Of those that have got it, would you recommend it?
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Of those that have got it, would you recommend it?
At the risk of joining the hype, I'd give that a whole-harted yes. Visually stunning, extremely funny, best characters I've seen in ages, and I had plenty of fun in two hours gameplay thus far without even starting on the story missions properly. There are probably faults, but I'd be surprised if they're anything but minor nitpicking.
Uhh, I seem to have lost the thread of conversation here, what game are we talking about? GTA IV still has to be released right?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rythmic
By no means is a perfect game and is clearly overrated one, I don't get these professional gaming editors at all. I never search for flaws in the games, it's just that I haven't played pure 10/10 game so far in my life. However what GTA IV is, is the best GTA so far. So shortly, if you liked some of the GTA games before you will probably like this one too.
For PC players wondering how is it to play with controller instead of mouse + keyboard. Well, it's up to you because I can, but that's just me. Then again I find myself open minded and flexible on that issue, willing to learn to handle it. So, I think that it comes down to the attitude, controls aren't perfect in my opinion, but you will learn to handle them.
In case where someone who hasn't ever played one yet. GTA series is all about humor and highly sarcastic one too. Adult games as they are, even despite that I find the violence highly cartoonish to take it seriously. Every single thing in the series is over the top, things are too cocky, too hostile, too angry, too happy, too friendly and so on. The main plot in every single edition from III to IV is to live "The American Dream", and that is also the biggest sarcastic "thing" in the game. You come from nothing on to the top, well sort of like that. These games have a lot of driving and somewhat shooting (you can also fly), that's pretty much it. But there is so much more in to them, so much more to do.
"Be a Patriot. Eat at Burger Shot today."
Came out this week here. Last Tuesday.Quote:
Originally Posted by asj_india
Thanks Praxil for the info. :2thumbsup:
And what about those new working girl animations, huh? :eyebrows:
But, seriously, GTA IV is definitely the best GTA yet and the amount of detail put into the revamped Liberty City is unreal. Any fans of past GTA games will love this one. But unlike past GTA games, the actual driving takes some strategy and luck to master, as it seems to reflect a bit of a Midnight Club or Driver influence with vastly improved vehicle physics.
Sucks, though, when you find out "Michelle's" ulterior motive.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Perhaps. But I think GTA IV comes as damn near close as I've ever seen a game. The sheer scale is incredible, and the basic gameplay spot on. Cars are a joy to drive and there's always something to do, even outside the storylines. There may be minor niggles but I've rarely played a game which just feel so right to play and so polished in production values.Quote:
Originally Posted by Praxil
Just checked the review on Gamespot. They've given it a rare 10 rating.
~:shock:
Heard that PC version is due in October.
I'm going to start playing this in a bit, the 360 version. :sweatdrop: As I said over in the "What are you playing?" topic chances are evenly split between my hating it or liking it enough that I can tolerate the aspects which don't appeal to me.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Any tips for a frog new to the series?
You're saying you don't like anything the GTA games are all about.... :no:Quote:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
Don't like anything about the setting, yup. The sandbox, on the other hand ...
Well, considering that you don't like any of the stuff that is actually supposed to be done in the sandbox gameplay......driving, shooting, causing mayhem in general, I really doubt you'll find the game interesting. Many other sandbox games out there though. Assasin's Creed I have not played first hand, but it's supposed to be really nice.
I don't think you have to be killing prostitutes to enjoy the sandbox play.
Here's what I'll say:
So far, Liberty City is great. It looks fantastic and has character. It's also huge (could be good, could be bad).
There's lots to do, even outside of the missions.
Hmm, the real strength would be (I hope, but not too far in yet) the story. GTA always has good storylines which, by the way, SHOULD BE PUT IN SPOIL. Grrr, I didn't even want to know about an ulterior motive. Damnit.
The driving is certainly a lot more difficult than the old games so that's something that you have to get used to.
