Horza_gobuchul

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User Review : Grand Theft Auto IV

This game is a must. There is no excuse for not owning it.

Grand Theft Auto IV Review

LIberty city, based on New York, the fastest most vibrant city in the world, dangerous and beatuful, ancient and modern, melting pot of humanity, all life is here and now so are you. Niko Bellic arrives on a slow boat from hell escaping a past of violence and mistakes. Ex soldier turned expert criminal odd job man.

Niko's cousin Roman has invited him to stay in his mansion, the problem is that Roman is an eternal optomist and liar. He has a business and a flat, but both are low rent, the mansion is coming or so he he says. Niko enters Romans world and is introduced to a few characters. Michelle who he will have a romance with, Vlad who will lead him back into his old ways and Mallorie Romans girlfriend. After a few gentle driving around the block missions Roman is soon in trouble with the loan sharks and Niko takes his first lives in Liberty city. Events spiral out of control and through his abilities with a gun and behind the wheel Niko is soon courted to work for practically every gangster and drug dealer in Liberty city. He will find love, have his past catch him up and shoot or chase his way through every street of the city. The story is long and winding, with many good balanced characters and plot lines. There is also comedic relief in the from of steroid crazed Brucie and other similarly off the wall characters.

Choices are given in the narrative that effect the story, but don't worry they only affect things in small ways. twice in the game after tensions build up between two factions, both ask you to kill the other person. Niko has the choice. Mostly it's rewards that differ. Taking the morally wrong choice usually ends up with the greater rewards. One of those choices will have you saying to hell with the reward you just have to kill the more annoying/bad character. Cut scenes play out differently depending on your choices.

The last few missions give you a moral choice, take revenge or be bigger than that, take the money and go against your principles. The cost of either choice is pain and ultimately suffering for those around you, Niko might not pay for his life of violence but those around him do. Remember to make an extra save before the choice moments. You might want to go back and replay choosing the alternative options.
Can Niko really go straight in Liberty City? we will have to wait for the DLC to find out.

The first thing that hits you when you take control of Niko on foot is the swagger to his walk and the weight he seems to carry. His feet are independent of each other, stand on a step and one knee will bend and he will place one foot on the higher step and the other on the lower. When people are hit by cars or explosions they fly with convincing ragdoll physics.

Driving is hard at first, each car has differing handling and some drift terribly while sports cars hold the road like glue. Motorbikes are things of beauty and they fly at terrifying speeds down the roads of Liberty city and crash in the most spectacularly painful fashion. You can drive the whole gamut of vehicles available from people carriers to forklift trucks, trucks to trash collectors. Helicopters provide fast transit across the city and control in a satisfyingly arcade/simulator fashion. Sea is covered by speedboats and yachts. The water physics are good, you are able to create waves and splashes. Other modes of transport are the train network and taxis which can be flagged down and used as you would expect.

Weapons include the usual shotguns, sniper rifles, pistols, machine guns, rocket launchers, grenades and molotov cocktails. There are also knives and your fists. Aiming is simple enough and there is a cover system where you can stick to walls and pop your head out for a better shot.

Combat is tricky at first, with a steep learning curve, stick with it though as it's worth the mastering and by the time you are halfway thorugh the game you will be an expert and enjoying every gun battle. There are some long drawn out battles in tower blocks and factories, plus plenty of fighting out in the open. Shooting from moving vehicles is hard to co-ordinate but immensely satisfying when you kill or cause your target to crash or explode. One particularly chase on motorbikes through the subway system stands out as a high point.

Missions are of the usual gta type. Go to a waypoint, kill a person, or collect and object and take it back to the employer. Some are more convoluted but all essentially boil down to the same thing. Side missions are many and varied. They include the usual assassination, racing and collectibles, however there is also the new friends system. Niko has several friends who he hangs out with. Little Jacob, Roman, Packie etc. They will call Niko on his mobile or email him wanting to do normal everyday things like go bowling, play darts pool etc. Also girls will need to be taken out on dates which can include going to restaurants the theatre or just out drinking. Male friends like to go to the strip joint for a lap dance. Sometimes these activities get in the way of progress in the main story, though if you want certain things to be available to you it pays to keep your friends sweet. For example Little Jacob can be a mobile weapons dealer when he likes you enough.

