GTA IV, It's time has come. I didn't get it opening night. To be completely honest the only reason I bought it, well two reasons really, was "Attack of the Show" on G4 and the commercial that comes on all the time taking place on the bridge.
After the amazingly crappy attempts of the earlier commercials to get me to buy this seemingly over-hyped game, the RIGHT commercial came out. The one that has the line "I'm in Liberty City, and I'm out of control". I believe this line sets up the rest of the story wonderfully.
You start out at what seems like a mix between a refugee and a standard illegal immigrant. What people assumed would be a puddle of a story soon turns into an ocean of choices. Who to kill, who to work for, what radio station to listen to, all these choices will dictate how the game experience feels.
The characters are amazing and sometimes you have... "feelings" about people you have to kill. Sometimes you're double crossed and sometimes you're the double crosser. All these things start piling up into this massive mound of character development, in which you feel what Niko Bellic (the main character) is feeling.
Now you would have to expect a game, who's total development cost topped $100 million, to be good. We all thought the game play would be amazing, blah, blah, blah. Well as it turns out this game... isn't perfect. *Gasp*, I know. This game has some fundamental problems. Sometimes these problems start to cripple the game to a point where smashing my face into the controller would prove to be easier.
Lets take, for example, the "Auto Aim". When all the enemies are between 10 and 2 it works marvelously. The problem lies when you get people all around you, and try to prioritize targets, but the "Auto Aim" won't let you. The only way to remedy this problem is to pull the trigger in halfway in to go into "Free Aim", which is fine in some situations, but not all. Most of the game would be easier if the "Free Aim" just worked properly.
Lets move on to the OTHER big aiming problem. The concept of the drive by seems so cool, but they managed to make that little experience seem lackluster at best. You hold left bumper to fire you're weapon out the window, which is unnatural in the first place, and pretty much just seem to spray the general area with bullets. Problem with this particular situation is that most people in the game take a substantial amount of damage before eating it. That leaves you needing to pretty much stop the car, aim, and put enough fire on target to get a kill.
But despite those faults, it's really the story that keeps me playing this game, hour after hour, until I'm so hungry I'm not able to see. And my above gripes aren't to say that those certain game mechanics NEVER work. It's just to say that they need some improving upon.
My favorite feature in the game is the first-person driving. Nothing like splattering a gang member on the hood of your car in first-person. I'd also like to say to all those people that bitched about there being a drunk driving mini-game, try it. It's impossible and it discourages me from EVER driving drunk. I do all I can to avoid this particular mini-game, if possible. It's the best an anti-drunk driving message I could ever think of. They should put this thing in schools.
All things said, if you haven't bought this game, buy it. If you don't have any money, donate plasma. If you don't have any plasma, steal some. Five star game with a few 3 star features, but through it all, it still holds to being a 5 out of 5.
Written by: Ryden
Editing by: GrrSnort
After the amazingly crappy attempts of the earlier commercials to get me to buy this seemingly over-hyped game, the RIGHT commercial came out. The one that has the line "I'm in Liberty City, and I'm out of control". I believe this line sets up the rest of the story wonderfully.
You start out at what seems like a mix between a refugee and a standard illegal immigrant. What people assumed would be a puddle of a story soon turns into an ocean of choices. Who to kill, who to work for, what radio station to listen to, all these choices will dictate how the game experience feels.
The characters are amazing and sometimes you have... "feelings" about people you have to kill. Sometimes you're double crossed and sometimes you're the double crosser. All these things start piling up into this massive mound of character development, in which you feel what Niko Bellic (the main character) is feeling.
Now you would have to expect a game, who's total development cost topped $100 million, to be good. We all thought the game play would be amazing, blah, blah, blah. Well as it turns out this game... isn't perfect. *Gasp*, I know. This game has some fundamental problems. Sometimes these problems start to cripple the game to a point where smashing my face into the controller would prove to be easier.
Lets take, for example, the "Auto Aim". When all the enemies are between 10 and 2 it works marvelously. The problem lies when you get people all around you, and try to prioritize targets, but the "Auto Aim" won't let you. The only way to remedy this problem is to pull the trigger in halfway in to go into "Free Aim", which is fine in some situations, but not all. Most of the game would be easier if the "Free Aim" just worked properly.
Lets move on to the OTHER big aiming problem. The concept of the drive by seems so cool, but they managed to make that little experience seem lackluster at best. You hold left bumper to fire you're weapon out the window, which is unnatural in the first place, and pretty much just seem to spray the general area with bullets. Problem with this particular situation is that most people in the game take a substantial amount of damage before eating it. That leaves you needing to pretty much stop the car, aim, and put enough fire on target to get a kill.
But despite those faults, it's really the story that keeps me playing this game, hour after hour, until I'm so hungry I'm not able to see. And my above gripes aren't to say that those certain game mechanics NEVER work. It's just to say that they need some improving upon.
My favorite feature in the game is the first-person driving. Nothing like splattering a gang member on the hood of your car in first-person. I'd also like to say to all those people that bitched about there being a drunk driving mini-game, try it. It's impossible and it discourages me from EVER driving drunk. I do all I can to avoid this particular mini-game, if possible. It's the best an anti-drunk driving message I could ever think of. They should put this thing in schools.
All things said, if you haven't bought this game, buy it. If you don't have any money, donate plasma. If you don't have any plasma, steal some. Five star game with a few 3 star features, but through it all, it still holds to being a 5 out of 5.
Written by: Ryden
Editing by: GrrSnort
