So I got through GTA IV

After a little over a month, and spending too much time on the XBox 360, I made it through the final mission in GTA IV. Best single person game I've ever played, surpassing my previous favorite, Goldeneye on the old Nintendo 64 (wow that is like 10 years ago).

Strangely enough the game reports that I only complete 70% of the missions. Not sure if I missed something along the way, or by not doing all the taxi missions for Roman I missed out on some characters, but this was a great game.

I liked the twists where you had to make choices that affect your destiny. Evil mission one or evil mission two, which is it? Pick your poison.

Some things I never accomplished but wanted to:

1. Blow up 10 cars within 10 seconds. Came close a couple of times, but never quite accomplished this even though I tried my damnedest.
2. Fly under all the bridges with the helicopter. Didn't spend as much time in the helicopter as I would have liked. And when I did I ended up in the drink. :(
3. Get six stars. Got four stars a couple of times. And got to five stars once but the cops took me out.
4. Complete all the races. At least I don't think I did. I can no longer get races from Brucie. That was the best part of the game, IMHO.

Plot was great, and the Liberty City graphics, and performance of them, were amazing. Truly a major accomplishment in the history of gaming. Oblivion had just as complete of a world, and just as good of graphics, but they didn't have to pull off the scrolling and reloading at the speed of GTA IV.

A couple things I would have liked to see:

1. More dialogue with more characters, a la Oblivion.
2. Ability to save game more often. Having to wait until the end of a mission is just not cool. I can understand not saving in the middle of a shootout or chase, but to not be able to save while I'm strolling the streets makes no sense.
3. Ability to have more than one game saved! I wanted to start over, but to do so will erase my existing game. Not cool.

Kudos to Rockstar for such a great overall game. Now to get more of our friends on it so we can play that Friday nights instead of CoD4. :)