game can be easily fixed; just search on Google and I assure you 95% of the time you'll find a fix. Also, make sure you have the most up-to-date version of the game, as Rockstar has fixed plenty of bugs and glitches with their latest 1.0.7.0 patch. It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. As for the game itself, it's incredible. Best storyline in the GTA series, gorgeous graphics, very likeable and memorable characters, great gameplay, fun multiplayer modes, and an incredibly well-desinged city. Not to mention, the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV has some exclusive features which the consoles do not have. Such as the in-game video editor, which is amazing. It allows to take clips you've captured during gameplay and edit them. You can create a simple stunt video or an incredible machinima with it. It's a wonderful tool. Overall, I think quite a few people fail to realize just how 'big' Grand Theft Auto IV really is. I mean, there's literally thousands of recorded dialogue clips in this game just for the pedestrians. There's a ton of hilarious and well written radio station, TV, and in-game internet content. Hundreds of unique character models, props, animations, and vehicles. So, if you do have a good PC I think you should definitely give this game a try.… Expand

Rockstar should hang their heads in shame: they've released some weak PC ports in the past (all of the GTA games, really), but this one takes the cake for total failure. Only this year have I finally (3+ years after release) been able to get the game to run solidly. When it runs properly, it's a fantastic game, probably my favorite of the series (although San Andreas is close). That has been a HUGE if, though, with 20-30 minute crashes being the norm, and one fix only leading to other, more difficult problems. Finally I figured out that the game was doing something no other "next-gen" game could pull off: it was taxing my graphics card so much that it was overheating and shutting down. No other game has been able to pull that off (including far more recent titles), and that's a testament to how poorly-coded the game was for the PC: my specs beat the **** out of the PS3 and yet I've had to struggle with an assortment of frame rate issues and texture glitches (the later of which I still haven't been able to solve to this day). It's about time that PC gamers stop taking this nonsense: build the game for the PC FIRST, then you can port it to the lesser systems, not the other way around.… Expand

When I first bought the game, it ran like a dog on lowest setting using a fairly high-end pc set up. If you're not buying the latest gear, don't even bother. A new graphics card later it ran, but the terrible, console style controls force you to use a game controller. Don't have an x-box game controller? Don't bother trying to drive anywhere. Or turn corners while walking. Since I always like their stories, I tried coming back to it after months (and probably win7 service pack 3) to find it won't load past the logo screens. I've tried everything I've found online to try to solve the issue with no success. R* can jump off a cliff. I am done with their bs, and despite owning pretty much everything they've made to date (bugs and all), I will never buy from them again. I feel like the entire package was a bait and switch for pc owners - Thanks for your $50, did you actually want to play that? Oh sorry, we haven't implemented that feature yet. Don't even bother buying it on special. Chances are it won't load at all. Go to a movie instead and save yourself days of screwing around.… Expand

It beats me how this game received a metascore of 90. It seems to have potential, I'll give it that, but the abysmal controls, bad dialog, and boring starter missions made me drop it after 2 hours. I might have been a bit annoyed with it to start with, because their lame attempt to market that windows gaming platform with the saving mechanism and random crashes. Sad thing is, they emulate the cars physics pretty well, which unfortunately is completely pointless with digital 0/1 controls. Again, there seems to be potential, but for me it had way too many flaws to get that far. P.S.: Hardware requirements are a bit ridiculous considering the release date and the eye candy you get for it, but for a modern (2011) gaming rig it's very playable.… Expand

