Finally someone who thinks GTA 3 is the best of all GTA games :D

I agree to all of your ratings.

From what I understand, the improved the graphics and the phisics but cut a lot fun of things to do in the city. The more real it wasthe less fun it became. Over hyped and overrated. But not bad game. Just not as good as San Andreas or Vice City because HD graphics doesn´t make a game good.

Yeah, if one played them in the order they came out in, I don't see how they wouldn't put GTA3 as number 1. Like, adjusted for time and all, the first one is the most impressive by far. Rest have just added a new weapon here and there, new story and a reskin...

This Zero Punctuation review of Saint's Row 2 I believe explains why people don't like GTA4:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/312-Saints-Row-2

The summing up of players who play sandbox games is of particular note.  I believe GTA4 went the serious game route, and that upset a bunch of fans.  I believe the mayhem went into the multiplayer mode.

I loved it...knocked out 60hrs in that game...
GTA4, Gears & Fable are all my games of the year...

GTAIV is an absolutely amazing game. I'm on my third run through and I still love and enjoy every bit of it.

Anything lower than 9 out of 10 is not doing the game justice. It's no doubt, however, that the reviewers jumped the gun and gave it ratings that were too high.

The problem with the game is it's too realistic, and realistic is boring. You hit a car bad enough and ure damn car stalls and you have to get another one, they took away a lot of features that was in San Andreas which I don't understand why, and the missions get pretty repetitive. I played it for about a month when I first got it clocked about 30 hours, then all of a sudden I had to buy another game I couldn't play it anymore.

Saint Row 2 > GTA4

I'll second this, though I would probably switch VC and SA. GTA III was the landmark title and deserves all the accolades thrown at it. It was also the funniest GTA by far, IMO. It created the formula from which all other GTA titles have followed.

As for GTA IV, it's a good game. It could be argued that it's a very good game. I was one of the most vocal critics of the game after the reviews released (shit, even wrote an editorial about it) but never once have I denied it being a good game. Some huge leaps were made with the game (immersion, the world is absolutely gorgeous) but it came at the expense of size and options. I didn't mind the change in direction the series saw (grittier, more realistic driving & animations), I merely felt that some of the choices were implemented in a rather uninspired way.

Buy the game, play it. I don't see how anyone could not have fun with the game for at least a few hours, though I will be the first to say that it's far from 10/10. Shit, it's not even a 9.5/10.

@ rocketpig, I don't get why GTA III is seen as the best. My main recollection of III is the targeting system being severely flawed, and I just felt that all the gameplay mechanics had been refined greatly by SA. It may have been I was too young to be able to play III properly

I don't know how a game featuring the best music of any game released last year (A soundtrack featuring Fleetwood Mac, The Allman Brothers, great Euro tunes, Ace Frehley and when Ace kicks in singing "Back in the New York Groove, " you feel like GTA is back from Vice City and San Andreas and back to where to where it really belongs in Liberty City; Smashing Pumpkins in their glory days, The Stooges' best song, and the Sisters of Mercy among others as evidence), the best new character, and at worst the second best story of the year can be the most disappointing game of the year. But to each his own I guess.

See, rather than getting into it, I can honestly say there's a pretty good chance that I've lived a rather different life than I would imagine most of the posters here at VGChartz have and from my perspective much as I can see how The Devil's Rejects is one of the finest movies of the past decade I can also see how GTA IV is the best of the GTA games or at least since GTA III (and much better than Vice City with its Miami Vice designed thematics and San Andreas and its more pop oriented designed characters that would have more appeal to the general public (ie. rappers and hip hop community type characters) but actually not be as interesting from a deeper human perspective than the Eastern European immigrants like Nico Bellic featured in GTA IV).

Also, GTA IV was penalized for a lot of the things you could do in San Andreas that you can't do in GTA IV. However, I think those were largely humourous type or unlikely type things that were removed from San Andreas and not included in GTA IV and you should expect such deletions for the game and story being in a more serious world. And yes, they were there in the more cartoonish Saint's Row 2 as they should have been included in a more satirical game.

There should have been a category for Sandbox Game of the Year.


I think GTA IV it was a great outing for the series a return to where it should be storywise from Vice City and San Andreas, and I hope the GTA series' stories continue down more serious paths for years to come.

So, yes, I think it is a great game.