Grand Theft Auto IV has the best driving physics of any open-world game, ever

Yeah, I enjoyed the physics too. I played a lot of the racing multiplayer mode. The helicopter handling was ok as well. I became a specialist at getting the black hawk up to stupid speeds and then ramming other players vehicles in freeroam. Sometimes they just disappeared over the horizon.
 
I complete agree with you OP. I loved the way the cars handled in GTAIV and I'll be hugely disappointed if they bow to the whining and go back to the driving model of the older games. A refined version of GTAIV's driving physics with more spectacular crashes would be perfect for me.
 
Well not really.
I think Max Payne 3 had a good balance of weight and controllability, when it comes to euphoria characters.

Yeah. Red Dead controlled okay, but Max Payne is where they really nailed the balance between tight control vs. realistic physics. I would love to play a GTA game with that level of control.
 
One day I decided to embrace the immersion factor of GTA4's driving, and it actually worked well. Though I got tired of riding with NPCs and just went back to trying to have some fun.

http://youtu.be/COHbPaAm5bY

For people that are into immersion with GTA4, they should really try modding it until it's some Titanic Crysis mod type of authentic. You can have traffic jams with a mod that adds realistic traffic, also there's a mod that puts the correct types of cars in the game. What I mean by that is that you'd see a lot more taxis than normal cars. Some of the traffic jams are littered with yellow cars. Reminds me of New York.

Also you really notice the way the car seem to float when you drive in first person. The interior goes crazy with the leaning and shifting.
 
I agree OP, I loved the driving once I got used to it, car chases were so exhilarating. I went back to San Andreas and the driving was awful, so cartoony and cheap with instant turn. I hated it.
 
Huh, didn't realize the community was so split about this. I personally didn't like the driving of GTAIV but I hope they come to some kind of compromise. Something where the cars still have weight but are more fun to drive around in. Motorcycles sucked, though not as bad in the expansion. I'd be happy if it was anything like Midnight Club LA
 
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Never got that good at it but I would love to try and drive with the cinematic camera going, those aerial shots of me going in and out of traffic while crossing a bridge and listening to the Journey was fun man.
 
I love the driving physics in GTA4, and agree they're better than those of any other open world game. Now, if only Rockstar could figure out how to make the on-foot controls as satisfying...
 
No no no! Not even the best driving in the GTA series. Go back and play the ps2 GTA's again and tell us if you still praise the abomination that was GTAIVdriving.
 
Someone mentioned that games like Just Cause 2, and Saints Row 3 got away with their car handling. For Just Cause 2, driving was the inferior mode of transportation. You had a superman like parachute and grapple, why ride when you can fly. Saints Row didn't have the grapple + parachute transportation system, but it had some nice jet bikes, GTA:SA like harrier jet craft, and air gliding.

There's some good air fun to be had in those games, more so with JC2. Sleeping dogs have 0 airplay though :(, and I like Sleeping dogs cars, those buggers can speed all over the city. The cars in Sleeping Dogs feel a bit twitchy though. GTA4's airplay is in a helicopter, jump out and you pretty much fall as a rock, no Wesley Snipes Drop Zone like bullet gliding, no squirrel suit flying (JC2), just fetal position falling. JC2 is king of the air, and it's a beautiful fun thing.
 
Ditto.

Can't understand the praise for Sleeping Dogs driving physics. They're so incredibly fake.

Realistic driving isn't fun for some gamers. Me included. Driving should feel like video game driving. It should be easy and responsive.

I agree. It was so cute to see people complaining about it back then (and even now). It's obvious they've never played anything close to a simulator.

Or maybe we just think Grand Theft Auto shouldn't be a simulator because simulators aren't fun. If GTA continues trying to be "realistic" I won't be buying any more of the games. Save that shit for games like Gran Turismo.
 
I agree 200%. Driving in this game is fantastic. Fun, yet challenging.

It makes me sad to know that they are changing it for Gta V.
 
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gta III and vice city are two of my favorite games

but gta iv's driving? cmon!

i was so happy for a next gen gta that i even preordered

the first time i entered that car

fuck
 
gta III and vice city are two of my favorite games

but gta iv's driving? cmon!

i was so happy for a next gen gta that i even preordered

the first time i entered that car

fuck

Yup. I was SO mad when I tried driving. And I still am. They RUINED Grand Theft Auto. Just isn't the same without the responsive driving of the PS2 games.
 
Oh please, so you suck at driving in GTAIV. Take a fucking cab.

