GTA 4 was crap, I only played for like 2 weeks, and only because I was a gta fanboy so I stuck it out thinking something might get good, but it didn't. It was a huuuge step down from san andreas, the first backwards step in the series and a significant one. San andreas is still one of the best games ever.
I genuinely would rather play any other gta right now, including 1 or 2. Definitely 3, 3 was awesome, and still is.
The main thing that sucks about 4 is the main character-
He's russian, who wants to pretend to be a russian? He even dresses like a russian, I appreciate the authenticity, but it's like I'm engulfed in a fantasy where I'm someone I wouldn't even spit on. It's an absurd concept. (I know eventually you can shop at non-russian stores, but by then it's too late, I already hate his guts).
Plus he sucks, even for a russian, he's slow and uncoordinated. Cj in san andreas was a beast, as was tommy vercetti and that quiet guy in 3. They were fast and agile and stylish with the way they ran around and punched and stomped. SA was especially awesome because CJ improved as you went along, in abilities and beefed up in muscle, this was the best part of the game and the obvious thing to expand upon with 4 but they just completely took it out and gave you a clumsy heavy footed flea bitten low life with no opportunities to improve.
Then there's issues like the cars feel like you're steering boats around, maybe it's more realistic, I don't know or care, it's not fun. No planes- obviously fucking stupid, again a step back, how is that going to be better? No countryside- I loved the countryside and deserts in san andreas. It's just good to escape the rat race and cruise highways out in the wide open spaces, plus you'd get the interesting missions on farms and weed plantations and etc. It's just a more diverse and interesting environment than a dark grimey slimey city, I've heard gta 4 is a fairly accurate portrayal of new york city? Well I can scratch that destination off my go to list right now because it's fucking disgusting. It actually looks like eastern europe, so depressing and bleak.
They should have expanded on the cities surrounded by countryside idea and added random encounters with back-country inbred cannibals and shit like that.
The list goes on and on, san andreas had jetpacks, parachutes, the ability to form crews off the cuff, I mean so much, and not one thing should have been taken out for 4, it should have been built upon and made better, it's a lesser game any way you look at it.
And I know there are trivial little improvements here and there, with ragdoll physics and obviously smoother graphics, but big fucking deal, so there should be and oh so much more. Certainly nothing should have been worse, but next to everything was.