Line #14 YMMV/GrandTheftAutoIV


1	* {{Adorkable}}: There's something endearing about Brucie trying to appear like the ultimate alpha male and failing miserably. Even more so in ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheBalladOfGayTony Ballad]]'', where his [[TheWoobie clumsier side]] is revealed and mocked by Mori.
2	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation/GrandTheftAutoIV See here.]]
3	* AluminumChristmasTrees:
4	** In the police database, there is a woman named Mary Valvona listed as the head of the Pavano crime family. Conventional wisdom would dictate that the Mafia would never let a woman into the organization, let alone allow her to become the boss of one of the Five Families. Yet [[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/woman-mafia-boss-arrested-1086965.html this news article]] proves otherwise. Though it may be worth noting that the Italian mafia and the American mafia are two separate organizations, and the American mafia probably wouldn't allow a woman to be in charge of one of the families.
5	** Ruslana, the {{Cloudcuckoolander}} DJ of Vladivostok FM, is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruslana a real person]].
6	* AmericansHateTingle: A number of Serbian players and commentators felt that, while Niko's role as a protagonist was a welcome respite from the repeated portrayals of Serbians (or Eastern Europeans in general) as stereotypical Cold War-era or [[TheMafiya Mafiya]] villains, he and Roman end up being a {{Flanderized}} walking stereotype largely due to the (painfully) fake accent, especially considering they were portrayed by American actors. A Quora user lamented about how Rockstar hired an American for the role despite the game's lavish budget which could've had them sign up a native Serbian actor for the role for authenticity's sake.
7	* AngstWhatAngst: If you watch the cutscene where Ray Boccino has Jim and Johnny in his basement in TLAD, and Jim cuts himself free and slits the throat of one of his workers, he goes from a raging asshole to having a fun conversation with Phill Bell while telling Niko to assassinate Jim Fitzgerald in a calm voice. Apparently, the guy working under him became an afterthought.
8	* BestLevelEver: "Three Leaf Clover," the bank heist mission based on ''Film/{{Heat}}''. The mission was so well received that ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' was built around several heist missions.
9	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: ''In the opening scene, of all things.'' The very first scene in the game shows Niko attempting to speak to someone named Dave, except [[KinkySpanking Dave is in the middle of being whipped by a Chinese dominatrix]] while shouting "Daddy's back, you bitches!" and doesn't respond. You never hear from Dave ever again, though a news article can be found on the internet later on that mentions he was found dead, apparently as a result of a BDSM session that went a little too far.
10	* BrokenBase:
11	** Some fans think that the DarkerAndEdgier feel of the game gives it a weight and maturity that the other GTA games just don't have. Other fans believe that this game is too dark and depressing even by GTA standards and clashes heavily with the wacky and raunchy worldbuilding that's a staple of the franchise. This is partly why ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheBalladOfGayTony The Ballad of Gay Tony]]'' is far LighterAndSofter.
12	** The driving mechanics. Either they're a shining case of MisaimedRealism with how they handle more like floaty boats or are seen to have a strict but rewarding learning curve and are topped off with satisfying crash physics.
13	* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler:[[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Dimitri Rascalov]] presents himself as a reasonable man in the criminal world, but he is actually a duplicitous, [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]] snake with no sense of morals, empathy, or honor. Having created the [[Characters/GrandTheftAutoIVRussianMafia Faustin crime syndicate]] with his best friend Mikhail, Dimitri uses Mikhail's violent ways to profit and oversees a wide variety of brutality, extortion, and murders through the likes of Vlad. When Mikhail [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlives his usefulness]], Dimitri tricks [[Characters/GrandTheftAutoIVProtagonists Niko Bellic]] into murdering Mikhail, abandons Mikhail's wife and daughter to homelessness, then tries to kill Niko himself before burning down the business and entire apartment building of Niko's cousin Roman. Dimitri is revealed to be in cahoots with [[HumanTrafficking Ray Bulgarin]], who Dimitri empowers for further mayhem while also beginning a country-wide cocaine operation that threatens to destabilize the whole nation. Running his criminal empire far more brutally than Mikhail ever did, Dimitri tries to massacre a Senator's convoy to silence his campaign, blackmails Bernie over his sexuality, and tries to torture Roman to death. In the "Deal" ending, Dimitri feigns agreement to a heroin deal only to turn on and slaughter the buyers, kill his ally Pegorino, and orchestrate Roman's death at his wedding, proving himself to be a spiteful opportunist that every other criminal views with disdain.]]
