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I adore the GTA series and have been looking forward to the release of GTA IV for a *long* time. The developers know that a very high bar would be set for this one, and you can see the time and effort they poured into every last detail from the very first moment of the opening credits. It is more like a movie than a game. This "immersive movie" quality stays with you through every moment of gameplay.
You walk down the street and the shadows dapple through the overhead bridge grid. Dusk begins to fall and the sky gets that orange golden glow, the shadows lessen.
Voices show the same attention to detail. You've got a variety of languages thrown in, plus accents galore. There's the Long Island drawl, the Rastafarian's lilt, and of course the hard edge of eastern Europe.
Your main character is Nico, fresh off the boat and coming in to Liberty City (i.e. New York City) to see his cousin Roman. They are eastern European and rather poor. This of course is going to change soon, as Nico moves his way up in the world.
My boyfriend's from New York City so we were amused at how they kept the landscapes identical but renamed Brooklyn to Broker, Manhattan to Algonquin and so on. There was one time we were walking down the streets and had lost track of where we were. "Looks like the Bronx" he commented off-handedly. We zoomed out. Sure enough!
I do have to say that the people on the streets of this game swear far more than the average people we pass in the real NYC though!
Which brings up an important point. GTA IV went straight for the "Mature" rating with this one. This is clearly meant for mature gamers ages 17 and over. There are strip clubs. There are violent battles. There is more swearing than pretty much any other game out there. Adults love this as they love the Sopranos and Scarface but any parent getting this for a minor should know what they're getting into.
But that being said, as a game for adults, this is *awesome*. There are just so many little touches that shine. You can play bowling games with your date. You can make choices between alternate choices which affect how people feel about you. When you get near a railing, you can side jump over it, smoothly. You carry a cell phone and gather contacts for use. You can visit internet cafes. You have a variety of radio stations to listen to, plus TV stations to watch.
This is easily a game you can play for hundreds of hours then go back and start over again and get another new experience by making different choices.
I can't get over how gorgeous the game is, and how smoothly it plays. You grab a knife from an enemy and use it to take him down. You drive along the Hudson and watch the lights of the carnival shine. You listen to your favorite songs on the radio while the neon lights of the city drift by. You really begin to relate to the characters, to understand their personalities, to connect with them. It makes the choices you make have meaning and emotion.
As much as I adore many other games Halo, Mass Effect, etc. I really think this is the first game that makes you feel that you are in a movie. The graphics draw you in. The voices are amazingly well done and varied. The plot draws you in, having you wonder who to trust, having you wonder what is going on with the characters.
Highly recommended. I'm doing a full walkthrough for the game so feel free to ask any questions you wish!
I want to add a note some players are having trouble with understanding the dialogue. I watch a ton of international films so I didn't have any issues. However, if some of the language is too accented for you, there is a subtitles option. Just turn that on and you'll always know what they are saying.
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9.25/10
When Grand Theft Auto III came out(the reason i got a PS2 way back in 2001), i knew something great was in the mix. it was a sign of change in the gaming industry. it showed us there could be more to games than levels, more than high scores, and more than even a good story. it showed us a virtual world you could become totally engulfed in(outside of RPG's). a world where you could go anywhere and do anything(although that was just mostly stealing cars and shooting pedestrians in those days). over the years they've made some serious improvements, from the bikes and helicopters of vice city, to the jets and ability to duck and roll/ manually aim in san andreas(finally!) and now their first venture onto this generation has finally arrived, and its a great day in the gaming world
the series continues to awe with this installment, even in this day and age in video games. Graphically speaking, it is simply beautiful. its amazing how much attention went into every aspect of this world. theres cracks and pot holes ranging in depth in the road, and varying curb heights. vehicle damage is very impressive, from dents and scratches to a hole for each bullet that hits. the lighting system is amazing, with day/night cycles and a rotating sun throughout the day. naturally the game doesnt have the detail of say Call of Duty 4, but you could fit like 50 Call of Duty 4 maps in this city! its that huge. you have to take the size of a game into consideration when rating the graphics, thats been a given for how long now?? just to clear things up for the clowns complaining the graphics.
when you walk out the door theres so much to be done you might want to keep a checklist for the days. although what you actually choose to do is up to you. causing chaos is always an option. you can go bowling, play pool, play darts, get drunk, go to a srip club, get some food, check out the in game internet, and tons more. you could always just surf the channels on your TV.
