By Keyser Söze

Grand Theft Auto IV
Genre: Action
ESRB Rating: Mature
Developer: Rockstar Games
Platform: Xbox 360, Playstation 3
Price: $59.99 Released: April 29, 2008

Carnage. Pure, unadulterated, mind-numbing, stomach-churning, retina-burning carnage. That is what springs to mind as soon as someone mentions the words “Grand Theft Auto” to me”¦ and Grand Theft Auto IV is no different. However, it’s not the explosions, or the adrenaline-fuelled car chases that I’m most impressed by with Rockstar Games‘ latest release”¦ but I’ll get to that soon enough.

Grand Theft Auto IV follows the story of Serbian war veteran Niko Bellic, who heads to the U.S. to join his cousin Roman in the pursuit of the American dream”¦ and obviously such a task is normally undertaken via distinctly shady means. The storyline as it progresses can be a little predictable sometimes, with the usual backstabbing going on, and you being used as a mindless thug by Tony Montana wannabes. But, it’s still extremely well thought out, leading to some great cinematic set-pieces.

The control system is fairly intuitive, especially if you’ve played any of the previous 3D prequels of GTA. The left analogue stick controls movement, the right controls the camera or gun aiming, with the triggers controlling weaponry, vehicle acceleration, etc. A new addition for GTA IV is the mobile phone, which is triggered at will by tapping up on the d-pad.

Now I have to say this is absolute genius. The mobile is my favourite feature of the game, mainly because it works exactly like a normal phone – you can call your friends to arrange to hang out, call your girlfriend and ask her for a date, and even use the ZiT! Service”¦ this is basically one of those “hold your phone to the music and we’ll tell you what song and artist it is” premium services.