Grand Theft Auto IV (Sony Playstation 3, 2008)

Niko Bellic is the player-controlled protagonist this time, and he is one of the most fully realized characters video games have yet produced. A veteran of the Balkan wars and a former human trafficker in the Adriatic, he arrives in Liberty City’s rendition of Brighton Beach at the start of the game to move in with his affable if naïve cousin Roman. Niko expects to find fortune and, just maybe, track down someone who betrayed him long ago. Over the course of the story line he discovers that revenge is not always what one expects.

Besides the nuanced Niko the game is populated by a winsome procession of grifters, hustlers, drug peddlers and other gloriously unrepentant lowlifes, each a caricature less politically correct than the last.

Hardly a demographic escapes skewering. In addition to various Italian and Irish crime families, there are venal Russian gangsters, black crack slingers, argyle-sporting Jamaican potheads, Puerto Rican hoodlums, a corrupt police commissioner, a steroid-addled Brooklyn knucklehead named Brucie Kibbutz and a former Eastern European soldier who has become a twee Upper West Side metrosexual.

Breathing life into Niko and the other characters is a pungent script by Dan Houser and Rupert Humphries that reveals a mastery of street patois to rival Elmore Leonard’s. The point of the main plot is to guide Niko through the city’s criminal underworld. Gang leaders and thugs set missions for him to complete, and his success moves the story along toward a conclusion that seems as dark as its beginning. But the real star of the game is the city itself. It looks like New York. It sounds like New York. It feels like New York. Liberty City has been so meticulously created it almost even smells like New York. From Brooklyn (called Broker), through Queens (Dukes), the Bronx (Bohan), Manhattan (Algonquin) and an urban slice of New Jersey (Alderney), the game’s streets and alleys ooze a stylized yet unmistakable authenticity. (Staten Island is left out however.)

The game does not try to represent anything close to every street in the city, but the overall proportions, textures, geography, sights and sounds are spot-on. The major landmarks are present, often rendered in surprising detail, from the Cyclone at Coney Island to the Domino Sugar factory and Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn and on up through the detritus of the 1964-65 World’s Fair in Queens. Central Park, the Empire State Building, various museums, the Statue of Liberty and Times Square are all present and accounted for. There is no Yankee Stadium, but there is a professional baseball team known, with the deliciousness typical of the game’s winks and nods, as the Swingers.

This one is surely not for the kids, but nobody listens to that anyway, so have fun! This is a good one.

Cheat: Spawn Cars

Any time you're outside, break out your cell phone and insert the following phone numbers to unlock the vehicles listed.

* Annihilator (Helicopter) - (359)-555-0100
* Cognoscenti (Car) - (227)-555-0142
* Comet (Car) - (227)-555-0175
* FIB Buffalo (Car) - (227)-555-0100
* Jetmax (Boat) - (938)-555-0100
* NRG-900 (Motorcycle) - (625)-555-0100
* Sanchez (Car) - (625)-555-0150
* Super GT (Car) - (227)-555-0168
* Turismo (Car) - (227)-555-0147


James Gutierrez
Cheat: All Secret Locations

Head to the internet café (or wherever you can access the internet) and insert the URL www.whattheydonotwantyoutoknow​.com. If inserted properly, you'll be brought to an in-game message board containing maps of secret locations in the game. Check it out!
James Gutierrez
Cheat: Change Weather & Time of Day

To randomly change the weather and time of day, break out your cell phone and insert the following number: (468)-555-0100.
James Gutierrez
Cheat: Weapon Batch 1

To unlock a baseball bat, grenades, M4, MP5, pistol, RPG and sniper rifle, insert the following number into your cell phone: (486)-555-0100. Keep in mind that this will disable your ability to acquire some achievements.
James Gutierrez
Cheat: Weapon Batch 2

To unlock an AK-47, knife, Molotov Cocktails, pistol, RPG, sniper rifle and Uzi, insert the following number into your cell phone: (486)-555-0150. Keep in mind that this will disable your ability to acquire some achievements.
James Gutierrez
Cheat: Adjust Your Wanted Level