(Sorry, didn't know metacritic doesn't recognize paragraphs) I just purchased this game for dirt cheap and I had absolutely no problems running the game in high detail on my newish PC - 3 years after release. It still feels like a waste of money. I heard many good things about this game from everyone and really seemed up my alley. I also own an Xbox controller for the PC so I was able to enjoy the same controls 360 users have. All in all, I am playing a just plain better version of GTAIV. All that said, after a good 20 hours, I have to say this is the most overrated piece of twaddle in gaming history. I am astounded at how many perfect 10s this game received despite a laundry list of glaring problems, affirming my suspicion that games are rated on graphics and presentation alone, with 0% of fun factor being considered. This game has some awesome moments. The realistic graphics really make for some cinematic scenes. Gun fights can be amazing in destructible environments, with pillars being shredded by gunfire. The realistic graphics and physics give the automobile-related incidents a new "oh snap" factor. I really enjoyed how the new realistic and serious twist put more gravity into your violent actions. It's just too bad the game does almost nothing to nurture these elements. First of all, the controls are godawful. Niko moves like he's wearing a 60-lb backpack and the cover button is just plain clunky. The snap-to-target system rarely chooses an enemy close to your reticule. Instead it just seems to choose a random yokel fully behind cover while someone that was in your reticule before you hit the aim button fills you up with machine gun fire. This is great considering that missions have no checkpoints, so there is no feeling of frustration like driving halfway across town to pick up a car again because Niko was too stupid to target the guy 5 feet in front of him or you didn't know you were going to need a really fast car to chase a helicopter. It becomes a bit easier, later, when you realize all of the missions are a exactly the same. Drive to point A (maybe on a timer), kill guy ( maybe chase him in car), maybe lose the police. This gets real old in a game with so much potential for mayhem. In fact, that leads into the main problem of the game: it just seems to want to waste your time instead of provide fun things to do. Your friends call constantly to do inane, unwelcome minigames, others constantly call your phone to make you sit through a five minute cut scene before doing the same mission again. You are constantly being nagged to do anything but free roam, which is OK I guess because the game provides absolutely no incentive to free roam. You can go on a rampage, of course, but make sure to save first because the game does nothing but you put in the hospital or take away all your weapons for causing a ruckus, nor does it provide you with anything resembling fun targets (not unarmed civilians) for some good ol' action while free roaming. Instead, why not just follow the storyline? It has its moments, but its altogether too long, thanks to driving around, again with no incentive to go really fast except to have to restart the mission because your passenger flew out the window. I won't get started on the phone as well. I can't believe you have to manually dial any number in something that is supposed to be fun. It's also great that Niko can't carjack while someone flaps his gums on phone with him for 5 minutes. Of course, if you are really bored, you could watch TV in game instead of turning off the game and watching actual good TV (What?), go to a cabaret or comedy club instead of visiting Youtube, or any other diversion that has nothing to do with playing a game. You could also slow down and listen to the radio. There is a huge list of licensed music which I was looking forward too, but have heard maybe 5 songs so far in between the 20 minutes straight of cringe-inducing unfunny radio ads, DJ comments, and news breaks, not to mention the humor of the radio/TV doesn't mix at all with the semi-serious tone of the story. I ended up turning off the music altogether and using Windows Media Player in the background. All in all, 99% of what this game has to offer is entirely unwelcome. It's really too bad, because it presented a sweet physics system and infinite potential to turn a modern city upside-down. Instead, it envelops itself in self-important drama, asinine courier tasks, and inconvenience in the sake of immersion. Maybe GTA4 was a sign of the times. Maybe it was the draught of games we had in 2008, maybe the economic scare was so serious that we all just wanted to escape into a virtual world, even if it wasn't very fun. Maybe it's just the forerunner in a trend of games for people who hate games but just want to escape.… Expand

After buying this game on Steam, i was really looking forward to playing it.. .. only.. no matter how many times i tried, it just wouldnt login so i could play it.. after trawling the forums, i eventually found out why, it needs an xbox live account to play it, and a games for windows live account, getting these setup took a considerable amount of time, and more than a few hours later, the game finally finished patching.. and i tried to login.. only. it wouldnt.. some kind of problem with the xbox live servers perhaps, but when it eventually did manage to login.. it played fine.. until i wanted to save the game, because of some kind of server problem at xbox live.. again.. i couldnt save the game. fortunately i had managed to save the game earlier.. but it meant a whole hour or so of progress.. had been lost. in the end, i uninstalled the game.. i just wish i hadnt bought the tales from liberty city module too.. i doubt i've ever regretted buying a game so much before.. when it worked it was fine.. but the xbox live thing just totally spoiled the game, all i can say is im not going to make that mistake ever again, i don't care how good the game is.. if it has xbox live as a requirement.. then i am definitely not buying it.… Expand

Terribly optimized for a pc to the point of being broken. Even to this day it fails to run on many hardware config's at a playable framerate. If you want to play this game, make sure you are running a quad core cpu with a high clock rate and a single - powerful gpu. Crossfire produces negative scaling, Sli is buggy, and a duel core cpu will produce a scattershot fps. The plus side to all of this mess is that it's far better looking on the stray computer than does meet all these requirements. The game itself fantastic, with an involving (albeit well tread) story, with great action, and a weighty physics system. If this game runs well on your system - 10/10. If it runs poorly. 0/10.… Expand

A game that you can't play, is worth nothing. And GTAIV PC is a game that you can't play. It requires a credit card to register GFWL, requires registering Social Club & has other annoyances like Securom, and yes that's when you got it from Steam - buying a game on Steam and having to register GFWL, find the error. I'm glad I didn't pay too much for it. It's possibly a good game, on consoles that is. From what I read it's also full of bugs, that I will never know. GTA3 was already a very bad PC port so I wouldn't be surprised. Another game that looks like a huge amount of work, ruined by abuse of marketing.… Expand

The GTA 4 is a worthy part of the Grand Theft Auto franchise. It's rather similar to Vice City than San Andreas which can make people disappointed but in my opinion it's a perfect game. Great graphics, enjoyable gameplay and a good multiplayer are contained. The system requirements are not as high as they say, they are acceptable.

