I just watched a commercial for gta IV and was underwhelmed by the graphics.  I also have not thought any of the screen shots looked good at all.  Graphics are not everything, warhawks graphics are just ok but i still really like that game.

 The game may still be great, but some junky graphics for such a high profile game.  i think the wii could even play the game...i kid i kid

GTA games have never really had all that impressive of graphics, really. GTA3 was about on par with its fellow PS2 launch titles, Vice City looked dated when it came out, and San Andreas looked even more dated when it came out. Fortunately, that didn't make the games any less fun.

Since when has a GTA game been the best looking game? Never, you simply cannot make such a massive game and expect it to look better than anything else.

But in comparison to previous GTA games it looks fantastic, and should increase the fun of the game.

I have to agree with Sky , and Username. Gta games were never graphically impressive. The first 2 were 2d games on the ps1 which was capable of 3d. The ps2 ones looked very poor compared to games like the Final Fantasy, and God of War. Like username , said the cities have so much content , and are so big that it would take forever to make it look impressive, and the reason why most rpgs that have large worlds look nice graphically is , because they are being produced in a period of 3-5 years. Just wanted to leave the rpg part just in case you argue about it.

 Dude I am totally with you. When I saw the commercial I thought it was for the PSP-PS2 ports of the "stories" games. I also agree that graphics arent everything, but yeah......I really expected more from such a high profile title.  

with the amount of content in that game. do you really expect a Gears of War graphics? COME ON!

You'd expect it on a blu-ray disc.

I think the graphics could have been uprgaded drasticly if it were worked on the PS3 exclusively, blu-ray would be more than enough space to increase polygon, and what not. Its just they were working on only 9GB of data.

When it comes to a GTA and Graphix, just remember the rule that was stated above xD Just go a half generation scale back and expect that :P GTA games are definitely not known for they're pretty face ;)

 He's talking about the time it would take. It would take about 4 to 5 years to make the graphics on par with gears for all of the content in the game. 

I'll take "crappier" graphics with 100+ hours of gameplay vs insanely good for about 6-8 hours LOL.