Official things you actually dislike about GTA IV thread

[The Tracker]

On 12/5/2024 at 2:15 AM, ItsCroc said:

Take a shot whenever someone praises this game for being "dark and gritty" or "le realism"

 

GTA IV is so underrated, most realistic and darkest GTA to date 

Edited January 30, 2025 by The Tracker

[nearmiss1992]

The fact that is only set in LC only and not the whole state as it was intended at first, although that would've changed the story for sure

[iwtdl]

Always hated the mafia storyline in Alderney because of how much of a snoozefest it was. Didn't help that Jimmy Pegorino was just a lame antagonist and added nothing to Niko's story.

 

Ray Bulgarin could've been one of Niko's main antagonists alongside Dimitri and it would've been instantly better. It really pisses me off that we didn't get this since Rockstar already wrote a great backstory for Niko and Ray in Eastern Europe and they just tossed it out the window.

[iwtdl]

On 10/4/2024 at 9:05 AM, .Ryan. said:

I’m glad this was increased in EFLC to 2 in game hours as opposed to 1 because without failure this happens to me almost all the time lol.

If I’m chilling somewhere in Alderney (for example) I REALLY don’t want to rush over to Broker just to grab a bite to eat.

 

Honestly man, ever since getting the achievement for keeping all friends over 80% likeness, I completely forgot about the friend hangouts feature just because I thought they were sort of boring despite being more polished. I always had more fun with GTA V's friend hangouts only because it gave you nice backstory dialogue related to the main story and being able to start police chases in a group.

[iwtdl]

On 3/14/2024 at 11:00 AM, B Dawg said:

In Crime And Punishment, all 3 vans are rigged to be empty until you actually approach and talk to one of the drivers. Only after doing that, does one of the two other vans actually have a TV and a passenger inside, preventing you from using your game knowledge to complete the mission faster.

Ughh so that's why I could never steal the right van on the first try during all my story playthroughs. It's crazy how GTAO let's you do this in certain missions by peaking through the back window but not GTA IV.

[tylerthecreatorwolf]

the pc port actually sucks so bad

Edited January 31, 2025 by tylerthecreatorwolf

[Jeansowaty]

On 1/31/2025 at 2:40 AM, iwtdl said:

Honestly man, ever since getting the achievement for keeping all friends over 80% likeness, I completely forgot about the friend hangouts feature just because I thought they were sort of boring despite being more polished. I always had more fun with GTA V's friend hangouts only because it gave you nice backstory dialogue related to the main story and being able to start police chases in a group.

Pretty valid point actually, I hate the fact friend hangouts are not story-specific and never refer to the latest events. You go out on a hangout with Roman after Revenge and they're all jolly talking about back home and the future. Should've had some specific dialogues that only get triggered after a certain mission.

[B Dawg]

Explosive barrels not being able to be exploded from a distance for some dumb reason (wonder what the technical explanation for this is). 100 bullets from mid range = nothing, 1 bullet from close range = boom. Shooting a sniper rifle without zoom = nothing, zooming in = boom. This wasn't an issue in the 3D era which became really apparent in the Vice City Next Gen version (which has at least 2 missions involving them).

Edited February 3, 2025 by B Dawg

[Silver]

2 hours ago, B Dawg said:

Explosive barrels not being able to be exploded from a distance for some dumb reason (wonder what the technical explanation for this is). 100 bullets from mid range = nothing, 1 bullet from close range = boom. Shooting a sniper rifle without zoom = nothing, zooming in = boom. This wasn't an issue in the 3D era which became really apparent in the Vice City Next Gen version (which has at least 2 missions involving them).

Yeah it's really weird. Whenever I watch someone play the game for the first time they usually shoot those barrels from a distance, but since nothing happens they end up confused or disappointed and so they never bother shooting them again. I really wonder why it works like that.

[Max Payne]

GTA IV f*cked up majorly in free roam department by making the player get wasted easily when they fall from the second floor because it's ReAlİstIc. Yeah nothing as realistic as that feeling of pulling out an RPG from your pockets. I do much prefer the way the player survived falling from ridiculously high places in older GTAs, as long as they had enough health. GTA V f*cked up even further by making it so now the player gets wasted even if they fall on water, even more rEaLıStIc since that's what would happen in real life. I wonder what's gonna happen in GTA VI, player gets wasted if they ragdoll and hit their head on a wall? Since ya know, in real life a person can die from hitting their head on a rough surface.

[RomanusSolus]

No fingerless gloves and money is worthless outside of guns and pay and spray (wow, it's like GTA 3 again!)
Worst thing is definitely Rockstar abandoning this game though. 32bit exe can go to hell.

[knucklebuster]

1. There's not enough things to spend money on (properties, vehicles, guns, clothes)

2. No countryside

3. Not enough challenge in combat (no gun recoil except for snipers, enemies fire in very slow bursts, you barely take any damage, etc)

[NikolaiNikola]

Not being able to make that money after finishing the story.

[KonradGM]

As someone who replayed gta IV way too much and started replaying it again lately too with some mods...

Bad economy
How most of the "moral decisions" aren't really decissions at all. Read we give you 2 choices, but we gonna make damn sure which one is a correct one can't have the players think for themselves or give them actually interesting decision.
Building up from above, how  Derric and Francis story was treated. Derric is a traitor and a snitch, something that is very against Niko values, yet the game never addresses it. 
Ray boccino was handled poorly too
Meh combat and mission design due to it.
Game is way too f*cking easy
Nikos hypocricity and flaws are barely handled

+ Tidious navigation when customizing niko and few other places.

 

Edited June 4, 2025 by KonradGM

[Makasu]

The lack of character customization: hairstyles, (there were initially going to be barber shops in-game, but they were unfortunately removed) and of course clothing.

