Grand Theft Auto IV

 PC
User Score
7.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 3664 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,227 out of 3664
  2. Mixed: 760 out of 3664
  3. Negative: 677 out of 3664
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  1. ThomasJ
    Mar 10, 2009
    4
    Why a 4? I tell you they said in most reveiw That you need a good computer to run well. I dont agree. Since a pc 2.40mhz 4GB ram and 1GB grafic does not help the issues the game has. Small graphic glicthes. They said. Major Graphic problem I say. I say I have seldom got so annoyed when I playd a game. In apartment after save I always have to tab out and in the game again since the screen Why a 4? I tell you they said in most reveiw That you need a good computer to run well. I dont agree. Since a pc 2.40mhz 4GB ram and 1GB grafic does not help the issues the game has. Small graphic glicthes. They said. Major Graphic problem I say. I say I have seldom got so annoyed when I playd a game. In apartment after save I always have to tab out and in the game again since the screen goes all blur. Same in Internet cafe, some times under the bridges and I think it is the wheater motor in the game, its when its raining and sunset time. And the game lag if I have more then 1600-1200 and max out on the rest. And the fact no patch for dual graphic cards its s big time. And the game play. Sorry I'm not in to have to play some one that cant even speak proper English I'm a Swede but playing a Bos-Serb does not make me goo Who! And have to look like potato nose guy. Give me a plastic surgen in the game, and not have the good stuff to look forward in the old games like buying property. What is this? Its not GTA. … Expand
  2. cesarm.
    Dec 5, 2008
    4
    This game is the first I've purchased in many time, and I cant even evaluate it because It dosent start once downloaded by Steam. I pass the recomended config by large and it dosent run. It is very very desapointing. I urge rockstar to prepare a patch to solve this problem.
  3. bulsajok.
    Dec 8, 2008
    4
    It does not pay to buy pc games before the first patch is released; I had hoped Rockstar's port would be different, more fool me. After a tricky install (why must I be forced to turn off a standard Vista service [not mentioned in the GTA documentation] and sign up to 2 online services- Rockstar Social Club and Windows Live- in order to get through the damned install without it It does not pay to buy pc games before the first patch is released; I had hoped Rockstar's port would be different, more fool me. After a tricky install (why must I be forced to turn off a standard Vista service [not mentioned in the GTA documentation] and sign up to 2 online services- Rockstar Social Club and Windows Live- in order to get through the damned install without it crashing?). I find I can run the game now, but it won't recognize my gamepad (the same one which worked great in GTA-SA) and the control scheme/camera viewmake near impossible to drive properly using just the keyboard & mouse. I'm hopefully these problems will be resolved in the future, but if you are planning on buying this for PC, DON'T, at least not untill a patch is issued. Constantly paying to be a beta tester is going to finally drive me to consoles, I stare at my new laptop with Nvidea 9800GS M video card, and it mocks me- I could have bought a PS3, an XBox 360, a WII, and a heap of console games for what it cost me.… Expand
  4. ChristopherB
    Dec 23, 2009
    4
    GTA IV for PC has so many errors its not even worth trying out. I hade over 15 errors in this game and it ended up in me sending this shitty game back to the store saying it was broke. If you whant GTA IV buy it for the PS3 or 360 otherwise its not worth one single penny.
  5. montu89cmontu89c
    Jul 19, 2009
    4
    I have been waiting to install this.Believe me! Its a crap.I dont care what others say.Car Control is awful.I dont know why they dint give an option to turn off steering with mouse.Bloody thing. I wonder why this game uses much resources.I admit the physics is unimaginable and excellent.I experienced this myself.Why do they add much small details?so that it resembles the living?But this I have been waiting to install this.Believe me! Its a crap.I dont care what others say.Car Control is awful.I dont know why they dint give an option to turn off steering with mouse.Bloody thing. I wonder why this game uses much resources.I admit the physics is unimaginable and excellent.I experienced this myself.Why do they add much small details?so that it resembles the living?But this is pain in the butt.It has an excellent graphics.But at what cost?Completely buying a new PC?… Expand
  6. TimJ
    Sep 6, 2009
    4
    Ok. This is a major step in the GTA series. The graphics are amazing and the storyline is actually quite good. The missions are fun, and randomly blowing up stuff around liberty city is amazing.