The use of mobile phones and the internet has been integrated into the game, with missions involving email and internet dating. On entering an internet cafe you can use a computer to get on to a fully working web browser which has a huge spoof world wide web to surf, with parodies of many existing real world sites. Logging onto a child porn site immediately gives you a huge wanted rating and sees you dead in seconds. Microsoft need to tap Rockstar for the web browser to implement it onto the Xbox360.
The mobile phone is used as in game menu. It seems fully functional, you get texts, answer and make calls and even use it to take pictures and send photo messages. It really does feel natural and organic in the game and I don't think I have seen any other game use these communication mediums in game to such effect before.

Television also gets an appearance with tv's in all of Niko's safe houses. The programs are spoof documentaries, thinly veild jabs at Halo and attacks on advertising and modern life. I have sat and watched it for longer than I should have. Though don't expect hours of viewing, it does repeat fairly regularly. Only other game that I think beats it in this respect though is The Darkness, which had a few full movies I believe. Though i never watched any of them to find out if they didn't stop twenty minutes in.

The gameplay is top notch, there are no real surprises for players of any previous GTA games. The main criticism I have of these games is the lack of mission checkpoints. Some missions can take up to thirty minutes to complete. Some missions are screamingly hard. After being shot down thirty minutes into a mission you might replay it once, after dying another thirty minutes later and being put back thirty minutes you scream at the screen and go and do something else instead to save your arteries blowing in frustration.

A checkpoint after you drive to the mission site. After securing the mission objective and before escaping your wanted level and at the end of the mission would save a lot of frustration. It would make the game easier but it would also see less people give up in disgust. Not that I did though, so maybe Rockstar know what is good for us after all. I finished the main story after 92 missions with 62% on the progress meter. I don't have the time at present to shoot all the pigeons and complete the races and other side missions. I am sure I will go back to this game in a quiet time or for some multiplayer.

A.i. in sandbox games is different from say an fps. You can follow the civilian population around and not interfere, they are there to populate the world and make it look lived in and real. Their behavior has to be at least somewhat believable or it will suck you out of the game. GTAIV has similar a.i. to other's in the series. Improvements come in the sense that they seem to be able to problem solve. rarely do you see enemy drivers stuck against walls. They seem to be doing their best to get away or alternatively get you. There are instances of pedestrians getting hit by cars, though they seem to limp out of the way eventually instead of holding up traffic forever. The game does still suffer from the look this way see three or four cars, turn away and look back and they are all gone syndrome. Though there does seem to be a huge amount of vehicles and pedestrians on screen. Much more than any other sandbox game that I can think of.

My first impressions of the graphics were that they were slightly unconventional, with nice detail in the foreground and distance and a strange blurring in the middle distance. As familiarity crept in i lost sight of that first impression that i jotted down on first playing. I thought I would include it here though as it's often the case that first impressions of games change once you have scaled their learning curve. The city is a work of art, a living breathing human place that looks like it evolved rather than was designed by a team of artists for a game. The architecture is varied and impressive. Buildings are mostly facades with only a few having any interiors. These being the settings for missions.

The attention to detail in all elements of the game is stunning. You can see every hour of work from the hundreds of people involved in this game. I have not played every sandbox game out there, but in my opinion if the awards for sandbox world design were to be handed out GTAIV wins by a miles, followed at a long distance by Crackdown and even further behind Saints Row. Oblivion was nice but there was a little too much random number generation in it's design I feel. Physics are handled very well, the handling of cars seems to have come in for a bit of criticism. I never found it a problem once I got used to it. Lamp posts seem to be a strong as tissue paper and stick like wooden fence posts sometimes stop buses, but on the whole the physics are pretty much as you might imagine, and that is high praise for a game. The water physics deserve a mention for having waves and splashes that reminded me of Waverace, only better.

Good diverse soundtrack, the usual gta radio stations to pick your listening taste or just accept the random setting from the cars you get into. I love the rock and the inclusion of Songs like One vision by Queen and Dominon by the Sisters of Mercy shows a diversity and willingness to step away from what was popular with the teen demographic on the month before release.

