Derrick
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- Joined
- Nov 22, 2010
- Messages
- 5,085
- Reaction score
- 5
GTA IV is an action-shooter game with elements of racing and management games thrown into the mix. It is guaranteed to keep you busy for longer than what your loved one will allow, so make sure you prepare your couch, because you will be there for a while.
A few weeks after the huge global launch of GTA IV, it was announced that the game had sold a remarkable 3.6 million units on its first day of release. While this alone earned Rockstar Games a place in Guinness World Records, GTA IV’s sales increased to six million units within the first week – worth about $500 million in sales.
Those are both scary and impressive figures, but it simply puts into numbers what reviewers worldwide have put into words: that GTA IV is the best game you can buy today, anywhere, on any platform. Even if you do not like the GTA genre, there will be a few elements in GTA IV that you will certainly enjoy.
During a recent evangelistic rave about my new favourite game, a friend of mine (who rarely plays games) asked me to explain why I felt that this game was superior to anything else available.
I immediately started with the long list of the super-amazing things you can do within Liberty City, your playground in GTA IV, but I quickly realised that this was not the answer he was looking for.
So, what is the big deal with this game? Well, for starters, GTA IV is part of a family of award-winning games and naturally GTA IV excels in almost every department over its predecessors.
The sandbox nature of this game also means that you can basically play it as you like. You have a choice to follow the story and play the game as it was meant to be played, or you can do what I like to call “fear and loathing in Liberty City.” This option gives you free reign over the city, allowing you to wreak havoc as you please.
Your path to destruction usually includes hijacking, driving over pedestrians, shooting innocent bystanders, and, best of all, evading the authorities.
In GTA IV, Liberty City is pretty huge. In fact, it’s modelled on New York and as a nice touch Rockstar has named each street, adding even more to the real city feel.
The story follows a character named Niko Bellic, a Serbian veteran who came to Liberty City in search of the American dream. The game feels like a mix between the movies Taxi Driver, Scarface and Goodfellas, and even though it’s slow off the start, the story quickly progresses once you have reached the five-hour play mark.
As Niko, you soon find that a life of crime pays, and with your shady past, it’s not a difficult life to settle into.
GTA IV features some very memorable characters, which make you really enjoy the story you follow. While it’s up to you to choose the order in which you take on new jobs in the game, every now and then you will be faced with a ‘morality choice’. This is a brand-new feature in the game that affects the overall outcome of the story. In some missions you will have the option to kill your target or let them live: both decisions have their own set of consequences.
More than just a single-player game, GTA IV is also the first console version of GTA to support online play. This means that you can now go online and play against other players in Liberty City. There are stacks of game types you can play, including vehicle racing, Cops ‘n Crooks, Free Mode, and the usual deathmatch types. Battling against other players also changes the game dynamic rather dramatically, and I often found myself going online to play a deathmatch when the action in offline Liberty City was a little scarce.
This game has definitely raised the bar for sandbox games and its online play will most certainly have the various online servers run at capacity for the near future.
Please note that this game carries an 18+ rating and is not suitable for kids.
A few weeks after the huge global launch of GTA IV, it was announced that the game had sold a remarkable 3.6 million units on its first day of release. While this alone earned Rockstar Games a place in Guinness World Records, GTA IV’s sales increased to six million units within the first week – worth about $500 million in sales.
Those are both scary and impressive figures, but it simply puts into numbers what reviewers worldwide have put into words: that GTA IV is the best game you can buy today, anywhere, on any platform. Even if you do not like the GTA genre, there will be a few elements in GTA IV that you will certainly enjoy.
During a recent evangelistic rave about my new favourite game, a friend of mine (who rarely plays games) asked me to explain why I felt that this game was superior to anything else available.
I immediately started with the long list of the super-amazing things you can do within Liberty City, your playground in GTA IV, but I quickly realised that this was not the answer he was looking for.
So, what is the big deal with this game? Well, for starters, GTA IV is part of a family of award-winning games and naturally GTA IV excels in almost every department over its predecessors.
The sandbox nature of this game also means that you can basically play it as you like. You have a choice to follow the story and play the game as it was meant to be played, or you can do what I like to call “fear and loathing in Liberty City.” This option gives you free reign over the city, allowing you to wreak havoc as you please.
Your path to destruction usually includes hijacking, driving over pedestrians, shooting innocent bystanders, and, best of all, evading the authorities.
In GTA IV, Liberty City is pretty huge. In fact, it’s modelled on New York and as a nice touch Rockstar has named each street, adding even more to the real city feel.
The story follows a character named Niko Bellic, a Serbian veteran who came to Liberty City in search of the American dream. The game feels like a mix between the movies Taxi Driver, Scarface and Goodfellas, and even though it’s slow off the start, the story quickly progresses once you have reached the five-hour play mark.
As Niko, you soon find that a life of crime pays, and with your shady past, it’s not a difficult life to settle into.
GTA IV features some very memorable characters, which make you really enjoy the story you follow. While it’s up to you to choose the order in which you take on new jobs in the game, every now and then you will be faced with a ‘morality choice’. This is a brand-new feature in the game that affects the overall outcome of the story. In some missions you will have the option to kill your target or let them live: both decisions have their own set of consequences.
More than just a single-player game, GTA IV is also the first console version of GTA to support online play. This means that you can now go online and play against other players in Liberty City. There are stacks of game types you can play, including vehicle racing, Cops ‘n Crooks, Free Mode, and the usual deathmatch types. Battling against other players also changes the game dynamic rather dramatically, and I often found myself going online to play a deathmatch when the action in offline Liberty City was a little scarce.
This game has definitely raised the bar for sandbox games and its online play will most certainly have the various online servers run at capacity for the near future.
Please note that this game carries an 18+ rating and is not suitable for kids.