The worst entry in the GTA series yet. It completely drops the premise of fun in favor of "WE SERIOUS GAME ABOUT FEELINGS NOW". I'm sure it's very deep to especially dense 6th graders.

It's GTA. Nothing terribly new, nothing terribly revolutionary. Not a bad sandbox setup but I expect more from a sequel and not just more of the same old, same old. Missions get pretty boring and repetitive. Gun play is so-so. Sadly this game is marred by not breaking from the herd enough and re-invigorating the series in light of Saints Row and Just Cause coming out and putting together similar concepts. Oh, and yes, playing it on PC can be a mess depending on your hardware specs and that it is a half-cooked port.… Expand

AMAZING JUST AMAZING! I have always loved all the GTA series, I've played every single GTA and this is the best one! Graphics are amazing, only thing is you need lots of vram, i had x2 GTX 460's and i cannot max the game, I'm close to it tho,cant wait for GTA V I'm sure it will be just as amazing. I must say you do need a very good PC to play GTA iv, as it does not support SLI or anything but I'm sure future Grand theft auto games will have no issues.… Expand

I'm really surprised about the score distribution here.

I suffered from technical difficulties only in the last mission, where a bug caused me to fail the mission and start over from the beginning of a mission (far behind).

Overall the gameplay is fluent enough and the story is really well developed. I highly recommend buying the Episodes from Liberty City DLC as it focuses on the stories of some side characters in the original game and can get the player really invested in the subplots going on in the game world during Niko and Roman's struggles in Liberty City.

To me the most important aspect in Grand Theft Auto games is the design of characters, missions and the setup. In GTA4 the setup is great, our protagonist Niko Bellic included. Some of the voice acting and dialogue are however really overblown and ridiculously stereotypical, and at times I would have liked for the writers at Rockstar to show a bit more respect for the intelligence of their audience.

GTA4 does have its share of problems, though. I won't complain about the PC port, as it has worked like a dream for me. There are some flaws in the design and gameplay mechanics as well. For example the relationship/girlfriend aspect of the game really felt like it was slowing the gameplay down and some of the missions should have been cut out as well.

In addition to this I would have liked more use of the vertical dimension of the city: in a sandbox game it would be good to have the option to easily go to the roof of more buildings, gun people down from tactical locations, skydive etc. (Skydiving was added in the DLC, but it doesn't satisfy my urge to skydive to a meet with gun-dealing Jacob.) Also the ability to make decisions that affect the story could have been utilized more.

In The Ballad Of Gay Tony story of the DLC a very pleasant feature was added. When dying or otherwise failing a mission, retrying would allow you to continue at the point where the player failed. This should be a norm in GTA games, as it cuts down on the pointless delay of running to buy a body armor, going to a safehouse to regain health and continuing on to your next mission.

With its minor design flaws, GTA4 is still an amazingly enjoyable game with a really touching and compelling story.… Expand

A good game if you like the GTA theme. Runs ok on a reasonable pc/vga combo, I'm getting playable frame rates on a HD6770 card, with all but one of the settings on high, and the three sliders on 35/50/50 (from the top, down) My console buddies say it looks better & runs smoother than it does on the ps3. I'd imagine it looks stunning with a 2Gb card and some texture/rendering mods. A good game still, with the mods to make what you will of it. Pick it up on Steam (when it's on sale) for less than a tenner.… Expand

gta iv is a great game and its very fun but theres one problem that becuase of tha i am giving this game a 8/10 so what is the problem?... the graphics.what is wrong about the graphics you are saying? let me tell you i have a very good pc.i can run battlefield 3 and crysis 3 on high setting and it will be fast but here it doesnt matter what the game is slow and i dont get why.so everything besides the graphic.the story is well written and the gameplay is amazing.… Expand

This is a really rubbish port. The engine runs horribly and there seems to be a particular issue with ATI cards (I have a 7970OC Edition). The FPS is crap and the game is incredibly jerky. I have many games with much better graphics that are smooth as silk. The controls are rubbish too. Niko runs like a spaz, the cars handle like crap and the camera is annoying. The only reason why I've come up to a 5 is because the environment is really well created, the game is extremely funny and the music tracks are really good.

However, I am left not being able to play the game though because it's so jerky and the controls are so rubbish. If only the engine worked properly on PC and the gameplay was like GTA3 where the cars handled properly and the character moved around like a proper game character where left was strafe left, right was strafe right and backwards was back-peddle, not turn around and look at the camera like a dick. What do Rockstar care though? They got their money and made more than $1bn from the game.… Expand

I really enjoyed this game, and was pretty late into buying it. At the time, I did not have the computer required to run it, but when I did, I had a lot of fun. The missions get tedious and boring at times, but the open world without consequences is always something to go back to. The PC port has some annoying bugs, and even after a few years, the graphics are still decent.