Hmm, that's all I have to say. I like it so far, but I've been playing GTA games since 2002 (GTA3).
frogbeastegg, I think you should play it for a few hours and see if it grabs you.
It's not about the driving, the shooting, the mayhem. Those are tools to a goal, which is furthering the personal plot of the main character in a continuous fashion. Above all, GTA IV is a game, and excels at that. I've played a couple more hours and seen plenty of really nice stuff, and the gameplay mechanics are way better than San Andreas - which I started to play, hated, and only enjoyed mucking about in with other people's save games. IV has cohesion and from what I've seen a very strong plot.Quote:
Originally Posted by asj_india
As for spoiler tags, this game needs them. I had guessed nothing about an ulterior motive, and can easily imagine there are plenty of similar surprises waiting. Please keep that in mind.
Well, I played for an hour and a bit. Done a couple of missions, wandered about a bit. In all that time I have killed 1 person, stolen 1 car, and been chased by the police once. There's definitely more to the game than crime and chases.
Overall the game world is impressive. The animation is as good as it looked on the videos, and the detail is nice. Niko got a bit of paper blown into his face when he rounded a corner. I've seen a few silly AI interactions too, the best being a police car banging into a parked car at some lights. The owner of the damaged car jumped out and started demanding insurance details from a befuddled policeman.
The wealth of options have enabled me to sculpt Niko into a semi-smartly dressed chappy who listens to classical jaz on the radio as he drives. When I get access to other shops I'll see if I can find him a nice suit. If I have to be a criminal I'd rather be a stylish criminal than a slob, and the game allows for that. Yay! Wish I could make him shave off that stubble.
Clothes and musical tastes aside, Niko shows promise. He seems like a decent guy who has been put through hell and now wants to move on with a new life. We all know he's not gonig to get that wish.
I've seen a bit of the famous GTA humour, mainly on the radio. A politcal interview with a candidate is probably the best so far. He starts out talking about trimming away the rights nobody uses so everybody can focus on the ones which are useful, and finishes by rambling on about breaking the teachers unions so money can be spent on the important things in education, like new uniforms and footballs. It's better than it sounds, honest. The advert for a TV program about a famous actress who is adopting a new child every day was good too.
The game has crashed once. It went very slow during the friends tutorial video, and then got stuck on a loading screen for several minutes. I had to exit to the dashboard and restart.
The audio levels are completely wrong. I have to crank up the volume on the TV by 4 notches and turn the music down to half if I want to hear the speech.
I have been on a date. Roman's car was ah ... crumpled into a smoking wreck and there didn't seem to be any other legal cars around, so I stole this posh looking parked vehicle. I turned up at her home in my smart new clothes, had a nice chat on the drive over to the destination, and fell into a shoulder deep ornamental lake as I was getting out of the car. Smooth.
I have played pool and bowling. Both were ok, nothing too exciting.
I keep driving on the left hand side of the road. I read the road paint British style: yellow lines = no parking, dotted white lines = the edge of a lane. I look for traffic lights at eye-level, not hanging from the air. The layouts of the roads are entirely alien to me - so many right angled turns, wide roads, and crazy junctions. Oh, the mayhem!
Driving is not realistic, whatever the reviews say. Or rather it is realistic for a car with bald tires on a road covered in sheet ice.
The manual is rubbish. It has next to nothing about playing the game, and so you are left reliant on tip boxes which appear once and once only. There are lots of things I am told you can do, and I have no idea how to. I'd like to change the wallpaper on the mobile phone to something which provides a better contrast with the text. Defaulting to dark grey and black?! Gah!
I like the conversations as you drive about during missions. They are well acted and well scripted. It appears each mission has at least two sets of dialogue for it, so if you fail you get to hear something different to the first time.