As is usual in Rockstar games there are a tremendous amount of statistics available. These deserve a mention for their obsessive compulsiveness and due to the fact that I spent a while looking through them on more than one occasion.

Achievements are fair, for between 40-50 hours play and completion of the main story-line I received 285 points Which does seem a little tight but I can see that there is still so much more to do in the game. The racing side missions are easily on a par with burnout Paradise. The city is just so damn beautiful that exploring and looking for the pigeons will be fun. The remaining achievements are multiplayer and side mission orientated. So while this isn't a game for people looking for a quick score boost these achievement points are earned with hours of your time and not insane hyper reflexed kiddie skills.

Multiplayer seems excellent with the mobile phone being used to enter a lobby system which consists of the game itself, you can meet your team and wander about a bit, then choose a game mode and play a multitude of objective based games. races, straight deathmatch etc. One mode deserves a mention, one player at random is the Don and they have to be taken to a point win, the other team have to take him down. It's chaotic and fun.

Simply being able to wander the city with a few others is enjoyable. I think I would still be looking for pigeons if you were allowed to do this together. A few co-op missions would have been good. Still there is patches and downloadable content to come. I vote for being able to do the pigeon hunt with friends for the patch. The fun really is endless in this game if you want it to be. I spent some time just playing with friends in the sandbox. One of us would take a bike and flee. The others would chase him in helicopters and all sorts. Don't get me wrong it did get old, but this game does have excellent multiplayer opportunities if you are into experimenting with it. Those who prefer their Halo and Call of duty probably will go back to them quickly, but that does not mean that this isn't a robust multiplayer game. I think it boils down to the size of the city. Deathmatch for me has always been better in close proximity and frantic action. That is why I enjoy things like the shipment map in Call of Duty 4.

This game is a must. There is no excuse for not owning it. I fail to understand why any PS3 or Xbox360 owner does not own and play this game. It is a master-class in design, gameplay and fun.

Score
10.0
Graphics
9.0
Sound
8.0
Gameplay
8.0
Fun Factor
6.0
Online
Overall
8.8
130°

Looking Back At 2008, An Unbelievably Incredible Year Of Video Game Releases

Huzaifa from eXputer: "2008 was home to the likes of Call of Duty: World at War, Dead Space, GTA 4, Far Cry 2, Left 4 Dead, and many other hits, which is outright remarkable."

ChasterMies371d ago

Some of these low paid video game “news” writers weren’t born before 2007.

just_looken371d ago

Here here

Those that were around before 2000's i am sure are like me that think we entered a world of non readers or those that follow without question.

I can not wait to see fallout 3 a goty game even though it was about water with non content until you add the dlc/updates then you got the performance/crashing

CrimsonWing69371d ago

I don’t think anything can compare to 2023

lucasnooker371d ago

1998 - the best year in gaming! Metal gear solid, crash bandicoot 3, medievil, half life, ocarina of time, thief, tenchu, resident evil 2, Spyro, tomb raider 3, oddworld abes exodus, banjo kazooie.

It was a different breed of a gaming era. You’ll never understand what it was like back then. The aura of gaming, it was different!

KyRo371d ago (Edited 371d ago )

I second this. Gaming was a lot more varied and fun than it is today. I'm 35 so getting on compared to some here but I got to see all the changes from NES up to now but I've never felt so disappointed in any generation than I have this current gen. I was expecting more from this generation rather than prettier versions of games that came before it. Game mechanics have become so refined that alot of games feel the same and has done for a while now.

Maybe it's time to have a break for a while. I love gaming but I don't feel I get much fun in the traditional sense out of it anymore.

CrimsonWing69371d ago (Edited 371d ago )

Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil 2, Abe’s Exodus, and Ocarina of Time are the only things from that list that I liked.

