Yeah, clearly most of us would call "beating up hookers", highjacking cars, shooting police on the street a 'reality', right? Heck, we do that daily!

This is clearly made by someone who never played GTAIV, since he has nothing constructive to say about the game, and yet wanting to bash it. How sad.

surely the point of this topic isn't to bash GTA but to complain about the ridiculously high scores it has been given? i mean, come on! a game has to be just about perfect to receive 100% or 10/10. surely just a couple of these reviewers must have found something. just 1 small thing they didn't like. surely one or two of them would say something like:- "its not my kind of game. but no. They all jumped on the bandwagon and gave it the highest score possible. i think too many of them got carried away with the hype. YET THEY SHOULD BE GIVING SUBJECTIVE REVIEWS. Sadly i don't think that's possible with GTA. I mean surely no game can be perfect. I haven't played the game myself but from what i've heard it has the basic same gameplay from all the other iterations. So surely straight away it surely can't be perfect.
Concerning the outcry from all the nintendo fans, it's no big deal, i'm pretty sure those were the reviewers objectives.......

Fun is entirely subjective, and it is arrogant to think that GTA can not be fun.

Both OoT and SMG were both over rated and did not deserves 97 to 98 average review scores.

Has it occurred to any of you that maybe the game deserved a 10 and that's why everyone is giving it a 10 or damn close to it? For Zelda OoT the majority was right but for GTA IV the majority is wrong? That doesn't make sense!

Thankfully we live in a unique world that has vast differences in opinion--otherwise, it would be pretty damn boring.

Although some don't feel that GTAIV is F.U.N. many others do.  (It's not my cup of tea personally---I prefer JRPG's)

But Super Mario Galaxy isn't my cup of tea either.  I don't find it in the least bit F.U.N. and absolutely hate Mario. (But I like Zelda :)

The same can be said about TV....I hate CSI.  I would rather watch something like Heroes and escape from reality, but others want the same old shit they can find in their newspaper every night--murders, rapes, mysteries, etc. (like CSI).

Different Strokes for Different Folks.  I have NO problem with GTAIV doing well.  Hell, it has earned the right by the massive following it has gained.  Some people obviously find it fun, even if I'm not super excited about it personally.

 My point is that F.U.N. is completely subjective and that we all like different shit.

I think reading Fantasy novels is fun.  Some think reading in general is about as bad as it can get.

And GTAIV is definitely not popular because of the graphics.  The graphics are actually quite poor compared to something like Gears of War or Uncharted.  GTAIV is fun because it is the Creator and King of the Open World.  People love its degree of freedom.  Freedom is a popular thing.

GTA IV is an extremely good game. It's also flawed.

Multiple reviews praised its acting and dialogue, which are a mix of mediocre and terrible. Reviews glossed over the animation flaws in the game, which border on ridiculous (the crazy lean while turning, the absolutely ridiculous running down stairs animation). The reviews seemingly ignored the somewhat broken cover system.

In short, the reviews ignored a lot in favor of buying into the hype that is GTA IV. Don't get me wrong, it's an extremely good game. Best game ever? Hah. Not even close. IMO, it's not even deserving of the same rating as GTA III, a game that truly broke barriers in gameplay, attitude, and style. Rockstar just put some lipstick on the GTA pig and they're getting accolades from everyone for it. Weak.

Seriously?  I hear they didn't even do the Spiderpig jingle.  ^_^

Words of Wisdom you are a huge Nintendo fan. the Sony fans will  not take any notice of you, lol.
BTW GTA IV is the best gamer ever go and check out www.metacritic.com
PS3 GTA IV has an average of 100%. 360 GTA IV has an average of 99%