That's not to say that I'm done playing around with the game necessarily, but I finally made my way through the final mission of the game today. I'm writing this as I listen the music during the credits (which have been going on for at least ten minutes now, with no end to the stream of names in sight).
The last mission was, appropriately, one of the missions I had to play more than a few times to get right, and had enough good cinematics and explosions in it to make it a worthy final mission for the game.
Overall, I've enjoyed Grand Theft Auto 4, and I think that many of the complaints people have had after the initial flurry of praise, about the game being a disappointment, were mostly unfounded. Grand Theft Auto 4 was the next logical step for the series, and I think that it was a great success in taking the franchise into the next generation of cpu/gpu power.
My biggest complaint was that the final mission, and the jobs leading up to it, just never had as "epic" a feeling as some of those from the other games, like GTA: Vice City or even the first itteration of the game to go 3D, GTA 3. When Rockstar went to such great lengths to make the city alive and full of detail, I would have liked to have seen the story get so out of control that at the end the entire city sees the destruction and carnage as it happens between Niko and his enemies. Something like the end of the Matrix, where Neo and Smith virtually destroy the world (pun intended).
Still, the ending was good, I enjoyed the game from start to finish, and I liked just about everything that Rockstar has done with the game. There aren't too many games I've played that represent the real world so well that, when you see little things happening in the game that reflect life so perfectly, you can't help but smile. I'm sure I'll continue to do that as I play through it some more and uncover the secrets I missed while playing through the main story.
For now though, I'm set to finally beat Phoenix Wright as well (I put it off for a long time, huh?), and I'm also considering picking up a used Game Cube to scratch a Mario Sunshine itch I've been having lately. For about the same price as an Xbox 360 game I can buy a Game Cube, Mario Sunshine, and a memory card, so I'm totally tempted.
I've got to work on my competition entry some more too, probably... so we'll see. In any case, I've finally scratched at least one of the games off my backlog now. So the summer wasn't a total bust, I suppose.
As promised, here's my take on GTA4. As you've probably gleaned from the title, I think GTA4 is pretty damn sexy - but we'll get to that in a minute or two. In order to set the mood, I thought I'd start with a bit of history on the franchise, and how GTA4 came to be the epic adventure that it is.
When I played Grand Theft Auto for the first time, way back in 1999, I felt like a kid who'd just found his dad's secret stash of pornography. The game was already garnering negative attention from the media, lending it all the qualities of an exotic forbidden fruit, and once I got it running with hardware acceleration on my 3DFX VooDoo 2, gaming bliss reached epic proportions.
The style of play seemed new at the time. You're a guy in the middle of a huge city, and you've got a bunch of missions to do - but you don't have to do them if you don't want to. Instead, you can just run around the city causing as much havoc as possible, or hop online and do the same thing with your friends. 'Sandbox' gameplay had finally arrived to the action genre, and the concept was brilliant. If you're not up on your gaming history, you can play the original GTA and its sequel, the aptly named GTA2, at Rockstar Classics.
In 2002, Grand Theft Auto 3 was finally released for the PC (I've never owned a PlayStation, so it was my only option). I pre-ordered the game and received it on the day it came out, but wasn't able to play it for a week... It turned out that my clunky old 3DFX VooDoo 3 video card just wouldn't cut it. After a minor hardware upgrade, I was jacking cars in full 3D, and loving every second of it. GTA3 was to GTA as Super Mario 64 was to Super Mario Bros. The action was successfully ported to 3D, and it was amazingly fun. GTA3 was the second coming of the sandbox game.
Subsequent releases in the GTA franchise were similarly excellent. Vice City and San Andreas were both beautiful, worthy successors to GTA3, with each game taking the good concepts from the last, and leaving the rest behind. Despite how great these two sequels were however, the RenderWare engine Rockstar had been using since GTA3 was starting to show it's age. It was obvious (to me, at least), that Grand Theft Auto needed something new. It needed a new engine, which would take advantage of current-gen hardware. It needed a face lift.
Enter Grand Theft Auto 4.
