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IN GENERAL

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is the GTA gold standard as far as I'm concerned. It's perhaps because it was my first exposure to the franchise--played it at a friend's house on a console I don't remember, maybe the PS2?--but no other GTA game has quite managed to measure up to it.

Until IV.

I consider myself a fan of the franchise, though there are a few games I haven't played at all (GTA I and GTA II) or just never completed (San Andreas). But I loved Vice City. Start to finish, it was one of the most fun, engaging and compelling games I'd ever played. The setting was amazing, the soundtrack sounded like it'd been put together just for me (I was born in '83, but music-wise, I'm an '80s girl) and Tommy Vercetti, VC's psychopathic lead, was fun, competent and in control of everything around him (something that SA lead CJ lacked).

It's not that San Andreas is a bad game. It's not. It got high ratings and critics and fans alike falling all over themselves trying to fap themselves to death over it for a reason. I just never really got into it. A big part of that was CJ, who I thought was just mostly whiny and who I wished would be more like Tommy. Tommy wouldn't have put up with all of Catalina's bullshit (he'd probably have shot her five minutes after meeting her, saving us (and Claude) a whole lot of grief) and he wouldn't have let Tenpenny push him around either. There was no way in hell CJ could measure up to the legendary Tommy Vercetti and so, San Andreas became more of a chore than a game.

There was also the part of the game that was more like The Sims than GTA (IV has a tiny bit of this in the form of maintaining relationships with your friends, but I found this to be less annoying, mostly because Niko's friends are AWESOME). You had to work out to keep buff, had to practice your driving and biking to become good at it and at one point I had to swim for about thirty minutes before I could even start a mission that had swimming as a big part of it. This is a type of realism, just not one I particularly enjoy. If I wanted to play Sim!CJ, I'd recreate CJ in The Sims and make sure he goes potty often enough to keep him happy. I don't want to worry about it when I'm playing a completely different genre.

The other problem I had with SA was the countryside, a.k.a. the endless areas filled with trees and muds and sandy paths. I disliked driving out to the middle of nowhere for a mission, completing it, and then having to drive all the way back to the nearest town to save my game. It got even more fun when it was the middle of the night and there were about three cars on the road, leaving me to walk a fair amount until I finally managed to jack a car.

And fuck flight school. I hated this more than any RC chopper mission ever.

At any rate, after the sheer awesome that was VC, SA was a bit of a disappointment. I never even finished it and for ages I put the GTA series out of my head to play other games (mostly Guild Wars and The Sims, with some The Orange Box thrown in for good measure). News of IV hit the net at some point, but at first I mostly ignored it since it was going to be released on consoles and I'm a PC gamer. It wasn't until the PC port rumors were getting stronger that I started paying attention to GTA again.

Anyone who's even paid a little attention to the gaming world knows all about the IV release. Recordshattering sales, general mania, people going nuts, etc. No need to rehash it. I waited for the PC port, got it release day.

At which point I put it down for several months *shifty*. I'd gotten Fallout 3 around the same time and that game was happily sucking away any free time I had left. It wasn't until March '09 that I finally decided to actually play the game I'd plunked a fair amount of money down for.

Installing it was the kind of drama I never want to relive again. Sufficient to say I won't ever be uninstalling it for fear of having to go through the process again. It can live on my hard drive (alongside VC, SA and III) until the day my comp dies for all I care. Anyway, after a lot of swearing, shouting and a couple of tears, I managed to get it up and running. And I was fucking blown away.

(Not that literally.) Once I got used to the camera and the improved car handling that is. I know Rockstar was moving in a more serious, less cartoon-y direction and while on the one hand that was kind of a shame, I think that they've succeeded most admirably. The new, moody Liberty City fits the tone of the story of Niko Bellic, a Serbian immigrant coming to America looking for someone who betrayed him in the past. Once in Liberty City, Niko meets up with his cousin Roman, who in turns introduces him to all kinds of people Niko winds up running jobs for in exchange for information and cold hard cash. Roman is kind of a big doof, but he's pretty loveable and the relationship between him and Niko, one of the strongest in the game, is well-drawn and feels realistic.

It was good to see Rockstar still hadn't lost their touch. Every GTA game they've published since II has been nothing but varying shades of "fucking awesome" and IV was no exception. They set the bar very high for themselves and continually manage to top themselves. I can't wait to see what further GTA installments will bring.

