This is the best GTA to date! The story line is really well done and the AI is great. You never know who is your friend and who is your enemy, so you need to keep your wits about you. Any person wandering around or driving may be prepared to shoot you, so don't just think you can jack anyones ride without the possibility of getting taken down. I haven't finished yet and

it may take a while... which is great, it only took me a week to finish Call of Duty 4... that is like 10 dollars a day... GTA will only be pennies a day at this rate!!!

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I THINK GTA IV IS A VERY GOOD GAME, NOT GREAT BUT A VERY GOOD GAME. I GIVE IT 9.7 out of 10. WHY, MAY YOU ASK 3 THINGS:

1. NO MORE CUSTOMIZING YOU CARS. I WOULD HAVE LIKED TO HAVE BEEN ABLE TO CUSTOMIZE MY VEHICLE THEN TAKE IT OUT ON MULTIPLAYER.

2. THE ABILITY TO CREAT DIFFRENT ETHNIC (MORE DIVERSITY) MAIN STORY CHARACTER. I WOULD HAVE LIKED THE MULTIPLAYER AND SINGLE PLAYER MODE TO HAVE A BETTER CREATE A CHARACTER MODE.

3. AND FINALLY THE ABILITY TO CHANGE YOU PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS, IE: FAT, SKINNY, SWOL, ECT....

THATS MY OPINION, AND THE REST OF THE GAME IS JUST AWESOME.

THANKS AGAIN ROCK STAR,

XBOX 360 GAMER TAG:

BLACK _BISHOP187

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This game is crazy-awesome! The free roaming gameplay (you can go anywhere you want in the city and do anything you want) makes this game so fun and never ever boring! The graphics are the best ever and the feel of controls while driving or flying are spectacular! Definitely playable for hundreds of hours without getting old!

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cd looks like it is brand new (no scratches). Got here in 3 business days

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Way too much hype for this game. Its alright but nothing spectacular. Missions are pretty much the same throughout and gets boring after awhile. Way too many simulated violence and swearing. Not needed at all for a good game. If they ever come out with a GTA5 I'm pretty sure I won't get it.

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This is probly the best game ive ever played. I really dont see anything about this game that you can even insult. The story line, the graphics the coontrols and the characters are all perfect. seriously they couldnt have made this game any better. It slaughters every other grand theft auto on the market. Every thing about it is great. Buy this game

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This game had the chance to be the best videogame in history but it failed. The reason is that it improved graphicwise, controls are much better, the city is bigger, there is much more interaction between the controlled player and the AI, but it is a mission-based game where anything out of the main mission is boring as hell. This is because they did not include the two best aspects from San Andreas apart from the missions, since there is no sense of one becoming powerful by conquering territories, and even though money has no function in this game, they should have had the businesses that were so fun in San Andreas. Also, what happened to the beautiful houses of Vice City, come on.

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I'm going to be brutally honest here, this is one of the best games I've had the opportunity to play in a long time. Now, I'm a huge RPG gamer and rarely buy games outside of that genre so I hold a pretty high bar for others and was not let down at all by this game.

Cautionary warning for those less informed (likely the reason they post warnings on hair dryers not to drop them in bathtubs / Darwin Awards) this game is not for children at all. There are drugs, questionable language moments, and generally obscene behavior all around. It's wonderful. :)

Enter Niko Bellic, an Eastern European thug fresh off the boat with an idealistic view of Liberty City. He quickly learns that life is not all its cracked up to be and slips back into the same mistakes he had made in the past and was trying to run away from. In general the game does glorify violence, materialism, and thug life but it also carries a strong message of defiance to them as well as you see as you progress through the story. You see love, betrayal, and the truth about the so-called wonderful life of organized crime. It's not as mindless as some in the media may try to portray as they review the game on a merely superficial level.

Pros:

1. The game loads very fast and there are very few loading screens beyond your initial loading of the game.

2. The difficulty is pretty well developed such that as the game progresses you find you have to plan out your actions more thoroughly to adjust to increased dangers.

3. It's fun to run around in the city and cause chaos even if you're ignoring the main mission.

4. Unlike Assassin's Creed (for example) the missions are all unique and each has exciting twists which help keep you on the edge of your seat.

5. The graphics and sound are amazing.

6. The in-game material such as the comedy show and television shows help make this world seem even more realistic --- I had a friend who spent a Saturday just watching the in-game TV even.

