Well after a 2 and a half hour play session last night heres my thoughts!:
First up the biggest difference from past games for me is the way you control the main character. Its now much more realistic (read:slower). It makes cars and other transport a lot more useful than in past games.
The city itself is great, if not a little intimidating (and thats just the first island). Fear not though I imagine its simply a matter of time before we get to know the exact layout of things. Within half an hour I already made a slight change to the storyline (I choose a women over helping someone out), so I am already looking forward to the next run through!
The paint filter seen on the screen shots isn't there on the single player campaign (I haven't tried Multi yet). The graphics to be fair look amazing and only could do with a little more AA but it certainly looks better than if it had none at all (like previous games did).
Radio stations seem really good, theres loads of them! It could maybe do with a cheese/pop station but I haven't found it yet if it exists! A little bit too much hip/hop, jazz and its variations if you ask me, rather than what I would call the main genres Indie, Metal, Rock and Pop. That been said theres no point in listening to music you already like/own and undeniably it fits into the Liberty city mood well.
The TV stations were a surprise and may I add an absolute blast! The first 20 minutes I just watched a program on TV from my first apartment! Only thing I might say is that so far Adverts/Radio/TV seem to push the "We need to attack other country's to protect freedom" thing a bit too far, so far its mentioned every other time! So after 20 minutes of it in a show and then listening to some guy going on about it on the radio I was a bit "ooook".
As mentioned above I went on a date and it was A LOT better implemented than on San Andreas. We went bowling (after it turned out the fun fair was closed). The bowling was mint and I can definitely see me coming back for me.. maybe without the lass though she didn't give me coffee after the first date!
Was great seeing all the OCUK guys playing it last night, seeing everyone playing the same game for once
So far I'd give the game 10/10 also and a contender for best game alongside Deus Ex, Mafia and Final Fantasy 7. Naturally it take a good few more hours to get an accurate opinion, but already I can see this at the very least being game of the year!
