GTA IV is absolutely the best GTA game to date and the best game to date in any generation!!!
This game is the best to date because of the whole experience GTA IV can bring. For some reason the more you played the game, the more you love it... the beautiful sunset, the morning fog, the weather changes, the realistic physics/animations of how people act and react to Niko. People have to remember developers these days are still only using a 9GB Dual layer DVD and to have a game the size of GTA IV which has huge details city along with buildings having different interiors designs on a DVD in truly amazing!!!
There are games that have better graphics compared to GTA IV... yes, there are games that have better weapons features...yes, but to have a game that has a huge detailed city along with beautiful sunsets, changing weather, realistic physics animation all rendering on a 9GB dual layer DVD is truly AMAZING!!!
For example: People always say "whats the big deal?" "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion" has 200 hours of gameplay, but the thing people don't understand is that "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion" has copied and paste techniques which means the buildings and people you see in the background have the same designs and pattens. Where in GTA IV at least each buildings has different designs and people have different cloths, voices and animations styles.
Also people have to remember GTA IV is a game that is 4 years in the making and with the developers at Rockstar North using the Xbox 360 and PS3 the first time, future games will only get better.
Overall quality, experience, fun factor GTA IV deserves a perfect 10/10
Now i'm going to try to write the difference between the 2 versions PS3 and Xbox 360.
First off, i have both versions so have played both versions on HDTV and a projector as well.
First up the Xbox 360. The first noticeable difference is that the Xbox 360 version has brighter colors... which seems the picture quality has more life. For example if you see somebody or know somebody that has a energy/enthusiasm to them... that's what the Xbox 360 version has... energy, life!
The framerate on the Xbox 360 is stable nearly all the way from start to finish. The only framerate drop i can see is where theirs huge car explosions and cop cars come in from every direction, i saw a little framerate drop. Also the Xbox 360 runs at native 720p resolution along with a steady 30fps, which is impressive for a game like GTA.
Overall i found that the Xbox 360 version is smooth and silky with picture quality that brings life to the screen!
The PS3 version on the other hands runs at native 640p resolution with framerate drops at the start of the game. In the PS3 version i played which had framerate drop somewhere in the beginning to the middle where i tried to escape from the police in a very fast sports car...
The picture quality on the PS3 is darker and doesn't seem to run as smooth as the Xbox 360. i know IGN and others did a comparison between the Xbox 360 and the PS3 version and they decided that the PS3 versions is ahead of the Xbox 360, but when i was playing the PS3 i did not see any aspect of the game that was better then the Xbox 360.