psycho_snake
I went to WAGs boutique and all I got was a sniff
Getting pissed? That sounds fun! How does it work?kitch9 said:
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The Official Grand Theft Auto IV thread: The World Is Yours
- Thread starter U5230
- Start date
Okay, I got a chance to try the game at a friend's house. Dunno how he got it but since I've already paid for the game by pre-ordering I don't feel bad for taking a sneak peek even if it was a "Har har har and a bottle of rum" copy of the game.
A bunch of observations and impressions after playing for a bunch of hours: (I'll spoiler tag it all in case people wanna learn how everything is themselves)
A bunch of observations and impressions after playing for a bunch of hours: (I'll spoiler tag it all in case people wanna learn how everything is themselves)
-Graphics are awful. Well, relatively awful. The lighting looks great, but one thing which really drags the graphics down is an excessive amount of blur. I'm not sure if it was upscaled from a lower resolution, or if it's a horrible attempt at a depth of field effect, but the blurry graphics really made it look like a mess. To make it even worse, it has the same problem as GTA:SA has, the framerate really really struggles in the game.
Compared to games like Assassin's Creed, GTA4 is just pathetic in the graphics department. Heck, I think even Saints Row looks better... Saints Row also struggled with the framerate but at least the graphics looks nice and clean. I just really really dislike in the blur in GTA4 but I suppose I'll get used to it. PC gamers should definitely look forward to GTA4 whenever it's announced because the PC version will most definitely be the best version graphics-wise.
-The overall feel of the game reminds me a lot of the original GTA3, only with a ton of misc improvements. The car handling feels MUCH better, it has a more realistic feel which I think works quite well. It reminds me a bit of the handling in Mafia. Close combat is also greatly improved where it feels kinda like a mini-fighting game (Face buttons turns into 2 punches, 1 kick and 1 evade). Gunplay is definitely a lot better although the controls takes some time to get used to (holding down aim makes the character autoaim at a target and you can do small changes to the aim (like targetting his head), or you can hold the aim button half-down to get completely free aim)
And the character's animations looks a LOT better. And he can climb over most objects with ease. Feels kinda like a mini-version of Assassin's Creed in that regard.
-Unfortunately, I couldn't find a single side mission in the game. It may be something you have to unlock, but I'm not sure. GTA has always had a great potential for side-missions so I'm hoping they are in the game and greatly improved. Saints Row did a good job of showing what kind of fun side missions one can add to a sandbox game.
-Police are much much MUCH better. As long as you're in the line of sight they'll behave similar to as in previous games, they'll simply send more and more units to your location. But once you lose their line of sight, they'll patrol the overall area close to where you were last seen. And if you manage to evade that area you lose your wanted status. I kinda wish they would have expanded the system even further and used the reinforcements system as NFS:MW so there was a point in actually stopping and killing all nearby cops to give a chance to escape. But still, the new police system is much more fun than previous GTA games. I randomly did crimes just so I could get a chance to do random police chases.
-Even though I saw no side missions I got a chance to try a few minigames. There's a simple bowling game which is a nice addition... but something you'll get bored of before you actually complete one bowling game. There's an arcade game which kinda plays like a variation of Tetris. Be ware though, if you're good at that kind of puzzle game you can easily spend a ton of time in just one session. My friend wasn't too happy when I spent more than 15 minutes on one game and I had to force myself to get game over.
-You can snap into cover Gears of War-style. I personally wish they would have used an automatic system like Kane & Lynch or GRAW, but it's something which works okay once you get used to the controls. From my playtime I didn't find much use for it and spent most time just shooting while crouching. It's really noticable on the enemies though, it's neat to see cops take cover behind their cars.
-Not very surprising, but as most console games the amount of options is very limited. You can't turn off the annoying blur, and there's only 2 control schemes to choose from (can't manually edit controls).
-You have several camera angles you can choose from while on foot or driving. One of the angles you can use while on foot is a camera which is basically identical to the camera from Resident Evil 4, which I thought was quite neat. And while driving you can make the game automatically use cinematic camera angles (or during missions make the camera lock on a target vehicle) and then you can make the game run in slow motion. That should be handy for those who wanna try making fancy videos with the game.
-Some people may like or hate this, but the camera system is very similar to previous GTA games. While moving on foot it's basically impossible to manually control it as it'll constantly rotate by its own. While driving the camera is really low and your own car will occasionally block your view.
-Button mashing sprinting. Bleh.
-You lose about 10% of your cash whenever you die, and you lose all your weapons when getting busted.
-You can instantly retry missions after failing them (I didn't see any function to replay missions after completing them though)
-After an early story mission you unlock the ability to call a taxi with your cellphone (although at any time, you can also whistle for taxis while moving around, but that's a bit of a hassle since there's not always taxis close to you), and when in a taxi you can quickly travel to any part of the city. Very very very handy feature.