If I have to take a cab that ruins the purpose of it being open world and thus ruins the game as a whole. The game was terrible because of the driving mechanics. The game was literally a piece of shit.
 
GTAIV had a lot of problems, but its cars and physics were not amongst them. They handled wonderfully. I think it boils down to people that bitch about them don't do much driving in real life and thus aren't accustomed to cars that carry weight and don't magically turn on a dime.

Grand Theft Auto isn't supposed to be like driving in real life. What made driving fun in the PS2 GTA games was that you COULD turn on a dime and the controls felt great and responsive while driving. Non responsive controls are bad controls in my book.

Grand Theft Auto is a video game. It should play like one. It's not a simulator and ridiculous people would ever want the driving to be anything like one.
 
GTAIV's driving is nothing like a simulator though, it's not even close to arcade-sim racing games like PGR or Shift. It's still arcadey, except now cars have suspension. That's the only difference. Nothing in GTAIV's world turns on a dime, so the driving fits perfectly.
 
I looooove the weighty physics of GTAIV. I guess I'm in the minority on that one, but I found it incredibly satisfying. The disappointing part of GTAIV is the mission design.

Yeah, I liked the physics also a lot although it was kind of confusing in the beginning to rotate the camera in curves with the second stick.
 
Grand Theft Auto isn't supposed to be like driving in real life. What made driving fun in the PS2 GTA games was that you COULD turn on a dime and the controls felt great and responsive while driving. Non responsive controls are bad controls in my book.

Grand Theft Auto is a video game. It should play like one. It's not a simulator and ridiculous people would ever want the driving to be anything like one.

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Grand Theft Auto isn't supposed to be like driving in real life. What made driving fun in the PS2 GTA games was that you COULD turn on a dime and the controls felt great and responsive while driving. Non responsive controls are bad controls in my book.

Grand Theft Auto is a video game. It should play like one. It's not a simulator and ridiculous people would ever want the driving to be anything like one.

People saying it plays like a simulator are off the mark a little. The game is very forgiving and you all you have to do is slow down a bit for corners. Corner coming up - hit the brake for a second or two. It's not rocket science. The hardest part is correcting a skid before it gets out of control but that doesn't take long to learn. Even when you crash a lot it's hard to destroy the car you're driving and the AI rarely kills you if you fuck up.

The game is what it is - many people like the driving in it. Banshee's are awesome, as are a lot of the sports cars. Some cars are utter crap - it adds to the mayhem if you jack something that's hard to control at high speed. I suck at video games and driving simulators but I can manage to get a grip of the controls.

The on foot controls are another story - took me 30 seconds to get onto a ladder today.
 
I don't get the "you just suck at it" response.

Firstly, no. Those types of responses are a childish attempt to marginalized someone without examining their criticism.
I've driven SUVs and they don't flip over going around the corner at 35MPH nor do cars frequently fishtail without adverse elements.

I'm all fine for locking turn radiuses, scaling back abilities to gas around corners, etc. but they even did that too much.

Secondly, if Rockstar wanted super realistic driving controls/physics, okay, but it's a massive oversight on their part not offering a perfect handling cheat.
Not everyone plays GTA the same way and boxing your fans in is a poor decision from a business perspective. People used those cheats back in the III era when driving was cake and the roads were wider and more empty, of course they'll want them in a narrower, more congested NYC-clone.

Lastly, they hold your hand for practically everything else in the game but they don't tell you how to control the cars either through the standard pop-ups or a SA-esque driving school. Poor game design. If people suck at it, it's R*'s fault not giving them the tools to succeed.
 
I don't get the "you just suck at it" response.

Firstly, no. Those types of responses are a childish attempt to marginalized someone without examining their criticism.
I've driven SUVs and they don't flip over going around the corner at 35MPH nor do cars frequently fishtail without adverse elements.

I'm all fine for locking turn radiuses, scaling back abilities to gas around corners, etc. but they even did that too much.

Secondly, if Rockstar wanted super realistic driving controls/physics, okay, but it's a massive oversight on their part not offering a perfect handling cheat.
Not everyone plays GTA the same way and boxing your fans in is a poor decision from a business perspective. People used those cheats back in the III era when driving was cake and the roads were wider and more empty, of course they'll want them in a narrower, more congested NYC-clone.

Lastly, they hold your hand for practically everything else in the game but they don't tell you how to control the cars either through the standard pop-ups or a SA-esque driving school. Poor game design. If people suck at it, it's R*'s fault not giving them the tools to succeed.