7. The multiplayer modes are fun when you get into them... (more on the cons though).

Cons:

1. The multiplayer lounge system is horrid --- the loading times to get to multiplayer are bad enough but sometimes you find yourself stuck waiting after a match is over and just generally it seems like a rushed addition to a perfect game.

2. The party mode loads you up in a fake world but it's a pain to invite people and a better interface similar to Halo's for partying would have been better (if you wanted to visit the world with your party why not just go into free play mode?).

In general the game is amazing and is worth the little it costs for such an experience. It's not a game for children and that's why it's rated mature so if you buy it for your child it's your own fault for not paying attention to the rating applied to the game.

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Ive read amazing reviews from this game and videos showing that this game has great game play and amazing physics. When i got it i passed the whole story ( which was repetitive and not very creative) So its over, then what?

Nothing. The game has few fun stuff to do and then it starts getting boring. The 3 star of fun are because of the physics engine, it is fun how the physics work for the game but it starts getting annoying. So if youre going to buy this game, be warned if it doesn't satisfy you.

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I received my product the same day it was released, thanks amazon, thats why i shop amazon for all my electronic needs, great deals, cheaper prices

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I loved grand theft auto since the third one , and then vice city then san andreas and now this one. I have got to say this is by far the best gta game ever. It is huge very huge city and very detailed. You have a great character to play as. he is nicko belic he is from Is from europe. But his way of things will not let you down. The guns are just outstanding the cars trucks boats everything about the game is great. you work for some screwed up families. And there are 3 huge parts to the city that are connected. If you are a fan of the other games in the series you will love this one.

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Nothing much to say about this game. The graphics are great (although a little too much bloom lighting), the gameplay is great... what isn't there to like?

I'd recommend this game to anyone who isn't easily offended, and likes to run over hookers.

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I'm just going to keep this simple. Likes and dislikes about the game.

What I liked

1. Great graphics.

2. Driving physics, the tires even blow out if you spin your tires too

long.

3. Attention to detail is amazing. Seems like Rockstar went all out this

time and created an animation for all of Niko's actions. For example:

when he breaks into cars he actually breaks the window and looks like

he is actually bending down inside the car to hotwire it and the

hookers actually do something in the car now instead of just sitting

there and making noises while the car rocks back and forth lol.

4. Combat is much better, the shooting is better, being able to take

cover is a nice addition.

5. Lot's of activities to do after or instead of missions.

Dislikes

( Really aren't too many, but enough to take a star )

1. Still can't create your own character? Except for in multiplayer mode

of course and if you can do it there why not in the game? Who cares

if his name would still be Nikko at least you could make him look how

you wanted. ( Rockstar could have at least given different characters

to choose from. )

2. Car customization would've been nice. Spray paint doesn't count. I'm

talking Saint's Row 2 customization or better.

3. What happened to the bicycles? Could have added a skate board and no

planes?

That's about all of my dislikes. GTA IV is definitely an improvement, but when they add things they should keep the good stuff from previous games.

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Outside of Halo 3, GTA IV is perhaps one of the most hyped games of this generation; in fact, some would say it was overhyped. Glowing, almost slobbering previews from the press helped create expectations that could never be met. The question is, now that it's out, how does it stack up?

First of all, I have to note that there have been both a lot of "revisionist" positive reviews that tell us that less variety and content (as compared to GTA: San Andreas) is somehow a good thing, and a lot of excessively negative reviews that gloss over the positive changes this entry has made. The truth is that while the game could've been more (and needed to be if it was to truly win all the perfect reviews it got), what we got was far from a poor or skimpy game. And it all starts with the city.

Like the first game in the GTA III trilogy (GTA 3, Vice City, San Andreas), GTA IV takes place in Liberty City, a fictional, crime-ridden metropolis. This time, however, Liberty City is a much bigger place than before. The scale of the environment compared to your character is much larger than before, and the maps you may have seen of Liberty City don't really convey this. In addition, things such as the level of detail, lighting, and other graphical effects have been pumped up more than a little. Night-time now makes the same area you saw in the daytime look completely different than before, while the lighting and weather engine upgrades make every day a potentially unique experience, and really accentuate the early morning and late afternoon periods with some dramatic effects. People are now animated much better than before (and are affected by the new physics engine), and the whole game has an interesting look that's almost akin to impressionistic oil paintings. The game environments are divided into 5 districts, which are distorted and compacted versions of real life counterparts: Broker (Brooklyn), Dukes (Queens), Bohan (the Bronx), Algonquin (Manhattan), and Alderney (Eastern New Jersey). Unlike the disappointing (and buggy) True Crime: NYC, the areas have been streamlined and altered enough so that you don't end up driving through endless, identical, flat, square city blocks put in there just because they're present in real life. Fans of the original GTA III will see a few familiar-looking sights, as Broker's elevated train tracks and brownstones will bring back memories of Portland. Other than that type of basic similarity, Liberty City is a whole new animal.

