GTA IV: First Impressions thread

[Atari5200]

I've went from hating this game, to saying it's OK. I

 

I'm the opposite, I'm going from loving the game to hating the game, the initial glitz and hype has now worn off. I'm now over 11 hours in, 20% complete, and i'm pretty comfortable in saying this is the worst GTA game I own, I've never played San Andreas. From the glitches, to the frustrating missions, to the boring same ol' same ol' missions, to the lousy targeting system. I spent probably 4 tries on LJ's Concrete Angel mission because of the crappy target system and by the time you get to free aim and actually manually target you are dead. I finally got off the first island only to move to the other island I already had access to. What the crap. This game is getting real boring real fast, most the time i go around causing caos but even that isn't as fun as previous GTA games because of the massive amounts of police. I'm hoping maybe the other islands will remedy that.

 

10 out of 10 for GTA IV? Someone got paid off for that review. 20% into the story and doing shows and other things on the side, this game isn't worth more than probably a 6.5 out of 10.

[+Random Terrain]

There are some really tall towers and buildings in the game - on the first island there is one tower you can climb in the middle of a park - you can see the highway in the distance and cars moving on it - but it is like anything else - sometimes you have to wait a few minutes for them to appear.

 

I don't understand the perfect scores either - it is a great game but is far from perfect.

Thanks. If possible, I'd like to get on top of a building and drop things on the cars and people below (like maybe grenades or something) and see if they react. I hope the action that far down on the street is interactive and not a separate world.

 

No matter how imperfect the game is, if I get an Xbox 360 this year, I still want to at least rent GTA IV. I might find out that GTA: SA is a better game. I read that Oblivion is fun at the start and then becomes mind-numbingly repetitive, so maybe the Xbox 360 is a complete waste of money after all. I keep going back and forth on whether I should buy one if I get a chance because $600 is a lot of money to spend on something that will be a huge disappointment.

 

 

(I can't wait until they mix GTA with Sim City. When that happens, I will buy that console for sure!)

[Seob]

$600 dollar for a xbox360??? Thought that the're selling them for $260 dollar or so.

[+Random Terrain]

$600 dollar for a xbox360??? Thought that the're selling them for $260 dollar or so.

The Xbox 360 Elite is $450 and if each game is around $50, that means an Xbox 360 and only 3 games is $600. And that's not counting taxes. You could end up spending $1,000 on an Xbox 360 and the various stuff for it pretty quick if you have the money.

[moycon]

My opinion of this game goes more towards the negative the longer I play it.

It's little things that just make the game not fun.

I play games to have a good time, not fight with the game.

 

My latest bitch, a race you have to come in first place on, Im not a huge racing fan to begin with, but I'm really not a fan of racing people who can tap the back of your car and make you do a 180 spin that puts you stopped and facing in the other direction. This is frustrating to me. Then if you want to start the mission over, you don't get to start at the begining of the race, you have to start all the way back before you got the car (so basically you have to drive around town and go get the frickin car again before you can try your luck at the race...how hard would it have been to just started the race over? This just adds to the frustration.

 

In any case, originally I was going to wait until this game was $30 or under before I bought it. I really wish I had. This game quickly showed me it is not worth the full price of admission for me.

[+Random Terrain]

My latest bitch, a race you have to come in first place on, Im not a huge racing fan to begin with, but I'm really not a fan of racing people who can tap the back of your car and make you do a 180 spin that puts you stopped and facing in the other direction. This is frustrating to me. Then if you want to start the mission over, you don't get to start at the begining of the race, you have to start all the way back before you got the car (so basically you have to drive around town and go get the frickin car again before you can try your luck at the race...how hard would it have been to just started the race over? This just adds to the frustration.

Same crap in GTA: SA. That's why I don't play the main missions and just make my own fun. Whoever thinks up the main missions has no common sense and has zero love for the player.

Edited May 18, 2008 by Random Terrain

[Atari5200]

the race mission you speak of is the last mission I just completed, luckily it only took me 2 tries, but the first try was terrible, hard to race when it's hard to control your car, luckily enough the CPU opponents are slow.

 

Now i'm stuck on the "vigilante" going after drug dealer mission, again, with the shitty targeting system, got so frustrated I had to put the game down and walk away and do something else.