your cell phone is a pivotal part of the game. you can call friends and girlfriends for various activities(some are listed above), and if you neglect them for long enough, they'll call you. you can also call potential employers for jobs.
theres the standard "go kill this guy" and "go get this" but they have been very entertaining anyway so far. theres much more depth to many missions, including stealth. one example is having to steal a cop car, then proceed to pull over different shipping trucks until you find the one full of TV's.
gameplay is vastly improved. the cover system is great, allowing you to quickly roll and protect yourself behind random cars, trash cans, and basically anything else thats big enough.
the game has a much more realistic feel than previous entries. you'll find yourself making sure theres no cops around before committing crimes. the star system is still here, but this time your wanted level is radius based, and if you can get far enough away from all cops, or at leased out of sight, your wanted level will go down. its honestly genius. i narrowly escaped one by jumping the guard rail and running down a steep hill, only to see another driving my way in the distance. quickly ducking into the alley behind a dumpster, i watched him roll by and waited for my stars to begin to fade. some cars are locked and you'll need to break a window to get in and proceed to hotwire it.
-for all you parents out there, the content is more mature than previous entries. you get a pretty good look at the in-car action with the street workers.. hehe.. and "coarse" language is used every couple minutes(at leased). the violence and blood looks more realistic now too. thats usually not what you guys worry about so much though.
my only real complaints are the hand to hand combat(its the most solid of the series but San Andreas seemed to have more move depth), and the fact that you cant go into more buildings. dont get me wrong, theres TONS of places to go and things to do, but i was hoping for even more. there have been waaay too many things that made San Andreas great and were simply missing here. no car customization, less clothes, less weapons, no property to buy, and more.. in some ways its one step forward and two steps back.
i wont elaborate on the story much, as its already been done heavily. basically your an illegal immigrant from eastern europe. your cousin convinced you to come to America with his stories of mansions and sports cars. when you arrive things arent quite as described. you start in the darkest, grittiest part of Liberty City. a pocket full of change and a head full or dreams. what happens next is in your hands..
Best Deals for Grand Theft Auto IV - Xbox 360 (Standard Edition)
Before I start ranting, I just want to say that GTA4, as a game of its own, is actually quite good, but as a GTA game, it has shortcomings. So Let's kick this review off right.
Graphics: GTA4 has rather well defined graphics. It is definitely much better from it's predecessors. Among many of the improvements graphically; people in the car actually move as they speak, blood stains actually appear on your car if you hit people, hitting newspaper stands actually cause newspapers to go flying everywhere, and some of the text on those flying newspapers is actually legible. So, suffice it to say, GTA is graphically a good game. Is it as good as all the other games out there, not really, but it is an open ended gameplay where you can go anywhere, and as far as that goes, it is pretty great.
Glitches: The game has quite a few glitches, as most of them do, which cause random events from a car to start flying in circles to your legs falling through the floor. It is expected in most games of this style I suppose, but is worth mentioning that these are no fewer than any previous GTA Game.
Setting: Taking place in a new liberty city similar to New York, the game offers little in the ways of variety. You go from tight closed off streets with big buildings to tight closed off streets with really big buildings. It is a bit claustrophobic, giving you very little room to just drive and speed up to top speed. San Andreas was expansive, giving you three cities completely different in appearance, numerous small towns, mountains, forests, and deserts. 4 gives you one city, nothing else.
Car Gameplay: The cars in this game seem much more difficult to control, was this done for realism sake, I am not sure. However, sometimes, some cars have incredibly poor traction and put you into terrible accidents when you think you have plenty of time to stop. It is hard to tell which cars are better, as appearance doesn't always suggest driving style. A couple of added things kind of make the gameplay funner. Most park cars are locked now, so you actually break the window, unlock the car, then actually hotwire it, You can speed up hotwiring, but it usually doesn't take more than a couple seconds anyway. Also, you can receive damage, fly out the window shield, die in fatal accidents, drive drunk (which always gets a cop on your tail) and even have a car die and won't start up again. However, many of these events seem random, and you can ram a building at 50 miles an hour and recieve no damage, or hit a fence and 25 miles an hour, fly our your window shield, and have you car land on you. So that kind of sucks.
