I've been playing the game for approximately 4 or 5 hours now. I haven't completed too many missions, but enough to get the gist of it (maybe 5 or 6) mainly I've been exploring the possibilities of Liberty City. I'm fairly familiar with the sections of the city that are open. Now I can tell you straight out THIS GAME IS NOT A 10. Not to discredit everything it does right. like the fact when you've beat up someone and you stand over them your leg which is on top of their body rises. There's tons of impressive details along those lines BUT you cannot go into any more buildings than you could in San Andreas. It seems like there's less actually.
People have complained about driving but I can tell you its fine, you're not supposed to drive 100 through city neighborhoods and this game won't let you do that unless you're a really, really good driver. The controls DO feel a bit wonky at first, but this is a long game and there's plenty of time to adjust and they DO work.The reason ITS NOT A 10 though are because of the previously mentioned problem with buildings not being accessible, other little glitches like the fact you can crouch and be submersed in water yet stay there forever and not drown, and almost all the little problems from previous GTA games as well as other various problems with games (ex:stand near a group of people talking and very often all you'll hear are sparse random comments)HOWEVER one big positive for this game is that Liberty City, as the reviews state, does looked lived in. THAT IS THE ACHIEVEMENT OF THE GAME over everything else. It looks like people use it, trash it, and use it for all it's worth. In that respect the game is beautiful.So I mean they've improved combat with the cover system and battle mechanics. (people want a Tekken type of battle system in gta and that's not meant to happen). The gunplay is great, everything feels great BUT IT'S NOT WORTHY OF A HIGHEST AWARD from any site. Close but it needs to do more than just make a prettier city than what was in the GTA III series to make that game.