Since it's taking me forever to finish GTA4, I thought I'd share a few thoughts on the game. I know I said that I will review it, but by the time I've beaten the last mission of the game, I'll be working a lot as well as try to get acquainted with the routines of the new hospital and get to know the other docs (probably beg them to hang out with me too). I'll probably take the easy path and... not do it. We'll see.

First of all. This is a great game. Worth your money and then some. Lots of story so far, great dialog (shocker...), fantastic atmosphere, great graphics and at times awesome action. One particular mission stands out as one of the best and most intense GTA missions I've ever played. Which actually says a lot.

I've heard people say that the main char of the game, Niko, is a likeable chap and although I don't think he's a total bastard, it's hard to think of him as a "good guy". To be honest, I liked the ehh.. not-so-scrupulous anti-heroes of the earlier games a lot more. He certainly acts like that most of the times, but there are some "Oscar moments" that feel a bit out of place. Like I said, I haven't finished the game (30-35 hrs into it), so maybe there's more to Niko than meets the eye. Most gangsters do not rob people and then drown kittens in the sink in their spare time, I guess R* are just trying to show several sides of a professional criminal or something, I just think they could do it a bit better. Well, better luck with that in GTA4: Vice City.

So far the game is full of things to do, the good old "Find this or that car and bring it to me", dating, pool, bowling, darts, shows and even stand up (some of it very good!), but some of the activities (which you do with NPC-friends or dates) are pretty shallow after two playthroughs. I usually take people out to eat (which replenishes your health), watch boobs in a strip-club, drink and drive home drunk (because it's fun in games, not in real life, of course) or see a show. Even the lap-dances are a bit boring after a while. All the mini-games are cool additions to the game, but I strongly disagree with Gamespot's reviewer who said that they could be games of their own, they are not that good.

Speaking of friends, they can be annoying. Especially when you have to choose which one you want to hang out with. The one that you have to reject likes you a little less, which isn't a big deal, really, but the whole 'go out with friends and dates to keep them happy' can be time consuming and dull.

One more important thing I should mention is that although there is plenty to do in Liberty city, it's nowhere near the number of activities you'd find in San Andreas. Same with the area of the map, Liberty City is smaller, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Some people might describe this as "dumbing down" (= "less content"). I think it gives GTA4 more focus. I never finished SA simply because there was an insane amount of things to do in that game. The core of the game drowned in the sea of "**** to complete". What can I say... I'm a little OCD'ish when it comes to GTA.

On to some of the gameplay mechanics of the game.

The shooting is a breeze when you get the hang of it, but I missed the precision of a mouse more times than I'd like to admit (you know, since pads rule and all that). Especially when your character locks on an innocent civilian instead of an enemy behind a corner. Totally annoying. There's also a 'take cover and shoot'- mechanic that I'm a big fan of, a lot like Gears' (not an influential game, my ass...). Since your enemies often stay hidden in spots so that you can't hit them, you actually have to advance, which I'm sure will make both FS and Fire happy. This adds more depth and strategy to the combat, which older GTA games lacked. The weapons are great, most of the guns are fun to use (which is pretty important imo, screw realism), the dual-wielding is gone, but the punch of the automatic rifles is as awesome as ever. Grenades are very, very useful, can't say the same about grenades in previous installments of the series.

The driving is more realistic this time around. Not Mafia realistic though. You can race past the cops at insane speeds, crashing into other cars and all they'll do is make a couple of siren-noises, but that's really it, no annoying speed tickets. Hit a police car though and they get pissed. The way the cars handle reminds me more of a semi-arcadey racing game than GTA 3. Most of the vehicles have unique handling abilities and attributes like weight, how much damage they can soak up or top speed, which isn't a new feature, but it's done a lot better in GTA4. This should not come as a surprize to anyone, since current gen console are miles ahead of PS2 and Xbox when it comes to raw computing power. It also takes more skill to drive the vehicles, since they react more realistically to your actions with the pad (which like I said rules when it comes to driving). You can still act like a maniac on the road, which (if you do) some of your friends or dates will point out to you, but you'll crash a lot if you're not used to racing-games. You can change views while in a vehicle, so bumper-view is an option this time.

The sound of this game is superb. I understand Russian, which makes the game that much more enjoyable. Most of the Russian chars are Russians in real-life, always a plus if you ask me. The music is great as always, the weapons, the explosions and the dialog are all better-sounding than ever. The city feels like it's alive and some of the lines the NPC's send your way are simply hilarious. In other words, you get what you expect: quality 99% of the time.

The visuals are not mindblowing, but they are more than acceptable. Instead of me talking about how the game looks, watch some vids or click on some images on this site. I'm a graphics-whore and I'm pleased with how it all looks, that's all you need to know. The framerate is in it's teens and early twenties sometimes, but it usually doesn't last for more than a few seconds. PC-gamers love to point out the pop-up in this game and while I can confirm that it is there, I can't say that it has ever hindered my progress in a mission. So those YouTube vids you saw at launch? It's not that bad and should not be a con against getting a console version. If anything, the lack of precision in gun-fights should be.

If you managed to read all of the crap above, feel free to point out the things I forgot to mention here. I might add a few paragraphs later on and post this as a review. Also feel free to point out how much this blog sucks (you know there will be verbal consequences, right?), writing is not my strongest side, I'm aware of that, but I'd love to improve in that department. Maybe writing reviews will help...

