Grand Theft Auto IV
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ESRB:
Blood,Intense Violence,Partial Nudity,Strong Language,Strong Sexual Content,Use of Alcohol,Use of Drugs
Publisher: Take 2 Interactive Genre(s): Action Home Page: http://www.rockstargames.com/IV/
Grand Theft Auto Bank Robberies tend to attract the attention of the N.O.O.S.E. The basic elements of the gameplay date way back to the first top-down games of the series. Drive around a huge sandbox city doing all kinds of jobs while generally disregarding the law. Just about anything that moves can be stolen and driven by the player and collateral damage is almost inevitable. Cops are mostly just an annoyance and it's surprisingly hard to rack up very high Wanted levels so that the Liberty City's special forces, N.O.O.S.E., would show even show up. In the transition to next generation engine, some features also got cut. You can still steal a fire truck or an ambulance, but there are no related missions any more. You can obtain additional safe houses, but only as part of the storyline and there are no businesses to buy. In many ways the game has taken a step back to the simpler times of GTA III while concentrating on the storyline and production values - and it shows, especially with voice acting and writing in general.
The game area is once again split into multiple sections and initially only the first island is unlocked. The story explanation is a terror alert causing the police to blockade the bridges. This nicely ties to all the black humor you can uncover by listening to the dozens of different radio shows. Heck, you can even watch the TV in your apartment - the shows are just as hilarious as the ones on radio. Radio also works as the soundtrack with numerous music stations to choose from and the PC version adds the ability to creater your own station by tossing a pile of MP3s to a directory and choosing the custom station on your radio. More black humor can be found with the GTA IV's version of the internet - you can browse dozens of sites and access your email in several internet cafes. You can even buy ringtones for your cell on a suitable site - the attention to detail is impressive. GTA IV also adds the concept of friends. Many NPCs who give out missions also become friends with Niko, and you can improve these friendships by spending time with them doing various activities like playing pool, drinking, eating out or in the case of Brucie joining him on speedboat cruises and helicopter tours. With female friends, you also may have to watch what you wear and drive if you want to "score".
Initially friends feel like a drag, always interrupting you with phone calls and begging for attention. They become bearable once you figure out that nurturing those friendships can be valuable as friends can provide handy special abilities. Little Jacob turns into a traveling gun salesman, ready to turn up nearby with a trunk full of hardware, Roman can send you a free cab, Brucie can offer a lift with his helicopter and Dwayne can send you a car full of gangsters to help with a tough mission. Some activity mini-games also award achievements, so they are a fine diversion - not perfect, but without them the game would just become a mission grind. Niko on the PCSo what took so long with the port? Well, the PC version got some additional goodies on the way. On the visual side, the texture resolution has been bumped up considerably and additional dynamic shadows have been added. PC version also includes much-hyped video editor. Effectively you can save short clips of gameplay and then edit them together for a video which can then be published on Rockstar Social Club website - a GTA YouTube of sorts.
Video Editor Tutorial
Multiplayer has also been updated to support up to 32 players. Beyond that the port is quite faithful to the original, down to some glitches and oddities that seemd like bugs back on the XBox 360. You still don't get a helmet when you first get on a bike, you can still crash into "errant pixels" in some places and there are still numerous ways to end up inside the terrain. None truly affect the gameplay and many are just fun side-effects of the sandbox world, but it speaks volumes about the PC port being a quite direct re-compile. PC version gets many things specific to the conversion right - it's quite playable on the keyboard and the mouse. On foot, mouse adds ultra-sharp aiming not really possible on the pad and that makes many of the missions easier as you can rapidly pick off enemies with quick headshots instead of relying on the pad auto aim. Even helicopters are easy enough to fly on just the keyboard and the mouse. XBox 360 pad is also available for those who prefer to use it and I guess the perfect combination is to drive vehicles on the pad but switch to keyboard and mouse on foot. Unfortunately support for normal DirectInput pads is a bit buggy. The first patch was supposed to fix the situation, but for most it seemed to just break it more. On the other hand, XBox 360 pad has rapidly become the standard pad on the PC, so I'd consider these issues to be yet another reason to pick up a wired XBox 360 pad.
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