    But there's a HUGE downside. Optimization, very demanding on your system, not that enjoyable unless you have a new and expensive computer. You have to have a top-of-the-range computer to    Ok. This is a major step in the GTA series. The graphics are amazing and the storyline is actually quite good. The missions are fun, and randomly blowing up stuff around liberty city is amazing.

    But there's a HUGE downside. Optimization, very demanding on your system, not that enjoyable unless you have a new and expensive computer.

    You have to have a top-of-the-range computer to be able to run this game properly. When running it on medium to low settings, it looks like you're running GTA san andreas with slightly improved graphics. This game just has to have high settings to be played properly (IMO.) Rockstar rushed this, and just forgot about making it playable for people who don't have an Intel Core i7 and a 4870 X2    … Expand
  7. GooneyBird
    Dec 10, 2008
    4
    If not for bugs this rating would be a 9. Poor performance on PCs, even when the machine outclasses any of the console systems the game was released on by orders of magnitude. Graphics glitches abound, you can drive mere minutes before the whole city disappears and you are floating a meter or two over the bottom landscape. Textures totally disappear frequently, happens both on foot or in If not for bugs this rating would be a 9. Poor performance on PCs, even when the machine outclasses any of the console systems the game was released on by orders of magnitude. Graphics glitches abound, you can drive mere minutes before the whole city disappears and you are floating a meter or two over the bottom landscape. Textures totally disappear frequently, happens both on foot or in a vehicle. This game was NOT READY for PC release. Stupid me for pre-ordering. Other than that I love what I've been able to play of the game so far, but quite frankly the graphics glitches make the game unplayable. -Gooney… Expand
  8. SergeyRubin
    Dec 6, 2008
    4
    Game is quite ok...

    If you don't count amount of useless, not needed stuff you have to install (Microsoft Live, Rockstar Social Club <--WTF?, DRM Securom), awefull performance on top end PC, bugs and other signs of awesome console port. Great job Rockstar. Good to see that your earned millions helped to make such a wondefull game. Too bad I can't get my money back and    Game is quite ok...

    If you don't count amount of useless, not needed stuff you have to install (Microsoft Live, Rockstar Social Club <--WTF?, DRM Securom), awefull performance on top end PC, bugs and other signs of awesome console port. Great job Rockstar.

    Good to see that your earned millions helped to make such a wondefull game.

    Too bad I can't get my money back and wait for proper release.