 

And then with the cops. I went to the internet place, and I aimed my gun at the person working the counter for them to run away, not sure why, I just like doing it. I then use the computer for a while. After about 10 minutes I notice a cash register on the other side and sure enough you can open it, however, I couldn't, I stood there for about 10 seconds getting ready to walk out and boom, wanted level..what the hell, my character didn't even do anything.

 

Then, during the race mission, I parked next to the race car. I noticed my hood was ripped off the car I was driving so I wanted to see what would happen if i shot the engine. Looked around, no cops, I fired one shot and bam to my right, magically a cop and wanted level.

 

The amount of cops ruins this game. I put Liberty City Stories in my PSP today and played it for a while and you have none of the problems in that game with cops that you do in this game, none. This game is to real to the point it ruins the game, but even then, I doubt NYC has that many cops on the street at any given place at any given time. It's ridiculous, I've ran into convoys of cops, 3-4 in a row not counting ones going opposite directions, it's terrible.

 

I want the version the reviewers played that was a perfect 10 game, this game is far from a 10. The more I play this game, the more annoying it becomes, it's not even fun to screw around because every thing, every damn little thing, draws a cop and a wanted level.

Edited May 19, 2008 by Atari5200

[+Random Terrain]

Can you play the multiplayer games by yourself or are you forced to play with at least one other person? If you can play the multiplayer games by yourself, you can adjust cop presence and other things.

 

And do the achievements do anything for you in the game:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bun7PshNKk

 

For example, if you get the Walk Free Achievement or the One Man Army Achievement shown in that video, do the cops leave you alone after that?

Edited May 19, 2008 by Random Terrain

[moycon]

For example, if you get the Walk Free Achievement or the One Man Army Achievement shown in that video, do the cops leave you alone after that?

 

This I can answer.

 

No

 

As far as playing multiplayer by yourself. Its kinda playing Vs. Not sure if you can set up a game locally. Might be possible if you had more than one controller, and yes you can get rid of the police altogether, and alter the number of citizens, cars, etc....but like I said, its all pretty much Vs. games (deatmatch etc...), no missions. If all you wanted to do was run around shooting and beating people, that might be an option. I cant imagine paying someone $59.99 to do that though. Get EDF instead. You can run around blowing up buildings, cars, people with no police and it'll only cost you $19.99

[Shannon]

hehe. Everytime I go in the Internet cafe I shoot someone for kicks when I'm done. Have yet to have the police called when doing that. You'd think the lady running the place would be a little upset with me offing her customers.

 

Another thing I did was pick up Michelle in an ambulance and ran the siren the entire way. You'd think she would be suspicious...... Nope...

 

As for all you whiners...

 

But people pull out their newspapers when it rains!!! j/k

 

Read the IGN review if you don't know what I mean. It was like they were gushing over that fact...

[moycon]

Another fun little hassle I recall.

 

I'm down to quarter health. I run around for a few minutes and find a hot dog stand. I walk up to the stand and press LB to order a dog. I accidently lightly bump into the hot dog cart, and it starts rocking back and forth and then topples over. All the hot dogs and other crap realistically fall and scatter around the ground.

Vender will no longer sell me hot dog because I knocked over his stupid hot dog stand that must be weighted heavy on one side supported by a matchstick that will break if you fart on it. Gotta love it.

[Shannon]

Yeah I had that happen to me as well. I was so pissed off I got back in my car and ran the vendor over.

 

Here are some quotes from a user review which are issues I had concerning the game.

 

More worrying is the breaking of yet another key design rule, namely don’t give the player a new skill and then stop them from using it, because it will cause confusion, frustration and a lack of trust in the game’s mechanics. Early on the player is taught how to disarm an enemy, and the player must use this technique to finish a mission. However this technique is never used in the game again and melee combat with armed enemies is never engaged in by the player. Players are also taught to shoot out tyres of vehicles to cause them to crash, and yet in all chase sequences, the player is unable to do this. Another early mission sees the player smashing a window to shake up a business owner by throwing a brick, yet again the player never gets to do this later on, and reverts back to killing and chasing their way through the game. Finally, even basic components such as the ability to car jack are removed at times, with no warning to the player. In the mission ‘Three Leaf Clover’ this is immediately apparent as the player cannot get into any of the police cars to make their escape, and has to follow the mission structure to the letter, even though later on, they then have to get in a car to flee. This is especially grating as many of San Andreas’ missions were dynamic and had multiple ways to complete them. Not just in the missions does GTA4 break the key rules, but also in the world itself. Many shops from a distance seem to be areas that would be interactive (such as the Cluckin’ Bell shops) but on close inspection are not.

