Grand Theft Auto IV (Playstation 3, 2008)

Having been a fan of the GTA series I anxiously awaited the first next gen version of this series. Previous games in the series led me to believe that Rockstar games would not let me down with each game seeming to exceed impossibly high expectations. Unfortunatley, this trend ended with GTA4. Let me discuss some of the games shortcomings.
With this being the first next gen version of the series you might expect that there would be more of everything in the game. But in fact there is actually less and it sometimes seems much less. In GTA San Andreas there were literally a couple of hundred different types of vehicles of seemingly every type imaginable that you could drive/pilot. In GTA4 there are no airlplanes to fly, no bicycles to ride and no tanks to steal. There are also no jet packs or parachutes to enjoy. The variety in the modes of transportation available to your character have literally been cut in half and after playing previous game in the series this feels very restricting. What makes it worse is that unlike GTA San Andreas you are not able to customize vehicles either. If you have not played an open world game like this before you might still be very impreassed by the variety of vehicles provided by the game but if you are a fan of the series then expect to be disappointed.
There also seems to be less things to do in the city then there were in previous installments of the game. This, maybe more then anything else, is what has made the series great is the feeling that there is an endless amount of things to do to distract yourself while playing. In this game Rockstar kept the vigilante mode and also added a most wanted list that is accesible while in police vehicles. Taxicab driver also makes a return although it is only playable during portions of the game. However the ambulance and fireman missions are nowhere to be found. There is a new focus in this game on socially interacting with other characters in the game and new activities are introduced such as drinking, bowling and darts. For some strange reason though, Rockstar cut dancing out of the game! Dancing was an underdeveloped activity in San Andreas (there were only 2 songs) but it was fun and was in many ways very similar in concept and function to the many music games that have become so popular in the industry. For a game that already has an unprecedented soundtrack it seems like Rockstar dropped the ball in neglecting to expand on this aspect of the game. Who would rather take their girlfriend to play darts or pool over dancing anyway? In many ways this demonstrates a trend in the game where you have more options that are not interactive (stripclubs,theater, TV, comedy clubs) then those that are (dancing, video games, sports, shooting ranges etc).
This is not all that is wrong with the game. Lack of creativity in the missions, m.i.a celebrity voice cast, no musical score to support the cut scenes, reduction of humor all seem to leave the game feeling short of expectations. Don't get me wrong...compared to the sea of mediocre titles out there on the market, GTA4 is a very strong title that comes with a lengthy story, quality graphics, great voiceacting, huge soundtrack, online multiplayer and an enourmous beautifully designed world. Still...with the exception of the new multiplayer all of these things are a given for this series and the game definitly left me wanting much more, and I don't mean that in a good way.