    And too bad times, when picking folder where to install game was only thing required from user during installation, are gone.    … Expand
  9. WarrenJ
    Dec 6, 2008
    4
    Stop giving this godawful port such lofty praise. Regardless of the quality of gameplay, the optimization and overall porting job is pathetic, and shouldn't be tolerated.
  10. SimonM
    Feb 23, 2009
    4
    The appalling drunken heaving of the cars feels like you are riding a heaving hovercraft. The slightest tap on steering on the car lurches about like a bouncy castle. Pretty much destroys the main point of the game. Do not even attempt to play this without a controller. Apart from that it is a reasonable game, not great looking, but the driving is so bad that I just got bored and gave up S.
  11. JamesF
    Jun 3, 2009
    4
    The game itself simply amazing, as anyone who has played it for 10 minutes should know. However, PC user have again been screwed over. The late release, the mountains and mountains of bugs and glitches along with the terrible frame rates and useless patches really give a bad edge to the PC version of GTAIV.
  12. ColbyA.
    Dec 13, 2008
    4
    I have not played the game myself on PC - though I have on Xbox - but I have done some research on the game, and thought it would be good to explain the likely reason GTAIV has such low scores here. In case you're reading this and haven't done your research, GTAIV for the PC is a poorly executed port and is riddled with glitches and bugs. The game is as good as the 360 version, I have not played the game myself on PC - though I have on Xbox - but I have done some research on the game, and thought it would be good to explain the likely reason GTAIV has such low scores here. In case you're reading this and haven't done your research, GTAIV for the PC is a poorly executed port and is riddled with glitches and bugs. The game is as good as the 360 version, but wait until some patches come out to repair the poor programming!… Expand
  13. FotisJ.
    Dec 25, 2008
    4
    This is supposed to be a satire on capitalist greed, and it is but not only in the way the creators intended it to be: Rockstar is bent to create its own community channel and everybody who wants to play has to join them. The same goes for Microsoft's Games for Windows live. You cannot even save your game without being logged in both 'clubs'. Not to mention the technical This is supposed to be a satire on capitalist greed, and it is but not only in the way the creators intended it to be: Rockstar is bent to create its own community channel and everybody who wants to play has to join them. The same goes for Microsoft's Games for Windows live. You cannot even save your game without being logged in both 'clubs'. Not to mention the technical problems etc. In the end they will blame the pc as a difficult platform for games instead their own incompetence.… Expand
  14. JasonL.
    Dec 3, 2009
    4
    GTA IV on the PC could have had the potential to be an amazing game, but there are a slew of problems that prevent it from reaching classic status. I'll only bother to list my biggest gripe about this game: the controls, whether you're playing with a keyboard or gamepad, are easily the most poorly implemented I've ever seen in a computer game. Unresponsive and needlessly GTA IV on the PC could have had the potential to be an amazing game, but there are a slew of problems that prevent it from reaching classic status. I'll only bother to list my biggest gripe about this game: the controls, whether you're playing with a keyboard or gamepad, are easily the most poorly implemented I've ever seen in a computer game. Unresponsive and needlessly complex, they are an invitation to a migraine headache every time I try to play. Want to explore Liberty City? Good luck with that if you're using a gamepad. The camera scheme (auto-follow) prohibits you from viewing the surroundings by instantly snapping back to the default position unless your character or vehicle is standing still. And you can't change any of the camera options or buttons if you're playing on an XBox controller. WTF were RockStar thinking? Follow my advice and purchase Saint's Row 2 instead. Even with its faults, at least that game is playable.… Expand
  15. jimjim
    Dec 28, 2008
    4
    What a disappointment. This game is a lazy effort to bring gta 4 on to pc. It fails miserably.( WARNING. If yothink you will be able to run GTA 4 well because you can run crysis you are wrong. Apparently that rule no longer counts!) Unless you have a very new rig i would not advise buying this. The frame rate is ridiculous and it is the most recourse hungry game ever. It is a shameWhat a disappointment. This game is a lazy effort to bring gta 4 on to pc. It fails miserably.( WARNING. If yothink you will be able to run GTA 4 well because you can run crysis you are wrong. Apparently that rule no longer counts!) Unless you have a very new rig i would not advise buying this. The frame rate is ridiculous and it is the most recourse hungry game ever. It is a shame because i know from ps3 and xbox 360 that this game deserves 9 or 10.… Expand
  16. lildanny
    Nov 13, 2011
    4
    Gameplay, storyline, and multiplay is incredible. Graphics...well I suppose they COULD be good, but this game was coded SO poorly, it's impossible to tell. With a computer that surpasses the minimum requirements 10-fold, I was still forced to put all of the graphics settings on LOW in order to play with minimal lag. Keep in mind, there was STILL lag, and the low settings made graphics lookGameplay, storyline, and multiplay is incredible. Graphics...well I suppose they COULD be good, but this game was coded SO poorly, it's impossible to tell. With a computer that surpasses the minimum requirements 10-fold, I was still forced to put all of the graphics settings on LOW in order to play with minimal lag. Keep in mind, there was STILL lag, and the low settings made graphics look like utter sh*t. Had Rockstar put more effort in perfecting the coding, this game would have been amazing. Looks to me like another rushed out pile of ...… Expand
  17. Previous
    Sep 30, 2010
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A very poor example of a game coming onto the PC port instead of trying to stabilize the games the game company tries to improve the graphics only to make much worse for people with low-end gaming rig, see I'm a person who owns a high-end rig but it still lags to about 15-20 fps I had to turn off all the textures setting only to find out that the game gets about 23-25 fps

