good things come in fours

I’m a college student, so people often ask me, usually jokingly, if I have to spend a lot of sleepless nights. I usually say ‘No, not for school’, then run away laughing. The only thing that has kept me up all night is Grand Theft Auto 4, nothing else is important enough to cause me so much physical and mental fatigue. Sleep easily loses its importance and I find myself playing GTA4 at 5:30am and wondering if it’s worth going to bed. Nothing a little Red Bull can’t fix, right?

I have to admit I wasn’t as excited about GTA4 as I was about GTA3 and Vice City; not so much for San Andreas. After playing the first three (the PlayStation 1 ones don’t count), I was ready for a change; luckily GTA4 made that change and playing it made it feel like I was playing GTA and a sandbox game for the first time. Everything had a novel air to it, like stealing a car, accidentally hitting a pedestrian, or shooting into a hot dog stand’s propane tank.

I’m so glad that Rockstar North decided to build the city up and not out, focusing on creating amazing detail in a smaller area that stretches out the land to include 15-minute drives on highways like in San Andreas. A smaller area with beautiful graphics is much more fun to explore than a large, bland area. I am in favor of making realistic games, but it becomes too tedious when in San Andreas the player has to control the weight of the character and the girlfriends who live 20 minutes away in real time.

Everything about GTA4 is fun, the missions can be challenging at times, but not to the point of pissing off your controller. One aspect that I really liked about the game is that at certain points in the story you have to decide who lives and who dies, and the choice you make creates consequences that affect how people treat you. Creates more depth to the game and increases replay value for those eager to take the alternate path the second time around.

My only complaint about the game is probably the movement of the game’s protagonist, Nikko. Controls feel a bit sluggish and turning Nikko 180 degrees can be a pain, especially in a firefight.

Enough writing, if you haven’t played GTA4 yet, grab a copy now and enjoy the best game in the series so far on XBOX 360 and PS3, you won’t regret it.