***So, yeah. This is my first review that I'm putting up on here. Please leave your feedback for me. Its always apriciated. 
***
The Grand Theft Auto games were always known for letting the player to do anything that he/she pleased to do. You could go steal some cars, shoot some people, get in insane chases with cops, blow some stuff up, and more. All those things contributed well into making the Grand Theft Auto series one of the best out there. With the entry of Grand Theft Auto IV, it seemed as if this would be the one that would last a lifetime of enjoyment. Rockstar Toronto did the PC port of this game, and a few things didn't go as planned. Problems were already announced at day one, and it took a while for these on-going problems to be addressed. With all this, is Grand Theft Auto IV still a good contender for the PC version?
The story starts off with you, Niko Belic, coming out of Eastern Europe to come live with his cousin Roman, who has convinced Niko to come to America. Throughout the story, Niko works for a lot of people to earn enough money to have a good life in America. He's also in America to try and find someone who has caused him a lot of trouble in Eastern Europe. I'm not going to spill too much into the story, but the story in Grand Theft Auto IV is without a doubt, the best in the series.
Coming over to the Gameplay side of things, Grand Theft Auto IV took a few chances into making the game more realistic, unlike the other ones in the series. This has its good and bad points. The good things is that it immerses you unlike any other game before it. There's a lot of activities that I will talk about later on that show you the immersion. The bad side to it is that it doesn't feel like any of the other Grand Theft Auto games before it.
Going into the good sides of this new realistic feel GTA IV brings, a few things are brought in and changed into making it feel like your actually there in the game. Combat has been redone to an over-the-shoulder view when you aim. There is also an ability where you can take cover in the game. It slows things down, but it does make it a little easier than the other games since your not just running around and shooting everything. Some other additions is the ability to use a cell phone. Your cell phone takes a big part in the game, since you can call others to arrange activities, get some news on things, play a prank on the cops, etc. You are also able to go on dates in the game, which is somewhat fun, but feels also tacked on in some areas.
The activities you can do ranges from bowling to darts to drinking to street races to helicopter rides and a bunch of other things. You can do these activities alone or with a friend. All of these things just keep adding into the immersion to the game.
Along with new things the series does, you now have a GPS. This will give you a route to an area that is the most legal way of getting there, but not the fastest way. Its a very good addition since you won't get lost anymore. Yet another addition is the ability to do Parkour. This means that you can grab on to tall walls and climb over them. The final addition is the ability to go into stores. You can go into restaurants, clothing stores, banks, apartments, etc. This also is a wonderful addition since missions can be done in these areas.
Multiplayer is also a nice addition. You can play up with 32 people and do stuff like race, deathmatch, team deathmatch, or even go wild around the city. There were two noticeable PC exclusive features this game had. The first was a Video Editor where you were able to record something and share it with the Rockstar Social Club. Its a very cool feature to use in the game, but it can hurt your FPS. The second exclusive feature was the ability to put your own songs in a radio station called Independence FM. You could put as much songs as you wish and you could listen to them while cruising around the city.
Now to the bad side of things. First off the game really doesn't have much of a fun feeling to it. Past games, you were able to go on rampages and do all this crazy things, but it got removed for this entry and, honestly, that hurt the games appeal. The porting in this game is one of the worst I've seen. Like I said before, at day one, tons of problems were reported. Some weren't even able to play the game. There were also things like screen tearing being found, missing textures, and more. After the releases of 5 patches, this game still has problems. One very noticeable problem is not being able to join a match in multiplayer and mods were removed in the latest patch. So, the patches really made more problems rather than fixing them, but there were problems that were fixed that do make this game still playable.
Now, on to the graphics. This is one of the best looking PC games on the market. You can enjoy these graphics if your PC is good enough. The minimum requirements were easy to get through, but it was hard to get past the recommended ones. GTA IV is a very CPU hungry game, so your going to need a very good one to play this one no problem. Still, GTA IV is a very good looking game. There are a few things in the game that could be improved, but overall, it looks pretty damn awesome.
Voice acting in the game really enhanced this game. I don't think I've heard this good of voice acting in a long time. There's a lot of talking in the game and the characters all have the right tone to the right moments in the game. There is a lot of swearing in the game, but they are all done in the right places at the right time.
Overall, Grand Theft Auto IV has its problems and it hurts the game in a few ways, but its still an enjoyable experience. The realistic feel immerses you into the game, but it also takes away a few things that could have made GTA IV good. For $30 (on Steam and D2D) or less (any other retailer), its a good price for this game and you should go ahead and check this title out.
