GTA + "NEXT GEN" graphics?, really? you expected that happen?

I think the game looks pretty damn amazing, much better than San Andreas if you scale the technology and size of each game.

Game looks good to me. Its done in that sorta comic look rather than a more burnout/cod4 style realistic look. Only improvements would be the occasional jaggies and some fps slowdowns. Then again maybe I'm spoiled by burnout and cod4 at 60fps. I rewatched the GTA4 trailers from PSN, and the game looks identical to what they portrayed in it, not sure what the uproar is about since they showed us the game in trailers weeks prior. The changing skies and environment is amazing, I'm really enjoying it so far. Haven't played much MP.

Can't please everyone.

Overall, I think the game is amazing looking. Once you learn to appreciate the graphic style of this game, and understand just how much is going on and the scale, etc...it truly has many jaw dropping moments

I agree. Look at the box art, that is the look they where going for. It really is amazing so meny of the little thing work in this game. The toll booths, the physics, the endorphin engine, This game is next gen for sure.

without euphoria this game would just be meh to me. once when i went to steal a police car i drove off and found one of the cops still had his hand on the door handle XD

Grand Theft Auto was never about the visuals, the game was always about interacting in a living breathing real to life city. GTA achieves that with their latest installment, the graphics they have are suitable and up to par with a lot of the other games. Rockstar did a great job, what did you expect. When did GTA ever do anything ground breaking in terms of graphics. The AI and the physics are amazing name a better game that does it better? The visuals are icing on the cake.

Even given the fact that GTA has always been more about artistic merit than state-of-the-art graphics, GTA4's graphics is still disappointing to those standards. It's not even in HD.

The reason why people are complaining about the graphics is that the reviewers give it perfect scores on graphics. Because of that, everyone had even higher expectations.

GTA4 is an incredible game and I've enjoyed every second of it, and yes, GTA games have historically been graphically inferior to other AAA titles of its time, but GTA4's graphics leave much to be desired. Don't kid yourself.

I agree that the graphics are poor compared to the likes of COD4, Gears, Bioshock and so on, but these games are no where near as huge as GTA4. There is no way we would have the world that GTA4 creates if the focus was mainly graphics as I'm guessing it would have taking up too much space (and time in general) on the disc thus lessening the scope that R* wanted for the game.

Yeah, where GTA4 lacks in graphics, it makes up for in other areas, but that doesn't change the fact that GTA4 lacks in graphics.

Its about the GTA look

Also to R*'s defense at the present moment the resources to accomplish such a feat is not available . I think I can speak for most video game aficinados and say that R* did an excellent job with this game and the sales numbers will show. LOL TBH the game is sooo good that I'm not even giving R* grief over this online connectivity bug.

try sideswiping them into oncoming traffic. it's hilarious.

btw, all this complaining about the graphics is both old and unjustified. it's obvious that people don't understand that these systems have their limits when it comes to resources. namely, the fact that the ps3 and 360 only have 512 mb of ram available. that isn't a lot, especially when you're running a game as large as gta is. sure, rockstar will squeeze some more performance out of these two machines with the next iteration of the series, but for now i'm more than satisfied with what they've accomplished. stop whining and just enjoy a great game. wtf?

checking out san andeas, gta4 is a huge leap in graphics.

The graphics of the game aren't anywhere close to being "bad", per se, but I think alot of the people out there may have been taken aback by the blurry factor. GTA IV seems to have this blurriness, fuzziness thing going on (not just the depth of field effects), and I think that caught alot of people off guard. I think the real problem with that, is not so much that it's there, but that none of the screenshots or videos prior to release revealed these issues. So when people first plopped the game in, and got to the part of the game where they first stepped out of Roman's apartment and into the sunlight, they saw this general blurriness or fuzziness, and it kindof shocked them.

That exact situation happened to me.

Having said all of that, in no way, shape, or form, could I consider the graphics of GTA IV to be "bad". Sure, it would be even more awesome if the graphics were as clear and crisp as Saint's Row or Crackdown, but Saint's Row and Crackdown don't have nearly as much going on simultaneously as GTA IV. This is Rockstar North's first "real" attempt on next-gen hardware, and I think the next GTA installment will look pretty much exactly the same, but might loose the fuzziness, blurriness factor. At that point, people will start bitching about something else. I will admit that I did alot of posts about the blurriness issue, but it wasn't so much me bitching about it, as it was me trying to convey what I was experiencing initially.

Having played the game more and more, it's really no longer any issue to me whatsoever. I'm playing the game on a 124" screen, and that issue was a bit more magnified because of that, and it's certainly not the first game I would whip out as demo material for my front projection setup. I would most likely use that one level in Uncharted, where you are riding on the SeaDoo thing, and trying to go against the current, up the rapids. That level was just freaking sick. That, or Bioshock or something like that, would be my demo material.

I'm now at the point where I don't really want to think about the graphics in regards to GTA IV. I just want to enjoy what is surely going to go down as one of the 20 or so best games EVER made.

Also I am TRULY IMPRESSED with that new Euphoria engine they incorporated into the GTA4 :-D. The animations in this game is sick, for example walking out of the bar hehehehe, crash scenes, even the animations on when people get shot looks amazing. When I was telling a buddy of mines about this...he put me on to an even better game engine called Frostbite.

I love how everyone keeps comparing the graphics to a ps2 game, saying that they are better than San Andreas, as if that is some sort of huge achievement that isn't to be expected.

That argument, IMO, makes the graphics sound even worse than they are. When you need to compare a next gen game to a previous gen game's graphics to win an argument, you are grasping at straws.

What's your point? You're comparing a PS3 game to PS2 standards.

Everyone is comparing it to the PS2 game because that's the last one in the series. How is that grasping at straws?

The detractors are the ones saying the game looks like a last gen game--all anyone has ever done is point out just how much better it truly looks than San Andreas.

I really dont know what everyone is all up in arms over...if there are enough of you and you are more than capable of producing a game of this size and a game that does in fact look better than what we currently have in GTA IV I will gladly listen....

Until then I will continue to play and enjoy GTA IV.

It's higher resolution than COD4. Same as Halo 3.

And Super Mario Galaxy looks a lot better than Super Mario 3.

In comparison to other AAA titles on PS3, GTA4 is nowhere near the top. How it compares to games of previous generations is irrelevant.

All I can say is L. O. L.

Two games that have better graphics than GTA4.

Can't say about Halo 3, but COD4 graphics aren't a whole lot better. Somewhat better, sure, but not by a lot, especially considering the difference in how much is going on.

When you take into account everything the game and graphics are doing and how "BIG" this world in GTA4 is, I would say it is the most impressive game for graphics at its best moments (which there are MANY) and on top of all AAA titles. You must take these things into consideration when evaluating the game as no game in the AAA category is anywhere near this big in scale as far as the open world is concerned.

still a lot of fail in this thread.

As a person who has played a majority of pc games over the last 3-4 years, these ps3 graphics are just not as good as I had hoped for. To me it reminds me of playing GTA SA on ps2 for the first time.... It was unplayable FOR ME because of the blurry graphics and poor draw distances... I eventually picked up SA on the PC and enjoyed the game because I was able to get the graphics to my standards on my pc. I will try to play this game out on the ps3, but I may again have to wait for the PCversion, again this is my own harsh standards for graphics and just my opinion

I think ps3's GTA 4 graphics look pretty good, the GTA nirvana for me is when we get a GTA game with Grand Tourismo Prologue graphics.....now that will be the day. I'm sure ps3 could handle it if given enough time like 3 to 4 years.