Stalking Venus

I’m new to the Playstation, having recently made the switch from PC gaming to console gaming, so I have to admit that I didn’t really know what all the fuss was about with this game.

Everybody - including people who don’t play games at all - was going on about it long before it was even released. The Lesbian Liberation Front called it “evil and vindictive - a terribly chauvinistic game, with uncouth references to hot pussy”. The panel for global warming and climate change called it “the nastiest thing since carbon emissions”. Bill Gates, in a recent interview with the New York Times, said “Dis da best damn ting I ever saw, yo. It’s changed mah life bitch, so fuck you!”

I’m talking of course, about Grand Theft Auto IV.

The first thing I noticed about the game was the packaging (Actually, the first thing I noticed about it was the steep fucking price, but we’ll leave that aside for the moment). Inside the cover was a large, full-colour fold-out map of Liberty City, the city that is New York in everything but name. It is a detailed street map that shows the whole of the city, and makes for a cool thing to wave about at your friends, if not actually use while playing the game.

In addition to the map, there’s a glossy booklet with great info in the form of advertisements about several of the sweet spots in Liberty City. This is a good starting point for sightseeing, although again, it’s more of a fun-to-have than a particularly useful tool to use while playing.

On the PS3, the game takes quite a long time to run the initial installation and copy files to the system. It had me worried at first, because there have been some games in the past that had really dodgy first releases with incredibly long load times. However, I’m pleased to say that this is a once-off coffee break. After the initial install, the rest of the game loads pretty quickly.

You play an immigrant called Niko Bellic, a true bad ass dude from, like Kazakhstan or somewhere along those lines (I’m not hardcore, so forgive me if I gloss some of the details). Anyway, Niko is very well designed. I’ve seen plenty of movies and games in the past where the bad ass is totally one dimensional and overacted. Niko is just the opposite. His voice takes a bit of getting used to, and I found it a bit cheesy at first, but once you start getting to know him, it integrates very well with his character. But it’s in his movements and dialogue that he really shines. He’s the sort of bad guy that will stare you down rather than try and come up with a witty tough-guy thing to say. He’ll be able to say “What the fuck is going on here, you stupid cunt?” without even speaking. He just holds his arms out in a particular way that says it all. Seriously, you have to see it to believe it.

The game seems to be largely about (surprise!) stealing cars, and then doing criminal shit to people. There are cops everywhere and believe me, they’ll try and bust you if they see you getting up to no good. Now here’s where all the conservative ranting kicks in… When you find yourself driving around the streets, in between missions, it’s surprisingly fun to smash into some street whore with your car, flinging her broken body through the air while the cops are watching, in order to lure them into a high speed chase. Yes, it’s wrong. I know it is. But… It’s such FUN!! In fact, If I believed in god, I’d be thinking “Goddamn it, this game is gonna get my ass sent to hell!”

Liberty City is an open world, meaning that there aren’t (many) restrictions on where you can go and what you can do. It’s a massive city, and finding all of it’s treasures can take a long time. As a newbie player, I’m nowhere near seeing it all, which makes me inordinately happy. I loved Burnout - Paradise City, as it was my very first experience with an open world environment, and Liberty is even bigger!

There have been a few mutterings about the graphics in GTA IV. The general complaint is that they’re a bit cartoony and I think a lot of folks were expecting the same sort of photorealism as in the latest Burnout game. The thing is though, that when you take into account the sheer size of the city, the number of things you can do in it (e.g. steal any vehicle that’s driving around the streets), the gameplay and cut scenes, and the amazing soundtrack (everything from Phil Collins through to Sisters of Mercy), the slight lowering of things like advanced reflections and shadows is a minor thing that I honestly stopped noticing about 2 minutes into the game. Coming from basic PC gaming, this still knocks my socks off.

As you drive around the city, performing your various nefarious deeds, you can switch between several radio stations, allowing you a good choice of music, from immigrant Russian (or whatever) tunes to Techno (see below for full soundtrack list). There’s also some fantastic commentary by the radio DJs. I don’t want to spoil the surprise by quoting the stuff here, but suffice it to say that just driving about in your car listening to the radio is actually quite a laugh.

The car (or, strictly speaking, Niko) has a built-in GPS system that allows him to find his way around. By opening up the GPS map, you can find and set waypoints for navigation. The route to your waypoint is then drawn on the map, which makes it surprisingly easy to find your way around (once you’ve learned to control your vehicle that is!)

Niko carries his cellular phone wherever he goes. As he meets people, he can add their phone numbers to his phone’s address book. This is useful for speed dialling contacts. He can use the phone for things like arranging dates with women, contacting his cousin, Roman (an important person for getting the first few missions started), and getting text messages. The phone is also used to do a quick-restart of any mission that you failed. This is an incredibly useful feature considering that the game doesn’t allow you to save (one thing I miss terribly about PC gaming). The game does save, but only in specific places like Niko’s apartment, or upon successful completion of a mission.

Multiplayer mode is also accessed through the phone, allowing you to start or connect to many different styles of multiplayer games, such as deathmatch, team deathmatch, cops and crooks, kill everything in sight and other such delightful online diversions.

