Xbox 360 Game News, Reviews, and Columns - XboxFocus

Rarely, video games come around that are more than just your standard, run-of-the-mill release. They are near flawless, and change the way you play video games, and the way you look at them. Lately, they are so few and far in-between that when one comes, it feels as if you never experienced one before. For me at least, it's been eleven years since a video game moved me the way the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time did. Although the past decade or so has been filled with relative gaming bliss, the experience I had with Ocarina of Time has been absent, and I even convinced myself that I'd never get that feeling from a video game ever again.

Until now. Grand Theft Auto IV is an absolute masterpiece in every sense of the word. Whatever expectations you had, whether they be as high as Mount Everest or as low as Jessica Simpson's IQ, discard them immediately. Grand Theft Auto IV will surpass all of them, and will blow you away from the moment you plung yourself into Liberty City. This game cannot be missed by anyone; no matter your gaming preferences and gamer classifications (hardcore, casual, etc.). Grand Theft Auto IV is just that incredible, and I'm going to try my best to put it all down in a couple of hundred words.

I could go into every facet of Grand Theft Auto IV from the top the Rotterdam Building (Liberty City's version of the Empire State Building) to some of the game's grungiest strip joints, but I'm not. That is for you to enjoy, and I'd be one hell of a prick to ruin this game for you. However, you should know that Liberty City is an astonishing piece of gaming history. Whatever you're used to as far as real-world settings in video games, forget about them.

Liberty City is as real as the metroplis it's based around, regardless of the Grand Theft Auto flavor thrown into it. You have cell phone services, shopping centers, numerous mediums of entertainment, realistic pedestrians, daily fluxing commutes, and whatever else you'd expect to find in New York. For christ sake, there is even a fully fledged internet service with hundreds of websites you can find. The city has history which you can research, girls you can find to date (don't worry, no Hot Coffee here), and thousands of other little features that truly bring this city to life.

The amount of detail in Liberty City is apparent from the moment you boot the game up. You can see beauitful architecture and infrastructure everywhere you look, and at some point in the game you will have to stop and take the city's majesty in; whether it be looking at Liberty City's version of Brooklyn Bridge or glaring at the bustling lights of LC's Times Square. There are also highly varied neighborhoods, accents, races and much more as you progress through the city. In the end, this virtual simulation of New York City is as close as you can get, and to have that in a sixty dollar video game ignitiates Grand Theft Auto IV as not only a piece of gaming perfection, but also a downright steal.

Liberty City is awe-worthy, but the game's characters are like icing on the cake. They make you laugh, they make you cry, and most importantly: they make you care. You're going to root for Niko as you did when you pulled for Rocky in the 70s, and on the opposite side of the spectrum, you'll curse his antagonists. It's usually hard to associate with video game characters as after all, their bodies consist of artificial polygons and pixels. But Grand Theft Auto IV strides past that barrier with relative ease. Whether it be the great voicework present, or the excellent dialogue that appears throughout the game's life span; there is a lot of love to be spread all around as far as the game's characters go.

Grand Theft Auto took up their real-world experience exponentially with Liberty City, but that's not the only upgrade GTAIV possesses. What really has seen the largest upgrade is the game's core gameplay. It starts with combat, the most improved facet of the game by far. Hand-to-hand combat works more fluently than ever, the shooting mechanic has been vastly upgraded, but the the glaring difference is the new cover system. I had doubts about this cover system going into the game, but after playing through it I can easily say that Rockstar did a superb job. It works well, and definitely renders the more combat oriented missions as the missions you'll be craving for the most.

There can't be enough said about Grand Theft Auto IV's single play experience, there simply can't. But Rockstar didn't stop there, they also added a fully fledged multiplayer experience which absolutely kicks ass. You have many modes to choose from, and thousands of customization possibilites that can take Halo 3 for a spin. But the best part is this: full integration with Liberty City. That''s right, the Liberty City I was raving about from before is fully integrated with the game's online interface. Just like nearly everything else, the integration works flawlessly. I know alot of people are going into the game's multiplayer experience with a light train of thought, but don't push the game's multiplayer to the side. It will definitely shock you the same way it did to me, and makes Grand Theft Auto IV that much better.

Rockstar could have released the single player experience solely and I would still have given this game five stars. They could could have released just the multiplayer side of Grand Theft Auto IV and I'd would even give that game a great score. It's just that amazing. Now by no means is Grand Theft Auto IV perfect, some mechanics seem forced and there are a few techincal glitches present throughtout the game. But honestly, they don't matter enough to give a shit. Grand Theft Auto IV is perfect as a video game, as a technical showcase, and as an entertainment medium. XboxFocus' ranking system could be out of a million and guess what, I'd still give this game a perfect score. Grand Theft Auto IV is the game of the century, and you'd be a fool to miss out.

Ocarina of Time has truly met its match, and the eleven year wait couldn't have felt any longer.