After playing the game I can simply conclude that the "offical" reviews are just plain bias, written by bribed reviewers who can only give every overrated overhyped game sequel like this a high score no matter what. First of, GTA IV's game world is really fantastic, with every little detail put into the environment and most impressively, the AI pedestrains that populate it. It really sets the benchmark of a true open world game. Problem however, is that there's close to NOTHING, NOTHING to do in the huge city the devs constructed. All you have is a few side missions up to 10 given by friends and cop missions that all can be completed within 1-2 hours. After that, you'll be left in a huge empty world like Mafia II where you have no incentives or reason to go out and explore further. Not the mention 90% of the main missions are nothing of entertainment. Most of them will just have you driving up and down various places far away before some small shootout or something and the end, end of mission. There's really no thrill to it and the driving feels like a waste. It does have new features like taking the trains, bowling, playing pool and watching shows that spice up the experience but all these get repetitive over time. Seems like the devs spent too much time making features like the live shows you can attend or the TV programmes than the actual side missions they could have improved on and added. To sum it up, this is a game with huge potential but with so much wasted on.… Expand

worst pc port game I have ever played in my life. I have duel GTX 680s and the game wont even let me play with hiccups every 2 seconds. lame. companies sacrificing quality for profit as usual./

The game was looking good at first, the graphics and textures are okay, although it's extremely laggy even if you have a PC much above the requirements, which I don't quite understand, so it does not work properly on computers. The cars are cool and the damage engine for them is great. Although there is some bugs with cars such as getting stuck or not seeing any sport cars which often happens. The game is quite boring and the missions have no point and it's repetitive, I had no money in this game, then a mission where you rob a bank now I'm rich with nothing to do with the money? The only thing you can buy in this game is clothes and guns. This game is overrated. You are very limited on what you can do, there is no upgrades or level up systems, and it's extremely repetitive, the map is a decent size. The story is very bad, which is linear and repetitive and it's not interesting at all. I would not recommend this game.… Expand

By far the best GTA, just know that you should buy it if you have a SUPERULTRAMEGA-PC.

The game would have been great if its performance wasn't so bad. The game stuttered like crazy when I first bought it, even if I put it on the lowest graphics. Once I installed a patch and got more RAM it ran better, but the frame rate was still low, aside from performance issues the game was enjoyable, but it was a bit darker and less goofy than previous GTA games. The game wasn't quite as funny as Vice City and San Andreas, but the missions were still very fun. The soundtrack was not as good as the previous games either, and the character "Roman" was more annoying than funny. Overall the story-line and acting was very good, the soundtrack was ok, some parts were funny but the game really needed to run better.… Expand

Kill People Shoot School. this game has so much swag it had me rolling in stitches when i killed Hoes In the street and nobody cared because hoes. #YOLO

This would get a 9 if not for all the technical problems. What i am talking about is this game would never start because Rockstar social club and windows live. THAT impossible to start the game you NEED xliveless to start it. Now to the game it is about a man named Niko Bellic who moves to Liberty City (New York). He moves there because he pissed of the mob and his cousin Roman said he had a very good life there. Well big surprise! He does not he lives in a ****ty apartment in a ****ty neighborhood on the ****ty island and he owns a ****ty cab company. You work for him until you work for likable people that does not call every hour and say EEY COUSIN WANNA GO BOWLING?! When you find out people who where in your child squad from the war you go after the traitor and when you kill him YOU DON'T FEEL DIFFERENT!… Expand

First I had problems installing it, it had a bug in the installation proccess, I 've had to open a support thread. Only then after one month I was told that I was forced to install Microsoft Marketplace manually, I had to create two accounts. One "RockStar Club" and a Microsoft account. It found it very annoying.
I expected more for this game. I found the controls too hard to grasp at first. The graphics is still very good. But I didn't have as much fun as I had with previous GTA. It is for sure a worst GTA. I'd say the experience was bad.… Expand

Grand Theft Auto 4 is the best of the series, a third-person shooter that combines frantic shooter sections with a deep storyline, which focuses on the protagonist Niko Bellic, who seeks his fortune in the land of opportunity, but soon discovers the hostility of a city that thinks only of capitalism do not worry about criminals and the mafia who commit crimes of crimes, killing necessario.Niko Bellic if it was subjected to the orders of someone willing to pay well, in order to support himself and his cousin Roman who made you think by e-mail to be wealthy and was full of debiti.Vi will then catapulted into an adventure without equal that will have you playing for hours.
Also speaking in general Grand Theft Auto 4 has a graphics among the most efficient of all time, which allows them to rebuild the city of New York to the smallest detail, and a physics engine that reacts depending on the circumstances and stress esterne.Le sections multiplayer are truly beautiful and I recommend everyone to try them. I think there is a lot of ignorance about this title Rockstar, one of the most beautiful and profound of all.… Expand

Decent game but wayyyyyyy to many glitches. I find myself redoing missions over and over again because of getting stuck or some weird sh** going on, isn't why there is game tester before you release a game?? I mean seriously it's rockstar shouldn't they know how to flush out these bugs before hand...Also the graphics aren't that great the gun people look choppy I have a great graphics card and all gtx 560... car's look good buildings look great as will, story line isn't bad it get real annoying when you gotta pick up your friends and do things with em so often get old...… Expand

Grand Theft Auto IV is more than capable of being a 10/10 but its let down by a disappointing port to the PC. The video editor is a great addition but more time spent making this game run well would have been preferred.

Don't get the hype, there is nothing "revolutionary" about this game. All I experienced was an extremely dull game with often repetitive missions and monotonous combat.