I encountered what must have been a glitch with a mission, and consequentally failed it. Minor spoilers for an early mission:Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
On that same mission I ended up skidding about all over the place as I tried to shake my pursuers. Crash, smash, bump - the car deformed beautifully, and my passenger kept making remarks about it. "Roman's not going to like that ..." as the bonnet flew off. Said bonnet knocked over some dustbins on the pavement, and scattered some nearby pedestrians. The things they shouted after me were not complimentary. Lol!
That's new, I'll love to see that; Seems like they've really made some progree with the AI.Quote:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
Welcome to America! :tongueg:Quote:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
Oops. Uh, yeah, maybe I should have. :embarassed: But I didn't tell what that ulterior motive actually was, though, did I?Quote:
Originally Posted by Craterus
Chaos and mayhem at its best!Quote:
Originally Posted by Kekvit Irae
There are lots of interactions like that, both with multiple AIs and with some AIs and the player. I clipped the wing mirror of a posh car with my dingy old taxi while learning the basic controls. The driver hopped out and ran after me down the street yelling "And who's going to pay for that? Eh? You :daisy:! Come back here!" He'd abandoned his car in the middle of the road, and another driver rammed it. He joined in, having a go at the other driver for parking stupidly. That caused a traffic jam with much horn honking and shouts of "Get a move on!" and "What's the hold up?".Quote:
Originally Posted by asj_india
That was what the shifty guy on the boat in the intro said :gring:Quote:
Originally Posted by Kekvit Irae
Looks like its improved. I only played GTA VC.
I suddenly want to see videos of Froggy playing GTA 4. ~DQuote:
I keep driving on the left hand side of the road. I read the road paint British style: yellow lines = no parking, dotted white lines = the edge of a lane. I look for traffic lights at eye-level, not hanging from the air. The layouts of the roads are entirely alien to me - so many right angled turns, wide roads, and crazy junctions. Oh, the mayhem!
:gring:Quote:
Originally Posted by Alexander the Pretty Good
I can't manage that, but here's a DIY guide.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alexander the Pretty Good
1. Drive on the left hand side of the road. It's only civilised. From time to time suddenly swerve onto the right hand side as you remember that you're supposed to be in America, and people drive on the wrong side there.
2. The white dotted lines mark the edge of a lane, so hug your left side close to them.
3. The double yellow lines mean no parking or stopping whatsoever, any time, whatever the reason. If you can see double yellows you'd better keep moving.
4. There don't seem to be any traffic lights. There's no filtering policy, and no give way policy. That means you only need to stop for hazards directly in front of you.
5. Honestly, roads don't look like this, so they can't make sense and aren't intended to. Reading the road ahead? Forget it! Might as well try to read the mind of a butterfly. You'll have to drive by the seat of your pants.
6. When approaching one of those weird want-to-be jumbo crossroad junction thingies just check your satnav to work out which way you need to go, cross your fingers, and keep on going. Lacking traffic lights or a handy give way policy there is nothing at all which controls which car is going where. If you find one of those silly little turn right go forward a fraction then turn left junction freaky things then just ... try your best. In fact that applies to all of those other impossible right angle turns and such. Just try your best. People will understand that you can't tell where you are meant to be going, and be forgiving.
7. Why is the road so wide anyway?! What is this? A motorway? Uh oh, better hit the accelerator - dawdling below 50mph can get you pulled over, and that would only gain me attention I don't want.
8. No dangerous driving! (:tongueg:)
It's odd. American roads look weird but semi-usable in films and TV programs. This is the first time I've been placed in a position of 'driving' on them and it's like trying to read Greek.
Sounds like me in real life on a scooter in Taiwan...
Or me in a taxi cab in Kingston, Jamaica.
:dizzy2:
Well, today I discovered that doing any kind of job for Little Jacob and his friend is generally a bad idea.
HahahaQuote:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
Wait till you play the mission where you have to steal coke and "evade" many DEA agents. If you go through that one with only killing one person I'd be very impressed.
I don't remember playing a game which made me swing between frustration and fun so frequently as this. One minute it's great; the city is alive and I'm doing neat things. The next I run into an issue, or some outdated design, or it crashes on me.