14	* ContestedSequel:
15	** On one hand, there are many longtime ''GTA'' fans who consider this game to be a disappointing follow up to ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' due to the smaller game world, no airplanes, harder to control vehicles, the PC version's exorbitant hardware requirements and at one point the usage of Games for Windows - Live; and the fact that it mostly abandons the zany, over-the-top nature of previous ''GTA'' games in favor of gritty realism.
16	** On the other, there are many fans that think this game has the best story in the series in part due to the darker setting on top of having well crafted characters, antagonists and the tone in general. Not to mention at the time it had one of the most (if not the most) complex representation of [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity a real-life city]], with outstanding attention to detail. Also the [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheLostAndDamned downloadable]] [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheBalladOfGayTony expansions]] reintroduced a lot of the side activities (including gang wars) that were lost in the transition, alleviating this a little bit.
17	* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: The story in IV is greatly improved from the other Grand Theft Auto games, due to it being more realistic and treated more seriously, with the wacky elements mostly subdue or left to the world building. On the other hand the gameplay suffered drastically because of that, with most missions being reduced to the "go there and kill that guy" formula.
18	* EnsembleDarkHorse: Interestingly, while the friendship system is disliked, the actual friends tend to be these.
19	** Brucie Kibbutz. He is a loud, egotistical, steroid abusing, violent, sexist jerk (and most likely a self-denying closet case to boot), but [[{{Keet}} he's just so enthusiastic about everything]].
20	** Dwayne may also fall into this. Most players chose to [[spoiler:kill Playboy X]] because they sympathized with Dwayne so much. Either that, or because of the reward (a subversion of EvilPaysBetter), or because [[spoiler:Playboy X is a hypocritical, backstabbing, SmugSnake asshole]].
21	** Little Jacob also has a ''huge'' fanbase amongst stoner fans of the series, because of a combination of the [[TheUnintelligible amusing way he talks]], [[EruditeStoner his Rasta wisdom sayings]] (can' be shakin' no hands wit' ya fist clenched), and because [[TheStoner he smokes like a chimney]]. Also, because he's actually the closest thing Niko has to a real friend in Liberty City. It doesn't hurt that he's also your main source of weapons for much of the game.
22	** As is [=Packie McReary=], the Irish mobster who also becomes BashBrothers with Niko. He ended up becoming a fan favorite to the point that he [[spoiler: ends up becoming a recruitable heist member in GTAV.]]
23	** Bernie Crane (formally Florian Cravic) is somewhat this due to his personality and for some added humour and while many others felt sympathy for him [[spoiler:since the mission where Niko finds the homophobic hater who threatened Bernie and kills the hater]].
24	* EvenBetterSequel: As with ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'', the HypeBacklash for ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' might have made some or half of the fandom preferring to see IV as a better sequel, story-wise. The fans also pointed out that IV's DLC content is (mostly) better than ''Online'', due to the said [=DLCs=] only focusing on the Single player gameplay instead of having multiple players.
25	* FountainOfMemes: Both Bellic cousins. Roman for his "obsession" with bowling and big American titties, and Niko for his LargeHam combat lines.