Here’s the 2023 game releases that I personally liked… and big releases that I didn’t care for:

- Dead Space Remake
- Wo Long Dynatsy
- Resident Evil 4 Remake
- Diablo 4
- Fire Emblem Engage
- Hogwarts Legcay
- Street Fighter 6
- Hi-Fi Rush
- Like a Dragon: Ishin
- Octopath Traveler 2
- Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters
- Final Fanatsy XVI (actually ended up not liking this, but it was still a big deal release)
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
- Lies of P
- Mortal Kombat 1
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
- Starfield (Ended up hating this one, but big release)
- Super Mario Bros. Wonder
- Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (I’m an old-school Zelda fan, but didn’t really enjoy this game)
- Alan Wake 2

I mean, honestly I’ve never seen a year of major IP releases like that, ever.

Profchaos371d ago (Edited 371d ago )

Isn't it just a generational thing realistically.

I've been gaming since way back and I some of my favourite games go as far back as the late 80s for me each generation has a year or two of game changing releases one after another before an inevitable dry spell.

I kind of agree gaming had a different feel games hit different because we didn't have the internet nothing got spoiled and you really had to put in the effort to beat a puzzle which could set entire groups of people looking for a solution. But most importantly games were experimental and not as cookie cutter as today even basics like controls were not universal today r2 is shoot l2 is ads garunteed you can't deviate from that in a shooter back then it could of been square, R1 or R1 and circle nothing was standard.

But as time moves on a new generation picks up their controller they are going to be interested in different things that PS1 demo disc with the t Rex blew our primitive 16 bit brains back on launch but to kids today it's laughable.
The new gen of kids coming into to hobby seem to value different things to us there seems to be a huge focus on online play, streamers, gaming personalities, and social experiences, convience of digital downloads. To me I value none of that but that's ok like my parents not liking the band's I would listen to its just the natural cycle.

Gameseeker_Frampt371d ago

Just about every year in the 7th generation was great and something we most likely won't experience again.

2009 for example had Assassin's Creed 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Dragon Age: Origins, Uncharted 2, Halo 3: ODST, Killzone 2, Borderlands, Bayonetta, and Demon's Souls to name a few.

just_looken371d ago

It still amazes me we got over 7 rockstar games ps2/ps3 but 3 for the ps3/ps4/ps5

Dragon age 1-3 and mass effect 1-3 in 7ish years what a generation.

130°

Grand Theft Auto 4 Anniversary: The Beginning of the Age of RAGE

Grand Theft Auto 4 is an important game for Rockstar, not least because it was the first title in the franchise to use the newly created RAGE engine.

Read Full Story >>
gamerant.com
franwex730d ago

Wasn’t the Table Tennis game the first to use RAGE?

isarai730d ago

Was about to say the same, but they do say first "in the franchise" so 🤷

cammers1995730d ago

The fact it hasnt been remastered is insane.

Abear21730d ago

Rage engine made driving on the sidewalk in cinematic slow motion camera a blast

290°

Fifteen Years On, 'Grand Theft Auto IV' Is Still the Series’ Best

There’s never a bad time to relive its magic, and with rumours of a potential Grand Theft Auto IV remaster making the rounds, why wouldn’t you?

Read Full Story >>
goombastomp.com
Machina733d ago

The series' most overhyped and overrated (especially by critics) more like.

ZycoFox733d ago

Not sure tbh.. I'd say 3 was the most overrated. It's pretty rough to go back to, it was quite rough even trying it just after Vice City. Lack of humour and vehicles that had the weight of polystyrene with top speeds to match.

VC & the stories games (even LCS) were all fun. I remember there being a lot of praise for GTA 3 on TV and in game mags, saying it was a Dreamcast killer of a game or words to that effect, and honestly after playing it on PC I didn't think it was that special and kind of dull, had the odd moment of fun but hardly anything. I heard they cut online multiplayer at the last moment for PC, shame because it could've made all the difference.

Would've loved to have seen what kind of cartoony GTA style game they could've done on Dreamcast as a competitor, I bet something along the lines of Simpsons Hit & Run would've worked well.

BlackTar187732d ago

@numberz How can the game that defined a generation and was copied by everyone be overrated? Was a asinine comment

seanpitt23732d ago

For me 4 was better than 5 was more realistic and the physics was on another level! 5 was a major let down in that department!

ZycoFox732d ago

@blacktar you have your opinion i have mine. I found the game dull, and it is for the most part. It set the foundation for the much superior SA and VC however.

