GTA 4 introduced the HD universe for the first time. The game was introduced in 2008 and is actually a complete redesign of the famous Rockstar Games series. There have been improvements in physics, animation, vehicle handling, and many other areas. The most popular GTAs among GTA fans are GTA 5, GTA Vice City, and GTA San Andreas. There are very few people who think that GTA 4 is the most enjoyable, and today I will discuss a few reasons why. (Why GTA 4 isn’t as Popular as GTA 5)
1) Lack of Exploring Items
If we count the features of GTA San Andreas, then we have many options to explore things. We have schools for learning how to drive and sail. We also had properties to purchase, truckers, taxis, ambulances to complete missions, and many other things like this that players can do when they are bored. However, GTA 4 doesn’t have this freedom. One is that its map is not so large and diverse. This is a completely urban environment, unlike San Andreas where deserts, villages, forests, and cities were already present. Other than that if you earn a lot of money in GTA 4, then there is nowhere to spend it, and there are no extra jobs.
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There were cloth shops but there weren’t many options to choose from. There are a few missions with the police in which you can capture the most wanted criminals. You could hang out with other players through dating sites. Yes, there is Roman’s side mission in the name of the taxi but that’s it! You can’t do haircuts, modify your car, or build any houses, so there is not much to explore in the game. So there isn’t anything left to do after the completion of the storyline in this (Why GTA 4 isn’t as Popular as GTA 5).
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2) Dull graphics
If you compare GTA 4 with other GTA games, it is severely lacking in colors. It would always feel like you were playing the game through a dull gray filter. It seems that nothing in the game is glowing, whether it is the morning sun or the night lights. Everything appears duller than needed. Logically it must have been done to maintain the dark tone of the storyline. However, it starts to feel awkward to players after a while, especially to those who have played bright games in the past. Modders tried to fix this and made mods to improve graphics, and this is also free. These MODS give more color and shine to the game and make it smoother.
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3) Lack of optimization
GTA 4 was first launched in April 2008 for PS3 and Xbox 360 and 8 months after that for PC in December. However, players were extremely disappointed when they realized the game was not properly optimized for PC. The game was full of bugs and glitches and the game always felt laggy. So many official patches had to be released to fix this, which did make improvements but Rockstar Games got much negative feedback because of the early reaction. Many games today are poorly optimized when they are ported from consoles to computers. Marvel Avengers and Mafia 3 are some well-known examples in which PC players report extremely terrible experiences. Even though they had very capable equipment (Why GTA 4 isn’t as Popular as GTA 5).
4) Vehicle handling
Some people like this feature and others hate it. I’m talking about vehicle handling which has been made pretty realistic by Rockstar. We could calculate the weight of the vehicle by its movement. GTA has lost some of its fast-paced traditions established in previous games. This is because of features such as leaning to one side when turning, difficulty controlling at high speeds, and many others like this. If we are forced to use breaks to turn properly in a corner or to properly exit traffic, cop chasing or any other chase will be less interesting. Action will be limited. Realism is a positive thing but we shouldn’t forget that we are playing a game that should be fun to play.
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5) Not Many Vehicles to Use
Each GTA’s specialty is its vehicles, which we use to explore the maps. If there is a map on which we can have a wide choice of vehicles, then the game would be a lot of fun to play. However, on one side, we had a variety of vehicles in GTA San Andreas to drive and on the other side, GTA 4 had fewer cars. We usually get to see city cars, and sports cars are very rare and rarely spawn. A lot of city cars don’t look very impressive, and there aren’t many types of helicopter available. We get a tank called The Ballad of Gay Tony DLC but we can’t fly planes. If you look at Episodes from Liberty City DLC and GTA 4 then there is a severe shortage of vehicles which is insufficient for players (Why GTA 4 isn’t as Popular as GTA 5).
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Additional
By the way, these are the main reasons why GTA 4 is not as famous as GTA. But still, if you play this game, you will feel that its storyline, character ARC, and gameplay are engaging and enjoyable. This game also has limitations like every other game. But if you compare this with other GTA, then GTA 4 was not able to achieve that level of perfection. In spite of having realistic physics and an amazing story, this was Rockstar North’s first HD universe game. This was made with RAGE, the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine, which was very revolutionary when it was released. So obviously this was the first attempt by developers, and they made so many improvements in GTA with time which has been released for more than 9 years (Why GTA 4 isn’t as Popular as GTA 5).