There is something quite exhilarating about being a bit naughty. Personally, I just can’t help getting a buzz from throwing chip wrappers into the wrong recycling bin. I’m not sure which one of my twisted childhood experiences made me so evil but from the latest GTA sales figures it seems I’m not alone. I’m exaggerating of course: GTA has always been about a lot more then playing out fantasies about mowing down pedestrians without having to worry about ruining your car’s paint work. Every incarnation has managed to push the boundaries of our expectations and with a move to new hardware you can expect those boundaries to get pushed further and further into your wildest (possibly twisted) dreams.
This time around you play as Niko, an eastern European with a somewhat troubled and shady history. He comes to the land of the free and the home of the hotdog to find a new life with a little revenge on the side. Soon enough, however, Niko is up to his old tricks. Following the Toni Montana path to the American dream, you’ll be running drugs, enforcing protection rackets and running down gangsters. The main driving force behind Niko is not as sinister as you might expect though, most of these activities are to help his cousin out of some massive gambling debts whilst also tracking down some people from the old country that sold out his army unit. Much like the game as a whole, Niko’s story and personality are still unmistakably GTA, just with a little grit kicked around here and there for good measure.
With Niko being a much more well rounded character he can enjoy many other activities aside from maiming his fellow man. For instance, the dating is back with a vengeance. While still not being necessary (so far) for your progress through the game, it will make it a lot smoother and certainly more interesting in the long run. You can now take your mates and mistresses out for various fun and frolics including bowling, dinner, drinking, darts, cheap shows, comedy clubs and strip bars. The latter being the most widely appreciated by your male friends. You’re chums consist exclusively of those you have previous been working for, except now they think your cool enough to hang out with. Girlfriends this time are picked up from an internet dating site - where else. You can browse though the descriptions, much like Tesco online, and choose your beloved(s). All you have to do then is wait for the email back, reply, pick them up at the right time (your mobile’s calendar keeps track of this for you) and show them a good time. The girls and boys of GTA will have particular tastes when it comes to their social activities and it’s up to you too discover them. If successful you’ll be able to call them up for special favours, one of which is the ability to purchase discount firearms from your pals personal store/car boot. Keeping favour with them can become tricky if you get too popular but if you are prepared to put the time in, and you like driving A LOT, then the rewards are there to be had.
It’s pretty lucky then that I enjoy the driving in GTA even more than the cold blooded murder, especially as it’s been massively improved here from the old version. The physics have had the most notable upgrade now giving you a much firmer connection to the road surface. This in turn sparked my Gran Turismo brain cells into life and now I can’t stop driving using the “on the bonnet camera”. This is kind of a shame in some ways as I’m sure I’m missing out on a lot of humour and detail going on around me - not to mention some excellent car damage. But then it does let me weave through traffic more effectively at 90mph. This boost of realism has had some nasty side effects though. For some reason where the bikes used to be the most enjoyable method of transport, hopping on the back of them here has me chewing on the analogue sticks in a matter of seconds. These two wheeled hogs will now only go round corners if you’re doing 5mph, any faster and you’ll have a turning circle like Jupiter. Travelling in a straight line was just as painful as I could only accelerate at the speed of a badger with a heavy cold.
Mercifully, the combat suffers from no such downsides due to these new levels of grit and realism. A lot has been changed from the previous system and if we are all honest, it kind of had too. Now pressing L2 locks you onto the nearest victim, allowing you to aim around their body and choose the most effective method of execution. As a result, they do react to wherever they have been shot, limping or vocalising their pain from a particular body part. Aiming far enough to the edges of your foe then flips to the next in that direction, while releasing some pressure on L2 gives you complete free aim. You’re now also now able to take cover, allowing you to blind fire with inhuman accuracy. However, running or rolling to immediately sticking to cover feels very natural and seamless. My personal favourite combat moments were skidding the car to a halt side on to some bad dudes, then jumping out and using the car as cover whilst pretending to be Jean Reno in Ronin, magnifique! All in all the combat is fairly unique and perfectly realised, initially taking a while to master and in time turning you into a lethal weapon.
Now I realise I’ve come upon a dilemma that perfectly illustrates my next point. The problem being I’ve only talked about the driving, dating and homicides and I’m pretty close to 1000 words in, whereas I usually try and stick to just below that. The reason for this is that GTA4 has SO much content and SO much detail that I may as well fling the word limit out the window closely followed by any kind of concise writing. And so some of the best examples of this kind of detail are the drunken walking, the six axis bowling, the arcade machines, the internet cafes, the fantastically disturbing profiles of people on the dating site, your mobile, multiplayer invites, Niko’s CV, the stunning scenery, the weather effects, the massive sound track, Laslow, Russian radio, Ricky Gervais, character animations, lip syncing, the fact I’ve been playing for 25hours and only completed 35% of the game, passed 54 missions, died 28 times, killed 549 people, stolen 145 cars (only 1 bike), run over 158 people, driven 362 miles, spend $4700 on clothes, $740 on dates, eaten 4 hotdogs, picked my nose 35 times and worn the same underwear for 3 days.