Stand-alone, GTA IV would be a 9/10, but compared to San Andreas, GTA IV is a step forward in graphics, and back in mechanics. The new (well, 3 year old) game engine was built from the ground up, allowing optimized graphics (for console and powerful PC's), but restricting many mechanical abilities, like semi-truck trailers and such. Overall it's a great game, but is lacking content wise compared to SA, hence the 8 instead of a 9.… Expand

Grand Theft Auto IV is the best GTA game and maybe the best SandBox game but on consoles..... On PC this is very good game with very good graphics. GTA IV is one of my favorites games but this can be better. Too many bugs, no bad but no good optimalize ruined this perfect SandBox. Graphics in game is really nice but i can't play on max. because i have old but no bad PC...[optimalize....] On low grahics i have max 30 fps...... This isn't my PC fault because i played Crysis 2 on high graphics but Crysis 2 have better optimalize...... Missions on game is really no lined and all times u can played new kind of missions. I advice this game all GTA fans and people who likes great SandBoxes. My rate is 9.1/10.… Expand

rockstar games are better on consoles they dont care a lot about pc gamers but the game is good not like gta :sa but still it good its big with good graphics and good story ,.,. the dlc was worth the money its the same map with a new story... and some c4 and golden uzi and the DAO-12 WOW?! the very disappointing thing is that i have max out the settings and a lot of **** stuff are happening like a lot of cars are very damaged in the back but the graphics arent too good .. i mean when i look back for one sec i see the houses on low details and then maxed and the cars are sill disappearing when they are on my back :C this isnt cool… Expand

As with previous GTA games, this one is packed with hours of action adventure fun in a sandbox that you can call yours. Shoot an old lady, blow up a helicopter, have complete fun causing a mini apocalypse. Make sure you buy the add ons for even more fun. However the PC port is a disaster. Random crashes and bugs, many cheaters online, lots of glitches, cant support SSI. I have a VERY high end alienware desktop, and its still bad. Its about as bad as the PC ports of Saints row 2 and Driver 3. As said before, Play it on console. Make sure you get it on PS3, the online play is free unlike crapbox 360.… Expand

I'm not rating this game down because it's a poorly optimized game for PC, because I have a computer that can run it fine. In GTA IV, graphics are obviously the peak. For me, San Andreas was a better game because of more to do, not because of the graphics. In my opinion, GTA IV: 9/10, GTA SA: 10/10.

After playing GTA:SA, I must say that the graphics have certainly improved (drastically), and Liberty City is bigger and better than ever. Although this game is slightly less open world than I would have hoped, (in comparison to GTA:SA), the ragdoll and crash physics system is more or less fun and hilarious to play with. Microsoft does, however, need to optimize the packets sent in multiplayer, as there is severe drag and lag unrelated to ISP provided speeds and quality.… Expand

A highly over-rated game. It is very clear that Rockstar developed this as a console title, because on PC it is very unoptimized, it requires more from your computer to max than many high-end titles released today, but not looking nearly as good. The combat and driving of the game is also very mediocre and the story uninteresting. It is also restricted to the incredibly dumb Games for Windows Live service, even if you buy from steam. That said, it can still be very fun for short periods of time when trolling around in multiplayer with friends.… Expand

This game is fun with so many mission. However it will be kind of boring for just doing mission. Also the game requires a good cpu and graphic card for smooth game play. Anyway fun game overall!

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. While playing the game under a GTS450 and an Athlon II X2 260 (Nowhere near the best PC) The game went smoothly, no fps drops nor lags. The controls for the cellphone are awful, in fact. How many times haven't I rejected a call due to be pressing the reject button (that's shared with 2 other commands). Other than that, the movement controls on it's predecessor SA are way better than this one, still the GTA IV movement is more realistic. As I don't really play GTA thinking of realism, the bad movement controls are a problem. Nice hidden content. When I first played GTA III and save the girl, GTA Vice City and you own the world or GTA San Andreas and luck you tempenny! GTA IV makes you wish you hadn't finish the game, the usually warm fuzzy feeling of putting everything in place was ripped from the game. The friends minigames, Ok on the beginning, start to get bad as the game goes on and your phone list increases in size. The graphical quality improved, the radios are still funny, the "friends missions" found throughout the map are the best addition of GTA IV. --TLDR-- Bad Movement controls, boring "relationship quests" and awful story endings kill a good part of playing through GTA IV; But it may still be worthy buying if you find it used for U$15 or less.… Expand

If it wasn't for Rockstar banging their heads on the keyboard while writing code for the PC port this would've run better. Fortunately they mitigated most of the issues in 1.0.4.0, but things got worse when they changed the shadow mapping system in 1.0.7.0 as I'm getting lower framerates on my mid-end PC. Heck, I've seen games with better graphics that churn out more fps than this. The game seems a tad easier than the previous installments thanks to the cover system (I played through the Gay Tony EP and it was indeed a relief compared to the coverless combat of the III-era games), but the main campaign's overall length seems a little daunting imo.… Expand

