to do it ruins the experience. I stopped playing Oblivion for this reason. I want a game that I can play and beat.

I stopped playing because my final project is due next week:(
I will get back on it, once I am done with my uni stuff.:(

Number 7 is the #1 reason I stopped.

I play it, but not as much as I thought I would.

I just can't get into the game.

I pick it up here and there but I just cannot for the life of me get into the game.

I blame the driving mechanics.

If I wanna play a video game it is for entertainment not realism.

im still playing but it takes so long to finish and chase missions are stupid

I'm still not past the store front mission where you smash it in. I couldn't bring myself to be bored with it anymore. It's just not that good of a game. the reviews lied and they are the same ones giving Lair 3 and 4's when Gta4 is no more than a 7 game max. I've had more fun with Haze than Gta4 believe it or not. I've actually beat it.

Some people really to stick their head of the nostalgia crackpot and remember that GTA3 and its spin off were pretty crappy mission without much variety , or hanging around doing crazy stuff that gets really old after a short while , or even worse the paquages .

Same dry missions ? WTH the game is scripted to hell enough during mission to give you a wide range of stuff to do from chases , through sniping , through internet dating with assassination , racing , helicopters etc etc ...

I swear all i can remember about previous one campaigns were crappy car chases and dry shoot and kill in a hangar mission . This one features them too , but even the blandest mission like stealing the drug from the old hospital feels fresher with a bit of scripting and actual storytelling . Its all about packaging imo , and gta3 and consorts had very little of it , despites some obvious qualities

I hate the fact that there are no checkpoints in missions.

A tip if you are not on a mission and don't want to be bothered: Go top the options menu in the cellphone and turn 'sleep mode' on. hat way you pause the story mode.

This game makes me fall asleep.

1. Radio got old/annoying (DLC please)
2. Can't get ontop of buildings easily
3. Graphics suck massive donkey balls
4. Money is there.. but nothing to spend it on
5. Very Shallow level of customization
6. You can do anything infront of a police... just dont shoot or touch his car
7. Broken Combat System
8. Auto-Aim in Ranked matches?
9. Cell Phone Cheats?.. can't pull out a phone in the middle of war.
10. Missions are pointless and annoying

and one more thing... There is an achievment where you have to kill someone from the Rockstar development team...
WTF!!!
That's the dumbest achievement since "THROUGH THE FIRE"

i played crackdown the other day for the 1st time since i beat it w week after release.

i think crackdown is way better than gta graphically, the framrate is a lot better, there are more people & cars populating the city, the cars handle better, you don't crash into things that have not loaded in properly.

I was hugely disappointed with gta 4, they cut far too much content that made the previous games great.

If you play crackdown now, you can't help but think that rockstar were very lazy with gta4.

But #7 is my biggest gripe. Having to drive back to the real starting point of the mission was frustrating as hell if you were stuck on a particular one. And yes the chase missions were extremely annoying at times.

Seems there are quite a few people here that feel the same way, I for one slowed down because theres really nothing else to do, Nothing random happens any more other than the same old someone gets hit by a car a fight breaks out and people move along. Cops in this game give up to fast, and are rather dumb, it would have been cool if Rockstar made the cops aggressive just like they are on you, for example ive seen police get hit by other cars harder than i hit them but yet they do nothing about it. GTA is called Grand Theft Auto but yet I see no one stealing cars, the only GTA i recall cars being jacked was back in GTA 3 thus was the reason for putting bombs on the car and watching people jack and get killed lol. For me it seems rockstar left out something that didnt bring the GTA 4 together as I would have liked it to be, maybe next time Rockstar maybe next time.

my main problem with the game it seemed to lose the humor of the other editions.

watching tenpenny smoking a bong, flying around on a jetpack, a blind guy playing golf, beating people up with a double ender, using the combine harvester from body harvest.

the only bit that made me laugh was the mission were you had to date that bloke, the email you get from roman cracked me up, and the fact my brother looks the same as brucie.

