I've played about 28 hours into the game, and although I'm not finished (I'll admit that much) I think I've played enough and seen enough of the game to write a full review. Graphics: The animations are fine, the character look good, the vehicles look VERY good (huge improvement), and the overall look and size of the game is fabulous. The framerate is dodgy at times, the "blur" effect is annoying and permanent (you can't disable it like in the 2 previous GTA's) and there are some small graphical bugs you might run into (like textures not loading up fast enough) Sound/Music: most of the sound effects are alirght, although some of the ambient gunfire going off in the backround sounds mechanical. (People don't fire their guns at preset intervals like that) Some of the gun sound FX don't give that special "punch" either, but everything else from the voice acting, to a car engine purring or a thunderstorm, sound spot on. The choice of music is not especially to my liking, although I do find some solace in the SF-UR station (house music) of course it all comes down to music preference. Although I can't imagine ANY of the GTA fans giving the country station a serious listen (but it's nice to have it for "authenticity") Gameplay: This is the real meat and potatoes of my review. The overall gameplay is what you've come to expect from the GTA franchise, standard missions you do for various contacts in the game. Complete enough of them and you unlock/progress the storyline a bit more. One of the main improvements in this game is character customization, and mini games added. Although many complain that all the mini games are just "filler" and don't really add much to the game, they really don't take much away either, in other words, it doesn't hurt to have the option to play pool against a friend or NPC if you feel like it. It doesn't hurt to have the option for a 2 player rampage. All the improvements added are too many to name so I'll just list what I can remember; drive-bys work alot better (with multiple people), more vehicles to drive, more planes to fly (trust me), mini games galore (pool, arcade games, dance-dance revolution-type game), turf wars, girlfriends, car and clothing customization (you now keep a wardrobe of clothing in your safehouses), improved NPC AI, more interaction with the NPC's(u can reply to comments said), and free aiming with any gun. The main story missions are a lot more fleshed out than previous GTA's, with a wide variety of objectives, and things to accomplish. None of the monotany of Liberty City's "arcadey" missions, or Vice city's annoying boat missions here. Almost all of them are fun to play, or meaningful to the storyline. (albeit, I haven't beaten the game, but from what I've played it's been a blast) Also your character has RPG-like qualities allowing him to gain more muscle, stamina, or fat. Your respect level lets you do things from recruiting more gang members to gambling harder. And Sex appeal is just that, sex appeal. Now my main gripe with these little statistics is that it's just WAY to easy to gain muscle. I had my main character jacked to the max before I even unlocked the first gym. Stamina takes a lot longer to build, but still, its just too easy. But, besides that, I don't find that increasing your characters stats gets in the way of the game, so Rockstar pulled that off without a hitch. All in all, this game is the best 1 player experience I've played up to date. With a great story, a huge map, and tons of things to see and do, it's well worth the money. And although it may not be perfect in every sense of the word (shoddy framerate, and a dissapointing soundtrack), it's still the best game out there right now, and if your a fan of adventure gaming, or video gaming period, i suggest you go buy yourself a copy right now.
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