Very nice review, you made some excellent points, and adressed some issues that not only affects GTA4 but a lot of games.
I hope developers take hints from gamers like us and make their games longer, make em way morefun, and put less clones on the market.

Very nice review, you made some excellent points, and adressed some issues that not only affects GTA4 but a lot of games.
I hope developers take hints from gamers like us and make their games longer, make em way morefun, and put less clones on the market.

Thank you for the comment. I apologize for the messy grammar. I did not realize that editing is impossible after submitting.

I love Die Hard movies. I don't want to have to play a one sided character like John McClane or Neo for 30 hours of gameplay. I agree with most of your review. It is a stripped down version of San Andreas. It is a better quality version though b/c what you can do in the city feels much more real but of course there is not that much to do besides the story. Most side quests feel like MMO grinding in GTA games anyways so I did not miss the extra content. To play a main character that long I want him to have a tough time, maybe to have a soul, not to be a robot, GORDON FREEMAN anyone? The story was the reason I loved this game. I am not 13 and do not think Gears is the best game ever, so maybe that is why I like a good story, it can drive the gameplay when done right. After Nico, Tommy V. had the best character and story, even when it was a Scarface rip off. I have played ever version of GTA from the first on the PC to now and I can say that GTA 4 was my favorite b/c it was f'ing dark as hell. It feels more real. My main issue with the game is this, where the hell are my rockets on the police chopper? That my friends was a time honored tradition and the miniguns cannot hurt anything.

Defining the quality of a story is tough because everyone sees it from too many angles. I looked at Niko as melodramatic and a tad too depressing, especially towards the end of the story. I did however like the Manny character quite a bit. I think what you are getting at "MrBadSleepWell" is that you prefer the story to be built around the main character (i.e. monologues explaining what Niko thinks), as I prefer a more Zelda approach where the story is about the world (i.e. stopping an evil group or something) and we know nothing about the main character. That comes down to preference.

I was shocked when I discovered there were no silenced pistols. Also missing were flame throwers, as you mentioned, mini guns, and the random weapons (like the dildo in SA).

I personally hated the old GTA's they had bad graphics and bad controls and too many go from point A to point B missions and they still got five stars which always shocked me.
I think they improved on this one alot I like Niko he seems like a real person and real people are crazy and have alot of problems. The only problem I had is the same I've had with the others they're just too long and I always get bored and never finish the game. There's like 90 something missions and maybe like 70 are go to point A and do something then go to point B. Here's hoping they make better and more creative missions in the next one maybe then I will finally finish a GTA game.

Great review! Nail on the head.

ya i agree very strongly if this wins GOTY ill be so mad

Intresting take on the game, but some of your points are contradictory. For example, you put "PS2 classic with cranked up visuals" and that "only improvement from the previous installments are the covering system, vaulting over obstacle animations, controlling vehicles, and overall graphics", while in the cons section you put "ugly visuals". Also, the one pro you gave was "addictive gameplay" while one of the cons was "repetitive gameplay". Is the gameplay repetitive or addictive? Or did you mean both? In that case you should put one or the other

VampyrumSpectrum: The visuals of the game are improved from the PS2 in terms of pixels and detail, however I thought the gray and blurry effects in the game were ugly. So it is a fact that the graphics are better, but I personally did not like the

The game has both repetitive and addictive gameplay. There only a handful unique quests in the game, but most of them are basically from a small set of formulae. Also, there is a small number of mini games and vehicles relative to the previous games. This makes the game repetitive.

The game is addictive because it is fun to run around the city and have shootouts. I found the best part of the game to be killing people with the helicopter blades.