All in all, from a newbies perspective (and from what I can gather, loads of regulars too), this is a fantastic game. It’s huge, diverse, fun to play and with enough things to do that you’re not likely to get bored for quite some time. Go get it (but maybe wait for the price to drop R750 is simply too fucking steep!) and enjoy it.

If you’re also a newbie to either the PS3 or the Grand Theft Auto franchise, drop us a comment and let us know what you think of it!

Update (20/05/2008): I’ve seen a lot of search results for Phil Collins leading to this article (what’s with that?) Anyway, I assume it’s because people are looking up the songs that Phil performs on some of the GTA radio stations.

He does two numbers: One on his own, called In the air tonight and another with Phil Bailey called Easy Lover. So there you go. Now you have your money’s worth.

As an added bonus, here are all of the tracks in GTA IV, sorted by station:

Emotion 98.3

The Motels - Only The Lonely
10cc - I’m Not In Love
Quarterflash - Harden My Heart
Toto - Make Believe
Elkie Brooks - Fool If You Think It’s Over
The Assembly - Never Never
The Passions - I’m In Love With A German Film Star
Foreigner - I Want to Know What Love Is
Pat Benatar - We Belong
The Pretenders - Private Life
Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight
Roxy Music - Avalon
Eddie Money - Baby Hold On
Rainbow - Stone Cold
Giuffria - Call To The Heart
Art of Noise - Moments In Love
Dan Hartman - I Can Dream About You

Flash FM

Laura Branigan - Gloria
Rick Springfield - Human Touch
INXS - The One Thing
Philip Bailey & Phil Collins - Easy Lover
Scandal - The Warrior
Alison Moyet - Love Resurrection
Alan Parsons Project - Games People Play
Hall & Oates - Family Man
Pat Benatar - Love is a Battlefield
Nik Kershaw - Wouldn’t it be Good
Phil Oakey and Giorgio Moroder - Together In Electric Dreams
Talk Talk - It’s My Life
Missing Persons - Destination Unknown
Wang Chung - Don’t Let Go
Gino Vannelli - Appaloosa
Genesis - Turn it on Again
Blancmange - Living On The Ceiling
Paul Young - Come Back and Stay

Fresh 105 FM

Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force - Renegades of Funk
Jonzun Crew - Pack Jam (Look Out for the OVC)
Run-D.M.C. - It’s Like That
Planet Patrol - Play At Your Own Risk
The Egyptian Lover - Egypt, Egypt
Art of Noise - Beat Box
Man Parrish - Boogie Down Bronx
Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three - Request Line
Midnight Star - Freak-a-zoid
Whodini - Freaks Come Out At Night

Paradise FM

Unlimited Touch - I Hear Music In The Streets
Plunky & the Oneness Of Juju - Everyway But Loose (Larry Levan Remix)
Geraldine Hunt - Can’t Fake The Feeling
Raw Silk - Do It To The Music
Jimmy Bo Horne - Is It In
Exodus - Together Forever
Jackie Moore - This Time Baby
Class Action - Weekend (Tonight is Party Time)
Gwen Guthrie - It Should Have Been You
Thelma Houston - You Used To Hold Me So Tight
Sister Sledge - Lost in Music
Donald Byrd - Love Has Come Around
Change - The Glow Of Love

V-Rock

Dio - Holy Diver
Queensrÿche - Queen of the Reich
KISS - Lick It Up
Dokken - Breaking the Chains
Autograph - All I’m Gonna Take
Accept - Balls to the Wall
Scorpions - Rock You Like A Hurricane
Krokus - Long Stick Goes Boom
Ted Nugent - Stranglehold
Ratt - Round and Round
Judas Priest - Electric Eye
Mötley Crüe - Looks That Kill
Quiet Riot - Metal Health (Bang Your Head)
Iron Maiden - Aces High

VCFL

Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing
Earth, Wind & Fire - Fantasy
Hot Chocolate - It Started With A Kiss
Rick James - Mary Jane
The Commodores - Nightshift
Sylvia Striplin - You Can’t Turn Me Away
Wally Badarou - Mambo
Barry White - It’s Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next To Me
Roy Ayers - Everybody Loves The Sunshine
Keni Burke - Keep Rising to the Top
Teddy Pendergrass - Love TKO

The Wave 103

The Human League - Love Action (I Believe in Love)
Thompson Twins - Love On Your Side
Depeche Mode - Everything Counts
Blondie - Heart of Glass
Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Relax
ABC - How To Be A Millionaire
New Order - Blue Monday
Japan - Quiet Life
Kajagoogoo - Too Shy (Midnight Mix)
Heaven 17 - Penthouse and Pavement
Howard Jones - Like To Get To Know You Well
The Cure - A Forest
A Flock of Seagulls - Space Age Love Song
Yazoo - Don’t Go

Radio Espantoso

Ray Barretto - Acid
Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez - I Like It (I Like It Like That)
Tito Puente - Oye Como Va
Bobby Valentin - Mi Ritmo Es Bueno
Celia Cruz and Johnny Pacheco - Quimbara
Hector Lavoe - Mi Gente
Eddie Palmieri - Revolt / La Libertad Logico
Willie Colon - El Malo