Grand Theft Auto IV for Xbox 360

Gameplay in the GTA series has traditionally been unchanged at its core. The game allows you to go anywhere in the city map that you can go and do anything you can do. You can run around on foot just as easily as you can drive a car or fly an aircraft.

The new Liberty City, that is the location of this game, is huge but not as varied as GTA:San Andreas (which featured multiple airports and boat ports) to add to the illusion of size. There are no Leer Jets in the game – a disappointment to me – because someone decided to leave them out in observance of the 9/11 attacks – considering this game features some buildings reminiscent of the actual NYC.

Illegal activities will cause you to become "wanted" and police characters will pursue you to arrest you. If you resist them (by killing them) they will bring lethal force to bear against you until you die. GTA4 improves on the wanted level system by adding a "search radius" to your gps radar – but, the fact that you can now see police positions make evading them almost too easy.

As technology progresses and computers become more powerful, "going anywhere" has changed from merely going to a few buildings (in between load times) to being able to walk inside many buildings (without load times). GTA 4 has plenty of hardware/software advances over many other games but, the entire game's building matrix has not been opened yet. Probably, within the next few entries of the series, we'll be able to truly go in and out of any building in the game, but for now, only certain buildings allow that. Fortunately, many of them can simply be walked into without a load time.

You can choose to play the game's missions towards its story ending, or, you can choose to simply run around killing cops and civilians until your wanted meter brings enough heat on you to take you out.


The core gameplay of the GTA series remains intact here. You will meet new and interesting people who will give you tasks to do: kill someone, rescue someone, collect a package, etc. Similar to the other games, a cellphone you carry gives you instant access to new tasks and keeps you updated on the state of affairs surrounding you.

This time around, the cellphone is useable in game to actually call people (from its phonebook) or to launch multiplayer matches. This is a huge benefit of the Xbox360's hardware which helps the gameplay seem more fun for many players. For example, you can actually call the police to your location and they will access the situation and open fire on criminals (or you). If you jack someone's car, they themselves will call the police to the scene.

There is also a useable chain of internet cafes which you will use to set up meetings with people at later times. In one such mission, you need to go to a job interview on Saturday at 12pm, but you must go buy a new suit before you're allowed in.

This time around, Niko is presented with "choices". An in-game menu will pop up asking whether you want to do "a" or "b" and you simply choose which thing you will do.
You may be asked whether to kill someone….or to let them live. Your choice, will effect the gameplay and ultimately, the game's ending. This is a great addition to the GTA series and will probably be improved upon later on with" multiple path plot branching". I'd like to see it possible to change the game paths by killing or helping, any of the characters. For example, there is a mob boss you meet in the game early on named Vlad. I'd like to kill him earlier than the game would allow and then have Russian gangs attempting to kill me in retribution. It would be almost like a second type of "Wanted meter".





Graphically GTA 4 is a major step above GTA San Andreas due to the hardware abilities of the XBOX 360, but, it lags in many areas that became obvious to me when I first began seeing commercials of the game in action.

The textures of the main characters for example are off color and blocky to the point that this game resembles the PS2 and XBOX version. Facial expressions look botoxed and skin looks like plastic. I was also surprised by the fact that the cars themselves aren't very detailed and their paint jobs look anything but realistic.
Compare Grand Turismo for PS3 and this game and you'll see what I mean.

What people are noticing however is the Xbox360's tremendous draw distances, fogging, shading and dynamic lighting. The city in the foreground is highly detailed and rich. The distant background is highly detailed too, and features volumetric lighting and shadow effects that, combined with weather effects such as fog and overcasts, looks amazing.

But this is nothing new…Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 already pronounced the 360's abilities. In my eyes, GTA4 is more of the same effects. Yes it is the prettiest GTA to date, but I can name plenty of other games with sharper textures and better lighting effects.

What truly impressed me about the game was its physics and situational reactions which make the gameplay shine. In other GTA games, shooting someone in the head while they were driving a car stopped the car dead in its tracks and allowed you to get in while their bodies fell out. Now, however, shooting that same person in the face causes them to fall face flat on the horn. The car rolls with its preset speed into whatever…while the person's head on the horn causes the car to blow its horn continuously. That is certainly a macabre sight but, it did show me that the developers put a lot of effort into the title.
Furthermore, if you did kill someone to carjack them, Niko must now pull their body out before he gets in. Driving around in the car is marred by brains and blood spewed on the windshield.

Games like "Portal" and Half Life 2 have shown that realistic physics models can add tremendous fun and gameplay to average graphics. GTA 4 continues this phenomena by accurately conserving momentum in many situations –such as the one I mentioned.
If you are driving a vehicle for example at 100 mph, simply bailing out won't help because your body will continue to move at the speed you previously achieved. The effect is hilarious…your body will basically roll and fly towards whatever objects are in your path…Newton's laws prevailing.

Unfortunately, "pop in" objects litter this game from beggining to end. Cars mysteriously appear out of thin air and dissapear when you turn your back on them.


The Sounds in the game are equally impressive to its physics. Popping a Glock sounds violent. Firing a rocket Propelled Grenade sounds equally frightening and looks fantastic (complete with smoke trails). The key ingredient to the sound is mixing the regular sounds of the living city with the violent sound of gunplay, police presence and nature's ambience. Considering all the channels the 360 and PS3 have…you'll definitely need a surround sound to get the most out of the game.


