Is GTA IV A Casual Game?

As casualgamerchick said, there are many aspects of Grand Theft Auto IV that make you say, "hey, this is totally a casual game."

First, they've learned that mini-games actually do sell to consumers. Proof is in the fact that you can play real darts, bowling and games like pool right in the game engine itself! You don't just watch your character play, you control the game and can even get achievements (on the Xbox 360) for good games.

Secondly, you run errands and go on dates and out to lunch with friends. Sounds much like TheSims, right? Exactly--very casual nature.

Sure, you spend time shooting people, hunting down drug deals to shake them out of money or perhaps an occasional trip to the strip club (which is still much a mini-game style event) but if you were to take away the 'bad content' and put in happy fruity content you've got yourself a killer casual game for all people.

Rockstar did well in building a great storyline, deep content, plenty of hidden content to uncover such as doing police car missions or using their wifi link to browse the most wanted lists. The content in GTA IV is rock solid to say the least and well executed.

Sure, some of the character movement may be a bit flawed or 'dated' compared to similar titles (read: Saints Row) and some of the cars control much like a tanker truck or big ol' boat, but the game works well.

Flawless? No. Perfect 10? Probably not in all realms of gaming, but its well above average.

Casual game? I'm thinking yes, but an adult style casual game much to the genre of Leisure Suit Larry.

(Thanks, CasualGamerChick)