It'll probably be here in 6 months...

Well the reviewer thinks it deserves it. It has flaws, but reviewers just give out what they had experienced. Rate it accordingly to how they see fit.

It's not like this is the first time anything given by man a perfect score. It's happened before and I don't think arguing about one individual's opinion would make a difference.

Anyway I'm out of this thread. It's just gonna turn into a flaming and bash-a-thon thread. Good day people. Enjoy :)

A stupid question for everyone...

Can someone tell me the original and innovative elements in GTA4 - that bring "newness" to the genre, and gaming in general? Because we couldn't be possibly scoring a game as the "best ever", if it isn't completely innovative... could we?

I find the NaturalMotion stuff interesting, but its not something that actually affects the gameplay...?

Online modes?

New game elements?

Or is its innovation simple to be the "best VR game ever"? 

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Because Galaxy (for instance) had heaps of "real" innovation (IMO anyway), yet it still got marked down for not being "fresh enough". I'd hate to think that pretty graphics take precedence over innovation for scoring...

Shams, mind telling me what Super Mario Galaxy brought to the platforming genre that no other game ever, ever showed?

 Groundbreaking?  Please.  Mario Galaxy's "innovations" are spherical platforms and tacked on motion controls.  Motion controls, such as spinning, which would have been far more easily accomplished with the press of a button.

As for your complaints about GTA... first, I don't think a 10/10 means the game is perfect or without flaws, it means the reviewer had more fun with the game than just about any other game they've come across in a long time, or at least that's my interpretation.  GTA is fun... it's not about reality.  GTA isn't shooting for reality, it's shooting to be like a crime film.  Also, if your personal version of reality includes killing prostitutes, cops, pedestrians, and blowing lots of shit up, then you belong in prison. 

Personally, the thing that bothers me about the scoring is that there isn't a single "Bad" review score ...

As with any game in a series, there should be at least one person who has played Grand Theft Auto 1, 2, London 1969, 3, Vice City, San Andreas, the PSP versions, and several of the clones that have been released over the past several years and is bloody sick of the concept; they will take their disgruntled attitude about the genre and combine it with the insane levels of hype that have surrounded the game and give it a "low" score. This happens will all major games, and typically (at least) one "low" review score comes from one of the major review sites.

To add to this it bothers me that there are rumors that Gamespot changed their score, and that (pretty much) every major gaming site has several massive (paid for) advertizements for Grand Theft Auto 4 that have been running for Weeks and will (probably) continue to run for weeks; back in the day a good general rule was to take the number of full page ads for a movie/game that were in a magazine/paper and reduce the score given by 10% to 20% for each ad.

To top this all off, since the release of the last NPD there have been several articles that were heavily anti-Wii that were about as unbiased as a posting on SDF.

I'm not saying that Grand Theft Auto 4 doesn't deserve the score its received, but I think that most people will agree that there are some unusual things happening which might cause someone to doubt the objectivity of those giving the scores.

@Happysquirrel:

Kinda ironic that SDF gave GTA IV the lowest score yet...

On topic: I'm not ani-GTA yet... when I'll play it in about a week I will decide if I am or not.

BTW, a site gave GTA4 a 9 (gasp!) - and it has a well written review:

http://www.boomtown.net/en_uk/articles/art.view.php?id=15916

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Everything from San Andreas is improved. It had to. The gaming world has moved on and GTA has had to evolve to compete. And while the driving isn't quite to my taste it's clearly improved. You can't have everything – the slightly off sound mix, difficulty in reading mobile phone text, restarting mission issues – these are all things that you do notice. But they don't stop you having a silly amount of fun with Grand Theft Auto IV.

But before we get too carried away there's nothing particularly ground breaking about GTA IV. This is a mechanic we've been playing for years polished to a shine we've not seen before. But the old mechanic of cutscene, drive, kill, evade is still there. There's no revolution here. Grand Theft Auto IV is brilliant, but it's not the original Gran Turismo, Mario 64 or Half-Life 2. And while there's a huge story here most players won't see most of it, the problem with GTA games has never been how much of it there is, but how much of it you want to see.

GTA IV is the best game in the series. It's a triumph – especially in terms of design and character performance. A PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 owner's library is incomplete without it. But in four months time we'll remember it as a superb game, rather than a new epoch in videogaming.

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Interesting! A few more of these, and all of my objections to the scores will slowly fade away. I guess Bioshock started in a similar fashion.

@mrstickball:

- using a "on screen pointer" to collect items (in 3D)

- using a "on screen pointer" to aim & fire items (in 3D)

- "real" use of spherical (& other) shaped worlds, including the gravity mechanic

- using a pointer to select & activate "gravity pull points", in a useful analog-sort of way

- two player co-operative mechanic in that form (although I can't name a single platformer, where two players can control the same character full stop?)

They are the obvious ones that come to mind, that until galaxy hit - I had *never* seen before in any game. Most of them come down to the "unique" nature of the Wiimote - just can't be done with a Dualshock / GC controller.

Some of the other actions using the Wiimote (such as rolling the ball), but aren't actually that innovative - its just Monkey Ball with a slightly different input mechanic.

QFT! The wii boys are just jealous that PS3/360 owners can experience this AAA masterpiece and is rated #1 on gamerankings, taking OoT off from the top spot.

To the part I didn't quote: I think everyone is mis-judging the GTAIV scores. Everyone seems to forget that SMG, Zelda: TP, The Orange Box, Halo3, and other games that "were" #1 ended up dropping. GTAIV inevitably will too.

But as for the SMG points: your basically saying that since you have a Wiimote, it makes Mario all that more unique. Was that a product of SMG or a product of the Wii? Chances are, it had very little to do with SMG and more to do with the Wii. So then, SMG had no unique aspects that were groundbreaking in the game itself - it just used technology outside of itself to make the game slightly different vs. previous Mario franchises.

And GTAIV, is *gasp* the same way: it's incorporated next-gen abilities into the game, and perfected the genre yet again, like SMG, H3, Zelda: TP have done. None of those games re-invented the wheel. They just made it a more perfect, aerodynamic design. Some people will love it, some won't, but I really don't remember SMG getting a thread of hate, did it?