-All of those stupid character stats from GTA:SA seems to be gone (thank god), but you do have kinda an RPG element with your friends in the game. All of them will have a respect and friend stat related to you which will go up or down depending on what you do. For instance, don't expect your girlfiend to like you more if you destroy her car while on a date. Or shooting cops while on a date. Or going to a strip club and beating people up while on date. (Gee, I'm glad I have GTA4 to teach me these lessons so it doesn't happen in real life.) And your friends may occasionally call you sometimes to ask for small favours or to just hang out.
-The first car I accidentally destroyed happened in an awesome way. I was driving really bad and crashing into just about everything, and then I started to notice a small fire from the engine (in true GTA-fashion that's a sure sign it's gonna blow up) so I quickly stop the car and run out. Unfortunately, I didn't notice I stopped the car near a gas station. Big bada boom.
-Speaking of which, there's a few other new features related to cars. Niko is a lot slower than other GTA heroes when breaking into cars (if you see a car which is locked, you might wanna quickly shoot the window to make it faster to enter the vehicle). Sometimes you won't get a car to explode after driving like a maniac, the car's engine might simply stop working instead. And cars which are upside down no longer have the spontaneously-explode syndrome.
-Similar to as in Saints Row you can jump out of a car while it's moving. But do NOT expect it to be as safe as in that game. Falling and getting thrown around can hurt a lot, and looks quite painful thanks to the euphoria system. In one case I died in a very spectacular fashion. I was driving a big truck (well, I can't remember specifically what I was driving, it was big anyway) and the car started to spin out of control so I decided to simply jump out of it. While jumping out and landing on the ground, the car spins so much out of control it falls on its side. It fell on its side *right* on top of me. Which hurt quite a bit, and made me look like the worst stuntman ever,
-To make it easier to navigate you can target any part of the map for your GPS. And then you'll see the quickest route to that spot on your minimap. You can even turn on speech for the GPS so you can occasionally hear how long is it to the destination and when you have to turn.
-Radio channels are awful. There's a ton of rap and hip hop which I personally can't stand at all. I did find one radio channel called The Journey which had a lot of music by Jarre which I found enjoyable. Unfortunately, I saw no function to use a custom soundtracks as a radio channel.
-Typical GTA humour is definitely in the game. So people who like bad jokes with too much sexual innuendo will feel right at home.
Well, and that's all the stuff I can remember. Overall, it definitely seems like a good game and I'm really looking forward to try multiplayer. But I have to say I'm a bit disappointed in a few areas, like the graphics and how the overall gameplay hasn't changed too much since previous games (although specific gameplay elements like police, car handling, aiming and such are vastly improved).
Compared to games like Assassin's Creed, GTA4 is just pathetic in the graphics department. Heck, I think even Saints Row looks better... Saints Row also struggled with the framerate but at least the graphics looks nice and clean. I just really really dislike in the blur in GTA4 but I suppose I'll get used to it. PC gamers should definitely look forward to GTA4 whenever it's announced because the PC version will most definitely be the best version graphics-wise.
-The overall feel of the game reminds me a lot of the original GTA3, only with a ton of misc improvements. The car handling feels MUCH better, it has a more realistic feel which I think works quite well. It reminds me a bit of the handling in Mafia. Close combat is also greatly improved where it feels kinda like a mini-fighting game (Face buttons turns into 2 punches, 1 kick and 1 evade). Gunplay is definitely a lot better although the controls takes some time to get used to (holding down aim makes the character autoaim at a target and you can do small changes to the aim (like targetting his head), or you can hold the aim button half-down to get completely free aim)
And the character's animations looks a LOT better. And he can climb over most objects with ease. Feels kinda like a mini-version of Assassin's Creed in that regard.
-Unfortunately, I couldn't find a single side mission in the game. It may be something you have to unlock, but I'm not sure. GTA has always had a great potential for side-missions so I'm hoping they are in the game and greatly improved. Saints Row did a good job of showing what kind of fun side missions one can add to a sandbox game.
-Police are much much MUCH better. As long as you're in the line of sight they'll behave similar to as in previous games, they'll simply send more and more units to your location. But once you lose their line of sight, they'll patrol the overall area close to where you were last seen. And if you manage to evade that area you lose your wanted status. I kinda wish they would have expanded the system even further and used the reinforcements system as NFS:MW so there was a point in actually stopping and killing all nearby cops to give a chance to escape. But still, the new police system is much more fun than previous GTA games. I randomly did crimes just so I could get a chance to do random police chases.
-Even though I saw no side missions I got a chance to try a few minigames. There's a simple bowling game which is a nice addition... but something you'll get bored of before you actually complete one bowling game. There's an arcade game which kinda plays like a variation of Tetris. Be ware though, if you're good at that kind of puzzle game you can easily spend a ton of time in just one session. My friend wasn't too happy when I spent more than 15 minutes on one game and I had to force myself to get game over.