MISCELLANEOUS IV THOUGHTS IN BULLET POINTS

IV is better than VC, which was better than SA, which in turn was better than III.
Niko Bellic might very well be my favorite lead character, but on days that end in -y, it could also be VC's Tommy Vercetti. Does Niko's angst and coldbloodedness edge out Tommy's general crazyness and self-awareness of the fact he's kind of insane? On some days, it does.
Three Leaf Clover was the best IV mission.
Pegorino's Pride was the worst. Oops, squeezed the trigger too early. Restart. Ack, accidentally shot Peg in the head. Restart. Argh, too slow in getting to Peg. Restart. Oops, went too fast and got killed. Restart. I had to go do something else for an hour before I was calmed down enough to retry it again.
I'll Take Her was the one of the funniest, if only for that bit where Niko finally pops Gracie in the face. Hilarious.
Packie McReary is the best supporting character.
Though, really, all of the McRearys are awesome in their own (despicable) ways: Ma McReary, for being indulgent of her kids' criminal activies; Kate, for managing to live a clean life despite growing up in a family seeped in crime; Francis, for being a massive dick I actually hated; Derrick, for fooling me into believing him and making me kill Aiden O'Malley (who I wanted to let live); and finally Gerry, for being as protective of his insane family as Niko is of his.
I thought it was a shame there was no option to let Aiden O'Malley live. When Packie leaves Niko with him (taking the CAR, that fucker), I thought it was set-up for a kill/spare scene, but sadly, that wasn't the case. I kind of liked him. He had a funny accent and seemed like an okay guy.
Speaking of kill/spare scenes, I had the hardest time with Darko Brevic. I literally agonized over it for minutes, trying to stay faithful to Niko Bellic. In the end, I believed killing him would be less of a punishment for him than letting him live as a hopeless junkie (which, in Liberty City, would probably not be long). So Darko was spared--and I think it was the right choice. But damn, that was tough. Niko's biggest problem is his inability to let go of the past and so I played it as Niko slowly beginning to... heal, for lack of a better term. It's one of IV's strengths--making the player think about things like that (though I'm sure there are thousands of players who shot Darko in the face without a second thought. And let's be honest, for what he did, Darko deserved what Niko was planning on dishing out).
"Yelloooow caaaar!" Drunk Niko is the best Niko.
Elizabeta shooting Manny and the cameraman was a bit of a shock. Dayum. Didn't see that coming at all and actually spent a minute going, "Wait, are they really... dead? Not just unconscious?" (Because point-blank shots to the head cause loss of consciousness, clearly.) It wasn't until Niko drove the bodies to the organ harvester that I really realized it.
Stealing a cop car has never been easier. Just call 'em and they come running!

THE LITTLE THINGS ♥

The way Niko breaks car windows with his elbow, after looking around first.
Radio feedback when your phone rings while in a car.
Execution cutscenes.
Car-jacking animations that are dependent on what kind of weapon you're wielding, if you're wielding a weapon at all.
Sirens sounding different in tunnels and when they are broken (that feeble little sound is quite funny)
Cops arresting people other than you.
Hearing about your exploits on the radio (Weazel News ♥)
People putting up umbrellas up when it starts to rain, or shielding themselves with newspapers or briefcases.
LCPD being unable to come up with a "cool nickname" for the serial killer.
The graffiti on the wall next to the front door in your first safehouse ("Remember Tommy. You're still my hero.")
The ringing sound in your ears if you stood too close to an explosion.
www.littlelacysurprisepageant.com. Go on, visit it. I dare you.
A street in Chinatown named Wong Way. Yeah, I laughed. Because clearly I am twelve.
The black and white, slow-mo screen you get when you get wasted/busted.
The long, long time it takes Niko to figure Francis McReary and Patrick McReary are related. Hee.
Shoving people down the stairs will never get old.
Ditto pushing them under oncoming trains.
Niko getting more aggressive as the game progresses, and his accent getting less pronounced.
Niko never drinking alcohol in cutscenes until the very end. A little bit of characterization that's never explicitly referred to by anyone.
Niko's many names: Niko, Nikolai (presumably his full name), NB, Nicky, Nick, boy (by Packie... who is actually younger), Yokel...
The little slide Niko does when you're running and hitting the cover button.
Fat cops giving up the chase when their target climbs a fence. "Yeah, dispatch, I lost him..."
Brucie's "funny balls".
Brucie/girl/Roman threesomes. Baaaaad mental images, baaaad.
Sneaking through alleys to stay out of sight of the cops.
Niko in a suit and glasses. I approve.

THE FUTURE: everybody has a wishlist

Real, actual, honest-to-God closure on characters from past GTAs. I don't need to see them, I just want to know what happened. Are they alive? Dead? If not dead, where are they now? Prison? Hiding? Living the good life in the Caribbean? Just give me something.
Customizable lead character.
More fluff: properties, businesses, customization of cars, etc.
One the one hand, I'd love to see Vice City again in the RAGE engine. On the other hand, don't mess with perfection. I'm torn!
Being able to sit on things, like a park bench, and just watch the city pass you by. Such a little thing...
Fingerless gloves. *shifty* What? You know they're awesome. (He's wearing them in the art! GIVE THEM TO ME.)
No exclusives. Fuck 'em. Release it on the big consoles and the PC, please. Yes, I know piracy rates are sky-high. But everyone also knows GTA NeXt will make a flamillion dollars regardless. IV set a record-high number of sales that won't be broken by anything but the next GTA. You know, I know it, everybody knows it.
A reasonably sized installment like IV was. San Andreas was way too big; it took forever to get anywhere. Vice City was really a bit on the small side, but the big advantage of it was that it was easy to memorize the layout. By the end of the game, I knew where everything was and could drive anywhere without consulting the map.
And never, ever lose the taxi system. It is a fucking godsend. Ditto the cover system. It helps out idiot AI like you wouldn't believe.
Instead of your friends calling you to hang out or get drunk, have your friends call you (or you call them) to wreak some havoc. Steal somethign big, rob a bank, have a fun evening dropping Molotov cocktails at the cops from a high building, that sort of thing. It'd be a different kind of bonding experience.
Port the drug running minigame from Chinatown Wars. Being chased by the cops is a hell of a lot more intense when you've got a bag full of cocaine on you.
Above all, I would urge Rockstar to not listen to the community. It consists of mostly of idiots and/or people with highly unrealistic ideas--ignore them. Make the game you want to make. You've never not succeeded at making a great GTA game.