Product Description

The most anticipated game ever, Grand Theft Auto IV will revolutionize gaming. You play as Niko Bellic, an Eastern European immigrant to Liberty City with a murky, violent past. Hoping to start a new life in a new country, Niko arrives on the docks and is met by his cousin, Roman. Roman’s promises of ready wealth and easy women turn out to be exaggerations and Niko must quickly adjust to a hard life. But this is America, and Niko wants his slice of the American dream. With perseverance and hard work, he just might grab it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #78 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Rockstar Games
• Released on: 2008-04-29
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• ESRB Rating: Adults Only
• Platform: PLAYSTATION 3
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 2.65 pounds

Amazon.co.uk
What does the American Dream mean today?

For Niko Bellic, fresh off the boat from Europe, it is the hope he can escape his past. For his cousin, Roman, it is the vision that together they can find fortune in Liberty City, gateway to the land of opportunity. As they slip into debt and are dragged into a criminal underworld by a series of shysters, thieves and sociopaths, they discover that the reality is very different from the dream in a city that worships money and status, and is heaven for those who have them and a living nightmare for those who don’t.

Beginning with the 1997 release of the original Grand Theft Auto, the GTA series has been one of the most prolific, controversial and down right entertaining franchises in video games history. This pedigree of success guarantees that the highly anticipated eleventh game in the series, Grand Theft Auto IV, will garner at least as much attention if not more.

Return to Liberty City.

The dream as Niko expected it. View larger.

There's always a catch. View larger.

But some skills are international. View larger.

The Plot
Grand Theft Auto IV is a brand new adventure in the GTA universe following the experiences of Nikolai "Niko" Bellic, a new immigrant from an undisclosed eastern European country whose troubled pa st and the persuasion of his cousin Roman have brought him to the fictional Liberty City. Unfortunately, Niko’s search for the American Dream and a much needed fresh start, hits an immediate snag when the rags to riches story Roman spun to pique Niko's interest is exposed as not only a complete fabrication, but a ploy to enlist Niko’s well-known skills as a tough guy against the ample list of enemies clamouring for Roman’s debt-ridden blood.

Because Roman is the only person Niko knows in Liberty City he begrudgingly accepts his role as Roman’s protector despite the deception. But as time goes on Niko comes into his own, and his experience on the wrong side of the tracks proves more valuable than he could have ever imagined as he fights for survival and later supremacy on the crime ridden streets of Liberty City.

Game Environments
Based on several of the boroughs of New York City and parts of New Jersey, Liberty City, familiar to players of previous games in the series, has been entirely redesigned for GTA IV. Players can expect visible detail down to the weeds growing in the cracks in the sidewalk, cars and buildings of visibly different ages and a much greater level if verticality in the buildings and bridges that they are able to explore as Niko moves through the city streets. In addition, pedestrians in GTA IV are much more realistic. No longer simply moving cardboard cut-outs, these NPCs are intelligent, modern, human representations that laugh, cry, eat, drink, use cell phones and ATMs, and talking amongst themselves regardless of Niko’s interaction with them.

Gameplay
Historically GTA games have focused heavily on mission-based play, requiring successful completion of fixed tasks in order for players to progress through the game, but this has changed to a great extent in GTA IV. Players will experience an entirely new and exciting emphasis centred on the blending of on-mission and off-mission play, resulting not only in an increased sense of realism, but more interesting and unrestricted gameplay.

Features
Aside from the car jacking and a detailed city environment here are the new features for GTA IV:

• Improved combat system - Now you can use cover and also a target lock system, which allows you to take out targets with greater ease and accuracy. Plus, you can engage in some hand-to-hand combat if you can't get your hands on a piece quick enough.
• Cell phone - Not just for basic phone calls anymore. Use your in-game cell phone to receive missions via SMS, snap photos, and ZiT (tag) songs that can be downloaded exclusively on Amazon.com/mp3.
• Free time - In between missions you can take advantage of "me" time. There are gentleman's clubs, comedy clubs, bowling alleys, and bars, which all house unique activities.
• Take a break from the storyline - A variety of side missions allow you to help run a car service, "borrow" cop cars, assassinate targets, help solve problems for those on the street, or take to the air with stunt jumps that are scattered all over the city.
• Control your own fate - Throughout the game choice moments will arrive causing you to make a decision that will affect relationships and money.

