GTA 4 developed by Rockstar is continuation of the GTA series in the the Xbox 360- PS3 era. Rockstar debuted their new physics engine, and more serious storytelling. While not everything is perfect with this installment, and trust me we will get into that. In the era when this game came out, and the amount of good open world content makes GTA 4 a hard title to miss. Just make sure you install performance/ bug fix mods.

Lets start with the story and characters! Arguably the main reason to play GTA 4, the protagonist Niko Bellac is a more fleshed out player insert in the GTA series. With a backstory, and a more grounded/ realistic approach to a GTA protagonist, and the story reflects that. With a revenge plot line, and a more of a focus on dramatic moments. Compared to GTA 5, Niko definitely feels like a precursor to John Marstin than Trevor, Franklin, or Michael. I liked this approach, and felt like it made this title stand out from other entries in GTA.

Moving on to the gameplay, GTA 4 is decent. But compared to future Rockstar titles GTA 4 feels dated. Combat particularly feels like it doesn't live up to present standards, but you have to consider that GTA 4 is the precursor to most of refined gameplay of future entries. So the core of the experience is there it just isn't as polished. Driving is a controversial element of this title, but arguably one of the most important. I think the driving feels fine, but I understand what the problem is. Its the physics engine combined with the poor handling of most vehicles. Its something that takes time to learn, and not immediately familiar. And finally we have the mini games. These are wonky as hell and I dont consider them a main feature of the game. I'd only recommend playing them with a controller.

When it comes to the PC port of GTA 4, and you are playing with no mods. Your in for a bugs, crashes, and poor implementation of keyboard and mouse controls. However there is a fan made patch that fixes the game, and resolves the large majority of the gamebreaking issues. The reason these issues exist is because GTA 4 was never made to run at higher frame rates. The install is super easy and consists of dragging and dropping into the game folder. Look up a youtube guide if needed, but this single addition turns a very poor experience into the great one. I HIGHLY recommend this. The name of the mod is ZolikaPatch. Just make sure to play with Vsync on.

Overall GTA 4 is a classic of the Xbox 360, PS3 generation and as of now the experience is still enjoyable with the patch. The episodes/DLC are good, and the base game gives you a solid 25-30 hours of content to playthrough. If you want to play without the patch, I'd recommend playing locked at 60 with a controller. I'd give the base GTA 4 a 8/10, TBOGT a 8/10, and TL&D a 6/10.