I've played quite a bit of GTA 4 now on my 360. I haven't played a lot of GTA for years, because I played the original GTA3 for PS2 until I was fairly sick of the style. GTA 4 brings some improvements to the table in most ways, but it just isn't nearly the 10/10 experience that the reviewers have been heralding it as. I'd put it at 8/10, generously.
The game is fun. There are areas in which R* tried to be more realistic, and it has been okay. Not getting tired when you sprint is fine. The cover system is inconsistent (and generally shitty), so that takes away from a lot of the fire fights. That's fine, though, because GTA has never been a franchise that was good at any one thing so you don't expect it to be able to compete with Vegas 2 at firefights.
Driving is a perfect example of this. Cars roll over too easily, suspension is unbelievably soft on just about everything you drive. It's as if R* wanted to show off the physics and sacrifised drivability to do so. It's not frustrating, it's just stupid. You won't enjoy driving long, and you'll be glad that you can take taxis or the train.
Perhaps the biggest problems I have are the technical problems with the platform (Xbox 360). I'm not talking about pop in, which is sloppy, but not a huge problem. While it's fairly common, R* seems to have done a decent job of prioritizing such that you tend to notice the popup very little unless you're looking for it. One thing I did notice, however, was the framerate which I'd estimate consistently under 30fps, spending most of its time in the low 20s, at best, and often dropping into the low 10s. Take your eyes off of your car while you're driving fast and you'll see what I mean -- this causes relatively (but not terribly) sluggish input which, combined with bad driving physics to begin with make driving something you'll spend a lot of time managing rather than enjoying. If you are used to very polished games, you'll find yourself working a bit to ignore the technical problems.
The highest action scenes are often accompanied by very low framerates.
There are a lot of missions, of course, as with any GTA game. There were many more than Godfather, for example, or at least they take considerably longer. I spent about 30 hours with Godfather, for reference, and GTA 4 can easily have more time sunk into it. However, there are a lot of side issues to manage: going out with friends, playing darts, bowling, taking them to strip clubs, etc. It all felt like a huge chore. The darts and bowling were shitty, and I always turned people down when they called and asked to hang out. I didn't want to waste time doing boring shit to get a tiny perk.
Dates are the same. Pick up girl, take her somewhere, drive her back, get lame reward. Change clothing before picking her up again. Complete chore, and I hated doing it.
The missions, on the other hand, are much more mixed. There are quite a few boring "go here, pick this up" or "go here, kill this person" missions, but there are a lot of very fun missions as well. I don't want to spoil the details, but they're fun.
This is a sandbox game, but you'll find yourself limited. If you don't want to wander around aimlessly, you'll need to do missions. Often, you'll have choices. Sometimes you will have only one mission available at a time. Or none. There were times when we had to take Michelle on a date or something to kill some time and get a mission. You can call people, but if the game doesn't have missions lined up for you, they'll go to voice mail.
The story really holds the game together. It's surprisingly good, for a video game. If this was a movie, it'd be a shitty movie, but because you're playing and the way in which you are being fed the story, it makes the whole package a lot more compelling. It makes you interested in playing more, not for the sake of playing, and not for the sake of completion, but because you want to progress through the game.
Occationally, the game shows immaturity as there are a few parts where it will feel like you're at a party with a friend who never swears and is suddenly trying to work heavy use of profanity into his conversations. It sounds forced and silly.
The writing is often fairly witty. Characters are cast in simple categories based on stereotypes, but are hilarious and relatively fun. You'll find youself finding some characters more interesting than others, and you'll want to work more with them because they're funny or interesting in some other way. Niko himself is both simple and contradictory: he wants his life to be one way, but acts contrary to it almost the entire time. I suppose the writers wanted to make him more empathetic to the player, but it feels like it just gets in the way constantly as it would be better if he'd just always act like the lowlife crimal that he is.
That's why we're playing, after all. I'd assign this game an 8/10, because I'm willing to look past a lot of the technical issues due to the scope of what R* is trying to accomplish. It's not the best game released in 2008, but it's a good one. Everyone interested in gaming should play through it, or at least spend some time with it.