Person Gameplay: On a surplus, you can now use cover and hide behind stuff, also peaking out from behind cover to shoot an opponent. You also have a new melee system, which includes kick, punch, and block combos. It isn't much better than the original system, but it does give you a bit more control over what you are doing to your opponent. However, once you get a couple guns, this becomes almost irrelevant anyway. Everything else is just about the same from previous games.
Story: The story is OK. I can't say I feel too passionate about the protagonist, who just doesn't appeal to me as much as the GTA3 + characters, who were frequently hilarious and likable. Niko revenge story does not seem as passionate as GTA3, and that guy was a mute. He lacks the ambition of VC character, and SA did a better job of displaying that protagonists goals and ideals(protecting his home and family). Besides that, it seems less humorous and more serious of a story. It still has all the jokes from the previous GTAs, I can't really put my finger on it, but everything in this one just seems more serious. One reviewer believes that this is GTA with a conscious, which I kind of agree with, maybe groups put pressure on Rockstar to make them show the consequences of your actions, since it seems like you're constantly being reminded that killing, drunk driving, and prostitution are bad.
The Extras: This is where I feel the game fell. Had this game been the direct sequel from GTA III, I probably would have been a lot easier on it, but VC and SA existed, and this game almost seems to have forgotten that fact. This game almost seems like a stripped version of it's predecessors. No gang wars, no gambling, no owning businesses, no car collections. Flying has almost been cut out of this game, although I can't imagine why, it was such a successful feature. Fighting on a flying plane, then para shooting out was the coolest thing ever, not to mention stealing a harrier jet from a battleship. The girlfriend thing from SA was added to, making normal friends too. This is worse, as you now have to maintain relationships with not only your gfs, but any friend you make as well. I also believe the "sex scenes" you get at the end of the date are toned down a bit. I dislike where Rockstar is going with this game, it almost as if they want to take the open part out of open game. They keep you caught up with their characters with frequent cellphone calls, rather than letting you initiate your own sidequests by setting in the right vehicle or shiny circle.
Sum it Up: So in general, this game is a worthy sequel to GTA III... as long as you pretend SA and VC did not exist. It cuts out way too much content added in the last two (what do you call them, expansion packs?). Why they felt the need to cut so much? Or did they feel they had to to make room for more graphics? If so, I would pick side missions and content over graphics any day.
One more beef that bugged me endlessly, they cut out hidden packages and replaced it with flying rats that you can shoot. That was a good idea, but the thing is, you don't get anything unless you shoot all 200, which gets you an achievement (big whoop) and a pop up for just about the only flying thing in the game (helicopter). I always depended on those items that pop up have 10, 30, 50 packages. Just knowing that if I got arrested or used up my ammo, that I always had a store at my place was great. This just bites, what horrible thing happened to Rockstar, whom created a nearly perfect game with San Andreas, feel they needed to take a chainsaw to the game and cut out all of its charm. Oh well, I hope that answers your questions and helps your decision in getting GTA 4.
Honest reviews on Grand Theft Auto IV - Xbox 360 (Standard Edition)
I can't understand how nearly every mainstream gaming critics showered GTA IV with perfect 10 reviews. While it is a huge, well written, well produced game, it's small flaws outshine everything else.
-The game ultimately fails because of its archaic health and checkpoint system. Health can only be regained by eating food but food can only be found at one of the handful of restaurants and hot dog stands (the latter of which aren't even shown on the map). Body armor, which doubles your health, is also only found at one of the three gun shops in Liberty City. This wouldn't be too bad if your health didn't deplete so fast. Enemies can deplete most of your health in a few shots. As for a checkpoint system, the game has almost none. If you make one mistake and get shot at the very end of a mission, you have to start all over again.
-Simply walking around is a pain. You're constantly fighting the camera as it tries to reposition itself, instead of floating freely for you to control. As a result, navigating close quarters, like a building, can be daunting. Move to fast and you're likely to miss seeing an enemy who can take down half your health in a few rounds.
-The voice acting is solid and well written as promised but the story simple takes too long. It takes hours just to figure out what Niko is doing there! And for all the talk of an excellent story, 90% of the time it's just different ways of saying "Go here, kill him." Also the first two hours are taxi cab missions.
-The story requires you to date. Yes, as in, pick up a girl at a certain time, drive her to a bowling alley, play 10 frames, and return her on time. Where does this have anything to do with Grand Theft Auto?
