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Just Some Good Ol' Boys

Most of what you do in GTA IV still boils down to hustling jobs; stealing cars, trucks, and motorbikes of all makes and sizes; chasing and frequently stabbing, beating, or shooting enemies by land, sea, and air; and evading the law (only when you're caught, of course). Missions cluster in twos and threes and usually come through a convenient pop-up cell phone, as do calls, contacts, text messages, and plenty of bling-tones if you have the money and inclination to buy upgrades around the city. The phone lets you manually dial outbound, as well, which allows you to call numbers cleverly strewn on or around signs and on Web sites in Internet cafes sprinkled throughout the city--you can even dial 911 to summon a police car for help or just to engage in a little extrabrazen car thievery. Lining up money jobs through the phone is a snap, too, once you work yourself into the good graces of employers, who will send you on missions ranging from taxiing patrons and jacking vehicles to intimidating the stubborn or just plain stupid--and even pulling off the occasional hired assassination.