GTA IV review Xbox 360

Well it's here at last: GTA IV has long been tipped to be the game of the year and now we can judge for ourselves. Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest - if not the biggest - franchises in the gaming world, and the arrival of GTA IV has been surrounded by feverish excitement, not to mention a fair dollop of controversy. Can it possibly live up to expectations and be as frankly awesome as everyone's been hoping? Well, yes, the truth is it can - read our full review to find out all about GTA IV - and why it gets our 360Zine Gold Award - now.
Click here to read our GTA IV review for Xbox 360 now!

GTA IV review for Xbox 360

Niko Bellic is on the run. Having just knocked off a couple of goons causing trouble for his latest employer, he hotfoots it away from the police, alerted to the scene by loud gunshots and the scream of a witness. Shoving a man from his motorcycle, he clambers aboard and speeds off. He's just about out of sight, when he spins round to check whether his pursuers are still following, failing to see the taxi emerging from a junction.

At full speed, the bike smashes into the front end of the taxi, and Niko is sent spiralling through the air. The screen fades to a sepia tone, and slows down, as Niko smashes against the pavement like a rag doll, his body collapsing into a bloody heap right in front of two onlookers watching from their front porch. One says to the other "now you don't see THAT every day!"

Grand Theft Auto IV is full of moments like this - moments which are entirely unscripted and unplanned, but which somehow seem to provide some kind of satisfying payoff like this. It creates order from absolute chaos, and vice versa - a standard mission to cap some punks hassling your cousin turns into a full scale police chase, with Niko only escaping by grabbing hold of a passing truck and clinging on for dear life. A seemingly simple set-up is transformed into a set of improvisational leaps by scripted twists and surprise elements - sections where you're freewheeling madly, your brain constantly having to come up with ways to get out of this latest scrape. While past GTAs have always provided personal moments of memorable triumph and just as unforgettable disaster, they've never happened as often as they do here.

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