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[Grimm Fandango]

Did Rock Star explain why there is no story co-op? this disappoints me the most.

Does it really matter? Free mode is your "just for kicks" mode and you also have Hangman's Noose.

 

[Capoeira]

I like how hot chick's hand is in Niko's special place.

:lol I don't know how I missed that.

 

[Monocle]

New strategies are created by the addition of enemy blips and the cover system, enabled by pressing the right shoulder button. Enemies show on screen while moving and disappear when stationary. The amount of times I snuck up and shot an enemy dead was matched by the times opponents jumped from hiding to tan my behind. I also was able to tweak the reticule width, gamertag display, weather type, daytime, and control even voice chat options.

So many useful options.... I'm stunned by how comprehensive GTAIV's multiplayer is sounding. Before now its potential never quite hit me.

However, with friendly fire off, I take no damage if an ally shoots a rocket at my feet to launch me in the air and onto a roof. Call it co-op rocket jumps. The only caution is that no one is immune to gravity. Jump over a building (instead of onto it) and the landing could kill you.

This is great! Rockstar are clearly on the right track by including friendly fire. This one feature has the potential to significantly improve multiplayer. Imagine the crazy ways people are going to find to explore the city with their friends. I can't wait.

While the game allows you to select parts of the map to play in, choosing specific boroughs, smaller neighborhoods, or areas like the airport, it doesn't prevent players from roaming the entire city during any given match. Instead the respawns and weapon drops only occur in those areas.

Perfect.

If you're playing with just knives, things are going to become stealthy, so another useful option is to turn off player markers that appear over people's heads and also turn off people's locations on radar. You can also turn the Police on or off and toggle auto-aim on or off - useful as the auto-aim is very merciful and allows you to mow down moving targets with ease, particularly if you have a semi-automatic weapon.

Some of my biggest hopes for multiplayer fulfilled by one short paragraph.

If the driver is killed, a passenger can simply press Y to take over the driving. And, straying from GTA IV singleplayer's physical world, each player can choose radio stations independently of everyone else in the car.

This is a brilliant example of thoughtful game design.

 

[Bearillusion]

Does it really hurt? Tell us more about your displeasure over this event.

Just making a point. I currently have a Live account. Apparently DLC is the 360s selling point so I don't see why free online MP can't be Sony's.

 

[stephentotilo]

I doubt it. Any form of split screen would have been touched upon by at least one of the sites if it was in.

There's no splitscreen multiplayer. I asked, was given a flatout "no," and reported as much in my piece.

 

[stephentotilo]

More importantly how were the controls and the cover system?

Animations are very good.

Controls are sharp (for the first time in a GTA)

Cover system? I don't recall how good it was, in terms of snapping to cover. I'm currently playing "Kane & Lynch" and it's way better than that game's unreliable snapping system. But is it as good as "Gears"? Honestly, I don't recall.

 

[Mojovonio]

sounds great.

 

[wayward archer]

Incredible.

Just messing around in a multiplayer exploration mode would be enough for me, and I suspect deathmatch and race mode could provide years of gameplay, cops and crooks or the co-op missions could each be an entire game by itself. And to think that there's more MP modes included on the disc and countless possibilities with future DLC.

This game is going to do for sandbox multiplayer what GTA3 did for sandbox singleplayer.

 

[Felix Lighter]

Very good to here that the controls are tight. Really, it doesn't matter how ambitious the modes are if they didn't nail the controls. It's easy enough to overlook the iffy GTA controls in single player but multiplayer would be a different story.

 

[chubigans]

There's no splitscreen multiplayer. I asked, was given a flatout "no," and reported as much in my piece.

Nuts. Thanks for asking though.

 

[Felix Lighter]

Nuts. Thanks for asking though.

It would have been a pretty impressive feat. They would have needed to load 2 completely separate areas of the city into memory at once and streamed new areas for both players as they moved around the city.

 

[MichaelEM3]

Sounds amazing. Can't wait.

Lack of splitscreen multi makes me , though.

 

[notjackbauer]

This game is going to do for sandbox multiplayer what GTA3 did for sandbox singleplayer.

Yes.

i want to play star junction, lots of peds, dots/names off, knives only. walk around slowly, blending into the crowd, trying to find your opponents and get the jump on them.

oh sweet jesus. 19 days.

 

[Francias Castiglione]

Yes.

i want to play star junction, lots of peds, dots/names off, knives only. walk around slowly, blending into the crowd, trying to find your opponents and get the jump on them.

oh sweet jesus. 19 days.

Sounds good, it would be even more awesome if you could employ a mark system (like "The Ship") so everyone is given a target to go after but doesn't know who is after them.

 

[Striker]

Does it really matter? Free mode is your "just for kicks" mode and you also have Hangman's Noose.

Yeah. Did you happen to play Crackdown? Story co-op is my most favorite mode in video games.

 

[Omar Ismail]

useful answers

Simple questions:
Is there a party system?
Is there a matchmaking system?

The online success of COD4 and Halo 3 prove that these are essential components to have a popular online game.

 

[The Nature Roy]

Incredible.

Just messing around in a multiplayer exploration mode would be enough for me, and I suspect deathmatch and race mode could provide years of gameplay, cops and crooks or the co-op missions could each be an entire game by itself. And to think that there's more MP modes included on the disc and countless possibilities with future DLC.

This game is going to do for sandbox multiplayer what GTA3 did for sandbox singleplayer.

Actually, APB sounds a lot like these multiplayer modes (only taken a lot further in terms of customization and the whole persistent world thing) -- Cops N Crooks in particular.

APB completely blew everyone away at GDC, but now it sounds like it's really going to have to impress to pull players away from GTAIV.

 

[newsguy]

Three Red Lights podcast is all about GTA multiplayer. I know the GTA talk starts at 7:13 but I haven't heard it myself.

 

[isamu]

This may well be the first GTA game I buy.....

ever.

 

[Yoboman]

Did Rock Star explain why there is no story co-op? this disappoints me the most.

Because you don't play as Niko in the multiplayer

 

[Rexeverything]

WOW.. last time I was this excited about a game release (with no demo, no leaked videos, and only magazine articles like these to go on) was ASSASIN'S CREED