The three protagonist thing solves so many problems that I generally have with Rockstar games, it's not even funny. It always bothers me how every single Rockstar protagonist -- Niko, Marsden, all of them -- have no will of their own. They always talk a good game, but then you walk to a letter on the map and a mission giver says "I need you to do this incredibly dangerous thing that you will get practically no benefit from," and the main character just shrugs his shoulders and does what he's told. For all the badass blow-shit-up power fantasy stuff that comes with their open worlds, the missions always make the characters out to be completely powerless by comparison.

Here, since your characters are able to proactively do things while you're controlling someone else, or able to basically act as mission givers for one another, you end up with a feeling that the three of them are all working for the benefit of one another, rather than some imperious asshole crime lord. I mean sure, there's still some of that, but your characters are able to push back a lot more. Like when Trevor kidnaps that dude's wife, that all happens while you're controlling another character entirely, and it's great to see one of your protagonists actually making decisions on his own, as opposed to blindly doing as he's told. That would never have been possible in GTA IV.

Narratively, GTA4. By a long shot.

From a gameplay standpoint, GTA5 by a fair margin.

Red Dead Redemption is leaps better than both in all respects.

@sunbrozak: Yes

5

I find 4 is a overrated and bloated experience when I look back on the first time I played it, as well as when I played it again 2 years ago. 5 does have its problems but a better story, characters and playing game than 4.

Still pissed that the flying in the game is broke as fuck, still cringe when I have to fly a helicopter.

@jazzyjeff: there is no humanity in GTA V because there is no humanity left in the western world, especially in America. The reason the game feels so dark is that its satarising something so depressing.

i think i liked 4 better at the time. took me about 2 weeks to beat it playing it nearly every day compared to 5days or so for GTA V. the big thing that sold me was all the different dating options. you where actually rewarded for hanging out with people and had a lot more options. i was really into just seeing a show, i loved the comedy shows with real life comics. and meeting girls online etc, really spent a lot of time just dating and fing around with my buddies. you always had a reason to, meaning you actually got rewarded. in GTA V you dont get rewarded for hanging out for people besides just story. but all in all gta v is a better game just wish they would of kept and added to a few things like the rewards for hanging with friends and being able to meet people on the internet instead of getting rid of them. the net seems way more water downed now to.

What does the "results" option mean? That seems to be a more popular choice than GTA IV.
Anyways, I chose GTA V cause I didn't like GTA IV much.

Michael and his family are very human. They are different but they love each other.

It's been so long since I played it, but I remember really loving GTA IV. So I guess it would have to be a tie.

I did not like many of the design decisions in GTA4, which brings it down a whole lot. The GTA4 DLCs brought it down even further - I did not like them at all. That is why I cannot vote for GTA4.

I haven't played GTA5 yet and my answer is still GTA5. I know I am confident I will like it more than GTA4.

I'm not gonna participate in the poll because I haven't played V yet. But based on how much I despise what IV did to the series, and the fixes V is touting. It doesn't even look like a real competition.

5 by a long shot

i loved the shit out of 4 (and still do!, fuck you people who rearview hate the game now) but this one is just better in every way

and there is a good arc to the story and the story comes together so well in the end that it beats 4 in story in every regard.

Gta5 is obviously the most fun out of the two. Any San Andreas based gta game will have a depth of silly mischievous elements to it. However, overall, I consider IV to be the superior game. IV may not have the same level of environmental interaction to the world, or as large of a scale as V. But it definately 100% had more longevity than V will ever have. V storyline was subpar. The constant heists & relatively un-engaging personal random dilemmas that each character had, became repetative and boring. IV had a more enagaging storyline, it could practically be a movie, Not to mention the fact that the map itself is large....ly non interactive. It's as if they took Red Dead Redemption, added a small modern city, and took away all of the animals, it's dead. IV utilized the entire city in it's story. IV wins

Probably GTA IV. It was just a way more memorable game.....Well, gameplay wise probably V, actually. Story and character wise, IV is clearly better.

GTAIV doesn't even come close to V. IV is pretty much my least favorite. III is the only one I like less than IV.

Voted for V and I haven't even played it. IV was ass.

My thoughts exactly

I can't see the crosshairs in GTA V. That's a really big deal to me, so I've only played like .. two hours of GTA V. It sucks.

GTA IV's controls are a travesty.

GTA V, no question.

I have more fond memories of IV than I do V.

@mikeeegeee: Go to settings and change the crosshairs to "complex", I think that's what the setting is called.