Gameplay - 8.0
Graphics - 9.0
Sound - 10
Fun Factor - 8.0
Overall - 8.8
***
The Grand Theft Auto games were always known for letting the player to do anything that he/she pleased to do. You could go steal some cars, shoot some people, get in insane chases with cops, blow some stuff up, and more. All those things contributed well into making the Grand Theft Auto series one of the best out there. With the entry of Grand Theft Auto IV, it seemed as if this would be the one that would last a lifetime of enjoyment. Rockstar Toronto did the PC port of this game, and a few things didn't go as planned. Problems were already announced at day one, and it took a while for these on-going problems to be addressed. With all this, is Grand Theft Auto IV still a good contender for the PC version?
The story starts off with you, Niko Belic, coming out of Eastern Europe to come live with his cousin Roman, who has convinced Niko to come to America. Throughout the story, Niko works for a lot of people to earn enough money to have a good life in America. He's also in America to try and find someone who has caused him a lot of trouble in Eastern Europe. I'm not going to spill too much into the story, but the story in Grand Theft Auto IV is without a doubt, the best in the series.
Coming over to the Gameplay side of things, Grand Theft Auto IV took a few chances into making the game more realistic, unlike the other ones in the series. This has its good and bad points. The good things is that it immerses you unlike any other game before it. There's a lot of activities that I will talk about later on that show you the immersion. The bad side to it is that it doesn't feel like any of the other Grand Theft Auto games before it.
Going into the good sides of this new realistic feel GTA IV brings, a few things are brought in and changed into making it feel like your actually there in the game. Combat has been redone to an over-the-shoulder view when you aim. There is also an ability where you can take cover in the game. It slows things down, but it does make it a little easier than the other games since your not just running around and shooting everything. Some other additions is the ability to use a cell phone. Your cell phone takes a big part in the game, since you can call others to arrange activities, get some news on things, play a prank on the cops, etc. You are also able to go on dates in the game, which is somewhat fun, but feels also tacked on in some areas.
The activities you can do ranges from bowling to darts to drinking to street races to helicopter rides and a bunch of other things. You can do these activities alone or with a friend. All of these things just keep adding into the immersion to the game.
Along with new things the series does, you now have a GPS. This will give you a route to an area that is the most legal way of getting there, but not the fastest way. Its a very good addition since you won't get lost anymore. Yet another addition is the ability to do Parkour. This means that you can grab on to tall walls and climb over them. The final addition is the ability to go into stores. You can go into restaurants, clothing stores, banks, apartments, etc. This also is a wonderful addition since missions can be done in these areas.
Multiplayer is also a nice addition. You can play up with 32 people and do stuff like race, deathmatch, team deathmatch, or even go wild around the city. There were two noticeable PC exclusive features this game had. The first was a Video Editor where you were able to record something and share it with the Rockstar Social Club. Its a very cool feature to use in the game, but it can hurt your FPS. The second exclusive feature was the ability to put your own songs in a radio station called Independence FM. You could put as much songs as you wish and you could listen to them while cruising around the city.
Now to the bad side of things. First off the game really doesn't have much of a fun feeling to it. Past games, you were able to go on rampages and do all this crazy things, but it got removed for this entry and, honestly, that hurt the games appeal. The porting in this game is one of the worst I've seen. Like I said before, at day one, tons of problems were reported. Some weren't even able to play the game. There were also things like screen tearing being found, missing textures, and more. After the releases of 5 patches, this game still has problems. One very noticeable problem is not being able to join a match in multiplayer and mods were removed in the latest patch. So, the patches really made more problems rather than fixing them, but there were problems that were fixed that do make this game still playable.
Now, on to the graphics. This is one of the best looking PC games on the market. You can enjoy these graphics if your PC is good enough. The minimum requirements were easy to get through, but it was hard to get past the recommended ones. GTA IV is a very CPU hungry game, so your going to need a very good one to play this one no problem. Still, GTA IV is a very good looking game. There are a few things in the game that could be improved, but overall, it looks pretty damn awesome.
Voice acting in the game really enhanced this game. I don't think I've heard this good of voice acting in a long time. There's a lot of talking in the game and the characters all have the right tone to the right moments in the game. There is a lot of swearing in the game, but they are all done in the right places at the right time.
Overall, Grand Theft Auto IV has its problems and it hurts the game in a few ways, but its still an enjoyable experience. The realistic feel immerses you into the game, but it also takes away a few things that could have made GTA IV good. For $30 (on Steam and D2D) or less (any other retailer), its a good price for this game and you should go ahead and check this title out.
Gameplay - 8.0
Graphics - 9.0
Sound - 10
Fun Factor - 8.0
Overall - 8.8