26	* GoodBadBugs:
27	** The "Swingset of Doom" is a child's playground in Broker that has some wonky physics. Many Website/YouTube videos show players slowly driving cars into it, only for them to instantly explode or be flung half the length of the city. Another one, probably the funniest in the game, occurs when you take a friend or girl out for a date. When you return, park in the lit up area so that the passenger door is blocked. Your friend will politely thank you for taking them bowling, then ''punch Niko in the jaw'' and climb out the driver's door over his prone body. On two different occasions, [[https://youtu.be/Y-BvIfm3G9Q?t=3m18s one result]] had Niko being whiplashed by the swingset, and [[https://youtu.be/RGr3vaBSUxE?t=3m28s another]] actually had him ''fly across half of the entire map.''
28	** If your car is damaged to the point that it stalls out, dialing any number on your cell phone will get it started up again. The car will still eventually [[EveryCarIsAPinto catch fire and explode]] if you keep taking damage, however.
29	** There exists a bug that if you try to hit someone with a rocket launcher directly, the rocket will bounce off and hit something else, or bounce off the ground depending on the angle. With great timing and luck, you can hit a soldier sitting on the side of the Annihilator helicopter, bounce the rocket off him, and take out the other chopper that appears when you have more than two stars. Difficult to do, but hilarious and awesome if done right.
30	** Normally, when you get drunk during the Drinking friend activity, you lose access to your inventory and cannot attack, as you are effectively stuck in [[InterfaceScrew a barely controllable half-ragdoll state]]. But if you approach your destination on foot with a weapon out, that weapon will be in your hands when you enter the drunken state and can be fired in the same completely uncontrollable manner as when you fire a weapon while falling or getting knocked over. Not only does this result in the [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace expected outcomes]] of staggering around firing off an assault rifle while [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy piss drunk]], for some reason this also causes every NPC around you to fly into a homicidal rage and attack you, usually resulting in a mob of bystanders trying to beat the player to death.
31	* HarsherInHindsight:
32	** Early in the game Niko, an Eastern European immigrant, triggers a six star wanted level if he leaves Broker or Bohan due to a terrorism scare mentioned on the in-game Radio/GTARadio. In April 2013, the cities of Boston and Watertown were locked down hunting for an actual Eastern European immigrant terrorist. As the Boston police response expanded to include helicopters and armored vehicles, internet commenters took it upon themselves to declare Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's "wanted level."
33	** The game's satire of various political issues (the Jingoism Act, the LCPD slogan "We see it all, we know it all") becomes a ''lot'' more cutting after the revelation of NSA surveillance and other such programs.
34	** The Fox News Channel {{Expy}}, Weazel News features a commercial that touts their diversity by introducing an [[TokenMinority Asian news anchor]] with an oriental gong sound. In October 2016, ''The O'Reilly Factor'' correspondent, Jesse Watters, filmed a segment in New York's Chinatown that many people saw as extremely racist. Here is a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX8jZTN0CdU rebuttal]] from ''Series/TheDailyShow''.
35	* HilariousInHindsight: [[HilariousInHindsight/GrandTheftAutoIV See here]].
36	* HypeBacklash: Lots of critics gave it perfect scores (including the infamous 10/10 from IGN, whose last perfect score was ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''). Months later when the hype died down, some fans began criticizing the game for [[MisaimedRealism among]] [[ScrappyMechanic other]] [[PortingDisaster things]], being too much of a departure from the previous games in the series.
37	* JerkassWoobie:
38	** Niko. Sure, he is a career criminal, but we cannot forget that he is the GTA protagonist with the darkest, most horrific backstory. He witnessed several war crimes and horrors when he fought in the Yugoslav Wars such as child murder, mass murder and rape. After the war, he lived in extreme poverty, decided to contact a Russian mobster and things just got worse for him, he was blamed for the sinking of a ship and was chased by the Russian mafia all over Europe. In Liberty City, he committed crimes because of the circumstances and ends up losing a loved one.
39	** Dwayne, mainly because he's TheAtoner. He clearly hates the criminal life he had and only caused him paranoia and psychological problems. That, and having grown up with an abusive father who brutally beat his mother.
