GTA IV Mod Gives Gamers The Watch Dogs Graphics They Always Wanted

A new version of the iCEnhancer mod for Grand Theft Auto IV has spurred a series of community screenshots finding their way out into the public domain of the interwebs. The new screenshots basically showcase Grand Theft Auto as the game that a lot of people thought they were getting out of Ubisoft's Watch Dogs, which has suffered some unfortunate downgrades.

DSO Gaming was scouring through the GTA forums and found a collection of mind-blowing liveries and imports for the vehicles in GTA IV, as the users who were proud of such mods took to the public forums to showcase some of their creations or some of their sweet, sweet rides.

For instance, you have got to check out this photo below. It literally looks photorealistic.

DSO Gaming notes that the game now looks on par to something you would find from Forza Motorsport 5 or Project CARS. It's true. With the latest iCEnhancer mods the game literally looks beyond next-generation.

Previously, I mentioned that the iCEnhancer 2.5 alpha screenshots surpassed the capabilities of the new PS4 and Xbox One. However, given the limitations of the consoles (especially of the Xbox One) it's hard to see them catching up to the quality of these GTA IV mods anytime soon (if at all).

Now I'm sure some of you are wondering where these high-quality assets are coming from, which look so darn good in GTA IV? Well, they come from games like Forza Motorsport and Need for Speed (among other games). Modders oftentimes rip the content from these games, clean them up and then plop them into GTA IV. Now, that's not to say that all of the vehicles you'll see in the screenshots below are from other games, some of them are custom made and put together utilizing the hard work and dedicated skill from modders.

It still amazes me just how good GTA IV still looks with the proper mods and shader utilities in effect, and it also shows just how well Rockstar's engine scales beyond the very static limitations offered by the seventh generation consoles.

What's worse is that the mods give GTA IV a higher level of fidelity than the downgraded Watch Dogs. I suppose, if Ubisoft didn't completely lock the game down, it might be possible to toss in some shader mods and scale-up the game to meet the standards that the Glorious PC Gaming Master Race have become accustomed to.

You can scope the screenshots below or you might want to grab GTA IV for PC for as soon as possible before Games For Windows Live shuts down starting July 1st.

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