DON'T DRINK THE COOLAID! This game is down right terrible for PC. Does Splinter Cell: Double Agent for PC ring a bell to anyone? If so, then you already know what I'm talking about. If not, believe me when Joel and I tell you that this is a terrible PC port of the game. Do not buy it!! I AM WARNING YOU! I give it a 2/10. The two goes towards the marketing team for doing such a great job at over hyping this craptastic game. If it wasn't for marketing doing their job ridiculously well, I would have rated 1/10.… Expand

A disappointing mess of a game, undecided if it wants full-on realism or diverse fun (See San Andreas). Though a very well done game, GTA IV falls short of all expectations, with boring and repetitive missions and badly done gameplay elements. The PC version, also is by far the worst PC port ever, if not the worst PC game ever.

Let's start out with the good things, the game looks absolutely brilliant, there it has not disappointed. The Gameplay is not bad, but there's something missing that GTA: San Andreas had, it's the whole atmosphere. The Single Player campaign is certainly worth the money. The Multiplayer is very dull, especially for those who have played SA: Multiplayer, which was a mod. Of course i thought rockstar would be inspired by the great concept, but because the game is a console port with very few changes, they even left the "weaknesses" of consoles in, that's why you cannot have Multiplayer servers with lots of players, and the game is very hard to mod. Even worse than that is that you need a Microsoft live account to even just save.… Expand

What a shame! I have a i7 oc to 4.4ghz and a gtx295 oc by 24% and the game graphics glitchy, the only game I have that does this. Even if I reduce the oc's or remove them altogether its still the same but worse. Nice idea, controls are poor and very clunky. Its as if you were a puppet master controlling strings that actually control the controls....if that makes sense, as if you are far removed. Not so bad when you're walking but fighting is a joke and driving is unrealistic. Completed 4 missions then deleted it, waste of £5.… Expand

Grand theft auto IV is a really good game, story is great, graphic is great, overall the game itself i would give 9,5 score.. GTA IV actually runs great IF you have a triple/quad core CPU, even a 9500 GT could do high/very high and runs it smoothly IF you have a nice CPU. BUT The DRM, rockstar social club, windows live, and all the must install things just to play the game kinda backs me off from giving this game a 9 or 10 score. if you could get by the ANNOYING installation, the game is very very good and enjoyable. :)… Expand

It's just one of the best GTA games. The storie is the best of all GTA games. The graphics are phantastics and don't overheat my PC. Sometimes there is a bug but if I restart the game it's away and they are only bugs which aren't relevant for the Gameplay. I don't know what the other have but I vive 9 / 10!

I'm giving this game a ten, because it needs it. Many people are giving it 0s because they're too stupid to check system requirements before they buy. GTA 4 is a stunning game. Liberty city is probably the most realistic city ever realized. Many people are complaining about the city being too realistic, that really isnt so true. You can turn your phone on snooze, if you dont want any annoying calls and want to just have fun in the city. You can skip any driving by taking a cab (and if you're too stingy you can call Roman.) But overall, the great thing about the city is that its so alive. You can take a break from all of the carjacking for comedy, minigames, anything. The controls aren't that hard once you get used to them, and adds some extra challenge to driving. Overall, GTA 4 is a fantastic game.… Expand

Wow, lots of negative reviews mostly based on the technical flaws. I just bought this off Steam for 7.50, installed it, fired it up and was pleased. For PC specs, I have an AMD Phenom II x4 965 3.4Ghz, 4GB of DDR2 1066Mhz, HD 4770 512 DDR5, 1TB WD SATA harddrive, and an AM2+ motherboard. It cost me a bit over $500 to build it, so a fairly high end PC isn't that expensive if you look for deals on parts. AND GTA4 runs great on it with Medium textures and with all view distances maxed with 50+ FPS on the benchmark. I'd like to try higher textures, but it wouldn't let me for some reason. I've only played about 3 hours, but it's all I need. It's classic GTA in the vein of 3, VC and SA. The controls are a little different from the earlier games, but that's because they are more realistic. I personally like driving a car with bad brakes and bad suspension as it keeps me on my toes when cornering. Even sprinting is a little tricky because of your own momentum running around corners. It's excellent physics. The landscape is beautiful and the realtime shadows give it the feeling of a living, breathing environment. Standing under a railway while a train is going by and having its shadow go over you was quite impressive. The people on the street are lively and you can even eavesdrop on someone having a conversation on their cell phone. And from little of the story I've seen, it seems like classic GTA goodness. The only qualm I have is to be forced to install Windows Live to save. I also should mention that there was a recent update (13 Apr 2010) that was to fix some performance issues.… Expand

Numerous graphical, gameplay and stability problems mean this game only gets a 6. It's hard to shake the feeling that it was rushed out in time for Christmas. But if you can get playing and look past all the uneccessary garbage included in this game you will find the best GrandTheftAuto game yet. Alas quality control has let the team down which means it can never reach the perch it deserves.

