It's not necessary to befriend everyone, but even an enemy can come in handy when they are in need of your services. Sometimes it seems like a brilliant way to create minigames. You might take one of the characters out you can actually bowl and play pool. But it's about bonding even when it doesn't seem completely necessary. It's hard to know what helps and what may not. You can even go drinking—and when drunk you have a hard time driving your car and may find it really tough to run from the police. Drinking is also an interesting way to get some of the characters to tell the truth.

The combat system is better, but sometimes it's hard to lock onto someone. It makes sense to be able to lock on when firing a weapon, but why do you need to lock on when throwing a punch?

At one point, Niko was on a date and the owner of a restaurant started a fight and it was impossible to lock the target on him. Instead, Niko locked on to his date and in a split second hit her. As the owner was punching and kicking Niko, all I could do was run out of the place to stay alive. Even with free aim, it's not as easy as it should be.

Another issue is the police. They aren't really good at capturing crooks, particularly Niko. It's also amazing that you can run red lights in front of them without getting chased. The police only seem to show up when shots are fired, you steal a car in their view or when you run someone over. The radar system is great, however. When the police are after you, there is a parameter that details where you need to go to outrun them. It's nice to have a goal, rather than just running aimlessly, hoping to get away.

The single best feature of "GTA IV" is the waypoint. It allows you to hit pause and go to a map and set a GPS-style direction to follow. This streamlines the game and makes up for frustrating and aimless navigating, especially when in pursuit of someone or while trying to run from the police.

Graphics: Liberty City is as alive as it is beautiful. It's not beautiful in the sense of the perfect utopian city — it looks more like New York City — but it's the rare video game city that actually looks and feels realistic. The next generation platforms couldn't have come soon enough for this franchise.

Audio: the soundtrack is huge. I've read that there are more than 200 songs, but the constant environmental noise is far more interesting.

The characters are even better. Each has a unique voice that's identifiable. There is so much dialogue that "GTA IV" could easily be a movie — and maybe one day it will be.

Parent's take: there is no way any child under 17 or 18 should play this game. If it were a movie, it'd probably get an R rating. The language is as bad as any episode of "The Sopranos," and there is a lot of violence.

Final word: I'm not a fan of this genre, but "Grand Theft Auto IV" has me addicted. I can't go to bed without at least an hour of Niko's adventures. This is easily one of the best games I've ever played. "Grand Theft Auto IV" is epic.

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E-mail: ccraine@desnews.com