And as a result, you're also given new game mechanics to survive. The most notable are the aiming system (allowing for both autotargeting using an instictual flick of the right stick combined with the triggers, and a manual aim similar to Gears of War), and the cover system (which allows you to take cover behind a large percentage of objects, including cars). This transforms firefights from the almost random shootouts of the past into more dynamic, entertaining, and tactical encounters. You also have a cell phone, which is a big part of the game. GTA IV relies heavily on your relationships with characters, and you'll find yourself both calling them, and getting called by them. The downside is that these calls are a bit too frequent, especially when you just want to wander around, and cause mayhem (although you can put the phone on sleep mode), and ignoring phone calls can have consequences for the goodwill you'll be trying to maintain with these people. Car physics have been altered, and while it can be hard to adjust to, I actually like the handling better in this game than prior installments, as using the handbrake results in some truly great cornering. Both swimming and climbing over objects are still in the game, with swimming simplified, and the climbing mechanic developed more fully than before.

As Niko Bellic, an Eastern European veteran of an unnamed war who is lured to America by his cousin's exaggerated promises of success, the player is given both a reason for being an expert at combat, and a great starting point for the story. The characters are some of the best the series has seen, whether it's your likeable, debt-ridden cousin Roman, the hilarious Brucie (I can't even begin to describe him), or "community activist" Manny. There are also some "random missions" that are triggered by your choice of whether to spare some of your mission targets throughout the game. Furthermore, the new wanted level system (in which the police have a specific search radius you must escape, as opposed to the random cop spawning of the past) makes the chaotic gunfights of both the story missions and extracurricular chaos less of a potential buzzkill when the cops take notice. The story is further enhanced by features such as a number of parodic TV shows you can watch, a functional in-game Internet (complete with all manner of spot-on websites), and other social entertainment, such as comedy clubs, a cabaret show, and even the ability to get drunk with a friend or a girl (with a swaying camera effect not designed for the easily nauseated).

The bad news is that some of the variety and content that you've come to expect is MIA. While the new, two-tiered vigilante system is great, for some reason, you don't get any money or other rewards from it. Standbys such as ambulance, firefighter, and even pizza delivery missions are missing, while the taxi missions are not only only present for a short period of time, but are also a pain to start. While I wasn't a huge fan of a number of those side missions, they did add to the variety of the game. Also, while the new Liberty City isn't that incredibly small compared to San Andreas (the consensus appears to be that it's about 60-75% the size of San Andreas), the fact that it's mostly urban areas lends a bit of monotony to the experience (even if there's identifiable and distinct looks to the various areas, and plenty of trees, parks and beaches). You won't be finding any flyable airplanes here, and the variety of helicopters is markedly lower than in San Andreas. I also miss the flamethrowers from past games, and despite what the apologists may say, the jetpack from San Andreas would've been a cool carryover to this game.

Despite these (and other) issues and the game's overhype, the game is still a real gem. I've gotten past the 50 hour mark, and still haven't finished the game. There's also a multiplayer mode that I haven't played myself, but sounds fun for people who are into social gaming. As far as the version to get, I chose the Xbox 360 version mostly due to the ability to have a custom soundtrack, which wasn't present on the PS3 version (at least at launch- for all I know, there could be a downloadable update). Beyond that, the choice of version appears to come down to nitpicking graphical differences, what console you feel more comfortable with, and whether you care about the exclusive downloadable content that the 360 version will be getting (there is also supposed to be DLC for the PS3 version). In the end, while this isn't the "greatest game of all time" that people claim it is, it really is quite good, delivers the best urban-focused crime game experience out there, and worth the price. It may not knock San Andreas off its throne due to its scaled back ambition, but it could well be at the same level. For the first time, a game really has created a city that feels like, well, a real modern city. Highly recommended.

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...For Adults that is, I can't imagine any parent letting a child under 15 or so even be in the same room as this game. That being said, this game is fantastic and I really enjoy playing it. I am just scratching the surface but what a surface. I plan to keep this in the tray for a good long time to come!

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