Grand Theft Auto IV Hits the Jackpot

SAN FRANCISCO -- Grand Theft Auto IV, the highly anticipated game from video game publisher Take-TwoTTWO, is garnering rave reviews ahead of its release at midnight.

GTA IV has bagged perfect scores from games reviewers, a rare feat for a video game. The big buildup for what many in the industry consider the game of the year is significant because Take-Two wanted to wait for its release before considering any buyout offers.

Take-Two has twice rejected a $2 billion, or $25.74 a share, offer from larger rival Electronic ArtsERTS.

On Friday, IGN.com, games news and reviews site, posted the first review of the game and rated it as flawless or 10 on a scale of one to 10.

There was little doubt that GTA IV would be a critical success but the perfect score is unusual and unexpected. GTA IV is the third game in IGN.com's 10-year history to receive a perfect score.

The last videogame title that achieved that feat was Japanese games publisher Namco's 1999 game Soul Calibur for the SEGA Dreamcast platform and Nintendo's 1998 hit The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64.

"GTA IV gives us characters and a world with a level of depth previously unseen in gaming and elevates its story from a mere shoot-em-up to an Oscar-caliber drama," says Hilary Goldstein, editor-in-chief, IGN Xbox Team in the review. "Every facet of Rockstar's (a division of Take-Two that has created the game) new masterpiece is worthy of applause."

The game is also getting lavish praise from Metacritic, a ratings aggregation site, which has ranked GTA IV for the Sony'sSNE PlayStation 3 console 100 on its scale of one to 100 based on 14 reviews.