In the popular imagination, the number one draw of virtual reality was the shock, the wonderment, and the sheer coolness of being able to plug into a make-believe world and experience it as if you were actually in it. From Pong to Galaga all the way up to the most excellent first person shooters, gamers need game space that functions like the holodeck on Star Trek. With the highly anticipated, audacious and award-wining release of Grand Theft Auto 4, or GTA 4, the wholly open virtual world is much closer than ever.



From its initial version on the Commodore Amiga and its move to the original PlayStation, the top-down, strictly 2D perspective wasn't much to look at. Nevertheless, the wide-open nature of the game was the top kick. Even then, if you played it safe and wanted to follow the mission, fine. If you felt like you needed to set somebody on fire, that was also fine. GTA 4 takes the open game play even further than its earlier versions, letting Niko-the main character-roam around, make connections, or run amok.

Set in Liberty City, which the designers patterned after New York City, players are free to go where they want, do what they want, and even listen to what they want. In fact, the music is a perfect example of how wide open GTA 4 is. In previous versions, each radio station was basically one loop, so you heard the same songs, commercials and announcements in the same order. GTA 4 separates all of the files so that everything is mixed arbitrarily, and the stations even announce plot developments.

Since Liberty City has 18 radio stations that play over 200 songs by artists as diverse as Kanye West, Phillip Glass and Thin Lizzy, you may hear something you'd like to have for keeps. Fortuitously, the game's developer, Rockstar Games, has thought of everything. One of the best features of GTA 4 is players' ability to purchase real-world copies of the songs they hear in the game. If you hear a song you like, use Niko's mobile phone and "mark" a song. You'll acquire text message with the song's title and artist. If you've registered on Rockstar's "Social Club" website, you'll get an email that links you to an Amazon.com playlist, which lists all your marked songs, which can then be purchased.

This level of detail, flexibility and interaction is just one of the excellent reasons why GTA 4 is the most popular, highest rated game in history.