... some people are never satisfied

9. way too much money
10. the end takes all the fun out of the game
11. the choice system is shallow
12. no business's? WTF?
13. no tank? WTF?
14. no army to kick your ass
15. no houses to buy? WTF?
16. not enough weapons - no flamethrower? no revolver ? WTF?
17. you can finish the game without buying a single weapon, because you find bazillions of bullets
18. the easy access to the firetruck/police/taxi missions is missing
19. if you get hit, you can't access cheats
20. no second question if you really want to start the SIXAXIS tutorial - how many times did I hit it by accident?
(21. ->OPINION<- the radiostations suck)
21. no custom radio? WTF?
22. too many loose ends
23. not enough tv shows
24. the camera phone blows
25... <- add yours here

Finished the main story in 23:30 and never played it since then.

Yeah i gotta say I haven't touched my copy of it in over a week....It's REAL boring and I think it's gonna go away for a while.

As much as I was enjoying the game, it was simply overshadowed (more like ECLIPSED) by my first-time experience with a game which goes by an acronym of its own:

<< MGS >>

And with June 12th just around the corner, there's a good chance I won't be hearing Nico's amusing one-liners for...

...well, let's just say that he's probably gonna have to apply for another Green Card. ;)

Game was just not good.

OH man... i will probably lose bubbles for this.. but oh well... I'm still playing this game a lot when possible...

This article along with the comments above, prove the fact how todays short attention span held by todays gamers/peoples... always looking for something better prematurely....it's like the "cool" thing to do.. "I stopped playing GTA".... todays masses will respond " yea you know what I think will stop too"

I stopped playing it because the missions are beginning to drive me up the wall.

I was about to say the same thing. The longer a games been out...the more hate it starts to generate. Just wait till a couple of weeks after MGS4 comes out people will be mad about this or that. Honestly people the game is amazing,and I'm sure rockstar is sorry that they couldnt take you out of your bored lives and place you forever in a world that is perfect and totally fun with no end.

i just think rockstar was trying to make the game a lot more realistic and believable which resulted in taking out some great features like the tank, jet pack, flamethrower, parachute, planes etc. but anyone who says the game is just not good is just being unfair.

after seeing the rviews for gta4 and playing it ans ppl stating its the greatest game of all time i wonder to my self have most reviewrs played old pc games or xbox 1 games as gta 4 is not better than sanandreas and tpehr games i can mention mgs4 will dissapoint also these 10/10 games these days are a joke and i bet mgs4 wont eve get 10/10 all round and i will never play mgs as there is much other games illl be gettingthos year and beyond

Still will have more replay than MGS4

This is the first GTA i've beat 100% and without cheats. Sounds good? Well, the reason i did it was lack of other stuff to do. I loved the story (except for one of the endings), but thats about it. The game is good but not outstanding. Nothing in the game really makes you want to go 'sandbox style'.

The bad:
1. There is little urge to go cause havoc around the city after you've jumped off some buildings.

2. I got 6 stars, and outran them in a minute or two, thats boring.

3. The driving does suck, when my stats say ive gone around 1000 miles in a taxi and 300 in a car, something is wrong. I shouldnt be so bored with driving that I stand around waiting for a taxi.

4. When Rockstar said this is the next GTA after GTAIII (when explaining why they went with GTAIV for a name), I really understand their logic now. GTA III had little to do as far as content, and GTA IV is right with that.

5. The online is very tedious, when you stop a game it boots you back to the single player, meaning you wait for it to load. What the hell.

6. The blur. Remember that Vice City had a blur feature, but it allowed you to turn it off. I'm not sure if its because of hardware problems or artistic styling, but the blur in the game is really annoying and could be done without.

7. Trafic - This has allways been a problem and I cant figure out why the hell they havnt fixed/changed this. You see 1 car everywhere you look until you go to another area. You see no traffic, turn around and get run over by a car from behind, when there was nothing their a second ago. Comeon, these things should've been gone several games ago.

The Good
1. (as i said) The Story, I think its the best story of all the GTA games. It was the first time that i really got into the story instead of just hitting 'X' to bypass cutscenes.

2. I think the multiplayer (baring some connection issues, and the complaint above) is pretty fun. It offers alot of variety.

Well this isnt a full list, just stuff on the top of my head. Others have pros/cons that i agree with in addition, by why repeat everything. I hope the next GTA brings back that 'sandbox' feeling. A sandbox game shouldnt just allow me to do whatever i want, it should encorage it. Something older GTA games did and this one did not.

Bah its the whole haterade on the popular kid all over again .
MGS4 will get its own version soon enough , then gow2 , killzone 2 , little big planet ... banjoie also i suppose .

