Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360) | 
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| From: Rockstar
Category: Video Games
List Price: £49.99
Buy New: £35.55
You Save: £14.44 (29%)
New (38) Used (14) from £35.50
Rating:  90 reviews
Platform: Xbox 360
Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
ESRB: Adults Only
Media: Video Game
Age: 18 - 18 years
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 5026555245920
EAN: 5026555245920
ASIN: B000FNDYWI
Release Date: April 29, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
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.
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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 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.
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| Customer Reviews:
 The best GTA yet... for what that's worth... May 1, 2008
A. Bedwell (UK)
26 out of 40 found this review helpful
Like everyone, i've been waiting a long time for this game. IGN.com hyped the game to unparallaled levels with interviews about how real the city felt, how the npc's carried out daily tasks and the world evolved around you and made you feel like a cog in a living, breathing city.
Let me say right now that this is NOT the case.
I bought this game at midnight on launch day and immediately put three or four hours into the single player campaign. Initially it was very promising, with a likeable central character in Nico, the Eastern European immigrant with a dark past and a hope for redemption in the "land of opportunity". The banter between he and his cousin Roman, who acts as your guide to the basics of the game, is very funny and the humour is as present in Liberty City as it has ever been - from the sharply satirical talk radio stations that play as you drive around to the billboard jokes and sharp insults you hear in the streets.
Several missions in, however, and you realise that the game you are playing is really not so different from GTA 3. The game still revolves around the same formula: stealing a car, heading to a location, shooting someone, evading the police, heading for a spot on the map to end the mission. There are still no long-term consequences for your actions; you don't gain a reputation in the street for your repeated criminal activity; police have no memory of previous mis-deeds forcing you to change your appearance or play with increasing caution; you will not be barred from entering shops in which you previously killed all the employees....and so on and so on.
Basically the game feels just like the old ones, for all it's clever physics engine and nice lighting and damage effects. Yes, cars now crumple realistically when you drive into a wall. Yes, pedestrians cover their heads with newspaper and run for cover when it rains. But you still don't really feel like the world would carry on if you weren't there. It's just an environment for Nico to run around in and shoot and drive, which is great fun in and of itself but really NOTHING NEW AT ALL.
As for the gameplay, the controls are much improved after San Andreas with a new cover system and better targetting system. However i will make it clear right now that the controls are still very SLUGGISH and unresponsive while on foot, and everything seems to happen half a second after you press the button. This is not nearly as tight as something like CoD and as a result shoot-outs can seem very random and you are never entirely in control of Nico to the point where you can be confident of the outcome of any situation.
Rockstar also made a strange choice with the driving in the game. All but the very best cars are slow and suffer from useless brakes and stupidly large turning circles. It does get easier with practice but in a game centered around driving you have to wonder what they were thinking by making the cars so crap to drive. Is it generally fun to race through traffic with your pistol firing, desperately trying to evade the police car right on your tail? Yes, but only if you have no solid expectations of surviving every time. Like the on-foot controls, you are never guaranteed that the car will do what you want it to do.
Another problem i have is that there is not much in the way of traffic and pedestrians. I was really expecting a teeming city, where you could escape into the crowds and become anonymous, Assassin's Creed-style. A place where you could just walk around watching the locals do their thing, eavesdropping on conversations and getting a true sense of the mis-mashed cultures of Liberty City. Hell, maybe that was way too much to ask of a videogame but if so, why did the developers promise it?? It's a strange thing to try and describe but the game somehow feels empty. Assassin's Creed is a good comparison in fact, in that there are lots of characters on screen at a time but none of them have any CHARACTER, none of them feel important or real.
The only time this is not true is of course during multiplay. The game offers many different online experiences, some of which are excellent and others not so. The thing that really restricts the multiplayer from being as good as it should be is, again, the controls. The fun of laying waste to your enemies with rockets and machines guns is somewhat diminished by the fact that gun fights can often go either way, and you will usually spawn far from the action and then have to track down a car or run for ages just to reach the battle and be killed again. The driving games are great fun but skill rarely determines the winner since it's very easy to be taken out by random traffic or your inability to slow down for corners.
The multiplayer does offer some hilarious encounters, and the physics engine really helps add a level of unpredictability to the effects of throwing a grenade into a blockade of parked cars. In short it's great fun but definitely not to be taken seriously, and if you are wanting to dominate matches and hone your skills to perfection i would suggest returning to CoD or Gears cos this game is just too crazy for skill to be a major winning factor.
