Why is everyone giving it a perfect score?
GAMEPLAY is decent, the single player story is just like every gta game so far. Obviously different characters and different events, but it's the same old drive cars and shoot people for whoever pays you, until you are king of the city. This isn't entirely bad, it's always been one of the biggest driving points for the gta games. It's just not new anymore. It's not as fun as it was the first time. I love the dialogue, and the characters are very likeable. There's also a good amount of things to do in the city, if you can find them.
CONTROL is bad. I'm not sure why they say it's been improved, I like the hand to hand combat more, and the gunplay isn't flawed really, but everything else is wonky. Just walking gave me issues, as you can't ever turn slightly, since all your movement controls are chained to a single analog stick. I hate the rapid button tapping for sprinting, it just feels unneccesary. Driving is bogus, there is not good way to make a turn unless you slow down to almost a halt. You have 3 ways of slowing down, reverse, regular brake, and hand brake. You would think braking would let you fishtail a bit so you can drift around turns but that isn't happening. You can use the handbrake to 180, often you turn more than that though. Try to fishtail around a turn and you end up sliding sideways into a building.
Part of the reason control is annoying is the camera. You get to choose different camera angles, but when driving they are over the left should view unless you are behind the wheel view, which is incredibly akward. Do you hang out your driver window when you drive? Because that's how it looks in this game. Also when you take turns, the camera is really slow to catch up and you find yourself watching the side of your car while you accellerate into a crowded area because you dont see in front of you unless you manually move the camera.
GRAPHICS are pretty sub-par. From far away they look good because of the nice high dynamic lighting, but textures are bland, and people are blocky. Tons of clipping issues everywhere too. Graphics aren't always important in a game, and it's sort of understandable why they are scaled down in this game, since it is massive.
MULTIPLAYER, the reason I decided to get this game right when it came out. It's a let down. It is fun sometimes, but because of the huge environments, it can get pretty laggy. The multiplayer doesn't feel one and its own when compared to the rest of the game; it doesn't feel tacked on, but it doesn't feel polished. It will get you some good gameplay time though.
All in all, I am shocked everyone gives it a perfect score. Especially gamespot. It's fun, but it is far from perfect, revolutionary, or original even. It is a fun game to play, but not enough going for it to warrant as high a score as it's been given.