Or you guys really enjoy getting ripped off all the time by hyped games ...

gamedaily make me sick.
there website sucks, they have the worst articles, the lamest articles, the way they present them is frickin annoying and there just looking for attention, all of them points are flawed and stupid

As far as open world games go... I have to say I enjoyed Oblivion more...

It doesnt matter though, because even though I do think its a fun game, I cant seem to bring myself to taking COD4 out of the console. TOO GOOD!!!!

this game went steps backwards from San Andreas

redo san andreas on ps3!!!!!

GTA4 gets borring waaaaaaay quicker then any GTA ever...

nikko and the phone calls are sooo damn lame!!!

GTA IV is overrated and really is boring?

How could this happen?

Maybe 2K, MS, and Sony thought if they hype it through the roof each would see sales increase?

Too bad the game is dull compared to what has been done before and since everything is toned down it's boring.

I think Rockstar's design limitations on this game was a matter of storage problems with the DVD format. DVDs are fine for linear action games, FPS, and standard TPS, but when it comes to games like RPGs, and sandbox titles, the squeeze is very apparent. At least with RPGs you can break up locations into sections and fit them on to different discs, but not for a seamless persistant city. I think the downloadable content for GTAIV will be all the stuff Rockstar couldn't squeeze into a DVD9 format. (ie my guess is they're already done with the content).

yeah phone calls from Roman during a mission or on my way to do a mission is annoying as hell

What a bunch of complainers. Never happy.

I never started playing GTA. Guess I am ahead of the game.

I have tried to like GTA. I really have!

My favorite GTA games, in this order:

1. San Andreas
2. Vice City
3. GTA IV
4. GTA III
5. Vice City Stories
6. Liberty City Stories

Other than not being able to fly helicopters, I had way more fun with 'Saints Row'.

I'm still p[laying it.

that the gameplay is too heavy and realistic for a gta game,you can't have the awesome thrills found in gta3,vice city,san andreas,lcs and vcs,remember having fun with the viper like car in gta3

i stopped playing after 2days

im now back to cod4,....gta4 was over hyped if uask me,....it was to downgraded and it was not as fun as the last gta. dont get me wrong it is a good game but it became boring,..the last gta had so many things going on..jet packs,..jumbo jets,..fighter jets..e.t.c

if Rockstar doesnt step it up with a good upgrades with addons that are user demand (especially online) I doubt the next gta title will do any good in sales with so many people already stopped playing after 1 month.

I beat the game already and had loads of fun playing it. I liked the story but thats about it. Its the same GTA. Its not the game thats gonna make me want the extra DLC thats for sure. Its done, complete and time to move on. Bring on the real game of the year. MGS4!! Yea baby, 2 more weeks!

i think the overrated thing here is the amount of people who alleged stopped in both solo and online .
The amount of used copies would be imo a far better estimate than the usual internet comments , wich are negative about well anything ... then of course later sales .

Indeed some old fans are pissed , but new people came in , and a portion of them loves the game , while they didnt care with previous entries .

San Andreas was way better..... and why?

simple, inventive missions- the missions in GTA4 are so fvcking boring and they're practically all the same

for every fun mission like the helicopter chase or robbing a bank with Packie there's about ten which have you either chasing some idiot down or going to his house or hideout and clearing everyone out

and the guys you have to kill are all gruff, generic losers

and the cheats are painfully dull- where's the hovercraft? why can't i turn everyone into Elvis? why can't i have ladies following me around?

GTA4 laid the groundwork for what i hope will be something special in GTA5

San Andreas had crazy and fun missions that had you jumping into planes mid-air, parachting into peoples houses

speaking of which, why is there no parachute? i hope we see a return of this stuff in GTA5

Ive beaten story mode,finished most wanted list.completed all little jacobs jobs,beaten all assasin missions,got all cars for stevie and im still playing.I gotta 77% complete and 22 achievements so far.I'll be putting GTA IV down for a while after I get GRID this tuesday tho.

I don't have the game yet, I have been waiting for summer. But by all the responds (mostly negative), is it worth a rental?

It's not even two months old yet, is it really that bad? There were so many positive reviews.

