You've heard everyone talk about the best, listen to me tell about some of the rest.
There's no better place to start than with my main man Niko Bellic. Although a surefire nightmare for any mother trying to keep her son out of prison, Niko is a great main character who could make even an M. Night Shyamalan film good. Even though English is his second language, he's more glib than most native speakers could ever dream of being on their best day. Like all GTA heroes (anti-hero probably being the better word choice), he has a dark past he's trying to escape. Well, that's not exactly true. He's escaped that one, and found himself in an even darker present. Instead Niko, an immigrant from Serbia, is a perfect example of the horrors of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Now he's on a desperate search for the man who betrayed him and his comrades in the war. Fresh off the freighter, Platypus, he embraces the American Dream Michael Corleone style by killing anyone and everyone who gets in his way. Seriously, what's not to like?
This time around, Rockstar maintains its typical, high level of voice-acting without bringing in well-known actors. This is both refreshing and, at the same time, frustrating when even after you've placed a character's voice, you end up finding yourself S.O.L once you've checked IMDB. Also the radio stations, a GTA trademark, are better than ever. They offer a variety of music, news, commercials, and talk-shows wider than any of its predecessors; music ranging from Classic Rock to stuff straight from the Motherland. Unfortunately, since GTA IV is not meant to take place at any time in particular, there is a lack of nostalgia. The kind of nostalgia that San Andreas gave me all too well; Vice City was just a little before my time (sorry to make some of you readers feel old).
Just to quickly touch on the online play: I think it's fricken' awesome. I haven't played much of it, but I found co-op missions to be insanely fun. And in the words of Forrest Gump, "that's all I have to say about that."
Moving on! Unfortunately with everything in life, GTA IV has its downsides as well. I'm a GTA fan, but not a fanatic. I've played all the main games, but none of the expansions. What attracts me most to the series is the character development, the double-crossing, and the original story telling (any similarity between Vice City and Scarface being purely coincidental, right?). And that's exactly where I found this game to be lacking. I found the ending completely unfulfilling, having no victory over a clearly defined bad guy. And if that wasn't enough, I was only rewarded with a good twenty minutes (believe me, felt more like twenty hours) of uneventful credits and the words "so this is what the American dream feels like" stated poetically by Niko. Well Rockstar, thanks for building me up (buttercup) baby, just to let me down.
Also, there was absolutely no return of any old characters. I read the reason behind this is because they are starting a brand new reality of the GTA universe with this installment. Apparently, this reality doesn't include Tommy Vercetti or CJ. I can't imagine the next game having too many cameos either considering Niko ends up killing most characters you meet (often without your approval), and most of your friends are pretty annoying save Jacob. No doubt the second best character in the game since he's truly the first person in the GTA series you can always count on to have your back. Elizabeta gets the O.K. from me too considering she was the only one with the cojones to actually kill someone herself without sending Niko out to do the dirty work (perhaps she'll have a cameo in GTA 2308 when she gets out of prison).
Although the developers at Rockstar put together an elaborate version of Liberty City, there is one area where the detail is lacking. And although I may be making a big deal out of nothing, this is something that bothers me. First off, many of the buildings in this game cannot be entered. And secondly, although the buildings, from afar, look like they have a certain amount of depth inside are anything but. When you get closer, it's easy to tell that the insides are 2D drawings copied and pasted over windows and doors on a mass scale. Not to mention (my absolute favorite) when every light in the city, both building windows and car headlights, turns on at the exact same time to let us know that "night" has begun.
Something else I found lame, but amazingly realistic, was that even though you get the opportunity to choose from a wide variety of girls to date (exactly like life), barely any actually want to date you (exactly like life). Out of all the girls I got to choose from on lovemeet.com, I could only get two to trust me enough to go out with them. I love that a perk for getting Carmen to like you is when you call her for advice, she tells you to get some rest. I can only assume she means save my game at a safehouse, something I definitely didn't need to waste five dates at a Cluckin' Bell to tell me how to do.
Nonetheless, GTA IV is an all-around fun game to play. It looks great, the voice-acting is superb, the combat system is new and improved, and it's absolutely hilarious. For the most part I enjoyed it from start to finish, so much that it was difficult to pull myself away from the PS3 for more than a day. I even went home on my lunch break from work to get some playtime in. And if it wasn't for MGS4, predicted to be the Second Coming and scheduled for release in less than a month, I wouldn't have a single doubt that GTA wins game of the year. It's an amazing game, just not quite worth the perfect ten that it received from the editors' choice.