I haven't been a huge GTA fan since the first two titles on the PC, and up until January of this year, I hadn't owned a console since the SNES (though I was a BIG fan of the Dreamcast when my brother had one). But in general, for most of my life, I've been a PC-only type of guy. A few months ago I bought an Xbox 360. I didn't think I'd like it, but I'm obsessed with it, and I've barely touched my PC games since I got it. So there's my background.
When GTAIV finally had a release date that I felt was solid, I pre-ordered it. I got in line at Gamestop at 11:00 pm on release night to pick it up. I allowed myself to get caught up in the hype, the release parties, the press coverage, and the giddy excitement of a new GTA title. (Again, keep in mind that I haven't played a GTA game since the second one.) It was a fun couple of days.
Then I brought the game home and played it, and I had a "meh" reaction to it. It was fun and everything, but I didn't really get what all the hype and buffoonery was all about. And I especially didn't get why it was getting such amazing scores. The nail in the coffin for me was that I didn't seem to be getting anywhere in the game, and I eventually became disinterested in it. Ninja Gaiden II and Battlefield: Bad Company came out, and I focused my affections on both of those games. I think the media hype surrounding GTAIV and the inevitable letdown afterwards finally just took its toll on my enjoyment of the game and I simply moved on.
Fast forward to a few nights ago. I had long since finished Ninja Gaiden II, I was finished with BF:BC's single player mode and needed a little breather from the multi player mode, and none of my friends were online to play Burnout: Paradise with me, so I put GTAIV in my disc tray and started playing. After I got my bearings and remembered exactly what was going on the last time I played, I started really getting into the game. I've been playing it for multiple hours at a time every night since then. And I'm finding myself wishing that this game would never end. I think I could drive around Liberty City all day every day for at least the next month or so. I'm totally addicted to this game right now!!!
Did any of you have this same experience? I don't think this game deserved the ratings it got, but it deserves something close to that. In a weird way, I feel like GTAIV is what Oblivion was supposed to be. Oblivion took over about 200 hours of my life back when it first came out. I was hard core addicted to that game. But the AI in Oblivion didn't turn out the way the demo footage from Bethesda promised it would, and the leveling feature was annoying. Those two things stopped Oblivion from being the most close-to-perfect game I've ever played. GTAIV's graphics don't quite live up to Oblivion's, but there are moments, if you're at the right time of day in the right weather, that the GTA IV iteration of Liberty City looks absolutely stunning. And the AI is like nothing I've ever seen in a game before. It's more like the "radiant AI" that Bethesda was promising but never delivered. Neither game has an incredibly compelling main story line, but neither game is really that kind of game. Complex story lines are for games like Neverwinter Nights 2 or MGS4.
Anyway, I just can't believe how much more I like GTA IV now than I did the first time I tried playing it, and I wanted to express my love here on the forums.