This is a good game, no doubt about it: fun characters with cool backgrounds, not a bad storyline, killing, stealing, shooting - yeah, this is certainly a well done GTA. Obviously taking back to GTA and GTA II doesn't make sense here, but the game felt ok in comparison to GTA III and Vice City which I really liked. Obviously it's a port with all it's flaws, but still beats San Andreas, hands down. Also the story feels a lot better and less stagnant then the one in SA. Overall I'm giving 7, based on graphics, sountrack, cool story and not as 'fckd up' port as SA was.… Expand

Personally one of the only games in my steam library (besides Portal series/HL series) that I've actually completed and played again! The new generation of sandbox gaming.

I bought this game for 8 Euro on Steam and it was worth it. Many people here say they have FPS drops, bugs, etc... But I didn't have any of these problems. The game is fun and for me the story is somehow exiting and if you have already done the singleplayer, go on multiplayer. Bored with multiplayer? Get a trailer get some friends and do **** No internet? Go on singleplayer and do **** I've played this game for 187 hours.… Expand

I've already reviewed this game at great length for the Xbox 360; mainly noting its dissapointment compared to San Andreas or indeed any other GTA (except maybe GTA III). If you're looking for single player content, this game simply doesn't have any. With a generic (for a GTA game) story, repetitive missions, and a plot/setting/context with zero creativity and some half-arsed mini-games thrown in; it's definitely a game which Rockstar played it safe with - something which nobody expects from a Grand Theft Auto title- which always push the boundaries in open-world freedom of expression and creativity. Multiplayer is new and it has got some good variety but somehow doesn't feel right either. The reason for this is down to the controls. Only official Xbox 360 controllers are supported, and the auto-aim means multiplayer has almost zero skill in combat. It's still fun to play though occasionally due to the variety, which includes three co-op missions. So if you decide to use mouse and keyboard, you'll find the default button mapping to be pretty much perfect. However, the one thing that ruins the whole experience of making it fluent; and this applies more on PC than console - is the extremely clunky response for movement and the camera. Sometimes you feel that you have no control over Niko. My final complaint is with the stability issues and lack of optimisation for PC. Yes, you can still have your own music station as before, but the graphics are far too inefficient. Don't get me wrong, this is an amazing looking game even for today, but it is in desperate need of anti-aliasing even at 1920x1080, especially given the nature of the game. If you don't have around 1.5GB dedicated graphics memory you can't really max it or run it well. I have a 1GB GTX 560 Ti and considering I get 48 FPS on BF3 on High in multiplayer, you'd think this game on max would be a piece of cake. But the draw distance consumes ridiculous amounts of VRAM. The Xbox 360 version, despite getting crap framerate, had at least more consistency in graphics. Screen tearing, freezes, pink textures, AI behaving weird, bugs, glitches - anything you can think of is present. Given the quality of the game as a whole, these technical issues make a mockery of all the claimed $100 million budget. There's also the problem that there is no cfg file where you can adjust anti-aliasing or set a frame limit. You can manually limit the frame rate by entering a command line into a shortcut pointed at the executable, but this still doesn't make for smooth gameplay experience. Even commandline fixes within the game directory can't fix the random freezing, crashing and sometimes textures not loading bugs, which is extremely frustrating. OK that's me done complaining. So what credit does this game actually deserve? The most notable and most significant in my opinion, is how the driving mechanics and the car designs themselves are better than any other open-world game. Not only do cars look beautiful and unique, but they handle differently too. It's very fun to just drive on this game and very rewarding. Better than a lot of racing games if you ask me. Other accomplishments include a decent attempt at capturing New York City. Although most of the city looks pretty bland and copy and pasted throughout and most of it doesn't get used in the main story, it's still not a bad effort given the size. It's very grande and distinctly recognizable. The city does feel authentic and AI is quite good - certainly more realistic than the previous games which had rubbish ragdoll physics and very blocky movement. This is down to the brilliant Euphoria engine in conjunction with RAGE. Other good points about this game include the very nicely paced progression and robust game mechanics such as the combat and the wanted system for losing cops. The classic GTA humour and chat stations are here too. The attention to detail is also impressive- everything from easter eggs to the realistic volume of the radio according to how far away you are from your car. What else? The only thing that remains to be credited is that overall, as a package, it's a solid game. It may not do anything new or do anything exceptionally well, and the content is lacking. However if you consider it on its own without comparing to other open-world games it's a very high quality game on the whole. Sure the PC version isn't optimised and it deserves negative marks for its lack of innovation and the miniscule amount of content for an open-world game, but if you can overlook these issues there's a decent experience to be found here. Just tread with caution and be prepared for some heavy technical issues on the PC version.… Expand

Very good game, but worst port that has ever made to the PC. Bilions of bugs, very bad optimized, so very "heavy" game, and very bad FPS. The game isn't protected very well from cheaters.

Annoying and boring missions, that try to draw you in, but fail and little action, the story falls flat. The mechanics are not very good either, but that what makes this game fun because of the goofy mechanics. Only buy at a low price.

Nicely done but becomes a little repetitive after a while. There should be more around the story, or more interesting missions than just go and shoot a bunch of people to steal something. Yet, it's addictive and characters are quite developed with clear cut personalities (Little Jacob is AWESOME!).
However, after playing for 60 hours, I'm struggling real bad with some missions, after retrying them for like 20 times. No way to skip them, no help, it SUCKS! I'm so fed up to redo the same things again and again and have Nicko not respond to what I ask him to do, ending up dying in the most retarded ways ever. I give up. It ruined my game experience so bad that I now hate the game. Well done Rockstar for not putting any save-points for the long missions and force the player to do the same things during 30 minutes every time, again and again, for nothing.… Expand

If you don't mind the 'realism' this is one of the best action games ever. The game looks awesome, the storyline is epic, the weapons are fun, and you can have at least hundred hours of playtime..

