RELEVENT: Since GTA III, this franchise has always been about pinpointing the feeling of an era while remaining current and relevent. GTA IV is more so than ever. Liberty City, like all American cities, is a post 9/11 world. There is obvious parody which is fine, and other games do parody, but GTA IV does the best kind of parody, it innundates you with an entire world of quality parody. Of course, the usually radio system is in full form, but the addition of television and internet systems add multiple outlets for Rockstars parody of a perfect pitch. There is no more relevent game in the market today than GTA IV.

DEEP: GTA San Andreas was an amazing game in its own right, but Rockstar took a different approach to GTA IV. Instead expanding the game world further, they shrunk it, and made it deaper. There are elements of GTA III in almost every game made today; not just in open-world games either. If Super Mario 64 showed developers how to use the 3rd demension, GTA III showed them how to make living 3d environments. Rockstar has taken the next natural step with GTA IV and created an imperfect & lived-in 3d world. When you drive through the world you will eather, 1) Take it for granted, or 2) be in awe of it's complexity and functionality.

SATISFYING: PLEASE do not overlook the world of GTA IV by trying to make it through the story. If you do that you are missing the point and should be playing Gears of War or a similar such game. Instead, take your time with it, play slowly, make friends, watch some tv, go to a show, get drunk... Listen, if you play GTA IV like a game, you will completely miss it's greatest strengths. If, however, you try your best to live in Liberty City for a while, you will see how astonishing this game really is, which is soooo satisfying.

In conclusion... do not play this game if you are an impatient pleasure junkie who prefers firey explosions (even though the firey explosions are great) to creative explosions. GTA IV is a creative explosion. If you grew up in the era < or = to n64, this game is a revelation on the scale of Ocarina of Time. Live in it and enjoy! Thanks for listening.      

RELEVENT: Since GTA III, this franchise has always been about pinpointing the feeling of an era while remaining current and relevent. GTA IV is more so than ever. Liberty City, like all American cities, is a post 9/11 world. There is obvious parody which is fine, and other games do parody, but GTA IV does the best kind of parody, it innundates you with an entire world of quality parody. Of course, the usually radio system is in full form, but the addition of television and internet systems add multiple outlets for Rockstars parody of a perfect pitch. There is no more relevent game in the market today than GTA IV.

DEEP: GTA San Andreas was an amazing game in its own right, but Rockstar took a different approach to GTA IV. Instead expanding the game world further, they shrunk it, and made it deaper. There are elements of GTA III in almost every game made today; not just in open-world games either. If Super Mario 64 showed developers how to use the 3rd demension, GTA III showed them how to make living 3d environments. Rockstar has taken the next natural step with GTA IV and created an imperfect & lived-in 3d world. When you drive through the world you will eather, 1) Take it for granted, or 2) be in awe of it's complexity and functionality.

SATISFYING: PLEASE do not overlook the world of GTA IV by trying to make it through the story. If you do that you are missing the point and should be playing Gears of War or a similar such game. Instead, take your time with it, play slowly, make friends, watch some tv, go to a show, get drunk... Listen, if you play GTA IV like a game, you will completely miss it's greatest strengths. If, however, you try your best to live in Liberty City for a while, you will see how astonishing this game really is, which is soooo satisfying.

In conclusion... do not play this game if you are an impatient pleasure junkie who prefers firey explosions (even though the firey explosions are great) to creative explosions. GTA IV is a creative explosion. If you grew up in the era < or = to n64, this game is a revelation on the scale of Ocarina of Time. Live in it and enjoy! Thanks for listening.      

Lack of checkpoints in missions and repetitive gameplay?  No thanks.  

"
Coming up on three yeast since GTA IV was released, and folks.... this game is still the most relevant, deep, and satisfying game world ever created.    
"

GTA IV had the only game world I wanted to be in just for the sake of being in it. Not even to play the game, but just for killing old ladies in central park or driving over pedestrians slowly and seeing how the euphoria engine worked. That's the mark of a great game, right there.

Well said. GTA 4 went from over-praised to over-criticized but the fact is it really is a masterpiece. Can't wait until 5.