Only ps3 fan girls have probably stopped playing gta4 because xbox360 version runs without any problems from day one. maybe rockstar should make gta5 xbox360 exclusive next time

by the overwhelming responds in support of the topic. The game is not even 2 months old yet. Summer is finally here, so I guess I'll give it a rental first.

ive played gtaiv 4 hours on end on my trusty ps3 and hav had NO i repeat NO problems at all besides id rather hav a faulty disk then a faulty console PS3FTW WOOT WOOT WOOT

Do you guys think its cool to hate a game? You think it makes you different? Tell me what is wrong with this game? I will tell you. Nothing. If you hate this game i advise youto take a good look at your standards,

Mine ran with no hiccups at all. Beat the game in 33 hours. There's not much left to the game. Seriously by the time DLC comes out for this game whose really gonna care.

It's actually pretty boring..I have finished the game and would rate it as a good game, nothing more nothing less. Seriously, who cares about the exclusive content when the game is not THAT interesting? I am playing dragon quest 8 after gta4 and it is a lot more fun.

............ It's just most of us feel that Rockstar sacrificed fun for realism and completely forgot what made the game popular in the first place.

Hell - I must be way of the pulse with my gaming tastes, judging by the moaning and vitriol I'm reading in this thread! Certainly the reasons given in this article seem highly contrived:
Who cares if a pixelated bimbo keeps her kit on?
Why would a mission not involve killing someone if your a hired killer?
Starting missions from the beginning has always been the same in GTA, and indeed, most games?
People wanting easy achievements are pathetic (wheres the 'achievement' if its given away?)

I'm still playing GTA4 and loving it all - for me, previous games have been ruined by dreadful combat controls, but this title has workable ones. I might not have completed it yet, but the story is engaging and I actually care about several people who will no doubt die violent deaths!).
The only thing disappointing me at all, is the lack of 'extra's' like pick ups and collectibles and daft mini games. But theres no other game that gives me the feeling of such a living breathing city in the way this title does.

Whats with all the COD4 comments? Much as I respect COD4 and agree its the finest FPS title - it IS just another fps excuse to 'shoot someone in the head' yet again. With only an 8 hour campaign experience I felt more cheated by that title. Remember - nearly 50% of xbox's are not on 'live' at all, so half the machines user base just gets 8 hours of campaign and the multi player is vapor..

Whilst I'm skeptical about any game getting a '10', GTA is close to deserving it in my eyes, and the reviewers and press are not far wrong. But hey, its cool to knock anything thats successful, right kids??! :)
Everyone has a valid opinion, but I'm betting the huge majority of people buying this title will be very pleased with it.

and this my friends is why the episodic content MS wasted so much money on means crap, itll probably involve some of the same missions redone to seem slightly different from those already in the game. i always finish a GTA game then move onto the next, im replaying the game only to make the other decisions(those who have passed the game know what i mean) but other than that its bye bye GTA IV HELLOOOOOOOO MGS 4 :)

Cant buy houses! Cant buy companys ! Not enough clothes ! I went into the game expecting to not be able to fly planes. Now, we cant gain or lose atributes or hell, cant have anything but a hamburger at burger shot and clucking bell lol everything seemed better in San Andreas. i could go on ! Cant steal trains. The radio stations arnt as exciting. AND THE CHILD PORN CRAP SUCKS ! japanese schoolgirl this,touching underage kids that. fk It Rockstar! U kept that crap out the other games,and I loved those games. I just feel. .like they promised the world, but gave us GTA next gen looks PS1 game entertainment(just in those places I mentiond) Instead. But woa,what is in the game,is awesome damage.awesme physics.weather effects.lighting effects.ambience. Graphics rock.

GAME is super boring.. I havent touched it in a a week and half.. Online sucks.. Single player sucks.. Graphics are ok.. Way over rated game

online sucks but xbox live gta is hella fun. No lag and lots of people.

my only question is: why the hell the gave it a Perfect score then?

1. Hanging out with people blows - There are ways to make it fun ..... =P

2. Our games still freeze - Not mine

3. Brain dead police - THe more brain-dead the better

4. GTA IV's controls aren't reliable - Mine are perfectly fine

5. Same dry missions - Not really

6. Strippers wear bikinis - Not the focus of the game, but oh well.

7. You restart missions at the beginning - That's a discipline thing to make you want to do better on missions so you will do them right the first time.

