I'm posting it here, too, to show you all how I envisioned it as a normal review.

Grand Theft Auto IV is bigger, and more bad than the rest.


The months and years of waiting for Grant Theft Auto IV have paid off for gamers around the world. GTA fans alike were cringing in their seats as they waited for an affirmative release date for the latest game. After GTA IV becoming multiplatform, announcements of it having downloadable content, and it being delayed, Grand Theft Auto IV is here, and it is most certainly bigger, badder, and better than the rest of the GTA games. April 29th, 2008 has come and gone, and GTA IV is here. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to .

You are immediately greeted to a cut scene involving Niko Bellic, who is an Eastern European who fought in the Bosnian War. Niko Bellic is described as one who "sold people, killed people, and smuggled people." Niko Bellic is persuaded by Roman Bellic, his cousin, to come to , for the "American Dream." Niko Bellic is then placed in , modeled after . Niko Bellic finds out immediately after coming to , the "American Dream" Roman Bellic talked about, was all lies. This begins Niko Bellic's adventures in .

From the start of joining , you have access to two cities, Dukes (which is modeled after Queens), and Bohan (which is modeled after the ). You unlock the other two cities, Alderny and Algonquin, later in the game. If you have placed previous Grand Theft Auto games, you will easily recognize the feel and way of Grand Theft Auto IV. You can do missions, you can drive around the city, perform random killings, and, if you are feeling rather "aroused", you can go downtown to pick up a woman, or go to a Strip Club. There are many things you can do in , many of which I have not even mentioned.

Many of the missions in GTA IV pretty much involve around killing someone, picking up someone, or going to point A to Point B. It is this type of mission based game that makes the Grand Theft Auto series known for what it is. After a time, the missions do get repetitive; however, there are certainly a few out of the bunch that are worth noting. For instance, you have the ability to go online (which will be required in a few missions), going online, you can check out numerous in-game websites, check your e-mail (crucial for GTA IV), and even date people. In one mission, you have to create a profile, and date a homosexual. You meet up with him in a restaurant, and unfortunately, you have to kill him. There are some unique missions and GTA IV that will make you want to play until the end of the game. GTA IV can run to around 20 hours to probably 40 hours, if you do decide to take the time and explore .

Another crucial item in Grand Theft Auto IV is your cell phone. You need your cell phone for almost everything. You can call people on it (to arrange dates, to met up with, to grab a drink, play games, race, etc.), you will need it for missions (one where you need to identify someone and take a picture of them), and to start up multiplayer. You can change your cell phone's background (by buying a background from one of the game's websites), and even buy a ringtone. The cell phone is crucial aspect to playing GTA IV, and it will be literally impossible playing the game without it.

Grand Theft Auto IV, to say the least, looks absolutely phenomenal. It looks amazing as a sandbox game, and amazing as a whole. is supposed to be modeled after , and does looks just like it. The buildings, the cars, the people, all look astonishing. The people are animated, reading the newspaper, smoking a cigarette, talking on their cell phone, drinking coffee, you name it. GTA IV looks great at night, but to experience how amazing it truly looks, you need to play it when it is at night. Buildings are lit, the sky is dark, and everything looks absolutely amazing. It is truly amazing to see a world so open, and so big, look so great. The game is powered by Rockstar's RAGE engine, which is also in Rockstar's Table Tennis, and will be in the next Midnight Club game.

Pulling away from the stunning looking game, GTA IV also has a very good combat system. It has been overhauled from the previous games, and features a fleshed out new system. You can punch, kick, block, and do combos, which will force your enemy to the ground, wishing they had not picked a fight with you. Along with this, you have the ability to push people, instead of punch. This could toss them into the cars, into the water, drop whatever they have, or want to pick a bone with you. None the less, the combat system is overhauled, and works great.

Along with this, GTA IV has implemented a cover system. It is similar to what you see in Uncharted for the PS3, or Gears of War for the Xbox 360 or the PC, and it works, for the most part, pretty good. You can hug up against a wall, a car, pretty much anything that is down on the ground. GTA IV sports a new shooting mechanic, where you can lock onto a target, aim where you want, and watch the gun shoot it. Along with this, you have the ability to blind fire, hopefully leaving your enemy dead and you intact with no damage done to yourself.

Speaking of this, you cannot have a Grand Theft Auto game without good weapons. And boy, it has good weapons. Rocket launchers, sub machine guns, pistols, knifes, bats, AK 47, grenades, what you would expect, it is here. The guns sound great, and look great, too. If you shoot an AK-47, it sounds like an AK 47. A pistol, it sounds like a pistol should sound. All of the weapons work well, and are pretty much a necessity to playing GTA IV.

Grand Theft Auto IV also has explosions, and alot of them, for that matter. You can explode cars, helicopters, and they all will catch on fire. When something explodes, it explodes big, and most likely will catch other things, and maybe you, on fire. Along with this, it looks great to see them catch on fire, and you will have blast shooting random things to see them catch on fire, and how they react.

