I was wondering if your experience was as bad as mine. I played GTA IV first a couple years ago and I was blown away. The graphics were not what I was used to since I only got a PS3 in 2011. Anyways I got GTA V last Christmas and I was floored. The freeness of the map and the graphics and mechanics were so fun that I sank hours of gameplay into it nonstop. Now I go back to GTA IV and it is downright painful. Not only do I feel constrained in the map, but I now see how horrible the graphics were on consoles. The pace of the game was just so much slower and with all the improvements in GTA V  gone it was near unplayable. Have you had a this or a similar experience where you played an older installment again after the latest? Games like the earlier Halo games actually remained virtually the same for me and the experience was actually better due to nostalgia. However now when I go back to GTA IV it is so unenjoyable that it's sad. T_T

Yeah I had similar experiences . Tekken 3 was great and the best fighter for its' time. It's also regarded s a fan favourite and people always say Tekken 3 was the best . It WAS the best for its' time, but the most recent iterations blow it away. Tekken 3 feels stiff and unresponsive in comparison and I challenge anyone who says they would have a better experience with it now after all these years.

I don't think IV is unplayable, even with V out.

But whatever, it just means that Rockstar did a great job with V ;)

Played an hour of Prototype a couple of years ago, then finished Prototype 2 shortly after it came out. Really liked it so I thought I should play Prototype again. well after 30 additional minutes I stopped. The sequel is better in everything.

Played and finished World of Keflings first, then Kingdom for Keflings. Same case.

I bet people who played any Assassins Creed game (that isn't the first) before they played AC1 would feel so too.

Why did you go to play it? Now you've ruined your good memories...

God of War 1 wall crawling and platforming is painful after playing the others. It's not unplayable but I always dread going through the circling blades on the balance beam during the hades section. Oh the horror. Still a blast to play through overall though so the game isn't ruined but it's definitely the weakest installment now.

I do have a strange experience in the opposite direction though in that I played MGS3 way back in the day and it felt so clunky and I couldn't get the controls right or navigate an area without being detected, but now that I have the HD version (Subsistance) and I can control the camera and for some reason control the moves much better I have great fun sneaking through the whole game lol

I still love GTA IV, if only for the story and characters. GTA V was amazingly better in every single way other than those two.

I was never blown away by GTAIV honestly. It was the first PS3 game I've played, and even then I felt something was off. "Clunky", I don't know. I really enjoyed the characters and story though, and the gunplay was fun, but 98 on metacritic...?

Anyway, I can't think of a game I loved only to discover it sucked years later...

i havent played gta5 yet waiting for the PS4 version that way devs dont screw me into sinking 100hr+ in the same game twice

recently i have been reading more info on gta5 since the ps4 version was announced though and im not happy to say the least

wtf happened to the side/odd jobs? wheres the basics? Firefighter, Paramedic Vigilante Drug Delivery and the slew from gta SA? Pimping, Trucking, Quarry, Burglar, Lowrider Challenge just to name a few 5s missing

and why isnt the casino open in the game?

come to think of it its very rare for me to play older epic games and have bad experiences as you describe NFS for example the older ones had deep car customization, pursuit and speed breakers and focus on a story as well as local play

sure the graphics of the older irritations didnt age well and the controls feel a bit sluggish and limited but were good for there time something happened in gaming starting last gen and i blame the devs focus on graphics and cinimatic feel while gameplay replay value and features have been striped the days of split screen and inovative gameplay features loads of content are gone now, graphics, social online components and hope that these feature will be "patched" in or released as "DLC" took there place

GTA IV was very different from V and I think they both are different enough to make me feel like playing both one after the other. In fact GTA IV and V both are better in some ways than each other.