Home of the Five Fingers of Fury

I’m going to have to answer with a resounding “Hell NO”.

I put it in last night for a quick 30 minute while I waited for chicken to defrost before I cooked dinner…4 hours later I managed to put it down long enough to go cook, eat and get back to it. The missions flow on easily from each other, the story is actually really good (yes, I was suprised because I had low expectations for it) and, for me, the best part has been the upgraded physics.

Each vehicle has very distinct physics and handling and should actually make it necessary to make good choices for each mission. For example, trucks/vans handle like crap and understeer like a bitch so you won’t want to be taking one of those for a chase mission…on the other hand, something like the Maclaren Mercedes style car is beautiful to drive, handles corners like it’s on rails but is slightly fragile so it would not be a good choice for a mission that requires ramming an opponent out of their car. This leads to players having to make more decisions about missions apart from just what weapons to take, and more choices and decisions is always a good thing in a game.

Now onto what may be the most controvertial subject regarding the game, sex and censorship. Yes, the game has been censored in Australia and no-one is quite sure what that entails (R* isn’t talking at this stage, most likely to avoid giving out spoilers on the game and that’s fair enough) but after what I saw last night I would say some of it is the sex in the game. Without giving away spoilers I hope, last night I picked up a hooker to see what happened and once you go to a secluded area the camera pulls back to show the rear bumper and lights of your car with some bouncing and that’s it. One of the other ways sex is involved in the game is through girlfriends for Niko and getting them to invite you up to their place so I worked on that for a little bit last night too and managed to get invited up, again the camera just cuts to an outside view of the apartment they are in, there are sounds and the controller rumbles and that’s it. Taking these two instances into account and comparing them against what has been said by R* about the game I think we can safely conclude that these are likely places that censorship has been put in and to me it doesn’t impact on the game or the story so I don’t have a problem with it, though it was funny that the hooker was allowed to say “So, you going to fuck me like the nasty bitch I am?” when I picked her up but then we go to a G rated cut-scene…guess it just goes to show the double standards that are prevalent in regards to games still.

I haven’t bothered trying multiplayer yet, and likely won’t until I finish the single player game and given I’m about 13% finished after around 6 hours I don’t see myself getting into the multiplayer aspect for a few weeks but when the single-player is honestly this good I don’t think I want to split the experience up until I’ve fully experienced it.

After pre-ordering Grand Theft Auto 4 back in August 2007, I now have my special edition in my hot little hands and from what I can see even from the contents of the pack it was worth it. I was going to put some photos up but the batteries in my camera are dead and I have none recharged so that will have to wait, if I get round to it. For now, it’s off to load it up, so if I’m not seen online or in WoW for a few weeks just look for me on Xbox Live!