Time and time again people on this site come down hard on GTA IV, why is this?

Sure the hype for the game was massive, and sure babysitting some of your friends in the game is annoying, but apart from that this is an absolutely fantastic game. Beautiful graphics, great living city-setting, masses of content and a great and well-acted story. I still think this game is great, one of the best this generation, but yet alot of people keep bashing it. Does the high metacritic-score annoy people or what is it? Please inform me.

The game (to a few) didn't feel like GTA, it felt alien to them. I personally couldn't get into it, it just didn't feel right, I guess Liberty city has been done to death now we need more places in the GTA world. Vice City and SA were interesting as they felt fresh whereas GTA 4 to me felt like..."I've been here before."
Sure it was prettier and what not it still didn't feel exciting.

It wasn't GTA as we knew it.

People played it as an old GTA as were disappointed. I was one of them.

But I know of plenty of people who have gone back and played it as the story it's meant to be and enjoyed it far more. I was also one of them.

I like GTAIV lots.

Whats with all the hate hate? It's hated because it was given 10/10 reviews when it wasn't a 10/10 game. If it got mostly 9's and such, the backlash would have been much weaker. I enjoyed it myself, but would not put it near top 5 best games ever made.

i hated GTA 3 and Liberty City Stories and now GTA IV because i dislike the city and theme with a passion. My favorite game is Vice City/Vice City Stories, and i kinda liked San Andreas. I dont care much for the story in any GTA game so what wins me over is the atmosphere and such that the games create.
i Loved Vice City because i felt that was how the 80s was, the music the cars the clothes the colors, everything. I was born 86 so unfortunatley i never had the chance to really "experience" the 80s :(

i would seriously soil my pants if they would make a Vice City with the IV engine, *drool*.

Also there is something about driving at night in the rain listening to Laura Branigan - Self Control. Ahhh the memories.

Fair enough. I wasn't that into the older GTA games so maybe that's an explanation I like IV so much.

Its the internet. Ruined the game, people listening to other people, and hype.

I loved the game personally, there were so many improvements and it was just some things which I felt were lacking.

A lot of people who say its crap probably only did about 20-50% of the game.. it just gets better towards the end

It didn't deserve to be a GTA game.

It was an average shitty sandbox game, but with prettier graphics.

True, but games shouldn't be shitty the whole first half, they're supposed to hold your interest, aren't they?

Am I supposed to play through half a game of shit before I reach better gameplay and an interesting story? No thanks.

See, what you have here is a classic case of disconnect between the media and the consumer. Also people seem to think that when their opinion differs from the general consensus, that everyone else is sheep and they of course have the true way.

It was a great game. If reviewers didn't use words like "best game ever made" , then people wouldn't have as much to complain about. I think in terms of innovation and true depth that Rockstar made the city, it was a work of art.

Halo suffers from a similar fate as GTA IV. It's touted as such a masterpiece that when people play the game and dislike it, automatically the 10 million + that have bought it and continue to play it have obviously been duped and the 10,000 that disliked it must band together to save the rest of humanity. We have a term for this. It's called Internet Vitriol.