Grand Theft Auto 4 Side Missions

Guide Note

Like previous entries in the Grand Theft Auto series of games, GTA IV features a number of optional side missions apart from the main narrative. Many of them can be accessed via the in-game cell phone, which can be used to make dates, set up appointments and even plot assassinations-for-hire. It has been estimated that players attempting to complete all mandatory and side missions in GTA IV may take as long as 100 hours to finish the game.

Some of these missions, such as nights spent drinking with friends, include mini-games such as bowling or billiards simulators. These games have many uses - achievements, earning items or just enhancing relationships with secondary characters.

Past Grand Theft Auto games have included a number of other varieties of side mission that may or may not be included in GTA IV. Past side missions have included working as a truck driver, courier missions, performing stunts and jumps, gambling missions and racing missions. Completists can also try to collect all the game's different exotic cars.

Known Side Missions

1. Vigilante missions (2 kinds: "Most Wanted" and ordinary crimes)
2. Finding hidden packages
3. Assassinations
4. Taxi-driving missions
5. Dating
6. Drinking with friends

Game Background

Grand Theft Auto IV is the ninth game in Rockstar Games' popular long-running franchise. The games are infamous for their violent, anarchic spirit and gleefully amoral content. In GTA IV, recent Eastern European immigrant Niko Bellic moves to America's Liberty City (based on New York City) to start a new life. He winds up working for his cousin Roman's taxi company, really a front for all manner of criminal enterprises. Though the actual navigable area of Liberty City is a bit smaller than that of the previous GTA game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, but the graphics has been improved and the game has been made more interactive.

Fast Facts

1. Release Date: April 29, 2008
2. Available on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360
3. Not differentiated from main missions on the game's map
4. More main missions than side missions