Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition

Product Details

    * Amazon Sales Rank: #27 in Computer & Video Games
    * Brand: Rockstar Games
    * Model: 39242
    * Released on: 2008-04-29
    * ESRB Rating: Mature
    * Platform: Xbox 360
    * Dimensions: .40 pounds

Features

    * Carry on the Grand Theft Auto tradition playing through the single player campaign as Niko Bellic
    * Get cars and other modes of transportation anyway you can
    * Interact with various colorful characters who give you various missions to engage in
    * Engage in multiplayer challenges ranging from cover matches to shoot-outs
    * Game Rated 'M' due to Intense Violence, Blood, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Partial Nudity, Use of Drugs and Alcohol

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
What does the American Dream mean today?

For Niko Bellic, fresh off the boat from Europe, it is the hope he can escape his past. For his cousin, Roman, it is the vision that together they can find fortune in Liberty City, gateway to the land of opportunity. As they slip into debt and are dragged into a criminal underworld by a series of shysters, thieves and sociopaths, they discover that the reality is very different from the dream in a city that worships money and status, and is heaven for those who have them and a living nightmare for those who don't.

Beginning with the 1997 release of the original Grand Theft Auto, the GTA series has been one of the most prolific, controversial and down right entertaining franchises in video games history. This pedigree of success guarantees that the highly anticipated eleventh game in the series, Grand Theft Auto IV, will garner at least as much attention if not more.

Pre-order Grand Theft Auto IV: Special Edition for Xbox 360 and receive the exclusive Amazon.com GTA IV license plate for free along with the standard Special Edition items.

'Grand Theft Auto IV' Special Edition with included items

Game with Special Edition items.
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The Amazon exclusive 'GTA IV' license plate
The Amazon exclusive GTA IV license plate.
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Niko's Dream as it should have been
The dream as Niko expected it.
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Niko and Roman
There's always a catch.
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Niko with gun
But some skills are international.
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The Plot
Grand Theft Auto IV is a brand new adventure in the GTA universe following the experiences of Nikolai "Niko" Bellic, a new immigrant from an undisclosed eastern European country whose troubled past and the persuasion of his cousin Roman have brought him to the fictional Liberty City. Unfortunately, Niko's search for the American Dream and a much needed fresh start, hits an immediate snag when the rags to riches story Roman spun to pique Niko's interest is exposed as not only a complete fabrication, but a ploy to enlist Niko's well-known skills as a tough guy against the ample list of enemies clamoring for Roman's debt-ridden blood.

Because Roman is the only person Niko knows in Liberty City he begrudgingly accepts his role as Roman's protector despite the deception. But as time goes on Niko comes into his own, and his experience on the wrong side of the tracks proves more valuable than he could have ever imagined as he fights for survival and later supremacy on the crime ridden streets of Liberty City.

Game Environments
Based on several of the boroughs of New York City and parts of New Jersey, Liberty City, familiar to players of previous games in the series, has been entirely redesigned for GTA IV. Players can expect visible detail down to the weeds growing in the cracks in the sidewalk, cars and buildings of visibly different ages and a much greater level if verticality in the buildings and bridges that they are able to explore as Niko moves through the city streets. In addition, pedestrians in GTA IV are much more realistic. No longer simply moving cardboard cutouts, these NPCs are intelligent, modern, human representations that laugh, cry, eat, drink, use cell phones and ATMs, and talking amongst themselves regardless of Niko's interaction with them.

Gameplay
Historically GTA games have focused heavily on mission-based play, requiring successful completion of fixed tasks in order for players to progress through the game, but this has changed to a great extent in GTA IV. Players will experience an entirely new and exciting emphasis centered on the blending of on-mission and off-mission play, resulting not only in an increased sense of realism, but more interesting and unrestricted gameplay.

Features
Official features for GTA IV have yet to be released. Stay tuned for more information as the game's release in early '08 draws nearer.

What Comes with Grand Theft Auto IV: Special Edition?
Grand Theft Auto IV: Special Edition will be presented in a customized Grand Theft Auto metal safety deposit box. The box will contain:

    * Grand Theft Auto IV for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system with special packaging.
    * Grand Theft Auto IV Art Book, featuring never-before-seen production artwork from Grand Theft Auto IV.
    * Selected soundtrack CD from Grand Theft Auto IV, featuring new material from top artists, only available on this release.
    * An exclusive Rockstar key chain for the safety deposit box keys.
    * Completing the collection is a limited edition Rockstar duffel bag.

All of the items have been created with the utmost attention to detail to create a unique Grand Theft Auto IV experience for any fan of the series.

Customer Reviews

Welcome to Liberty City**Special Edition Review5
Niko is new to America. Brought by hopes and promises of his cousin Roman about how wealthy he is. Unfortunately for Niko he quickly finds the stories to be lies. Grand Theft Auto IV starts as others in the series with an anti-hero. Getting involved in doing the wrong things is all to easy in this game. From the very get go you are learning that living the American life can be difficult and in order to get your story going you must break the law. For the most part Niko doesn't have a problem with this since he has become raw after being a soldier in war.