    Even then analyzing the story and the gameplay itself is nothing special and that 95% of the mission have nothing to do with the story which is about Niko Bellic trying grab the man who's betrayed his squad in the previous war, the mission feel like a set chores unlike in GTA San Andreas which most of the mission relating to story and trying to get back to the CJ once had in the hood.
    The only other thing about this game that seems like something to praise is the cover-based system and that the only fun thing to do most of the time is to camp at the Bohan safehouse and kill some police officers having six stars but even then you can't do that because this game LAGS to much.
    Lack of variety I see too can't get stronger, ridiculous clothing or getting fat which was the fun part about GTA SA.
    Overall if you have the most powerful gaming rig in the world that us poor can't buy than GTA IV is up your alley but even then so is Crysis.    … Expand
  18. Everyone
    Mar 26, 2012
    4
    The graphics are amazing. The music is amazing. The game itself? It's awful. Terrible. Horrible. Here's a summary of the missions. Spoilers ahead:

    Mission 1: drive to forgettable dirty city area, kill some people. Mission 2: drive to forgettable dirty city area, kill a person Mission 7: drive to forgettable dirty city area, kill some people Mission 29: drive to forgettable dirty city    The graphics are amazing. The music is amazing. The game itself? It's awful. Terrible. Horrible. Here's a summary of the missions. Spoilers ahead:

    Mission 1: drive to forgettable dirty city area, kill some people.
    Mission 2: drive to forgettable dirty city area, kill a person
    Mission 7: drive to forgettable dirty city area, kill some people
    Mission 29: drive to forgettable dirty city area, kill some people
    Mission 72: drive to forgettable dirty city area, kill person

    That is the entire game. I am trying to play through it for the second time, and I just can not make myself finish. I'm at the last sequence of missions, and it's miserably boring due to the repetition. They made a beautiful game. A masterpiece of videogame art. But they forgot to make it fun.    … Expand
  19. NormalGuy1996
    Jan 23, 2011
    4
    WARNING: REQUIRES A LIGHTNING-SPEED COMPUTER. I have a Windows 7 from a few months ago. It came with a great video card, which could run almost every game I put on it, like Bad Company 2, COD, and Mafia 2. Every game, except, GTA IV. The file size is like 14GB, and it runs slow as a bad server on COD Black Ops, even on the lowest settings. What's even worse is that you need to get aWARNING: REQUIRES A LIGHTNING-SPEED COMPUTER. I have a Windows 7 from a few months ago. It came with a great video card, which could run almost every game I put on it, like Bad Company 2, COD, and Mafia 2. Every game, except, GTA IV. The file size is like 14GB, and it runs slow as a bad server on COD Black Ops, even on the lowest settings. What's even worse is that you need to get a Windows Live account in order to SAVE. The Windows Live thing hasn't been fixed in over 4 years, and Microsoft doesn't even care about it anymore. DON'T GET THIS ON PC. GET IT ON PS3 OR XBOX 360… Expand
  20. Glic2003
    Jan 9, 2022
    4
    Truly one of the worst open-world games I've ever played. Gameplay consists of drive to location, watch cutscene, then sometimes engage in a gunfight with some of the worst controls I've ever seen. There is SO MUCH driving in this game. Hours and hours of it. It just never ends. In some missions you have to follow a car - very slowly - without getting too close. In other missions,Truly one of the worst open-world games I've ever played. Gameplay consists of drive to location, watch cutscene, then sometimes engage in a gunfight with some of the worst controls I've ever seen. There is SO MUCH driving in this game. Hours and hours of it. It just never ends. In some missions you have to follow a car - very slowly - without getting too close. In other missions, you have to make sure the target car doesn't get too far away. Neither type of mission is fun, as it's not like you can really tell how close/far you need to be. There's traffic EVERYWHERE and everyone drives SO SLOWLY. Your best bet is to just drive on the sidewalk. Even if you drive perfectly, you'll still get in accidents because there are so many unmarked intersections, and the other drivers don't really follow the rules of the road. It's like the developers of this game saw a city in a movie, but have never actually been to a city in real life. The story and characters are complete cringe, like there was a quota for the number of F-bombs they had to include so it would seem like a tough gangster story. The game also looks like muddy crap, and does that awkward thing where it zooms in close to the characters' horrible-looking faces. It doesn't even have anti-aliasing, unless you manually force it on. I did enjoy driving the cars. The car physics are great, and smashing them up is very satisfying. I recommend doing that instead of the story missions, because they're terrible. I know this game is fourteen years old but it feels like it's forty years old.… Expand
  21. mthrl
    Oct 25, 2011
    4
    A decent game, but marred by bugs, graphics glitches and a STUPID anti-piracy system that punishes the customers rather than the pirates. I don't want to have to register and log in to several services just to play a game - it was cracked a few days after release anyway and, of course, those who pirate the game don't have to jump through all of the hoops that the honest customers do...A decent game, but marred by bugs, graphics glitches and a STUPID anti-piracy system that punishes the customers rather than the pirates. I don't want to have to register and log in to several services just to play a game - it was cracked a few days after release anyway and, of course, those who pirate the game don't have to jump through all of the hoops that the honest customers do...

