The Top 7... things Grand Theft Auto IV needs

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The kingpin of crime games comes roaring back in October. Here's what we'd like to see when it does

6. More wide-open spaces

Some of the rumors about GTAIV have hinted that the next game will focus on a single city again, instead of offering up a whole state like San Andreas did. That's fine with us, so long as San Andreas' greatest feature is preserved: its landscape. Bombing down urban streets and running down pedestrians is awesome, don't get us wrong, but plenty of other games let us do that. Tearing around pristine wilderness and looking for new ways to be idiots, however, is a rare thrill.


Above: What makes this fun isn't the tractor, the sheriff's deputy or the field - it's that you can launch the tractor off that ridge in the background if you want, and the deputy will follow you to his doom

Bouncing down mountainsides on a bike was immense fun, and so was leading hick deputies on long chases through rocky canyons. We also got a stomach-churning thrill plunging ATVs off towering cliffs, and the isolation of exploring a vast desert dotted with ghost towns made for an interesting change of pace from the urban sprawls of Los Santos, San Fierro and Las Venturas.

Of course, GTAIV isn't San Andreas, and it might not feature the same mind-boggling scale that kept us exploring that virtual state for months on end. But who knows? It might end up giving us a wilderness that puts Just Cause's lush islands to shame. And if that's the case, Rockstar, we'd like some wildlife this time - if only so we can think up gruesome ways to kill it.

Mikel Reparaz
Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.