A great game. As expexted it is not as good as the hype would lead you to believe, but is the best in the series.
Lets be honest with ourselves for a second. The smorgasboard of gameplay on offer has never really been that well polished...
Thankfully, Rockstar have gone out and corrected almost all the flaws of the previous titles with this new installment, it is really a great game and the first time I have been rivited to my screen with this series.
The graphics, although nothing spectacular do the job very nicely and obviously are pushing this gen consoles to their limit for a sandbox game.
Physics and motion capture animation, do alot to clean up the unpolished feel all the previous games have had, and the damage modelling on the cars is great.
Gameplay systems across the board are more focused and polished, especially the targetting and gun combat, which i have always had a problem with.
Servicible multiplayer.
very good story, nuff said.
and the level of detail is simply amazing, special mention to the AI, I am surprised GS didnt mention this. this is how you do a sandbox game, are you listening bethesda? this is how you make a believeble world. AI, AI, AI...
one thing alot of people seem to be dissapointed about is the downsize of features compared to SA. Lets get this stright VC and SA were not offical sequels, they were tweaked versions of GTA3. they were expantions. Expantions typically add content to an existing engine.
I am almost certain GTA4 will have expantions as well, they had to make sure they got the basic engine and features right, for this installment.
the car customisation, chainsaws, airplanes and everything else will be added in the next couple of installments I am sure.
Still, i do not agree with this game recieving a ten. nothing is perfect and this game still has enough quirks that it shouldnt deserve a perfect score. i really think GS need some normalisation across the board with their reviews. Terrible games should be gettin 1.0, average games should be getting 5's and the top tier games should be hitting 9 maybe 9.5 max. (I know I have been guilty for this in the past as well)
No game is ever perfect, when one comes along it will deserve a ten. I can saftely say we are unlikely to see this in our lifetimes. Still that said...
Rockstar you have a new fan...