This is possibly the last GTA game with any moniker of swag. It absolutely had some goated influences, one thing I noticed is how it takes some stylistic notes from the Pusher Series of movies by Nicolas Winding Refn. Both the films and GTAIV share similar aesthetics from the length of the camera lens being pretty wide and the color grading being really high contrast and drab with distinct colors for different weather and times of day, which are all very attentional. I see a lot of people installing mods to get rid of the color grading and to me that feels like a spit in the face of the art director's and creative directors' faces, I view games very similar to other mediums like movies, books, animation, and film where the creator's vision is pure and etched in stone even if it sucks and any effort to change it is low key some tasteless shit to do. anyway this game is pretty fucking goated differently a top ranking gta game

Having to follow up GTA SA and the Stories game is no easy feat and I feel confident in saying GTAIV knocks it out of the park with a real ass immigrant story and a quote I think about a lot that lives in my head some ups the tone of the game perfectly, “Immigrant is a slave class in this country”