Grand Theft Auto has been a favorite series of mine since GTA III. The idea of free roaming caused many games to go back to the drawing board and a bunch of mediocre clones to follow in its greatness.
Grand Theft Auto IV is set in Liberty City (Based on New York City) in 2008 and the first thing you should notice about this city it is incredible resemblance to the real New York City. Most of the famous buildings and landmarks such as the Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty and Chrysler Building have been recreated to a very high detail and give a good reason to explore the city. It falls short of San Andreas in size (It's about 75% the size of San Andreas) but the city is much more dense and full of detail. You will notice this detail just by walking around. People are smarter, cops are more tactical, weather effects are amazing, and lighting has gotten an overhaul. If you take the time to slowly explore the city instead of speeding through it in a sports car then you can appreciate the detail that Rockstar has put into it.
The main character this time is Niko Bellic. An eastern European immigrant who has arrived in Liberty City to pursue the American Dream and hunt down a certain someone. Niko is a much deeper character then other characters in past GTA games and it makes for an interesting story as he interacts with other characters and tries to make it out of poverty and a life of crime.
Game play wise most of the annoyances of past GTA games have been fixed. Targeting enemies is much easier and they have included a free aiming system for shooting at people in cars of whatever you want to shoot at. The cover system means that you wont be constantly getting shot. However with improvements there have been stuff that has been taken away. Many cheats from past GTA games are gone as well as lack of air and boat selection. So many missing features means that this game may seem inferior to San Andreas in some ways but the new stuff makes GTA IV miles ahead of any past GTA game.
Visually GTA is pushing its limits. For such a big city to run with no load times at such high detail is a technical feat and the framerate stays stable.
Multiplayer is an ok experience. The only time I really have fun playing it is if my friends are around. Free roaming is a fun online mode to play or you can play a death match, racing, or any of the other 15+ modes. Ranking up gets you new cloches to customize your online character but over time it gets too time consuming to rank up another level and online gets old soon after that.
Overall GTA is a very high quality game even if it is missing some stuff from past GTA games. If you finish the story mode and your not very sandbox happy then you may stop playing it gut the 50+ hours of story mode and even more time to 100% the game ensures you won't be putting down GTA IV for a while.
GTA IV turned GTA into a more grounded franchise where storytelling and immersion became just as engrossing as wrecking up open-world sandboxes.
Huzaifa from eXputer: "2008 was home to the likes of Call of Duty: World at War, Dead Space, GTA 4, Far Cry 2, Left 4 Dead, and many other hits, which is outright remarkable."
Here here
Those that were around before 2000's i am sure are like me that think we entered a world of non readers or those that follow without question.
I can not wait to see fallout 3 a goty game even though it was about water with non content until you add the dlc/updates then you got the performance/crashing
1998 - the best year in gaming! Metal gear solid, crash bandicoot 3, medievil, half life, ocarina of time, thief, tenchu, resident evil 2, Spyro, tomb raider 3, oddworld abes exodus, banjo kazooie.
It was a different breed of a gaming era. You’ll never understand what it was like back then. The aura of gaming, it was different!
I second this. Gaming was a lot more varied and fun than it is today. I'm 35 so getting on compared to some here but I got to see all the changes from NES up to now but I've never felt so disappointed in any generation than I have this current gen. I was expecting more from this generation rather than prettier versions of games that came before it. Game mechanics have become so refined that alot of games feel the same and has done for a while now.
Maybe it's time to have a break for a while. I love gaming but I don't feel I get much fun in the traditional sense out of it anymore.
Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil 2, Abe’s Exodus, and Ocarina of Time are the only things from that list that I liked.
Here’s the 2023 game releases that I personally liked… and big releases that I didn’t care for:
- Dead Space Remake
- Wo Long Dynatsy
- Resident Evil 4 Remake
- Diablo 4
- Fire Emblem Engage
- Hogwarts Legcay
- Street Fighter 6
- Hi-Fi Rush
- Like a Dragon: Ishin
- Octopath Traveler 2
- Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters
- Final Fanatsy XVI (actually ended up not liking this, but it was still a big deal release)
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
- Lies of P
- Mortal Kombat 1
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
- Starfield (Ended up hating this one, but big release)
- Super Mario Bros. Wonder
- Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (I’m an old-school Zelda fan, but didn’t really enjoy this game)
- Alan Wake 2
I mean, honestly I’ve never seen a year of major IP releases like that, ever.
Isn't it just a generational thing realistically.
I've been gaming since way back and I some of my favourite games go as far back as the late 80s for me each generation has a year or two of game changing releases one after another before an inevitable dry spell.
I kind of agree gaming had a different feel games hit different because we didn't have the internet nothing got spoiled and you really had to put in the effort to beat a puzzle which could set entire groups of people looking for a solution. But most importantly games were experimental and not as cookie cutter as today even basics like controls were not universal today r2 is shoot l2 is ads garunteed you can't deviate from that in a shooter back then it could of been square, R1 or R1 and circle nothing was standard.
But as time moves on a new generation picks up their controller they are going to be interested in different things that PS1 demo disc with the t Rex blew our primitive 16 bit brains back on launch but to kids today it's laughable.
The new gen of kids coming into to hobby seem to value different things to us there seems to be a huge focus on online play, streamers, gaming personalities, and social experiences, convience of digital downloads. To me I value none of that but that's ok like my parents not liking the band's I would listen to its just the natural cycle.
Just about every year in the 7th generation was great and something we most likely won't experience again.
2009 for example had Assassin's Creed 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Dragon Age: Origins, Uncharted 2, Halo 3: ODST, Killzone 2, Borderlands, Bayonetta, and Demon's Souls to name a few.
It still amazes me we got over 7 rockstar games ps2/ps3 but 3 for the ps3/ps4/ps5
Dragon age 1-3 and mass effect 1-3 in 7ish years what a generation.
Grand Theft Auto 4 is an important game for Rockstar, not least because it was the first title in the franchise to use the newly created RAGE engine.