MY IMPRESSIONS

GTA4 looks good and sounds great. The detailing of the background scenery is highly reminiscent of NYC and could easily be mistaken for many areas there-in. The character animations are immensely improved over the other games and the physics engine running in the background brings the game to life in ways I hadn't imagined.

My biggest complaint with the game is that the physics of driving cars is HORRIBLE. Thus far, the only car I've hopped in that I could drive without major trouble is the Corvette. And this is disappointing because other cars in game, such as the PMP 600 (Chrysler 300) are supposed to be excellent handling cars…in this game, many car clones feel sluggish. Car handling is even worse when the car gets damage because, realistically, damage to your tires will pop them and cause the car's handling to go out the window.
The camera also lowers in (while the screen blurs) to give you a feeling of speed while you drive, but, this makes driving even more difficult because you can barely see what's ahead of you. Trying to find better camera angles is a chore.

Flying isn't much better. There is a hunter chopper helicopter which is damn near impossible to fly like an expert because the [lb] and [rb] bumper buttons are used for rudder control - while squeezing the right trigger controls cyclic.
Helicopters were difficult to fly in San Andreas but the game made up for that by having excellent driving control and the ability to fly jets and jet fighters.
No close to ground aircraft equals less fun - we can't get into air battles as if we were playing Warhawk - which makes no sense because GTA:SA had it and did it perfectly. This is really dissapointing since the multiplayer matches can span the entirety of Liberty City rather than just a small area on the map.

GTA4 is the WORST controlling GTA I've played thus far


And the artificial intelligence just plain sucks. The cops ALWAYS KNOW EXACTLY WHO AND WHERE YOU ARE even if no one saw you firing a gun in a dark alley. The police pursue you until you evade their search radius but they completely ignore other criminals. They don't notice you speeding or doing 150 mph past them on the wrong side of traffic, but, if you bump their squad cars, automatically they want to arrest you.

Enemies don't put up a fight at all. They stand still while you snipe them and if they do seek cover, they get stuck to it and become sitting ducks.


I was also not very happy with some of the controller layouts. For example, pulling the left trigger halfway allows you to go into a free aiming mode – but, pulling it all the way locks aim onto a target. I didn't like this because my heavy fingers instinct is to pull the trigger completely as if I were playing Call of Duty or Gears of War – to aim.
In many situations, this control style feels difficult.
Furthermore, you can now aim out the windows of cars while driving to shoot at people with your pistol (pressing the [LB] button). Unfortunately, driving is so difficult that lining up a shot is ridiculously hard unless your shooting at sitting ducks.

Running around doesn't even feel as accurate as it did in previous games. Sometimes when you are walking along and trying to make small steps (such as when on the edge of a building) your character seems to have a mind of his own and walks independently of your inputs.



I was also a bit shocked at the language in the game. Within the first hour of play, I'd heard the word "titties" and "f*ck" from the main characters over 50 times. Not to mention the implementation of payable prostitutes and sexual intercourse inside cars which is iconic of the series. This is definitely not a game for kids, but, already, I know plenty of pre-teens have the game since I hear them on Xbox Live.
The problem I saw with the over-the-top language is it gives me less respect for Niko than I had for Tommy and Carl in the other GTA games. Niko looks like a big time russian mobster but he comes off sounding like Borat with his constant ramblings.

The game is also unashamedly insensitive to the gay community. "F*g" becomes a common word and plenty of homophobic jokes adorn the title. When the homophobe jokes aren't enough, racial slurs get uttered. I can't tell you how high my eyebrow raised when I heard an Irish criminal complaining about "Guineas" and "Ni&%*%$"

If there is any reason to buy GTA 4, its to get at the MULTIPLAYER game modes. 16 people can go to war against each other in different parts of Liberty City.
The first person to join a match becomes the Host and he has the ability to decide what weapons are allowed, how much traffic is in a level, whether or not police are present, and other factors such as weather and time of day cycles.
Once in matches, players can play Ranked matches or Player matches where they either have an all out deathmatch or they play team deathmatch modes such as Cops vs. Crooks (where a team of police attack the gang leader of a team of crooks) or Hangman's Noose (where a team of crooks must fight there way out of a police sting operation).

Naturally, GTA:IV comes with a robust Xbox Live multiplayer leaderboard, as well as the San Andreas implemented stats system to keep track of virtually everything you do in game.

Overall GTA:IV is an excellent package. Considering the Multiplayer and the possibility of Xbox Live game add-ons, this game's life will last well beyond the end of the Single Player experience. To be perfectly honest, what drew me in to buying the game early was the brilliant marketing strategy behind it. If you buy the $90 Limited Edition game pack, you get a Rockstar duffel bag (Chinese made, decent quality, but, not very large for clothing) and a book of GTA4's game art, and a soundtrack CD from the game's tracks. The piece of the Limited Edition that truly drew me in was a metal GTA4 Safe Deposit Box. I'm now using that to hold cash, my passport and some ID.


No one has to review this game. Its already gotten Perfect 10's from every major reviewer on the internet and every other major reviewer. I can't overlook the fact that the graphics do have their blemishes and driving/ aiming isn't perfect either – but, even with those objections, this game loses so few points that it easily pulls in a high grade.