[bad soda]

[PS3] Grand Theft Auto 4 – FIRST IMPRESSION:  The best GTA yet, but perfection?

I have only played about four hours, tops, across the entire GTA franchise.  Most of it was Liberty City Stories and GTA III.  I think the sandbox genre is wicked, I love Mercenaries and Gun and pretty much conquered all of Bully but GTA has awful driving and worse shooting.  Why would I play a game primarily made up of driving and shooting when doing either was like playing any other game with my feet?

I’m completely at odds with the recent reviews that say the word “perfection.”  A top score of 10 (or its equivalent) doesn’t need a perfect game, but when the reviewers in Game Informer actually use the word perfect I have a hard time not criticizing.  The graphics are finally up to PS2 standards, and the shooting is still worse than any other game in its league.  I’m finally getting better at driving, and honestly: the game is awesome.  It’s finally got me into a GTA where I’m going to buy and beat it.

I’m most impressed with the characters and the story; T was actually kind of wondering why I didn’t head off immediately and start wasting cops but I wanted to see what my cousin Roman was up to, and my new asshole “boss” Vlad.  Maybe that’s where this game gets it’s positive scores, and I’m not ready to say I wouldn’t give it such a high number with only a few hours in, but I would never say perfect to a game that looks and plays like this.