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Not your grandpa's sandbox (well, then again)

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 25, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Just in time for spring, this is the time when someone asks you to get the yardwork done and you respond by using your game controller. Get the spring cleaning done and you use the controller. Go to a prom or take your exams and you use the controller. Someone asks you how to digest your food and you use the controller. For the last 7 years this is all the GTA gamer can do. We've seen the franchise reach it's nadir with San Andreas because everything that you could possibly do for mayhem was able to be done despite the usual control issues, making it nauseating on more than 100 occasions. With every new game, hype is in the air. Will they think of something that hasn't been done yet? Will it be easier to drive, fly, shoot or die? The only question needing no answer is will it sell.

Well, it sells alright, giving Rockstar cart blanche to scale the game back to GTA3 when grandpa was playing it in 2001. No more gambling, no more flying planes, no more empires to build, no more exploding Rc cars, no more jumping off mountains and bailing out of the car in a parachute while your date plunges to the chasm below. Now you have to drive to the internet cafes to get missions, get calls on your cellphone from pestering friends wanting to play pool (and not for money). Other than that, there is almost nothing new to do in single player mode. Getting choices to kill people does little more than change the cut scene and give you a prize or 2. Online play is a blast and a risk at bricking the system, but if you don't mind getting killed alot, have at it.

The big complaint with the franchise has always been controls. Rockstar hired legions of beta testers and we still have even worse cameras, revamped controls that still auto aim at walls and bystanders instead of the gat-toting gangster in front of you, and cars on what seems like a city encompassing sheet of ice. Whatever you do, don't hit the break going into a turn. Car combat has been reduced to a four button multi tasking nightmare. Then, with a much more persistant police force making 3 star wanted levels almost impossible to dodge and a player that crouches everytime you push the analog stick to hard on the PS3, the answer is yes, it is much easier to die in this version of liberty city.
The biggest complaint though, is the unecessary amount of driving to and from any given part of the city. Safe houses are placed far enough away from every mission starting point and every weapon shop making for a tedious start to every mission. Then, by the time you get there, your buddy gets mad that you won't go to the strip club with him. You finally get past all that to start the mission and your forced to drive back across town where you were in the first place. Why do they do this, to make gameplay longer (probably)? You think after 1 year we'd get sick of this and it's going on 7.

Remember, you gave rockstar $60 for this. Most of us knew what we were getting into given Rockstar's rep and growing list of detractors over the years. Still, it's springtime and even if they scaled this game all the way back to the old days, We still want to snicker at the satircal content in the story and on the radio despite the fact that nothing they write shocks us anymore. We also hunker down in front of the LCD to know what happens next to Niko Bellic. Just watch us to that yardwork. Where's the controller?

This game was awesome!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 30, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Ok, first things first. This game is way better if you have an HDTV. Reason being is it just looks tons better. I've played mine both in 480i and 1080p. Huge difference. Second, the game is fantastic. Personally my favorite part is the online capability, its awesome. You can run around liberty city and cause tons of mayhem, and you can do it with friends! New controls are great and the environment is awesome as well.

Not perfect, but oh so close.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 30, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Everything that has been said about GTA IV is right: it has the upgraded visuals of liberty city that are unlike anything ever seen, it has a compelling story, very exciting additions like multi player, and so on-A true masterpiece. If there is one thing however that prevents GTA IV from perfection is the single thing that it carries over from past GTA games-the old school design of starting missions from the beginning when you die. Yup thats right, get ready to try again, again...and you guessed it, again, after dieing in the middle of some missions. Would it have hurt to put some checkpoints in the longer missions?

Minor gripes aside, this is a must have experience that is worthy of all the effort you'll put into it. After all, theres always the cheats which I will use in my second play through because the game is just that good. Enjoy!

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