GTA IV - Videogame Godhead

At midnight, Grand Theft Auto IV hits the streets, and it may be the best reviewed game and highest grossing ever.

The criminal action title (for the n00bs out there) is the ninth game in the series, but the only the fourth to bear the GTA name. The game, which originated in Liberty City (doubling for New York), had garnered immense popularity as it shifted locations in the 80's tinted GTA: Vice City (Miami) and 90's throwback GTA: San Andreas (Los Angeles / San Francisco / Las Vegas), but has now returned to the infamous point of origin.

The 3-D third person shooter has become something of a figurehead in game development, and what has made the game super-playable is the incredible detail put into the settings. Liberty City has been bulked up to not only include versions of the real world boroughs of New York, but also game versions of famous buildings and landmarks. And the feature of radio stations to choose between and listen to while driving around the metropolis has expanded to an insane 18, giving hours of content.

Yet for all the detail and care for the environment, it's the story and gameplay (nerd out and see the supercool character engine demo here) that sells the game, which critics call "a brutal and satirical masterpiece equal to films like The Godfather. And that's not a stretch from the reviewers:

"Rockstar's magnum opus is a modern-day masterpiece that could change the way the world views video games," wrote gaming news and reviews site GameSpy, awarding the game a perfect five-star rating.

"Grand Theft Auto IV is a violent, intelligent, profane, endearing, obnoxious, sly, richly textured and thoroughly compelling work of cultural satire disguised as fun," The New York Times said.

"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," IGN said. "The idea of a 'living, breathing city' has always been somewhat of a joke in gaming. Every city in the past has felt artificial in some way. But Liberty City feels like a real place".

Metacritic, a widely tracked aggregator of gaming reviews, compiled over a dozen scores, and the version for Sony's PlayStation 3 game scored a perfect 100, while the Microsoft's Xbox 360 achieved a 99. Many retail chains such as GameStop and Best Buy have taken advance orders for weeks and are throwing open their doors at midnight to accommodate gamers eager to be among the first to play. First-week sales forecast to be as much as $400 million, beating those of last year's super hit Halo 3, and at least 9 million units of the game are expected to be sold before year's end. In fact, some caution that Iron Man, debuting at the end of the week may suffer lower ticket sales on account of the massive interest of GTA IV.

I played so much GTA: Vice City that I broke my game controller. It was that cool of a game. Seeing how great this looks makes me almost need to replace that controller and call in sick for a week. The trailers alone sell it.