Grand Theft Auto IV

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Product Description

What does the American Dream mean today?

For Niko Bellic, fresh off the boat from Europe, it is the hope he can escape his past. For his cousin, Roman, it is the vision that together they can find fortune in Liberty City, gateway to the land of opportunity. As they slip into debt and are dragged into a criminal underworld by a series of shysters, thieves and sociopaths, they discover that the reality is very different from the dream in a city that worships money and status, and is heaven for those who have them and a living nightmare for those who don't.

Beginning with the 1997 release of the original Grand Theft Auto, the GTA series has been one of the most prolific, controversial and down right entertaining franchises in video games history. This pedigree of success guarantees that the highly anticipated eleventh game in the series, Grand Theft Auto IV, will garner at least as much attention if not more.

Return to Liberty City.

The dream as Niko expected it. View larger.

There's always a catch. View larger.

But some skills are international. View larger.

The Plot
Grand Theft Auto IV is a brand new adventure in the GTA universe following the experiences of Nikolai "Niko" Bellic, a new immigrant from an undisclosed eastern European country whose troubled past and the persuasion of his cousin Roman have brought him to the fictional Liberty City. Unfortunately, Niko's search for the American Dream and a much needed fresh start, hits an immediate snag when the rags to riches story Roman spun to pique Niko's interest is exposed as not only a complete fabrication, but a ploy to enlist Niko's well-known skills as a tough guy against the ample list of enemies clamoring for Roman's debt-ridden blood.

Because Roman is the only person Niko knows in Liberty City he begrudgingly accepts his role as Roman's protector despite the deception. But as time goes on Niko comes into his own, and his experience on the wrong side of the tracks proves more valuable than he could have ever imagined as he fights for survival and later supremacy on the crime ridden streets of Liberty City.

Game Environments
Based on several of the boroughs of New York City and parts of New Jersey, Liberty City, familiar to players of previous games in the series, has been entirely redesigned for GTA IV. Players can expect visible detail down to the weeds growing in the cracks in the sidewalk, cars and buildings of visibly different ages and a much greater level if verticality in the buildings and bridges that they are able to explore as Niko moves through the city streets. In addition, pedestrians in GTA IV are much more realistic. No longer simply moving cardboard cutouts, these NPCs are intelligent, modern, human representations that laugh, cry, eat, drink, use cell phones and ATMs, and talking amongst themselves regardless of Niko's interaction with them.

Gameplay
Historically GTA games have focused heavily on mission-based play, requiring successful completion of fixed tasks in order for players to progress through the game, but this has changed to a great extent in GTA IV. Players will experience an entirely new and exciting emphasis centered on the blending of on-mission and off-mission play, resulting not only in an increased sense of realism, but more interesting and unrestricted gameplay.

Features
Official features for GTA IV have yet to be released. Stay tuned for more information as the game's release in early '08 draws nearer.

• Carry on the Grand Theft Auto tradition playing through the single player campaign as Niko Bellic
• Get cars and other modes of transportation anyway you can
• Interact with various colorful characters who give you various missions to engage in
• Engage in multiplayer challenges ranging from cover matches to shoot-outs
• Game Rated 'M' due to Intense Violence, Blood, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Partial Nudity, Use of Drugs and Alcohol
• Format: Playstation

