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Game vs game · side by side

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City vs Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City is an open-world racing game from Rockstar North / Toronto (2010) while Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition is an open-world racing game from Rockstar North (2020).

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City

2010 · Rockstar North / Toronto

6.4GamingPickz Score

Not listed

Steam: Mostly Positive

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition

2020 · Rockstar North

8.0GamingPickz Score

$19.99

Steam: Very Positive

What each one is

Steam files Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City under Open-World and Racing. In contrast, it files Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition under Open-World and Racing.

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City includes both The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony together and does not require a copy of the original Grand Theft Auto IV to play.

Description from its Steam store page

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition

Niko Bellic, Johnny Klebitz and Luis Lopez all have one thing in common - they live in the worst city in America. Liberty City worships money and status, and is heaven for those who have them and a living nightmare for those who don't.

Description from its Steam store page

At a glance

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty CityGrand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition
GamingPickz Score6.4/108.0/10
Steam ratingMostly Positive (74%, 10,072)Very Positive (83%, 202,430)
Critic aggregateNo aggregate90/100
PriceNot listed$19.99
Install size
Steam DeckUntestedplayable
Released20102020
DeveloperRockstar North / TorontoRockstar North

Prices and Steam ratings are read live and move over time.

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City vs Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition, point by point

Each facet side by side. A round is marked won only where a figure settles it; feel and "which is better" carry no mark, because no number we hold decides them.

  1. Genre and premise

    Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty CityOpen-world racing game
    Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete EditionOpen-world racing game

    What each is filed as. Each game describes itself in full above; we do not judge a premise.

  2. How it plays

    Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty CityOpen World, Action, Automobile Sim
    Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete EditionOpen World, Action, Automobile Sim

    The tags players apply most, in order of votes. A read on feel, not a verdict.

  3. Reception

    Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty CityScore 6.4 · 74% on Steam
    Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete EditionScore 8.0 · 83% on Steam · 90 critic

    The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment, critics and popularity, computed the same way for every game.

  4. Content and scale

    Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City10,072 reviews
    Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition202,430 reviews

    Reach and footprint, not quality: more reviews or a bigger install is not a better game.

  5. Price

    Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty CityNot listed
    Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition$19.99

    Read live from Steam and subject to change.

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition takes 1 of the marked rounds to 0. That is only what a number can decide, not which you will enjoy more.

The two on the grid

Compare the whole catalogue

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City and Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition on the axes the GamingPickz Score is built from, on the full 0 to 100 scale so each dot is its real position. Change either axis to compare them on any measure.

2 games have both

01000100PlayersPopularity

Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.

Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.

  • PC

Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.

See the whole grid

How positions are decided

No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
  • Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
  • Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
  • No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
  • A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
  • Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.

Which to pick, by what you want

  • The higher-rated of the two: Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition (GamingPickz Score 8.0)
  • The safer bet by weight of reviews: Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition (202,430 reviews)

What they have in common

Both are tagged by Steam players with:

Open WorldActionAutomobile SimThird PersonMultiplayerCrimeAdventureShooter

Where they differ

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City is also

DrivingMatureGreat SoundtrackNudityStory RichRacing

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition is also

PhysicsClassicDark HumorFunnyGoreSatire

Tags players apply to one game and not the other.

Difficulty and who each is for

By the tags players apply, Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City is middle-of-the-road on difficulty. Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition is middle-of-the-road on difficulty.

System requirements, side by side

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty CityGrand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition
Minimum GPU256MB Nvidia 7900 / 256MB ATI X1900
Minimum CPUIntel Core 2 Duo 1.8GHz, AMD Athlon X2 64 2.4GHz
Minimum RAM1.5 GB
Install size

Can your PC run them? Check each against your own kit: Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City · Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition.

Accessibility features

Steam store pages declare 0 accessibility features for Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City and 1 for Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition. A declaration is a floor, not a review.

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Common questions

How different are Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City and Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition in scope?

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City has drawn 10,072 Steam reviews. Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition has drawn 202,430 Steam reviews.

Is Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City or Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition better?

By the GamingPickz Score, Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition rates higher (8.0 to 6.4). That is a composite of player sentiment, the critic aggregate and popularity, not our taste. "Better" also depends on price, length and platform, which the table above lays out.

Which is cheaper, Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City or Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition?

One or both do not have a current listed price, so a straight comparison is not possible. See the table above.

Do you rank one above the other for a fee?

No. Neither game, nor anyone else, pays for placement or a verdict here. The order and every figure come out of the same public data the rest of the site uses.

How we compare, and what we will not do

The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment (adjusted for sample size), the critic aggregate and popularity, computed by the same code every ranked list on this site uses. The Steam rating label is Valve's own, reconstructed from the positive percentage and review count. Prices are read live. We do not write an opinion of which game is "better": we report the numbers and say which wins each measurable question above.

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