But not really.. Just popping in to see what's happened in the last couple of weeks and read some blogs. After reading a couple, I have a few things to say:

Fire, damn. Reading some long ass replies made my brain (which is on vacation, haven't used it in a while) ache, so I have to give you a rain check on a reply. Congrats on a new job! I'm glad you got it! And get more PC-stuff, although I recommend you get a PS3 and an HDTV after a while. Def worth it, especially for a film lover. I still enjoy movies in SD, but damn... 1080p is purty.

Fatshodan, when did you get a blog diarrhea? Productive all of a sudden, aren't we? I read your chocolate blog. You are weird, that's all I have to say. Can't wait to read the rest of your blogs, lol. I saw the words porno and poop in your latest blog. You, my good sir, have my future attention, I can assure you of that. And no, you're not the only one that has series-marathons, I have those too. Only I puke instead of eating food. I do my marathons only when I'm seriously (yep, seriously) hung over. I mean, can't move or I'll barf = marathon time!

Smokey, I commented in your blog, so you should like cry yourself to sleep tonight and stuff (happy tears), because that's the only blog I decided to write in. What can I say, bad music pisses me off...

That's all the blogs I had time to read (you better feel honored by that ). When I have the time, I'll read some of the others.

Soooo, enough about you imperfect beings. Let's focus on the awesomeness that is me and what this fantastic person (=me) has done lately.

1. Barcelona rules. Seriously, guys. That's one of the most fun cities I've ever been to. Have time? And money? Go to Barca.

2. Drinking beer. In Barcelona. Too much beer. Poor liver. Poor brain-cells.

3. Which leads us to: forgetting everything I've learned for the last few months in school. My first day in my future job is going to be fun. Not for the patients... Well, I exaggerate, of course, I do remember some things. Like we all have two feet, three lungs, one kidney, you know, basic stuff like that is still rock solid, but then again.... I'm going to US in a little over 2 weeks, I seriously doubt I'll even remember what an arm is when I get back.

4. Getting a tan. Which I haven't had ever since I decided to become a doc. Man, I'm sexy. Yeah...

5. Getting sunburnt. That was not sexy.

6. Not playing games. Seriously, I've played GTA 4 for 1 hr and that's it. But since the weather is quite ****ty in Norway this week, that might change. Rain = gaming to me.

7. Watched both of the Grindhouse-movies. AWESOME! Go buy it and see it.

8. Started to train again, so I can kick Smokey's ass or at least not feel like a ***** when I watch his training vids.

It's 4:33 here, I'm really tired, so I apologize for the nonsense that is this blog and all the errors.

To those of you that did not know, I'm finished with my studies and have to move up north in August. In the meanwhile, I'll stash my stuff at a friends place and enjoy the summer, the sun, the mini-skirts, the cold tall ones and traveling. I'm going to take my PC apart today and start moving all my crap this evening/tomorrow morning. After that I'll wash the apartment, say goodbye to some good friends and then I'm off to Barcelona this Monday. I'll be there for a week, it's going to be great!

I don't know when I'll log on next time (probably sooner than later), so I wanted to wish you all a nice summer. I hope you all do something else than game all the time. Maybe it's just my Scandinavian ass talking here, but I think the summer is worth a break from PC-related activities.

This is a crappy song, but it's sums up things very nicely.

Anyway, see ya! Or eh.. I'll type one thing and then you reply and then I reply and so on...

I don't plan on writing a blog about every game I've ever played, but I've discussed this game with certain folks and felt like saying that I judged this game a little too soon. I'm not going to write a review, but I'm going to give it a score and list a few reasons for that score.

7. Yep, I think it's a good game overall.

Positives:

A few genuinly great levels. I could say which ones, but that would be spoilers. This is what made me finish the game.

Nice gadgets and some cool weapons that allow you to sneak around undetected through a 'scene'. (Still think that Splinter Cell is a much, much better stealth-game, but this is an FPS, so I give props where props should be given.)

A few catchy tunes. But not many. Nolf 2 was brilliant in this department.

This is a long game. (Also a negative.)

I smiled a couple of times.

Negatives:

Humor is a fickle thing. I did not find this game funny at all. Too... how can I put it politely... obvious and not intelligent jokes. I'm no expert at Brit humor, but I've seen enough to know that NOLF is not great British humor. (Folks from the Kingdom are welcome to correct me if I'm wrong). I would have laughed if I was a child. Don't get me wrong, I love Austin Powers and all that (I loved Nolf 2's humor as well), but this game just swung and missed every time. It was sometimes painful to watch the cutscenes. Something about the pacing and choices of jokes bothered me. There was no subtlety.

It was boring as hell at times. Some of the levels, especially vehicle levels even pissed me off. All I could think of was: "When is this over?!!? Enough already!"

And that's where the length of the game comes in. Sometimes less is more. Filler has never been fun and it's not fun here either.

The characters were all stereotypes. And I mean ALL of them. Even Mike Myers knows that too much of a good thing is eh.. too much.

Anyway, I could list some more reasons, but these are the most important ones imo.

The game is good, but I wish I never played it, it kinda ruined my memories of the second game. I know, weird...

I saw it yesterday. Can't say I understood the message that the movie tried to get across. I'm sure Tommy Lee Jones' dialog is the key to understanding it, but his ramblings about the ol' days and his dreams confused me even more. So, pretty please, with sugar on top (as Mr Wolf would have said), explain the point of this movie to me. Especially the end.

BTW, that serial killer, man... I understand why he got an Oscar. One of the best roles I've seen in a movie since Marv in Sin City.