So anyone still playing this? Personally I've not played it in a while, since I 100%ed the single player, need a bit of a break before I jump into the online.
What we think then, now that the dust has settled?
Did it live up the the hype, were those 10/10 review scores on IGN and Gamespot justified?
It was clearly a great game, fun to play, sky high production values, proper mans game - drugs, guns, car chases and a bit of minge.
I'd say it got a lot closer to justifying the hype than stuff like Halo3, because GTA4 does feel epic when you are playing it, it does feel like a milestone game that everyone who just likes playing good games should deffo have at least a few goes on.
The problems for me, even now I've finished the single player completely and know the game inside out, is that Rockstar needed to spend a little less time sticking Ricky Gervais in the game, and getting every street sign looking as realistic as possible, and spend a bit more time on the boring, but very important, basic controls.
Imagine the scene - 3 yards in front of me is a gangster, with a machine gun, firing said machine gun at my face. 300 yards behind me is an old woman, with a bag of shopping, walking away from me.
My aiming cursor is almost-but-not-quite pointing at the gangster as I press it down fully... and I watch with confusion as I turn around and the target places itself on the old woman.
She is further away (distance) further away (angle) less of a threat and obviously not the target.
Pretty basic stuff.
And Niko controls like C3PO in the latter stages of parkinsons disease. Clunking around, getting stuck on bits of the game world, jumping over things in separate, overly deliberate moves... and having to press A to run? Really? Niko is no Lara Croft.
This for me is the issue - all the flashy stuff, the music, the comedy clubs with real comedians, the work that has gone into it - all great, but it needed a tad more work on the bread and butter controls.
Still I enjoyed playing it more than any game since Mario Galaxy, and while those 10/10 reviews were obviously written by hyped up monkies, Its certainly up there in the 9.5-9.8 sorta scores.
Not perfect, but pretty much the most impressive game I've played for many a year.
Thoughts people?![]()


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the control system was changed... unless your maybe referring to the xbox ports of the others? still has been changed for example the use of the d-pad etc...