It's possible that i'm being overly critical of the game, and i should point out now that the game is immense fun to play. I will definitely be playing it through to it's conclusion because i'm sure the missions will get more interesting and i really want to meet the rest of the game's wacky and hilarious cast. The city is very well constructed and very well-realised in terms of architecture, and there is great variety in the physical variety of pedestrians and cars that you'll see throughout the game. Graphics are good, although again nowhere near my expectations with background blurring, grainy shadows and average animation.
In conclusion, as a GTA game it is great, easily the best yet. Play it in the knowledge that it has many of the same old flaws that have dogged the series in the past, and very few real innovations with the exception of a solid and entertaining multiplayer, and you're guaranteed a good time. The game packs in character, humour and exploration but misses out on the true quality that i was expecting from the so-called 'Game of the Year'.
If games are to be based on their entertainment value alone then this stands as a four out of five, but given all the hype about being a "truly next-gen gaming experience" i'm going to give it a three. Here's hoping for GTA V!!
 Fantastic!! April 26, 2008
J. Dorricott (UK)
25 out of 38 found this review helpful
Well I got the game through the post today to both my surprise and delight. I did not get it off Amazon but here is my review anyway.
After playing it all day I can honestly say it is the best game of the lot and probably the best game out on the 360. Liberty city is obviously based on New York and is probably the same size! It is vast, there is so much to do and I haven't even got off the first island yet. From the airport, where you can entertain yourself racing planes and getting chased by the police to the various bowling allies, bars and clubs there is loads to discover and entertain. The driving has changed significantly, and is a lot harder, but the first few missions get you up to scratch quickly, and after hating it originally I've been converted. Some of the muscle cars are exceptionally hard to handle but their great fun to drive.
I've completed 17 missions so far and I'm 9% of the way through the game. They haven't really set my pants on fire but there is obviously still many more to do. Some of the better missions so far have been killing a so called 'rat' after chasing him from the train station on foot and ending up on a massive car chase! another mission involved shaking up a couple of porn stars in their shop for not paying protection money! Game play overall is fantastic, and the graphics are exceptional. one drawback is in certain parts of the city at night, its so dark you can hardly see. I've tried playing around with my TV to no prevail, but im sure if your playing on a decent set you wont have any problems. A welcome edition to this game is the use of the mobile phone, which makes it a lot easier to contact your associates and start missions without having to drive for ages back to base. Also the introduction of the auto save after missions have makes life a lot easier.
There is so much to this game that it would takes me days to write a decent review but take my word for it that this game is amazing and it will be a long, long, long time before I finish playing it.
I don't know... I just don't know. April 30, 2008
Mr. SCM Bell (UK)
21 out of 29 found this review helpful
The most eagerly awaited game ever? Well it's certainly up there in the top five, rubbing shoulders with the Master Chief which ever way you cut it.
Does it look amazing? Yes of course it does. More gritty and less cartoonish than it's predecessors, detail aplenty, pop-up and draw-distance problems controlled if not entirely removed, cars that look as good as a racing game, characters that look as good as a third person action game. It's all here.
It looks and feels fantastic, but...
If you've been there since the beginning there is just a tiny nagging feeling that past all the glitz and glamour, beneath all the media hype it isn't really that much of an advancement from GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas.
You see, when GTA III came along it replaced a crude but addictive top-down scroller. It took that world and used the newly minted PS2 to blast it into full 3D, defining that platform and ushering in the era of the sandbox game.
As I stare at GTA IV in 36 inches of HDMI beauty I simply don't feel quite as excited as I did when I hit the streets of Liberty City the first time. There's a tiny voice inside me that keeps saying that all the glowing reviews in the mainstream media are only written because those reviewers weren't there to see how incredible it was when the series first went 3D. Struggling to come to terms with a form of media that they neither understand nor respect, they are only written because they feel they are expected to crow about how great it is.
I try to put my finger on what exactly has disappointed me but it isn't easy. Perhaps it was the fact that Saints Row really made a feature of the car modifying thing, that San Andreas gave you a whole county to explore, perhaps I just like the playlist less this time or perhaps its just one sandbox too many?
Don't get me wrong, this still beats most games by a country mile. The voice acting is beyond reproach, as are the character models, the level design, the cell phone system. In short, it oozes quality from every pore and yet remains a bizarrely muted experience.
Of course you'll buy it. Everyone will. But twenty years from now, will we talk most fondly about this one? Or will it be one of the previous three?
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant! May 1, 2008
J. Hunt
21 out of 28 found this review helpful
This game is excellent in so many ways and there is just so many things to do. In my eyes, the cars in this one are fantastic and despite what people are saying, the handling is actually fantastic and varies with each car.
