The official Grand Theft Auto 4 GAMEPLAY thread.

[pilonv1]

finally finished.

[pilonv1]

OH WHAT THE FUCK THERES A MISSION AFTER THE WEDDING THAT SUCKS EVEN MORE

GOD END IT NOW

[pilonv1]

why am i chasing for someone who

spoiler (click to show/hide)

killed kate when i never dated her?

[close]

smh

[pilonv1]

Ok THIS mission is worse than greed. Ride a bike along the coast? bullshit

[pilonv1]

FFS I made it to the final island and A COP SHOT ME DOWN.

[chronovore]

At first I was a little disappointed and alienated from the game. I wanted, really, GTA III with this-gen graphics, plus networked multiplayer. And hopefully no horsecrap with the "RPG" elements of weight gain/loss, dating women who required a certain BMI, and no Unique Jumps which relied on the vagaries of traffic patterns to complete. That's all. I'd have been as happy as a pig in poop.

It's clear that they wanted to evolve the game, and retired some stuff that was working along with some crap that didn't.

• The shooting mechanic was a crapshoot before; I'm happy to see the new cover-shooter and the tuning they've done to sub-aiming within lock-on. I'd have been even happier if it'd been NO LOCK ON, like Mercenaries and Saints Row, and I know that's an option but it's like choosing to walk half a mile instead of riding a bike; I'd rather take the easier path if it's presented, and there's no Achievement for turning off auto-aim, as there was for No-Vitachambers in Bioshock.
• I think people are pissed because the driving is no longer simple. When I got in and couldn't really drive a car after having played the hell out of all the GTA III-era's games, I was disappointed. Last-gen, it was really straightforward to e-brake around any corner. Cars had a lot less personality; they were either nimble but fragile, tough but sluggish, or an SUV which bounced and slewed and was never worth the trouble. This time it is much more varied to get into any car. Mid-range coupes feel different from one another, as well as "real" sports cars from expensive image-heavy sports cars like their BMW- and Mercedes-like cars (Sentinel and Admiral?). I think the key is that they're more realistic than they had been; most people I've heard talk about liking the new driving physics are doing it from the bonnet view.
• They retired Ammu-Nation for back-room, black-market arms dealers. If there was ANYTHING that made GTA feel like a parody of the USA instead of just calling NY by a different name, it was the fact that there was a 24-hour convenience store which would sell you guns and ammo and armor, EVEN IF you'd been pursued into the place by the police and National Guard. OTOH, having Little Jacob show up with a car trunk full of apocalypse is the bomb.
• Melee combat has improved but is not perfect. Saints Row didn't have much in the way of melee, but they at least had the cops IGNORE you if you weren't pulling a weapon; cop interference for fisticuffs in GTA IV makes me not want to use the game mechanic at all. Sure, it's difficult, but the mechanic is readily identifiable, consistent, and engaging. San Andreas made a big deal of their improved combat, but it amounted to different animations for the same button combo. BULLY stepped up and showed a great melee mechanic; it's a mystery why they didn't use more of that. I'm not asking for Niko to give cops melvins, I'm just sayin' the fights feel less accomplished than an earlier game in one of their own franchises.
• No R3 Missions. Vigilante, Ambulance, Firefighter -- all gone. So far there have been no hidden missions activated by preset vehicles. The RC cars from Toys For Bob or whatever, and Patriot Playground opened up a whole new kind of exploration gameplay to me. I'm sad that they're missing. In the interest of making a more believable world, they've taken some stuff away from the exploration of the sandbox.

It looks as though a LOT of money has been spent on level design, motion capture, facial motion capture, and so forth. Honestly, the game has never been about that kind of storytelling for me. I just want to mess around in the world.

[pilonv1]

• No R3 Missions. Vigilante, Ambulance, Firefighter -- all gone. So far there have been no hidden missions activated by preset vehicles. The RC cars from Toys For Bob or whatever, and Patriot Playground opened up a whole new kind of exploration gameplay to me. I'm sad that they're missing. In the interest of making a more believable world, they've taken some stuff away from the exploration of the sandbox.

This is my most annoying missing feature - simple things that made just running around in the city enjoyable. Now there's nothing besides some typical police computer missions.

It looks as though a LOT of money has been spent on level design, motion capture, facial motion capture, and so forth. Honestly, the game has never been about that kind of storytelling for me. I just want to mess around in the world.

I get the feeling that Rockstar get the shits with people not playing the story mode in their games. So this time they made a heavy story driven game and punished you for not finishing the story first (hence the 30hr achievement). I guess they were hoping that by the time people finished the story they'd be sick of the game and  not miss the side missions, or that their shitty selection of friends would make up for it (epic fail).

[chronovore]

I get the feeling that Rockstar get the shits with people not playing the story mode in their games. So this time they made a heavy story driven game and punished you for not finishing the story first (hence the 30hr achievement). I guess they were hoping that by the time people finished the story they'd be sick of the game and  not miss the side missions, or that their shitty selection of friends would make up for it (epic fail).

I'm actually liking the Friends, though it can be annoying to get hit up mid-mission. Hell, there's one mission where they intentionally have Roman call you while you're stealthily tracking some guy; if you haven't got your phone set to vibrate or "sleep," the target gets spooked and the mission fails. However, Little Jacob is really cool, Packie seems funny, and Brucie's the closest thing to a "real" GTA character in the game. STAY ALPHA, BABY!

But I don't think they were trying to set people up to "force" them to do the story missions. My assumption all along has been that the 30 hr. Achievement is for a 2nd play-through on a New Game. At least, that's how I'm planning to get it. Most of my money is going to go to trip-skipping taxis, I bet.

WAIT WAIT WAIT... is this true?

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING

I'll never buy GTA4 now, fuck R*. They will probably put all those missions in GTA4: Vice City/ San Andreas/ Etc. Fucking lazy bastards. They won't get my money for GTA4 now.

What part? All the stuff I said is missing is truly at least missing for the first 1/3 or 1/2 of the game. I'm on the 2nd island, and pacing-wise it feels like the 3rd island is about to open up.

Don't forget though, they also have the option of putting this in as DLC with both PS3 and XBLA. It probably wouldn't be world-breakingly difficult to put in Firefighter, "original" Vigilante, or Pizza Delivery games.

[AdmiralViscen]

It's really easy to get the 30h achievement without using taxis.

[Raban]

Yeah I'm selling GTA4. Complete crap.

[Mupepe]

eh, it's grown on me.

driving is INFINITELY better in the hood view or whatever. 

fighting is still slow and boring.  too many chase missions, but that's why i play it in short bursts

[demi]

I did 30 hour achievement with ease using Taxis, I beat it at 21hrs