GTA IV: First Impressions thread

[Atari5200]

Since there wasn't an actual thread to actually discuss the game itself as far as what you think of the game and how it plays, I decided to start one.

 

I'm about 3-4 hours into the game and here are my initial thoughts.

 

#1. This game is not a 10 out of 10 caliber game...so far. Gamespot rates it a perfect 10. Sorry, but it's not. The gameplay is standard GTA gameplay with a cover system, big deal. I found controlling the vehicles to be more difficult than previous GTA games.

 

#2. So far the game is not that bad as far as Maturity goes, granted I'm not that far in, but the game so far seems rather timid. The language is far worse than previous games I've played, but so far the violence, other than user initiated violence, seems pretty timid, and then there's the strip club and your girlfriends. None of the women get even topless, they get semi-topless with nipple things covering their parts. And if you get lucky with your woman, you can enjoy your 5 seconds of sound and a view from outside the apartment.

 

#3. I have a feeling a lot of the game is going to be focused on dating and making friends, which is not a bad thing, but I see it getting boring. Luckily, you don't have to do it if you don't want to.

 

#4. Can you really see the political agenda in this game..wow. It is almost offensive.

 

The game so far is good. I am going to put a lot more time into this.

[NE146]

My first impression of the game is this...

 

"You have abandoned Roman"

[Atari5200]

I like Roman, I like Niko, I think they are both good characters, the interaction is comical and the whole accent and everything reminds me of Borat.

[NE146]

I like Roman, I like Niko, I think they are both good characters, the interaction is comical and the whole accent and everything reminds me of Borat.

 

I guess I need to play the game with the volume turned up to hear what you're talking about... in general I play games muted or my music is usually drowning it out.

 

I'll get into the game soon, but really this is what I did. I turned it on.. saw a long ass intro with credits so I left the room. Came back about 20 minutes later and saw the game had started.. good. Then after playing it for about 10 minutes and getting 2 "You have abandoned Roman" messages, I turned it off.

 

When I play it again next time, I'll stick to the script to try and get farther.

Edited May 5, 2008 by NE146

[+Random Terrain]

I read that you wouldn't be able to fly at all and then I read last night that you could fly a helicopter. That's better than nothing. Have you done that yet?

 

The cheats are crap compared to what you get in GTA: SA:

 

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/xbox360/code/933037.html

 

I hope more cheats will be discovered.

[Red 5]

I'm 10+ hours in and I think it is brilliant.

I agree with the 10 ratings. (And there are a lot of them.)

 

The thing that stand out the most is the load time.

After the game is loaded, there are NO load screens. I mean, it's pure brilliance.

I can leave my apartment, walk out into the street, steel a car, drive way the hell up north to the strip club.

Get out of my car, walk into the club, get a lap dance, leave the club, get back in my car, pick up my characters girlfriend, go to

the cabaret, see a 5 minute Cabaret show and never once see a load screen.

 

THAT is amazing.

 

The cover system fixes the crappy shooting from all the previous GTA games.

The cars all handle great. A garbage truck handles like a dump truck and my corvette is fast and handles great.

I also have a GTO-ish muscle car that is all kinds of powerful and handles horribly. I love the cars so far.

I love getting into a luxury car and having the GPS tell me where to turn.

 

Unlike every other GTA game, the city feels totally alive.

The detail is just amazing. It feels like when you turn the game off, the city is still functioning.

 

The thousands of NPC's are mind-bogglingly good.

Women with shopping bags out on the town, people standing on a corner talking, Garbage men collecting garbage, I saw a mailman open a corner mailbox and put all the mail in his bag, etc.

 

Funniest thing that ever happened so far would be when I accidentally fired my gun.

I heard someone scream.

I few seconds later a construction worker crashes to the ground in front of me.

He was working on the building I was under and must have accidentally shot him.

 

The story is great and the voice acting is over the top, but really really well done.

A simple story line, but completely engrossing.

 

As for the violence, it gets pretty bad after you get off of the training mission 'rails'.

 

Another thing I am completely blown away by is the radio, television and "internet" stuff.