Even with all this, I think the point when I realised that this game had something a bit special about it was after I’d just been playing for 8 solid straight hours and felt I could have done with another 30 minutes. At no point was I bored or too annoyed with the game: if I failed a mission a few times, I did some dating; when I got bored of that I explored the city listening to the radio; when I had to eat I watched the TV in Niko’s flat… And every one of those activities and many more were just as enjoyable and addictive as the last.
This time around you play as Niko, an eastern European with a somewhat troubled and shady history. He comes to the land of the free and the home of the hotdog to find a new life with a little revenge on the side. Soon enough, however, Niko is up to his old tricks. Following the Toni Montana path to the American dream, you’ll be running drugs, enforcing protection rackets and running down gangsters. The main driving force behind Niko is not as sinister as you might expect though, most of these activities are to help his cousin out of some massive gambling debts whilst also tracking down some people from the old country that sold out his army unit. Much like the game as a whole, Niko’s story and personality are still unmistakably GTA, just with a little grit kicked around here and there for good measure.
With Niko being a much more well rounded character he can enjoy many other activities aside from maiming his fellow man. For instance, the dating is back with a vengeance. While still not being necessary (so far) for your progress through the game, it will make it a lot smoother and certainly more interesting in the long run. You can now take your mates and mistresses out for various fun and frolics including bowling, dinner, drinking, darts, cheap shows, comedy clubs and strip bars. The latter being the most widely appreciated by your male friends. You’re chums consist exclusively of those you have previous been working for, except now they think your cool enough to hang out with. Girlfriends this time are picked up from an internet dating site - where else. You can browse though the descriptions, much like Tesco online, and choose your beloved(s). All you have to do then is wait for the email back, reply, pick them up at the right time (your mobile’s calendar keeps track of this for you) and show them a good time. The girls and boys of GTA will have particular tastes when it comes to their social activities and it’s up to you too discover them. If successful you’ll be able to call them up for special favours, one of which is the ability to purchase discount firearms from your pals personal store/car boot. Keeping favour with them can become tricky if you get too popular but if you are prepared to put the time in, and you like driving A LOT, then the rewards are there to be had.
It’s pretty lucky then that I enjoy the driving in GTA even more than the cold blooded murder, especially as it’s been massively improved here from the old version. The physics have had the most notable upgrade now giving you a much firmer connection to the road surface. This in turn sparked my Gran Turismo brain cells into life and now I can’t stop driving using the “on the bonnet camera”. This is kind of a shame in some ways as I’m sure I’m missing out on a lot of humour and detail going on around me - not to mention some excellent car damage. But then it does let me weave through traffic more effectively at 90mph. This boost of realism has had some nasty side effects though. For some reason where the bikes used to be the most enjoyable method of transport, hopping on the back of them here has me chewing on the analogue sticks in a matter of seconds. These two wheeled hogs will now only go round corners if you’re doing 5mph, any faster and you’ll have a turning circle like Jupiter. Travelling in a straight line was just as painful as I could only accelerate at the speed of a badger with a heavy cold.
Mercifully, the combat suffers from no such downsides due to these new levels of grit and realism. A lot has been changed from the previous system and if we are all honest, it kind of had too. Now pressing L2 locks you onto the nearest victim, allowing you to aim around their body and choose the most effective method of execution. As a result, they do react to wherever they have been shot, limping or vocalising their pain from a particular body part. Aiming far enough to the edges of your foe then flips to the next in that direction, while releasing some pressure on L2 gives you complete free aim. You’re now also now able to take cover, allowing you to blind fire with inhuman accuracy. However, running or rolling to immediately sticking to cover feels very natural and seamless. My personal favourite combat moments were skidding the car to a halt side on to some bad dudes, then jumping out and using the car as cover whilst pretending to be Jean Reno in Ronin, magnifique! All in all the combat is fairly unique and perfectly realised, initially taking a while to master and in time turning you into a lethal weapon.
Now I realise I’ve come upon a dilemma that perfectly illustrates my next point. The problem being I’ve only talked about the driving, dating and homicides and I’m pretty close to 1000 words in, whereas I usually try and stick to just below that. The reason for this is that GTA4 has SO much content and SO much detail that I may as well fling the word limit out the window closely followed by any kind of concise writing. And so some of the best examples of this kind of detail are the drunken walking, the six axis bowling, the arcade machines, the internet cafes, the fantastically disturbing profiles of people on the dating site, your mobile, multiplayer invites, Niko’s CV, the stunning scenery, the weather effects, the massive sound track, Laslow, Russian radio, Ricky Gervais, character animations, lip syncing, the fact I’ve been playing for 25hours and only completed 35% of the game, passed 54 missions, died 28 times, killed 549 people, stolen 145 cars (only 1 bike), run over 158 people, driven 362 miles, spend $4700 on clothes, $740 on dates, eaten 4 hotdogs, picked my nose 35 times and worn the same underwear for 3 days.
Even with all this, I think the point when I realised that this game had something a bit special about it was after I’d just been playing for 8 solid straight hours and felt I could have done with another 30 minutes. At no point was I bored or too annoyed with the game: if I failed a mission a few times, I did some dating; when I got bored of that I explored the city listening to the radio; when I had to eat I watched the TV in Niko’s flat… And every one of those activities and many more were just as enjoyable and addictive as the last.
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