What people dont seem to understand is that the cars work on a hierarchy (sort of) which means that if you pick a roughed up car, it wont drive as well (and the steering is a lot worse) whereas a nice car is much better to drive (great steering) just like in real life which I think is a fantastic feature. Furthermore, it makes you feel a lot happier when you end up driving a ferarri or something flashy because you can notice the difference.
I think the main problem people are having with the game is that their ''expectations were high and it didn't live up to the hype'' In my mind, this just doesnt mean anything. I think it surpassed my expectations and the game really is a lot better than San Andreas in so many ways. I reckon that the people who wrote these reviews never really got very far with the game. It was designed to start off slowly and to get a lot more fun as you progressed through the game which I think the blokes at Rockstar pulled off really well. For example, parts of the city open up as you go along and there are more things to do in other parts of the city which makes the game more fun. Also, the missions get a lot better further on in the game too. I happen to have only got about 20% through the game so far and am already starting to notice the difference.
I'd love to say more but I think its worth mentioning lastly that the Xbox live with this game is just too fun for words. I was playing free roam where you can just walk around the city doing whatever you want to BUT WITH 16 OTHER PLAYERS. This is where the game really shines. It just makes the game so much more fun and it takes away the sense of loneliness. Its the sort of thing I dream of in a game and it really does make it ridiculously fun. We went around the city trying to get as many stars as possible-great fun! If you get this game and give it some time, Im certain you wont be disappointed. Thanks for listening.
I wanted it to meet the hype and sadly i got Star Wars Episode 1 April 30, 2008
D. Straughan (Newcastle Upon Tyne)
20 out of 34 found this review helpful
Since its announcement there has been gossip. Everyone was discussing what it would be like. The last 2 weeks at work have been a countdown, with most of the blokes taking yesterday off for the sole reason of playing the game!
I would like to say at first I was as excited, but as all the previews, and hype started coming out I began to get a funny feeling. I've learned over my life not to be tangled up and blinded by hype. I wanted to believe it all and get as excited and wound up as everyone else but there was just something in the back of my head that was saying "NO" this can't be as good as its being made out to be. I therefore approached this game with a slight trepidation!
Now, I've been playing GTA since it first came out and can remember me and my friends crowded round a PC loving every second of this new game. The fact that you could play seriously completing the missions or when you fancied it there was the option of going on a killing spree and running over Harry Krishna's! It was fantastic! GTA3 was also a ground breaking experience, it was awe inspiring seeing the game in 3D and still kept the same level playability. Vice City and San Andreas were also great experiences they took the rough game elements and put their own genre spin on it! Saints Row did exactly the same!
Anyway, I bought this game yesterday and felt like I should be excited but at the same time as I handed over 45 of my hard earned cash I was wondering had made the right decision. I got home and put it straight in my 360 and to begin with yeah, it's good but nothing outstandingly good.
Obviously I knew it would be like every other GTA but I was expecting something different like GTA 3 was to the original GTA. I wanted something new I wanted the hype to deliver!
The only analogy I can think of is; It was a lot like going to see Star Wars Episode 1, something was telling you that you should be loving it, that it was the best thing ever to grace the cinema screens since the original trilogy, but sadly from the off and especially when Ja Ja Binks turned up you realised it wasn't anything like it had been built up to be!
Overall the games graphics were average nothing outstanding compared to other games (yes the world is big and that should be taken into account! But, if someone is going to say these are the best graphics ever then deliver them please.) also; The car handling has been changed, dramatically, and in my opinion not for the best! The driving is poor, and no one can say its not! In previous games you could, at least slide your car round a bend. Now you have to brake at least 2 miles before the junction after serious consultations of the map, making the correct mathematical calculations and yeah there I go bang straight past it and into the nearest building because I was going a tad to fast.
Some people are saying this is "realistic" and yeah maybe it is, but I play a game to escape realism and have some fun, if I want to drive properly I will jump in my car and pop down the shops admittedly I can't bomb down my local high street at 100mph and pull a sweet line through a bend without dying horribly but hey that's life. All I want is PRG3+4 car controls and a fun experience! If I want a car sim I will go out and buy one or Forza2.
There will be some people who will read this and say this guy knows nothing! This is the best game of all time! But like someone else has already said, rent it first, if you like it, buy it, if not walk away and be relieved you didn't just fork out 40-50.
I think with this one, people need to take a step back and see this for what it really is. It is a decent game and is fun apart from the driving. It has plenty of hours of game play but at the end of the day it's nothing new and in my opinion more like an 8/10.
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