I just got finished reserving my game today and am getting it with the strategy guide. I am so pumped from the reviews i've read, most giving the game a ten, it pushes the sandbox gameplay style in so many new direction. Just about anything that you can do in real life you can do in this game, from having friends and going out to party with them to surfing the internet (yes the game world actually has it's own internet). The people in the game look and act so real that it's at times scary just to walk around and watch people. In one review it was stated that as he was walking down the street he was just people watching, then saw and old woman turn around in her car to look behind her because another car was coming strait at her while she was stopped at the stop light. The man hits the old womens car because he happened to be checking out a girl on the sidewalk and wasn't paying attention to the road. He gets out of the car and actually apologizes to the woman for hitting her. When it rains people will try to find shelter from the rain via newspapers and umbrelles and the streets may actually become less crowded b/c of the rain. You can read the news reports on the internet or the newpaper about big things happening in the city and maybe find yourself in the paper describing some mission you had just completed and the implications it had on the city from several different viewpoints. You can have girlfriends whom you can go on dates with and actually get romantic with, or if you want to, if one gets to annoying take her out back and kill her. You could also just ignore her but where's the fun in that right? The new Physics engine in the game completely changes how the game feels as everything just moves and reacts just like it would in real life. When you are flying through the air and coming in to crash your car your character will actually raise his hands and move himself ot avoid injury. This game is going to be amazing and I can't wait for the midnight launch. Is anyone else going to be going?

I would by GTA IV but I don't have a next gen console! Although GTA IV looks sick, but I'll hold off at San Andreas. 

I went into my local Video Rentals shop to get Guitar Hero 3, but walked out with this instead.

It was rather late when I got it, and so I have only been able to play for an hour or so but so far it has been crap! The story line  thus far has not been particularly interesting, and the driving is so painfully horrible I feel like stabbing myself every time I am forced to go faster than a crawl. I dont know how anyone could love hitting a tiny bump and suddenly flying through the air, or trying to take a corner at what seems like a snails pace only to spin out and end up facing backwards jammed between two lightposts and a building. I have been to other sites/reviews where perversely, this is called "realism" - I have been driving for years, quite recklessly too and I have never had my car leave the ground no matter what speed I  take small rises.

Not to mention they have taken all the fun out of random acts of violence. Oh we saw you shooting that corpse, quick evade this ridiculous cop chase where even outside the circle if you run within 200m of another cop car you will surely be noticed and have to try and escape again. Plus, the game is overwhelmingly brown. 

It looks like the critics are right - this game will cause a rise in violence. If I have to do another driving mission I am going to kill myself. 

Ok dude first of all, the first cars you get in the game you get to drive are supposed to be pieces of crap. The storyline is awesome to me, and I love all of the characters. It's much more serious this time around and I love it for it. For once I actually love the main character in a GTA game. To each his own but I'm glad they got rid of all of the rediculous vehicles and made this game about the people and the city rather then just making "another" gta. You have only played it for an hour and your not good at the driving thats ok, the driving is way different from the other and more realistic, your cars have actual weight to them but after you learn how to handle that weight you can be all the crazy things you used to do. 

Of course the first place is brown, as you go through the game your supposed to get a sense of gradually making a better life for niko. The first place in the game looks like crap but then it gets better and better, along with the clothes he wears cars he drives and such. So your mad that you actually have to hide from the cops this time? Of course if one sees you they are going to focus on where your att then. It adds more adrenaline pumping action to it if you ask me, I like running from them then hiding in an alley to wait for them to drive by then take off and get away.

There are more then just driving missions, they vary a lot the further you get into the game. It starts out very slow but gets really crazy the farther you get into it. For me the critics were 100% right about this game, its amazing and pushes the boundries of sandbox gaming in terms of story and atmosphere. They fixed everything I hated about the other games and game me the perfect game.

i heard the game is extremely sexy im going to head over to my friends soon and rock it sometime during the week hoping to get admitted into CB first so i can play tis more

 This is an awesome game, I picked it up on release day (not the Midnight release though), and played it up until about a week ago. I beat the game and everything, and I was thoroughly impressed by it. Lack of features is one major thing people complain about, but I thought that the game was just fine the way it was, and I loved Niko, despite what I thought about him before I purchased the game. I'll probably be starting the game back up once I get my VGA cable for my 360, I just want to try the thing out on my beautiful, yet unused, computer monitor instead of my old (but big) television.

i have GTA IV on xbox...and it's one of the best game i have played.

There are many options, many misions, big map, realistic movemen, and reaction. People are inteligent. The best is that the police don't kill you, but at first try to catch toy without using a gun

 I've beaten the game and it was awesome. I still play because of xbox live. Fun ***.

 Speaking of GTAIV, I was reading this topic, and BAM! A commercial for it...

Honestly, one of the best games to come out for consoles in years. I haven't gotten far though, I have yet to resist the temptation to mess around a lot in the game.

 I could say quite abit about this game but the truth is i had a my post all typed out then i moved pages by accident and now i'm just going to cut it short. This is why i don't like gta 4 online. 

Lag - Speaks for it self really

Idiots- Little kids and racists and whomever inbetween they're everywhere

No hosting rights- This is the biggest problem in my opinon with all these new big block buster games. In the old games you could control what came into you rooms. Now ever since Halo 3 it's all server hosted or something else hosts. I don't know what the case is in Gta but i'll tell you this. When your in a room full of idiots and you give them the right to vote...Well look where Democracy got us in the US? *cough cough george bush cough* The same follows. You have literaly no control in this game unless your running with like.....more than the rooms worth of a team.

Lastly co-op- Very disapointing 3 missions that i got done in less than 5 hours.....

I can only hope that rockstar releases some heavenly patch to fix the online multiplayer. I doubt it however due to the fact that it takes months for anyone to use the update system on xbox live which kinda defeats the purpose of it? And i know that gta4 honestly shouldn't have been a multiplayer game to begin with however i do comend rockstar for atleast attempting to make an online multiplayer. I just think that xbox live multiplayer as a whole has been really   like that smily face. It's quite annoying. Any how hope you guys enjoy the single player cause that forsure is awesome.