I can't even imagine how must work went into it. Hours and hours of content to hear, watch and surf.

 

(The licensing is crazy. They got REM, Fleetwood Mac, The Who, and so many more.)

 

I have been trying to think of a major flaw and really can't.

I am playing the 360 version and it looks beautiful. You would really have to nitpick to complain about the look of the game

considering the immensity of it all.

 

So far, I can agree with the 10 reviews.

[+Random Terrain]

Unlike every other GTA game, the city feels totally alive.

The detail is just amazing. It feels like when you turn the game off, the city is still functioning.

 

The thousands of NPC's are mind-bogglingly good.

Women with shopping bags out on the town, people standing on a corner talking, Garbage men collecting garbage, I saw a mailman open a corner mailbox and put all the mail in his bag, etc.

I just looked that up:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV

The game uses Rockstar's own RAGE game engine, which was previously used in Rockstar Table Tennis, in combination with the Euphoria game animation engine. Instead of pre-written animations, Euphoria controls the way the player moves, enabling character movements to be more realistic. The Euphoria engine also enables NPCs to react in a realistic way to the player's actions. In one preview, a player knocked an NPC out of a window and the character grabbed onto a ledge to stop himself from falling. The game also uses middleware from Image Metrics to facilitate intricate facial expressions and ease the process of incorporating lip-synching.

I can't wait to play the game and see these more alive non-player characters for myself.

[Red 5]

I can't wait to play the game and see these more alive non-player characters for myself.

 

The reactions of people are crazy.

 

A good example would be car accidents and shoot outs.

 

For instance, if I crash my car into a pole, jump out of my car and start shooting, the reactions are not the same.

 

Some people will scream and run.

Some will stand frozen with their mouths open pointing.

 

Once, a guy just stood there, shook his head, said 'There's some shit you don't see everyday!' and walked away.

It is eerily alive.

It's a shame this game has such a reputation stuck to it because people are going to miss out on the most advanced video game

ever made. This is most likely the future of video games and is by far the most technologically advanced game I've seen.

 

Now get playing and write what you think so I can hear your opinion.

 

 

Edit for above post...

For controversy, I forgot to add the fact that you can get drunk and drive around.

I see this as being a bit of a problem for people.

However, it is just about impossible to drive drunk and the police are all over you.

Most likely, you will get arrested.

The bad part is that it is entertaining.

That will piss some people off.

Edited May 5, 2008 by therealred5

[spacecadet]

I can't wait to play the game and see these more alive non-player characters for myself.

 

The reactions of people are crazy.

 

A good example would be car accidents and shoot outs.

 

For instance, if I crash my car into a pole, jump out of my car and start shooting, the reactions are not the same.

 

Some people will scream and run.

Some will stand frozen with their mouths open pointing.

 

They did this in SA at least, and probably all the way back to GTA3 (I remember it, but it was a long time ago so I don't totally trust those memories).

 

I've heard a lot about the new NPC reactions but I haven't really seen much that hasn't been in previous games. If you pulled out a gun on a gang member in San Andreas, they'd pull out their own gun and start shooting. If you pulled out a gun on a civilian, they'd cower and run. If a cop saw you pull out a gun, they'd try to arrest you. You'd often see random shootouts between gang members and cops, or gang members of rival gangs. So this is not new.

 

The only thing I've seen that I don't remember from previous games are people saying stuff like "I can't believe what I just saw", but that's not really much of a programming achievement.

 

I generally agree with Atari5200 - it's an evolution over the three previous games, but not a huge revolution. It's a really good game, and a definite improvement over San Andreas, but it still has its annoyances and the gameplay is mostly the same.

 

Last night, I came up on my first "cheap" mission - you know, the kind that makes you not want to play the game anymore. Maybe some mild spoilers ahead, but there's a mission shortly after you get to Algonquin (and wtf was up with that - I didn't get any indication of why the bridges were suddenly open) where you have to spend like half an hour infiltrating a building and killing bad guys, only to get massacred as soon as you pick up the package you're after by a swarm of SWAT members. It's one of those missions where you've instantly got four stars on you for no good reason - what, you pick up a bag in a run-down building in a remote location that nobody can even see and that somehow triggers a massive police response? The first time I played that mission I almost threw down my controller in disgust. I still can't get past it (tried it four times now) and I'm only about 25% through the game. Doesn't bode well for the rest of the game.

