Man GTA4 is fucking awful

[tiesto]

The radios in GTA I-III were the best because you could bump some seriously sick drum and bass.  Driving like a madman while listening to dirty, dirty 170 bpm dnb?  Hells yes.  VC was fun for a while but the nostalgia factor wore off for me.  I could see where someone like beezy that hadn't been exposed to that kind of stuff would think it was awesome, tho.

Yeah, MSX in GTAIII with the MC was absolutely awesome... perfect music to drive around recklessly to. Probably the main reason why GTAIII remains my favorite of all of them. Well that and the fact that the game was pretty novel at the time, but now it's 7 years later and we're still playing the same game with the same flaws.

[FancyFeast]

One of the dates called me 32 times during a mision, which is actually crazy real in terms of crazy mupepesque chongas, but not fun in the least.

[FancyFeast]

Yep, horrible, Saints Row confirmed true GTA

Hope I get my Key to the City, should fetch a price on eBay

[Beezy]

  GTA4's radio

[CajoleJuice]

Game sucks. I've been telling myself I need to beat the SP story before I sell it, but I'm not sure if I can manage that.

[Grecco]

How the fuck did these glitches get past the reviewers? Shit like a guy falling froma building twice. Or An Entire mob respawning because i walked outside of the area....

[Narag]

Reviewers only had a chance to play it for a few hours in a closed environment, I thought. If they didn't get far, they wouldn't see this stuff.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

Really let down by it and not having any fun, but I feel compelled to get 100%. I need to stop. Please someone help.

[theetrin]

Like every single GTA game, I played the game for like, 20 hours, enjoy the hell out of it, and then never play it ever again. I'm done with it. I stopped at like, 35%.

[bork]

As a person that hasn't played any of the GTAs after 1, this game is fucking awesome.
The only single complaint I have in the entire game so far (and I'm about 30% in, just concentrating on story), is the way that you lose your ammo if you mail a fission. All the other stuff you're complaining about just passes over my head as I didn't play SA or VC, in particular.

That's better than the previous games, where when you die you lose EVERYTHING.   

[theetrin]

Really let down by it and not having any fun, but I feel compelled to get 100%. I need to stop. Please someone help.

You could always...oh, I don't know...play something else?

[pilonv1]

As a person that hasn't played any of the GTAs after 1, this game is fucking awesome.
The only single complaint I have in the entire game so far (and I'm about 30% in, just concentrating on story), is the way that you lose your ammo if you mail a fission. All the other stuff you're complaining about just passes over my head as I didn't play SA or VC, in particular.

I look forward to your comments after about 60%.

[Herr Mafflard]

I'm at 92% and it's TEDIUM.

I haven't even started with the pigeons yet  .

NG2 will save me tho.

[Pharmacy]

The radios in GTA I-III were the best because you could bump some seriously sick drum and bass.  Driving like a madman while listening to dirty, dirty 170 bpm dnb?  Hells yes.  VC was fun for a while but the nostalgia factor wore off for me.  I could see where someone like beezy that hadn't been exposed to that kind of stuff would think it was awesome, tho.

Yeah, MSX in GTAIII with the MC was absolutely awesome... perfect music to drive around recklessly to. Probably the main reason why GTAIII remains my favorite of all of them. Well that and the fact that the game was pretty novel at the time, but now it's 7 years later and we're still playing the same game with the same flaws.

ANALOGUE
DIGITAL
STEREO
MONO
I DONT CARE, MSX IS A HARD ACT TO FOLLOW!

i said we're moving from the shadows
london to liberty
i transmit across the airwaves and hijack the whole city
millennium, they cant stop us, cos i move without a trace
codebreaker blast the vocals
timecode supply the bass


all from memory, god liberty city is the best

[Pat]

Crackdown is still the best.

Note that I haven't played AC.

why the fuck not?

That's actually a wise move. 

