It wasn't as fun as San Andreas and they also didn't include the character customization and stats,
excluding graphics it offered less than the previous game. 8/10 for me

probably because it wasn't GTA game to begin with? of course it was sandbox game with driving and shooting, but same goes to 15-20 other GTA-copies on ps360 and some of them actually are more GTAsque than GTA4 itself. not to mention broken gameplay and inferiority to ps2 GTAs on every level. no to mention all this hype and 94 or somethin scores(bought by Rockstar)that GTA4 didn't deserve

i hated it cause it was nothing but a prettier version of GTA3. Nothing new..nothing fun. No game ever deserves a perfect score...and with all the problems that i seen..and later were posted on youtube...this game is far far from perfect.

The game was..for me and my friend...was a dissapointed..I never cared to play the game after a week of owning it...GTA:Chinatown War is far more interesting then GTA 4.

       I don't know about that.  I think Nico is a much better character than the one in III and for my interests a better character than all the hiphop characters in SA combined.

I dont understand how people can say they "hate" This game.
Numbers never lie...

X360 - (3rd top selling game)

3

Grand Theft Auto IV

Rockstar Games

82,025

N/A

6.99m

PS3 - (Top selling game on the system)

1

Grand Theft Auto IV

Rockstar Games

254,701

N/A

5.56m

It might not have had some of the elements of the previous version but this is a fun game.
Nico is one of the most likeable bad guys I have played in a game.
You can possible say you dont care for this game but to hate just dosent make sense.

      Yeah, but III didn't have Nico Bellic or any of the other Eastern European gangsters in it.

Another reason I think people didn't like it is because people think hiphop is so great and they wanted a game with characters more like those in SA, however, the characters in IV are actually much better.

Someone on here explained it well when they said that it was so big that it just developed its own anti-culture.

GTAIV is awesome.

 It could be like some of the later FFs in that way too.

it was hated by for the same reasons why I hate previous GTA's:

1) the novelty of being an anti hero and random killings has worn off.
2) they all have shit stories
3) repetitive missions
4) average driving mechanics
5) average combat mechanics
6) average shooting mechanics
7) the world maybe alive but no where near as alive, real and beautiful as the shenmue or yakuza games.
8) it's all about gang banging gangsters and majority of the games supporters are wanna be gang bangers and in Britain referred to as " yobs, chavs, thugs" and many other names.
9) all the above is IMO, but I'm sure therein do lay some facts

Every major release of this gen sees haters shortly after release.

Examples:

MGS4 has been getting complaints since before it came out (cinematics too long, it's not stealthy, it's convoluted, etc.)

"Halo 3 = Halo 2 HD"

"Gears of War is too brown, why does every game have to be boring brown and grey"

"Twilight Princess is an abomination because Link is not right handed, there's not enough fighting..."

"Resistence Fall of Man is just like every other FPS"

"Killzone 2 is just  WWII in the future"

"CoDWAW is just another WWII FPS"

Sound Familiar?  That being said, I couldn't think of Mario Galaxy or Modern Warfare's complaints by people who actually played the games.

People on the internet just hate, that's what we do.