 

This lack of mission variety is made worse by the hint of new and interesting mechanics which never get developed. When San Andreas introduced gang controls, or the ability to burgle certain houses, or piloting planes it kept them throughout the game and developed them. In GTA 4, the player embarks on a rooftop chase, which culminates on the top of a crane. This seemed to point to a tantalising new gameplay mechanic, and yet was never used again.

 

One area of game seems to be completely under designed is the wanted rating system. Scratching the side of a police car gets you one star, with the police hunting you down, sending you to prison, and making you lose a massive amount of money as well as all your weapons. Similarly, you can shoot someone in the head with an assault rifle and suffer the exact same fate.

 

The wanted level mechanics are slightly more advanced than previous GTA game, with cops having a range of vision, and an area they can look for the player, which makes escape a more mentally challenging exercise. The problems come from a poor balance in difficulty. Getting in a helicopter for example, even when you are on six stars and flying around renders all cops useless, even the ones in the air. The ease at which the player can out drive police cars makes lower level chases far to easy, while on 3 and 4 star chases, cop cars spawn in ridiculous places (such as in the middle of beaches or up hills) making escape impossible not because of the challenge provided by the cops, but simply because you cant get away from all the spawning cars and thus always remain ‘in sight‘. This is something that should have been tweaked to perfection and again feels like it was pushed to the side in development.

 

There is more but I didn't want to include anything that was not discussed in this thread already. Plus everything I picked is early on in the game. I got caught in a 3 star chase too and it was annoying to have cars "spawning" out of nowhere. (reminded me of why I hated "Driver" so much). I usually try to keep an eye on the radar so I have an idea of "where" I can escape..

 

I don't really care for the mission structure either. In Oblivion you can have a handful of ongoing missions and work on them simultaneously or individually, according to your preference. But in GTA if you start some missions others will be cancelled. Which wouldn't be so bad but some missions seem to start with a phone call. So if I ignore that call am I skipping the mission?

 

It is kinda neat to see some details. Like NPC's jacking cars, getting arrested, two people on the back of a garbage truck, etc.

Edited May 19, 2008 by Shannon

[+Random Terrain]

For example, if you get the Walk Free Achievement or the One Man Army Achievement shown in that video, do the cops leave you alone after that?

 

This I can answer.

 

No

 

As far as playing multiplayer by yourself. Its kinda playing Vs. Not sure if you can set up a game locally. Might be possible if you had more than one controller, and yes you can get rid of the police altogether, and alter the number of citizens, cars, etc....but like I said, its all pretty much Vs. games (deatmatch etc...), no missions. If all you wanted to do was run around shooting and beating people, that might be an option. I cant imagine paying someone $59.99 to do that though. Get EDF instead. You can run around blowing up buildings, cars, people with no police and it'll only cost you $19.99

Thanks. The people who worked on GTA IV need a good kick to the crotch for not fixing some stuff and for introducing more problems. And they deserve a poke in the eye for not giving us more cheats so you have abilities like locking your wanted level at zero stars if you want like you can in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas:

 

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/xbox/code/925634.html

[Atari5200]

I'm over 20% into the game and I never had the disarm mission that the reader review mentioned.

 

As for the 3 star police spawns, it's true, but I expected it, it's the same for the other GTA's I own.

 

I am going to have to try single player multiplayer, for no cop mayhem, also, does anybody know if there is a Karmaggedon in GTA IV like there was with the firetruck in LCS? Karmaggedon is great fun especially if you do it while on a 4 or higher wanted level.

[Shannon]

Yo man. I and I thinks you may hav miised that one, no what I'm talkin about?

 

One of the first missions where your "target" takes off in a car, he abandons it at one point (I think it is when your with little jacob) and runs up some stairs into a room. Before you take him out they tell you what combo's to use to take his dagger away.

