blog

 
 As like most of the population I spent my Monday night anxiously waiting for the clock to strike twelve, that would be the hour when I journey out to pick up the newest installment in the ever-famous GTA series. It was a rough night and I was still recovering from a weekend where I thought I was young again. At one time the notion even crossed my mind to pass out and pick the game up in the morning. But the hardcore gamers voice rang out inside my head, “play COD4 until twelve then go get GTA IV”. The hardcore gamer won and I moved like a zombie from Michael Jackson’s Thriller video to my car as soon as that clock struck midnight. I reached my local Gamestop and grabbed my copy. I arrived home shortly after with my green plastic box in hand, gnawed off the plastic it was wrapped in and slide it into the elite I call Bessie.

 With the never-ending leaking of info about the game that I found incredibly annoying, including the list of online achievements. I had a general idea how parts of the game were going play out, but all the info in the world about GTA IV couldn’t come close to preparing you for the epic journey through Liberty City.

 The beginning of the game looks more like your preparing to settle in to watch some sort of late 70’s crime drama instead of starting up a game. It seemed to run forever with countless names I would soon forget affixed to different objects in the scene. I thought to myself, “all right Rockstar, I get it, you might a little artsy with this installment, I can dig it”. I became restless trying not to cop out and skip the beginning credits, but I didn’t want to ruin the whole GTA experience.

 Finally I had arrived! It was a new start in a somewhat familiar place known as Liberty City. Taking the role of Niko: a Russian who has just arrived fresh off the boat. The promises of “the glamour life” have led you to America and to your idiotic cousin’s doorstep. But you soon learn that America’s streets aren’t paved with gold and it will be a constant uphill battle to survive.

 Most of the few hours I’ve spent on GTA IV have had me taking care of various chores, or missions if you can call them that. I won’t go in to all the details surrounding the first couple of missions, but I will say they are fairly easy and are just a preparation for harder missions to come.

 The city itself is breathtakingly beautiful and every building has been rendered with an extreme attention to detail. Each doorway, arch and column accent the various structures nicely throughout the city and contribute to the overall realism of the game. The L Train is one of my most favorite structures in the game and once I saw it I instantly flashed back to scenes out of The Warriors movie where the gang tried to make their escape to the train. From that point I truly believed it was New York City and I had to watch my back.

 So far, I’m four or so hours into the game. I’ve had one issue with the game loading from one mission to the next, resulting in me having to reset my 360 two times, but other than that the game hasn’t presented any major issues. I haven’t experienced the multi-player; I’ve died numerous times, run over countless pedestrians, stole a couple cars, and shot a guy in the face with a shotgun. It doesn’t get much better than this.

 

 

 

 

  

Share this article: