I bought this game (finally) and have to say it doesn't run too bad on my below-minimum-spec PC (1.6 Core2Duo and RadeonX1950pro) - I'm getting around 20 to 30fps on the lowest settings,
Really? That's interesting because on my Q9650 / Radeon HD4870x2 it runs on average at 15 FPS on the lowest settings, according to the benchmark. This is on what is practically the most powerful PC you can buy at this time (and ironically bought specifically because I thought my old PC wouldn't be powerful enough to run GTA IV), and well above both minimum and recommend requirements for the game. The graphics look only marginally better than San Andreas at settings I'm running it on, and the new PC is at least an order of magnitude more powerful than the PC I used to play that on, never mind the PS2!And yeah. The new update broke the sound here. Every other time I start the game, there are no engine (or ambient) sounds, or speech apart from in cutscenes.
This is the final nail in the coffin on the PC vs. Consoles debate. For the same price of my new computer, I could have bought a 50" HDTV, an XBox 360, and pretty much every game released on the XBox 360 (certainly both interesting games), and still have enough money left to buy a second hand car. I'm sure they're going to blame it all on piracy tho'.