Currently Playing: GTA IV

Well I think enough time has passed where my slow-ish (What can I say? I have a life) progress on GTA IV will no longer be a spoiler risk for people who picked it up on or about launch..

To be fair I'm not going to go into a huge amount of detail anyway.. I think it's a game that's best approached with an open mind. Certainly there's a lot less scale than there was in GTA:SA but possibly a lot more to do, of worth, at any one time. I have just unlocked the third island and I've got several missions that I can attempt and I'm juggling my time among several friends and prospective girlfriends.

However it's only towards the second half of the game (assuming that the content is spread reasonably between the three main islands) that the story and missions have really started to gel along with my mastery of the combat and driving. There's a couple of things that still annoy.. Mostly the lack of checkpoints mid-mission and the fact that cars and vehicles spawn around you which annoy. Having said that judicious use of the cover system means most missions aren't tooooo annoying. Certainly the Bank Heist mission (which gives more than a nod or two in Heats direction has been the high point for me.

Overall then so far a satisfying next gen update.