Grand Theft Auto IV, as you probably already know, is one of the most celebrated console releases of recent times. When Rockstar announced the game was also coming to PC, there was much rejoicing, along with whispered concerns regarding the possibility of it being “just another console port”. The more optimistic members of the gaming community, driven by sales figures and strong reviews, proclaimed that it would be “the best thing to happen in PC gaming this year”.

Though the title itself has been massively over-hyped by web and print media alike, Rockstar's latest instalment in the franchise is a competent effort – but by no means as perfect as many would tend to suggest. The PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV sees a return to Liberty City, where gamers step into the shoes of Niko Belic, a European immigrant who has just arrived in America.

The new Liberty City which greets him has been drastically enhanced from what PC gamers experienced in 2002, when the franchise took its first leaps to “real” 3D on the PC, following a highly successful PS2 version. Grand Theft Auto IV not only trumps recent instalments in the series, but it is a huge step past San Andreas technologically, with this evidenced by a more active world, complete with further graphical polish and an attempt to update the series with whiz-bang high definition graphics and shaders.

On the PC, Grand Theft Auto IV is graphically superior to the console builds of the game – with textures sharper and more defined, even at the medium settings. This is, in part due to a lack of forced blurring which the consoles have hard-coded into their specific builds, in an effort to remove jaggies and poorly aliased textures. This has resulted in many console titles appearing muddy and indistinct compared to modern PC releases of the time. While the colour palette of Grand Theft Auto IV on the PC mirrors that of the consoles, textures are noticeably more defined, and look exquisite when put to their highest settings.

The textures however, suffer from inconsistency, with some models and areas given far more attention than others, with notably low resolution textures in comparison to modern flagship PC titles such as Crysis, S.T.AL.K.E.R: Clear Sky or World in Conflict. The game can be considered a graphical landmark for the series, given that it runs entirely under Direct X 9 libraries – offering suitably tasty particle effects and some soft smoke as the main graphical draw cards. Unfortunately, the game doesn't tend to scale too well, with distinct differences between graphical settings not all that obvious.

The ability to run the game at up to 2560x1600 is a welcome addition – but in testing, there appeared to be little difference in terms of texture sharpness moving between 1680x1050 and 1920x1200, where the textures were already looking a little worse for wear. In addition, resolution or shader complexity do not offer much in the way of extra detail or frame rate boosts – which shows evidence that the retail version of the game has been poorly optimised for the PC. Rockstar have announced that patches will be released in order to fix a memory leak as well as add a number of other enhancements to the game, while asserting that it is a “next-generation” gaming experience, and as such, requires a “next-generation PC” to run well.

It is worth noting that you will need an absolute beast to enjoy this game through and through – my test system – a Q6600 at 3GHz, along with an 8800GTX and 4GB of RAM struggled to maintain 35FPS using Medium textures and “Highest” renderer complexity. Moving up to the highest textures, with all sliders to the right resulted in a lowly frame rate between 8 and 17. Traffic density is the real killer here – if this bar is set to full, Liberty City should come to life – and it does – in still frames that is, with upwards of three dozen cars on the road at any time and a sea of pedestrians. This may be, as Rockstar have implied a “next-generation” PC title, but it does, in some respects suffer from a number of technical flaws, which are only just outweighed by the additional content PC owners get.

In addition to a number of graphical enhancements, Grand Theft Auto IV on the PC ups the multiplayer ante, increasing the number of players from sixteen on the consoles to thirty-two. Whilst this is welcome, a lack of any dedicated server application and actual players may lead to the game being shunned in PC gaming circles. As an aside, it offers integration with Microsoft's Games for Windows application – which must run whilst playing the game, in addition to Rockstar's Social Club application. In an odd move, you must also be signed into a Games for Windows account in order to save your game.