-Grenades sucks. Unless you're in a wide open space, free of any boxes or curbs, your grenades will constantly fly off course. If there are any obstructions too close when you toss it, there's almost a 50/50 chance it will land right at your feet (I was almost to the end of the VERY LAST mission when I tossed a grenade. Without any kind of grenade indicator, it exploded from under me, starting me back over without any of the ammo or body armor I started the mission with).
-Finally, the game itself just takes too long. I was almost 5 hours in before I even got a machine gun. I didn't unlock the RPG until the last few hours of play.
If I were you, rent GTA IV, plug in all the cheat codes, and spend a week going on a rampage. The rest of the game ultimately isn't worth the frustration.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Grand Theft Auto IV - Xbox 360 (Standard Edition)
GTA 4's story centers around a sarcastic Eastern European immigrant come to America to get a fresh start away from the corruption and violence of his home country. Whoops. Critics have often harangued the violence and the criminal aspect of GTA, but what flies over their heads is that satire is the premise of the series and always has been. And frankly, the violence here pales in comparison to Gears Of War or Condemned 2: Bloodshot just to name two. GTA's immense popularity is not because of the degeneration of our society (we've got reality television for that), it's because the series is constantly innovating and offering fun spot-on gameplay, brilliant humor, and is a game made by and for an adult audience. So if your child is playing this game, blame yourself for giving your child the means to get it or for not paying attention to what they are doing with their time, not Rockstar for making top-of-the-line entertainment meant for adults (see the markings on the box?).
GTA 4 seperates itself from the past iterations in several ways. First, the arcade feel is largely gone. While the controls are vintage GTA, the overall feel has changed. In previous games, I never got into the story because I would get sidetracked rampaging with katanas and molotov cocktails or hunting for a tank. Now a lot of the distractions like crazy weapons and vehicles and building up your character stats are gone and the story behind the madness is a truly engaging one for the first time. The city is more alive than ever and there is more to do. The characters you meet are all brilliant and interacting with them is seriously fun. Take your girl out to a bar and watch her serious issues surface as she stumbles around slurring curses about "that fu#*ing whore" she thought you were checking out. Or challenge your buddies to bowling, pool, or a friendly game of darts. You ca even head to the comedy club to check out actual routines from Ricky Gervais or Katt Williams. The dialogue during these bonding activities is varied and reveals much about your Liberty City aquaintances, many of whom have special services to offer you should you become close. The entire game is so well-written that one often gets the impression that they are playing a Tarantino flick. Oh yeah, it's that good. The multiplayer aspect is also fun and varied allowing you to battle stangers for Liberty City dominance or just drive around with your friends wreaking havoc. Taking into account the amazing single-player game this really wasn't necessary, but the fact that it is even included just makes this game that much more awesome.
Now all of that is well and good, but what makes GTA 4 the second work I'm upgrading from mere video game status to an official work of interactive fiction (the first was Mass Effect) is the sheer depth of the world in which you exist. So far I have spent multiple hours just surfing the game's internet. That's right, there is a virtual worldwide web in-game complete with dating sites, a Craig's List parody, advertisements, personal blogs complete with flame wars, email, and much more. Hell, you can even download custom ringtones and themes for your cell phone! That is nuts. Do you know how ridiculous it feels to spend that amount of time in a video game surfing a fake internet? There are also several satirical television shows you can watch in your apartment (go Republican Space Rangers!), and naturally there's the radio; the sweet, sweet, sounds of GTA radio stations. There's a rock station featuring Iggy freakin' Pop as the foul-mouthed DJ, classic hip-hop and R&B, smooth jazz, techno, LCHC (Liberty City HardCore), and even an all Bob Marley station just to name a few. Then there's the thinly-veiled talk radio parody station Weazel News featuring the funniest Rush Limbaugh impersonator you're ever likely to hear. You even hear news reports about incidents you were personally involved in as you drive. This game is DEEP.
Honestly, if you like video games or digital entertainment of any kind then this as good as it gets. And if you don't like those things, do your best to hide your ignorance and don't go spouting off about things you don't know anything about. GTA 4 is a brilliant satire full of jabs (and a few haymakers) at American politics and any violence is incidental in comparison to the brilliantly crafted story and interactivity of the in-game world that Rockstar has created. I'll say it again: this is not just a video game, this is interactive fiction on par with some of the great works of modern storytelling. If you own a video game system and you think you can handle some naughty language without getting all hysterical, buy it. It's that simple.