This game is one of the best games I ever played. It is very fun and I can't stop playing it. The graphics are very good, and the playability is very well-made. It's worthy of a ten.

I can say that this game is very high on it's requirements to run it for pc. But it is awesome for it's modding community and thats actually why I got this game. The modding community is awesome and there is very much mods that are available to download. It is just amazing how much mods it is there. The main storyline isn't bad, it has much awesome missions, but after completing them many times you might want to do some fun with the game, and get some mods. That is what I did. I highly recommend you to buy this game. :)… Expand

No one wants to take responsibility for this travesty, but the fact is Steam continues to distribute this buggy game despite the fact that it does not work for Windows 7. I have Windows 7, but this game was written for XP or Vista, as a result I cannot even get this game to start up. If you have Windows 7 save yourself money and time and just do not buy this game. I have always been a fan of GTA games, but have never tried to play one on PC before; the experience I have gone through with GTA IV has made me never want to buy Rockstar games on the PC platform ever again.… Expand

This game was a disappointment to me. I really enjoyed GTA III and GTA:San Andreas, but just couldn't get into this one. The characters weren't as interesting to me, and the missions where just not as fun as some of the earlier GTA games. Hopefully the next installment of GTA improves upon this.

I'll start with the Good to, at least somewhat, soften the impact of the Bad which is to follow. The GOOD: Superb voice acting (i don't know why the main character sounds like Shrek - but i don't care - i dig it!); involving characters (funny, rude, stereotypical - awesome!); humorous and deep story (something that many games lack today, and which sucks you in - thumbs up!). The BAD?.. Well, for those of you who know what PC stands for and did not forget your roots: THIS IS A PORT! And a VERY VERY BAD PORT AT THAT! I spent 4 to 5 hours, trying to configure everything i could in this game's folder's: i have downloaded Mods, i edited command lines, i replaced files, i tuned up my OS, updated ALL the drivers that i could find on my rig (and some on my neighbor's computer), i defragged, i cleaned, i scanned, i moved, i reinstalled, and i have overwritten! And GTA IV could barely run at a stable 30 FPS, on a Good Quad Core, Crossfire, Overclocked System, 3 (three!) years after its release! Pathetic! And 30 FPS in GTA IV is FAR FAR FAAAAR FROM SMOOTH! Just read the forums, guys - you'll understand: the game is extremely badly (if at all) optimized for the PC. And what that shows me is that the developers don't care about me as a GAMER! I won't even start jabbering about Windows LIVE required account and all that crap... But i'm tired of spending money on games that don't work! From now on - i'll do a 5-minute research on a game before i buy, and if it's a port, or requires such crap as Windows LIVE - i'll skip it, and save my money for games the developers of which still do give a ***t about me as a valued customer! Perhaps i am alone - but you won't get those dollars out of my pocket! No Respect!… Expand

I have been playing Grand theft auto series since the very first version of this game. I remember I used to run it from a floppy disk. Its great to see how much this game keeps evolving. I really do not understand why so many people is bashing on this game. While I understand there are considerable flaws mentioned before as bugs and glitches, every damn game has them. BFD. Anyway, the game has a few additions compared to the older GTA series, it has several interactions with NPC characters as friendship, dating etc. I see many people complaining about them, that it takes out the real action of the game, complaints about the story being too long. I don't get it. It is not like you are being forced to date every npc in order to progress as they only add certain perks during the story. When a game is too short, people complain about it. When its too long, they complain too! This game is a great addition to the series and one of my favorites by far. Lots of in game content to do if you wanna stall your progression a bit, you can unlock perks from dating chicks and raising up friends rep, get extra cash from side jobs, there is just lots to do for a single player game. This game is not intended to be finished in one or two sits, if that is your intention, you should stay away from it. Also, to maximize fun, I totally recommend not to use any sort of cheats and take your time with all the game brings up to this release. As for the graphics, I play with 2 different computers, the poorest GPU I play this game with is a nvidia 9600gt, which is pretty old and run the game pretty well. It is not all about your graphics card, you need enough RAM memory and a decent processor to get it run smooth. I bought it for about 13-15 bucks on steam, I am about 40 hours played and there is still lots to do. Worth every penny. Not to mention there is still the multiplayer option, for those who like playing versus or free for all matches. The only thing I can really say that I dislike about the franchise this far is the requirement of social club and games for windows live registration. You got to create one account on each site in order to utilize all the game features. All in all, its a really fun game if you are a fan of the series and worth every dollar spent.… Expand

The most advanced in the series to date, absolutely amazing game. Though has some optimisation issues and it took several years until the majority of PCs started to run this beast smoothly =)

My initial opinion of the game was high but I soon began to see it's flaws. First the campaign is pretty good but drags on too long, and go here and kill this type missions get repetitive. The game also holds your hand for too long, with tedious tutorial missions. The main character Niko Bellic is a really cool character, almost too cool to the point where he feels manufactured and not a believable character. The buddy system where friends call you up wanting to do activities is incredibly annoying and unnecessary also they punish you for not doing stupid things with your "friends." Onto technical issues, oh where to begin, the frame rate dips often, texture pop-in and blurry textures are everywhere. The controls are pitiful they are so unresponsive and unnecessary, it's incredibly frustrating. So in my opinion buy the game just not for PC.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. GTA IV was a big step back to me. Look at the massive array of vehicles in San Andreas. Bicycles, dirt bikes, quads, tractors, different types of helicopters and airplanes, the jetpack, etc. Why take all that stuff out?