Had already played and beat this on my brothers xbox.Should of just bought a 360 and took his game.Without a high end gaming machine,you'll most likely not be impressed.Wish i could return it for a refund. Cant play online without getting the MMA10 error which i have already found to be common among the community.

Terrible graphics because of lack of AA. Jagged edges everywhere. Your vid card, no matter how high end, is useless. This game has NO option to enable AA, which it so desperately need.

Huge disapppointment - this is a prime example for a sloppy PC port. This is the kind of product that is the reason for a dying PC market. Graphics look rather aged, even on high settings. No antialiasing (thus very jagged edges), paintspray-like shadows, no reflections on cars etc., no blur effects, blurry textures (even on high settings) - and to top this, poor performance even on high end systems. Game review sites were supplied with "black boxed" PCs running GTA IV, allegedly running pro-level GFX's - this might explain the huge discrepancies between all the user generated screenshots that do not look even close to the ones on game review sites in terms of visual qualities. Loads of crashes and problems, plus you have to sign into BOTH Games for Windows Live AND Rockstar Social Club to play online and/or even save a game in singleplayer mode. 8 points from me for the gameplay, but -7 points for the inexcusably bad port - what were Rockstar thinking ?… Expand

This game could be awesome, but sadly it is not. Another game SecuROM enabled game, with numerous bugs and flaws: * First of all, you have to create two accounts in order to play the game (Windows Live & Rockstar Social...) * SecureROM keeps me from playing the game by just not letting it start (emulation software? I've got none...) * After I reinstalled windows (!) and the game (which takes more then 30 minutes) I got to start it after 5 tries (reproducible). * And, last but not least, the framerate is really crappy. Changing the resolution doesn't help, and my systems not that bad (Q6600, 8800GTX, 4GB Ram) So please, do NOT buy this game, hoping that the folks at Rockstar realize what a piece of crap the released.… Expand

It sort of works in single player, multiplayer doesn't work at all so far. Was finally looking forward to being able to mouse/keyboard this sweet game, but they botched it pretty bad. And since i bought it on steam, I need my steam ID, windows live ID AND rockstar social club ID for multi (which crashes when logged into social club).

Having been a fan of the GTA series on the PC since GTA III I had high hopes for this after the somewhat unfocused sprawl of San Andreas. Unfortunately it has not transferred well to the PC with Securom DRM causing many users, including myself, to have problems running the game. Having played the 360 version to death I was very disappointed that my system was considered to be only able to manage similar graphical quality. The game would not let me get past 1024 resolution on a system that can play FarCry 2 in widescreen with settings high. It feels like someone has been lazy. The gameplay does not have the fun and variety of earlier versions. Vice City remains the jewel in the crown and whilst it is eclipsed by the physics of GTA IV, this version is essentially joyless in mood and gameplay. The reviews of GTA IV and console continue a proud tradition of over-rating a big release. If you have this on console then don't bother with the PC version, much as it pains me to say it. If you don't have it already then don't expect to be blown away.… Expand

Are none of the reviewers going to mention that this game IS BLOODY BROKEN. Who cares if it COULD be a good game IF the engine was optimised and IF you didn't have to install FOUR bloody applications that you never asked for. And that excludes the notorious SecuROM DRM. As a customer experience, it is at best broken, at worst the most frustrating, anger-inducing insult of a game I have EVER had the misfortune to pay money for.… Expand

Simply brilliant game, let down by absolutely woeful performance issues. On a system that either meets or exceeds the recommended requirements, the game suffers random crashing roughly every 15 minutes requiring a full restart, terrible pop up, and a draw distance that very often doesn't update fast enough. The graphics are also largely unpolished, with heavy amounts of jagged edges. The controls also feel disconnected and unresponsive, either on foot or in car. Beyond all that, it is an outstanding game in terms of design, and most importantly, it's the game that GTA3 should have been. But at least GTA3 worked (eventually).… Expand

bugs bugs bugs. thats treyarch for you. connection problems(internet gets disconnected when u start game, if youre using vista you cant join xp games in coop and there arent much vista users compared to xp users, you get disconnected by the server randomly in multiplayer games, unhandled exception caught disconnection problems), sound driver conflict problems, disapearing favorite server problems, startup problems, internet disconnection problems(COD WAW tweaks the network settingsand you have to wait 5 minutes to reset the modem) installation problems, hardcore mode overpowered dogs, and did i mention bugs? congratulations on your bugfarm treyarch. i wasted $50.00.… Expand

