Ok with all the busy-ness of working and starting classes for my Masters, I finally got to play a little of GTA IV.

I haven't gotten too far into the missions yet, I am waiting to see how intense the classwork is going to be before I get too involved at the moment. I did spend some quality time getting to know Niko, at least how you get him around town and what he starts up against in his rise to the top.

On the 360 version, the controls just seem a little weird to me, the vehicles are a little to difficult to handle and Niko seems to even run at a snail's pace.

I hate free-roaming at 0.5 miles an hour. It puts a dent in my fun factor, even more so when I don't have hapless pedestrians in my way to kill or beat up. The cars don't do better, they handle like four hundred anvils in the back of an El Camino. You get over 5 mph and turn and you end up in someone's living room.

The dark spots of the game, are too dark, at least, on a non-HD TV. Trying to get to the train at night is worse than a blind man trying to find his way in a house that's been rearranged.

Also, I am sick of Roman calling every five minutes already too, so I think I might just bowl for from time to time till I have some more time to deal with his whining when I am doing missions.

Otherwise, I really like that they seemed to have learned better play styles from Bully, which is one of my favorite Rockstar games ever.