GTA IV also completely **** up the physics of the game. Driving is half as fun as it was in the previous games. And people generally respond to this by saying that it's "realistic", but no. It's not realistic in any way. Making it slow paced and boring doesn't make it realistic. It just makes it slow paced and boring.

The shooting was improved a bit, but still needed a lot of work. The people who defend this game will claim that sticking your arm up while behind cover will cause Niko to shoot inaccurately, but it certainly hasn't worked that way for me. It seems to shoot wherever I point, regardless of the fact that Niko isn't even looking or aiming. Also, when you do choose to aim from behind cover (for whatever reason), it will cause your cross-hairs to move up a bit. Not a serious issue, but it's stupid that you have to keep in mind to aim a little bit below their head.

The weapon variety was also significantly reduced and simplified compared to San Andreas. Of course San Andreas also had weapons that were just flat out better than others, but GTA IV's weapon system operates by "tiers", where you have tier 1 weapons, tier 2 weapons, etc. One tier being completely better in every way than the other. It leaves no room for options and determining which weapons are best for you personally. Of course, SA had SOME weapons which were flat out better than others, but to a much smaller degree than GTA IV.

Niko is a walking contradiction, he speaks out against violence, but he's perfectly willing to kill if he gets money for it. Meanwhile, the guy he's trying to track down ends up telling him that he sold him out for $1,000. Niko acts all surprised and offended by this - but he does things like that all the time. The cheesy attempt to include a "2deep4u" story winded up backfiring. Rockstar should have stuck with the classic humor based, light hearted style story, rather than what was the equivalent of a B movie written by some emo kid.

Ultimately, my dislike for GTA IV can be traced back to one thing - Lack of variety. Look at all of the content from SA that they just flat out REMOVED. Just look at the build up of content and gradual perfection of concepts from GTA 3, to Vice City, to San Andreas. I thought Rockstar would continue that system. I was under the impression that what we saw in SA would be perfected and build upon, just as they had done in the past - Not just completely thrown away. I really thought Rockstar was on to something. I thought they had it figured out. I guess not.… Expand

I don't how they manage to make a game so fun like this one. Even if you end the story the game never ends. The effects and design of this game it's not at 100% mostly because of some vehicles that are not 100% functional like they used to be on GTASA, but that's mostly because it's a new engine. Maybe on the future, with GTAV we will be able to see this game working at 100%, and believe me, i'm going to be there, playing it.… Expand

this game is great in some aspects, such as the story (the most mature history in any gta) the characters, the graphics and A.I. but the port of this game for PC is such a bad port, its like rockstar made it in one day... the poor controls, the awful bugs (specially the one on the **** last mission) you have to do wonders to repair a broken port like this and in top of that the music isn't as good (good thing for the personal radio) and the game isn't that challenging, so if you are a fan of gta try this, if you are not, go and play San Andreas and avoid this one… Expand

After upgrading my computer to 2012 standards, I can finally enjoy the game at it's highest detail. With mods like iCEnhancer , it looks totally amazing, almost real-life visuals! On top of that, good old GTA gameplay and amazing voice acting and euphoria physics are just too much fun to play with!
Too bad we had to wait 3 years to finally properly run this.

Grand Theft Auto 4 is a great game, don't misunderstand me, but the PC version is insane. Because it needs an insanely powerful PC to play it. But, still, if you have a super powerful PC, than this game will be fun, single player and multiplayer. Can't wait to play the console version. 65 out of 100 (For the powerful PCs, 96 out of 100)

GTA singleplayer gameplayer never fails to entertain me, at least not until I've done everything possible in the game about three times over. GTA IV holds true to that, except with a disappointing end game where you're still limited for monetary income even after the storyline. No army to fight against, no endless wallet, and sadly it's a console port which definitely shows. The multiplayer can be difficult to get working, but a playerbase exists and offers some cheap laughs. Windows Live is a noteworthy problem, but not a gamebreaker.… Expand

The GTA series are the only open-world games where I've been content just goofing off around the city, and GTA IV specifically has had more replay value for me than any other game I've owned. Years after the initial release, this is still the game I go back to when I'm bored with everything else.

The best AAA game ever. Rockstar North had amazingly high hopes for this game and pulled it off. Is the story worthy of literary awards? No, but as far as videogame stories go, it is friggin Shakespeare. They actually get you care about the characters, and you really want to know how things turn out. The driving is first rate, smooth and fun, but still requiring skill. It's great fun to master the mechanics, and then proceed to drive fast and furious. The combat, a little clunky, but it is a minor flaw in what otherwise is the best game of this generation.… Expand

4+/5 (Very Good) I suggest you buy the game and play it. Now. But be warned though, if you play the PC version, the graphics are sometimes buggy and really break the immersion you might have build up while playing. Oh and apparently the game is rough on the hardware reqs. Yeah, it is.