Customer Reviews

Reviewed on 2008-05-15 Great Game, Very Fun Online, Some Missing Elements Grand Theft Auto: IV is a very solid game. The offline story mode is fun, but tends to get very repetitive at times. There is too much, "Go here, kill them, escape without dieing" style missions. As well, there are a lot of things that fans of past GTA games will find disappointing about this game. Some of them are: - No firefighter, police, taxi, or ambulance side-missions - Not a very big emphasis on property ownership - No swimming underwater - No controllable airplanes or jets (only helicopters) - Not a great selection of vehicles; you'll see the same 20-25 or so basic cars for the entire game - Difficult aiming system - No "L2" or "R2" side views while driving cars; must use the right analog stick to look around - Vehicles are difficult to steer from the start; no "driving skill" as seen in GTA: San Andreas; must make use of the R1 handle brake to make sharp turns at higher speeds - Not many interior locations. Those you can go into are either small or virtually pointless - No robbing pedestrians or shop owners at gunpoint (i.e. they do not drop money when held up) - Cops are too powerful. They will blast you with a shotgun if you have even one wanted star. However, once you get moving and elude them the cop chases are great Some of the better things about this game that I've noticed are: - MUCH smarter traffic system; cars will attempt to steer out of the way if you are coming at them head-on or fast from behind; traffic cars use blinkers; cops are very smart and will use PIT (fishtail) maneuvers and spike strips (very detailed) to stop you - Car accidents are simply incredible. They are detailed with an unbelievable amount of 'realisticness'. If you roll your car the body of your car will be damaged uniquely in the locations that got hit; If you hit a pole your hood will wrap around it; If you scrape a car the paint from the other car will stain yours, and vice versa; hitting pedestrians will leave a dent/smash mark EXACTLY where the pedestrian made contact with the car, including smash marks on the windshield; cars can be disabled if damaged too much or if the engine receives a heavy direct blow; tires can blow from smashing your car into something heavy/sharp, steering sharply, or gunfire - Explosions look amazing. Fire in this game looks like the real thing, and explosions are the same with insane detail - Police wanted level is VERY realistic. In the past games you would have the same wanted level no matter where you were. Now, there is a flashing range on the map where cops are *looking* for you. If you get out of this range then cops will call off their search after a short while and you'll lose all wanted stars. Of course, more stars means a greater police search range, but it's all good. Changing cars also will deter cops away from you and make it harder for you to be found. - Hijacking a car or stealing a car is now a process. If you steal a parked car Niko (the main character) will smash the window if the car is locked, sit inside, and then proceed to hot wire the engine. When stealing a car that is occupied, the other drivers will often fight back - The water graphics are jaw-dropping. When you fly the helicopter at sunset over Algonquin (Manhattan) you would swear that you were watching TV of an actual helicopter flying over New York. The glistening water looks great. There are a lot more 'good/bad' things about this game, but all of them basically balance each other out. When one thing was taken out of this game it seems like another great thing was put in. The online gameplay is very, very fun. You can play with up to 16 people in a free-roaming city. And yes, the entire city is freely open with all building interiors and traffic/pedestrians while online. There are also a lot of mini games online like Deathmatch, Race, and a few more. Free-roam seems to be the most popular by a longshot, though. In all, this game is awesome. If you liked GTA III, GTA: Vice City, OR GTA: San Andreas you'll LOVE GTA: IV.

Reviewed on 2008-05-15 Disappointing Older versions have much better gameplay. Besides impressive graphics the gameplay is quite frustrating, especially after GTA SA. Wish I had waited for a used copy. And to think the world spent nearly half a billion on this game already. If you want real multiplayer fun, go play Warhawk. Come back to this game when you have nothing better to play.

Reviewed on 2008-05-15 Needs more fluff Ok, I love GTA just as much as the next guy, but seriously! GTA SA had so much more to do. I really miss the car custimization. Even if we could just pick the color car would of been ok with me. But to take out car custimization altogether. That really upset me. The other thing is limiting the amount of ammo you can have at one time. You should be able to load up with as much ammo as you can buy(and this one leaves you with a surplus of money, because there really isn't much to buy in this game). Another thing that upset me is the music choice. They were talking about an award winning soundtrack blah, blah, blah. I turn the music off half the time, because they're are a lot of stations, but really not too many songs(good ones anyway). I would still recommend that you buy this, but maybe wait until the price drops a little. That said, the gameplay is fun and the graphics are pretty good. I was blown away at the beginning but after about 16 hours of gameplay, it has honestly got a bit boring. The other GTA's I was glued to the screen. This one just doesn't seem to have that staying power...sad

Reviewed on 2008-05-15 From great hype to great tripe Well, over two weeks after it came out and it still isn't getting better. My first reaction was disappointment and it has only grown into a hatred of GTA IV. In my opinion the graphics are amazing, which is the only positive thing I have to say about the game. From the beginning it felt like a polished version of GTA III which is a turd by todays standards. From that point of view, Rockstar simply polished a turd with GTA IV. All the variety the series had developed with Vice City and San Andreas was removed in favor of a very straitforward and boring series of missions. It really feels like the same two missions over and over again, bouncing back and forth between incredibly easy and incredibly tedious. The lack of safehouses makes for having to constantly drive great distances. After a few days I just started taking cabs everywhere and skipping the drive. Where is the fun in that? I have to mention the soundtrack as well. I was concerned about it based on the info that was released in the months before the game came out. It turned out to be far worse than I could have imagined. Rockstar's decision to remove the custom soundtrack station was asinine and based on greed. After a week of being incredibly annoyed by it, I turned the music all the way down in the menu. I'll probably give Saint's Row 2 a chance in the fall but I can't see spending my money on a Rockstar game again after this rubbish.

Reviewed on 2008-05-14 not what I expected based on the hype Rockstar eliminated so many elements from previous GTA installments that I feel they took a step backward. -driving is really goofy -side missions like Pizza Boy, Taxi, Ambulance, and Firefighter are gone -there is no bonus for getting all the secret packages -you accumulate a lot of money but there is nothing to spend it on -the vehicle list is significantly smaller -there is no customization whatsoever... you get to pick from about three outfits -no more tricking out your car... honestly, Saint's Row had a better vehicle storage system

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