KwietStorm_BLM731d ago

You say GTA III is overrated because it's rough to go back to and rough to play after Vice City. Your entire opinion is in hindsight. Of course it's rough going back to it today. It came out over 20 years ago. That doesn't take away from the fact that it pioneered a lot and was a paradigm shift for a lot of trends in game development today. Vice City in a lot of ways is just a more refined version of III. It was San Andreas that took the big leap forward from a design perspective. If III doesn't release, who knows if the open world genre would be what it is now. How can that be overrated?

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 731d ago
1nsomniac732d ago (Edited 732d ago )

Not at all. My most played game of all time. Truly stunning accomplishment in gaming and with PC graphics mods it just took it to levels beyond anything that came before and possibly even after.

People who moan about it generally tend to be people who played it on under powered consoles and couldn’t handle the more realistic car physics. It was the slightly more realistic approach that made it stand out more. Absolutely love it. In fact I always said Vice city was my favourite of all time. But after going back to the remaster I realised 4 was actually the best.

Profchaos732d ago (Edited 732d ago )

I'm no critic and I consider it the best games in the franchise after recently replaying every entry it's story when paired in conjunction with it's DLC was and still is amazing.

shinoff2183731d ago

Lol. Fun fact. That dlc cost a certain green colored console 50 million for exclusiveness. Un heard of back then. Just to point out the hypocrisy of the 3rd party exclusive agenda going on.

Anyway how the dlc better then the base game by a mile. Lol imo

DigitallyAfflicted731d ago

I've enjoyed gta4 the most from all the others too.

DarXyde732d ago

San Andreas holds a special place in my heart. Honestly, I couldn't get into IV at all. Didn't even finish it. I had some pride in playing it at first because I'm originally a New Yorker, but it just didn't do it for me.

To each their own.

shinoff2183731d ago (Edited 731d ago )

Gta sa for sure. To this day my favorite. My least fav is gta 4 easily. Gta 4 made me feel like the dude in next friday trying to take the cd back talking about i cant get jiggy wit this.

Maybe looking back it would be 3 but 3 did so damn much for gaming in general. . My first gta was of course the top downs so the series has came a long way.

notachance731d ago

Yeah I remembered falling asleep playing the last mission in GTA4.. the most boring protagonist (out of all the voiced protag), and the town is too small.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 731d ago
-Foxtrot733d ago

Not really

Overrated

Boring

Liberty City despite being a reimagined version for the HD era lacked any variety

Lacked the GTA fun charm overall

Niko was bland compared to past protagonists like Tommy, CJ or Victor

blackblades732d ago (Edited 732d ago )

GTA 2 was the best, lol my only owned GTA game. Vice city was alright when I rented it back then. I cant really say which is the best cause those the only 2 games i played but GTA 2 was fun on PC back in the day. Closes game to it that I enjoyed was SR3 and I dont care what people say. That none serious tone was fun enjoyable.

banger88732d ago

Like hell it is. San Andreas was far better, much more fun and a better game overall.

isarai732d ago

Nah, it's a masterpiece in attention to detail and the amount of immersive systems at play. But it really isn't very fun, ESPECIALLY when compared to the previous games in the series. Like tons of things are just wonky and actively kneecap lots of experimentation, or is just lame. Like why do I take huge damage when falling into water, why can I only stand in very specific large trucks when they are moving but not smaller trucks and vehicles, why is the melee combat such a massive down grade from GTA SA and GTA IV, why is the euphoria nowhere near as reactive, why is being drunk using a rasterized animation of staggering rather than the far more entertaining euphoria GTAIV and RDR used when you were drunk, why do npc vehicles barely react to you popping there tires even at high speed, etc etc.

I've always loved playing around in GTA games world. Like the campaigns are great but the majority of my time was always spent just playing in the open world. Yet GTAV is the only game in the series I never really returned to after beating it, it just lacks that fun factor the others have, I spent more time in GTA SA remastered than GTAV

chicken_in_the_corn732d ago

It's one of my least favourite GTA games. It's clunky, the ai is exploitable, it's far too long and the writing is absolutely awful.

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