GTA4 Review for Xbox 360

The graphics in GTA4 for Xbox 360 are top notch. The cars are so realistic looking that I started to laugh as the shiny reflections zoomed by my character. The backgrounds are well developed with great detail in the textures and shading. The characters have also been upgraded as the silly swaying and choppy hand movements of characters from previous versions have been greatly improved although not quite fixed as there are a few circumstances where the characters do revert back to the old awkward movements. Everything in the game looks great but my main problem with the graphics is the lack of scenic area. Coming off of GTA San Andreas I really miss the small towns in between the big cities. I understand that Liberty City is modeled after New York but they could have expanded the territory to reach some rural areas. As it is you tend to get bored with nothing but city surroundings.

Controls:

In the beginning of the game the controls are a bit clunky and your character is slow to react but after you complete some missions your player's skills get better and the controls are much better. The game controls are good but manually locking on a target is hard to do without getting stuck in auto aim mode where it will have you lock on the wrong person many times so in the middle of a shootout you can end up turned around shooting pedestrians. However, this is not a huge problem though.

Storyline:

The story line of GTA4 is the best of any GTA game so far and all the extra character interaction you get really adds to the depths of which you feel connected to the game. You can go on dates, watch TV, go online, hang out with friends, go to the comedy club and cabaret clubs, and even go sightseeing. The only down side is the game seemed to end a little quickly and the lack of gambling was something that I missed a lot. This was by far the quickest GTA game I've finished.

All and all, GTA4 gets a 10 out of 10

I had great fun playing GTA4 on Xbox 360 and would definitely recommend this to be the first game to buy for the system because GTA games offer so much variety it's like having many different games in one and it is close to impossible to get bored of playing it.