 

There have been missions like this in every GTA game, but you'd think they'd have improved their mission design by now, learning what works and what doesn't. So far all the missions have basically been carbon-copies of the missions from earlier games, including the cheap stuff.

 

btw Gamespot originally gave this game a 9.5. They mysteriously changed it to a 10.0 after their review was posted, then later blamed the original 9.5 on a "bug" in their system.

Edited May 5, 2008 by spacecadet

[maibock]

The game's fun factor really shines in multi-player and that's assuming you have a decent group of online friends to play along with..

 

We had made the mistake of opening up the "free play" game to anyone.. oh man..

[xenomorpher]

I read that you wouldn't be able to fly at all and then I read last night that you could fly a helicopter. That's better than nothing. Have you done that yet?

 

The cheats are crap compared to what you get in GTA: SA:

 

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/xbox360/code/933037.html

 

I hope more cheats will be discovered.

 

Yeah I agree. The cheats suck, not enough of them. And it's a pain to try to use your phone to activate them while constantly being shot. If you get hit, you have to bring up the phone again. With a four star wanted level it can be tough.

[Atari5200]

if there's a tank cheat, then thats enough for me. lol.

 

Also, I'm at work and I can't test this, but if you stare down a random NPC, will they all start a fight with you? I put the controller down in front of someone, I think I bumped them too, they mouthed off as usual, and then after like 5 seconds the guy started beating the crap out of me, and then another guy standing around jumped in. This happened to me twice. Once at the Cabaret and once at the Irish bar, EVERYBODY in the Irish Bar jumped me for no good reason. Trust me it was fun, but I don't know what initiated it.

 

Also, driving drunk is fun as hell, I love how they did it, hell it even makes me a little sick from the motion. great job Rockstar.

 

EDIT: also, why are there cop brigades on the bridges??

Edited May 5, 2008 by Atari5200

[maibock]

EDIT: also, why are there cop brigades on the bridges??

 

I'm guessing that want you to unlock the center city part of the game.. It's actually great fun seeing how far in you can get.. If you break the barricade, they send everything they got at you.. If you try to swim for it and police boat comes by and shoots you dead in the water..

 

I won't spoil and say how, but my kid managed to get all the way to Times Square and then a bit further, until he was finally stopped..

[+remowilliams]

EDIT: also, why are there cop brigades on the bridges??

City sections are locked off for gameplay purposes. But if you listen to the in game news, you will hear that they were blocked off due to 'unsubstantiated specific terrorist threats'

 

I read that you wouldn't be able to fly at all and then I read last night that you could fly a helicopter. That's better than nothing. Have you done that yet?

I have flown the heli around, it's fun and the city is breathtaking to view in it's scope and detail. I even landed it on a building to 'cheat' a mission a bit. I also parked it in the parking space outside my house. The heli controls model real world controls so it may be an issue to some people, but I'm used to flying them.

 

GTA IV is AWESOME.

Edited May 5, 2008 by remowilliams

[HammR25]

Edit for above post...

For controversy, I forgot to add the fact that you can get drunk and drive around.

I see this as being a bit of a problem for people.

However, it is just about impossible to drive drunk and the police are all over you.

Most likely, you will get arrested.

The bad part is that it is entertaining.

That will piss some people off.

They're MADD about it

[+remowilliams]

They're MADD about it

That didn't take long. I notice people fail to mention that there are consequences (i.e. arrested, etc.) for driving drunk in GTAIV, and that even the main character says he shouldn't be driving.

 

god forbid someone should make a game where you are given the freedom to act appropriately or not, and have consequences for your actions.

[moycon]

They should make it where everytime you bang a hooker you have a 50% chance of catching crabs or VD and have to spend $$$ to go to the doctor and clear it up.

