Grand Theft Auto IV

The Good: Amazing story, memorable characters, subtle details really stand out, superb graphics, fun online play The Bad: Crappy car handling, minor control issues, online lags more than it should, nothing earth shattering but perfected I remember playing GTA III when it first came out. I didn't have a PS2 yet and I went over to a friend's house and played it for hours every single day. While we mostly just messed around it was something I never played before and was just so addictive. Thankfully GTA IV goes back to it's roots and brings us to good ol' Liberty City. You play as none other than Niko Bellic who is a Russian immigrant who came to LC with his cousin Roman to start a new life. The game's main attractions are it's story for once. GTA IV has a superb story that makes you want to keep playing. Gone are the lukewarm stories from previous GTAs where only the main character is the main attraction with just OK side characters. In previous GTAs you never really got a good feeling of the employers due to the lack built up story. You were just in and out of the short cut scenes only knowing what to really do. This kind of was solved in San Andreas, but even then only a select few were really fleshed out. In IV you feel every character in the game and there are tons of plot twists and it really keeps the game fresh through every single mission. On another note, the graphics are amazing. While not Assassin's Creed or BioShock amazing they're really good. It's mainly the subtle details though such as people now put their blinkers on, cars are damaged in real time now with realistic physics so half broken fenders and bumpers sway as you turn the car, the paint can get scraped up, crowd AI is more efficient (yet not by much), better enemy AI (still not by much), further draw distance, everything has high-res textures, bump mapping and the whole next-gen works. There are a few things that they stripped away such as the whole working out system, swimming underwater (you can still swim though!), and territories. There are other subtle details such as the internet you can now use. It's a virtual made up internet, but it's still as funny as hell and has a dating system (yes it's still here) implemented on the dating website. You can get emails for side missions from employers as well. You can now take taxis around the city and either watch them drive your skip it if you want. This really helps a lot if you are tired of driving everywhere. There is also a new route system where the game will plot the safest and most legal course to your destination. Red is a target, blue is a friendly, green is a waypoint you made on your map, and yellow is an objective. This is probably one of the better additions because it keeps your from getting lost during time sensitive missions. Another thing is the revamped wanted system. You now have flashing "zones" for every star. The more stars the bigger the circle will get on your radar that you have to escape. Cops are now showed as flashing blue and red blips and copters are now flashing X's. While we're talking about characters again the voice acting is amazing. I really felt like I was watching bits of a movie every time there was a cut scene. The characters are really fleshed out here every...single...one. You'll remember every character in the 60+ hour game and that's a really hard thing to achieve. Rockstar really went the extra 20 miles with this game and you can just feel it. The game is huge as well, while not as huge as San Andreas it's about as big as GTA III yet it's also big as in taller as well. You can fly planes, and copters again in here and while it's a lot easier than San Andreas it's still not very fun. Speaking of controls they are more refined this time and the auto aim is a lot better yet there's still that stupid camera! Switching targets is NOT very easy. You have to press the right stick EXACTLY left or right or you won't switch targets. Whenever you do lock on Niko always aims for the wrong persons and ends with cheap deaths and what have you. The cars are also a big pain because they just don't feel right. They all feel really heavy and they slide way too much no matter what car you use. You try to put the brakes on and your car will slide and slide and you'll miss your turn, and the same goes for the handbrake. You hit it and your car spins out a few times no matter how good you are with the handling. I found this very annoying with the driving missions because it would lead to cheap and frustrating failures. Apart from all this the game as 16 player Xbox LIVE support. You have tons of game modes from deathmatch, to cops and robbers. In cops and robbers it's pretty self explanatory. You all get in a car and try to kill each other. This is also very fun yet annoying because the game can lag a lot especially with people who have crappy connections. It also may take awhile to start a game due to everyone wanting 16 players and they just won't start the game. Aside from the minor issues GTA IV is probably game of the year worthy, but it doesn't do anything as ground breaking as GTA III did. It just perfects it 100% this time and gives us what we've always wanted. The perfect GTA game.

I'm a 36 year old man. I play video games occasionally. I'm mostly into sports games, but sometimes i'll get the urge to play an action game. The only other action games I've played are the Drake series and Infamous. It's difficult for a video game to keep me entertained. Eventually i'll see repetition and I get a little bored, leaving the game for weeks at a time. I gotta say, I wanted to play GTA 4 almost everyday. There are dozens of missions, all with their unique dialogue, unique scenery, unique characters. This game felt A LOT like a real movie. In fact, I'm surprised there is no GTA: The Movie. There is so much to do in this game and you can do it at your own pace. When i didn't feel like shooting people down and just wanted to take a break, I'd take a taxi(or steal a car) and go to the comedy club or cabaret show. These are actual shows. The comedians do about 5 minute sets and it's pretty funny stuff. You can go many times(i think 6) and never get a repeat performance. The game is long, and along the way you make some friends, or acquaintances. If they end up liking you enough(by hanging out with them at strip clubs, bowling, shooting darts, comedy clubs, etc), they'll do you favors. One guy will sell you weapons for cheap, another guy will detonate an explosive for you on one of your missions, another guy will send a couple of his buddies to help you kill an enemy. That was just one small detail that I thought was brilliant. You can go on the in-game internet and find women to date. You can buy ringtones on the in-game internet. The list of things to do is endless. If you're not into wasting time and want to go right through the missions, you can do that too. There are about 15 different weapons to choose from and you can get them anytime. If you don't have the money to buy them, you can find a map online and search for the hidden weapons. The coolest weapon, a rocket launcher, is found on a tiny island out at sea. You actually have to swim to get there. A lot of the negative reviews say "if you don't complete a mission all the way through, the game makes you start all over, frequently having to drive 10 minutes just to get to the mission!" This is only true if you drive to the mission yourself. Instead, get a taxi! When you get in the taxi, the driver will ask where you want to go. Choose where you want to go from the list, and just click x as soon as he starts driving and it'll skip right to the start of the mission. Sometimes reading the manual goes a long way. The acting is incredible. The different environments are incredible. Graphics are really good. Not super duper excellent or anything, but close enough. According to the stats, i've been playing this game for 58 hours. If i wanted to, i could still shoot birds around the city(there are 200 you can kill), find side missions(there are random guys on the street who ask you to do favors for them), date some women and have sex with them(you don't actually see niko getting laid, but you hear his woman having an orgasm--of course she could be faking it), hang out with your friends(strip club, bowling, grab a bite to eat, etc), or just go around the humungous city killing people and running away from the cops. A definite masterpiece. I cannot WAIT for GTA 5.

I disliked my order because I received an American copy of the game, rendering it useless to me.

Perfekt , vielen Dank !!!! .. .. ..... .. .. .. .. .. . .... . .... . ... ..

game muito prazeroso de se jogar, é bem diferente do V, o que me fez estranhá-lo, mas muito bom game, vale a pena

Very good game graphics are very good then the game

I was given the Standard version of GTA IV for Xbox 360 rather than the Platinum Hits version. This didn't bother me at all, but, I know there are some die hard game collectors that might be a little miffed by this. The version of the game that I was given runs beautifully smooth when played on Xbox Series X as the game can be played on that console. My copy of GTA IV for Xbox 360 was also delivered very quick as it was delivered to me two days earlier than expected. I'm very happy with this game and I would easily give the seller and the product two thumbs up if I could. Even the price was nice and cheap as well. Would definitely recommend this item.