Rockstar's masterpiece has finally released. After year's of hype and anticipation this HD beauty has promised so much, and it is the closest thing we have to perfection this generation.

Like past Grand Theft Auto games you go through the journey from rags to riches. You'll encounter police, gangsters, and out right scum. In Grand Theft Auto IV you play as Niko Belic, an illegal immigrant from an Eastern European country persuaded by his cousin, Roman to move to Liberty City in the promise of success and fortune and to forget his criminal past.

Niko Bellic, the anti-hero

You arrive by boat in of the best opening cinematic ever featured in a video game and meet your cousin. You soon after figure out that your cousin has been lying to you about his so called glamorous life, but leads a life where he is constantly threatened by people and seen as a big laughable coward.

You then promise Roman and yourself the American Dream no matter what. Soon after that you'll make friends, enemies, and will have to make important choices with branching paths leading to rewards or consequences.

Towards the end of the game you'll be offered two very different missions giving the player a choice to get revenge or earn money. This final mission will determine the final cut scene.

Liberty City is mapped after New York City featuring four the five's boroughs (excluding Staten Island) and a small portion of New Jersey, this has been seen in past games as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City's world was mapped after Miami. The game exactly maps the area including buildings like the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty (Statue of Happiness), Star Junction (Time Square), and Central Park. It does mock New Jersey however offering most of the area as a huge playground for garbage and hookers, it even has a prison!

Grand Theft Auto IV features some of the most memorable characters ever seen in a video game, friends like Jamaican arms dealer, Little Jacob, the loveable goof, Roman, and full of emotions steroid user, Brucie. There are plenty of other supporting characters including Playboy X, Packie, Kate, and Dwayne. Each and every character is hard to forget because they give such emotions unseen in most games.

The story is one of the most well written ever in a game giving a quality story usually only seen in novels and movies Cut scene are extravagant and the production values are high.

New York City, accurately remade.

Side quest take more of a back seat in the game offering the ability to still play cop, fireman, or taxi driver, but you don't get the traditional sort of side quest seen in other games. It relies more on the story which spans around 20 hours that will give gamers the same amount of enjoyment.

Grand Theft Auto has always been known for it's strong story, but IV is far more then that.

Another franchise staple for GTA is the number of activities and the freedom the game allows the player to enjoy. In past titles you were able to summon jets, tanks, and jet packs with cheat codes. Grand Theft Auto IV tones down the number of activities given in years past for a much more realistic experience. There are still newer activities to do like visiting an internet cafe and go on online dates, call a taxi which you can travel you anywhere, or visit a bowling ally to play a few games with a friend.

Missions vary from killing one or many people, driving someone someplace, hijacking a vehicle, or destroying someone's stash of drugs. While the gamely is starting to get stale which is much more relevant towards to end of the game, the missions are still wonderfully done.

GTAIV features one of the most well done map systems seen in a game. It shows missions represented by a letter (Most likely the character's first letter of their name) and locations only seen when close. It's very similar to the previous map, but it features slight improvements. Grand Theft Auto is a much smaller world compared to San Andreas. The world is much more jampacked though, unlike San Andreas the world is much more detailed.

One of the many accessible bars, where you can play darts & pool

Like any open world game Grand Theft Auto IV includes a Star Rating which will lead the police to try to arrest you. One star being a mild crime to a six star rating meaning an red threat level. The higher your threat level the more po-po will chase you down either killing you or arresting you. With a higher threat level a swat team and even the army will try to kill you. This is can lead to so many enjoyable times with friends. There are major improvements to the function. There will be a circular redical representing where the police will be searching for you. If you get out the area and are not seen by any cops then you'll lose your rating. If a cop spots you then the redical will center around you. The higher your stars the bigger the redical.

For the first time in the series IV features a simple cover system. Aiming is still featured and Niko can shoot blindly or aim and get an accurate shot. The cover system is similar to games like Gears of War 2 and Uncharted and it works well, you won't just walk into cover, but you click a button to go into cover.

The lock-on system from past games return and it's better then ever. It uses a redical similar to Saints Row, but you can lock-on and control the exact spots you want to shoot where ever on a enemy. With the cover system it works wonderfully.

At the beginning of the game you receive a cell phone at the beginning of the game and then is upgraded later on. The phone allows you to call friends to hang out and friends will call you to hang out. This is taken for Saints Row's cell phone which was used to call homies and other people. It works the same way here, you can call for a cab or the police. It was needed if the game was truly suppose to be next-gen and for the most part it works. There is some annoyance there when buddies will call you at the most inconvenient times that will then lead them to dislike you. There is a lot of freedom included with the phone like choosing a wallpaper and ring tone, but you even take pictures.

Niko, hiding from an enemy