"you just suck at it" is the appropriate response when the criticism is "GTAIV has realistic driving controls"...

when that is your opening gambit, the only way is down I'm afraid
 
Loved driving in 4. It has a nice sense of weight and speed to it that isn't in most games. Hope they keep it similar in 5.
 
Definitely agree with the OP. The driving physics are great. Most other open world games are too stiff when it comes to cars.

By the way...I hope all the people that were disappointed in IV aren’t too hyped for V. Me thinks it’s going to be very similar.
 
Definitely agree with the OP. The driving physics are great. Most other open world games are too stiff when it comes to cars.

By the way...I hope all the people that were disappointed in IV aren’t too hyped for V. Me thinks it’s going to be very similar.

I would be surprised if it wasn't similar, Rockstar has been seemingly incompetent this gen.
 
But I would like to add that GTA4's driving along with Mafia 2 are on top of open world driving gameplay

The physics, the damage, the detail

Not gonna lie I learned how to parallel park from GTA 4

Also no other game gives pedestrians so much weight when hitting them...That vibration and the damage to your car after hitting someone god damn it is so satifying (you also go on rampages too) what other game gives you that

I mean in saints row they feel like plastic bags,

The driving in Saints row is horrendous. Sleeping Dogs is alright but it feels a bit too arcady (Yeah I liked the realism in GTA 4). I took me a while to get into saints row after playing GTA 4 for many years because the driving was so shitty.

The accidents in GTA are brutal, the blur you get when driving top speed running away from the cops , just one wrong move and you crash....When you master it the driving is amazing.

Like another person said there is no other open world game where you just want to driving around the city

Have faith in Rockstar they know what to do, they won't dumb it down
 
Sleeping Dogs driving FAR surpasses that of GTA IV. GTA IV is leaps and bounds better than the previous GTAs, maybe, but Sleeping Dogs is where it's at.

Driving in Sleeping Dogs feels cheap and awful. GTA IV hood cam in the Porsche or Ferrari is about as good as it gets.
 
You're absolutely correct OP, it's driving model was and is far more interesting than all the other sandbox games.
 
It may have the best driving physics but is it fun? No. GTA has always had arcadey tight gameplay, if i wanted realistic driving i would play a car sim. Keep that shit away from GTA and go back to how it was in GTA: SA.
 
I would be surprised if it wasn't similar, Rockstar has been seemingly incompetent this gen.

They've put out one of the highest rating and selling games, made two very sizable pieces of DC for it and half the gaming world is waiting on their next reveal. They scream incompetence.

Personally, I didn't like IV but I love TBOGT I think it's got the right balance of fun and realism and I believe that's where V is going. They said they're going to tweak the driving a bit in V - getting the guys from Midnight Club to help out so it's going to be a little tighter for your tastes.
 
I would be surprised if it wasn't similar, Rockstar has been seemingly incompetent this gen.

I'm wondering how many of us that - and I quote daviyoung - "just suck at it" (although I personally still got the awful awful platinum of IV) won't be buying GTA V.

I mean people don't even have to not buy it because of the horrible driving.
People may also not buy it because of the horrible missions in IV.
The horrible shooting.
The horrible story.
The horrible phone calls every few minutes.
The horrible characters.
The horrible framerate on PS3.
The horrible pigeons, that created 4 or 5 stars or something like that when you shot them and were also a pain to find even with a guide.
The horrible racing missions with the horrible AI that you still won even if you crashed everywhere just because the AI drove even worse than you.
Or the horrible controls everywhere else. Niko controlled as if he was on the moon.

I remember even some of the unique stunts being a pain in the ass. I mean I fully remember one stunt in particular where I had a bike and just had to go full speed on a ramp. Didn't work so many times, because there was a tiny height difference right before it. Which meant my bike got hung up on it several times and acted like crazy. I'm sorry realism folks. But that's not how bikes handle. Not at all. They don't act upon some 2cm height difference. Blame it on some "bug", but if such "realistic physics" create such bugs, I totally blame those. And you don't even have to blame the physics - blame the world design. Who in their right mind put that there AND also put a unique stunt right after it. I don't even remember how I exactly beat it in the end. I guess I had luck at one point and the "realistic physics" let me through.
 
I agree. It was so cute to see people complaining about it back then (and even now). It's obvious they've never played anything close to a simulator.

Maybe thats because we dont WANT to. And certainly not in a GTA game.
I can understand someone who loves to thus loves the GTA4 driving physics, just dont pretend to not understand
why some others dont.
 
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