I don't believe there is any bias. Here's my reasons why. I'll use IGN and Gamespot as my targets as everyone is obviously most shocked by their 10s seeing as how they give them out so rarely and are such popular sites.
1. People seem to forget that every GTA since III has gotten amazing scores. Here's Gamerankings for the PS2 versions:
GTA III-94.9% # 18 of all time
GTA: Vice City-94.2% #30 of all time (#23 of all time for the PC version)
GTA: San Andreas-95.2% #17 of all time
I would like to point out that if San Andreas was exactly 1% higher it would have been #8 of all time. If it had been 2% higher it would have been #3 of all time. If it were 3% higher it would be #1 of all time by a half percentage. GTA was always close to the top.
2. San Andreas, while being only a marginal improvement over the other two iterations ended up as the best scoring out of the three, showing that reviewers were accepting of these minor changes. Now take into account that GTA IV brings more new content to the table than San Andreas ever did and you can see it getting higher scores. When a franchise is redone for the next generation of consoles, and is fully taking advantage of it's new hardware with ideas not possible beforehand, you can see where high review scores come in. As a point of reference, MGS 2 scored higher than MGS, Super Mario Galaxy scoed over Super Mario 64 and Resident Evil 4 scored over Resident Evil 2.
3. These scores are not so different from San Andreas which was as I recall, much buggier than GTA IV is. IGN gave San Andreas a 9.9 and Gamespot gave it a 9.6. Considering how much an improvement GTA IV is over San Andreas compared with the small improvements San Andreas was to both Vice City and GTA III, it's not outside of the realm of possibility that it would score slightly higher.
4. GTA IV is massive. It is the open world adventure game equivalent of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Most games nowadays are either long on single player content or long on multiplayer content, but GTA IV is long in both. To 100% this game I can easily see it taking over 80 hours, maybe more. Then take into account online multiplayer with a dozen modes bringing together up to 16 players. It's really not hard to believe a few minor technical hiccups did not mess up review scores.
5. This is a larger game than any other out there. It cannot be subjected to the same eyes that judge the first person shooters, fighting games, and other genres that aren't a 10th of the size GTA IV is for graphics. It needs to be judged on other massively sized games, which there really aren't any I can think of right now. If Saints Row 2 comes out this year, bigger than GTA and sporting better graphics, I'll apologize for this point. I don't see it happening however.
On a minor note, the pop-in issues are so minor it's rediculous. I was expecting much worse. None of those videos showing pop-in happening right in front of you have existed at all in my game, and I've traveled 100 mph through the park. I even went through the exact same spot that infamous po-in frenzy video took place in, as it's in the borough you live in, and none of that happened. In fact I haven't seen anything pop-in closer than 200 ft (in videogame ft. of course). Not once has it affected the gameplay in any way. By the way, I own the 360 version, so I'm sure the PS3 owners have even less of an issue than I do with it.
Tag: Became a freaking mod and a complete douche, coincidentally, at the same time.
