I can’t remember a time when a game has been so well received. Sure, the Grand Theft Auto IV hype has been more or less matched by Halo 3 and Gears of War, but in recent years nothing has been scored so consistently high. Highlights from the GameRankings archives include Halo (95.5%), GoldenEye (95.2%), Metal Gear Solid 2 (94.8%), Call of Duty 4 (94.1%), Gears of War (93.8%) and Final Fantasy VII (92.4%), which have all scored superbly, but even these didn’t quite achieve what GTA IV has so far.
Eurogamer 10/10
1UP A+
IGN 10/10
GameSpot 10/10
Game Informer 10/10
US PlayStation Official Magazine 5/5
UK Playstation Official Magazine 10/10
Official Xbox Magazine UK 10/10
VideoGamer 10/10
GamePro 5/5
TotalVideoGames 10/10
TeamXbox 10/10
Xbox World Mag UK 98%
Computer & Video Games 95%
PSW Magazine UK 10/10
ActionTrip 97%
UGO A+
GameSpy 5/5
Play UK 9.8/10
Few developers are in a position to match the amount of time and money available to put into a game, so one has come to expect a high level of quality from Rockstar. One of the most impressive aspects such resources bring is the GTA IV soundtrack, which surpasses two hundred individual tracks across a number of radio stations.
BBC reported that most reviewers were not sent advance copies of the game and had to go to the Rockstar offices or sit in booked hotel rooms. Ones wonders whether they had a gun to their head, yet the resulting scores are consistently high across the board, with no journalists reported missing or wounded. At the time of writing GameRankings report the GTA IV average scores as 99.1% for Xbox 360 and 99.8% for PS3. This even surpasses Ocarina of Time’s 97.7% average! It will be interesting to see how far this drops when some of smaller independent outlets publish their conclusions. But lets not get too hung up about average scores. For many the perfect game does not always match mainstream opinion and if you just pay attention to scores you’ll miss out on some great experiences.
Grand Theft Auto as a series has gained immense popularity since its PlayStation/PC debut in 1997, but remarkably the original reception was quite mixed. For me it was more enjoyable than GTA2 and GTA3 – primarily because it was the first, secondly for the soundtrack. But back then a lot of people didn’t appreciate the possibilities, with IGN for example only awarding it 6/10. By today’s standards the original is extremely retro, yet it was everything a great video game should be. More recently San Andreas was a huge mainstream hit, but GTA IV stands to be the defining game in the series thus far.
But how will the gaming public remember GTA IV -
would you score it 10 out of 10?
12 comments ↓
gh
April 29th, 2008
GTA IV = mediocre game 7/10 MAX
rokhed00
April 29th, 2008
Got to agree, really doesn’t seem anything special.
Frenrihr
April 29th, 2008
Agree with gh GTAIV is mediocre and made by hype… FUCK IT 1/10
alex
April 29th, 2008
Obviously you all haven’t played it or are just too blind to realize that GTA IV really is the best game to come out in the last decade….
Andi
April 29th, 2008
I agree. Anyone who can’t see that GTA4 is genuinely an incredibly entertaining game – online and offline – is fairly stupid.
Nexus
April 29th, 2008
I’ve played GTAIV all fucking day. For christ’s sake, i’ve ignored my girlfriend, sorting out my rent and water bill and worst of all i didn’t realise any of that until just now. The last time anything close to this happened was Christmas morning was i was 12 and Ocarina of Time came out.
Now i’ve just discovered online and i’m afraid. Really, quite afraid.
Anyone who thinks this is anything less than one of the best games of our time needs to stop playing games altogether and find something else to do because, quite simply, you’re wrong.
Matt
April 29th, 2008
I’ve only seen an hour of it, and as far as I can tell anyone who doesn’t think it’s incredible simply has no taste. There have been plenty of games which have felt like films, but this one feels like a really fucking GOOD film…
Major
May 1st, 2008
Spot on. I’ve only played for a couple of hours (gonna blitz it this bank holiday weekend) and it does seem like the best attempt at an interactive film. The characters, story, script and voice-acting are all superb. I found myself laughing constantly, which is pretty rare for a game script. Add to that the sandbox freedom and on-line play and you can see its gonna be a classic game.
James
May 1st, 2008
I have just completed GTA IV, i honestly sat down and played it straight for 16 hours and it took 21 in all.
21 hours of gameplay, That is incredible. The storyline is like a clipping out of a quentin tarantino.
the graphics are incredible (apart from lack of 1080p).
The game had me gripped all the way through, anyone who says this game is not atleast about 98% is a complete moron.
This is my favourite game of all time and i have played the likes of Crysis, Super mario 64, Mario Kart, Zelda OOT, MGS2, Goldeneye, C&C. This is the best game i have ever played.
Nexus
May 1st, 2008
James, James, James… I don’t know you, I completely agree with you, but go and get some sleep
Manuel
May 2nd, 2008
I think GTA IV does not deserve a perfect 10, maybe a 9.5 if you take in consideration some flaws, the cars are very dificult to handle (still a lot of pain) , even if you had played 10+ hours, you dont get it right, nikos movements are kind of slow, sometimes the cover system doesnt work all to well, the game is a bit to dark for my tastes and i had to adjust the brithness seetings of my tv,in order to play it porperly, this small inconveniences for me take down the score a little bit, , though this before mentioned things, doesnt broke the gameplay at all, it does take down the score, but the good things in this game outweights the bads.
For me a game that deserve a perfect score is a game that everything is polish, the gameplay, the graphics, the story, the innovation, the fluidity of the movements, etc. for example, bioshock, zelda OOT, super mario galaxy, and soul calibur, resident evil 4, all these games did comply with all the things, and for me deserved a perfect score
Rob
May 7th, 2008
May be an entertaining game, but i dont think its perfect, therefore it should not get quite as high scores