GRAND THEFT AUTO IV

 PLATFORMS: PS3, X360, PC

GENRE: THIRD-PERSON ACTION ADVENTURE

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4GHz or equivalent AMD Phenom X3 2.1GHz
Memory/RAM: 2.5 GB for XP or Vista
Video Card: 512MB NVIDIA 8600 or 512MB ATI 3870
Hard Disk Space: 18GB free
Operating System: Windows XP SP3 or Windows Vista SP1

Criminals are an ugly, cowardly lot more worthy of pity and disdain than admiration. This is what you'll learn playing through the single-player campaign in Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV. The series cheered (and criticized) for glorifying violence has taken an unexpected turn: it's gone legit. Oh sure, you'll still blow up cop cars, run down innocent civilians, bang hookers, assist drug dealers and lowlifes and do many, many other bad deeds, but at a cost to main character Niko Bellic's very soul. GTA IV gives us characters and a world with a level of depth previously unseen in gaming and elevates its story from a mere shoot-em-up to an Oscar-caliber drama.

You play as Niko Bellic, an Eastern European attempting to escape his past and the horrors of the Bosnian war. He arrives in Liberty City to experience the American dream, only to discover his cousin, Roman, may have fibbed a bit in his tales of success. Starting from nothing, Niko makes a living as a killer and enforcer, a bad-ass foreigner who appears to have no morals. The longer we stay with Niko, the more we see that there is a broken human being inside, one who would give anything to escape the person he once was.