This leads me to another point where Grand Theft Auto IV on the PC will potentially suffer. DRM. While I've never had issues with DRM, and it shouldn't interfere with the user – it is as though Rockstar fully intend to let legitimate customers know they don't want people to pirate their product. This is accompanied with a one-time online activation (complete with a Secu-ROM support portal and links to off-line activation procedures) along with a series lengthy installs and updates of numerous independent re-distributable packages. This, coupled with technical issues, puts forth the notion that whilst PC owners get so much more from GTA IV, their patience is tested throughout the experience.

Grand Theft Auto IV, as you'd expect from Rockstar, offers some solid, scripted gameplay that involves a variety of differing objectives. As Niko Belic, you'll have free reign over Liberty City to do as you please whilst completing jobs for various mob bosses and a variety of shady types. At its core, a narrative follows Belic from his arrival to the city and his (inevitable) ascension to a position of considerable notoriety. It's an emotional ride – and there is a strong emphasis throughout the narrative on the power of compassion, greed, revenge and a number of other themes that are considered important by contemporary society.

Between gunfights, running drugs, evading the police, and innumerable activities of a various nature, the game in typical GTA style throws in some light-hearted humour, and commentary against the thriving capitalism and consumerism of American society. This is provided primarily through radio stations in-game. These are evocative of Vice City in addition virtual in-game TV and Internet are present which further enhances the immersion and depth of Liberty City.

The gameplay in GTA IV is more than adequate, though does tend to contain some repetition, with generic mission types typical of the franchise's formula. The game is MUCH easier on a PC, with mouse and keyboard aiming making nightmarish console shoot-outs laughable in difficulty. Interestingly, this has not been balanced for the PC, and you'll find foes dying swiftly. Most weapons in the game are incredibly deadly even at their maximum range, but this is offset by the introduction of a dynamic cover system, complete with blind fire and Gears of War-styled prolonged stand-offs.

Control of vehicles is achieved through the WASD keys, and the game also supports the Xbox 360 controller. At this stage, the game does not support use of third party or generic gamepads without a modification, but this should be addressed by Rockstar in a future patch. Vehicles can be difficult to control using the keyboard, with piloting helicopters a truly agonising experience. This can be averted by using a controller however, and it is easy enough to switch between a game pad and the keyboard and mouse for some run and gun action.

One of the most interesting features of the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV is the replay editor, which is a PC exclusive feature that enables you to capture gameplay elements and edit them later. The game engine has the ability to capture a “rolling demo” of what has occurred around you. Depending on what action has occurred, this can range from ten seconds to fifty seconds – hitting F2 on the keyboard will dump the engine data to hard disk, which can later be accessed through the replay editor.

The replay editor offers robust and in-depth control of a scene. You'll be able to choose from a number of pre-determined camera angles, or use a free roaming camera within a specific radius of the player character. The features and potential here are truly limitless, with camera options including that of the perspective of NPCs in the vicinity along options for filters, slow motion, adding audio, transitions and standard video editing fare. The editor also offers full integration with Social Club TV – Rockstar's GTA IV Youtube, where users can upload videos that capture their journeys throughout Liberty City.

Whilst the replay editor isn't on par with a professional video packages such as Final Cut Pro – it will provide enough depth to allow budding Machinima artists to bring their creations to life in Liberty City without having to rely on third party software packages, which will either inhibit performance, or not offer the post-processing and alternate camera angles that the game engine and replay editor are capable of producing.

Overall, Grand Theft Auto IV on the PC is a strong release, but it has been reported that it does have a number of performance issues, even on bleeding-edge hardware. It will run on older systems, but can easily be viewed as a poor console port, despite a number of major enhancements both internal to the engine and in its back end. At times, the loading of cut-scenes mid-mission can be jarring, and detract from the action, but overall it is a good title that is sure to offer around 20 hours of enjoyment for the main story, with the potential for more in multiplayer and in perusal of single player's many hidden secrets.

If you've already got the game on the console, and you are considering getting this for the PC – the replay editor is the number one reason you should truly consider purchasing the title. Otherwise – this one is first and foremost a title for GTA fanatics, and as good time as any to start with the series – if you've got the PC hardware to run it at a reasonable frame rate.