After years of wishing and waiting, GTA fans finally have multiplayer injected into their beloved franchise with Grand Theft Auto IV. It’s not quite in the same league as a Call of Duty 4, but it’s still an awesome addition to this series and increases replayability by leaps and bounds.
As with most MP games today you can start by choosing a character from a bunch of preset models, customize him/her to your liking, and head for the warzone. Multiplayer integration in GTA IV is as seamless as it was in Criterion’s Burnout Paradise. All you have to do is bring up your cell phone, choose the multiplayer option, the game mode, and you’re good to go. But before you start playing competitive modes I'd suggest you get a feel of the game’s mechanics by playing some Free Roam with friends that’ll allow you and your compadres to cruise around Liberty City causing chaos, mayhem and everything else your twisted little hearts desire.
Once you do get the hang of the game (or are done tooling around Liberty City) you can head into one of ten competitive modes that Rockstar’s laid out for you. Here’s a quick look at them in case you’ve been hiding in a bomb shelter for a while now.
Just like in Halo 3, GTA IV’s MP allows you to form a party of friends (this is counted as one of the MP modes and is called Party Mode) so that you can play together in the same team during various competitive modes.
will probably take a year or more counting from the release on the consoles...well that's what's been happening all the time...but it seems like a fun mp...lot of modes... 