40	** Roman. Since Niko's arrival, he'd been stabbed, kidnapped, shot, tied up and beaten by ruthless mobsters, [[spoiler: had his apartment and taxi company (that also contained the ring he was going to propose to Mallorie with) burnt down]] and [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking had his computer broken]] but never, ever lost faith in his cousin.
41	** Patrick [=McReary=]. He is an extremely self-destructive guy, and if you pay attention to his dialogues when he is drunk, he will mention that he is depressed (to the point of thinking about suicide), hates his lifestyle, and his father was horribly abusive to him.
42	* LoveToHate: [[spoiler:Dimitri Rascalov]]. Sure, he was a massive HateSink and a total ass, but you can't deny that he was a very efficient antagonist for the storyline.
43	* MagnificentBastard: [[TheSpook The United Liberty Paper Contact]], real name Bernard, is a high ranking member of the United Liberty Paper, a front for the International Affairs Agency (IAA). When Karen meets with [[PlayerCharacter Niko Bellic]] one last time, she introduces him to the Contact, who then proceeds to blackmail Niko into doing his dirty work in the name of stopping terrorism in Liberty City. The Contact has Niko assassinate multiple targets, such as a man who is aware of the United Liberty Paper's true purpose and has been leaking information about it and the owner of an inport-export business funding a terrorist organization. Despite the Contact's cold attitude, he follows through with his promise in bringing Darko Brevic to Niko and part ways with Niko on good terms. In his reappearance in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'', the Contact survives the shootout with the IAA, FIB, and Merryweather. Returning once more in ''Online'', he assists the Online protagonists stopping to a doomsday plot of Avon Hertz as well as the Duggan Crime Family from using remnants of Cliffford's code to manipulate gas prices.
44	* MemeticMutation:
45	** Roman's favorite friend activity being bowling, to the point where "Let's go bowling!" is the phrase most frequently associated with the game and its [[ScrappyMechanic friendship system]].
46	** Niko yelling "YELLOW CAR!" when trying to hail a cab while drunk.
47	** STOP TOUCHING THE LITTLE ONES[[labelnote:Explanation]][[https://youtu.be/HqVr0Yrozrs?si=b0UhgmYmXrG_aApm&t=4216 Funkmaster Flex's rant about a pedophilic baseball player]] has become incredibly popular as a response to people acting weird towards minors online.[[/labelnote]]
48	* MisaimedRealism:
49	** The game aimed to have more realistic vehicle physics than ''San Andreas'', with bodyroll, lift-off oversteer and a plethora of other features. In practice, almost all of these features are ''massively'' overstated, with cars bodyrolling through corners like a meandering land ark from TheSixties, and tires having appallingly low levels of grip. The more responsive camera certainly doesn't help, as the extra motion aggravates the sensations.
50	** In addition to the game's over the top vehicle physics it also strictly enforces the Mafia's two-car length following distance to remain undetected in shadowing missions, even if it means you staying back the required distance when the car you're following is at a stoplight, often leaving a very suspicious amount of empty space between your car and the target's.
51	* MoralEventHorizon: [[MoralEventHorizon/GrandTheftAuto See here.]]
52	* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound:
53	** The menu sounds.
54	** The little riff that plays while the game is auto-saving after a successful mission. There are even several versions of it to fit the mood of each situation.
55	* {{Narm}}: Niko will often yell random obscenities at enemies during missions. The level of rage and profanity is just hilariously at odds with his normally cool and collected personality during cutscenes.
56	-->'''AAAAAAAARRGH, MOTHERFUCKERS!!!'''
57	* NarmCharm: Niko's accent. It's very strong and his actor clearly isn't Serbian, but like Al Pacino's "Cuban" accent in ''Film/Scarface1983'' it slowly grows on the player and makes Niko all that more memorable (and memeable). The same applies to Roman.
58	* PlayerPunch:
59	** Used in very interesting ways. [[spoiler:Not only is there the DownerEnding in the original game where either Roman or Kate dies, but ''The Lost and Damned'' add-on pack intertwines the stories such that many of the player punch moments in one become ''missions'' in the other.]]
