Transportation: Since Liberty City — the setting of GTA4 and modeled after New York City — is an open-world environment, meaning you can go anywhere at any given time, cars are pretty damn important. For a reference, the open world is so large that it could take 10 minutes or more to travel from one end to another. Missions: Driving is a crucial part of almost every mission. Whether you're tasked with escorting a hooker, stealing a specific car, or just running a simple car chase, cars are an essential aspect of the storyline. As A Weapon: Whether running people over in missions or just screwing around plowing down the sidewalk, a properly piloted car becomes a potent weapon. If you prefer more traditional armaments, you can also break out the windshield and fire either a handgun or SMG, or drop grenades while cruising around Liberty City. Racing: Early in the game you meet up with Brucie, a steroid-enhanced meathead who sets you up with street races all around Liberty City.
Entertainment: Most vehicles in the game have a radio that can be tuned to a wide variety of always-entertaining radio stations. Oh, and you can pick up hookers in your ride and choose from one of three different "services."
Grand Theft Auto IV secured 99% in metacritic's aggregate score and obtained "Universal Acclaim". It has more perfect scores from IGN, GameSpot, GamePro etc.
Grand Theft Auto IV's $500 million launch is now the biggest videogame launch, eclipsing last September's $300 million Halo 3 launch.
What would this mean for EA's bid for Take Two? TTWO is trading above EA( ERTS's ) price currently?
Are Video game ratings valid? Do the people who rate it actually play these games before rating it? Do we have laws which actually enforce these ratings?
A former worker in the video game industry is calling on Congress to strengthen regulatory laws.
