blaze4556
05-10-2008, 08:52 AM
GTA IV has finaly arived after 3 years. does it deliver on the hype? read on!
http://www.highsnobiety.com/uploads/RTEmagicC_GTAIV_360_FOB_RP.jpg.jpg
when i inserted this jewel into my 360, i was thinking about how great the graphics will be...the opening cut-scene looked really promising and when the game really started...i couldnt see anything... untill i turned on my headlights. If your playing this on a HDTV then god have mercy on your soul because its so damn dark at night, during this time the car headlights are your best friends. In one mission i had to chase a guy at night and it was all good untill the person jumped out of the car and went up some stairs next to a building, i got out of the car to chase him but since my headlights were destroyed i couldnt see a single thing and i ended up circling the building twice to find where the stairs were :mad1:.
With that out of the way, ill focus on one of my favorite feature about GTA IV. The environment...if you just stop and focus on a sunset then you'll see how beutifull the graphics can get. Even when its raining, it will look truly magnificent, you'll see pedestrians with umbrellas, cops wearing raincoats, car tyres will have water spraying behind them when your driving fast and in one mission i had to ram a guy in a van to get him to pay up on a debt and it was so hard because of the pouring rain.
http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/videogames/detail-page/gta4_1_lg.jpg
There are 4 islands in GTA IV, not as big as san andreas but unlike san andreas every island is alive and they are all differant. The 3rd island is pretty much new york, it looks awesome and at night its so differant when your flying through with a helicopter and all the buildings, cars, bridges are all lit up. The last island is, what i call "hookerville" because they are...everywhere! They have been extremley upgraded this time. When you pick up a hooker in your car, you drive to an alley and then...its your choice from there lol. You get 3 options, for $20 you get a hand job, $40 blow job and $70 is..well...ill let your imagination guess ;-). The cars dont just go up and down like in previous GTA games. This time, the hookers actualy move and do what they would in real life.
http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/gta-iv-rain-apr05.jpg
Theres a new way of buying clothes for your character. Instead of just choosing clothes from a list, you actualy walk up to the clothes rack and you try them on, if you dont like them then you walk to a differant rack. Theres also glasses and hats but no bling bling ;(. When you go to new islands, you find new shops, in new york you can get suits but in the starting island you only get some normal russian clothes. Gun shops are all the same, no matter which city there in. When you walk in through a door you see guns on tables or crates, at first you will only be able to buy pistols and smg's, when you advance through the story you'll unlock better guns like rocket launchers and a powerfull assault rifle :D.
http://o.aolcdn.com/gd-media/games/grand-theft-auto-iv/playstation-3/tn_565_87.jpg
One of the best new features is the ability to ride in a cab, there are loads of cabs in every city. In new york you'll see at least 1 cab in every road, if you dont find a cab then you can call up Roman (your cousin) for a cab. With these you can go to any shop or any mission location and you can also set a waypoint on the map and go there in a cab. This way it only takes 10 seconds to get anywhere on the map that you have unlocked. This feature is very usefull when you're just too lazy to drive like me.
Every car in the game is differant, if you compare a hatchback to a hummer then you'll notice that the hummer is way wobblier in turns and police cars have a computer inside, in some missions you'll be asked to find someone. The best way to do it is call 911 on your cellphone and ask for police, then hijack the car and get away from the police chase. The new police wanted system is far differant then before. When you have a wanted star, a blue and red circle apears on your minimap. it will be real small when you only have 1 star, this circle is the police's focus on where to find you, if you escape this area then after about 10-20 seconds. They will stop looking but if your caught leaving the circle then it will be focused on your new position. The more stars you have, the bigger the circle on your map and the more difficult it is to escape. Dont rely too much on a pay n spray to lose them because if the police see you go in then you wont be able to change your car colour.
http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/files/articles/gtaIV_hud_485.jpg
The story is that Niko belick (the person you control) has come to new york to live with his cousin Roman, who claims in letters sent to Niko that roman has a mansion, sports car, and a chick that sucks like a vacume. Instead he arrives to a cockroach infested flat and roman owns a small taxi company. Niko decides to stay and help out roman with his debts and all his other troubles. Along the way Niko gets into more trouble then roman.
