Unpleasant

Started playing GTA IV and for most of the early game play it's a rather unpleasant game. Niko has no personality at the start, his cousin is an annoying jerk, they both do jobs for an arrogant loan shark, and the first girlfriend option is a desperate OCD twit. Also the car you have for most missions is a piece of junk.

Fortunately it seemd to be turning around by the end of playing today. Niko gets tired of the loan shark and kills him, then explains to his cousin that he's actually in the city to find out who betrayed his platoon during the war. So one annoying character down and Niko actually grows a personality and a plot. Then are then picked up by the next higher up guy in the underworld food chain and he seems much more interesting and professional, so doing missions for him should be more rewarding and less petty.

Also I'm giving myself my own limit of not breaking any laws when not in a mission (other than traffic laws), so no killing or stealing or jacking cars unless it's mission related. I figure the game has enough unpleasantness within the storyline with out any extra wanton acts of destruction.

After I saved the game I tried out for a while the most interesting part of the whole game, the catapult swing. A particular glitchy swing in a park that if you slowly drive against it will fling your car blocks high up into the air. The second time I tried it I had the spectacular result of having the car explode in mid-air and Niko flying 2 blocks into a 5 story apartment building, then still walking away after landing.