The queues for Grand Theft Auto IV, which went on sale at midnight, seem justified judging by the rave reviews for the latest game from developer Rockstar Games and its publisher Take-Two.
“Rockstar’s magnum opus is a modern-day masterpiece that could change the way the world views videogames,” said Gamespy.
Its New York-based location “Liberty City is nothing less than one of the greatest videogame worlds yet conceived,” said IGN.
“I now know how film critics felt after screening The Godfather …Grand Theft Auto IV doesn’t just raise the bar for the storied franchise; it completely changes the landscape of gaming,” said Game Informer.
Metacritic, which provides a weighted average score for games based on a wide range of reviews, has rated the PlayStation 3 version of the game as a perfect 100 and the Xbox 360 version as a 99.
The industry average for video games is around 68, with Nintendo games scoring highest at an average of 75, Sony following on 74, then Take-Two on 73 and Electronic Arts on 72.
Metacritic is widely quoted by the industry and the Mature-rated Grand Theft Auto franchise’s excellence has to be one big reason why EA has bid $2bn for Take-Two.
At its analyst day in February, John Riccitiello, EA chief executive, expressed his disappointment that EA’s Metacritic average had dropped 5 points in five years from 77 to 72.
He set a target for its fiscal 2011 year of reaching an average Metacritic score of 80.
EA is this year building better games than it has ever done, he believes, but just imagine the boost to those averages the addition of Rockstar would give.