[Cobra Kai]

GTA4 is officially the most overrated game of the year. This is not anywhere close to being a perfect 10 game.

 

-Controls and Camera suck. Both go hand in hand because the camera angle directly affects the controls. I know they went for a more realistic physics design for the car driving, but that didn't make it more fun. Driving was better in Vice City, and the road design here is more compact and unfriendly to high speed get aways. Yeah, the design is more realistic, at the expense of fun. The camera is a problem here as well. Hey, when I jack a car, I don't want to be looking at the thing from the side as I wait for the stupid camera to loop around to the rear. The camera should default to the rear the moment you get in the car. Not only that you practically fight the camera the entire time you drive, it's never quite in the correct spot, you constantly have to fiddle with it.

 

The camera is such a pain in the butt in this game, it's as bad as any N64 platformer was. I haven't dealt with a camera system this bad since N64 Castlevania. It's bad everywhere, even out of a vehicle. Plan on melee' with a group of guys on the street? Have fun fighting them and the camera at the same time. Stupid 3rd person view. (more about that later)

 

The controls overall are pretty craptastic. Try punching somebody on the first try. Not only will you maybe not actually do a punch, you'll probably miss the first couple since the awkward camera angles will screw you up. Nothing like hitting the commands for punch only to have him NOT punch, it's like you have to hit the buttons a couple of times first, overall the melee system is broken as hell. Things get better with a gun in your hand, but the duck and cover system is so rudimentary you just get left wishing for Gears of War type smoothness that never comes. And that's the thing, Gears is basically a 3rd person view, but they managed to get a perfect camera system for that game. In GTA, everything is just a clunky mess when it comes to the controls and camera.

 

-The Grahpics. LOL. These look good for a great PS2 game. I know I know, the game is huge, the gfx have to take a hit. Uh huh. I'm no fan of the PS3, but I have to admit that the series would have been better served not being on the 360, and being optimized for PS3 with the BD disc and it's storage capacity. The graphics show this more than anything else in the game. My god, when I look at the character models I just cringe at how crude they are. It's like we took a giant step back 8 years. Maybe I'm spoiled by the outstanding Bioshock graphics, and the intricate character models, but there is no excuse for how bad and blocky the characters in GTA4 are. Of all the things upgraded, the graphics are laughably bad. Not Virtua Fighter 1 bad, but only slightly better than the PS2 GTA's. I don't care how big the game is, if the graphics aren't a perfect 10 for current technology, then the game overall is not a 10. Bioshock didn't even score 10's ok, that tells me that like Halo3, I think these review sites are pre$$ured to give grandiose scores for games that are particularly important to the games industry. There's alot of money to be made on soundtracks, Xbox Live accounts etc...these games are huge to the industry. I can't help but remember that guy from Gamespot who got fired for giving a bad review to an Eidos game, that was very recently, so to believe perfect 10's across the board for this obviously flawed game should be very suspect.

 

-The Music. OMG this is with out a doubt the WORST soundtrack in the entire GTA series. Why are there 4-5 rap music stations? Why? There's one garbage metal station that is like fake metal for skateboarders. Just absolute crap. Then there's the news radio station that's used to push Rockstars blatant political views, like that's what I want in my games. The talk radio was very funny in past games, but this time Rockstar has an agenda, I didn't get that feeling in Vice City. Latin radio? Meh. Russian radio? Whatever. Hey, lets make the most violent series in history also the most politically correct in history, yeah we can say we're diverse!

 

Now, about the 3rd person view. This game since GTAIII has been in 3rd person. But, I think the entire problem with the gameplay (controls, camera) could be fixed simply by making the game in first person. There is only 1 reason why the game is still made in 3rd person anyway, and that's because everyone wants to see the cars they are driving. Big deal, it's cool to see that muscle car the first couple of times, but like all GTA games, the thrill of the cars wears off. The game would be better served, especially the combat, as a FPS! I can see the outrage already at that idea though, "OMG I can't see my six fo Impala OMG OMG".

