The gaming market has seen its fair share of big name releases over the past year or so, but in the back of our minds we all knew what we were really waiting for even before it was officially announced. Ever since the 360 console launched and the PS3 console followed, gamers have been anticipating the day Rockstar released a Grand Theft Auto built for the new generation of console gaming hardware. Rockstar, however, took their time, clearly wanting to make sure they got everything right before updating their flagship series. With one delay in the books and plenty of hype, release day has finally come and gone with GTA IV now out for retail consumption, and while it isn't quite as polished as it could have been, there is no doubting Rockstar have etched their name in the gaming hall of fame after this fantastic release, if it wasn't already.

Like most GTA's before it, GTA IV's genre is third person action gaming and features a storyline focused around the one human controlled character on a roller coaster ride through the world of organized crime and stub-shy terrorism. The main character in IV, Niko Bellic, is fresh off the boat from Eastern Europe onto the shores of New.... errr Liberty City, trying to capture the American dream that his already yankee-ized cousin professes to live. Well, actually, Niko is in the USA for other reasons entirely, but I won't spoil those for you here. What I can tell you, and what I'm sure you already assumed, is Niko finds his life in the USA to be more akin to a nightmare than a dream, launching himself deep into the underbelly of Liberty City's crime world to make a living.

The structure of the storyline and how it is represented in the gameplay will be familiar to GTA fans as the same sort of 'cut scene and mission' system we've seen before is used, but if you play the game's single player mode long enough (which you almost certainly will), you'll start to notice slightly more control given to the gamer this time around in the form of storyline related decisions, which are a nice touch, even if they are mostly secondary to the game's main plot. You'll also likely notice an increase in variation when it comes to what activities the missions task you with, which helps keep the 'fresh' feeling going deep into the game. However, where GTA IV really starts to separate from previous titles in the series becomes evident around about the same time you pick up control of Niko, i.e. the actual gameplay. While it's clear from the start IV is heavily based on the same classic GTA framework that has made the series what it is today, there are so many improvements in GTA IV from previous versions in the series that I can't hope to cover them all here in this review. Hell, despite ample playing time, I doubt I've even experienced them all yet. Nevertheless, lets see if I can't cover most of the more important enhancements to get an idea of the scope we're talking here, and I'll start with a element of the gameplay you'll experience basically straight away in the single player storyline of GTA IV - driving.

Simply put, driving in GTA IV is upgraded and finely tuned in almost every way you can imagine. Gone are the days in a GTA game where you could relatively easily navigate the roads at top speeds in most vehicles. In IV, the first thing you'll notice whilst driving is how more realistic the cornering and speed is. It's at the point now where you'll actually have to use the brake every so often, and not just the handbrake either, which itself is now much trickier to utilize. Bundled with a far more prevalent senses of vehicle weight and momentum, not to mention a spiffy new damage model, and you have a driving sub-system that is far harder to master than previous versions. To some this may sound a little daunting, but don't fret as we're not exactly talking racing sim quality here; just a general overhaul of a large part of GTA's gameplay to make it more challenging but at the same time more fun. And that's really the beauty of the new driving engine - not only does it keep the fun factor from driving in previous versions intact, but in my opinion it enhances the fun considerably, because no matter how much you seem to drive in this game you'll always have to be on the ball, particularly in driving based missions, which leads me to the next big enhancement.

Although as already mentioned IV does have a similar 'travel to location, launch cut scene and begin' mission structure seen in previous GTA's, new life has been added to how you go about missions thanks to the game's adoption of the mobile phone. Like everyone these days, Niko needs to be a phone call away at all times and it is often his phone which connects him to mission stakeholders both during and after missions. However, the phone in this game isn't just some static device Niko pulls out whenever the storyline says so, as Rockstar have taken its implementation to the next level by allowing you, the gamer, to access the phone at more or less any time during gameplay. You can even input numbers at will, such as '911' to get the attention of emergency services - for legitimate reasons or not, it's your call (literally). In many ways, Niko's phone is actually the game's main menu, allowing you to ring friends and contacts, perhaps to organize a lunch date or a game of pool, receive calls from friends and contacts (only if you care to pick up though), and even, in a slightly odd decision, access the game's multiplayer modes, which while a tad out of place, does sum up how integral the mobile phone is to the gameplay in GTA IV.  It's a very cool feature and definitely an early sign of more detail to come when it's introduced to you early in the game's storyline.