Score: 9.5/10

Yeah, so I bought this a few days ago. Loaded it into the PS3. Went through the install procedure that apparently reduces load times. Dum-de-dum.... then I played the first mission, the classic "Drive your friend (cousin in this case) from x to y" scenario that was at the start of GTA III as well. That was pretty dull. So then I got to the first safehouse and dropped him off. Then watched as a vibrant, deep cinematic exploded in front of me and quite simply rocked my foundations.

Being the story-driven player I am, I immediately indulged myself and ran over several pedestrians, shot a police officer, stole a cop car, ran into a park, flipped the car which was shot until it exploded killing more people, stole another cop car... the mayhem went on. And that was great. Running in and out of buildings with no loading times... the sandbox play is better than ever.

Simply put, GTA 4 is, so far, amazing. The story isn't a load of absolute crap, there's a cover system (fuck yeah), and the game is full of those little touches that just warm your heart, such as when stealing a parked car, Niko will break the window either with his foot or elbow, and then hotwire the car. The days of finding curiously unlocked and yet alarmed cars are over. The procedure can be sped up by rapidly pressing either the left or right shoulder. Granted, that kinda speeds it up a little too much, but it's nice nevertheless. Oh, and you're no longer the only citizen in big old Liberty City that actually commits crimes. Citizens will randomly be arrested, and I walked past the back of some nondescript residence to hear a drug raid in progress. That's right, you can hear what's going on in certain buildings, even if you can't walk in there. Just another one of those little things that adds a crapload of depth.

The missions are pretty interesting, and varied. I love dealing with Little Jacob, simply for the little conversation snippets that follow as Niko can't understand Little Jacob's speech. There's some eyebrow raising moments (I was trying to park a car in a certain place so that the target I was chasing wouldn't get very far. It suddenly and spontaneously exploded with no warning every time I tried) but nothing major. I became genuinely attached to the characters (particularly Dimitri. Not happy with that, Rockstar!), even that whiny little bitch Roman. Jesus, that guy needs to grow some balls. Talking about him brings me to another point; the cell phone. Characters randomly ring you with missions, just to chat or to invite you out. Sometimes the calls don't come at the best of times: I was stalking a drug dealer back to his supplier all quiet like, and suddenly Roman rings me and asks if I want to go play pool. Niko barks into the phone "I can't talk right now, Roman. Shit!" and hangs up with RAGE. But that isn't a bland response, it changes depending on the mission. Roman rings me to go drinking whilst I'm driving a truck full of explosives and Niko replies that that will guarantee his death. Fantastic.

Going out is fairly enjoyable but gets tiresome, and some girlfriends are the most frustrating ever. My friend spent $1,000 on a suit, to which the girlfriend replies "I liked your clothes yesterday a lot better" and shuts him out in the cold. Well, oh snap. There's the choice of visiting restaurants, strip clubs, going bowling, going to a show... oh, and you can sit at home to watch TV. Because who doesn't buy a game to play to watch TV... we've got one already, thank you Rockstar.

Multiplayer is where it falls a little flat, in my opinion. Yes, the mechanics are great. I absolutely love the idea of cruising around Liberty City with some friends, or blasting them to high heaven. But, they've gone all CoD4 on us and made it so you simply select a gametype and you're off. Which annoys me. Yes, there's a party system. But you can't look through servers, notice "Oh, that guy. Well, they're a dickhead" and not join, or "Oh, there's a good server, hosted by X. I love the players in that." and join. You just... go. Rockstar try to distract me with great character customization, the ability to roam Liberty City in it's entirety, but sorry. I just can't get over that little point. Not to say that I won't play this until my eyes bleed, but it's just not going to get that perfect score a la Gamespot.

Lastly, I'll touch upon the PS3-exclusive motion control. You have the option of reloading your weapon, going bowling, playing darts, playing pool, driving a bike, driving a boat, and flying a helicopter with motion control. I personally can't stand any more than steering bikes, boats and helicopters with it, but only in sandbox mode. If in a mission it gets a little painful. Of course, it comes with the option to reconfigure the base pitch of the controller every time you enter a vehicle, to prevent you getting into a helicopter and immediately flipping it over. So that's nice. All in all, a nice feature but possibly not as useful as it seems.

That possibly sums up a lot of GTA 4's mechanics, in fact. Ha, listen to that. It sounds as if I didn't enjoy the game. Well, I did. This is definitely a must-buy.