[archie4208]

Really let down by it and not having any fun, but I feel compelled to get 100%. I need to stop. Please someone help.

Get back to playing Rock Band so you can play some JIMMY BUFFETT.

[abrader]

I give it an "8"

ITs fun to play in 'episodes' but long sessions will put you to sleep for sure.

[Great Rumbler]

I'm still trying to get through all of the main single-player missions, but it's really slow going. "Tedium" would be an appropriate descriptor.

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

I've got quite a few issues with GTA4 - from the radio stations to the lack of shit to do - but I gotta say that playing through Three Leaf Clover (the bank heist) the first time was AMAZING.  One of the better gaming moments I've had in awhile.  It's just too bad that you realize just how much of it is totally scripted when you go back and play it again.  It's Medal of Honor-esque.  Infact there's just way too much scripting in the game in general and you'll be running missions where even the traffic pattern is the same.   Totally ruins the illusion of freedom that the previous GTA games gave you where you could tackle things pretty much anyway you wanted to.

[chronovore]

I only recently realized how much I miss the R3 missions. I don't know if I'd be into some of the lame stuff like Pizza (VC) or Noodle (LCS) delivery, but Pimping (SA) was good fun, and I honestly would like to see how they'd implement Firefighter. I mean, Vigilante was apparently upgraded, it's just weird how they dropped the ball on the other modes.

In short, the most fun I had in the previous games was messing around on side missions. There aren't as many side missions, and none of them are continuous. Little Jacob's package deliveries are one-shots, as are Brucie's repo missions, and Roman's pitiful Taxi missions. There's no "getting into a groove" and watching the FIVE IN A ROW bonus pop up... it's like they forgot that portion of the fanbase.

[AdmiralViscen]

Not to mention that you don't get shit for completing them.

[chronovore]

Not to mention that you don't get shit for completing them.

Yeah, you know, I've seen that complaint a lot. I had a MESS of Stars outside my safehouse in GTA III, I had a lot of glowing weapons and armor in Vice City, but I don't remember any freebies in San Andreas. Were there any?

Getting Niko's friends to unlock their abilities is enough of an analog for that to me.

... 

I just realized, you probably mean the health and armor bumps for completing Ambulance or Vigilante, or being fireproof, or getting infinite sprinting. DAMN IT! You're right. I don't mind that they dropped San Andreas' crappy, half-assed RPG stuff (you're fat! you're thin! you're strong! you can shoot the desert eagle better now that you killed that tire!) but I have always loved getting a buff from completing a string of R3 missions. CRAP! 

[AdmiralViscen]

Yea but going on dates is fucking annoying. And that still doesn't give me any reason to do Vigilantes and shit besides Achievements.

[Grecco]

Dating Friends is the next gen version of the rpg "crap" of SA. Same usless micromanaging shit.

[AdmiralViscen]

Exactly.

And they don't even all give you upgrades.

[Himu]

I only recently realized how much I miss the R3 missions. I don't know if I'd be into some of the lame stuff like Pizza (VC) or Noodle (LCS) delivery, but Pimping (SA) was good fun, and I honestly would like to see how they'd implement Firefighter. I mean, Vigilante was apparently upgraded, it's just weird how they dropped the ball on the other modes.

In short, the most fun I had in the previous games was messing around on side missions. There aren't as many side missions, and none of them are continuous. Little Jacob's package deliveries are one-shots, as are Brucie's repo missions, and Roman's pitiful Taxi missions. There's no "getting into a groove" and watching the FIVE IN A ROW bonus pop up... it's like they forgot that portion of the fanbase.

Totally dude. What the fuck. Those side missioins were the best because they could be difficult. I mean, nailing like 9 pizza/taxi deliveries feels like such a feat! But not in GTAIV! You only get to do one person per level! And even then, the city is so retardly big that it's not even fun anymore.

I used these side missions, particularly the taxi missions, to memorize the layout, know all the big important locales in past GTA's.