My biggest, most persistent, tooth-gnashing bugbear is the interface. The mini-map is microscopic. All of the text is tiny. The phone has black text on a dark grey background, hard to read even in the large font size. The targeting hud is too small as well; I can't see how many blocks of health targets have. It can't be blamed on my TV either, as I'm playing it on a 32inch HD screen using a HDMI connection. Nor my eyesight; I have 20/19 vision with my contact lenses.
The last mission ('Clean Getaway') I completed is a text book example of the Gah! factor:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
This game needs a manual. A book which tells you the controls and features, not the self-indulgent pamphlet it comes with.
I spent a while driving around on the legitimate taxi missions, and I swapped to the first person camera. I'm now fine unless I have to drive at high speeds. Unfortunately that's what my next mission is asking me to do. Through loads of sharp corners. While watching a tiny blob on my tiny mini map. Failed 4 times in a row, and getting very fed up. I'm a bad chase driver and admit it, however the game could give me a helping hand. I have the distinct feeling that if it drew a line on the mini map from my location to the target I'd do much better as I'd know with a glance which direction to go. Plus the big line is easier to spot then a tiny blob. Then I'd be able to concentrate on where I'm going.
As you may be able to guess, I am currently on the frustrated side, not the fun side :gring:
If I get that far without snapping the disc I'll be impressed. :blankg:Quote:
Originally Posted by Ice
I just got this little wonder today, and so far it's all fun and games. A definite improvement on previous titles - no longer can you run into roads when you feel like it, otherwise you risk getting a hands-on demonstration of the swanky new ragdoll system.
And i quote from a post i made on 4chan:
The ragdoll system most definitely adds a lot of fun to this game, as does the intelligence now being included in the phrase artificial intelligence.Quote:
Having a shootout at the hospital after having killed a bunch of people in the waiting room, a bunch of SWAT team members ran through the door. I promptly fired off my RPG, and watched with glee as they all jumped to the side. The rocket carried on going, smashing straight into the face of a cop who was coming up the stairs.
Then later on i was taking a nice Sunday drive through the park when i noticed a pedestrian who i thought would be great fun to sandwich between me and a wall. I went to ramming speed, and needless to say they jumped out of the way at the last second. Niko then turns into a human cannonball, flies over the wall and lands in a road, where he is promptly smashed into the next lane by a taxi, and then killed by a garbage truck.
Tomorrow's objectives - fun with petrol stations. The youtube videos are very promising.
But if you are really really fast, you can still run over people right? I mean they won't all jump out of the way and simply ruin the fun would they? I loved running over people in the Combine Harvester you could drive in GTA SA.
Oh, don't worry, you can still hit people, even without speed. I myself managed to kill 15 people in about 5 seconds when i wasn't paying attention and went on the sidewalk at low speeds. I then proceeded to floor it when i heard sirens, only to go flying off the big cliff at the end of the road, landing on a car at the bottom, then skidding along on my roof into even more people. Very fun.Quote:
Originally Posted by asj_india
Typical American law enforcement right there, my froggy friend! :laugh4:Quote:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
I just bought the game today. WOW is it amazing. I honestly could play it all night.
http://www.collider.com/entertainmen...id/7867/tcid/1
Vlad and Niko on TV.
If you are having problems with the driving, try stealling a better car... A chase in Roman's old taxi is a pain, it wallows all over the place and will spin out if you try a slide around a corner. The sports cars are neat and anything that looks like a Japanse car or a BMW drives pretty nice...
Taxi's (cars, not the vans) and police cars drive well to...
The mini map is a little small, it is easy to miss a turn on your GPS if you are travaling at high speed. However if you steal a nice car the GPS will actually talk to you ("turn right in 300 yards!")...
Motorbike are fun, but really dangerous... It is very easy to come off and get badly injured when you hit/clip something... I have been killed instantly coming off a bike and then getting run over...
