As to Lair, etc...  that was relatively early in the PS3 life, and graphic zealots were not yet threatened by wii domination, so they scored those more honestly.

 I agree with your later point...

The thing to me is that we are seeing minor flaws that were seemingly overlooked in those reviews. Not that they should be a deal breaker, but enough for scoring quite that high. The game is evidently enough of a polish and evolution over the past games, that it likely deserves top ten percentile ratings, but when we see flaws, and the reviews don't even seem to mention them?

The Nintendo Wii proved that game play was the most important thing when it comes to games not just games with top end graphics. GTA IV has great game play, top end graphics, excellent soundtrack and is the best HD game this generation on both PS3 and Xbox 360. GTA IV scores are near perfection from all reviewers.

I don't believe there is any bias. Here's my reasons why. I'll use IGN and Gamespot as my targets as everyone is obviously most shocked by their 10s seeing as how they give them out so rarely and are such popular sites.

1. People seem to forget that every GTA since III has gotten amazing scores. Here's Gamerankings for the PS2 versions:

GTA III-94.9% # 18 of all time
GTA: Vice City-94.2% #30 of all time (#23 of all time for the PC version)
GTA: San Andreas-95.2% #17 of all time

I would like to point out that if San Andreas was exactly 1% higher it would have been #8 of all time. If it had been 2% higher it would have been #3 of all time. If it were 3% higher it would be #1 of all time by a half percentage. GTA was always close to the top.

2. San Andreas, while being only a marginal improvement over the other two iterations ended up as the best scoring out of the three, showing that reviewers were accepting of these minor changes. Now take into account that GTA IV brings more new content to the table than San Andreas ever did and you can see it getting higher scores. When a franchise is redone for the next generation of consoles, and is fully taking advantage of it's new hardware with ideas not possible beforehand, you can see where high review scores come in. As a point of reference, MGS 2 scored higher than MGS, Super Mario Galaxy scoed over Super Mario 64 and Resident Evil 4 scored over Resident Evil 2.

3. These scores are not so different from San Andreas which was as I recall, much buggier than GTA IV is. IGN gave San Andreas a 9.9 and Gamespot gave it a 9.6. Considering how much an improvement GTA IV is over San Andreas compared with the small improvements San Andreas was to both Vice City and GTA III, it's not outside of the realm of possibility that it would score slightly higher.

4. GTA IV is massive. It is the open world adventure game equivalent of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Most games nowadays are either long on single player content or long on multiplayer content, but GTA IV is long in both. To 100% this game I can easily see it taking over 80 hours, maybe more. Then take into account online multiplayer with a dozen modes bringing together up to 16 players. It's really not hard to believe a few minor technical hiccups did not mess up review scores.

5. This is a larger game than any other out there. It cannot be subjected to the same eyes that judge the first person shooters, fighting games, and other genres that aren't a 10th of the size GTA IV is for graphics. It needs to be judged on other massively sized games, which there really aren't any I can think of right now. If Saints Row 2 comes out this year, bigger than GTA and sporting better graphics, I'll apologize for this point. I don't see it happening however.

On a minor note, the pop-in issues are so minor it's rediculous. I was expecting much worse. None of those videos showing pop-in happening right in front of you have existed at all in my game, and I've traveled 100 mph through the park. I even went through the exact same spot that infamous po-in frenzy video took place in, as it's in the borough you live in, and none of that happened. In fact I haven't seen anything pop-in closer than 200 ft (in videogame ft. of course). Not once has it affected the gameplay in any way. By the way, I own the 360 version, so I'm sure the PS3 owners have even less of an issue than I do with it.

Nah, it's just because GTA 3 games themselves were overrated... San Andreas averaged a 9.5... and while it has a bunch of minor flaws... GTA4 has many less flaws then GTA3.

GTA3 never got docked for it's graphics and polish flaws either... because people just expect their to be issues all over the place in sandbox games. I mean from all accounts compared to all the issues of GTA3...

GTA4 is getting a free pass on some issues because all the GTA3 games got passes on the exact same issues. 

This may be an extreme idea but it turns out the world doesn't revolve around the Wii. Crazy I know, even hard to believe but true all the same.

This "theory", and I use that term loosely, has no basis of fact; nor is it rooted in reality. How absurd to think that there is some vast anti-Wii conspiracy that is desperate to knock Nintendo and the Wii down a peg. Do you realise how utterly impossible it would be to coordinate such absurdity? Utterly impossible.

There is already precedence for GTA games to receive very high review scores, in the same way that there is a precedent for Mario and Zelda games to get very high review scores. It comes as little surprise that GTA IV is receiving excellent reviews. There is little doubt that the scores are every bit as legitimate as those received by the likes of SMG and OoT (that is to say not very legitimate at all given the money/goods that is likely to have changed hands), despite how thrilling it might be to think that there is some absurd conspiracy out to get you.

GTA III-94.9% # 18 of all time
GTA: Vice City-94.2% #30 of all time (#23 of all time for the PC version)
GTA: San Andreas-95.2% #17 of all time

^ Three GTA games in the 94.2% to 95.2% range. Expect GTA IV to be in the 99% to 99.5% range.

GTA IV>GTA:SA>GTA III>GTA:VC 

Galaxy, Brawl, Kart, MP3, etc all had flaws. I don't see reviewers ignoring flaws.

As others have said, GTA has always scored well. I suppose back then it was a bias against the Xbox and they just didn't drop the score a lot when it was ported.

This is the first GTA with multiplayer...16 players online...that's huge. It seems to have a great story, and that's something most Nintendo games don't have.

Just accept that GTA is a highly LOVED game and it has nothing to do with any particular bias. If a game is good is generally scores high. We all have our opinions but there are geneally very legit reasons for scoring a game high.

I played Gears of War today, and although I prefer Resistance still, I can see why it scored highly at the time. The only game in recent memory that scored highly that I didn't like was Zack and Wiki, but everyone else seems to like it.

But oh well, there are always haters...

No conspiracy. I would say that if there is anything (repeat, if), it would be a hive mind.

"Galaxy, Brawl, Kart, MP3, etc all had flaws. I don't see reviewers ignoring flaws."

For this game, yes. I know series seems to get a pass for glitches, but that's still a bias to the series. Then again, I do agree that many series often get passes for flaws. It's annoying, and just makes lower scores look like going against the herd rather than honest opinion.