The graphics look really good and the face detail on the characters are far differant then other games. The mouth syncing is perfect and the explosions are incredible when firing a rocket at a car or helicopter. The new euphoria engine is an excellent replacement for the old ragdoll physics. Now the pedestrians behave as real people do and when someone gets shot they move in a differant way, also pedestrians hit the windshield differantly everytime :D
http://www.t3.com/images/GTA-4.jpg
Another new feature is the internet cafe's, here you can browse the web. At first i opened the url box and typed in "www.google.com" when that didnt come up then i didnt bother typing anything else so i just looked at the homepage which has links to a dating site, phone ringtones and many other sites. You can find girlfriends in the dating site and actualy meet them in the game and take them on dates to bars, restaurants, comedy shows, pool, bowling and some other stuff.
http://wwwimage.showbuzz.cbsnews.com/images/2008/04/30/image4060843.jpg
The phone is what you will use to call people (obviously) and find missions, for example you can call Roman to see if he has a mission for you or you can wait a few minutes for him to call you. When someone new calls you, there phone number will be saved on your phone. You access the multiplayer through the phone but sadly i havnt tryed the multiplayer.
I wasnt too impressed about the missions in this game, there brilliant but if you compare them to san andreas missions then there not as good. Most of the missions are the same. Go to a place and kill someone then lose the police. Some missions are awesome like the bank robbery and the last mission maybe a phew others. The multiplayer will probably keep you going for a long time after you completed the game. Now there are way more radio stations, including a russian one. There are alot of songs to listen to from rock to rap and when you listen to them one day, you'll have them on your mp3 player the next.
When i played GTA IV i expected to complete it in a couple of days like most other X360 games...boy was i wrong. it has taken me about 2 weeks to complete and 23-28 hours gametime.
story-9.7 the story gets bigger and bigger the more you play
gameplay-9.7 so many things you can do
graphics-10 the environment and weather graphics is the best i've seen in a game like this, the buildings and cars have been perfectly detailed
overall-9.8 awesome game, should be 2008 game of the year
http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/resources/2008/04/4342-gta-iv-race.jpg
http://www.highsnobiety.com/uploads/RTEmagicC_GTAIV_360_FOB_RP.jpg.jpg
when i inserted this jewel into my 360, i was thinking about how great the graphics will be...the opening cut-scene looked really promising and when the game really started...i couldnt see anything... untill i turned on my headlights. If your playing this on a HDTV then god have mercy on your soul because its so damn dark at night, during this time the car headlights are your best friends. In one mission i had to chase a guy at night and it was all good untill the person jumped out of the car and went up some stairs next to a building, i got out of the car to chase him but since my headlights were destroyed i couldnt see a single thing and i ended up circling the building twice to find where the stairs were :mad1:.
With that out of the way, ill focus on one of my favorite feature about GTA IV. The environment...if you just stop and focus on a sunset then you'll see how beutifull the graphics can get. Even when its raining, it will look truly magnificent, you'll see pedestrians with umbrellas, cops wearing raincoats, car tyres will have water spraying behind them when your driving fast and in one mission i had to ram a guy in a van to get him to pay up on a debt and it was so hard because of the pouring rain.
http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/videogames/detail-page/gta4_1_lg.jpg
There are 4 islands in GTA IV, not as big as san andreas but unlike san andreas every island is alive and they are all differant. The 3rd island is pretty much new york, it looks awesome and at night its so differant when your flying through with a helicopter and all the buildings, cars, bridges are all lit up. The last island is, what i call "hookerville" because they are...everywhere! They have been extremley upgraded this time. When you pick up a hooker in your car, you drive to an alley and then...its your choice from there lol. You get 3 options, for $20 you get a hand job, $40 blow job and $70 is..well...ill let your imagination guess ;-). The cars dont just go up and down like in previous GTA games. This time, the hookers actualy move and do what they would in real life.