GTA IV has probably one of the darkest stories so far in the series. This is not the type of game you will play and comment on how cheerful the story is. For those of you who have played previous GTA games you will notice many similarities. From the gameplay mechanics to the story line. Although people who are new to the GTA series will find how simple the learning curve really is in this game. The game gives you an incredible amount of tutorials and guides you thru your first several missions making things easy to understand. Most features in this game are simple to understand and keep this game from getting over anyones learning curve.

What has made the Grand Theft Auto series so superb is the story telling. Excellent voice acting with intense and exciting missions make GTA IV a true winner. From the first moment on you will notice that you aren't really playing a game as much as taking part in an intense crime drama. Think Sopranos from the former Soviet Union. The game is mission based and gives you the ability to choose what you want to do at any given point. You meet numerous characters who are all about committing crimes and they give you certain jobs. Of course these jobs increase your reputation and help progress you thru the story. Along the way you will find numerous characters. Some you will like and others you will probably want to get rid of yourself.

This game has further evolved ideas from previous GTA games. Niko can not only date one woman at a time but several. It's really up to you. Just remember how in real life this can be time consuming it can also be in a game. You will have woman calling and texting you if you ignore them to long. Then comes taking them out for dates. Each woman has different tastes and interests and it's up to you to know where to take them. Some of the activities can actually be fun like playing darts or pool as these mini games do have learning curves. The girl you are with will respond to your success or failure at these games. Obviously there are numerous other activities in wonderful Liberty City. Also it's important for Niko to accessorize and finding the best clothing to wear is important. Image is everything as as you progress you get access to better clothes. The car mechanics have improved in this game but don't expect to have similar handling to a racing game. What is cool to look at is the amazing detail they have put into the car damage. Every little ding makes an impact on the car you are in. Lastly is the music selection. An incredible 200 songs are available in Liberty City to listen to on the radio. Numerous radio stations including the talk ones belt out hit songs and comedic advertisements. Niko even has the ability to watch t.v. They covered every detail in this game and it shows.

As if a single player mode that will take you 30 to 40 hours to beat is not enough there is also online multiplayer. Yes you and 15 others can play on the beautiful streets of Liberty City. The multiplayer is truly open ended for your enjoyment. Several game modes plus the ability to create your own multiplayer. You can also invite seven friends to take on eight others. It's easy to say this game will be enjoyed for months on end. For those of you choosing between the PS3 and 360 version you may have to consider the 360 will have it's own unique content in 6 months available on XBOX LIVE.

It's easy to be impressed by Liberty City. It's as close to New York City as any game has ever got. From the pedestrians that make up the neighborhood to the realistic design of the buildings. The weather changes and the days progress realistically. This is one of those games where you can just take it in and enjoy the scenery. In Grand Theft Auto you have the freedom to do what you want. This game is intended for adults. The language and content can be mature most of the time. Although that is at a parents discretion. I wouldn't suggest this game for everyone. Although I would suggest it for those who have enjoyed previous Grand Theft Auto games. I would also suggest it for those who enjoy mafia or crime movies. This game will have you sitting back and enjoying the incredible story. Just don't forget that it's your story to play.

**Now for those of you asking. Is the special edition good for you??? If you are a GTA diehard fan I would say yes. If you enjoy getting extras for extra money I would say yes. The Special Edition comes with a mediocre soundtrack album featuring songs you may have never heard before. You also get a good quality lock box with a duffle bad. In the box is a rockstar key chain. I now own this stuff. It's nice but I don't think it's of the best value.

One of the best looking games I've seen5
I got this game because of the last GTA for the Xbox, I really enjoyed it so I pre-ordered this one from where I work. I'm very impressed by the graphics and I do agree that the car handing take some time to get use it but all in all I am really enjoy this game.

Come now people...let's drop some of the bias please.4
OK.

Background: I am not a Grand Theft Auto fan. I'm not clouded by this game, nor does this game "own me". The only GTA games I ever beat were San Andreas (because it was just too well done) and Liberty City Stories on PSP (because it was the first PSP game to allow custom soundtracks which made the game all the more fun). I bought this game for one primary reason: I know it'll get banned, or severely edited, and I want to make sure I have an untouched version.

If you want the quick and dirty, skip to the very bottom.

I decided to actually give the game a fair chance to see what the hype was about, and from there, decide whether or not the game was worth every penny I spent.

I did buy the special edition from Amazon, pre-ordered the day before release date, got it today as I should have. I was very impressed with the packaging and the speed with which I got the game; I noted some others didn't have the same success, so I feel fortunate. Let's go down the list of special goodies, in order of worst to best (IMO).

