[Forbiden1]

Your review comes off with the sole intent to disclaim the 10's it received at other publications and hard to see you being objective with the review, and comparing it to the other GTA's of the past.

With that said you make some valid points and some I personally find silly.

Weapons- Weapons make a huge impact on this type of game, but ultimately it is not a FPS, to expect the type of arsenal that was found in a FPS or the past GTA's would be giving you more of the same. Lets examine an use Vice City as a good example. The m16 in the game and the m60 were both in it. The only difference between the two weapons was the size of the magazine thats it. Hence no real need to hog up space on the disc when the weapons are really interchangeable and the differences are so slim. I think from a creative standpoint this game didn't glorify violence in the past like it did, and put a more grittier art direction, and putting alot more emphasis on the story an inner struggle of the character, and to fully accomplish that goal, they chose to eliminate the craziness of the old games and put more realistic weapons for that setting. This game had the knife which in my opinion trumps a weapon like a brass knuckle or even the bat (which i never used). In some ways from my personal experience the rocket launcher does react to heat but is not a homing launcher in the type that you were probably expecting.

Side Missions- I don't know how far of the game you experienced but there are quite alot of side missions. When you see a green icon that says friend go up to it it will start a cut scene with side missions. None like the degree of buying property or pimping but nonetheless a side mission. Also I thought the property buying was lame in the past so I never cared much for that feature, it added pointless side quests and extra cash that ultimately was not needed as one can easily purchase any weapon they wanted. But if you were expecting/wanting/needing that in a game I recommend you get into MMO's but not Warcraft as property buying is not a part of that game.

Celebrities- Like previous poster said, if you "NEED" celebrities to make or break a game, I think you need to reconsider what you consider good games. ****l Gear Solid didn't use any celebrities and the game was damn near perfect from a voice acting point of view. A game with this budget should not, or need to spend more of the money hiring actors to play the voice for their pricey demand. I will submit the fact that having Ray Liota in Vice City was awesome, but honestly if it was anybody else or if they kept with the tradition of making the main character silent, I don't think anyone would of cared.

Character Customization- Rockstar themselves said when the game was in development that they were going to do away with those features. An for the sake of creative direction I'm glad they did. Niko Bellic is the character they created and they created him with the purpose of telling the story they wanted to tell. Not the story you decide, or create. Honestly in San Andreas it was quite of a nuisance having to watch what to eat, and work out, again it takes away from the story in my opinion, and I think the developers agree as well. As for skills, that was one of the things I hated the most about San Andreas, If the player is good, let him be good, don't attempt to limit his progress by making it hard to aim an fire. For San Andreas I could see why they did this as the character was from the streets, but Niko has a military background, he knows how to handle a weapon.

No Connection to other games? You honestly Need that? There are tons of references to Vice City and San Andreas in this game. What more did you want or expect? You wanted CJ to show up or Tommy Vercetti to show up and give you missions?

Or not having the corky sense of humour in old GTA games? Some of the commercials are crude and hilarious. I think they out did themselves in this department.

Soundtrack Fucking sucked. Hated every station only liked about 6 songs in total.

Motorcycle Driving - I don't think you should fault the developers as I can handle a bike very well, and the missions I usually had to use one were accomplished on the first try. My only complaint would be the lack of Crotch Rockets, I cant seem to find them as they are some of my favorite vehicles to use. Maybe your driving isn't that good, or you havent mastered the physics of it.

I don't see how you can say you think some parts of the city were rushed, I'd like a clarification on that, especially in terms of nothingness and bitmap errors if you can. The city is massive and has huge amount of detail in almost all the places I've visited (And Ive completed the game with about 75% completion).

Again with the combat, the combat was just what it was supposed to be, a GTA game. With that said I think they almost perfected the shooting for what they needed. The game was almost too easy for me coming from a heavy FPS background, missions like Snow Storm I completed on the first try. Intelligent enemies or relentless enemies, try getting 5 stars or 6 stars and see how hard the police get. It is honestly real hard to survive long with 6 stars unless your camping near a soda machine. (Thats the only way I can last long atleast)

Multiplayer is PHENOMENAL IF! You can get a game with the settings you want and host. I personally don't like the multi player interface and setup because it doesn't put alot of control in the player when making the game set up. If you've done party mode you know what i mean on xbox. But this game is just exploring the multi player aspects and in time Rockstar will perfect it. It was their first try.

One cannot say the game is short because even when you run through only main missions its going to take you almost 25+hours to beat, and even then there is so much more to do and distraction. I have friends who are surprised I beat it with such a high % complete. Just because you were exceptionally good at it, doesn't the game is short. Fable is a short game, Me t a l Gear Solid 3 is a short game. I would not say this is a short game, just a game you raped and ran through.

The game is not perfect, and no game is perfect, that doesn't mean it doesn't deserve a 10 rating. For most magazine when they give a game a 10 it means its a must by. I agree any person who loves games should atleast give this game a try and see what you like and don't like.

With that said I would give the game a solid 9. It falls short in multiplayer but I didn't buy this game for multi player, and the soundtrack I hated. The story is what drives it, the new revamped physics and rag doll effects add new features and possibilities for fun an rampages.

Replay Value I think will be decent as the game offers choices and I personally want to see how it alters the course of the game.

This game is a must have for gamers especially casual gamers as this game offers a great story, with deep overtones, a game that is really multiple games in one, but never a master in one area, that appeals to all types of gamers.