60	** The first would have to be [[spoiler:Dimitri's betrayal]], which hits rather hard considering how ''decent'' he seems at first (especially next to Mikhail).
61	** A less personal example occurs when a dying cop will sometimes say [[IfIDoNotReturn "Tell my wife I love her."]] It serves as a jarring reminder that the cops you're killing are [[WhatMeasureIsAMook more than just mooks.]]
62	* PolishedPort: The game when run on the Platform/XboxSeriesXAndS via backwards compatibility, has the game perform at a full 60FPS at all times without exception, on top of drastically reduced loading times. This is when the game on other platforms was horribly optimized to where it would barely go above 30 FPS or have severe framerate issues.
63	* PortingDisaster: The PC version of the game does a poor job of translating the controls to a keyboard and mouse configuration, has a horrible software protection scheme that requires the installation of near-useless bloatware in order to use multiplayer, has very demanding system requirements out of line with similar titles, ''three'' instances of [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil DRM]] [[note]] Games for Windows - Live, [=SecureROM=], and the Rockstar Social Club [[/note]] attached to the game, and a multitude of {{Game Breaking Bug}}s if your system configuration is cursed. It also runs like molasses even on all but the highest end [=PCs=] of its time (and even then the frame rate is still a little iffy), until technology finally caught up ''in 2017''. Luckily, patching has fixed many of these problems; a healthy [[GameMod modding]] community has aided its reputation further, and it has stopped using Games for Windows - Live [[note]]As the service was discontinued in 2013.[[/note]] with the cost of losing multiplayer support since January 2020.
64	* ScrappyMechanic:
65	** The friendship system. On paper, it sounds a good idea to help immerse the player into the game by allowing them to hang out with characters outside of missions. In practice, it suffers from several flaws:
66	*** Relationships have to be maintained with regular contact, and the value will drop if you cancel meetings/dates or ignore/miss calls. While not so bad by itself, you can only estimate when a friend might start complaining about your absence, meaning you have to be proactive about keeping up contact.
67	*** Your friends are able to call you to set up meetings, which they'll do if you're not in the middle of a mission and their relationship value is able to drop. Thing is, the act of doing so is not considered a mission in itself. You have to drive to their location and pick them up to start the mission, and can cancel at any point in-between. This means that you can be called for a meeting ''while driving to a meeting'', forcing you to pick between them. They're also not active at all hours of the day, which is realistic but hardly practical when you're trying to juggle a half-dozen of them. Luckily a quirk in game mechanics allows you to offset it by accepting their invitation and then calling them to cancel a hangout safely.
68	*** When a meeting is arranged, you have one in-game hour (one minute) to reach them lest you incur a relationship penalty, and they will cancel the meeting if you arrive too late (there's a grace period, but it's not much). This is not easy because you can be forced to cross half the map to reach them, especially in the case of dates that have a set spawn point. Your friends, at least, have several spawn points and will pick one reasonably close to you.
69	** Flying vehicles are an absolute ''nightmare'' to control properly. The game fails to tell you that you can stabilize and hover the copter by letting go of the controls for a bit.
70	** After completing a mission, Niko usually calls the quest-giver to inform them. Normally, this is not an issue. Some missions, however, end with an active wanted level. With cops shooting at you. While Niko is on the phone and can't shoot back or even ''run''. Naturally, if the player dies during this point or hangs up, any story developments raised in the phone call are {{Permanently Missable\|Content}}.
71	** The bike controls is almost universally considered to be one of the game's weakest points, even for experienced players. Thankfully Rockstar fixed this for the biker-themed ''The Lost and Damned'' DLC.
72	** Entering a taxi as a passenger can be frustrating to players because entry is only possible if the player ''holds'' the button which is the same as enter/exit vehicle. This can cause unintended carjackings if the player messes up. This got fixed in GTAV switching the functions.
