| NJ5 said: Not assuming you trust me, but here's my history with GTA IV so far: Played it a bit the day I got it in the mail (one or two days after launch). Didn't find it great, the missions weren't interesting at all. I liked the atmosphere of the game though. For a few days after that, I was too addicted to MK:Wii to play anything else. Then I played GTA IV for an afternoon. The missions were getting more fun, but the minigames and social interaction are fucking boring. Since then, I haven't played it again. It seems I'll finish this game in sporadic playing sessions.
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My experience was more or less the same, but I had a blockbuster $10 gift card so I just rented it. I kept it the extra 7 days (this blockbuster participates in the life after late fees program, so there was no penalty), I so made a point of playing it extra even though MK: Wii is freakin' awesome online.
I think I spent much more time on it, though, as I spent quite a bit of time beating missions and flying helicopters on the last island. The missions started out better, but ended up getting really repetitive, and the technical issues with the game would start getting irritating.
In order to complete some of the more pain in the ass missions, you'd have to drive across town (you can't take a cab because you needed that car), then you'd have to do a shootout, often a long shootout, with their shitty implementation of a cover system, then you'd have to evade the police. Most of the time, the game would fail to spawn cars, as it often does when there is a lot going on, or it would spawn ten of the same model car because only loads a couple of different models at a time, so you'd end up having to settle for some shitty car for your escape. And if your escape failed for some reason, you'd have to redo the entire mission including a mundane drive across town.
The game can became more of a chore than fun. I always avoided driving, because it wasn't particularly good and you spent a ton of time driving past buildings that were nothing more than cardboard faces -- you couldn't go in them, or on them, or do anything with them. Doors just didn't open. There are only a few buildings you can entire in the entire city. As far a being a city goes, it's really a barren wasteland of empty and unusable buildings.
The story itself is okay, although it starts running in circles when they decided they needed more content and didn't have enough real story to satify it. The characters, (especially Brucy who you meet early on), can be hilarious.
Honestly, I think I would have enjoyed it more if I could have dropped it and quit playing for a few weeks, then put some more time into it. It's, by no means, one of the top games I've played this year. But it can be fun in a random and short-spurt kind of way.
The online multiplayer can be quite a bit of fun too because of the randomness, but the Xbox Live community is unbelivably terrible (fail to communicate, don't know what the mission is, disorganized, more interested in repeating the word faggot as quickly as possible than playing the game, etc).
