Grand Theft Auto 4: explore or campaign

I'm torn between random exploration, and working the campaign. In prior GTA experience its more fun to find things on your own, but I also know that the campaign pushes me further than you would go at my own leisurely rate. I guess its a question of pace.

How nice - a Steam advertisement for GTA 4 for $8, down from $30.

I hit start, and presumably it loads my last save game. I don't trust this game enough to be sure it got it right - can I select which save to load? Speaking of which, where do my save files live? I will eventually fill up on saves, and have to swap them out so I can keep the old and still create new. My Documents folder is littered with past GTA saves, but no sign of current. What gives? Off to the net to search. Oh really - AppData\Local? Why not in My Documents like the past 3 GTA games? Did Rockstar even make this game?

Added new entry to shortcuts folder. Back to the game. At least I'm automatically logged in to LIVE now, I don't have to mess with that anymore. Driving my cousin to the gentlemen's club, I pass a gas station and wonder why they haven't yet implemented fuel in the cars. Sure, filling up is boring, but it could be a great tactical element in a lot of different kinds of missions.

The wanted system is different, and even makes a little more sense. You can lose the cops if you speed far away enough, and just driving into a pay and spray isn't enough if they see you. We'll see how this actually works out. The GPS and mapping are working out really great, and finally make sense in the context of the game.

Driving feels really chunky, but that may be because of the lower end cars I'm driving. I'll have to wait and see on that front. NPCs have a much better sense of self-preservation now than previous GTAs; other cars seem to swerve a bit out of the way if I get too close. And there's less crazy random lane changing.

I can watch TV! It just goes on and on...