You forgot to mention that combat mechanics are disgusting.  
Also, if I want to go out, see a show, pay attention to people on the street or soak in the details of a metropolis guess what I do? I get out. I love the fact that all of those things are in the game so that it becomes really deep and polished, but I don't feel that that alone justifies it as a great game (or even a good one at that), it has to play great and be fun.

I concur.

I would agree if Red Dead Redemption hadn't come out.

" I would agree if Red Dead Redemption hadn't come out. "

" Lack of checkpoints in missions and repetitive gameplay?  No thanks.   "

I remember being blown away by GTA4 when it first came out.  Then I remember after beating it I was just kinda meh on the whole thing.
 
I will agree with you on saying it is one of the most realized worlds in gaming history.  It's just too bad that the world itself bores me.  It's very realistic but in achieving that realism it carries with it all the blandness inherent in a world I spend everyday living in anyway.
 
Every now and then I'll pop in GTA IV to try to relive that magic that I felt at the beginning.  I never get very far before realizing that I just don't have fun playing it.   I'd take San Andreas any day.

" Well said. GTA 4 went from over-praised to over-criticized but the fact is it really is a masterpiece. Can't wait until 5. "

" Lack of checkpoints in missions and repetitive gameplay?  No thanks.   "

This game and Vice City are the only two GTA games I really enjoy playing. The world is so alive in this one, that I can't help but come back to it every couple of months.

Being impressed by the technical achievement of the environments and all the AI inhabiting it doesn't mean much to me if I'm not having much fun playing the game, which was the case with GTAIV for me. I do appreciate what the game tried to do, but ultimately, I'll remember San Andreas more fondly just because I enjoyed myself much more playing that game.

@ OP: My thoughts exactly.  I don't mind the lack of checkpoints since I think it makes the game harder.  RDR in my opinion is more repetitive then GTA IV and to me has too many checkpoints.   It took me a while to get into GTA IV but I  haven not been able to get into RDR yet.  I've only played RDR for about 15 hours and it seems like shoot these guys, oh you weren't using the right gun or shot the wrong dudes or shot the right dudes but not in time, restart 1-2 then done.   GTA took me many attempts to complete some of the missions but was much more satisfying when I did complete them.  Oftentimes it actually took THOUGHT.

I thought the DLC was better than the original game: Ballad of Gay Tony seemed to be way more fun, and The Lost and the Damned was just straight up grimy and gritty. Still, I felt that the criticism is pretty unfair, as it is a great game, especially with the add-ons. 
 
GTA 5: bring it on!

TBH, one of few glaring problems with this game, for me, lied in its parodies. Most where far too blatant and tried to reel in laughs by practically shouting out what they're taking the piss out of, word for word. Lazlow's Integrity was awful and the worst of his work within the GTA series, and I never listened to the other talk shows for very long just for all the lazy gags about all women being whores, which was the one recurring gag that GTAIV just would not-let-go of throughout the entire game. 
 
EDIT: BTW this isn't me solely slamming against GTAIV, despite what my comment+avatar would suggest ;P It's a great game--that's no doubt overrated mind you--and one that I've completed many many times over, and reveled within its story and characters. The actual city had a lot of depth, though the activities would narrow down pretty quickly (by the time I hit Alderney, there was pretty much only the story left). Take away the man-dates and you're left with very little to do, with very little to actually spend your eventual thousands on. 
 
EDIT again: Also just why exactly are you trying to appeal for an almost three year old game, and one that near enough everyone has already tried at this point to decipher whether it's for them or not? I can understand you just blogging over your enjoyment of it, but a lot of appears as if you're trying to persuade for a new release.

If you like crime stories you should play the Yakuza games.

"

SATISFYING: PLEASE do not overlook the world of GTA IV by trying to make it through the story. If you do that you are missing the point and should be playing Gears of War or a similar such game. Instead, take your time with it, play slowly, make friends, watch some tv, go to a show, get drunk... Listen, if you play GTA IV like a game, you will completely miss it's greatest strengths. If, however, you try your best to live in Liberty City for a while, you will see how astonishing this game really is, which is soooo satisfying.

"

I think some of the trouble people have with GTA IV comes from peoples varrying expectations from video games in general.

GTA IV to me feels less like a game and more like an experience, which satisfies the nerdy kid in me who grew up on strict games and is excited about the future of the medium.

