Man, I’m replaying GTA IV on my Series X for two reasons.

1. I have tons of nostalgia based on the game as it was my most played xbox 360 game outside of skate 2/3 and COD. I have so many amazing memories tied to it both in-game and irl with friends.

2. I’m fucking broke and can’t afford to continue my gamepass subscription right now.

So anyway… Where to begin? How about I separate it into a list of things I love, and things I don’t love so much.

Things I love:

1. Driving. The goddamn driving phsyics, while I know are firmly in love it/hate it territory, sits firmly in the former camp for me. The weight transfer and suspension action still feel next-gen all these years later. Is it perfect? No. Is it better than any other GTA or open world game short of Forza Horizon? In my opinion, yes.

2. Niko Bellic - What a fucking character. Deep, complex, and well written. I can’t speak to ethnic accuracies or accent stuff, so I’ll leave that for other people who are better educated than I am to talk about. But man, Rockstar has a knack for creating memorable characters, and I think Niko is at the top of the list. He has a dark and serious vibe but can also bring comic relief in his sardonic way. I love him.

3. Sound Design - I don’t even know where to start with this as I don’t really know shit about sound other than “Dam dat sound gud”. But man, the sound effects are heavy and really sell each gun and action. The music is amazing, and has my favorite theme song in the series bar-none. I bet you can hear it in your head right now. Then there is the radio on top of that, with the music only part of the entertainment there.

4. The city - GODDAMN Liberty City is good. Every island is lovingly crafted to elicit its own character and charm. Different attitudes from the NPC’s, building styles, etc. Rockstar is just so fucking good at this stuff, and this is where they really perfected it.

5. All the side shit - Katt Williams and Ricky Gervais stand-up? All the crazy people walking around, well made side actiities like pool, darts, bowling. I know not everyone digs it, but its nice to have. You’d miss it if it weren’t there.

6. Thern there is all the stuff you really can’t categorize. Just the way all the systems interact together. GTA V does this really well too, but I personally like IV better because the city is so much tighter and well put together.

The Cons:

1. The inability to turn-down offers to hang-out without it negatively effecting your friend stat. Even if you are walking up to a mission start point as they call, it’s a thumbs down for not getting drunk with Roman. Dont’ get me wrong, I love the friendship system and think it genuinely adds something to the game, but it can be poorly timed and needed a little fine tuning.

2. NPC drivers who are designed to purposely wreck you. I don’t know where I read it, but I’m pretty sure the drivers are coded to try and wreck into you at some point and there isn’t anything you can do about it. You can try to drive perfectly clean, but they make it nearly impossible. Extra points for riding a motorcycle across the bridge and getting pit-maneuvered into the river. Lovely.

3. Inability to own cars. I don’t care about the property, I think that works pretty well as-is. I don’t, however, like that I have to keep track of a car that I want to keep and make sure it’s parked in the designated spot outside if I want to keep it. Even then, no guarantees you’ll have it after a mission you’ve driven it to. (P.S.) Little Jacob said something about enjoying a car he’d given me. Where the fuck is it? Does it stay there and respawn?

That’s really about it. I fucking love this game. Let me know what you all think if you’ve played it, or want to. Would love to get someone who hasn’t played it yet into the game.

My gamertag from the xbox 360 days has been lost, unfortunately. I had to leave it dormant for a few years and when I got back, someone in another country had it and I couldn’t recover it. I lost all of my game saves, DLC, etc. I had The Lost and the Damned DLC for GTA IV, but not The Ballad of Gay Tony. They still want $20 for it on the xbox store! WTF!? That’s insane to me. Maybe I’ll get lucky when I’m out thrifting and find a copy of the Liberty City Stories with both of the DLC’s on it. That’s the goal anyway.

Hope you all enjoyed the post. I don’t usually write this much like this, sorry for any terrible formatting or editing. I don’t know how text formatting/editing works on these sites.