First Impressions: GTA IV

I booted up my brand new PS3 last night, signed up for PSN, and popped in GTA. Wow. The game looks fantastic, and plays great. I had a few freeze ups requiring me to reboot the system, but after that it played great. I was a little annoyed that I couldn't get into the main part of manhattan yet. I just wanted to mess around in there for a little before I started the missions. I've heard that this is one of the few GTA games where people will actually want to play through the story, it's that good and engrossing. I did a few missions, honed my driving skills, and obtained a pistol. The gunplay and new cover mechanics work great, and look great in action. I still need to get used to the controls but I don't foresee them being a problem. I can't wait to jump back into it tonight. I haven't gotten a chance to load up Uncharted yet, I'll most likely get to that this weekend sometime.

The main character, Niko, is really funny, likable, and a complete bad ass right from the start. He's a little disillusioned from his cousin Roman's antics and lies but is quick to have his back in tight situations. The driving mechanics were a little different than previous GTA games but after some learning I quickly got the handle of it. Needless to say my girlfriend was a pro at driving right from the start.

I did a Sixaxis tutorial which utilizes the motion control of the Playstation 3 controller. It was kind of fun, but nothing the Wii hasn't perfected. I probably will turn that feature off, it will most likely just get in the way. I like the way the mission structure is laid out, where you just answer your cell phone when it rings and drive to where you have to meet someone. Also, if you feel like you're driving around with nothing to do, you can just call one of your friends or your cousin and they'll give you a new mission. Nothing too fancy yet, I'm only about 5 or 6 missions in. I can't wait to unlock Algonquin (Manhattan) and find my old office building, if it made it into the game. I'm going to try and focus on the story on this GTA. All of my other GTA experiences have just been messing around in the city, which is really fun, but this time I want to experience the full game. I'm obviously only about two or three hours into the game so I can't review it yet, once I've beaten the story mode I'll post more about the game.

Labels: Commentary, Sony