Grand Theft Auto IV

Wow, I have not been on here in a minute. I want you all to know that I have been beating games and I could probably review one game a day for the next week.

Hmm, maybe I will...

Anyway, GTA 4, Grand Theft Auto has come from a long line of great games. Rockstar is one of my favorite game companies. Ever since I played Grand Theft Auto 3, I knew this company would come far.


The story of GTA 4 is this: Niko Bellic, badass psychopath from Eastern Europe (his accent is similar to Russian) after hearing from his cousin Roman how great America is, decides to catch a ride on a big ol' freighter and come over to Liberty City, which has nothing to do with New York City at all. Nope, definitely not New York City. I don't know, I guess I never really saw the point in pretending to be a nonexistant city when everyone knows that Gotham City is really New York anyway, so why hide it.

Anyway, once Niko comes over to America, he finds out that the American Dream really only looks good on TV and in reality it's just a bunch of blind consumerism, so it's on to doing jobs for crazy assholes like you do in every single GTA game. Also, killing random people on the street of course.

GTA 4 has its problems. The driving is really klunky, I think they were trying to make it more realistic or something, but really it's just more a pain in my ass. Basically, if you've ever played any GTA before this one, you're going to have to retrain yourself how to drive in these games. Also, look up how people do quick turns with the hand brake in real life, then do it over and over again in this game until you've got it down. It will make things a lot easier.

Before I move on, one last thing about the driving. Niko is flat-out terrible at it! Unlike San Adreas where you can level up all your stats, Niko's driving ability never changes. So every time you get up to speed in any vehicle it's like you've just become the worst driver in the world. Every slight turn you make could suddenly send your car careening out of control, oh and here's something I'm not sure why they added, every time Niko hits something even slightly, he goes flying through the windshield of his car. Just to remind us that in the GTA universe, they never invented seat belts.

Other than the driving though, this is actually a pretty great game. You can make friends and then take them out to the theater or bowling or whatever. You do jobs for crazy people all over Liberty City which is now  twice the size of San Andreas which was supposed to be a state if you all remember. I suppose I was a little disappointed that many of the missions are just there for the sake of it. After the first section of the game, it's not so much a story anymore (except for the occasional mission for Roman here and there) as it is just more criminal activity. Niko isn't really a human being as he is a dog, just going out and fetching or killing whatever anyone wants him to, just so long as he gets paid. No morals what-so-ever.

Overall: B-, the last mission in this game is just about the most frustrating thing ever, the story sucks sometimes and the driving blows, but other than that I had a really fun time playing through this game, and just like every GTA, it has enough side stuff to do that it practically guarantees for hundreds of hours of gameplay.