 

Seriously upset at the low quality of this release. I wouldn't have been so hard on it had it not received perfect scores from so many places. It really is a giant piece of shit in my opinion though. I know they had a big budget, but that doesn't translate into perfection, as anyone who pays attention to Hollywood budgets would understand. Waterworld was OK, but that $175 million bucks didn't quite translate in the finished product. I imagine alot of Rockstar's $100 million develeopment costs go to licensing music, and paying voice actors, that's probably the majority of the money spent.

 

I'm probably going to put my copy for sale, or trade it in or something. Blah, awful awful game.

[spacecadet]

That didn't take long. I notice people fail to mention that there are consequences (i.e. arrested, etc.) for driving drunk in GTAIV, and that even the main character says he shouldn't be driving.

 

I drove drunk on my first date, and I didn't get arrested or have any cops after me. And he didn't say he shouldn't be driving.

 

It *was* fun, though. But there were zero consequences and it just made me want to do it again

Edited May 5, 2008 by spacecadet

[+remowilliams]

It *was* fun, though. But there were zero consequences and it just made me want to do it again

I've heard him say it a few times, and yeah when the cops saw me weaving they started chasing. Lot harder to evade when drunk.

[spacecadet]

It *was* fun, though. But there were zero consequences and it just made me want to do it again

I've heard him say it a few times, and yeah when the cops saw me weaving they started chasing. Lot harder to evade when drunk.

 

Sure you didn't just hit one of them? I weave around even when sober in this game, and they never chase after me unless I hit one or run somebody over in front of them.

[EricDeLee]

Hmm... I for one have not had any issues with the camera or anything really. I think it is just like any new game I put in the system, it takes a bit to get used to the controls and whatnot. I've been playing CoD4 for so long now, it is hard to imagine any othe use for a button then what its use is in COD4. So naturally, I curse when I hit a button that I think is crouch (because of COD4) and it is something else. But... I don't think it is the developers fault.

 

I think, from what I have seen, this game is amazing. From the quirks of people standing on the side of the road... to the graphics.... everything. I don't really see any problems with it. I think it is a step forward, rather than a step back 8 years as mentioned above. Bioshock is in a league of its own. I'm not a 360 fan... not really. But that game was the best game I've played in a while. I just can't sit here though and compare a side character on GTA 4 to a character on Bioshock. to me it is comparing Atari graphics to PSP graphics.

 

I think Vice city was a great game. I didn't care for San Andreas as much. But oyu have to admit, this game is a lot better than Vice City on many levels.

 

EXCEPT for the soundtrack/radio.

That is really my only gripe. I expected more for the music on this. Also... when you are in your safehouse, there is a lot of different music playing in the background. Is that not available on a radio station anywhere? I can't remember the songs, but they are good rock songs. Stuff I listened to growing up. Yet... not on the radios? Does Roman have a n 8 track player or something in his 'loveshack'?

[Red 5]

I think the technological advancement between San Andreas and Liberty City are absolutely enormous.

 

The NPC's in S.A. all did the same thing and had identical reactions. They looked like a synchonized swim team most of the time.

The city was fun, but never felt really alive.

Liberty City feels like it is very alive. While I'm at work, I wonder what is going on there.

It feels like the city is continuing to exist even though the system is off and I'm at work.

 

The details in this game are stunning. Just incredible. There doesn't appear to be 5 continuous feet of real estate without

an amazing amount of detail put into the game.

 

Usually an overhyped game with ridiculously good reviews winds up being disapointing.

Not this time though.

 

Here's a fun hint. Trying to understand Little Jacob was driving me crazy, so I decided to turn on the subtitles.

It helped... a little.

But here is the cool part.

It translates all the Russian language to English for you. That's fun!

[+remowilliams]

I think the technological advancement between San Andreas and Liberty City are absolutely enormous.

Absolutely agree. The world is just stunning in it's scope and detail.

 

I didn't have too much trouble understanding LJ, but Badman - forget about it!!

[EricDeLee]

I generally always use subtitles. I'm hard hearing... so I need it! LOL