For those that don't know GTA IV is the best reviewed game OF ALL TIME according to metacritic. The interesting thing about this is that I don't know a single person that would call GTA IV the best game in the series, let alone the best game of all time. Apparently GTA is one of those series that make reviewers lose all rational thought and become completely blind to flaws. Will this happen again with GTA V? If the game retains many of the flaws from GTA IV can I trust reviewers to tell me this?

On the flipside, is there a chance that some reviewers will be overly critical of the game to try to get back some credibility that was lost during the GTA IV debacle?

i just saw on ign the other day, the guy that reviewed gta4 said he gave it a 9.8, but he only played 4 hours of it wen he reviewed it, then said after a week he said he changed his mind and would have given the game a much lower score!

This is why we need only good reviewers, terrible cuz of namebrand. Anywayz i say they'll give it another 96-98 on meta just cuz of name, but in all honesty the game looks so fucking bad ass!!!

10s across the board, everything about it looks amazing.

As for getting back at GTA IV, I think the fans have done that by moaning about it constantly despite everything it did. In some cases, they just don't have time to review it fully, but they should definitely fully disclose that

I actually lost a lot of respect when they did that review. After I played the game myself I realized that the only thing IGN's review had really discussed was the Oscar worthy story (which wasn't even that great imo) and the overall atmosphere. They glossed over the gameplay. When even the simple act of walking down the street feels awkward and clunky, something is seriously wrong.

Now for me, I can already tell that some of the problems I had with GTA IV have been fixed just by looking at the GTA V trailers. Those problems come down to the lack of activities. That doesn't look like a problem for GTA V, but the thing that I can't tell from those videos is how the game actually plays. If the controls are as clunky as GTA IV then I'm just not going to enjoy it no matter how amazing the world and activities are.

The thing that gives me hope though, is Red Dead and Max Payne 3. Controls for those games were rock solid so as long as GTA V builds on that and not GTA IV then it should be all good.

It could top GTAIV, and I hope it does, because it probably deserves it.

Isn't The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time the best game of all time according to metacritic?

I believe GTA V will score a little lower than GTA IV (93-95) even so GTA V will be for sure the better game.

Topping it in sales is likely but topping a 98 on metacritic? Thats going to be difficult even if it is a better game. IMO, rockstar already made a game that deserved better reviews than GTA IV when they made Red Dead Redemption. Whether it deserves it or not I see GTA V at most matching GTA IV but not exceeding it as far as reviews go.

whichever way they want to go

I'm expecting a 96+ metacritics score, less than that would be a disappointment.

The highest-rated game ever is Ocarina of Time actually. It's the only game with a 99. Funnily enough though, it doesn't deserve it either. Oh well.

About OP, GTA V will proably score 95/96. I have no idea why GTAIV's score is so high, the first impression of the game is not even that good. I only enjoyed it because the story and characters are good and stuff. 85 would be enough for it, and even that is overrating it a little bit.