Grand Theft Auto IV: Our Favorite Things — Part II

Yesterday, we recounted four aspects of GTA IV that completely blew our minds. Here we present the rest of the list — more can’t-miss, sheer-bliss pieces of the single-player game.

(5) Harsh Consequences — It’s a small thing, but we love how the game makes even death and dying cool. Crash your car hard enough, and Niko will go flying through the windshield, hitting the ground with a sickening crunch that’ll make you check your real-life body. (In one super-cool instance, with cops on our tail, we crashed a stolen ambulance and went sailing through the windshield, over a wall. As luck would have it, we’d shot right out of the wanted radius, so our police pursuers gave up the chase and we were able to pick ourselves up and get back in the battered ambulance, safe and sound.) Such crashes aren’t always fatal, but when you do die (say, in a firefight), the camera does a black-and-white fadeout that’s cool in its own right — especially when a grenade explosion sends your corpse soaring into the sky.

(6) “No Way on the Subway” — This mission for Ray seems deceptively simple: you’re looking for members of The Lost, a motorcycle gang. But when two of them flee, you end up in a heated bike chase through subway tunnels — hauling ass and dodging the occasional train. Eventually, it spills out onto the street, where you have to do some quick machine-gunning to take down the speeding duo. All in all, it’s an awesome race through places you’d never expect.

(7) “Three Leaf Clover” — As much as we like the “Subway” mission, this one eclipses it — it’s probably the best in the game. After a bungled bank robbery, you, Packie, and Derrick have to escape the scores of police who’ve arrived on the scene. What follows is an intense shootout in the streets, with you having to stay near your comrades and keep any of you from getting killed. The POOM-POOM-POOM of your assault rifle as you fend off the law is straight out of the movie Heat, and your escape takes you into the subway and back out again, where you have to quickly grab a car and flee the cops for good. Incredible stuff.

(8) Stunt Ramp by Alderney Hideout — GTA IV’s 50 stunt ramps are awesome in general — particularly how they tend to be goal-oriented, like landing your car in a tunnel or a swimming pool. But we couldn’t help slobbering over the ramp right by Niko’s hideout in Alderney (New Jersey), at the end of the street. Once you finish Bernie’s missions and he gives you the Infernus, you’re in prime shape to try this ramp — which, if you hit it just right, sends your car soaring over the water separating Alderney and Algonquin (Manhattan). That’s right: you can hop from borough to borough if your speed, skill, and timing are good enough. It took us several tries, but when we landed it, we felt like professional drivers.

What were YOUR favorite moments while playing GTA IV? To tell us about your own adventures in Liberty City, click here.