Friday, 24 August 2012

Grand Theft Auto IV... A very late review

Having strict parents is somewhat a burden when it comes to what I can and can't do. An example is that I wasn't allowed to stay up later than 10 pm on weekdays when I was a bit younger and, until very recently, I've had to follow the PEGI system of age ratings. I'm 17 and all the way through my life I have only played 3s, 12s and 16s with a few BBFC age ratings of 15 too. After seeing that I'm actually quite mature, my parents have finally allowed me to buy and play age 18 rated games. By looking through to the back of my Official Xbox Magazine, I realise that about a quarter of the games are age 18 rated. One of the 10/10s has always been Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA IV) and, due to this recommendation and all my friends having played it, I have always wanted to see what Liberty City is like to play in.

I got the game from Amazon.co.uk for about £15 and I've played about 6 hours so far. GTAs have always been open world games that allow you to do whatever you want with a hint of story of reaching the top of the pile of criminals. The game play feels a bit weird as the buttons aren't as responsive as I would have liked but GTA IV makes up for this with the feeling of awesomeness as you commit grand theft auto/hijacking a car. A simple press of the Y button does this and the following police chase is a lot of fun, even if I am really bad a driving and I almost always crash into the back of a fellow motorist. So far I've used my fists, a knife, a baseball bat and a pistol for weapons with my favourite being the baseball bat... It's just fun to use, I swear!

There's a lot of awesomeness in other aspects of the game too; I, for one, love the radio stations in the car. I always listen to "Liberty Rock" radio station and occasionally Evil Woman by ELO or Mamma by Genesis plays and it feels genuinely great to cruise around, and smashing into things, while one of your favourite songs is being played in-game. I also love Niko Bellic and his attitude to most things; kick the living shit out of your problems and they will go away. Yay.

Criticisms of a 10/10 games seem to be in supply however; the camera angles when driving are always too far or too near... A middle ground would be nice. You can die really easily which sucks at the start when you have to pay to get healed up. It's a bit unrealistic when you date girls and they say it's been an OK date despite the fact that you've totalled her car... Also, when I try to cross a bridge there's always a police barricade there and they always kill me as I go past... Is that normal for the start of the game?

Conclusions to be made include that it's a great game to play (good game play, story and freedom) but whether it's a 10/10 game... It will have to pull out all the stops to get that status. :P

SkyrimAddict

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