To me, GTA IV is proof that the video game industry still takes chances and dreams big, maybe even too big sometimes, but that's way better than too small.

Take Heavy Rain for example, a LOT of shit did not work in that game, but I would undoubtedly rate it higher than God of War III with it's perfected controls and pretty graphics. Not that I didn't like GOW3, but I am attracted to creativity in games...    

" @GreggD: 
 
 "this game is still the most relevant, deep, and satisfying game world ever created."   This is the point I was referring to....it's still a great blog though. "

" @blacklabeldomm said:

" @GreggD: 
 
 "this game is still the most relevant, deep, and satisfying game world ever created."   This is the point I was referring to....it's still a great blog though. "

Fair enough. However I would argue that the relevance of modern day New York City is more so than that of turn-of-the-20th-century Western America and Mexico. Purely for the sake of discussion, of course. "

You couldn't have said it better. Also, this game has replay value unlike any other that I have ever played. Since I bought it in early May 2008, I have beaten this game 9 times. 9 times. That's a lot of playtime considering it's a 20-25 hour game. And who knows how many hours I've spent, running over pedestrians, fucking with the cops, or just dicking around with some cheat codes. Plus, it has some of the best radio in the series. Integrity 2.0 is a stroke of genius, and is only bested by VCPR as the best radio station in the series.
 
All in all: a true modern masterpiece, and one that I always leave with that freshness and satisfaction, as if it was my first time playing it.

I was not able to enjoy GTAIV, despite wanting to.
 
I do feel like mentioning, however, that Chinatown Wars is often overlooked despite offering what I consider to be the best GTA experience available. I hope they make another handheld GTA game someday, or if not they could include some of the features of CW (like the drug trading minigame) in the next console GTA.

The thing about enjoying GTA4 as more of a setting or experience instead of a game, is that a lot of those experiences just weren't any good as far as I'm concerned. You can wander around the city and watch people go about their business, but I would find that pretty damn boring in real life, where a whole Hell of a lot more could potentially happen then ever could in GTA. You can go hang out with friends and just take it easy, and by that I mean you can answer your phone, go over to wherever it is they happen to be waiting for you, take them to one of the few activities (bowling, eating, etc.) where they just kind of sit completely still in your car and make a little bit of small talk that you may or may not have heard already, arrive at the activity, do whatever mini-game is there if it's not a fast food joint, then immediately take them home. Not exactly a compelling night out. You could go for a drive and take in the sights of the city; thing is, I already live in a major city, so a large metropolis is no big deal to me. You could go and take in a comedy act at a local club, and be treated to the same trimmed down bit that you've already heard if you've been in there before. I could go on and on, but simply put, I found the majority of what you could do to be pretty damn boring. The fake internet was kind of amusing, but then I thought to myself that I could go on the actual internet and have access to a limitless supply of entertaining stuff, to the point where the in-game internet was just kind of an amusing diversion that after a couple of times I felt I'd seen all there was. 
 
I think maybe what it is is that GTA4 is kind of an uncanny valley for being in an actual city. They went and tried to make everything seem so realistic at a glance, that if you stop and pay any kind of close attention, it begins to fall apart and starts to seem really shallow, even if it does offer a whole lot more than the average game does. Whereas you play a title that doesn't strive to present such an authentic setting, you're not subconsciously picking up on every little thing about it that isn't quite right. 
 
I don't dislike GTA4, and even during moments where I was frequently bored or irritated, I could tell a whole Hell of a lot of work and talent went into making it. That doesn't mean that it necessarily worked for me, though.

" @blacklabeldomm said:

" I would agree if Red Dead Redemption hadn't come out. "

That doesn't negate any of his points. "

I like RDR better but GTA4 was a great game.

Overall, I found GTA IV to be a pretty easy game. Don't think checkpoints were needed. 
 
The world of GTA IV was so beautifully crafted, and felt so alive. But I didn't have as much fun milling around in it as I did in previous GTA's -- the reason for that being is there were only a few cheat codes (lame ones) and that was where I would have the most fun. Giving pedestrians weapons and having them riot never, ever got old to me in previous games of the series. I realize this sort of thing could be done in the PC version but that port is just no good, it runs terrible on my PC (which is nowhere near slow.) 

