It's not hated, it's just considered extremely over-scored by the reviewers. I don't care if it's got better graphics. The phone is a pain, many of the new gameplay mechanics are pointless, there's nothing to spend money on, there's no aeroplane, and no tank.

It's not bad, it's a great game. But it's not as excellent as San Andreas, and therein lies the problem.

GTA4 is an overhyped and in the end mediocre game that gets boring fast. I played this game for nearly two hours and than gave it back to my friend, who played sold it fast on ebay.

You can identify with a human trafficker hellbent on revenge more than a guy who wants to get crack out of the ghetto and protect his neighborhood?

Whoa.

And apparently they were hiphoppers, not gangsters.

I think GTA4 should get the perfect 10

I haven't had that much fun playing a game since the Duke3D days...

I think hearing people say "its just like but better graphics" is retarded, thats how almost all games are...

with GTA, alls they do is bring what they brought previously, and add a little more

With GTA4, they added better graphics, bigger city, no load times, online (this alone is huge), huge improvements all around, etc

GTA: San Andreas did the same thing (Added Parachutes, Jetpacks, Jets, etc, etc)

What you should expect from a GTA game is:

*Slightly better graphics
*More interactivity
*Bigger city
*Improvements of previous features

Edit: @Kantor, god I'm totally with you with the phone in GTA4, I effing hate that thing... I wish it was more of a wide bar that came out from the bottom of the screen and had all the info you need, then hides back away... kind of like old school shooters (Duke3D/Doom/Wolfenstein/etc) where you have gun/ammo/items in a horizontal bar on the bottom

I actually enjoyed gta IV more then any of the other ones with the possible exception of vice city with its sexy 80's theme.

 Sounds about right except for the fact that MGS 4 is worth both Gears put together.

Quite so, what the kids of today don't seem to grasp is that hip hop singers aren't gangsters, they don't even know what a gangster is (apparently). This is a gangster;

However, these are not, they're just douches who have misunderstood an old expression and grouping from the Depression;

It was and is hated on so much because reviewers blew it out of proportion. The game, while good, is nowhere near as good as the reviews suggest. This is the view of the general public, and therefore, the game is hated on to a degree.

Personally, I think the game is shit. I got extremely bored about 35% in and haven't played it since.

    I think people are thinking the game is boring because they're refusing to do what the game was asking them to do and that was really live their lives as Nico Bellic in Liberty City.  The cell phone for instance, some people might think it was awful but it was intrinsic to the game because trying to keep Nico's relationships on a good level with all those people was a large part of the game.