Buy it. (for X360 if you can, if not the PC version does the job really well)

If your gonna get GTA IV get it on consoles This game is amazing but frame rate issues due to poor optimization make this the most un-fun irritating experience I've ever been forced to play aside from batman dark tomorrow

Graphism : 18/20 (Strolling through a beautiful New York is cool !)
Sounds : 19/20 (Lots of good music as usual, just -1 for the sound of cars not top)
History : 20/20 (Just huge, with a main frame has multiple choice)
Gamplay : 18/20 (He lost some fun, but he won at realism !)
Lifespan : 20/20 (Illimité. .. it's GTA ...)

Final Score: 19/20 One of the best games of all time !

Awsome game,very nice gameplay modes such as fake internet in the game,hot dog stands,online dating,underground illegal weapon shops,computer in cop car,taxi rides and much more,graphics is nice,has a huge story with different endings,really enjoyed playing this game

Poorly optimized console port.

PC version worthed the wait. PC version lacks motion blur and depth of field and provides much better graphics and controls, especially LODs. The only thing missing is anti-aliasing, though i've added FXAA via nvidia control panel. -1 for AA-lack and some bugs. Still, the best GTA and open-world game by far.

I am not a pro gamer. After beating borderlands I got this game in an offer in Steam to play with. I have already played the other versions of GTA namely, GTA 2, 3, Vicecity, and san Andreas. One thing that is critically acclaimed to be unique is the cover system, car driving mechanics and AI. Cover system: None of the other GTA provides this. It is really amazing to use cover and die not often. This game gives a lot of scope to creativity unlike other versions. You can try multiple ways to complete a mission, although we will be driven according to the scope of the mission. Car mechanics: This is really cool. Not all the cars burns into ashes when damaged completely. No two cars are same, for instance driving a Hummer is completely different and stable than driving a coupe. The damage sensitivity is also perfectly matched with the car type. However, I have seen few glitches in the missions where the enemies could smash and throw a hummer up in the air. AI: You can't stay and shoot from one place anymore. Enemies come striking at you bombarding like a multiplayer human opponent. I have just beaten the game. I haven't experienced Multiplayer yet. I have seen Social Club not logging in often.… Expand

Overall, Really good Game. Ive owned this game for several years now, but only just recently got a new computer with Radeon HD 7770, and I'm finally able to play this game it was meant to be played. The other reviewers are right, the game is tough to play when its slow and choppy, and requires a high end videocard. The social aspect of the game is a toss-up. I like that I can call characters to accelerate through a particular person's quests/storyline, but I absolutely hate how all these new social things like playing pool (yes, u have to actually play virtual pool), or go bowling (yes that too), so forth... its no fun. This is GTA!!! compared to San Andreas or the previous ones, I would have liked less social missions, where the objective is solely to spend time with the person, and more ACTION ... more stealing cars, spectacular shootouts, what about recruiting followers/gang members??? What happened to all that?… Expand

decent console game but what the **** its kind of insulting that they would release a game that performs this poorly, i have a very capable system i7, AMD HD 7770 graphics card, 12 gb's of ram, i can get it to run somewhat smoothly but using only 700 Mb of Vram, i feel completely cheated.

I quite enjoyed this title but upon completion I felt I was really limited with what there was to do. I would love to have been able to collect a wide variety of vehicles and buy property etc.

This port is broken and utterly worthless. Furthermore after you complete the several pages of registration you'll find it would've been easier to pirate the game. Utterly trollish and asinine port.

The critic score is an absolute joke. Yes GTA4 is technically a good game, the graphics on pc are excellent, the combat is good enough and the story is good, not great. The game though is boring, you drive to a destination you shoot 5 guys mission completed. Repeat for 12 hours. The vehicle handling is a joke and driving in rain is impossible not realistic at all. The combat is fun but turn off auto aim to give yourself a bit of a challenge. Nothing to unlock, at all. The weapons are boring, where's the chainsaw? Where's the fun elements of San Andreas? GTA5 should fix the mission variety, unlocks, vehicles, etc. and it will be epic.… Expand

Best video game franchise in history. I cannot name any flaw, complaint, and frustration like in some of my other reviews. I just hope GTA V will be out this year.

I've been playing the Grand Theft Auto games since the first one got released, and this is certainly one of the best ones in todays standard. Sure, personally I prefer Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City over this one, but it's still a very enjoyable game.

As always, Grand Theft Auto is best played on a computer.

Grand Theft Auto IV represents one of the worst attempts to make even mildly serious game in completely psychedelic franchise. Good job R*, you just ruined GTA.

Buggy PC port is also a serious issue.