@theveteran13: Even with complex, it doesn't add much. At nighttime, I can see things okay. Any lighter background makes the game unplayable for me. I'm playing on a 32" TV in 720p, so I guess that could be it.

GTA IV for me. It's actually pretty close between the two, as I think each of them do certain things better. That said, I had more fun in the open world of IV than I did in V, in large part because I actually really liked the vehicle physics in IV and thought they were pretty bad in V. I also have not managed to have any fun in GTAO, whereas I spent a ton of time in the Free Run mode in GTA IV.

I prefer the storytelling in GTA IV but the gameplay and mechanics of V more.

What do you know, I've been playing GTA V these past few days. I still think its controls are just good enough but could be way better. I still don't like the way everyone is afraid of Trevor. Otherwise, I'm still having fun with it.

I honestly like GTA IV more, mostly due to the story & characters being WAAY better, it had more depth. I also like that you start off small and ends up a big shot.

Let's talk about gameplay:

GTA V has fun gameplay physics, like jumping straight into walls and getting knocked down & stuffs like that, but IMO that does not belong in a GTA game. GTA IV had better physics overall, especially the shooting/punching physics who felt more real.

Graphics:

Most would say that GTA V had better graphics, and I agree to an extent, it had cleaner graphics, not realistic graphics. Most cars look like they are made out of plastic in GTA V (Yes even with metallic colours)

I don't like Bowling, so Definitely GTA V

I adored GTA IV back in the day, but I have to admit that it has aged poorly. The game just feels so stiff, although New York as an environment was more interesting than San Andreas (which was worse than the San Andreas of San Andreas). Still, the gameplay of GTA V is so much better by leaps and bounds. Have to give it to V.

GTA IV is my least favourite GTA and I am including I & II. Nico could have been a good character but there was too much dissonance between the story they wanted to tell about him and then story they actually tell about him.

GTA IV is not only a bad GTA game it's a bad game period - Yesiamaduck 2012 whilst drunk at a pub

And I stand by that opinion, I hated that game, so much so I put off playing GTA V for months.

The correct answer is Vice City.

I have now completed V. My vote has not changed, IV is a shit game.

Amen.

I fell off GTA when there stopped being jetpacks.

But in all seriousness I found GTA 4's driving and controls to be so bad and not fun it put me off playing 5. I felt I was going crazy at the the time when everyone was calling GTA 4 game of the year.

I like New York more than LA. I enjoyed 4's characters more, I just felt like I was going through the motions in 5 with generic one dimensional characters.

GTA IV was good, GTAV is on another level though. With IV they went for a more "realistic" feel. It sometimes worked really well but at other times the narrative clashed too hard with what you were doing in the world as a player. Also the vehicle physics were not that great IMO. Driving in GTAIV was a slog. The bikes were a nightmare until they patched them for the first expansion.Those expansions were a real treat though. Just thinking about them makes me want to replay them. They still are some of the best stories in the GTA franchise.

With GTAV they just perfected the package. The story centered around some adequately unstable characters that fit perfectly in the of kilter world. The humor (although hit or miss) really underlined the satirical nature of the whole thing. It makes you care just enough about the main characters but it also makes you want to cause general chaos in the world. The vehicles handle a lot better as well. It made racing around the world fun again. The online is a true phenomenon. Although I hardly spent any time with it it is undeniable that it has enormous importance in GTA's history.

It's easy to get all jaded and dismissive about the GTA games. They are a mass market thing that aims at the lowest common denominator for the most part. Although they make snarky remarks about modern life they don't have the pretense to make heavy handed social commentaries. But at the same time it's hard to think about a franchise that has impacted games in a bigger way.

I really enjoyed 4 more. I liked the idea of multiple characters with 5, but it all felt lackluster to me. 5 was just missing something, but I can't put my finger on it.

@atastyslurpee: It was missing an involving story. At least, it had no major adversary like Dimitri in IV. It ended up being largely about Trevor's whining about Michael, and Franklin did nothing. Remember Stretch? Me neither.

This is how I feel. I loved GTA IV when it came out, played it for hundreds of hours. I loved going back to Liberty City, and was a big fan of the new direction Rockstar took the series.

But GTA V is incredible. I've played it twice, once of PS3, and once on PC, and I enjoyed it immensely both times.

I pick GTA5 but GTA4 is a great game but for the sake of comparing.

