Fantastic game but kindof missing the GTA point

User Rating: 8 | Grand Theft Auto IV X360
When I recieved GTA 4 on the day of its release i was thrilled. I couldn't beleive i was finally going to play the game that id been waiting for for a good year and a half. I was immediately immersed into the plot, though at the beginning it was relatively slow but it picked up within the first 7 to 10 missions i beleive. The whole story, from start to finish was very cinematic. It was like watching a long epic gangster drama.

The controls were also very easy to get along with and the targeting was much improved. The hand-to-hand combat was also very updated making a street fight actually feel like a street fight. Another big improvement was the euphoria engine which made the whole game that much more funny as well as realistic.

Probably my biggest gripe about theis game is what they took out of it. Buying property and assets, flying planes, exploring wilderness, and not to mention modding cars was all thrown away. That was a big mistake. I didn't expect this game to be perfect, but i did expect it to be way more deep and addicting that GTA:SA which it really wasn't. At least it had 16 player online but the only truly awesome part about that was the free roam mode. There were just too many modes for its own good. So much was cut out of the GTA formula just to have these extra modes that nobody even plays anymore. Lets face it, GTA online is ridiculously laggy making player on player combat sort of crap in a sence.

Its fun to play with your buddies and run from the cops or each other, and it's fun to turn friendly fire off and go rocketing in times square, but all in all this game was very fun awe inspiring and imersive despite the tons of crap that they ripped out. Hopfully the next GTA will have a more veried map style not unlike San Andreas and hopefully we can have our Planes and jetpacks and hover craft and assets and tanks and conspiracies and parachutes back.