SOUNDTRACK: OK, there's over 200 tracks in the game, yet we get a 16 track CD. Mind you, I wasn't expecting to get a full box set of songs, but why bother with a soundtrack at all if it's not going to be more than this?

ARTBOOK: Very nice, but I couldn't help but feel underwhelmed. I mean, I look at art books like those of Persona 3 and Growlanser and then I look at this and wonder if Rockstar understands how to truly wow its customers. It's not bad at all, just not as great as I would expect. I mean obviously a lot of art went into this game, so when I see just three wireframes of Liberty City I have to ask myself where the rest of the drawings are.

DUFFEL BAG: It's not what you think. It's actually quite small, and thin. Probably would suit storing stuff when you go to the gym or something. I wouldn't rely on it for much.

KEY CHAIN: It's a key chain, nothing special. Letter "R" and a small star. Good quality though, nice build, better than the one that came with Growlanser for sure, but not as nice looking.

LOCK BOX: Yes, someone with a bit of strength could pop this bad boy open with a butter knife, but so what? IT's a cool addition and a really nice concept. (FYI, that's why the box is so big, it barely fits in there)

LICENSE PLATE: Amazon says it's exclusive to them but is it really? Dunno. It's nice though - if California weren't so Draconian when it came to vehicles I would put it on my car.

Negatives are the lack of a "Making Of" disc: hopefully they'll put those clips up for FREE on Xbox Live - then this is a moot point, and, as usual for GTA games, a very lacking instruction booklet.

As for the game I'll just go through the various complaints people have and see if I agree or disagree. How's that?

POP-IN: Agree. It's not bad and it's not a deal breaker, IMO. In fact in the time I played the game I didn't notice it all that much. It's really when you're going faster than the loading engine can keep up with, which isn't often considering most of the cars are rather slow and the traffic is dense enough that you can't speed through like you could with the other GTAs.

JAGGIES: Agree. Again, not too bad and not a deal breaker.

BLURRY: Agree. It's not as bad as people are making it out to be though. Like in Lost Odyssey and Kameo where the entire background is blurred and it has a realistic feel to it, this is more subtle. It's not a filter, it's more like the textures start out degraded and then slowly improve as you approach various things in the distance. It's NOT that big of a deal, only videophiles would even notice, really.

FRAMERATE: Agree. Again, not that bad, and not nearly as much as Lost Odyssey. There is just some slight stuttering that occurs at times, it's noticeable but not a deal breaker.

MUSIC: Agree. The selection of songs was poor this time around. I pretty much keep going back to the jazz station because it's the only one I can really tolerate. If you're open to indie music you'll probably find some things you like here. Also there are some big name artists with little known songs (that aren't that great), i.e. Nas, so if you're open to new types of songs from established artists, you'll find some good stuff here.

GRAPHICS: You know, I don't know why these got a 10. Not to beat a dead horse, but I can think of at least 4 other games with better graphics just off the top of my head: Bioshock, Lost Odyssey, Gears (different art direction, I know), and Fight Night Round 3. It's not the city, the city is fine...it's everything that's animated about the city: cars, Niko, characters, bikes, etc. Even trees don't look that great. And it's often hard to make out certain objects like when there's a fence or something. Additionally, the text on the cell phone is a dark font which is hard to read against the navy green background when you're more than 5 feet away from the screen (which you should be to keep from getting nauseous while playing).

OK ReV, so what's the good news?

The good news might be your bad news. To me, I like a game that sticks to a formula. Some hate that - some love games to always change. GTAIV sticks to the tried and true formula of the past PS2 games, with one small twist: Now you've got choices. You can make decisions on whether you're going to help or harm someone, save or desert someone, etc. So in a way it's taking the concept of Fable and slapping the GTA world around it, if you can envision that. Don't know if I care for the choice part yet, but it does keep things lively.

Everything else you love about GTA is here to the n'th degree. I'm sure you heard about the fact that you can now do more...uh...'more' with the hookers, plus the various engines for gunplay and weapons have been improved. Sadly, it's a LOT more difficult to control both Niko and the various vehicles. With Niko, he now walks by default, and you have to hold A to get him to jog (what was the default in the previous games) and tap A repeatedly to get him to run (what was hold A in the previous games). With the vehicles the buttons seem to have been switched around or made less effective. I had a very difficult time just steering in the city, and I still haven't been able to power slide around corners. It told me about handbrake controls, but I could swear I could do it with just the regular brake provided I was at the right speed, before. I actually failed a mission because of that.

So, in summary:

- There are things you will need to get accustomed to. Some things are different, some things are the same. Some things were improved, some were a blatant step back. It's anyone's ball game whether you'll truly enjoy the game for yourself or not. One thing's for sure...no matter what reviews come out, no matter what reviews get posted here, and no matter what a stripper tells you, THIS IS NOT A PERFECT GAME. It's a good game with its flaws, just like any other. If you can accept that, you'll want to buy this game.