To get rid of Niko's wanted level, insert the following number into your cell phone: (267)-555-0100. To add stars to Niko's wanted level, insert this number instead: (267)-555-0150. Keep in mind that this will disable your ability to acquire some achievements.
James Gutierrez
Cheat: Refill Health, Armor & Ammo

To refill Niko's health and to give him some fresh armor, insert the following number into your cell phone: (362)-555-0100. If you want to give him health, fresh armor and refill all ammunition, insert this number instead: (482)-555-0100. Keep in mind that this will disable your ability to acquire some achievements.
DownOnWax
Unlockable: Statue of Happiness Shirt

Head over to the Statue of Happiness and climb up as far as you can go. Head around the left side of the statue from where you entered. When you do this, the game will pause briefly and load a new shirt that your character will be wearing, a nice souvenir for visiting the statue!
Andrew Skornia
Unlockable: GTA3 Outfit

At one point in the game, you're given an option to kill Dwayne or Playboy X, and you must choose one or the other. If you kill Playboy X, you can use his loft and change clothes there. Amongst your change of clothes will be the outfit from GTA3 -- a tight black jacket and green cargo pants.

Hint: Identify Unknown Songs

If a song is playing on your radio and you want to identify the artist and song title, insert (948)-555-0100 in your phone. You'll receive a text message with the information you seek.
Anarchymatt623
Hint: Losing the Cops

No matter the extent of your wanted level, if you can make it back to one of your safe houses and go to your bed to save, the cops will be automatically called off. You don’t even have to actually save – you can just access the save menu and then cancel out. As long as you reach this menu, then you won’t have to worry about the cops chasing you once you go back outside.

It's not very often that a game comes along that turned out to be pretty much exactly what I expected, and yet also managed to wow me practically every second. Grand Theft Auto IV is a GTA game through and through, but its execution is so epic and fantastic that you can't help but be in awe at the fact that it has come together as well as it has. Rockstar North has really outdone itself and has issued proof that it is not only the founding father of open world games, but also the undisputed king of the genre.

GTA IV manages to break every negative stigma from past games in the franchise while keeping the series' core gameplay intact, albeit much more in-depth than ever before. The new aiming and cover mechanics, while not perfect, do a fantastic job of completely changing the way combat works while keeping it at least as intense as we'd seen in past titles. Mission progression is paced incredibly well, and side things like managing relationships directly impact your game.

Liberty City is simultaneously the most realistic and immersive location we've seen in a game like this. The amount of detail that you'll find here is astounding, not only visually but with regards to the things pedestrians and whatnot will do. Watching someone yank out a newspaper and hold it over their head while running for cover when it begins to rain is just one example of the personality and small touches of realism that you'll see everywhere.

But while the mechanics, side missions and other core gameplay elements are all fantastic, it's the story and overall presentation that elevates GTA IV to heights very rarely seen in gaming. Rockstar North has once again done an amazing job of walking the fine line between humor and seriousness with characters that you're immediately able to connect to. They're almost all bad people, to be sure, but each of them has character weaknesses and vulnerabilities that make them real. Characters have reasons for doing what they do, and it's apparent that they also have morals and inner demons as well. The cast plays perfectly into a fascinating story that is not only is easily the best of the franchise, but one of the best you'll find in gaming anytime soon.

I could go on and on about why Grand Theft Auto IV is one of the best games we've ever seen and why even folks who are easily offended should play it, but that would be pointless. The only thing you need to know is that you have to play this game. Period.
ever seen and why even folks who are easily offended should play it, but that would be pointless. The only thing you need to know is that you have to play this game. Period.

10 Presentation
The story is Oscar quality. The use of the phone as a gaming portal is genius. There's really nothing more that could be asked for from GTA IV.
10 Graphics
The level of detail is astounding. Liberty City feels alive and lived in. While there are some technical issues, the artistic merits push the score to the max. A true marvel.
10 Sound
The dialogue makes the story. Without the excellent writing and the stellar voice acting, the story would fail. And the soundtrack kills -- more than 200 songs and almost all are great choices.
10 Gameplay
The cover and targeting system work great. Blind firing with an RPG is a thing of beauty. Everything works in harmony and not a single one of the missions is bad. The most fun I've had in years.

