GTAIV with better characters? Hahahahahaha hey cousin you want to go bowling...... Story you can argue since both were pretty terrible but at least GTAV had fun gameplay but that turd that was GTAIV, the gameplay was attrocious. Speaking purely of the console version here. On PC IV can actually be quite fun when pretty much nothing is left standard.

GTAIV wasn't even close to being a "turd", it was only the hardcore SA fans that couldn't get past some gameplay elements that called it that.

The story in GTAIV was pretty good, at least by GTA standards. Niko was genuinely likeable, and his character developent and backstory were both top notch.

GTAV, on the other hand, went back to the ghetto profanity elements from SA with Franklin, added by far the most horrible and disgusting character I have ever used in Trevor, and made the only salvageable character in Michael bogged down by those two. The story was so idiotically horrible to boot. 

Edit: This is coming from a JRPG enthusiast, so I tend to put story and character above pretty much everything. If you could care less about those two, GTAV is hands down the better game.

So tell me if IV gameplay wasn't terrible why would they completely change most of it in V.

See for me I didn't enjoy the story in IV at all. It's still the only 3D GTA that I have seen the end of the story. Every other GTA since III I have got 100% in. Niko was good but that's only one person in the entire game. When the next main character Roman that undoes any good work with the protagonist.

I actually found V to have better characters while still being nothing great. Franklin was actually trying to get out of that lifestyle and after about 2 hours had nothing to do with it anymore. I think that's exactly what R* was going for with Trevor and Michael was just boring I found. Story was just there to give you some pretty good set pieces really.

Yeah see for GTA I put gameplay way above story. I presume most people buying GTA's would buy them for the gameplay. Just being able to do random crazy shit which felt very limited in IV. Once again nearly all of my problems with the game bar the fat man have been fixed with mods for my current play through on PC.

Why wasn't PC mentioned?

I'm guessing it'd be just an upscale with not much else

meh, I've played the game to death. I'm probably going to pass... unless I get the option to trade in my PS3 version for the MS4 version at no extra cost.... but you know they'll never do that.

Well, in some cases, you really can't because it changes the game too much.  Like adding new attacks to characters in Soul Calibur II HD Online.  No, there weren't new attacks added, and that's the point.  It's supposed to play like the original.  However, with GTA, it wouldn't hurt to add things like that.

To each his own. I can't fault you for liking a game that everyone loves so much, it just wasn't for me I guess.