Being the next gen entry of the franchise there are some high expectations for GTA’s visuals, as with any franchise making its debut on new technology. The series has never really been graced with the best looks in previous iterations, but now gets its moment to shine. Speaking of shining, the lighting in the game illuminates the entire city to make for a beautiful landscape that distinctly looks like the time of day that it represents. Vehicles, pedestrians and buildings are all rendered with great detail, making even the less appealing areas of Liberty City a pleasure to cruise in.

The graphics also do a great job of making those engaging characters we mentioned earlier all the more enthralling, as their faces are rendered and animated well enough to make their plights believable. Natural Motion’s Euphoria engine also makes its first commercial appearance in GTA IV, and gives every NPC in the game a distinctly lifelike field of movement that is created on the fly. One of the most entertaining examples of this technology that we witnessed was a poor individual that tried to open the door of the car we had just taken from them and was then dragged for several blocks.

Bear in mind that there is a hell of a lot to make pretty in a GTA game, so not everything can run flawlessly. When partaking in high speed chases the frame rate does chug at times while trying to keep up with your careening sports vehicle, and pop in textures were also making an appearance in the 360 version of the game we played. Nevertheless, GTA has never looked better, and is truly a sight to behold thanks to the incredible draw distances.

When it comes to the sound in most games we in the press are sometimes a bit stuck on what to say, given that most game soundtracks simply fade into background noise. This has never been the case with the GTA series, and that tradition is continued with Rockstar’s creation of brilliant radio stations that parody contemporary American pop culture, as well as create a unique vibe for LC itself. Stations range from a bizarre and hilarious right wing talk show, WKTT, to Vladivostok, a Russian/Ukrainian ethnic station that will surely get you hooked on Eastern European music. In addition to catchy tunes there is a great amount quality voice acting, especially in Michael Hollick’s portrayal of Niko. Quality and quantity go hand in hand for GTA IV’s dialogue, since repeated missions will not result in the same old conversations but rather some new ones you may not have heard the first time around.

Once you do make your way through all of these missions that possess said great dialogue, and believe us that will be a while, there is still an online multiplayer component to be found, something still experimental in the genre and completely new to the GTA series. With a game that is all about traversing a living world, translating the experience into multiplayer can be a bit hit or miss. There is wealth of options in order to mold multiplayer the way you want it, such as traffic density and weapon placement, but it just doesn’t feel like the same Liberty City as the single player game. This in no way makes GTA IV’s multiplayer poor, just different.

Besides the usual deathmatch offerings GTA throws some other modes into the mix such as “Cops and Crooks” where one team takes the side of the law, and the other attempts to break it. There is also the obvious inclusion of racing games such as GTA Race, which allows for weapons to be used, making it difficult for anyone to survive and get to the finish line. Any hardcore FPS players probably won’t feel too comfortable with the auto targeting system, but it can be disabled.

One mode that GTA multiplayer would be incomplete without is “free roam”, where you and 15 other friends can basically make your own fun. Given the damage that one person can do in Liberty City, unleashing 16 people makes for some hilariously chaotic enjoyment. You would think that in a game with a whole city in which to play lag would be a problem, but in most of our matches things ran smoothly. Multiplayer is definitely a welcome addition to the series, but the single-player is still where the real charm of GTA lies, and is noticeably Rockstar’s prime focus.

Unless you have a short attention span, and even if you’re patient, the single-player campaign is quite lengthy, and there is no need to jump into the multiplayer for quite some time. Rockstar has said that the main storyline alone, excluding extra jobs, will probably last players over 40 hours. Unfortunately GTA IV’s length is a result of many missions that are not essential at all to the storyline, in the same way that not nearly all 20 episodes in a prime time network series are imperative to the overall story arch of the show. GTA IV is so long because in an open world game it’s not hard to come up with various little odd job missions, and there are many that stand out as obvious filler.

Despite any nitpicking we have done throughout this review there is no question that Rockstar has once again found a way to surpass their previous work, and deliver another highly polished gaming experience, of which there are far too few. It’s clear that the series has not been completely redefined, but regardless of some familiar gameplay it has been refined and improved tremendously. Rockstar has delivered another vibrant world with a nearly insurmountable variety of things to see and do, and the time spent in the city has been made all the more personal thanks to the in-depth art of building relationships that feel like real social responsibilities.

Within GTA IV also lies a storyline and acting of such quality that gamers just aren’t usually used to receiving, making it one of the best crime stories ever told in a videogame, and perhaps even a bit competitive with the genre on film. Rockstar has not necessarily broken down any walls when it comes to the gameplay, but they have built them up to such an incredible height that will make it hard for any imitators to climb over. It is as if they are on a continuing journey to create the ultimate virtual world, and with GTA IV they have taken yet another large step forward.