GTA 4 not only took itself way too seriously, but also did a horrible job of telling its story. It's a shame this is still such an alien concept for developers, but when one of the most important things is that the story should never be contradicted by the gameplay. It's all well and good for Niko to lament having to lick the local small time crime boss's boots just to survive another night, but it's a tad hard to take seriously when he can spend several in-game weeks doing nothing but running over old ladies, pushing police officers down stairs and baiting the cops into city-wide car chases purely for shits 'n' giggles.
