TheXboxLife

2007 will be a year to remember with all the fantastic game releases including Halo 3, Bioshock, Call of Duty 4, etc…but sadly GTA IV will not be included, as Rockstar has pushed the release date back to 2008. With all the hype revolving around this game, it may not be a bad thing for a later release date around Easter, because the developers have gone all out in the latest addition to this epic series.





The character you will live under is Nikolai “Niko” Bellic, an Eastern European immigrant who comes to the USA seeking the American Dream under the guidance of Niko’s cousin (who’s actually a dead-beat cab driver with massive debt — Niko was unaware of this).





GTA IV features the new world of Liberty City (NYC), and includes the 4 sections of Algonquin (Manhattan), Broker (Brooklyn), Dukes (Queens), and Bohan (Bronx). This is supposed to be the largest city in any of the games, and offers the best graphics seen so far in any of the previous versions. Still, there are some changes to the game.





First, the RPG style that was offered in San Andreas has changed dramatically. You won’t be able to waste your days working out or doing other useless things like getting haircuts and becoming fat. Instead, the developers paid more attention to the actual control and realism of the game. Your car will be supplied with a GPS, allowing for much easier navigation, and hopes that players will actually learn there way around the city, because every street has a unique name. Along with the GPS addition, your character will now be able to hail cab drivers to get around the city faster (yes, cabbies get you there faster!). Though you’ll have to dish out some money, you won’t mind once you complete your missions faster. Of course you’ll still have the option to steal cars, but smashing the window, breaking the steering column and then hot wiring the car will take longer then in the past. This will give more of a chance to you getting BUSTED!





As for the police, the developers really want the player to make use of the radar, and when trying to escape from police this will be especially important. In order to get your wanted level down you will have to get out of the red perimeter shown in your radar. This red circle represents where the police are searching for you. Even when you are within the red circle you won’t always be seen. Now there is more of a “cat and mouse” option to the game, where if the police are not looking directly at you, they will not be able to see you. The high speed chases will prove to be more intense (as usual), because the amount of damage your car can take has definitely dropped to a more realistic level. You will still be able to have those massive gun battles (though they are much more limited now), but be careful because your enemies feature much more accuracy in this game. Accompanied by this you now have the option to cover and “blind fire”, though it will be interesting to see this in action.





For your ammunition you will no longer be able to go see your favorite gun dealers in the city. Instead, you make a phone call to your Rastafarian gun dealer who drops off your weaponry at whatever location you desire. With this, you will also have a cell phone, being able to contact anyone by the touch of a button. There is a high level of technology used in this game, where missions include using the internet is some way or another.


The violence, of course, was improved in all areas. There is much more realism in the game, and the cock-backing of the head from a point blank bullet was proof enough. Not to mention the amount of blood squirting from the wound, the graphics are very realistic.


Overall, I’m extremely excited to see this game, and am not surprised by some of the changes made. Especially in regards to the RPG style of the game, I was never a big fan of it.

The first version of the 2kSports series I played was NBA 2k6, which I thoroughly enjoyed. After the 2k6 season, I never picked up a copy of 2k7, after I heard that there were really no big changes in the game as far as gameplay and pure-fun goes. I was a little dissapointed, but never really cared because the NBA Live series was never that impressive to me.





Now NBA 2k8 has been released, and it’s not that it’s a bad game, but that the game still hasn’t changed much. Like I said earlier, I never played 2k7, and 2k8 is exactly the same as 2k6 with small changes. First off, the game play and flow is better. By that I mean the layup motions that players make, and the actual body-movements and faces of the players are improved. This is something that did need to be addressed, at least after playing 2k6, because there were so many inside, layup shots that just didn’t make any sense. Most of the time these were caused by holding turbo down + the hit stick, and then your player would just lift off and do a cool move, but it made no sense how he actually did it. This game fixes many of those problems, which I greatly appreciate.





Of course the rosters are updated, and there were a few things that bugged me about it. First off, Shaq is still in the high 80’s, which I just don’t understand. Last year proved that he really isn’t nearly as effective as he once was. Also, players like Greg Oden and Kevin Durant have already been dubbed ‘B’ players with 80+ ratings, which even more irritates me. Sure, these ratings are based off of numbers, but seriously, what numbers? It took Kobe years to get to his dominant form, and he started out as a 70-ranged player.





As for LeBron, well he has nothing to worry about. As a player, whenever LeBron has the ball, just hold down turbo, run towards the basket, and push on the ‘hit stick’ — 9/10 times, regardless of how many defenders are guarding you, the shot will be sunk. He is just as dangerous, and ridiculously good in the game as Devin Hester is in real-life at Punt Returns (Hester on Madden 08 may be the most unstoppable player in any video game of all time).





If you’ve played the older games, the new one won’t be much of a change (if any). ESPN ran a simulated season with KG and the Celtics losing to the Suns in the championship, and a team like my Chicago Bulls don’t even make the playoffs (finish 9th in the Eastern Conference). Part of me really thought this game would be a much better tell-tale sign of the year, but it’s obvious it won’t be. The Phoenix Suns vs Celtics, and the Bulls not even making the playoffs? Yeah right. I’d put $1,000 on BOTH of those teams to not make it to the finals (knowing the Suns, they’ll get swept by the Spurs before they even know what happened — again).


Overall, not a bad game, but I really was looking for more. With an improvement in game play and graphics though, it wasn’t a bad release, and is still a great game.


8/10