Grand Theft Auto 4 is, in my opinion, the best Grand Theft Auto game. While it is true that the vanilla game isn't as over-the-top as previous Grand Theft Auto titles, the modding community for this game is massive, and there are tons of mods that can turn the game into a fun sandbox experience rather than a gritty crime shooter. The multiplayer is also great fun, and offers a wide array of gamemodes to keep you and your friends occupied for hours. My only complaint is that the game does require a reasonably high-end machine to run well on anything but the lowest settings, so I do not recommend this game for users with lower-end machines. Still, this is a great game with one of the best modding communities out there!… Expand

The graphics are amazing. The music is amazing. The game itself? It's awful. Terrible. Horrible. Here's a summary of the missions. Spoilers ahead: Mission 1: drive to forgettable dirty city area, kill some people. Mission 2: drive to forgettable dirty city area, kill a person Mission 7: drive to forgettable dirty city area, kill some people Mission 29: drive to forgettable dirty city area, kill some people
Mission 72: drive to forgettable dirty city area, kill person

That is the entire game. I am trying to play through it for the second time, and I just can not make myself finish. I'm at the last sequence of missions, and it's miserably boring due to the repetition. They made a beautiful game. A masterpiece of videogame art. But they forgot to make it fun.… Expand

1 thing i could say. AMAZING amazing graphics amazing story and you look at the sense of humor this game has and the game is more "open world" than the previous versions

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

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

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

Is Grand Theft Auto IV a good game? Absolutely. Was it a good PC port? Absolutely not. Rockstar failed horrendously on this game. It takes too much to run it. I have a high end PC that will run Crysis maxed, no issues, yet GTA IV will give me low frame rate, instability, missing textures, and some crashing.

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

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

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.

I bought this game on Steam and it won't run--it crashes on startup on our 64-bit Windows 7 machine with a GeForce GTX 470. Steam doesn't give refunds, so all I can do is offer this negative review.

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

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

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!

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

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

Pros: -LOT of effort put into making the environment believable (radio banter, TV shows) -characters you can empathize with Cons: -missions are repetitive -you have to start all the way from the beginning if you fail a mission, and this includes the tedium of driving to get there or frantically running into the street to hail a cab -despite the vast city, there are very few places you can actually interact with, and that interaction is not compelling in the slightest (i.e. playing pool, watching a cabaret show)
-AWFUL driving controls (it's supposed to be 'realistic,' but all it accomplishes is frustrating the player)
-boring, badly designed combat system (both melee and shooting), bad cover system

Summary:
On the whole, I felt like I was playing a drama show. I was getting from one story mission to the other as fast as possible so I could watch the next cutscene. I cared for Niko as a character, it's just that the character deserved to be in a better game.… Expand

Number 1 On My Top 3 List It's Best Game Ever Funny Story,Drugs,Guns,Action,Bowling,Pool,Mcdonalds,Internet Cafe,Missions And Best Of All N
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BELIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have not yet finished the game, but have been amused so far. Although I found vice city much more entertaining in comparison. However, my biggest issue is Microsoft LIVE getting in the way. I TRIED to just play single player, thinking I could avoid registering, but the first point I try to save the game, we get blackmailed into registering so we ca save the **** game. **** but I do it, because in the end i want to play. A day or two later, my game wont open because the microsoft LIVE software keeps crashing. So, **** that whole business arrangement. From now on, if I find out that microsoft live is associated with a game, I am going to download it illegally to avoid this crap. Thats how ganster I am.… Expand

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

I would say that this game is much better on a 360 or PS3 than it is on PC. The reason for this is short and simple: Games for Windows. I respect Windows, and I'm running it on my computer as I type this, but one thing is clear: they need to back the hell off of the gaming market, because they're ruining a lot of nice games. Some good examples: Bioshock 2, GTA IV, The Witcher, Alone in the Dark, and many more. The Games for Windows seal is more of a curse than anything else. Luckily, I bought this on Steam for $4.99, so I didn't waste too much. The game itself is great, so I've given it a 9/10, but Games for Windows has nearly rendered it unplayable. God dammit, Windows.… 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.

Terrific game. GTAIV offers vast improvements in the graphics department over its predecessors. The game's controls were sometimes annoying - like when it demanded you tap "A" repeatedly in order to sprint, rather than just holding down a certain button to keep sprinting as long as you hold it down. It was also annoying to have to log into the social club and GFWL every time you boot up the game. That being said, this is still GTA, it's still every bit as fun (if not moreso) than its predecessors. The graphics are superb - a vast improvement over the last generation of GTA titles. The story is also better, and the world is generally more believable and realistic. Whats more, the control system for aircraft in this game makes them much easier to control than the PC editions of Vice City or San Andreas. There are more strip clubs, and the strippers and prostitutes are now rendered in high definition glory, LOL! Ah, the joys of GTA. That stuff aside, there is realy a terrific game here that should not be overlooked. You'll get the familiar GTA-style storyline, with a more serious flavor to it. It has nearly all of the elements that made older GTA games fun, except perhaps airplanes, airports, and businesses you can buy like in Vice City. As for the negative reviews... we all know it's just people whining about the DRM... whether it's GFWL or the social club. Yes, the game requires a modern computer to run nicely. What do you expect? The game came out in like 2008 or 2009. I always laugh at these people who are surprised their 5-year-old "gaming-laptop" can't run it nicely, so then they go to complain about the game and whine. The bottom line: make sure you have a quad-core processor, a reasonably-new video card with at least 1gb memory, and 4gb of RAM. Then get ready for a terrific new installment to the GTA series =).… Expand

Gameplay, storyline, and multiplay is incredible. Graphics...well I suppose they COULD be good, but this game was coded SO poorly, it's impossible to tell. With a computer that surpasses the minimum requirements 10-fold, I was still forced to put all of the graphics settings on LOW in order to play with minimal lag. Keep in mind, there was STILL lag, and the low settings made graphics look like utter sh*t. Had Rockstar put more effort in perfecting the coding, this game would have been amazing. Looks to me like another rushed out pile of ...… Expand

I don't undestand the negative opinions. Ok, when this game was released has a lot of serious bugs. But now, 3 years before, Rockstar has released more of 7 patches... I played this game last 6 months, and i really don't found any serious bug. I think the really bad and serious problems was resolved. The people that vote negative this game, please change your opinion, is possible now on Metacritic. This game is one of the best !!! [9/10]… Expand

I think the best game that has appeared in the world! I really like, the best gta is released! I like the whole story, the protagonist straight genius! Very good game and who does not say that computers are stupid or do not like him the whole topic.