It's so fucking DUMB.

[Himu]

It's nothing like GTAIII and VC. Those games are all about rewarding the player.

Do all the taxi missions? How about you win YOUR OWN CAR? Do all the fireproof missions? Now you're fireproof, boy! Do all the ambulance missions? Health upgraded to a set interval for good! And then there's the car dealer missions in Vice City which OWNED. Each time you finished stealing a set of cars, you got a new, ultra rare car at your dealer ship. It was awesome.

[Fragamemnon]

rented it for free using a coupon from blockbuster for purely "academic" reasons-it is an important release, I told myself.

didn't even bother playing it before I took it back, just didn't look interesting.

[Beezy]

The city being big wouldn't be a problem if the driving wasn't so fucking slow in this game.

[AdmiralViscen]

And if there was actual shit in it. 2 strip clubs, 3 clothing stores, and 30 restaurants of 2 types. 4 identical gun shops.

There's jack shit to do. Saints Row you're 10 feet away from shit at all times.

Saints Row is the true sequel to GTA3/VC. GTA4 is a stripped down SA.

[CajoleJuice]

I think this thread has convinced me to sell my copy before I force myself through any more of it. I haven't even unlocked the last island.

[Himu]

The city being big wouldn't be a problem if the driving wasn't so fucking slow in this game.

I disagree! But then if you drive at full speed you can get knocked out of your car! 

[Sho Nuff]

geez tough crowd

[cool breeze]

I think this thread has convinced me to sell my copy before I force myself through any more of it. I haven't even unlocked the last island.

The last island is terrible, don't worry about it.

I really did enjoy GTA4, but I don't think it is my favorite in the series.  They took way too much of what made the games out in order to add in extra stuff that isn't that great.  Driving is atrocious and I can't believe they shipped it thinking "this is a major improvement over the driving from the previous games".

Also, the missions were really bad for the most part.  A few were amazing like Three Leaf Clover, which actually made Kane and Lynch look like a bitch, but most were just bad.

[Grecco]

To Live and Die in Alderny>3Leaf clover

[Slo]

LOL @ all the GTA backlash. Will it be cool to like GTA again next week? I'm still having a lot of fun with it.

[cool breeze]

To Live and Die in Alderny>3Leaf clover

I disagree.  Three Leaf Clover was also one of the few times I went into the subway system.

[Beezy]

The city being big wouldn't be a problem if the driving wasn't so fucking slow in this game.

I disagree! But then if you drive at full speed you can get knocked out of your car! 

exactly

[demi]

LOL @ all the GTA backlash. Will it be cool to like GTA again next week? I'm still having a lot of fun with it.

No, it won't, because Saints Row 2 will be out by then

[cool breeze]

No, it won't, because Saints Row 2 will be out by then

Saints Row 2 has been delayed, man.  Devs are too busy giving Gary Busey a sponge bath to actually finish the game.

[cool breeze]

I think Kiki can only do 1 or 2 stars.  She usually gets the cops away when I call after stealing a car or something.  I mean, she isn't like that fucking whore Carmen who expects me to spend time with her just so she can heal me.  Stupid bitch can go choke on her Burger Shack fries.

[Grecco]

To Live and Die in Alderny>3Leaf clover

I disagree.  Three Leaf Clover was also one of the few times I went into the subway system.

True. But To Live and die was probably the most fun "Chase" mission out of the many many get in a car chase some dude missions in the game. Gets pretty hectic trying to 1.loose cops. 2.avoid traffic 3.follow Bell. I actually had fun.  My favorite missions was probably the first Francis mission though

I think Kiki can only do 1 or 2 stars.  She usually gets the cops away when I call after stealing a car or something.  I mean, she isn't like that fucking whore Carmen who expects me to spend time with her just so she can heal me.  Stupid bitch can go choke on her Burger Shack fries.

