also for anyone who has played for a short time (5 hrs or less maybe?) and arent fans:

this game grows a fuckload on you. i wasnt very impressed during the first part but once things pick up they dont let you down at all. im at about 22 hours rite now and it is really hard not to play. it is as addictive as gta3 was when it first came

so yeah, it becomes a lot better after a few hours. it takes getting used to the game before you appreciate all the amazing stuff rockstar has done.

also for anyone who has played for a short time (5 hrs or less maybe?) and arent fans:

this game grows a fuckload on you. i wasnt very impressed during the first part but once things pick up they dont let you down at all. im at about 22 hours rite now and it is really hard not to play. it is as addictive as gta3 was when it first came

so yeah, it becomes a lot better after a few hours. it takes getting used to the game before you appreciate all the amazing stuff rockstar has done.

jesus.  didn't it just come out like yesterday?

ya ive had it for about 44 hours now

so half of the time since then has been gta4 time

I've pumped about 6 hours gameplay into this and I'm insanely impressed and a little disappointed. Firstly Sarah if nobody pointed it out already (I haven't read the last two pages) there are 200 pigeons to shoot in Liberty City that replaces PACKAGES or whatever I think. I started shooting pigeons at one point and it was counting down how many was left so I think that's it.

Secondly for everyone who was saying It's 45 minutes to experience everything. Six hours in and I've only just got out of the first section of missions. (Probably spending too much time chilling out playing the most unrealistic pool games ever with Little Jacob fuck knows what that guy is saying.)

Thirdly RICKY GERVAIS was on the freaking radio what a disappointment

I'm really loving the physics though, like if you shoot someone and walk on them you actually walk OVER them and your character just reacts dynamically and differently to everything. Conversations in cars are always different so you never get the same dialogue twice when retrying missions and things and the way the city is so dynamic is great.

The thing that is pretty disappointing though, is I'm 6 hours into gameplay and I'm having to spend an excessive amount of time keeping people happy and running errand-boy jobs. My character hasn't even got his own place yet and the way it works is DO REALLY NASTY THINGS AND EVERYTHING IS GETTING WORSE AND WORSE. I hope it picks up a little bit because I'm getting a bit sick of being everybody's errand boy. I really wanted to just pump a bullet into vlads face the second I met him and it was the same for Faustin. (Yeah it was satisfying.)

I'm hoping it starts picking up now I'm in the second safe house with Mallory.

Oh yeah, can we get some GAMERTAGS and GTAIV MASS GW PLAY going on. I haven't tried multiplay yet but it would be cool if we could get some GW guys together to play.

Aight, been playing multiplay all day and holy shit. It has the potential to be so awesome if people weren't douchebags. First game I started was a cops and crooks and the "boss" decided to crouch down in a corner and just hide while the cops made their way over and pumped him full of lead. Fair enough he might not have understood what to do so I didn't give him any shtick about it, but game two rolls round and the first thing my "team-mate" does is shoot me in the leg so I hobble over to a car and try to get away from him and he's just shooting after me. I find a medikit and some gunz and get to work and he manages to catch up with me. I get out of my car and he shoots me in the leg again, steals my car and leaves me in the middle of fucking nowhere. At this point a crook manages to kill me and I have to watch the rest of my team scramble around before they realise the boss is just swimming around in circles in the water.

EDIT: Not to mention my team seemed to LOVE running me over a lot.

This game is very addictive. (my addicted level at the moment is "weekend rolled in", or something like that) Physics really add so much to this game! Just bumping onto random people has never been this satisfying! Feet moving according to enviroments looks a little funky at times (every staircase) but it's a nice detail.

On surface this game looks like every other GTA so far, but there are tons of little stuff that really set this higher. I'm finding something new all the time, just few hours ago I crashed onto some concrete block and Niko actually flew through the windshield!! Only negative I can think are the camera(especially with cover-mechanic) and keeping up with social connections. I don't really see the point in dating someone in a videogame. But of course it's not mandatory, so all is fine.

With network game... My game is never able to connect online games, other people have this problem? I've got PS3-version.

I don't know if the PS3 suffers from this problem, but I hate the sensitivity of the triggers.  In order to go into free-aim you have lightly hold one of the triggers but I'm heavy handed so I often hold them down.

ya this annoyed me as well but im pretty used to it now and its nice to able to change between them by just adjusting pressure to one button


edit: also my xbox live accoutn has been suspended (what) because of payment problems

Man they need to patch this game..

1. Why do I have to press X to walk? If I wanted to walk I could ever so slightly push on the analog stick, all the way to run.
2. Why let you control the camera but when you move it just reverts back to behind the character?
3. The audio quality is horrible, its like they use 128 kbps mp3s! Dialogue is especially bad. I mean Wtf? Theyre enough space on the disc. Use it.
4. Hand to hand combat sucks ass.
5. Driving controls aren't as bad as I originally thought but the camera while driving is HORRIBLE.

/end rant.