http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/gta-iv-rain-apr05.jpg
Theres a new way of buying clothes for your character. Instead of just choosing clothes from a list, you actualy walk up to the clothes rack and you try them on, if you dont like them then you walk to a differant rack. Theres also glasses and hats but no bling bling ;(. When you go to new islands, you find new shops, in new york you can get suits but in the starting island you only get some normal russian clothes. Gun shops are all the same, no matter which city there in. When you walk in through a door you see guns on tables or crates, at first you will only be able to buy pistols and smg's, when you advance through the story you'll unlock better guns like rocket launchers and a powerfull assault rifle :D.
http://o.aolcdn.com/gd-media/games/grand-theft-auto-iv/playstation-3/tn_565_87.jpg
One of the best new features is the ability to ride in a cab, there are loads of cabs in every city. In new york you'll see at least 1 cab in every road, if you dont find a cab then you can call up Roman (your cousin) for a cab. With these you can go to any shop or any mission location and you can also set a waypoint on the map and go there in a cab. This way it only takes 10 seconds to get anywhere on the map that you have unlocked. This feature is very usefull when you're just too lazy to drive like me.
Every car in the game is differant, if you compare a hatchback to a hummer then you'll notice that the hummer is way wobblier in turns and police cars have a computer inside, in some missions you'll be asked to find someone. The best way to do it is call 911 on your cellphone and ask for police, then hijack the car and get away from the police chase. The new police wanted system is far differant then before. When you have a wanted star, a blue and red circle apears on your minimap. it will be real small when you only have 1 star, this circle is the police's focus on where to find you, if you escape this area then after about 10-20 seconds. They will stop looking but if your caught leaving the circle then it will be focused on your new position. The more stars you have, the bigger the circle on your map and the more difficult it is to escape. Dont rely too much on a pay n spray to lose them because if the police see you go in then you wont be able to change your car colour.
http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/files/articles/gtaIV_hud_485.jpg
The story is that Niko belick (the person you control) has come to new york to live with his cousin Roman, who claims in letters sent to Niko that roman has a mansion, sports car, and a chick that sucks like a vacume. Instead he arrives to a cockroach infested flat and roman owns a small taxi company. Niko decides to stay and help out roman with his debts and all his other troubles. Along the way Niko gets into more trouble then roman.
The graphics look really good and the face detail on the characters are far differant then other games. The mouth syncing is perfect and the explosions are incredible when firing a rocket at a car or helicopter. The new euphoria engine is an excellent replacement for the old ragdoll physics. Now the pedestrians behave as real people do and when someone gets shot they move in a differant way, also pedestrians hit the windshield differantly everytime :D
http://www.t3.com/images/GTA-4.jpg
Another new feature is the internet cafe's, here you can browse the web. At first i opened the url box and typed in "www.google.com" when that didnt come up then i didnt bother typing anything else so i just looked at the homepage which has links to a dating site, phone ringtones and many other sites. You can find girlfriends in the dating site and actualy meet them in the game and take them on dates to bars, restaurants, comedy shows, pool, bowling and some other stuff.
http://wwwimage.showbuzz.cbsnews.com/images/2008/04/30/image4060843.jpg
The phone is what you will use to call people (obviously) and find missions, for example you can call Roman to see if he has a mission for you or you can wait a few minutes for him to call you. When someone new calls you, there phone number will be saved on your phone. You access the multiplayer through the phone but sadly i havnt tryed the multiplayer.
I wasnt too impressed about the missions in this game, there brilliant but if you compare them to san andreas missions then there not as good. Most of the missions are the same. Go to a place and kill someone then lose the police. Some missions are awesome like the bank robbery and the last mission maybe a phew others. The multiplayer will probably keep you going for a long time after you completed the game. Now there are way more radio stations, including a russian one. There are alot of songs to listen to from rock to rap and when you listen to them one day, you'll have them on your mp3 player the next.
When i played GTA IV i expected to complete it in a couple of days like most other X360 games...boy was i wrong. it has taken me about 2 weeks to complete and 23-28 hours gametime.
story-9.7 the story gets bigger and bigger the more you play
gameplay-9.7 so many things you can do
graphics-10 the environment and weather graphics is the best i've seen in a game like this, the buildings and cars have been perfectly detailed
overall-9.8 awesome game, should be 2008 game of the year
http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/resources/2008/04/4342-gta-iv-race.jpg