Kiki can do 3 stars. But its limited use just like every other "bonus" Carmens health or Romans Taxi. Shit bonuses for wasting time dating/hanging out soo pointless.

[Oblivion]

AC is the better sandbox game, obviously.

[Grecco]

AC is the better sandbox game, obviously.

Lol No way. AC was horrible. Appreceate what it did for the Stealth genre though

[Mupepe]

Crackdown is still the best.

Note that I haven't played AC.

why the fuck not?

That's actually a wise move. 

Bildi and I are going to rape you! 

 

AC is the better sandbox game, obviously.

This man knows where it's at

Oblivion (not the game, although that's cool too)

[pilonv1]

So Francis tells me to call him to lose my wanted level.

I do the payback mission, have 3 stars.

Call Francis, get his machine.

Call Kiki, she says she can't do it.

If its random wheteher or not your upgrades will work, why the fuck even implement them?

The gameplay choices in this game, I swer to fucking god sometimes.

I think it's time related. So they're only available at certain times during the day when they'd be awake.

[chronovore]

I think the friend bonus abilities are keyed to both once-per-in-game-day, and also to their current level of "like" percentage. If it drops beneath a given value, they won't help, and they also won't help more than once every 30 minutes or so, which actually seems really long when you're doing several small missions.

As for whether or not it will be cool to like GTA IV again next week, there are a lot of haters here, but I think the game's a big improvement over San Andreas.

In GTA:SA the mandate seemed to be blindly "make everything more expansive and also more detailed" which was accomplished by adding a lot of similar mission types, crazy numbers of go-to/delivery/go-to-and-kill missions, races with tweaked car values, making a big ass map with lots of empty, useless spaces, cars that navigated on rails until you interacted with (bumped) them, at which point traffic turned into the end of The Blues Brothers. San Andreas brought nothing new and successful to the gameplay except turf wars, and even that was abandoned after leaving the first area. On the other hand we were stuck managing CJ's weight and muscle to get girlfriends which (in the case with the SF nurse) fixed a portion of gameplay which had been broken, and we couldn't drive cars or motorcycles or bikes at optimal ability until we'd spent a lot of time doing it -- in other words those game mechanics punished new players and made driving overly easy for veterans.

The driving in IV was really, really hard at first, but I've become accustomed to it, unless there's under-the-hood skill adjustment going on like in SA, only not shown in stats. Now I like driving some of the cars more than the ones in III/VC/SA; the old cars feel pretty simplistic now. Yeah, I can't get away with just e-braking now, but I'm happy they tried something really new.

As for the R3 missions, I'm hopeful that there is enough backlash against their removal that R* puts them in as DLC. Seriously, look at Crackdown. They added group races, armed races, Checkpoint Chase, and several new weapons in their update. I'm really looking forward to seeing what missed chances R* makes up for with the DLC, but I'm also prepared to get what I need from Crackdown (and Mercenaries 2 and Saints Row 2).

[Grecco]

Im right now in the mission "That special someone" and i love it how the game is trying to make me choose the forgiveness option out of the blue

[chronovore]

All that "forgive" or "execute" stuff is just... I dunno, when it comes up I just hear fart noises in my head. It's not really about choice; The Holland Play is presented as having mucho-mucho gravitas, but it's utterly clear how Niko feels about the situation; if this is "role-playing," then there's very little actual choice - and indeed the Achievements make it rewarding only to choose the obvious path.

Dead Rising's neat for a number of reasons, but the idea that not all the Achievements can be unlocked in a single playthrough is really cool. I should go see if there are any Dead Rising threads to, um, reanimate.

[Great Rumbler]

As for whether or not it will be cool to like GTA IV again next week, there are a lot of haters here, but I think the game's a big improvement over San Andreas

I feel exactly the opposite. GTAIV feels like it took SA and stripped it all down to GTAIII and then upped the graphics.

I loved SA so much and played it for dozens of hours, IV just feels flat and largely uninteresting.

