GTA4 obligatory review

Soooo GTA4 then?

Might as well get this review out of the way before it “officially” comes out on Tuesday.

So for today’s review we are going to set it out in a classic divvied up review with each section out of ten.


Section 1. Gameplay.

Well this one is quite easy, have you played GTA3, VC, SA? It’s pretty much the same: run, shoot, drive. Except this time they have added some spanky tweaks, including GPS system, a better aiming system, and being able to hide behind cover. There isn’t much wrong with the GTA formulae, it’s non-stop fun and they have not strayed away from this standard.

Score: 9/10. Good to see GTA back again, with so many sandbox rip-offs its good to go back to the roots, new and improved roots at that.


Section 2. Graphics.

Graphics eh? I honestly don’t know how to approach this one… I have always had gripes with GTA’s (rockstar’s?) graphics. I remember when San Andreas was out on the PS2 and everyone was banging on about how great it looked, but I couldn’t see it. Whenever I looked at San Andreas I saw Lego-esque character models and painfully evident draw distance, a far cry from the graphics of the then current PS2 graphics. And as much as I have tried not to pay attention to this in GTA4, I am still painfully aware of the flaws. Firstly the characters models are not fantastic, the clothes on the models are quite blatantly skins on the characters, clothes don’t look like clothes, they have come on quite a bit from GTA:SA the models are not polygon-y they are well rounded, but surrounding the characters there seems to be garbled pixels, flecks of white highlight the joins between torso’s and legs. However!!! despite these little niggles the cars are amazing, the city is so detailed, and the draw distance flawless (no more Skyscrapers appearing on the horizon).

Score: 8/10. Some of the graphics bother me. Not quite up to current 360 potential, but still very good.


Section 3. Sound.

Hunners of Radio stations, loads of dialogue, realistic 5.1. Seriously there are so many nice little additions like still being able to hear the radio playing after getting out the car, or thunder rolling after you see the lightning. My only gripe was that some of the dialogue at the start was incomprehensible, as it turns out they characters were speaking a different language, but slinging on the subtitles sorted that out.

Score 9.5/10. It doesn’t get much better than this.


Section 4. Multiplayer.

Umm, well I haven’t really tried this cuz, well… I had it early…

Score 9/10. It has multiplayer… nuff said.


Section 5. Conclusion.

It’s GTA 4, it’s a worthy addition to the GTA series. The hard fact is that it is good, if you liked the previous GTA games then you are gonna like this one, end of. Couple that with improved everything cuz it’s “next gen”.

If you own any of the systems that can play this… Buy it.

Score 9/10

Oh yeah and a little side note to IGN, 10/10? Really? What happens when they bring out GTA 4: Vice City? And improve on all those things that have bothered you from this version… Get a grip, it’s a good game but it aint “perfect”. Losers.

Luv n hugs,

Richie.