Pros: Incredible graphics with hyper real world and physics
Cons: Cops are color blind to traffic lights
The bottom line: Great Game. Worth A Buy if your a GTA Fan
GTA IV Being the first game on the next gen console everyone expected amazing gameplay and graphics.
Well folks with about 5 hours of gameplay I can tell you that the graphics are way better than previous games. This is mostly seen in explosion effects/fire and water which both looking very very realistic. Think COD4 Smoke fire effects and you will get the idea. As far as the vehicles go,the graphics are not that caliber but much better than before.
The Gameplay itself is pretty much a story about nicolas just getting off the boat to america to be greeted by his cousin Roman. Things are are as Roman has written him as his "Mansion" is nothing more than a rat hole of an apartment. You then end up helping Roman bringing you into more trouble than you had planned for.
Gameplay is pretty much the same as you must do missions to progress the storyline and meet new people, and obtain weapons and money.
This Time Rockstar added a cellphone that you must use for every contact and mission info. You can call anyone you get to be friends with or get calls from anyone.
its also your doorway into multiplayer thats works seamlessly.
Side missions cannot be done like in previous games by just driving a cab and pressing a button. Cab missions are within the story as you progress. there are no firetruck/ambulance missions but you can get a police car and use the police computer to do side missions later on. One of the areas that was done very well was the small details such as shooting out tires, realistic physics of cars and people that go crashing through windshields at certain times if you crash hard enough. The world is much more alive with better reactions from people, POINT A GUN at someone and they will get out of the car and run, its your choice to shoot them or not. Also jacking parked cars has a cool animation of breaking windows, then you must press button to hotwire car. Better cars even have Voice GPS. Yes a small detail making it even more realistic.
You can swim, Climb and now have a cover system similar to Gears of war. Lots of objects have real world physics but impossible to ist them all . shoot a garbage can and it dents and falls over realistically.
Rockstar also incoporated mini games such as pool, darts, bowling , the internet cafe and tv in your house if you wish to relax. Go out partying and decide to drive and you will be greeted with vision and a car that behaves as if you were drunk.
The Real fun though is online mode, Think open world with entire city areas unlocked, with boats, weapons, vehicles, helicopters all available.then drop in 16 players for a Death match. There are a few other modes of play such as cops and robbers and races too.
My only gripe I seem to have in this ultra realistic world is the traffic lights. It should have included that if a cop car is around and you run a red that would start a wanted level but this is not the case.
With all the added realism one would expect frame rate hiccups and although there are some on the 360 its not game ruining experience. An overall great game only to get even better with updates I am sure.