    Rockstar, if you're going to treat paying PC customers like criminals and then give them **** ports then don't bother.    … Expand
  22. OneVoice
    Nov 20, 2012
    4
    This game was a disappointment to me. I really enjoyed GTA III and GTA:San Andreas, but just couldn't get into this one. The characters weren't as interesting to me, and the missions where just not as fun as some of the earlier GTA games. Hopefully the next installment of GTA improves upon this.
  23. Shrugnick
    Apr 27, 2013
    4
    It's GTA. Nothing terribly new, nothing terribly revolutionary. Not a bad sandbox setup but I expect more from a sequel and not just more of the same old, same old. Missions get pretty boring and repetitive. Gun play is so-so. Sadly this game is marred by not breaking from the herd enough and re-invigorating the series in light of Saints Row and Just Cause coming out and putting togetherIt's GTA. Nothing terribly new, nothing terribly revolutionary. Not a bad sandbox setup but I expect more from a sequel and not just more of the same old, same old. Missions get pretty boring and repetitive. Gun play is so-so. Sadly this game is marred by not breaking from the herd enough and re-invigorating the series in light of Saints Row and Just Cause coming out and putting together similar concepts. Oh, and yes, playing it on PC can be a mess depending on your hardware specs and that it is a half-cooked port.… Expand
  24. biggranny
    Feb 27, 2013
    4
    The game was looking good at first, the graphics and textures are okay, although it's extremely laggy even if you have a PC much above the requirements, which I don't quite understand, so it does not work properly on computers. The cars are cool and the damage engine for them is great. Although there is some bugs with cars such as getting stuck or not seeing any sport cars which oftenThe game was looking good at first, the graphics and textures are okay, although it's extremely laggy even if you have a PC much above the requirements, which I don't quite understand, so it does not work properly on computers. The cars are cool and the damage engine for them is great. Although there is some bugs with cars such as getting stuck or not seeing any sport cars which often happens. The game is quite boring and the missions have no point and it's repetitive, I had no money in this game, then a mission where you rob a bank now I'm rich with nothing to do with the money? The only thing you can buy in this game is clothes and guns. This game is overrated. You are very limited on what you can do, there is no upgrades or level up systems, and it's extremely repetitive, the map is a decent size. The story is very bad, which is linear and repetitive and it's not interesting at all. I would not recommend this game.… Expand
  25. frankbilders
    Nov 7, 2012
    4
    My initial opinion of the game was high but I soon began to see it's flaws. First the campaign is pretty good but drags on too long, and go here and kill this type missions get repetitive. The game also holds your hand for too long, with tedious tutorial missions. The main character Niko Bellic is a really cool character, almost too cool to the point where he feels manufactured and not aMy initial opinion of the game was high but I soon began to see it's flaws. First the campaign is pretty good but drags on too long, and go here and kill this type missions get repetitive. The game also holds your hand for too long, with tedious tutorial missions. The main character Niko Bellic is a really cool character, almost too cool to the point where he feels manufactured and not a believable character. The buddy system where friends call you up wanting to do activities is incredibly annoying and unnecessary also they punish you for not doing stupid things with your "friends." Onto technical issues, oh where to begin, the frame rate dips often, texture pop-in and blurry textures are everywhere. The controls are pitiful they are so unresponsive and unnecessary, it's incredibly frustrating. So in my opinion buy the game just not for PC.… Expand
  26. post_hardcores
    Sep 30, 2012
    4
    this game is great in some aspects, such as the story (the most mature history in any gta) the characters, the graphics and A.I. but the port of this game for PC is such a bad port, its like rockstar made it in one day... the poor controls, the awful bugs (specially the one on the **** last mission) you have to do wonders to repair a broken port like this and in top of that the musicthis game is great in some aspects, such as the story (the most mature history in any gta) the characters, the graphics and A.I. but the port of this game for PC is such a bad port, its like rockstar made it in one day... the poor controls, the awful bugs (specially the one on the **** last mission) you have to do wonders to repair a broken port like this and in top of that the music isn't as good (good thing for the personal radio) and the game isn't that challenging, so if you are a fan of gta try this, if you are not, go and play San Andreas and avoid this one… Expand
  27. Speed4Runs
    Dec 16, 2012
    4
    Very good game, but worst port that has ever made to the PC. Bilions of bugs, very bad optimized, so very "heavy" game, and very bad FPS. The game isn't protected very well from cheaters.
  28. Vyrotix
    Jan 12, 2015
    4
    Grand Lag Auto Bore : Modders Poopy

