"The fish market smells fishy?"

IV tells the story of Niko, a slav ex-soldier who travels to not-NYC under false promises from his cousin. Niko is a very charismatic protagonist and works perfectly as a vehicle to bring home themes of loyalty, betrayal, revenge and moving on. The story sprawls for about 20 hours, has a very interesting supporting cast, with memorable and colorful characters whose presence doesn't just end at a cutscene, they're constantly dipping in and out of the story and after hanging out enough they reward the player with further details, secrets, development. It would afterwards be expanded with two DLCs starring characters whose stories intertwine with Niko's and show the city from different points of view.

On the technical side, the game is still amazing to see. I do remember being blown away in like 2008 seeing the gameplay videos on YouTube back when I was playing VC. Must have been quite mind-blowing to play this back then. Everything built around the player is just as great. The damage models, the way ragdolls react to projectiles, the driving, the world's density and how the player can interact with so many objects in the world, an open world setting that feels alive, dense and almost tangible thanks to its physics simulation systems and attention to detail. The absolute flex that is to have all of this running on consoles with 512mb ram is something special.

The world is constantly throwing stuff at you, be it the TV system, the phone calls, the radio shows that often address your recent crimes, the music (featuring a reggaeton station hosted by the man himself daddy yankee), the dialogs during missions, the strangers, it is quite multi layered and constantly engaging and makes it the opposite of a podcast game.
There are two mechanics that were quite novel and further expanded the world, one of which is the internet. Emails that show more about Niko's backstory and allow him to take on certain missions and date. It also allows the player to find some more comical, satirical websites that are somewhat funny to read.
The other one is the phone, it keeps you connected to the other characters, allows you to call the police, get the title of the song that's playing, call for backup, call a cab, take pictures, enter cheats, among other features.

The gameplay is solid, the vehicles are notorious for their driving being a big departure from the previous games but I quite enjoyed them, cars do have a lot of weight to them this time around and so do guns. Sadly there aren't enough guns (DLCs add a handful but aren't available on main game), but the shooting is good, it rewards careful positioning and introduces a cover system that goes well with the new combat style. Works particularly well with how enemies react to bullets, as one well positioned shot will take them out of cover or stagger them. The movement from cover to cover is somewhat of unpolished and can lead to unfortunate deaths.

There are some things lacking from the previous games, namely stuff like planes and the more ambitious, grand missions. I think the ones in this game make sense the way they are, not having jets work well with the dense city map, but some variety could have been good to see, at some point it's very much just "drive to x, chase x, kill x, escape the cops". The weakest point in the mission design I think is how some enemies just are invincible during certain sections for spectacle's sake. There's a certain mission where Niko chases a biker, where it doesn't matter how many bullets you put in him, he will stay invincible until they get to a park, and there are more missions with this kind of plot armor.

However, as a whole package it is a great game, Rockstar proving to be shoulders and head above the competition. GTA IV is still one of the greatest crime epics in all of video games as a medium, a crowning achievement for the industry as a whole.

Must have at least 1000 hours across all souls games at this point, playing the first one for the first time has been quite interesting

The locations and overall art is full of flair and details, the atmosphere is very desolate and everything is very well achieved for a 2009 game with a small budget.

It's weird to see just how much or this game's DNA have made it into the massive launch that was Elden Ring. So many ideas have been reused over and over and seeing how Boletarian Palace might as well be a prototype for Stormveil Castle is quite interesting. Same with the mines having the same rocky enemy types weak to strike, and the zone outside being just literally Blighttown. I'm sure there are other zones for which I can point more out but I haven't gotten that far in the game due to laziness and general unwillingness to make a mental effort

There's an evident lack of polish (for obvious reasons) that'd be addressed in later games. Just how much the games were streamlined later on (so much of this game is either frustrating or obtuse while the bosses are really easy), but still rehashing the same ideas feels like a natural evolution but also stuck in time. Playing Demons Souls and then DS3 is at times like playing Ace combat 2 and then 7. 20 years of difference but still the same ideas. You might say it's creatively bankrupt but at this point it's a safe bet, a money printer.

One of the most ambitious racing games in 7th gen.
Forza motorsport 4 features a fantastic amount of content in the car catalog end. You get the classic, the iconic, the weird and everyday cars, a massive garage with a lot of brands, with vehicles that go from shitty chevy sparks to LMP1 icons, all of them with a detailed interior and with (basic) damage systems. A few selected vehicles are featured in the forzavista mode, similar to that in later titles but with a presentation and voiceover by top gear. This is just fantastic and an absolute treat to car lovers. All cars (minus the unicorn ones. I used a modded copy that included all the unicorn cars and all dlc) are available for quick play in the main menu.

It is probably the best looking racing game in the 360 hardware. The graphics are simply mindblowing, to see that sort of detail running 60 fps on 2005 hardware, the art style of certain tracks (nurburgring, suzuka, bernese alps, rally di something) make them super comfy to cruise around, the almost t cartoonish style reminds me much of outrun 2.
UI and presentation are very sober. Dry even, the music is honestly pretty boring and feels like stock music after coming from GT and Horizon titles.

The career mode is interesting to play at first but gets way too repetitive, and does its best to show the worst parts of the game on the later stages.
First of all is the AI being all sorts of bad, where the rival cars won't put a fight (you'll outrun them by turn 2), but are super aggressive and won't try not to crash you. Braking early 100% means you'll get rammed out of the way. This makes it feel like the flashback feature is a cop out of those situations rather than just a crutch for beginner players.
The track selection isn't stellar either and despite there being a few very good fictional ones, the game really insists you on playing the painfully boring ones over and over, like who wants to play Indianapolis and infineon over and over. 2
10 lap races back to back on an ugly and lame track is not fun, at all. This is specially true in the last season where the game just refuses to give you the more fun ones and has you doing the oval tracks over and over.
This is a shame and leaves a very bad impression to an otherwise good game.