Available in my eBay Store at a reasonable price:
http://stores.shop.ebay.c​om/Mariio128-Gamemate

This game could have been better, way better, then San Andreas, sadly, due to Microsoft's extreme cheapness (as usual) they only included a DVD ROM drive in their Xbox 360 console, and without a Blu-Ray drive, 360 games are severely crippled. This game is so crippled it's not even funny. They've removed almost everything that made San Andreas great. You want a tank? Nope, no tanks. Wanna fly around? Yea, you can do that, on your choice of two (YES TWO, in the ENTIRE game) helicopters. No planes, no fun items, no properties to purchase, no land to take over, no customization of any sort (tattoos, clothes, hair, etc), no building up stats, no deserts, no jet packs, far far less weapons (I believe there is a total of 12 in THE ENTIRE GAME), less vehicles, less places to go into, less things to do, a very short storyline (I completed it in exactly one week, it took me about 2 years to finish San Andreas), and far more disappointments await you. Pretty much, game developers have two choices when developing for the 360, a good game with bad graphics or a game with good graphics and horrible gameplay, RockStar chose the latter. I am not trying to be a fanboy, I own a PS3 and there are many things I don't like about it (particularly the restrictions on sub accounts) but when it comes to a good high definition game, the PS3 is the only way to go. You cannot put an HD game on a DVD, just like you cant put an HD movie on a DVD, it's time developers stop limiting themselves because of the 360. RockStar screwed up because the PS3 version is just a port of the 360 version. Perhaps next time they'll wise up and develop GTA V exclusively for the PS3, or perhaps Microsoft will wise up and release a freakin' Blu-Ray drive add on and stop pretending Blu-Ray isn't the future.

I give this game 2 stars for the small amount of work RockStar put into it, the graphics are great and the few vehicles in the game are very fun and have awesome crash effects. The multiplayer (especially on PS3, where it's free) is absolutely wonderful as well.

This game harnesses the driveability of your vehicles from Gran Turismo and brings the essence of the Grand Theft Auto series together for a perfect game. Immersed in the Eastern European mafia, Nico Bellic comes to America for that pursuit of freedom and the American Way.

Anyone that has played the previous 3 PS2 releases knows the basic plot-lines and what you can/can't do on foot, in a vehicle or in the water.

Here's a couple neat things I've noticed compared to previous games.

(1) When driving your vehicle and you crash head-on or stop abruptly by hitting an immovable object, your character will fly out the windshield or side windows and continue moving as they would in real life. This was never present in previous GTA games.

(2) The damage is much more realistic. You can physically see the amount of damage, and that corresponds with the driveability of the machine.

(3) Instead of the previous smashing sounds you'd hear running people over, now people react humanlike when hit, rolling up the hood onto the windshield, falling over, or hopping on one leg. It's really neat.

(4) Vehicles now have operable headlights, which are needed when driving at night. It adds a degree of difficulty if you have a severely damaged car and attempt to drive w/o lights.

(5) Stealing cars has now become more of a challenge. Nico will have to bust in windows to pry open the door to get in. Once inside, you have to take a few seconds while he hot wires the car. This slight pause proves to make things difficult when in the heat of a police pursuit and in need of a car. Better hope it's unlocked!

(6) Your cousin Roman allows you to use his car service to pick you up when on a date or out with friends. This is useful when you can't find a cab. (Which you can also hail a cab in this game)

(7) You are now able to go out and participate in recreational activities such as bowling, darts, pool, etc. with friends and girlfriends. It builds on the ideas presented in GTA San Andreas.

(8) I've estimated that the map area is 175% larger than the last game (GTA:SA), and free-roaming around the cities could take months to know where everything is located.

All-in-all, I can't see any future PS3 or other next-gen console ever producing a game as great as this one, that is, unless GTA comes out with another addition in the future. This isn't the best game to give your little kid, but any teenager or adult would love this game. Simply stunning.