GTA IV - What Happened?
By Mistyshadow 4 Comments
So it's almost been 3 months since GTA IV was released with much fanfare from the gaming community. Critics were quoted as saying that it was the best game in over a decade, even eclipsing the highly revered Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. High praise indeed.
So there I was on release date, I had stayed up half the night watching Gamespot's marathon video coverage of the game, and I was determined to get my hand's on a copy at any cost. Although I was essentially broke, I decided to completely max out my credit card. This was the event of a lifetime, how could I not? The first Futureshop I visited, they were soldout. So I hopped on a bus and headed for another, thinking that I was never going to give up until I had a copy in my hands. The Gods must have smiled down on that day because I found a copy at the other store and waited in the long line with my fellow gamers. I hurried home, and hastily turned on my Xbox and entered the disc. At first I was completely blown away. The sheer size of the city and wide assortment of places and things to visit and interact with truly seemed like a next generation game. It took me 40 hours to complete the game (which I admit was enjoyable) and in that time I must have killed 500 people while playing all the mini-games, going to all the shows, getting a lap dance from multiple strippers, and having sex with Michelle, who was the very definition of easy. But in the end I had $500k and nothing to buy except for weapons or clothes. The missions were all done, and I asked myself what the single player game had left to offer? I could go on more car races, but in all honestly the driving dynamics of the game are a bit wonky. Or I could kill 200 pigeons, but I really fail to see the fun in that. Besides, what's so wrong about pigeons that I need to wantonly kill them. To me, the game itself lacked the underlying humour of previous GTA games. It was if Rockstar had set out to make a realistic GTA and at the same time take away all the fun aspects of previous games.
But not all was lost I thought to myself, there was the online game, which for some reason lacked a dashboard of any kind. Which too me it seemed that Rockstar had implemented online play as an afterthought. Sure some of the game modes were fun, but they eventually got rather boring. One can only take so many 12 years old swearing and making racist comments on Xbox Live to move on quickly.
So as of today, my copy of GTA IV is collecting dust on my desk. Soon, I'll probably be selling it on Ebay so that I can buy another game. For me, this game has given me gamers remorse, that maybe I shouldn't bought into the hype. A good lesson to learn I guess.