The game was overrated and they took out everything that was so great in GTA SA and took a step backwards...this game felt more like GTA 3.

People hate GTA IV ? O.o

GTA IV is an excellent game but people was expecting to be a perfect one. The main problem with GTA IV is being too short when compared with San Andreas, but even so larger than most games out there. There was a lot of things in San Andreas that simple disappear on GTA IV, which is quite unacceptable, due to a lazy Rockstar. Even so it´s one of the best this generation.

I thought it was kinda boring.

I'll go with this.

Got bored after a while.   Some months later I picked up where I left it and enjoyed it a bit more, even completed the game. The game can become a bit repetitive, but still at the end of the day I found the story entertaining.  I can understand why people got disappointed though.

If I had a 360 I'd still buy the DLC.

I didn't didn't even like GTA3, Vice City, and San Andreas... but GTAIV destroyed the series even further.

I always loved GTA and GTA2. With GTA3, the series kept some of its quirky charms (it dumped a lot of them too), and turned into a sandbox game where the only fun thing to do was create some mayhem. I didn't like that the series turned into a collection of games, all of which were sub-par. Sub-standard driving, sub-standard shooting, sub-standard graphics, sub-standard story...

GTAIV took it one step further and destroyed all the unrealistic parts of GTA (except for Niko's superhuman ability to fly out a windshield, roll for an entire city block, then get back up). The game was actually good in a lot of respects, but the realism felt restricting, and it was a huge step back from the progress they made with Vice City and San Andreas.

To be honest, I played Saints Row 2 and enjoyed it far more than GTAIV.

Because reviewers were paid or too hyped, so most of the reviewers gave it 10/10 which is a joke. Especially ign.

I love the game, got over 1000 gamerscore from it, and will continue to play it online, and the DLC's. I love teh new approach, the realism, the city, the physics (which goes unnoticed all too often, despite it being so great), the autos, bikes, and helicopters...then an engrossing story about hardship, and the american dream and it's cliches'. Just an all around solid package. I wanted a realistic experience, and got it, top notch animations and graphics, and got it, a great online game, and partially got it (cheaters ruined it a bit, althought Rockstar has updated), and DLC with more story driven content, and got that (don't forget Lost and Damned set the standard for DLC in the future also)...i'm a happy camper, and this is my favorite GTA game to date.

People like awaited it to be better than the previous GTA games and by judging what people say about the game, it obviously wasn't. Happens all the time with the series that have lots of fans. For example Nintendo has the same problem with Mario and Zelda games, each Zelda gets criticised for not surpassing OoT and each Mario game for not surpassing SMB3.
GTA, frankly, lost it with transition to 3D. Something like San Andreas felt like total crap when compared to the first GTA games.