Will Grand Theft Auto IV Be Grand?

This week, Rockstar Games released a trailer for the upcoming game, Grand Theft Auto IV, which is scheduled to be released on 10-16-07. It gave a brief glimpse into what the next edition of the hit game will be like. The trailer showed an apparent Russian Mafia member as the lead character back in the original environment of the game, Liberty City.

The game is scheduled to be released on both the Xbox360 and the Playstation 3 this coming fall. The graphics in the trailer were definitely next generation graphics with details much more impressive than the titles released on the old consoles. However, graphics do not make a great game. Will this game have both the graphics and the plot? We shall see in October.

The Grand Theft Auto series has always been a hit beginning with the 2d versions of Grand Theft Auto 1 & 2. The franchise really made its mark with its turn into a 3d version set in Liberty City in Grand Theft Auto III. The unique game style of transitioning from a third person action to a first person racing game set the style for a majority of games which have been released since part III.

Grand Theft Auto III Vice City was a game set in Miami in the 1980's with a Miami Vice style of theme. The action in this game was so great it was hard for anyone who played it to put the game down. The great sound track as well as the plot made this game near perfect. San Andreas, the most recent GTA game, was just as solid as the previous two titles, however it lacked the uniqueness that the other games in the series contained.

The next release of the Grand Theft Auto franchise has a lot to live up to. Not only does it need to be as good as the previous games, but it needs to be better to live up to the expectations. It cannot simply be the same game with better graphics. It needs better graphics, better sound, and something that the other games do not have. In fact it needs to have something that no other game has ever had. Unfortunately, the Rockstar team has set the bar for game releases and now must raise that bar each time a Grand Theft auto game is released.

The trailer looks like it could live up to it. The sounds and graphics are great and the plot looks mildly entertaining. The real question on everyone's mind is what will the unique aspect of this game be? What will the game take advantage of on this generation's systems? Only time will tell, but Grand Theft Auto IV should be on everyone's watch list for titles released this year.