A decent game, but marred by bugs, graphics glitches and a STUPID anti-piracy system that punishes the customers rather than the pirates. I don't want to have to register and log in to several services just to play a game - it was cracked a few days after release anyway and, of course, those who pirate the game don't have to jump through all of the hoops that the honest customers do...

Rockstar, if you're going to treat paying PC customers like criminals and then give them **** ports then don't bother.… Expand

Why are you people hating???????? Just because you have a bad computer? Not the games fault! It is amazing. Amazing graphics, amazing gameplay, amazing multiplayer, amazing everything! I have it for PS3 and it runs smoothly on the career. On multiplayer, its a bit hard to get in a game, you need to have good internet connection, but its still AMAZING! STOP putting bad reviews cause you guys cant play it on awesome graphics!!!!!!
This game deserves a 11 out of 10. Yey, it's that good.… Expand

This game would have been the best PC game of all time if the scores are to par with the Xbox360 and PS3 versions if it weren't for the following: high system requirements, lag issues, graphics would have been sharper on some areas and too much odd content. As of version 1.06 of this game, most of the issues have been fixed and this gets my vote. If you don't have a 1.5+ GB high-end video card, you cannot max out all the graphical settings for this PC game.… Expand

Just a fun as all the other GTA's but with better graphics. The characters are more fleshed out and the story is up to GTA standard. These are the big positives, now the negatives. The ending requires you to be a pro helicopter pilot to complete the game, something you don't have to learn anywhere else in the game to the same degree of expertise. Also, if you fail as this very poorly thought through part of the game you need to spend 10 minutes of pissing around just to have another shot at it. This is almost as frustrating a the stupid alien world in half-life 1.

What we have is a **** with a beautiful drop dead body but hideous head. Very frustrating ultimately! But if you put a paper bag over its head and don't ever bother finishing the game because it's a pointless exercise in a game like this anyhow then you get to enjoy one hell of a ride. Another small negative I experienced were serious game stopping technical issues related to playing it on a dual core, you should have quad! Its a very enjoyable sandbox game with some very nice imagery.… Expand

Wow, I have to preface by acknowledging the immense hostility in the user score towards this game. I did not play this on the PC at the outset, but I have since been playing it, and although I hear it was incredibly buggy out of the box, patch 1.07 as it stands is wonderful. If you have the machine to play it, it is one of the more beautiful games for the PC, with a rich modding community behind it which tries to push the graphics even further. The controls aren't exactly great for mouse and keyboard, but it happily accepts the 360 gamepad, or you can use an emulator to use a PS3 pad. The game itself is pretty damn awesome, and I really have to stress how much better it looks than the console version, as well as having a "clip capture" feature similar to onlive's brag clip feature that allows you to capture and post the details of the random zany accidents you get into when crashing sports cars. I don't like that it uses the "social club", I despise all extraneous logins for any game, but you don't have to log in unless you want multiplayer.

All in all, because GTAIV is an amazing game, and it really takes advantage of the graphical capabilities of the PC version, unlike so many ports (and I have to add, the graphics tuning utility is EXTRAORDINARILY friendly and informative).… Expand

I'm not one of these, which gives 0 to game because it didn't run on them PC's. I gave this rating because game isn't as awesome as game for 10 should be. Cons: formula isn't nothing fresh. of course, shooting, driving is improved, but it's not deserve the highest score. Even with absolutely gorgeus main plot.

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.

i played this game with a acer 4551 with an hd4250 and it runs on low graphic but you will have fun, now i have a phenom 955 + hd5770 and i run this on maximun quality, just punt the shows on high and this will double the fps, the game is sick, this is real enterteiment

Its very long, which is a good thing in how it lasts a long time so you won't get bored, and a bad thing because you may buy another game halfway through completion then play that and forget about GTA. The game has many very fun and exciting missions. 2 things I don't like: 1. there are too many characters, ( I don't know who half the people in my phone book are) 2. The missions are too easy, like in the mission where you rescue roman, (around 27% through) you have to kill around 30 people in a warehouse over 4 floors. the enemies AI is really bad, (you can just walk right up to them and shoot them, and they won't shoot you).

there are things I like about the game:

1.The map is very big, which is a good thing, because in games like Vice City, the map was very small and game play felt restricted.
2. The choice of cars, (my personal favourite is the Dodge charger or "Dukes" as it is known in the game.
3. online mode is very fun but it is annoying when your trying to meet with a friend and some guy keeps killing you.

worth the buy definitely… Expand

this game is like others gta but the graphics are too low which means is a little bad,sorry

The game had a lot of issues about the performance, but, the engine of physics and graphics are amazing, even we are at 2011, the game still up to date, so, worth having this game and upgrade your computer!

(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

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