73	** Pool. Good Lord is the Pool bad in this game. The physics engine cannot handle the ball physics at all, balls don't bounce off the rails correctly (sometimes sticking to the rail and running down them to the pocket) and even the ball collisions occasionally feel wrong.
74	* ShallowParody: The {{Take That}}s in the parodies and satire got a ''lot'' less subtle and tended more towards mocking specific people and shows rather than genres and stereotypes.
75	* SpecialEffectFailure: The way the game handles spawning forklifts near docks, or airport service vehicles on the airport's runway, may cause these vehicles to show up in inappropriate parking spots. In particular you're guaranteed to see a parking lot full of airport service vehicles upon exiting the runway.
76	* SpiritualAdaptation:
77	** Given that the plot involves two Eastern European siblings immigrating to America to escape their traumatic wartime past and getting themselves caught up in the criminal underworld, it's the best Western remake of the Russian movie ''Film/Brother1997'' and especially its [[Film/Brother2 sequel]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyqOA4h_lZI This video by Russian YouTuber NFKRZ further highlights the similarities between the two works]].
78	** The Pegorino Crime Family is a better take on ''Series/TheSopranos'' than its officially licensed video game adaptation ''[[VideoGame/TheSopranosRoadToRespect Road to Respect]]''. They even use a waste management business as a front for their criminal activities and own a strip club.
79	* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: Intentional. The game has an in-universe parody of ''Series/{{CSI}}'' called "The Science of Crime", whose theme song (which you can download to your cell phone) sounds ''very'' similar to "[[Music/TheWho Won't Get Fooled Again]]" (which is, in turn, the theme of ''Series/CSIMiami''). Well, the "yeahhh!" and some of the keyboard bars at least.
80	* StrangledByTheRedString: Any fan who had played this game will tell you they chose the "Revenge" ending. Why? Because while Niko shows some interest in Kate, she hardly interacts with Niko outside of cutscenes and dates, which mind you are optional. And regardless of which ending you take, Niko will lose her regardless by either [[spoiler:Pegorino killing her in "Revenge" or her breaking off with him in "Deal". To many players, losing ''Roman'', his cousin, is ''far worse'' than losing Kate, since they got to know everything they can about him since they are cousins after all, while they get to know very little about Kate]].
81	* ThatOneLevel: [[ThatOneLevel/GrandTheftAuto See here.]]
82	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
83	** In ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheBalladOfGayTony The Ballad of Gay Tony]]'', there's Brucie Kibbutz' brother, [[BigBrotherBully Mori]], who could've easily been introduced to Niko through [[LargeHam Brucie]] and could've given Niko a more understanding and sympathetic of a view towards Brucie.
84	** Alejandra, the counterperson at the Broker Tw@, is clearly infatuated with Niko and flirts with him every time he passes by. Players have expressed disappointment that the game doesn't utilize her any further as a potential friend or girlfriend for Niko.
85	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
86	** At one point, Jacob says relations are getting strained with pot-paranoid Badman, and Niko utters the oh-so-[[ChekhovsGun Chekhovian]] line (especially alongside choices like [[spoiler:Playboy/Dwayne]] and [[spoiler:Francis/Derrick]]) "I'd hate to see what would happen if you two got in a fight!" Neeeever happens. [[spoiler:Considering how Badman shows up at Roman's wedding at the end regardless of the route taken, however, it's possible that Jacob managed to talk him down at some point.]]
87	** It seemed like hints were being dropped that the [=McRearys=] would try to [[spoiler:bust Gerry out of prison]], but if so that was another cruel tease.
88	** It's extremely obvious the player was originally supposed to be able to choose to kill either [[spoiler: Phil Bell or Ray Boccino. Considering how Phil showed himself to be far more trustworthy than Ray, it would've been obvious which one most players would pick, but then again, the Playboy X/Dwayne dilemma played out in a similar way.]]