Grand Theft Auto 4 is a masterpiece. Almost every aspect of the Grand Theft Auto gameplay has been revamped, each with the skill, style, and expertise that only a veteran of the genre like Rockstar could deliver. If you've been looking for a reason to pick up a "next-gen" video game system, GTA4 is probably the best excuse you'll get.
At this point I should probably mention that at the time of this writing, I'm only about 20% through the game. This is both a testament to how large the game is, and a warning that I'm not anywhere near finishing the game. Judging from the quality of my first 10 hours of play though, I think it's safe to say that my opinions won't change too much.
The first thing everyone inevitably notices about GTA4 (and rightfully so) is the graphics. Gone are the boxy cars, cartoon people, and goofy animations of the past. In their place is a re-imagination of Liberty City, modeled from the real-world city of New York, and complete with realistic physics, incredibly detailed vehicles, and more life-like people. Everything casts a shadow, cars rock and bounce as if they have a real suspension system, trees sway in the wind, the ocean ripples gently, the weather / atmospheric effects are practically photo-realistic... The number of graphical improvements between GTA4 and GTA: San Andreas is so great that it would be impossible to mention them all here; I'll let the game's screenshots speak for themselves. And through all the changes (in graphics and beyond) however, you'll notice that Rockstar has still managed to retain their usual style, so while you're busy exploring the new world, you'll often have a nice feeling of familiarity, no matter how lost you might get.
The soundscape in GTA4 is as equally impressive as the visuals. Everywhere you go, the ambient sounds of urban life are present. The inhabitants of Liberty City have a seemingly limitless number of oral blurbs, and the main characters of the game banter along with each other as good as any actors in a movie. There's a ridiculous amount of radio stations in GTA4, each with their own unique set of music and oft-hilarious commercials. You can buy new ringtones for your in-game phone with in-game dollars. And you know that little "bzzt bzzt" noise your car radio makes right before you get a cell phone call? That's in there too. GTA4 is simply a treat to listen to, and the sounds of Liberty City are just as convincingly realistic as the visuals.
Once you're done gawking at the virtual city Rockstar has put together, you'll delve further into the game itself, and you won't be disappointed there either. This is where the familiarity of past GTA games comes to fruition in a more tangible form than other places; anyone who's played a GTA game before will be instantly familiar with the style of play. As you progress through the game, the city map will become populated with icons representing all the different activities you can do, and you'll have to visit these key locations to advance the story. Each visit to a mission-giving character triggers a cut-scene, after which you're tasked with whatever deed suits the whim of that person. Each completed mission pushes the narrative forward. This simple flow of events is how every version of GTA has operated, and Rockstar was smart not to fiddle with it too much. The only major changes to this formula are that you now can receive (and launch) side-missions on your cell phone, and you can retry failed missions quickly, without having to drive to the target location again. Oh, and the game automatically saves your progress, so you don't have to worry about getting killed on the way back to your safe house after each mission.
The game controls similarly to before, but with the added realism of the game world comes the added realism of not being able to run at super-human speeds or jump over cars. It may take GTA veterans a while to get used to this, but as you grow to appreciate the life-like qualities of the game world, you'll find that you won't miss these things at all.
As with past GTA titles, particularly Vice City and San Andreas, the list of extra activities included in the game is quite long. Around the city you will find various locations to buy clothes, entertainment, play games like pool, bowling, and dart, or just grab a bite to eat. You're free to use your cell phone (or one of the local internet cafes) to contact various people in the game, to hang out or to date. You can, of course, just go driving around and exploring, if you like. And if you get bored with all that, then there's the multiplayer.
Being anxious to play through the single player campaign, I've not had as much time as I'd like with GTA4's multiplayer, but I have put in a few hours and from what I have seen, it's a blast. Jumping online via Xbox Live is a cinch, and it didn't take too long to party up with a friend and find a game. There are a ton of different modes, but I've yet to try hardly any of them. Team deathmatch is my favorite of the few that I have played, and I'm sure that once I get more time to play, I'll be participating in more online hijinks.