Multiplayer
Give Niko a rest and create your own multiplayer "hero." GTA has added multiplayer modes allowing you to take your creation out to play online in competitive, co-op, and free form modes. Competitive mode has you fighting against the cops, jacking cars, or racing to finish odd jobs. Co-op challenges you and your friends with various tasks including Hangman's NOOSE where you are responsible for escorting a wanted kingpin to a safe extraction point. Freeform lets you and 15 others lose on Liberty City. Use this mode to hit up the bar and play virtual darts versus each other or head out to the streets and set up your own drag races. If you can dream it, you can do it in Freeform mode.

Customer Reviews

Really Slow Gameplay!!!
Hi,
i was very excited to try this game out on ps3, but the first thing i noticed while i was playing was the speed of the player and the driving speed...it is really slow compared to all the previous games on ps2 and psp!
This has really upset me as this was what made me love this game as before it was really easy to control but rockstar have even changed the controlles. I am really annoyed about this as i was really looking forward to this game...Unhappy
(Delivery and everything was very good)

GOURANGA!
Endless, endless, endless hours of fun on this game! GTA has come along way since I played it for the first time on PC, GOURANGA! There are a few things that could be improved upon, like being able to import your own music, even though the selection on gta is quite good, I would love to be able to listen to my own music whilst playing. You can't go in to that many buildings which is very taunting, it's like serving plastic chocolate to a chocoholic, so tantalising! There's the game ghost, where you can walk in to walls but it's improved upon. They also left out a lot of gold from San Andreas which does suck, but hey ho. I would recommend getting cheats for the game to enable you more freedom to roam the map.

even better than I anticipated
I think this game was probably the most highly anticipated games of all time. The buzz prior to release was unavoidable. From kids on the street to office workers. Everyone was really buzzing about this game.

GTAIV is awesome, there is no denying that but I was somewhat surprised that deep down inside, I still regard San Andreas my personal favourite of all the GTA's. Maybe it was because I was a little younger and little more innocent. Maybe it is because I am now spoilt for choice when it comes to videogames. Whatever it may be, GTAIV is a technical marvel and superior to any game in this genre. There aren't that many anyway but the bench mark set by Rockstar is unbelievably high/

Some of the improvement's within the game are such things like your character can now smash windows on cars when stealing them, which makes the scenario more realistic. You now have a mobile phone which I think is a brilliant feature; you receive and can make calls to in-game characters anytime you wish. You can go on the GTA internet as such, with many parody websites that are often hilarious. You can use the new cover system which is a very good addition to the combat aspects of the game (which is 3rd person for those who do not know). The physics engine is great and the accidents really reflect this, the motion is very realistic and you often feel Niko Bellic's (the protagonist) pain.

There are lots of different vehicles with which to wreak havoc on the residents of Liberty City including; Fire Engines, A police chopper called The Annihilator which is equipped with machine guns, motorcycles, boats, sports cars and the legendary yellow taxi cabs of which I always wonder, in the world of GTA, you would simply not want to be a cab driver, there's toooooo much competition - simply thousands of cabbies! The taxies are a great way of navigating the large map either instantly or scenically, the choice there is yours, you simple ay a small fee for the use. I often used the taxi when I wanted to get to the other end of the map faster than if I decided to steal a car and drive there normally.

Attention to detail in GTAIV is higher than ever, people in the city have jobs to do (like road workers and street sweepers); it really is like a bustling metropolis. The dialogue is out of this world! For instance, I was taking part in a mission and I failed a fair few times, the mission involved driving somewhere and when one of the characters ran out of different things to say, he just said something like "HEY, DO YOU MIND IF WE JUST LISTEN TO THE RADIO?" I mean, it's no revolution but it just shows you how much attention has been paid to this game rather than looping the same dialogue, they do that, it's brilliant. I think out of all my game time on GTAIV I may have heard the same phrase 4 or 5 times which means that you hardly even notice!

The missions are in abundance and are really enjoyable; they are certainly not as repetitive as the missions in some of the previous titles.

The online mode is really good fun too, there's 15 different modes (Team Deathmatch, Cops & Crooks and Team Car Jack City to name a few) and you have up to 16 player in these (I think it's less in certain modes like maybe 12). With the online mode you have plenty to keep you busy.

All in all this game is as near to perfect as it can be. There are a few things that could have been retained from earlier games but in all honesty, I love the direction Rockstar took with GTAIV.

Rockstar - I salute you!