GTA IV First Impressions

Indoubtedly, everyone and their mother (well, maybe not their mother, but their cousin for sure) is going to be talking about their first GTA IV impressions. Here are mine, after having played for one hour:

1. The degree of verisimilitude is amazing. People have fingers, for starters, rather than claw-hands. You can actually see Niko turn the steering wheel while driving. When standing half on a curb and half off, Niko actually rests one leg higher in a Captain Morgan-esque pose.
2. The police are a force to be reckoned with. Pay and Sprays now take three hours (not that it really matters), but the real change is that cops can't see you entering. And getting ride of police attention by evasion is much more realistic in having to leave the scene of the crime. I, for instance, had a devil of a time leaving the area when I fired a single pistol shot at a wall (!) and I got a star.
3. Clothing is much more reasonable. Instead of being able to choose 750 clothing options that I ignored (partially due to unreasonable loading times), I quickly grabbed a pair of boots, a winter coat, and (because Niko is such a bad-ass motherfucker) a Soviet-era winter cap.
4. GTA IV teaches good lessons. Sometime I'll get around to writing a post about the positive messages GTA: SA teaches, but that's for a later date. In the hour I've played I've seen the following moral messages: respect family, America is a beacon of hope to the rest of the world, war is where the old settle their disagreements through the young dying, and don't be a lying sack of shit like Roman. True, you also have to kick the shit out of some Albanian loan sharks, but in context, Niko is applying the only skills he has (from the Russian military, presumably) to defend family.
   
5. It's gorgeous. Mass Effect was nice, as was Assassin's Creed, as was Halo 3. But all of those games were fairly limited in their scope. Static (and identical) space mines, repetitive biblical cities, and almost empty space stations look pretty, but don't have very much going on. GTA IV is beautiful, and there is SO much there: pedestrians, cars, traffic signals, architecture, etc.
6. The map system is superb. Instead of simply saying where the end-location is, it actually shows the shortest legal path (a la GPS). Mind you, you can still ignore those directions to swing by somewhere else via the waypoint system, and if you need to leave faster than the legal route allows, you can feel free to take some shortcuts.
7. The fighting system rocks. The hand-to-hand combat is much more complex (in a good way), and the shooting system is leagues better than the previous entries in the series.
   
8. The tone is darker, but not in a bad way. I have always appreciated GTA IV's humor, and I was concerned that this game would lose some of its charm. It is quite a bit more serious, and I haven't met any laugh-out-loud moments yet, but that doesn't make the game any more compelling. I want to find out Niko's secrets that led him to come to the States. I care about Michelle and Roman, and I want the Albanian bastards to suffer. But most of all, I want Niko to find happiness.
   
9. The deluxe version is freakin' awesome. The safety deposit box is high quality, as is the duffel bag, as is the keychain. I haven't looked at the art book or listened to the CD, but I'm sure they're superb as well. And the license plate I got through Amazon.com pre-order is identical to the ones in-game.

I'd write more, but I'm going to go back to playing. Buy this game.

Edit: I checked Wikipedia, and apparently Niko and Roman are Serbian rather than Russian. I wish the game did a better job of explaining which Slavic nation they came from. On a related note, immigrant groups in England are protesting Eastern Europeans' portrayal in video games. Basically this, I think, because I can't imagine where else Eastern Europeans are portrayed.