With weapons, there are police. And the police system in GTA IV is all new. Unlike the previous GTA games, when you had a wanted meter, it would stay until you died, or acquired enough icons to get rid of the stars, or be arrested. It is different, now. When you commit a crime, you are in a police radius, that goes blue and red and you must get out of it. The higher your wanted level is, the bigger the radius is. Once you are out, you need to wait a few seconds before you are able to do your bidding. The problem with this is, however, it is quite easy to escape, even at the 4 star wanted level, or higher.

With police, there is theft, and cars. In previous GTA games, all you had to do was enter a car, and you could steal it. In some cases, it was locked, and you could not do anything. This is different now. In GTA IV, Niko can approach a car in several different ways, and he will break into the car by smashing the glass, open the door, and hot wire it. You can manually make it go faster or just watch him do it. Some cases, it the door may be open, in others, an alarm will go off. It is a fresh new change to what we originally were doing before. Pedestrians now have the ability to report this, and other crimes to police.

The driving mechanics are all new in GTA IV. What you drive in real life, is what you drive in here. It takes awhile to get used to, but it is alot more fun to drive in GTA IV. You will have to break when you turn, as you cannot simply turn with the same speed you have. You will have to slow down. If you hit a turn to quickly, you could burn out, with the possibility of popping the wheel, making it even harder to drive. The fresh new ability is a warm welcome to Grand Theft Auto IV.

With the mention of driving, the physics in GTA IV are all new. If you drive into a car fast enough, or if you hit a wall, you will be pushed out. There is no way around it. You will go through the window, and crash your head into whatever it meets. When you climb stairs, you hit ever single stair. When you get hit by a car, you react realistically. You can solely play this game to just see how the physics work, and it is amazing to see how they run. It is always fun to see people get run over online, or offline. Being flung from your car has never been fun. When driving on a motorcycle, you better hope you don't crash, or your head will hit the pavement. You now have the option to wear a helmet, and your crash will be cushioned, a bit.

I talked about it a little before, but the sound in GTA IV is phenomenal. The city, the people, the guns, all sound the way they should. The soundtrack in GTA IV is top notch, and you have a little of everything. You can turn on the radio, and if you like what you hear, you can call a number to find out the information on the song. If you have a Xbox 360, you can listen to your own songs, if you find nothing that you like in the game. The voice acting in GTA IV is superb, is it is always in every Grand Theft Auto game. You want to feel emphasis for the people in the game, as they go through the adventures with Niko Bellic. You want to be there.

One of the biggest and newest features is the addition of online play. It can be accessed via your phone, and you have several options. You can go to party mode, free roaming without the cops. You have different character, which is not similar to Niko Bellic. He can be customizable, being able to change his clothes, and the way he looks, to an extent. The same goes with Niko in the single player, you can change his clothes. In Party Mode, you can invite friends, and can do anything you want in . You can then join several modes (Team Deathmatch, , and many others). There are several different game modes in GTA IV, and all of them are unique in their own ways. You can create your own match, and have the ability to choose where you want to play, the time of the day, and certain types of cars if you are racing, turning auto aim on or off, and many other things. You also have a ranking system, 0-10, and you progress by winning matches, races, and killing people. You collect money, and you will rank up once you get a certain amount of money. You also have the ability, at certain ranks, to unlock even more clothing to customize your person. After you are finished with the single player, you will have even more time to play with multiplayer, being able to play with your friends or random strangers online.

There are many other side features in the single player mode. You can play bowling, race, play pool, go out to drink (and subsequently get drunk), and many other things. In past GTA games, if you get into an Ambulance, taxi, or police car, you would trigger certain missions. Now, you can only do this with a police car. You can trigger a police computer, where you can go to random crime scenes to take out people, or take out the Top 30 Most Wanted People in ; they are a few things to look away from the usual in .

With all this in mind, GTA IV, for the most part, runs great. The frame rate never really tends to dip down at all, and even when many explosions come into play, still runs great, without any hitches or hiccups. It is really amazing to see all of it come to together, and even have all of it run at a fantastic pace. There are almost no loading times in GTA IV, expect for a cut scene ends, entering/exiting multiplayer mode, or skipping a taxi ride. Speaking of which, if you get bored of driving, you can call a taxi, and have a taxi drive you to your destination. You can watch the taxi drive you, or skip it, costing you some extra money. If you ever get the chance, drive from one part of the map to the other part, and to just watch all of along the way is simply amazing. It cannot be said enough how amazing is, and the way everything flows.

With all of this being said, it is still hard to fully describe to you what Grand Theft Auto IV is all about, without you playing. Niko Bellic is easily one of the most life like and robust characters you will ever play as, and you will want to stay around until the very interesting ending. The phenomenal single player and great multiplayer will make sure GTA IV stays in your video game console for a long time. is right in front of you, but the question is, how will you play it?