You’ve seen the memes. Niko Bellic stands on a pier, the desaturated gray of Liberty City stretching out behind him, looking like he hasn't slept since the Soviet Union collapsed. Back in 2008, Grand Theft Auto IV was a technical monster that made the Xbox 360 and PS3 scream for mercy. Frames dropped. Resolution was fuzzy. It felt heavy. But something weird happened over the last few years. If you go on Reddit or Twitter today, you’ll see a growing cult of players claiming that GTA 4 Xbox Series S is actually the definitive way to experience Rockstar’s gritty masterpiece.
It’s true.
Honestly, the PC port is still a bit of a disaster. Even with modern hardware, that version stutters unless you spend three hours downloading fan-made patches and "DXVK" wrappers to make it play nice with Vulkan. But on the Series S? You just download it, hit play, and it runs better than it ever did on the original hardware. It’s a strange quirk of Microsoft’s commitment to backward compatibility. They didn't just make the game playable; they unintentionally "fixed" the vibe.
The 60FPS Magic Trick
The biggest shock when you fire up GTA 4 Xbox Series S is the smoothness. See, Rockstar never capped the framerate on the original Xbox 360 version. It was an ambitious choice that usually meant the game chugged along at 24 to 31 frames per second back in the day. Because the Series S has significantly more CPU and GPU grunt, it simply pushes that uncapped engine to its limit.
The result is a locked 60FPS.
It transforms the game. The physics—Rockstar’s famous Euphoria engine—feel entirely different at high framerates. When Niko gets hit by a car or stumbles down a flight of stairs, the procedural animations are fluid in a way that feels modern. Driving the "boaty" cars, which everyone used to complain about, actually makes sense when you have less input lag. You can feel the weight of a Cavalcade shifting as you take a corner because the game is giving you double the visual feedback.
However, there is a catch. A big one.
Because the framerate is tied to certain game logic, the final mission—"Out of Commission"—is notoriously broken at 60FPS. There’s a segment where you have to mash a button to climb into a helicopter. At 60 frames, the game registers your taps differently, and it’s nearly impossible to finish without a specific trick. Most players have to "vibrate" their finger over the button or use a physical battery-rubbing technique to pass it. It’s annoying. It’s a flaw. But for 99% of the game, the trade-off is worth it.
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Resolution Realities
We have to talk about the visuals. The Series S doesn't upscale the game to 4K like the Series X does. You are essentially playing the 720p Xbox 360 build, but with much better texture filtering and forced Auto HDR.
Does it look blurry? Sorta.
If you’re sitting two feet away from a 55-inch OLED, you’ll notice the jagged edges. But there is a segment of the fanbase that argues the 720p resolution actually helps the aesthetic. GTA IV was designed to be a bleak, lo-fi recreation of New York City. The "Vaseline" blur of the original resolution hides some of the low-poly assets and makes the lighting look more cohesive. It feels like a period piece.
Digital vs. Physical: How to Actually Buy It
You can’t just walk into a store and buy a new copy of this for the Series S since the console has no disc drive. You’re at the mercy of the Xbox Store.
Usually, the game sits around $19.99. But wait for a sale. Rockstar and Microsoft frequently bundle it with the "Episodes from Liberty City" (The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony) for peanuts. If you already owned it digitally on your Xbox 360 account from a decade ago, it’ll just show up in your library.
One thing people get wrong is the music.
Back in 2018, Rockstar’s 10-year music licenses expired. They had to patch the game and remove a huge chunk of songs, particularly from Vladivostok FM. If you’re playing on the Series S, you’re getting the "clean" version. You’ll miss out on some of the iconic Russian pop that defined the early-game vibe. It sucks, but unless you’re playing an unpatched physical disc on a Series X or an old 360, there’s no official way around it.
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Why This Version Beats the PS5 Experience
This is the part that usually starts fights in the comments.
The PS5 cannot play GTA IV. Period. Sony’s backward compatibility only goes back to the PS4. Unless Rockstar decides to release a "Defective Edition" remaster (and after GTA Trilogy, maybe we don't want that), PlayStation fans are left in the cold.
The Series S, despite being the "budget" console, is currently the most stable and accessible way to play the game in the entire console ecosystem.
- Load Times: The NVMe SSD in the Series S cuts the initial "loading pictures" sequence down to seconds.
- Quick Resume: You can literally pause your game, turn off the console, come back two days later, and be exactly where you left Niko in three seconds. It’s a game-changer for a title with no mid-mission checkpoints.
- Stability: No crashing. No weird Windows Live login errors like the PC version.
The Physics of Liberty City
People are rediscovering GTA 4 Xbox Series S because they’re tired of the "static" feel of modern open worlds. In GTA V, the car handling is arcade-like. In GTA IV, everything has physics.
If you shoot a civilian in the leg, they don't just play a "death" animation. They stumble, try to hold onto a nearby wall, and eventually collapse based on the geometry of the environment. On the Series S, the 60FPS boost makes these interactions look incredibly visceral.
There’s a famous YouTube comparison by Crowbcat that shows how much "detail" was lost moving from IV to V. Things like picking up objects on the street, the way fire spreads, or how police actually try to arrest you instead of just opening fire. Playing it on modern hardware reminds you that Rockstar once prioritized simulation over scale.
A Note on the "Episodes"
If you're diving back in, don't skip The Ballad of Gay Tony.
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While the base game is a depressing story about the death of the American Dream, Gay Tony is a neon-soaked explosion of fun. It adds parachutes, tanks, and gold medals for missions. It runs just as well on the Series S. The contrast between Niko’s brown-and-gray world and Luis Lopez’s vibrant nightlife is even more striking with the Auto HDR feature turned on. It adds a pop to the neon signs of Star Junction that simply wasn't there in 2008.
The Technical Verdict
Is it perfect? No.
The shadows are still dithered and "grainy." The draw distance, while better than the 360, still shows pop-in for trees and fences. And that final mission bug is a genuine headache for completionists.
But if you want to experience the story of Niko, Roman, and the tragedy of Liberty City without fighting your PC or digging a dusty console out of the attic, the Series S is the MVP here. It’s a $250-300 machine that plays this specific game better than a $2,000 PC does out of the box.
Actionable Insights for New Players:
- Check Your Settings: Turn the "Flicker Filter" off in the game menu if it's there; you want the raw output.
- The Helicopter Bug Fix: When you reach the final mission, "Out of Commission," you will likely fail the helicopter climb. To fix this on Series S, try the "sliding finger" method where you rapidly rub your index and middle finger over the 'A' button as fast as humanly possible. Some players also find success by quickly opening and closing the Xbox Guide button to "slow" the game's logic.
- Adjust the Brightness/Contrast: The default settings are notoriously dark. Bump the brightness up two notches and the saturation up one to counteract the "gray" filter.
- Embrace the Taxi: GTA IV doesn't have fast travel. Use the taxis. On the Series S, the transition from "getting in" to "arriving" is nearly instant thanks to the SSD. It makes the lack of traditional fast travel a non-issue.
- Multiplayer: Believe it or not, the servers are still up. You can still find matches for Free Mode or Team Deathmatch, though it’s mostly hardcore veterans at this point.
Liberty City is still the most atmospheric map Rockstar has ever built. Seeing it run at a buttery smooth framerate on a tiny white console is one of the best "hidden" perks of this console generation. Stop waiting for a remake that might never come and just play this version. It's time to go bowling with Roman again.