GTA IV: Play The American Dream

This game title has topped game sales charts all this summer and has sold close to 10 million units (US & UK combined), the game is yet to release officially on Xbox360 in Asia, for those who are not much into gaming, this game is not for below 18 for sure and has raised voices all over from critics since it has all the elements to satisfy your desire to sinful acts, this game offers up to 100 hours of game play and features multiplayer option as well if you have done with single player mission.

Niko Bellic an Eastern European the central character of the story you play in this game arrives to USA, Liberty city persuaded by his cousin who used to write him about the big house he owned, cool cars and chicks, the city environment is pure excellence, inspired by popular USA city architecture of Brooklyn, New Jersey, New York and Manhattan. Niko finds his brother to be a small time petty criminal living his life on the edge and soon realizes the American Dream his cousin Roman shared with him is far away from reality.

You soon find yourself getting familiar to liberty city by committing tasks Roman is assigning you, ahead you start dating as well, your road to crime starts with missions assigned by Vlad to whom Niko’s cousin owe’s some money and Niko is very protective for his cousin, you begin earning cash after finishing different tasks, this game combines many elements like driving different kinds of vehicles, which obviously is through stealing cars and bikes, shooting crooks while on different missions, making friends and foes,dating hookers and girls, visiting dining places, bars, sports joints, internet cafés and last but not the least strip clubs as well.

So you are engaged in the game with a good mix of driving element, shooting spree, and mission based game progress which is accompaniedby excellent open environment game platform which allows you to set the course of the game through your actions and decisions on various missions, you will find people snaring back at you if you happen to hit the while walking on road, drivers coming out of cars and snapping at you if you hit their vehicles,weather effects are done with perfection to show different shades of liberty city.

You need to be careful though in your adventures since if you happen to steal any vehicle in presence of a police car or a waling cop in nearby vicinity, you would be on for a chase which ends either if you get
busted and are unable to set off your wanted status by escaping from the danger zone indicated on the map on your screen or you may go scot free if you are able to evade the cops.

I am still playing my missions and enjoying the game, which many critics and parental groups have asked to be banned since it has higher potential of corrupting young minds, as you get to hear the “F” word quite frequently in the game and other elements in the game which are just meant for the adult age group, the game does not try to arouse your senses with such elements, however it shows them to be a part of the city, just like any other big city in the world is, dark alleys exist everywhere. It’s like a migrant coming from a village in city of Mumbai with big dreams falls in a vortex of crime world.

Cut scenes in the game are good, story line good enough to keep you gripped in the game play, graphics are excellent, there has being an instance of few teenagers caught on a loot and beating spree in USA trying to emulate Niko from this game and also a girl who managed to rescue her parents from a car crash, she learned her rescue lesson from this game, this defines that not everything can be bad about anything, for me this is definitely a game to play if you own a console, else PC version of this game is in the pipeline and scheduled for Nov 2008 release. (More screen shots from the game here)

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