8. Achievement points are too difficult to unlock - Huh? Come on...

GTA reallly a disappointment. when i first saw the city i was impressed. but the game is dry and boring. controls suck and missions get repetitive fast. and what does rockstar want us to do with all our money in the game? we can't buy houses or businesses any more? also, who thinks the radio soundtrack is half as good as the awesome vice city radio? this series might want to be put out to pasture. thank god MGS4 is hitting soon.

u can buy sh*t and u can bring ur gang to places so u can fight other gangs u cant do this in GTA 4 which i miss so much GTA VICECITY>all GTA

I had my GTA since day 1 and still havn't beatin the game yet. Why? because i bought it for my 60 gig PS3 and it never stops pissing me off with the freeze issues. now Sony is telling me i have to pay $150 for their mistake. for the few minutes at a time i got to play the game it made me think that paying 150 is really worth it even though it does seem really ridiculous. but 150 isn't much to me and i think if i dont fix it i will just continue getting these problems and it might occur for other games. this has happened to me with the PS2 where it refused to play any purple and black disk games and for some reason (probably my luck) god of war (which i waited 4evo 4).

1. Hanging out with people doesn't blow
2. my game doesn't freeze
3. Police's AI is really good
4. GTA IV's controls are really good, and its easy to play
5. Missions are just as variable as in other GTA games
6. I don't care about CG tits, but rather slamming bodies to the ground in my car.
7. Missions are relatively easy, so restarting is not a problem at all
8. Achievement points are irrelevant to me (because i own a PS3

I agree. What a sh1t game. I see it in a whole new light.

3 and 5. Escaping police now is easier than previously and Niko, seemed like a cool guy and became a pushover for "kill" missions one after another. I have 50% and well... Not enough story.
Sure, the game's very detailed: exploding tires, talking people, friends, minigames and so on, but lacks those few important things that Vice City and San Andreas had.

I still love this game. The only thing that annoys me from that list is having to start at the beginning of the mission, can be really frustrating.

Dont find the missions samey at all, so far I have run drugs, stole cars, shot down helicopters, took out gangs, robbed banks, beaten races... To be fair, Think they have done a good job of not making the game too repetitive.

Ive barley touched multiplayer, never been a big multiplayer person I buy the game for the single player.

And oh yeah, why do we need all this money??? All you buy are food and guns/ammo

You guys are all right about the money being useless. It's supposed to be the chief motivator in the game. Heck Niko keeps telling people that its all about the money and yet nobody can do anything with it in Liberty City, except eat, take a taxi, buy some ammo, and pick up some street hos. I mean, seriously, I could do the same things working behind burger shot. Where's the bling, and the high life that's shown in that TV show? Where's the idea of extravagance and over the top parties, clubbing/vip?

because there's nothing else to do really...

usually I like to savor the game and get everything before I beat it. There wasn't anything in the game to get, other than the pigeons, boost the friends respect, and secret jumps...lame...So I just played the missions...achievements don't mean crap to me, so don't play that card.

Why bother to do cab rides or other money making stuff? Theres nothing to spend it on, other than guns and 4 clothing shops, which btw two of them are the exact same shop...LAME...I never been so disappointed when unlocking a new island...A new island should have new stuff to see and explore, not nothing.

In the other games there was tons of stuff to do, but this one...nothing.

I'll probably play it again if the DLC is really good...Maybe I'll play it over again with cheats. Even then from what I seen on the IGN cheat page, the cheats are not all that good either.

Don't get me wrong, I liked it and all, the story was great and graphics were too...but there could've been so much more, a lot more.

I genuinely like this game the LEAST of all the GTAs...I'm not jumping on some bandwagon like some idiots are theorizing and ranting about...Some people just didn't like the game, or were expected more because of all the 10s that were given...deal with it.

And don't give me the "N'sync" argument "Well got ten's and sold a lot, so it can't be bad"...yes it can, people have different tastes.

