Well, on Tuesday I got up at 6:15 and walked to town at 6:30. I arrived at 7 ish and went straight to Game, where I queued to hopefully get a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV to waste my time away. At about 7:15 I left Game with the..game…and started walking home (though not before going to McDonalds for a free breakfast).

I spend all the 20 minutes of my walk home thinking about playing the game. I didn’t want to, I was just so damn tired from being at the midnight opening of Gamestation the night before I could only think of the more obvious things. The excite was pretty low because of this excessive state of tiredness, though my being excited at all is a good indication of how much I wanted this game.

Finally, I’m home at 7:40. I put the game into my PS3, load it up and it starts to install. I watch the images in the dimmed background as it installs for all of 5 minutes, punctuated only with my going to get something to drink. And then it’s finished, and it starts loading.

Right, here we go, my impressions for GTA IV.  The initial loading screen is there for too long. I understand why, it’s loading a huge detailed world, but still. This isn’t a big problem though.

The opening sequence is amazing. The details in the graphics, the humour in the dialogue and the animation in the characters. These people act realistically, they gesticulate like any real person and they make jokes just like you and me. I’m already impressed. I’m not going to ruin anyof the storyline, just suffice it to say that it’s interesting, and it’s twisted a lot already and I haven’t finished the game.

Now, the first time we get control we have to get into a car. This is where a big change becomes evident. The car physics and the controls themselves are completely different. R2 accelerates, L2 breaks/reverses, X or L1 handbrakes. The handbrake  can not be used for cornering any more as the game’s driving physics are much more realistic. If you handbrake into a turn you will spin the car, simple as that. I still haven’t really gotten used to cornering yet in most cars, so it’s pretty strange when you first try it. You also notice the reflections on the car as it moves, which is pretty damn impressive looking.

You drive to your destination and you notice other graphical flourishes, reflections, the weather effects, etc. You also notice the city around you. The people act realistically, they talk, they answer mobiles, they even excuse themselves to light a cigarette. If you hit one in a car (which you will) you really notice the Euphoria engine at work; they go ragdoll, and fly through the air, they get up wounded. Alternatively, if you just tap them slightly, they’ll only be nudged slighty, gone are the days of getting chased by cops because you nudged someone and they died from previous GTA games.

Anyway, you get to your destination and you watch the cutscene. IT’s very impressive, the voice acting and the animation are very good, the characters move realistically, it’s fantastic.

Well anyway, I’m not going to run through everything, that’s too tedious, but that’s what you’ll notice when you first start the game, here’s some stuff I’ve picked up since:

The Euphoria engine really is fantastic. Shoot someone in the lef whilst they’re running and they trip realistically, and when they get back up, they won’t be able to stand on that leg and they’ll limp. Shoot them in the stomach they’ll hold it as they fall the the ground, when they get back up they’ll move slowly and hunched over. Crash head long into something and you’ll burst through the windshield of your car and go flying in realistic ragdoll physics that make it enjoyable even if you did just launch yourself off a bridge. When you’re walkign down stairs Niko actually stands on seperate steps.

The cover system is the biggest addition since GTA went 3D in GTA 3. This changes the way you play the game so much it’s almost unrecognizable. You can actually have proper fire fights now. You can hide behind a car and pop up to shoot the cops, or try and blind fire, and it makes the shoot outs much more realistic and much, much more enjoyable.

The animation really is excellent, and the voice casting is almost as excellent. I haven’t seen any hitches in the animation at all, the characters behave realistically, they move and gesticulate realistically, the expressions on their face look like the mood their voice in conveying, it makes for some cinematic cutscenes, which brings us on to…

It’s cinematic. The cutscenes, the fire fights and the driving, it all makes it feel like you could be in a movie. This is good, obviously, everyone wants to be Bond, or Starsky, or John Mcclane, and you’re closer than ever before in this games. The storyline is exceptional, with Niko’s shadowy past that I am yet to uncover all of to the twist and betrayals you’re in store for, it’s a really involving storyline that actually makes me want to do the missions now that I can bother with them without exploding in hatred of the combat system.

There are some great visual effects, too. The smoke trail left by rockets, then the explosion afterwards, it all looks amazing. And, whilst it may be cliche to speak of water effects now, the water looks real, and it refects everything too.

I have racked up 12 hours of gameplay in the last day and a half, and that is around school and work and eating and sleeping. I haven’t mentioned the multiplayer yet but it is similarly amazing. The cover system makes for deathmatches that are hugely entertaining, the driving physics make for hugely entertaining team modes, like Cops n’ Crooks and the huge world makes free mode amazingly fun to do, whether you’re just shooting each other, driving around shooting civilians or having a war with the cops. There’s very, very little lag too, which is a huge achievement in sucha  huge world with 16 players at a time on most modes.

I can aready tell that I will be playing this game for a long long time. I never finished the storyline in a GTA game, ever, but I will change that for IV. It’s involving and interesting and the combat isn’t so annoying.  I will without a doubt, be playing this game for months and months to come.

Filed under: G, GTA4, Games