I usually find it unfair for a game to receive "0" because it rarely deserves such a rating but for this game, I'll gladly make an exception. Why? Because of the way Rockstar have been treating us PC gamers from day 1. First of all, they kept us hanging, hoping we'd buy the console version first which I did. When they thought most people had already bought it, they announced the PC version, knowing that die hard PC gamers would want the PC version next to the console version. A dirty move if ever I saw one. But now that it's finally here, it's even WORSE than the horrible launch of GTA3 which was bugged and failed to run on many PCs as well. Have they learned NOTHING? No, they have learned something: they have learned that crappy, buggy, crash-prone ports sell regardless of their problems. And GTAIV is the pinacle of crappy ports. Horrible performance on top end systems, instability, many people being unable to load the game, graphical errors, tons and tons of bugs, etc. etc. This is UNACCEPTABLE. I don't give a damn about the game behind this when the attitude of Rockstar is so smug, so arrogant, as to admit spending $200k on copy protection instead of getting the thing beta tested! Here's your 0/10 Rockstart. Not that you'll give a damn after having paid off all those reviewers to give you high scores.… Expand

On top of incredibly buggy game, insanely hardware demanding game, securom drm, it rams another 2 "social" networks down your throat (3 if you use steam) - games for windows live and some rockstar branded social crap. And you do need them if you want to do as basic things as save a game progress in a singleplayer game. This is beyond absurd.

Horrendous port. Rockstar did not even bother to take us PC gamers seriously, by giving us such a HIGH DETAIL of technical and graphical glitches. I have been a long supporter of the GTA franchise and i must say, Rockstar has certainly pissed us PC gamers off.

This should have been one of the greatest games of all times but it's actually a test of how much you can screw the PC user before driving him to the console. It installs SecuROM even though I've bought it through Steam. It requires umpteen logins to play online... if you can get it to launch at all. The game was rushed to launch so it can make the most of the holiday season and rake in the cash, the only problem is that you would have to be stupid to pay money for it right now. Wait for SecuROM to be removed (at least from the Steam version) and for the showstopper bugs to be ironed out.… Expand

This game is the first I've purchased in many time, and I cant even evaluate it because It dosent start once downloaded by Steam. I pass the recomended config by large and it dosent run. It is very very desapointing. I urge rockstar to prepare a patch to solve this problem.

I bought this game on Steam. I am unable to run it in a playable fashion on a Pentium D/GF7800GT with 4 GB RAM (a somewhat aging setup, I know, but it runs Fallout 3 comfortably and without any hiccups). The graphics are horrible, and not just due to the abysmal optimization - I'm experiencing plenty of clipping issues and objects suddenly appearing right in front of me, not to mention that with all sliders set to minimum it looks far uglier than GTA:SA while still offering worse framerates (naturally, I've tried a number of GFX drivers, including the very latest ones). The HUD flickers on and off. Frequent crashes to desktop. Unable to redefine controls (the game assumes that I have an XBOX controller, which is beyond ridiculous - this is a PC game, remember?) Moreover, Rockstar blackmail you into installing some sort of community software - otherwise you cannot save the game (their insistence makes me believe that they're desperate to acquire your personal info for commercial purposes). My recommendation avoid like the plague (get a console version instead, if you like GTA).… Expand

Do not buy the PC version! GTA IV on PS3 and Xbox 360 is a must have but the PC version is garbage. If you thought Crysis was demanding, think again. You will need a Quad core Xtreme and an ATi 4870 X2 and 4GB ram just to play medium settings at 25fps (Not very playable). I just hope a patch will fix this game. Do not waste your money on this like I did! Buy Left 4 Dead or Fallout 3 instead!

It's like a bad port from a bad PS2 game. But it's 2008 and they had a good DirectX version. What they did? They destroyed a good game: DRM, RSC, GFWL, bad graphics (worse than San Andreas in my computer), etc. They spent several months to achieve only one thing: Fail.

It does not pay to buy pc games before the first patch is released; I had hoped Rockstar's port would be different, more fool me. After a tricky install (why must I be forced to turn off a standard Vista service [not mentioned in the GTA documentation] and sign up to 2 online services- Rockstar Social Club and Windows Live- in order to get through the damned install without it crashing?). I find I can run the game now, but it won't recognize my gamepad (the same one which worked great in GTA-SA) and the control scheme/camera viewmake near impossible to drive properly using just the keyboard & mouse. I'm hopefully these problems will be resolved in the future, but if you are planning on buying this for PC, DON'T, at least not untill a patch is issued. Constantly paying to be a beta tester is going to finally drive me to consoles, I stare at my new laptop with Nvidea 9800GS M video card, and it mocks me- I could have bought a PS3, an XBox 360, a WII, and a heap of console games for what it cost me.… Expand

I feel cheated by a massively buggy game. ok, the underlying game is great. But if the graphics keep crashing what's the point, because it becomes unplayable. There are other bugs too, but these pale into insignificance next to the terrible graphics problems.

