GTA IV perfectly distills modern day drudgery into a highly playable video game

for serious. you get texts. and you can swim now. oh boy oh boy.

(i really really really really really suck at gta, but if i get my hands on a controller i get very angry very quickly and curse at everyone much more than usual when they make fun of the fact that i can't even steal a car.)

@sosane i failed the first mission 'cos i backed off the dock and into the water

also yeah it IS like real life 'cos everyone sends me text but when i call people i usually get their voice mail

@teejay it's like shenmue with guns

@johnny SAME, FUCK YEAH! SHENMUE!

@sosane but i think the game does a good enough job of providing alternate things to do not mission based, so i say go for it

kind of leading to why i posted this i think GTA IV does better then the other GTAs is it balances need to perform missions vs. sandbox interactivity very well. The first island is so big (probably as big as two islands from previous game entries) and filled with so much extra stuff that you can choose to not play the story for a very long time and be satisfied. So you never say "aw shit time to stop dicking around and do some missions."

And at the same time none of the side stuff like building relationships is never needed at all really, so it's not like Shenmue either where it "forced" to take a shitty job as a forklift driver. i think it's very elegantly done.

STACK THOS CRATES JOHNNY BOT

The game forced me to stop at a toll booth, WOW