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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.
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There's always a catch.
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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 clamoring 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 cutouts, 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 centered 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. ZiT: We'll Spot The Song For You
When playing Grand Theft Auto IV, if you hear a song that you are interested in buying as an MP3, all you have to do is dial ZiT-555-0100 on your in-game mobile phone and a text message will be sent to you with the name of the artist and the title of the track. The next time you log in at the Rockstar Games Social Club, you will find 30-second previews of all the songs you have ZiT'ed while playing the game. You can add them to your basket there and click to purchase at Amazon MP3, or you can find them all at www.amazon.com/gtamusic.
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 very adult very good |
| Review Date: August 29, 2010 |
| Reviewer: sister_twilight, USA |
| I think this is one of the best Grand Theft Auto games that I have ever played. It seems more real than cartoonish. There are several different characters that you can use to do different missions. I would by far recommend this game to adults. NO CHILDREN It has Very mature content such as strip clubs, blood, swearing, guns and much more. Have fun gaming |
Good, but doesn't live up to the expectations
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| Review Date: August 28, 2010 |
| Reviewer: WhatsThatGameCalled, |
This is a good game overall. But when you're used to the development of the series, after Vice City and San Andreas, you would have thought that GTA4 would've been a much better game. It seems they sacrificed more time on the graphics engine, than making the game actually fun.
You can see my full review at:
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Beware of the 3 star average its only for PC Versions
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| Review Date: August 24, 2010 |
| Reviewer: masterofpuppets242, |
| Dont worry about the 3 star average its mainly for the pc version, getting the console version you will be satisfied. This is unbelievable in detail, its so close to being in the city all it needs is a billion more people...lol...the only problem i had with the game was some of the side things that made gta such a perfect game...the tanks when police chase you...owning businesses...taking over territories like san andreas...etc but overall its great...the episodes from liberty city does offer some of those that was not in this game but its shorter...its recommemded highly to buy this and the episodes cAuse its under 60 for both and you will be getting over 100 hours of play with it...that's not bad at all.....its as close to the orange box(HALF LIFE 2)package as you can get...ive always been a fan and this is still my favorite game cause of how detailed the game is...now they just need to take the detail and build upon it to make it a perfect game...to me its perfect...but to sum it misses being that perfect game...but like i said its a wonderful experience if you know new york and people not from new york its the cheapest way to see how it looks in a way...enjoy |
A Great Game But A Horrible Release For PC
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| Review Date: August 23, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Brenda, |
GTA IV is by far the best game of the series. It has great gameplay and is quite realistic. However, I was very unsatisfied with the PC version of the game. When the package arrived, I installed the game on my desktop PC right away. My 2008 PC greatly exceeded all of the game requirements, except for my computer's intel graphics card, but I thought the game would at least work. After the rather long installation, I clicked on the game icon but the game did not come on. Instead, my computer gave me a fatal error code DD3D50, which basically meant that my intel graphics card was not compatible with the game and therefore I could not play it.
Luckily, my 2010 laptop just barely met the requirements for the game and had an ATI graphics card (the game is also compatible with Nvidia cards). I was able to play the game finally but it is still very slow and choppy (on minimum settings) on my PC which can get rather annoying at times. The PC version is also full of all kinds of bugs, and even with the latest patch, still contains a handful of them. Despite all of this, the game can still be at least enjoyable. If you have a PS3 or an Xbox, I would recommend getting the game on those platforms. If not, take some time to check out your PC system's specs before you by the game or else you could just be wasting money. |
I'm disappointed.
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| Review Date: August 22, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Zaharkl, |
| I played the Xbox 360 version and loved it. But i sold my Xbox and i still wanted to play the game. so i bought it for PC. and well.. It was very disappointing. i have a high end PC. and it struggles to run it (Even tho i can play crysis on maximum) and it always crashes at random spots and that is frustrating. its as if they did that on propose for PC users. |
GTA just like the previous
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| Review Date: August 21, 2010 |
| Reviewer: T. Lewis, Doylestown, PA |
| I am going to make this a short and easy review. My review is going to compare this to past GTA games. The game missions are like any other GTA game so there is nothing unique about this game. I found this game fun but it's just like any other GTA game. The story line had a bad flow and was uninteresting towards the end. I also found this to be a short game, probably because I didn't care about doing the same old side missions and exploring. It's definitely a smaller map. The game has some upgraded features but also has downgraded features which other reviewers have explained fairly well. The cell phone and taxi services are great and a big annoyance/time saver. Graphics are good, definitely not the best. Bottom line, it's just like any GTA game, there is nothing unique about this compared to the previous. If you are a GTA fan like me, you will enjoy it, thats about it. |
Disgusting gameplay
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| Review Date: August 19, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Ben Einolf, MD, U.S. |
| This game has the most disgusting gameplay! It has naked girls and it has just too much gore! Who would wanna play such a disturbing and nasty game?!?!?! I would not recommend this game unless you can ignore a lot of violence. |
Same old thing...
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| Review Date: August 16, 2010 |
| Reviewer: , |
| Worth a rental to see, but if you played this game before on an earlier platform nothing is new...the graphics just get spiced up a little. I've never seen a game franchise spend less effort in making improvements in actual gameplay over the course of a series. Yawn. |
GTA IV = Dust Collector
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| Review Date: August 8, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Fair Consumer, NY, NY USA |
| Let me just start out by saying I have played GTA III, Vice City, San Andreas and this game. I love sandbox style games, always have and always will. After two years of owning this game, I can honestly say it collected dust. It is a masterpiece on the eyes as the graphics and real world physics are amazing. However, the very thing that made GTA so fun and playable has died with this new addition to the series. As many other gamers have mentioned, we are missing the idea of flying planes, racing on dirt bikes through dirt roads, getting lost in the forest, jumping off cliff, gambling at casinos, having good hand to hand combat, listening to great radio stations, entertaining mini games, great driving controls and of course full customization of the main character and cars. As well as many other things...GTA IV has failed to provide the gamer with simple, but fun game play. I have missed these concepts so much that I went out and purchased a Playstation 2 and a greatest hits copy of GTA San Andreas again because GTA IV after two years sucks. After playing GTA SA, I played GTA IV, just to see if I could get back into it and see if I was wrong. Well, I ended up trading this game in because I jumped right into a car, floored it, tapped another vehicle and due to tapping the other vehicle lost all control of my vehicle and crashed into a building. I was done, after playing the game for a few months out of the two years I owned it; it should have been like riding a bike. Instead it was confirming a last generation game still is better then the latest and greatest. I can only hope that by writing this that a member of Rockstar will read this and make the next GTA better. If gamers wanted games with real life physics and driving scenarios we will buy "Defensive Driving Course - The Video Game". If you are an Amazon.com customer, please save your money, wait for Rockstar to restore the original game play and dynamics that made GTA so great in the past. |
Great game, demanding PC specs
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| Review Date: August 7, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Peter Hue, San Francisco, Ca |
I love GTA 4. It's the most addicting game I have played in a very long time. Then again, I don't play many games.
I built a custom PC just to be able to run this game properly. Here are my specs:
Intel Duo Core 2 Duo 3.0 Ghz
ATI Radeon HD 4870 512 MB Graphics Card
4 GB RAM Viper
500 GB 7200 RPM HD
The bad:
1) Took half an hour to install, with another half hour simply to sign up for Windows Live and Rockstar Social Club.
2) I get about 15-20 FPS on average. WTF?!
3) Game crashed a few times
The Good:
1) This game is the best GTA game to date.
2) Incredible fun |
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