>bought game
>downloaded it
>"The Rockstar Game Services are unavailable and offline play could not be verified (Code. 133)"
>refund

Requires Rockstar Launcher to start the game. Seems silly, but whatever.

Turns out though I made a dumb decision back in 2017 or so & set up my Rockstar account with my college email that I no longer have access to.

I was just going to make a new account, but apparently it's linked to your steam account & it's an extremely huge hassle to sort out.

Now I can't play any Rockstar games on my Steam Deck. Absolutely absurd stuff. Thanks Rockstar. Y'all make wonderful games, but god you're anti-consumer.

get rid of rockstar launcher

GTAIV in the GTA series is like that one comedy actor doing a serious movie and nailing it

TLDR buy full price recommendation, classic game from the "Games made for gamers era"

I don't know where this one fits into "the best GTA game," but its one of my favorites. I played all the original ones back in the day, but they were all out already and I learned about them from word of mouth and magazines (remember those?). GTA IV was the first GTA game I pre-ordered and played on release day. Granted, it was on PS3, which was weird being a PC gamer. Still had a great time.
I like this for a variety of reasons, but mainly because its a nice mix of old and new. It has many of the features of V. The map design is a cross between Vice City and GTA III. Its pretty big, but not GTA V or San Andreas big. Atleast, it doesn't feel like it. Makes the game more compact and less empty feeling. Plus, the driving system forces you to slow down or you will spin out.
The story is more interesting imo and the main protagonist isn't a complete POS (one of my biggest gripes about V). To be clear, they're all criminals, but there is nuance here. It feels like Niko is doing his best with a bad situation. The whole underdog angle, whereas in V it just seems like they tried to amp up the bad as much as possible. Franklin is ok, but Michael and Trevor not. To this day I've never finished V, one day I will I guess.
Regardless, play GTA IV now. It holds up remarkably well in 2025, works well on current hardware and has minimal jank. Its connected to Social Club, but I guess you can't escape that nowadays. Difficulty is not too bad and there aren't that many "impossible" missions. The extras are great as well, they put a lot of effort into the TV channels, Ricky Gervais!!
Lightyears better than 99% of whats out today. Enjoy!

If someone ask me, "Which GTA you like the most?"
I wouldn’t say San Andreas or GTA V.
this—this is a masterpiece.

Lost access to my old rockstar account so now i can't play it. I guess I'll stick to 1337x ;)

Cousin

So you can't play offline without rockstar launcher, refunded i have it on my PS3 as a disc ill just play that.

Best game in the series made even better thanks to modern hardware.