Game Review// Grand Theft Auto 4

Probably the biggest franchise name in gaming that is not Mario or The Sims. The ever so controversial Grand Theft Auto comes out with their newest work for this generation of gaming hardware. Although this game is not really the fourth one in the series, they decided to go with this most likely as a way of showing the franchise growing to the next level.

Long gone are the cartoony styles of the previous games and no more odd shaped polygon created people walking around the city.

They may be long gone but the humor my friends is here to stay.

The hype for this game has been raging on like an old man standing in the complaint line at your Wal-Mart. Years of promises and screenshots were leaving many fans wishing they could fast forward time so they could hold this game in their hands now. But of course now the wait is over and what are we left with? Well that depends on how you see the game. Some say that this game is the greatest thing to happen to humanity since sliced bread! Others say that this is just the same old *#$% and can't be bothered wasting any more time on it. And then there are the people like me. Who although enjoy the game very much. They are left somewhat wanting more, something innovative, and not feeling a bit like the game was not on par with all the hype.

The first thing I notice during the opening cinematic of course were the graphics. I was impressed by how good the game looked for a console and how cinematic the intro movie felt due to the camera angles and the opening credits.

Graphics aside the accuracy of some key points of real NeW York City is quite realistic. From Time Square to the Statue of Liberty, although done in their own Rockstar way. The physics were also noteworthy as light impact with people had different reactions of pedestrians putting their hands on the hood of the car to keep themselves from losing balance. My one annoyance with this game environment wise is that you can knock over as many lampposts as you want but for some strange reason very small and skinny trees have the strength  of a freaking concrete wall. No matter how hard you hit them and by all logical reasons that those trees should break in half, there is no way to shatter them, sending you flying out of your car into oncoming traffic!

The shooting is very a la Gears of War style in this one, a radical change from previous iterations of the game. Having a shoot over the shoulder camera view and being able to take cover turns a somewhat mediocre shooting mechanic from previous GTAs into a somewhat more bearable experience. Shooting from your car is the most painful guessing game of where the center of your reticule is. That sometimes i wish this game would burn for making it so hard to shoot from a vehicle. Saints Row had this one right as it was always pretty straightforward where you were gonna be shooting before you pulled the trigger while driving. Also this doesn't help the fact that GTA4 has some of the worst cars for turning that I have seen in a long time. Combine the driving and the shooting and your in for a long queue of headaches.

Overrall this is a very good game and I totally recommend picking one up. It doesn't matter for what system really if you have both unless if you care about Downloadable Content for the 360 which as of this post we still know nothing of. But if you own just one well get it for that one. It might not be completely a big step forward compared to GTA: San Andreas but it shows enough improvement for a long time of enjoyment.