• GTA5 bigger map
• GTA4 better radio more funny and better songs and a really good rock station which 5 was missing.
• GTA5 flying jets is back
• GTA4 more realistic physics in terms of the way AI will react to being shot ect..
• GTA5 better mission variety
• GTA5 more unique characters
• GTA4 better melee combat more to choose from fighting styles in GTA4 I always found more fun.
• GTA5 3 main characters to choose from

Obviously GTA5 is the better game but I think GTA4 is underrated for what it started at least I mean going from GTASA combat and weak weapon sounds and the lack of physics to GTA4 was amazing at the time. It was such a huge improvement I remember being blown away by seeing peds going through windshields.

2 years ago I voted 5? Huh, I was pretty sour on it so that surprises me. Outside of PC mods for 5, I would rather go play 4 again now

@undefined: hands down GTAV. I love the Grand Theft Auto series but GTAIV despite my hardest efforts and affection for Liberty City which is based on my home town of New York just felt bad. The driving especially. I know some say it had "weight" but GTA has always been an arcade game to me and I didn't need that faux realism. Every car felt like a truck on ice ruining the fun of effortlessly sliding around corners with the e-brake.

The story was also not great and neither was the cast. They stripped out a lot of cool mechanics from earlier games like owning property or customizing your vehicles. It was hands down my biggest disappointment of the last generation.

Nearly three years on, and I'll humbly admit I was totally fucking wrong. GTAIV is the better game. It's a better narrative, even with its faults, and looking back I even think a more fun game to play. GTAV is an impressive game, that's for sure, but it isn't as wholly fantastic as I wish it were. Also, GTAIV physics are over the top and I've spent a lot of hungover mornings ramming motorcycles into oncoming traffic just to see how far I can launch Niko.

Also, Ballad of Gay Tony is the secret best GTA game since Vice City.

@nightriff I'm in the same boat. It makes me wonder if I had finished V yet, because the back end of that game really left me pretty dissatisfied. Or maybe I was still just impressed with the size and look of it all.

I think i liked GTA4's story more, but overall GTAV is better, it also helps that the PC port is FAAAAAR superior to GTA4's which was and remains awkward in lots of places.
If i could choose any of the games, i'd pick San Andreas.
If i could choose any open world game of this style, it would be Sleeping Dogs, with an honorable mention to The Godfather.

GTA IV. But that probably has a lot to do with me being younger, more impressionable, being way more into games than I am now, and it being one of my first truly next gen experiences.

Edit: Also, I hate Trevor to the point where it brakes a lot of the game for me. The constant poop/incest/rape humor doesn't really do anything for me.

@hatking: GTA IV physics are fantastic to play around with.

I still think Rockstar achieved something sublime with the world and 3 character structure in V, though. Very bummed that there will likely never be any story DLC due to GTA Online.

This isn't even close. GTAIV is wildly overrated. You'd have some mission where Niko would shoot a few dozen people and would lament out loud how he's trying to escape a life of crime five minutes later. None of the characters were interesting, and several were outright annoying to the point of basically being pop-up advertisements for shit you didn't want to do.

GTAV's story had some issues of its own, but the world is WAY better, the missions were more fun, it obviously looks a million times better, an even the characters I didn't like were still mostly interesting. GTAV is a classic. GTAIV is a bad game that was only impressive at the time because it gave us an idea of what GTAV could be and eventually was.

@notnert427: Bad game? Hahah.. Hahahahhahaha.

No but really, bad game? Ride to Hell is a bad game. GTA IV is a good game.

@dharmabum: Yeah, the character thing was so smart. I loved that. And I want more games to try stuff like that. That said, I really didn't care for the way the game tried to tie things up. My least favorite parts of GTAIV were the choices the player got to make, and they were amplified in GTAV. It's this weird thing in games where they market moral choices like a feature, but they rarely work for me.

Either choices end up not really mattering, and the story plays out exactly how it was going to regardless. Or, one of the choices presents a better story and the other feels weaker. The bad thing with one choice presenting a better story is that, from a reward perspective, the worst choice is often the more narratively interesting. So you end up having to weight, "do I want this neat unlockable item or do I want this story to stick to its themes and actually say something." The best way I've seen it handled is where the choices don't ultimately matter, but the game does a good enough job making you feel like they do. This typically only lasts as long as it takes you to talk to one other person who played it or until you start a second playthrough. Anyway, I think they're ultimately a really bad thing for games trying to tell very intricately written stories.

I was disappointed by both, less so by V because that is at least a technical showcase on the PC and two of the three protagonists were somewhat likeable.