Utterly Disappointing. Don't believe the hype, read below for the real info.
I cant believe how many people just eat this game up only due to the fact its an installation in the series with a little better graphics than before, unfortunately this seems to be the only thing they really added to this title. Someone please tell me why there are no parachutes, no jet packs, no planes,??? And why no car customization whhhyyyy? Why take out so much that made the old games good. Just doesn't make sense to me.
My biggest problem with this game, the driving, for christ sake its called grand theft auto 4, and the driving of the autos is unbearable, someone tell me why every surface you drive on seems to be covered in oil? If the main mechanic of a game can be so busted and it can still get a unanimous 10/10 from reviewers isn't there something a bit strange going on? No one can say otherwise about this either, plenty of people have told me "You just need to get used to the driving", but i say screw that, why do i have to get used to a mechanic that is called "new" (which in this case equals crappy) when the driving in all the old games was perfect, why didn't they just leave it alone? and maybe make the cars drivable, tell me how good something can be when the majority of the missions and the games title revolve around driving, yet the driving in the game is totally busted? It made most of the missions a pure headache to try and get through and defiantly lowered the overall fun to be had in the game.
Secondly, What the hell is up with having to make friends and go on dates? where is the thefting of autos in that pre-tell? Even the whole cell phone thing is another gimmicky last minute add on feature, other games have made decent use of pda's and cell phones and things *cough* Saints row* why couldn't rockstar get it right, you cant tell me that when your just driving around trying to do anything in the game, and your cell phone pops up every 30seconds to ring and let you know one of your buddies wants to go on a date doesn't annoy the hell out of you.
What about the guns? health armor ammo? You ask. Well theres the smallest selection of weapons in any grand theft auto to date, in this title. Cool huh. Another thing is for some reason it takes only a few shots from the rabid police to destroy you completely whereas it takes about 6 shot with the 50.cal desert eagle to kill a bum on the back streets, (thats no bs i pumped about 5-6 rounds into each one before they died, if not hit in the head, even with a 50. caliber weapon it took that many shots to kill anyone) so tell me where is the realism in that? O and those nice big looking chain guns on that elusive helicopter you see, yea don't expect to have to much fun with those either, takes about a minute and a half of straight open unrestricted fire on a vehicle to make it even catch on fire, then you have to sit there about another 30seconds till the thing actually explodes!!,.....?fun?...
How about health not regenerating, thats right, you gotta find a happy hot dog stand to ever regain any health, pretty convenient when your robbing people/trying to get away from the cops, im sure they just accidentally left out the feature that allows you to ask the cops to stop shooting for a second so you can eat a tasty hot dog. The worst thing about this health regeneration system is that the hot dog stands are dastardly hard to find and sprace throughout the city as a whole. In my entire play time i counted about 3.
So sure the graphics are alright, but I believe its been established on many a front that graphics are no substitute for game play. Certainly not in this case. As for the Controls, sure they buttons are all there, but getting anything to work the way you want it in the game is more than a chore. The cover system is a cool idea but also practically useless due to the limitless number of angles you are usually barraged upon. As far as the radio selection in concerned, well they have a few good songs, but theres only a few songs in the game, look at each radio station and notice there are only about 8 songs on each, pretty **** when you only play for like 20minutes and the songs on your fav station just start to repeat again and again,....
Overall I can only imply my utter disgusting disappointment's with this game, i really wanted it to be good and was hoping it could be the next good title to add to my collection, fortunately I'm glad i only rented it.