shams said:
BTW, a site gave GTA4 a 9 (gasp!) - and it has a well written review: http://www.boomtown.net/en_uk/articles/art.view.php?id=15916 ... Everything from San Andreas is improved. It had to. The gaming world has moved on and GTA has had to evolve to compete. And while the driving isn't quite to my taste it's clearly improved. You can't have everything – the slightly off sound mix, difficulty in reading mobile phone text, restarting mission issues – these are all things that you do notice. But they don't stop you having a silly amount of fun with Grand Theft Auto IV.
But before we get too carried away there's nothing particularly ground breaking about GTA IV. This is a mechanic we've been playing for years polished to a shine we've not seen before. But the old mechanic of cutscene, drive, kill, evade is still there. There's no revolution here. Grand Theft Auto IV is brilliant, but it's not the original Gran Turismo, Mario 64 or Half-Life 2. And while there's a huge story here most players won't see most of it, the problem with GTA games has never been how much of it there is, but how much of it you want to see.
GTA IV is the best game in the series. It's a triumph – especially in terms of design and character performance. A PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 owner's library is incomplete without it. But in four months time we'll remember it as a superb game, rather than a new epoch in videogaming. ... Interesting! A few more of these, and all of my objections to the scores will slowly fade away. I guess Bioshock started in a similar fashion. @mrstickball: - using a "on screen pointer" to collect items (in 3D) - using a "on screen pointer" to aim & fire items (in 3D) - "real" use of spherical (& other) shaped worlds, including the gravity mechanic - using a pointer to select & activate "gravity pull points", in a useful analog-sort of way - two player co-operative mechanic in that form (although I can't name a single platformer, where two players can control the same character full stop?) They are the obvious ones that come to mind, that until galaxy hit - I had *never* seen before in any game. Most of them come down to the "unique" nature of the Wiimote - just can't be done with a Dualshock / GC controller. Some of the other actions using the Wiimote (such as rolling the ball), but aren't actually that innovative - its just Monkey Ball with a slightly different input mechanic. | 
![[Prototype]](https://www.vgchartz.com/games/boxart/2846586AmericaFrontccc.jpg)