I  played and loved GTA IV and  the world was fantastic, but, and it is a big huge but, alot of the pieces of that game were not good. 
 
The driving was poor, the music on the radio stations was the worst out of all of the modern GTA games, the dialogue when you were out on "dates"  repeated too much (i really liked the "social" stuff in the game but the repetition was killer), actually ALOT of the media repeated too often and finally to top it all off the controls during combat were pretty horrible....The new stuff added in the expansions went someway to fixing this but it didn't go far enough.
 
I did spend hours in that world doing nothing much at all and enjoying myself but after hearing  same joke 5 times it gets really stale, and the gameplay was not good enough on its own to keep me coming back...so I finished it then finished the expansions and I have not had the inclination to play it since.

GTA IV was boring and clunky. 
 
I'm too tired to support that statement, but it's an opinion so it's not like evidence is necessary.

"PLEASE do not overlook the world of GTA IV by trying to make it through the story. If you do that you are missing the point and should be playing Gears of War or a similar such game. Instead, take your time with it, play slowly, make friends, watch some tv, go to a show, get drunk... Listen, if you play GTA IV like a game, you will completely miss it's greatest strengths. If, however, you try your best to live in Liberty City for a while, you will see how astonishing this game really is, which is soooo satisfying."

The world of the game feels alive and real from start to finish but you interaction in it becomes tired and boring. Its fun to watch the game world just work from time to time but every thing you or Niko does in the world  becomes repetitive and annoying quickly like the comedy shows and internet or the "friends" that you take to places. I greatly enjoyed my time with the game and I think it is a great game, I do feel there is a huge difference between simply watching this world that Rockstar built turning which is amazing and interacting in it yourself which is monotonous. 
 
On the subject of parody and satire I thought a lot of it was quite tiring as well, that wasn't helped by the really repetitive and weak radio stations. I haven't played the older GTA games in a while so they probably aren't any better.

I'm torn as to who's the better broski. It's a fight between Brucie Kibbutz and Yusuf Amir.... suffice to say I'd totally party with both of them. They are hilarious mofo's!!

GTA IV is the only GTA where I ever actually finished the story all the way through. I liked it a lot. Maybe I'll pick up one of the DLCs some time like The Ballad of Gay Tony which I hear is really good.

  @astrodoggy"This game is still the most relevant, deep, and satisfying game world ever created."
I did love GTA4, however Red Dead Redemption fits that description better.  Better characters and story, better ending, better side missions.  I enjoyed hunting animals and capturing wanted men more than the taxi, police, ambulance, ext. missions from GTA4. I will admit, the DLC for GTA4 was far superior than the DLC from Red Dead. This made me want to go play Lost and the Damned, as I've not played it in over a year.  I'm ready for La Noire to blow my mind next, as Rockstar seems to be getting better and better.
 

Great post, totally agree with you and I think doesn't only apply to GTA IV, but the entirety of Rockstar's catalog. It's probably the most relevant developer in the industry nowadays.

@astrodoggy:

GTA IV feels like one of the defining games of this gen to me. For one, increasing negativity on the internet means it gets lots of hate just like any critically acclaimed game this gen. GTA IV was probably the first time I felt like I was playing an open world game that didn't sacrifice quality gameplay for its freedom and that's something that has continued to be the norm for many open-world games this cycle. There's been an increasing outcry of people denouncing stories in videogames over the last year or so and while such criticisms aren't without merit it feels like over the last 5 years storytelling in games has been seeing a real improvement, this is another thing that really stood out about GTA IV. The game also received some of the best implemented DLC to date.
 
The game hasn't aged terribly well, but it really blew me away upon release.

Its a great game, the best third person shooter out there, plus Niko is from the Balkans so thumbs up!

GTA4 annoyed me somewhat for the aforementioned lack of checkpoints in missions - something I've become reminded of now my wife is playing through the game. Seems pretty lame to play through driving sections of missions again if you fail them - didn't they fix this issue with the DLC? I can't remember. Still, I'm hoping GTA5 has proper checkpoints.

" @GreggD said:

" @blacklabeldomm said:

" I would agree if Red Dead Redemption hadn't come out. "

That doesn't negate any of his points. "

You saying that doesn't negate anything he said either...whoa.  "