Grand Theft Auto 4 (PS3)

I've been obessed with the Grand Theft Auto series ever since III came out. The pure freedom you have in each of the games is what makes them great. This new edition (IV) stays true to that concept, but builds on it in interesting ways. Here are the major PROS of the game:

PROS

1. ONLINE - Playing online GTA is awesome. Although i WISH rockstar had allowed for split-screen gaming, this is a good start. Online play allows you, for example, to pile into a car with a bunch of other online players and drive top speed through an intersection riddled with enemies (while everyone in the car is unloading clips into the rival gang) Online play allows for insane chaos that doesn't exist in any other game.

2. CAR PHYSICS - Cars drive much more realistically and are much more destructable than in previous versions. For example, if your car rams (or gets rammed by) another car at top speed, an axel can sometimes become permanently bent causing a wheel to meet the ground at an awkward angle (very hard to drive with). Every window is breakable, cars do not explode just because they flip over, you fly through the windshield if you drive too fast into a wall, you actually have shocks, and you can't move a car by just walking into it as you could in previous versions. Although they did get rid of the gas tank in this version so you can't blow up a car with one shot of a pistol anymore which sucks. 

3. MISSION REPEAT - If you fail a mission, you can automatically replay it without having to re-load or drive all the way back to the mission-provider's hangout. 

4. SHOOTING - Guns are much more realistic all-around. Aiming and firing is extremely satisfying and much more useful (which is necessary because cop AI has improved. You can now shoot in any direction, at any angle out of your car while you're driving using a pistol or uzi. You can even throw grenades out the window. Also, you can post up against things to take cover while in gun battles. 

5. WANTED ZONES - The fact that cops only look for you in a radius around where you have committed a crime or have been spotted is ingenius. No more cop car around every friggin corner when you're trying to lose your wanted level. 

6. STORYLINE - Entertaining and thrilling.

7. GRAPHICS - Visually stunning - A+.

CONS

1. INSTANT REPLAY - They still don't have it. I want it. 

2. MISSIONS - While they are really fun - they are a bit repetative (LOTS of assassinations). Some of them you just want to get over with in order to see what progresses in the story next. 

3. ONLINE GAME SETUP - You can't automatically be the host for a public game. You are just assigned as a host once and a while. Therefore you can't really choose your game/map specifications unless you become lucky enough to be a host. STUPID. Should be set up like SOCOM for ps2. 

4. BRING BACK WHAT WORKED - As I already mentioned, bring back the gas tanks in cars. bring back the two player co-op mini missions (even though they were so limited they were better than nothing), bring back legitimate gangs and the gang wars that always broke out on street corners in GTA III, BRING BACK AIRPLANES AND PARACHUTES, bring back bicycles, bring back customization of cars and their parts, and bring back the LARGE variety of clothing you could wear in previous versions.

All in all, this is a great game and definately worth buying - but somehow - there were a lot of things I was SURE they would have in this game that they simply did not.