END RANT/

What a bunch of nerds!
First of all, all you so-called gamers beg developers for longer games with a story. Sorry rockstar made gta rated R!
cops are dumb? as you progress thru the crime world the cops become more aggressive and are always looking out for Niko. You would no that if you spent some time reading the newspapers in the internet.
Cops come at you pac-man style and thats FUN!
This is what gta is & will be like from now on! Its a tougher, grittier crime story that can be compared to the sorprano's on HBO!
Of course rockstar made this game for adults and its the kids on the internet saying I got so bored & the story lost me! Thats what happens when you make a game that lets you do whatever you want: people just dont know what to do with themselves! Especially, the so-called gamers who are not playing this game for fun!
GTA is like a Professional hitman game that penalizes you for being a Maniac!
Thanks to the xbox 360 gta got gimped on content for DLC! Everytime Else is a major improovement! Nerds!

that was funny. I never noticed what else did you want them to ware if they became top less then the game would have gotten an A rating which would have delayed the game then every gamer in the would would have complained. Another thing that I want to add is the damn game is short maybe the 360 version with the dvd limitation held it back and I will be damned if R* expects me to buy the DLC when I payed $ 60.00 for the game now if it's free then I will give it a spin.

I was certain this game would hold me over till MGS4 came out

but after beating it twice in 5 days..i was like...what the hell's the point of playing now? im walkin around with half a million and nothing to spend it on,20$ for a Handjob?..yeaah

Why cant i buy property? why cant i buy clubs and sports cars?

as HeyHeyHey said somewhere above,where's all the unique missions? i.e hijacking planes in mid air,parachuting into a mansion and taking over. stealing eperimental jetpacks from "hush hush" goverment facilitys? or hell,even jetplanes right off the Boat.

Why did they F*CK this game up so bad??

i dont even play it anymore.I find myself going back to old games i havent played in month's,resistance,guitar hero even assasins creed...

Im sorry but...Rockstar..you really let me down..

9. The cheats are complete garbage

whatever happened to the classic tank, or unlimited health, or airplanes? what about flying cars, jet packs COME ON.... thats it... i'm done with GTA, no more for me

I just don't get where you guys are coming from. The money makes it easy to always have your amo full. There are tons of clothes etc. I understand there are not so many little things like in the past games but come on. This is still vintage GTA here. The rocket launcher and the explosions that go along with it are amazing. It still has not gotten old watching the bodies fly. Online is a blast. For me I have trouble deciding what I want to do more when it comes to playing online or story mode. The one point i will concede is the soundtrack. I totally agree that is severely lacking. Other than that though this game is awesome.

Also if you watch the strip shows more than once I am worried for you. Maybe if thats such a big complaint to some of you, then maybe you should just buy a porno or go to a strip club. That way you can stop being disappointed in GTA because you didn't get to see some virtual HD stripper boobs.

It's a good game and all, but once I finished the story(which was great), I was like, okay now what... So im back to CoD4.

AMEN.

and iv never had 1 problem
just with how borring and lame the actual game is
FBUCK GTA4!!
ok graphics
shiiety story
crappy characters
why go from awesome San Andreas (the best gta)
too a crappy white immigrant story that was piss poor

god!!!

PLEASE GO BUY UNCHARTED DRAKES FORTUNE!!!
BY FAR THE BEST PS3 GAME SOOO FAR!!

GTA4 IS GARBAGE!!!!

4 HRS OF GAMEPLAY!!
CASH WITH NOTHING FUN TO DO WITH IT!!!

NAUGHTY DOG MADE A MASTERPIECE GO ENJOY A GOOD GAME!!

TWICE

I mean I beat the game twice before I stopped playing.

The reason we stop playing games is because they get repetitive. I personally haven't even played GTA4. /Off topic I will play it at a friends house sometime, but I don't intend to buy it unless I have excess money/ Back on Topic. Game daily please stop with this make more interesting lists for the sake of the internet.

Well i like it, i mean i understand where everyboby is commin from especially with they crazy crap thats usually in gta like flying planes and doin just random dumb but fun crap just to do sumthing you couldnt in real life or you could but either your scared or you dont have a million dollars, i like the whole real life feel for it, you just have to see it that way then its awesome. But yea it is a little tiring when your always killing some gangster for someboby why cant you do something for yourself to make money with no risk you know, especially like pimping in gta:sa that was awesome, but otherwise i have nothing to complain aboout the game i think its awesome, i play it when i can cause you know people work and crap

oh and how could you say the graphics suck there way better than saints row and saints row2 from what ive seen, if you want gta sa again get SR or SR2

It's just another game that was rushed a lot like Halo, Lair, Haze, Mass Effect, etc.
Developers get too lazy and should take their time making a quality game.