 

Way. Too. Little. Customization options.

[Adamantium4530]

The way you store cars, I love to horde Banshees but I constantly have to grab new ones because NPC's will knock my cars out of their parking spots. They should have just brought back the garages from every other game, I'm always worrying that one of my cars are gonna be gone whenever I save my game.

[Silver]

On 7/22/2025 at 9:23 PM, Adamantium4530 said:

The way you store cars, I love to horde Banshees but I constantly have to grab new ones because NPC's will knock my cars out of their parking spots. They should have just brought back the garages from every other game, I'm always worrying that one of my cars are gonna be gone whenever I save my game.

Somehow whenever I'm doing a playthrough and save two cars at the Alderney safehouse, one of them ends up disappearing after some time. I have no clue what causes this. My guess is it's because of npcs bumping into one car while I'm in the area but I'm not 100% sure, they usually manage to avoid them just fine when I'm looking so I don't know.

 

I don't dislike parking spots per se (even though I'll always prefer garages when given the choice) as I think some of them make sense for the lower-end apartments such as Roman's place, the Bohan safehouse and maybe the Alderney one too. However I think it would've been nice for the higher-end penthouses in Algonquin to have their own private garages or underground parking spots. It would've made them extra special I think.

[The-Ghost]

On 7/22/2025 at 8:23 PM, Adamantium4530 said:

The way you store cars, I love to horde Banshees but I constantly have to grab new ones because NPC's will knock my cars out of their parking spots. They should have just brought back the garages from every other game, I'm always worrying that one of my cars are gonna be gone whenever I save my game.

I have recently discovered that this is a thing in this game and it's both annoying and funny at the same time, it's like you trying to save a car and some NPC goes like "absolutely not" and bumps it out of the parking space.

Edited July 23, 2025 by The-Ghost

[Max Payne]

Bullies my poor RX 550. I've seen the temp rise to 87c the other day. Literally no other game causes this regardless of the GPU's utilization.

[Darkel2001]

Races are way too easy

No randomized license plates (also no Alderney plates)

Alderney cops use LC vehicles

Cut pinball minigame

Can't save cell phone pics

Worthless 200 pigeon reward

[liberty santos]

The drivers on the Broker/Algonquin bridges constantly swerving, oh lord

[MagmaMidnight]

Bad economy, there isn't a lot you can spend money on. I believe the developers had plans to add more stuff you can buy but were not able to because of time constraints, still sucks.

[Dave Mustaine 1998]

Enemies are aggressive AF in this game and not only that but they seem to have a cloning machine somewhere whether they’re cops or gangsters. In GTA III or Vice City, you can just burst into a room with guns blazing. I don’t care if it’s unrealistic. It’s fun. That will get you killed fast in GTA IV. Losing money is also much more draining in GTA IV than in III or Vice City.

[iwtdl]

On 3/5/2025 at 8:07 AM, Max Payne said:

GTA V f*cked up even further by making it so now the player gets wasted even if they fall on water, even more rEaLıStIc since that's what would happen in real life. I wonder what's gonna happen in GTA VI, player gets wasted if they ragdoll and hit their head on a wall? Since ya know, in real life a person can die from hitting their head on a rough surface.

The weird part about this is how that only applies if you're still in the skydiving animation. If you pull your parachute then press F to remove it, then you will survive the water impact.

[Silver]

I never liked how you can only toss explosives on your side while driving and are not able to throw them where you're aiming at. It's especially frustrating on PC because you can actually hold RMB to aim but you'll always toss them next to you no matter what you do. It's kind of an awkward feature to use even though it was new at the time. I wish they had done it exactly like in Saints Row.

[Kiro Ivo]

On 11/18/2023 at 2:28 AM, Jeansowaty said:

That IV carries EFLC. The longer I think about it the more I come to the conclusion that the two DLCs are really underdeveloped and don't mesh well with the main story in many ways. Plot holes like Elizabeta's missions being set much later in TLAD, the Triad crossover being badly placed, Not So Fast being totally rewritten, in fact, both DLCs appear to have been rewritten at least once which severely affects the quality of their stories if you ask me. I like them for the features they bring to the table but I'd pick Niko and his story over them any day.

I'd like to know more about the inconsistencies between the original game and the two DLCs. Could you provide more examples please?

[Adrian J.]

On 9/7/2025 at 6:47 PM, Darkel2001 said:

Alderney cops use LC vehicles

My head canon says their police budged is low, so they lease LCPD vehicles 

[HOW'S ANNIE?]

One thing I actually really don't like in regards to the writing is Playboy's attitude in the Holland Play. When you decide to kill Dwayne, he seems genuinely remorseful. Yet when you go to kill Playboy, his reaction to thinking Niko's already killed Dwayne is quite a far-cry from when you actually kill him.

 

Then at 4:15 in this video

 

 

[Silver]

4 hours ago, HOW'S ANNIE? said:

One thing I actually really don't like in regards to the writing is Playboy's attitude in the Holland Play. When you decide to kill Dwayne, he seems genuinely remorseful. Yet when you go to kill Playboy, his reaction to thinking Niko's already killed Dwayne is quite a far-cry from when you actually kill him.

 

Then at 4:15 in this video

Not a perfect explanation by any means but I like to think he was pretending to not give a f*ck because he had his boys at his crib. So he acted all tough and made fun of Dwayne but had he been alone he would have shown a lot more remorse, that is until Niko revealed he had other plans.

[fuukon]

Not having Staten Island.

Rockstar was originally going to include it, but they scrapped it since they already had a part of New Jersey. If we were only getting NYC, why not give us the whole city?