I love that the cops are more of a challenge now. Sure enough on 1 or 2 stars it is pretty easy to get away. From 3 stars things start to get interesting. You rarely get busted because it is easy to get away on 1 or 2 stars and by the time you are on 3+ the cops are shooting at you. You know if you are getting busted there is a moment when the cop stops talking that you can run away, they start shooting and you get an extra star (it is never worth getting busted as you lose you weapons). There are achievements for escaping after getting 4 stars and for staying alive for 5 minutes with 6 stars...
I have finished the story mode and have heard that there may be multiple endings but i am not sure how that works because the mission list is fixed I think...
The story was pretty cool and almost completely devoid of silliness...
And i don't think it spoils anything to say that the bank robbery is really sweet... Make sure you use cover!!
There are four main choices you can make during the game, as far as I know. Not only that, you can actually choose at least twice during the missions, whether to kill or let the target go.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob the Insane
The bank heist was one of the first things R* revealed before the release. In my opinion is best mission in the game. I suggest to use grenades or RPG's against the cop cars and you'll do fine.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob the Insane
My top three characters, on dialogue/discussion lines.
1. Manny Escuela
2. Vladimir "Vlad" Glebov
3. Playboy X
Manny is definitely one of the best written characters in the series. Catalina in San Andreas holds the top podium. I have to play some Vice City, because I don't remember that much from it anymore. And if I remember it right, then Rosenberg had great dialogues in Vice City. Speaking of characters in GTA IV, I think that the "Italians" weren't that good this time. A "default" performances that's all. Maybe more of the Russian mobsters would have been better for the story. Or maybe the case with the IV is that at what time of the story you do job for them. Or maybe the reality is in fact that the Mafia is still bigger than the Mafiya in the United States. Still, best story in the series, for sure.
Thread revival!
GTA IV coming for PC! Supposedly with better multiplayer...
Wonder what other new features they put in...
Good news, but November?! Ugh, I want mayhem now. :laugh4:
I must admit however that I was a bit underwhelmed by GTA: SA on PC. For those who've played both IV and SA, how do they stack up?
Better MP would be lobbies IMO, I'm not too fond of the current system currently employed on the 360 version.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Warmaster Horus
I'm so happy I could cry!!!
Singleplayer is more dynamic and you have some choice, not much but a little, and MP is a lot easier to play quickly, and there are loads of game types to keep you at it for hours.Quote:
Originally Posted by OverKnight
I'll assume it's the same as on the PS3 and I think it works fine if you have some understanding, so what are your difficulties?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mailman653
I guess some of the difficulties might be that the automatic game selection may just drop you into a game that lagsor select a game and then tell you that game doesn't exist... :laugh4:Quote:
Originally Posted by Craterus
The latter could be due to certain pingout settings or so but I have to admit sometimes I would like an expert option for those with a bit more understanding than the average consolero this seems to cater to. :shrug:
Yeah something like that. Sometimes I join MP but it creates a game and makes me host when I didn't want to host, I just wanted to jump in a game in progress. And the other thing was (although maybe it was just the server I was on) if I wanted to play one mode and say I was in the game, and the level finishes, it jumps to another mode, say DM, when I dont want to play a DM match.Quote:
Originally Posted by Husar
Then there are people that are just morons on there but R* can't fix that, or can they? :laugh4:
I think it probably puts you in the lowest-ping unfilled game automatically. I only get lag on the cops and croooks mode and only as a cop.
I think connecting problems/finding a game is simply due to problems between your connection and those that you are trying to connect to. I find it works better to host yourself and then it will be others who are kicked from the game/can't join.
Mailman, are you doing custom match? Because that can mean that you are the host. It will definitely mean you are the host if you choose a number of private slots.
As for your second problem, that's the host's fault. They select the game mode at the end of each round. Frustrating, but there's not a lot you can do. Unless you host a game and just give it a little while to fill up with a decent amount of players.