By now I think it's obvious that I highly recommend you get Grand Theft Auto 4. It's one of the most complete games I've had the privilege to play in the last few months, and beats out just about everything that rushed into the holidays last year. Even if you're one of those people who's written GTA off as a "murder simulator," I suggest you at least give GTA4 a shot. I think you'll be surprised at just how much humanity Rockstar has managed put into the game.
In closing, Grand Theft Auto 4 isn't a perfect game on every level, but the franchise has come a long way from its roots, and even if you object to some of the content, there's more than a few things here that you can't help but like. GTA4 is a masterfully conceived game and is probably one of the best games you're going to play on Xbox 360, PS3, and eventually (hopefully) PC.
If you've been keeping up with my blog, you know that I've been pretty excited about Grand Theft Auto 4. Actually, looking back on my posts, I guess I haven't written about it all that much, but you can attribute that to my intentional avoidance of all things that might reveal too much about the game to me. Yes, I want to go in with a completely fresh view of the game. To my credit, I have been talking up the game something fierce to my friends (in the hopes of having some fun people to play online with), and I went out and pre-ordered the game at my local GameStop last week.
Last night, the game went up for sale at midnight. I'd been debating on whether or not I wanted to go out and pick it up then, and finally I decided I'd just drive by the store and see how many people there were. If the line was huge, I'd simply turn around and leave; I normally have to get up for work around 6:15 AM, so waiting in line for an hour and then only playing for a few minutes is out of the question.
When I rolled by the store, I felt my judgment give way to temptation. The line looked about 50-60 long, but my gamer lust rationalized that each person in line would be anxious to the get the game, and would thus spend as little time as possible at the register. I got out of my car, and stood behind the last guy in line. After a moment I decided I'd check my wallet to see if I even had my pre-order receipt with me (even though I'm pretty sure GameStop will honor the pre-order regardless).
It was at this time that the man in front of me finished a drag on his cigarette and turned around.
"If you haven't been here since 5, you've got to go inside and exchange your receipt for a second receipt." These are the words he said to me.
"Really?" I stammered. The prospect of having to wait in not just one huge line, but now another was not something I wanted to think about. Confusion and fury were gripping me.
"Yup," came the smoking man's reply.
I took a step out of line to survey the scene, and then my judgment got a better grip on me again. If I waited in line here for an hour, I'd barely have any time to play when I got home. I'd go to sleep late, get up early, and be too tired the next day to work efficiently and, more importantly, enjoy some GTA4.
"I think this line's a bit too long for me," I muttered, and I turned and left. 60 man line and second receipts be damned - I'll be picking up my copy this afternoon on my way home from work.
Well, it's done. I got my copy of GTA4 reserved at the local Gamestop a day ago. This will actually be my first GTA game that I haven't waited for the PC release, but I think my 360 should handle the job nicely for now. If not, I'll just wait a year and pick up the PC version, which I am sure will run better, play better, and look better than either the 360 or the PS3. Ah, but who cares about that - if this game is half as fun as it looks, I don't think I'll even be thinking about all that once I start playing!
To be honest, I've been purposefully avoiding reading too much about the game, so that I can head on in with no expectations. Rockstar has blown the dust off the hype machine, and has been releasing lots of new information on their site over the last few days, and there was even a big photo of the game's city map floating around on the game news blogs a few days ago. I've yet to visit the site though, and I only took a brief look at the map (to see if it looked real, of course). Other than that, I just know a few odds and ends of technical information about the game (check out the Euphoria physics technology they're using... just turn down the crummy music), and not much else.
Well, nothing else except for multiplayer. I have actually read a bit about that, and I think that's going to be one of the best parts of the game. Rockstar finally included a fully loaded multiplayer component in GTA4, and it's looking to be capable of throwing up to 16 people in the city at once. Unfortunately, there's no co-op mission play, but between all the different multiplayer modes, I don't think I'll regret the lack of co-op much. I like the way Rockstar usually does the story-telling in GTA games anyway, so if it remains untainted by multiplayer, that's fine by me.
So yeah, I am gearing up for some fun times in Liberty City. I'm going to cut this post short, because I don't really have much more to say about this for now, other than I am pretty excited about it. Hopefully the game turns out to be good, huh?
GTA4 is out on April 29... better reserve a copy if you haven't already!