But its ok, cuz ur so focused on the main story.then,u finish the game. .and. .wow. . .its kinda empty.I start up the game,and get 4 -5 star rating, and start a war with the cops.try to escape.thats whats left of the game.

I thought everybody loved this game? At least, it sure seemed that way for the first couple weeks of its release. Then a couple critics gave bad reviews, and suddenly all these people come out of the woodwork badmouthing the game.

I'm not going to say the game is perfect--it's not.

But is it fun? Sure

Is it engaging? Yes.

Was it worth buying? Well, I think so.

Everyone has there own opinions. That's fine. It doesn't bother me if you hate the game. But maybe a better way to deal with it is to just sell the game and buy something that you will enjoy.

I've been a GTA fan ever since GTA3 captured me and never let go back 7 years ago. I had been waiting for GTA4 for 2 and a half years, with a preorder already a year old.

Needless to say, I've played through 3 times already, the first time rushing through for the 100% in the first week (and making it), the second time playing at a relaxed pace, and the third time playing on my 360 racking up achievement points.

Every true GTA fan that I know is doing the same. The only people you hear "aw man it wasn't that good" are the people that buy into hype. If you preordered anywhere from last March until release, you probably were just buying into the hype, instead of buying a game because of your love for the franchise.

The real GTA fans have no problem with it no matter what its downfalls. Its kinda lame though to constantly see on here "Why GTA4 sucks!!!" when its only because they are people who got the game for the hype of it being perfect, instead of appreciation for the franchise.

How, or rather WHY did GTA IV get all those perfect scores?

Here are some sites that saw nothing wrong with the game.

Playstation Official Magazine UK
IGN
IGN UK
Playstation: The Official Magazine (US)
1UP
Games Radar
GameSpy
Game Informer
VideoGamer
Gamer.nl
PSW Magazine UK
GameSpot
G4 TV
Gameplanet
GamingExcellence
Edge Magazine
Jolt Online Gaming UK
Gameplayer
Electronic Gaming Monthly
IC-Games
GameDaily
Giant Bomb
DarkZero
Gaming Age
GameZone
Gaming Nexus
Thunderbolt
GameShark
PTGamers
games(TM)
AceGamez
GamePro

All these sites thought that this game was perfect. PERFECT meaning no less than 100% on Metacritic. 100% as in "0 flaws".

But abviously after reading this, I can see that I'm not the only one to disagree. OBVIOUSLY, reguardless of the console, the game itself is flawed.

So how did it get all those perfect scores? Seriously, how could a game this far from perfect get a 98 Metacritic score? METACRITIC! That's a rating AVERAGE system right???

What do you think? Do you think Rockstar had much to do with it? Or do you think the reviewers honestly just missed all those problems?

Do you think it was something else?

Do you think MS paid $50 mil on DLC and another $50 mil on review scores? (Not to say that Sony is incapable of doing such a thing, but they just didn't seem to be pushing the game the way MS was - as if they didn't really care about it so much)

I mean really, can we even trust game critics anymore?

Ok, so they're a bunch of talented writers, but is there a critic out there who is either A) not biased against a console B) not going to let previous installments of the game to influence their decisions or C) not somehow influenced by the publisher?

Is there a critic out there who will just rate the game based on that games OWN merits?

Honestly, I never even listen to critics. I can't think of one game that I bought or didn't buy based on review scores. It's only been recently that I started paying attention to them (I thought the whole GTA / MGS thing was pretty amazing for a while). But I'm sure that some of my favorite games got some pretty nasty reviews and some games that got nothing but gold from reviewers (a la like GTA IV), started collecting dust on my shelf after only a few days of play.

The point is, right or wrong, I think I'm man enough to make these decisions on my own.

Honestly, in this generation, I don't think we need critics anymore. If you want help making up your mind as to whether or not to get a game, just download the demo and decide for yourself. They're usually free. I think every game this generation should be available as a demo in one form or another.

Trust your own impressions. Not what these guys say.

I agree about not listening to critics, and in fact, that's how I've felt for years concerning movies and books as well.

Critics, in my view, almost never seem to get it right. Not to mention, the types of movies and books I like, tend to be the off center, weirdo stuff that critics regularly bash.

SO, yes, I totally agree. Make your own decisions. And don't be swayed by the mobs off people screaming their love, or hate, of something.