Great game with great detail. It would have received 10/10, but 2 points are removed for a bad PC port. The graphics look like they came straight from a console (which they did,) the shadows are horrible, and no FSAA support. NVIDIA released a snap beta driver to correct some of the FPS problems so kudos there. There is no wheel support. When you view the controls in setup, it shows an XBOX 360 controller.. wtf? Some of the mapped keys that show up in the beginning demo do not work correctly on the keyboard. Overall Rockstar has abandoned its PC roots and pissed off a lot of loyal fans.… Expand

4.2... How is that? Is it all the lame "It's a port" rubbish again? This game was, is and forever will be a great game. I love everything about it. From the gameplay to the graphics and physics; everything about this game is as close to perfect one can get.

Buggiest release of a major game I have seen on PC in as far back as I can remember. I can't play it more than 3-4 minutes without it crashing and I can't get acceptable frame rates on a machine that exceeds the requirements. The only reason to rate this game a 2 and not a 1 is that it might eventually be fixed. Rockstar has been extremely unhelpful in the meantime and their press releases have been full of doublespeak.… Expand

The game performs like absolute crap and it's not even a next gen game! Graphics are terrible. Shadows are grainy and looks like crap. These critics who gives it a high score must have been payed off since i can't believe someone could actually ignore such a major flaw in this game. Before you even can start the game you need windows live and Gta social club which in my eyes is just a resource hog. The latest patch didn't solve any performance issues. Physics in this game needs some tweaking. Missions feels repetitive. The social relationship you have with other characters in this game is annoying. If you don't go bowling with them then they will hate you. If you get hit by a car then it will take forever for you to get up on your legs and when there's cops after you then they will shoot you before you get up. So if cops are after you and you fall down then "GAME OVER BUDDY!"… Expand

GTA IV is one of the best games of all time! Despite all the technical issues on PC, you cannot help believe the fact that its a great experience. The free-aim with the mouse, ability to play your own music, better graphics and numerous other advantages makes the PC version superior to console. Eat your heart out 360 and PS3!

I can't even offer a gameplay review for this pos game because I can't get past the crashing, stuttering, and missing textures that deplete any potential enjoyment. With a 2.5Ghz cor 2 duo and 9800m GS I would hope to at least be able to execute the game. Not the case :(

This would easily, easily be a 10 if it wasn't for the innefficient programming. The game is framey even on the console versions. Luckily I managed to get it going with an oc'ed quad-core phenom , and underwater oc'ed 1GB Radeon 2900. The only other quibble is that there doesn't seem to be as many submissions and random trivial activities as previous (e.g. skydiving, turf-war, RC helicopter missions etc)… Expand

Using the steam version, I have an Nvidia GEForce 9500 card with 512 MB (Min is listed as 256) I have 2 gigs system memory, an ASUS motherboard and a 3.2 Ghz Pentium D chip. I was under the impression that qualifies as a dual core. THIS game runs like crap. The graphics are flat, and frankly a step back from San Andreas which I loved, and still load on occasion. The entire half life franchise runs brilliantly, any number of online games and other high graphics application run fine. None of this, however, compares to the aggravation of both the Rock Star Social Club and being forced to sign on to a Windows Live account. I could swear up a blue streak about being forced to pay $50 for the game AND be forced to take their version of "community" with it regardless of what I want, but..... suffice it to say I neither need nor want anything else trying to force it's way into my start up menu, and if I wanted to engage in social interaction with my gaming I would get world of warcraft. GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas all had me anticipating GTA 4 when it was announced. I don't think I'll be very interested in GTA 5.… Expand

Doesn't work on my PC (a very good one). Much more important than this game though is what the paid 'critics' are saying about how good the game is. Real people think it's junk but the paid 'critics' think it's excelent! Look at the paid 'critics' scores above to see what sites are worth visiting and listening to in the future. As the 'critics' paid 'reviewers' will 'review' this before it is posted I doubt you'll get to read it.… Expand

Biggest dissapointment of the year! Don't get me wrong, this is not a horrible game, it's a solid average game. But that's it. All these reviewers giving it 9s and 10s are either never played the previous GTA or they are paid off. Let's start with the technical problems. This game requires XP SP3 to run, so I tried to install SP3, but for some reason it won't install, I wasn't going to reinstall my OS for just one game, thankfully I found a registry hack that'll allow me to play the game. Now the game loads, but I had the missing texture problem, so I downloaded the patch, now it has the spinning camera problem. After many tried, I found out that I had to unplug the controller when the game starts, then plug it back it once the game is fully loaded. What a pain in the 455. There's no AA option in this game. This is a really big step back. I mean come on, even GTA:SA have AA. They developed this brand spanking new engine for this game and it can't do AA? Come on, that's bs. I know they are giving the defferred lighting bs, but if engines like Source, Schimitar, and Dunia can do HDR with AA, this is no excuse. I don't understand why they didn't just use one of the existing engine anyways, they clearly can't make a good engine. Now on to the problems with the gameplay and game mechanics. As everyone said, the cars' handling sucks. If I want to play a sim I'd go to play GT4. The cars handles worse that the cars of NFS. The friend system is ultra annoying. I don't mind having to gain their thrust and whatnot, but having them constantly calling me to go out and if I refuse the thumb down me, that's so damn annoying. They too out the planes, the car mods, the ability to buy properties, to own hoods, to level up your character's gun skills. Another thing is earning money is so hard in this game, I couldn't just blast everyone because the rockets and grenades are so expensive, sometimes I come out of an mission losing money. That's rediculous. Overall I think GTA:SA was a much better game. This game is very frustrating at times, and when you finally completed a mission, the rewards just doesn't feel like it's worth the effort. There are a few positive about this game though. The graphics looks better than the previous GTAs. The radio stations are great, and the ability to integrate you own music in the radio is awsome. The city feels pretty alive, especially at night. My advice, if you're a GTA fans, wait for this to hit the bargain bin, then pick it up for $20.… Expand