89	** Early in the game, the story seems to be foreshadowing a confrontation between between Niko and his old boss, Ray Bulgarin, whom he, at first, has far more of a personal connection with than he does with Dmitri Rascalov. Instead Dmitri serves as the BigBad of Niko's story while Bulgarin disappears until the ''DLC'', ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheBalladOfGayTony The Ballad of Gay Tony]]'' where he oddly becomes the nemesis to Luis instead.
90	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: ''Grand Theft Auto IV'' has so many examples [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece/GrandTheftAutoIV it got a separate page]].
91	* UnintentionallySympathetic: Ray Boccino [[SmugSnake of]] [[JerkAss all people]] gets this from fans. He’s meant to come off as a massive HateSink and is constantly described by other characters as being an untrustworthy backstabber and snake, with Niko even calling him “a rat doing an impersonation of a man”. While Ray is an asshole, he never actually betrays Niko or anyone else throughout the game. [[spoiler: He keeps his word to Niko and helps him find Florian Cravic and even provides him with a free safe house in Alderney. He was planning to share half of the diamond money with Johnny until Klebitz decided to betray him and steal all of it, forcing him to retaliate. He is killed by Niko under orders from Pegorino, out of paranoia of him being a rat despite there being no evidence of this whatsoever. He never demonstrates any of the untrustworthiness he is constantly described as having, and in fact ends up getting double crossed by almost everyone he works with; Luca and his gang, Niko, Johnny K and even his own boss along with dying in a completely [[AntiClimaxBoss anticlimactic]] and [[DroppedABridgeOnHim unceremonious]] fashion as if he was just a random enemy NPC. All of this results in Ray being a character many ended up feeling unexpectedly bad for]]. Though he does get one unsympathetic moment in the Diamond Exchange as Johnny is that if Niko dies at any point, Ray will comment that he never liked Niko, since he saw him as a mook that hard to come by cheap.
92	* VindicatedByHistory: The driving physics. At launch, plenty of criticism was aimed at the way vehicles handle for being extremely weighty and imprecise, a far cry from the previous games and their zippy, easy to handle controls. Given time however, a lot of players have warmed up to what ''Grand Theft Auto IV'' was going for: Making cars difficult to drive creates a legitimate difficulty curve in learning how to handle them (in the process nerfing traditional [[GameBreaker Game Breakers]] like bikes and supercars by making them DifficultButAwesome), and the weighty physics makes crashing through scenery and other cars incredibly satisfying and immersive.
93	* TheWoobie:
94	** Ilyena Faustin -- The cutscenes for Mikhail's missions sometimes start off with her arguing with Mikhail, only to storm off crying. During "Final Destination", she lets Niko in for tea, reminiscing when her husband cared for her, only to change as a result of his drug addiction. Mikhail then comes in, throws away the samovar for making them look "barbaric", and tells her off. When Niko meets her later at Firefly Island, her husband's death [[spoiler:causes her to lose her husband's luxurious house and is forced to move in with a small apartment with her daughter, who is having an affair with a "slimeball", worried that he will turn her daughter into a hooker "or worse"]]. During the encounter, you have a choice of beating up the slimeball (resulting in Ilyena thanking Niko for saving her daughter), killing the stalker (resulting in Ilyena getting angry at Niko for killing a man, calling him not much different to Mikhail), or letting him run away (resulting in Ilyena lamenting that her daughter has run away and she is now alone). It really shows how affected she is by [[spoiler:Mikhail's death]].
95	** Kate [=McReary=]. Just like Ilyena, she is not a criminal and has spent her entire childhood with a toxic family environment that has stressed her for years. [[spoiler:Her death only makes everything more tragic]].
96	** Roman Bellic can have his moments too, especially when he and Niko are kidnapped early on, after Niko killed Vlad. Or when he finds that Dimitri had burnt down his apartment and business, the second leads to the first time Roman had completely lost his positive attitude, and you can actually hear him start crying.

Context YMMV / GrandTheftAutoIV