Grand Theft Auto IV

Still the best game ever created.

By now, people should already be familiar with the GTA franchise, it being one of the most popular games of this generation. If you especially loved Vice City and San Andreas, this one is basically the same, except for a few minor differences:

• The setting is present-day New York (but they insist on calling it Liberty City);
• The protagonist is now an Eastern European war veteran named Niko Bellic (check out that gangster mug);
• Automobile physics are more realistic (you could get thrown out of the car windshield);
• The weather now includes (very realistic) fog;
• Cars are now equipped with GPS (because real men don't ask for directions);
• There are more radio stations, which now play their songs randomly (it used to be played in a single loop);
• Niko Bellic has a cellphone (capable of sending text messages as well);
• The voice actors are no longer big-name stars (recession?).

That said, it is still essentially the same GTA game format as before, only slightly better. And it makes you wonder when they'll make the GTA movie. Hopefully next year? Who knows.


Rating: Ten stars.