    In all seriousness, the game is still as bad as it is on consoles, including the fact that anything can go wrong at anytime when you start to install mods.

    The fact that this game lags almost all the time, despite having an expensive video card, brings this game to a 4.9/10
  29. JTJSGamer
    Nov 25, 2016
    4
    Gta 4 is a great game on the consoles, but the PC port feels rushed. Where do I begin, well for starters the game would not even launch, no matter how many times I tried, I had to download a mod that fixed that problem for me. But when I first played the game the setting were on the lowest possible, and the game looked terrible, and it wouldn't even let me change the settings. Again I gotGta 4 is a great game on the consoles, but the PC port feels rushed. Where do I begin, well for starters the game would not even launch, no matter how many times I tried, I had to download a mod that fixed that problem for me. But when I first played the game the setting were on the lowest possible, and the game looked terrible, and it wouldn't even let me change the settings. Again I got a mod that fixed that problem as well. The game also suffers from constant frame-rate drops, and crashes that become annoying after a while, and there is no way of telling when the game is going to crash, so make sure you save at all times. I know it is not my PC, because I have the best graphics card, and processor currently available. Until Rockstar decides to fix these issues, I can't recommend the game to you on PC. Just buy it on Xbox 360 or Playstation 3… Expand
  30. Thorbir
    Aug 30, 2020
    4
    This game is boring af. For me it's the worst game of GTA, the driving is awful, Nico is boring, missions are the same.
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Awards & Rankings

5
#5 Best PC Game of 2008
3
#3 Most Discussed PC Game of 2008
2
#2 Most Shared PC Game of 2008

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
90

Universal acclaim - based on 40 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 38 out of 40
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 40
  3. Negative: 0 out of 40
  1. PC Gamer UK
    92
    It's the peripheral distractions of both going out with Roman, and meeting your girlfriends, that really make your virtual life so worth living. Although incredibly simplistic, they're oddly touching...One of the finest videogames ever. [Christmas 2008, p.87]
  2. PC Format
    89
    The most grown-up GTA and the best realised, but it doesn't respect the PC much. Enjoy the multiplayer madness if you can. [Christmas 2008, p.96]
  3. Eurogamer
    90
    A genuinely ground-breaking blockbuster in videogame history. There were moments playing GTA IV that I thought back to my initial experiences with games, and realised exactly how far we've come. There's never been anything quite like GTA IV in the world. That there makes me genuinely happy to be a gamer.
    Read full review
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