Edited May 19, 2008 by Shannon

[Atari5200]

Yo man. I and I thinks you may hav miised that one, no what I'm talkin about?

 

One of the first missions where your "target" takes off in a car, he abandons it at one point (I think it is when your with little jacob) and runs up some stairs into a room. Before you take him out they tell you what combo's to use to take his dagger away.

 

yeah, totally missed that one.

[+remowilliams]

yeah, totally missed that one.

How did you miss it? It's in like the first mission in the game. 'Three's A Crowd'

 

When I fought that guy I accidentally pushed him through the window. Bye Bye.

[Atari5200]

oh yeah. but I don't remember Little Jacob being part of that. That is where you first get the knife. Boy shows how much I paid attention to the training missions.

 

 

BTW: best video game character ever award goes to Brucie.

Edited May 19, 2008 by Atari5200

[+remowilliams]

oh yeah. but I don't remember Little Jacob being part of that.

 

BTW: best video game character ever award goes to Brucie.

LJ wasn't part of that mission. Brucie is hilarious. LJ is a great character too. "There gonna be an EXPLOSION!!!"

[kisrael]

oh yeah. but I don't remember Little Jacob being part of that.

 

BTW: best video game character ever award goes to Brucie.

LJ wasn't part of that mission. Brucie is hilarious. LJ is a great character too. "There gonna be an EXPLOSION!!!"

YEAH BRO! 'CAUSE THAT'S THE WAY WE ROLL!!!!

 

Brucie's just fun to listen to. So much dumb enthusiasm! He's funny even without (or despite) the "he's a closet case" subtext

[Lost Monkey]

yeah, totally missed that one.

How did you miss it? It's in like the first mission in the game. 'Three's A Crowd'

 

When I fought that guy I accidentally pushed him through the window. Bye Bye.

 

I went out the window the first time too - then I couldn't find my way back to the car in time and failed the mission...

 

[Lost Monkey]

With a high wanted rating you will sometimes see cop cars "falling out of the sky" as they spawn several feet off the ground...

[Shannon]

Whoops your right. It's after roman plays a little "basketball". I was trying to think back to the first mission I had when someone went driving off and I had to follow them.

 

Yeah man! Be genetically superior!!

[Atari5200]

after my current session of GTA IV, i'm lowering my rating to 5 out of 10. This game isn't even an average game, let alone above average, I had more fun with Bullet Witch. This will probably be a game I will beat and never play again. If I want to kill time causing mayhem, I'll play Liberty City Stories, that game is much better than GTA IV in that aspect, and pretty much every other aspect other than graphics and sound.

 

I spent an hour last night trying to get the achievement for blowing up 10 cars in secession, I figured, how hard could it be? Apparently extremely. I started at my safe house and figured hell. I'll just pile up 10 cars and blow them all up. pretty easy...WRONG. It's impossible. Most cars I managed to get was 7. Eventually, even with no cops around, you will get a wanted level. I got a wanted level from jumping on the hood of one of my parked cars because I couldn't get out. WTF. But then when you get in a car and lose the cops, you go back to find that 3 of the cars magically disappeared. So you can never get to 10. Don't know if this is a programming thing to make the achievement harder to get but it's f***ing frustrating, this entire game is F***ing frustrating. This game is crap.

 

EDIT: and now it will make it very hard for me to trust IGN or Gamespot reviews from this point forward.

Edited May 20, 2008 by Atari5200

[kisrael]

WTF. But then when you get in a car and lose the cops, you go back to find that 3 of the cars magically disappeared. So you can never get to 10. Don't know if this is a programming thing to make the achievement harder to get but it's f***ing frustrating, this entire game is F***ing frustrating. This game is crap.

 

EDIT: and now it will make it very hard for me to trust IGN or Gamespot reviews from this point forward.

Me think you doth protest too much.

This game is not crap. It isn't perfect, and didn't deserve the perfect scores, but it's big and rich and beautiful.

 

The overdid the cops, and I dunno if it's deliberate or a glitch (maybe someone is stealing your cars when you get so many

 

PS and you shouldn't really trust game reviewers anyway

Edited May 20, 2008 by kisrael