This game runs like crap on core 2 duo, 4 gb's of ram and a 9800 gts. Having to log into windows live to save is cumbersome and if you want to save and you don't have internet you have to create a new account that's offline. Good luck trying to figure that out I guarantee it will frustrate you. The driving isn't nearly as smooth as the x-box. I wish I could get my money back. I was a longtime Rockstar supporter but this is ridiculous.… Expand

As a software engineer at a company that makes software quality assurance products, I feel I can speak with some authority when I say the PC release of GTA4 is a colossal failure by either Rockstar's QA department or management. The game itself is quite good, but the workmanship is by far the worst I have ever seen on a game I have beta tested, much less a final product.

The good? Compelling story, awesome voice acting, realistic physics, superb audio on 5.1 speakers, attention to detail, Liberty City is big! The bad? DRM, RockStar Social Club (mandatory sign-up), Windows Live (mandatory log-in), shoddy PC port and coding, runs like crap on my high-end computer, subpar graphics, overly realistic car physics, unintuitive and unchangeable gamepad controls (possibly the worst I've ever experienced), lengthy learning curve, bugs & glitches galore (even after latest patch), the radio stations are entirely uninspired, horribly implemented camera modes, sparse documentation, etc. etc. etc. I could go on and on. It looks like RockStar have gotten way too big for their britches. They obviously don't give a fig about the PC market, so why bother releasing atrocious console-to-PC ports anymore? Spare us computer owners the pain, please!… Expand

Even just installing the game i ran into all sorts of problems i kept on getting a corrupt media error message after buying a legitimate version, it happened so often that i just decided to hit ignore and then thought that running the setup again and select repair would fix any issues..wrong!...after about 30 minutes the game crashed and popped up with a fatal error message Zlib20 which apparently according to rockstar means that i need to reinstall the game!! i did, got install error messages again so figured....i have a mate whos got the same game "i'll just borrow theirs and then just use my key" installed fine no error messages so i figured the game would be good to play....wrong!!....the game crashed before i even got to the second mission with roman!!, I've been patient and reinstalled the game few times (maybe 6 in total). But now i have had enough They have released a 2nd patch already to fix the issues that they (rockstar) added too the game in the first patch! I installed the patch (second one) and now the game just freezes after 5 minutes of being in a car! I really would have liked the game had it have worked im sure of that but the issues, bugs, and problems with it are far to numerous and widespread for me to recommend this game to anyone!... the thing that is frustrating is that the mate i borrowed the game discs from is having no issues with the game and their PC specs aren't as good as mine so no i not only have a game that doesn’t play but I’ve got a mate with a sh**y computer that keeps on rubbing it in every time i come over to visit!! Lol I’ve tried lowering the graphics specs in the game etc but on a pc that is setup with: Vista Ultimate SP 1 intel core 2 duo 3.17 ghz 4 gb patriot ddr ram Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX I would expect the game to be at least playable!... i mean i can run crysis no problems!!! And its graphic requirements are far higher I’m really frustrated at the fact that I wasted my money on this game! and will be working on getting a refund! so all I’d say is DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!!! OR AT LEAST WAIT UNTIL ITS IN THE $10 SALE BIN! I mean how smug are rockstar selling a game that obviously hasn’t been tested correctly if high spec machines can’t either run the game full stop or run it with crappy framerates!!… Expand

Come on Metacritic. This game doesn't deserve any near of 89! You should listen what the players have to say, and just calculate the score from players and critic reviews together. Reading these critics' reviews makes me ask did they even play the game, or spend 50 dollars of it!? The game is horrible, including all the problems and the fact that you need a supercomputer to be even able to play it. Finally a game that deserves 0.… Expand

Its just a shame what Rockstar did to his good old pc-community. i bought it, but it defenetly was my last gta i paid for. Why are they making that deal with Windows? Why realasing an unfinished port? The game feels old and isnt working smoothly, on a high end system. the steering isnt adjusted to a pc-steering with mouse and keys, u cant really handle the car, because its impossible to control the speed proberly. what makes it even worse is that it just support the x-box controller (Microsoft!!), those bold capitalist doesnt deserve the money!… Expand