[chronovore]

As for whether or not it will be cool to like GTA IV again next week, there are a lot of haters here, but I think the game's a big improvement over San Andreas

I feel exactly the opposite. GTAIV feels like it took SA and stripped it all down to GTAIII and then upped the graphics.

I loved SA so much and played it for dozens of hours, IV just feels flat and largely uninteresting.

I think my final Stats time in San Andreas totaled 140+ hours, not counting time lost to reload; so I'm not saying it was a sucky game. I really liked it, but afterward I played Mercenaries which seemed to have solutions for just about every gripe I had about GTA. I only spent about 40 hours in Mercenaries, but had more fun than in San Andreas; in retrospect, I was really happy that I'd played them in that order, because it was clear to me that I'd not be nearly as satisfied with San Andreas if I'd played it after Mercenaries.

[chronovore]

The city being big wouldn't be a problem if the driving wasn't so fucking slow in this game.

I disagree! But then if you drive at full speed you can get knocked out of your car! 

Yeah, I think the sense of speed is palpable; they learned some good lessons involving camera shake, FOV, and perimeter blur in San Andreas and carried it forward.

Tossing the character from the car is a pointless addition from Saints Row, though maybe I'd use it as an alternate ejection method if cars exploded as much as they did in previous GTAs.

[Bloodwake]

Eh, I'm still enjoying it.

And while I was annoyed with the driving at first, I got used to it. Now I really can't tell a difference from the older games, which I would have found surprising a few short weeks ago.

I'm on the final mission and I'm stuck on the boat part. That is about as detailed as I can get without getting into spoilers. I don't know why I'm stuck on the boat part either, since I have the goddamn accelerator down all the fucking way.

[trippingmartian]

Awesome game. Got both endings. Finished it last Wednesday. I think Rockstar needs to move on, though. Start taking the piss out of Britain, and do another GTA London, but contemporary.

[chronovore]

I've been going over these comments in my head a lot recently, thinking about what worked in the last series, and what Rockstar chose to focus on as the III-era series progressed. I think GTA-III was basically everything I could want from a sandbox game; the activities were entirely up to the player, and the player-character was "that mute bastard" who shrugged or deadpanned his way through all the cutscenes.

In Vice City, and to an even larger degree in San Andreas, the focus shifted away from "do what you want sandbox" to "we're telling a specific story about this character." While the gameplay featured a few additional side-missions, the effort focused on having a main character with a specific personality who was increasingly the originator of the action rather than a tool, a fulcrum on which the goals of others turned.

Now I think they want to tell a character's story, meaning it's more about exploring who he is in relation to other people, rather than what the player can do in relation to the environment.

[Himu]

I've been going over these comments in my head a lot recently, thinking about what worked in the last series, and what Rockstar chose to focus on as the III-era series progressed. I think GTA-III was basically everything I could want from a sandbox game; the activities were entirely up to the player, and the player-character was "that mute bastard" who shrugged or deadpanned his way through all the cutscenes.

In Vice City, and to an even larger degree in San Andreas, the focus shifted away from "do what you want sandbox" to "we're telling a specific story about this character." While the gameplay featured a few additional side-missions, the effort focused on having a main character with a specific personality who was increasingly the originator of the action rather than a tool, a fulcrum on which the goals of others turned.

Now I think they want to tell a character's story, meaning it's more about exploring who he is in relation to other people, rather than what the player can do in relation to the environment.

agreed. GTA3 is my favorite sandbox game.

[Himu]

although i do disagree on one thing. While VC and SA concentrated on characters, they were still grounded in "do whatever you want"

[Raban]

It's all a very clever satire, guys! You just don't understand.

The shitty driving is supposed to symbolize people in America swerving through life and its hardships (i.e. embankments and guard rails).

[Himu]

[MrAngryFace]

I played a few hours of GTA4 before I realized I couldn't ignore the obnoxious characters and run rampant.