-You can snap into cover Gears of War-style. I personally wish they would have used an automatic system like Kane & Lynch or GRAW, but it's something which works okay once you get used to the controls. From my playtime I didn't find much use for it and spent most time just shooting while crouching. It's really noticable on the enemies though, it's neat to see cops take cover behind their cars.
-Not very surprising, but as most console games the amount of options is very limited. You can't turn off the annoying blur, and there's only 2 control schemes to choose from (can't manually edit controls).
-You have several camera angles you can choose from while on foot or driving. One of the angles you can use while on foot is a camera which is basically identical to the camera from Resident Evil 4, which I thought was quite neat. And while driving you can make the game automatically use cinematic camera angles (or during missions make the camera lock on a target vehicle) and then you can make the game run in slow motion. That should be handy for those who wanna try making fancy videos with the game.
-Some people may like or hate this, but the camera system is very similar to previous GTA games. While moving on foot it's basically impossible to manually control it as it'll constantly rotate by its own. While driving the camera is really low and your own car will occasionally block your view.
-Button mashing sprinting. Bleh.
-You lose about 10% of your cash whenever you die, and you lose all your weapons when getting busted.
-You can instantly retry missions after failing them (I didn't see any function to replay missions after completing them though)
-After an early story mission you unlock the ability to call a taxi with your cellphone (although at any time, you can also whistle for taxis while moving around, but that's a bit of a hassle since there's not always taxis close to you), and when in a taxi you can quickly travel to any part of the city. Very very very handy feature.
-All of those stupid character stats from GTA:SA seems to be gone (thank god), but you do have kinda an RPG element with your friends in the game. All of them will have a respect and friend stat related to you which will go up or down depending on what you do. For instance, don't expect your girlfiend to like you more if you destroy her car while on a date. Or shooting cops while on a date. Or going to a strip club and beating people up while on date. (Gee, I'm glad I have GTA4 to teach me these lessons so it doesn't happen in real life.) And your friends may occasionally call you sometimes to ask for small favours or to just hang out.
-The first car I accidentally destroyed happened in an awesome way. I was driving really bad and crashing into just about everything, and then I started to notice a small fire from the engine (in true GTA-fashion that's a sure sign it's gonna blow up) so I quickly stop the car and run out. Unfortunately, I didn't notice I stopped the car near a gas station. Big bada boom.
-Speaking of which, there's a few other new features related to cars. Niko is a lot slower than other GTA heroes when breaking into cars (if you see a car which is locked, you might wanna quickly shoot the window to make it faster to enter the vehicle). Sometimes you won't get a car to explode after driving like a maniac, the car's engine might simply stop working instead. And cars which are upside down no longer have the spontaneously-explode syndrome.
-Similar to as in Saints Row you can jump out of a car while it's moving. But do NOT expect it to be as safe as in that game. Falling and getting thrown around can hurt a lot, and looks quite painful thanks to the euphoria system. In one case I died in a very spectacular fashion. I was driving a big truck (well, I can't remember specifically what I was driving, it was big anyway) and the car started to spin out of control so I decided to simply jump out of it. While jumping out and landing on the ground, the car spins so much out of control it falls on its side. It fell on its side *right* on top of me. Which hurt quite a bit, and made me look like the worst stuntman ever,
-To make it easier to navigate you can target any part of the map for your GPS. And then you'll see the quickest route to that spot on your minimap. You can even turn on speech for the GPS so you can occasionally hear how long is it to the destination and when you have to turn.
-Radio channels are awful. There's a ton of rap and hip hop which I personally can't stand at all. I did find one radio channel called The Journey which had a lot of music by Jarre which I found enjoyable. Unfortunately, I saw no function to use a custom soundtracks as a radio channel.
-Typical GTA humour is definitely in the game. So people who like bad jokes with too much sexual innuendo will feel right at home.
Well, and that's all the stuff I can remember. Overall, it definitely seems like a good game and I'm really looking forward to try multiplayer. But I have to say I'm a bit disappointed in a few areas, like the graphics and how the overall gameplay hasn't changed too much since previous games (although specific gameplay elements like police, car handling, aiming and such are vastly improved).
psycho_snake
I went to WAGs boutique and all I got was a sniff
I'm really not that surprised GTA got 10/10 from IGN. Developing a GTA game on a next gen console was R* big opportunity to really make a huge leap in the series.
The big review for me is going to be the Gamespot one. I know a lot of people think that they're far too harsh, but I've alwasy thought that they get their scores spot on most of the time.
The big review for me is going to be the Gamespot one. I know a lot of people think that they're far too harsh, but I've alwasy thought that they get their scores spot on most of the time.
The Faceless Master
Member
but what if it's true?mileS said:
Collectively, it's the most impressive looking game I've seen yet this gen.
From the draw distance, lighting, animation, physics, to the sheer density of stuff on screen it's peerless imo. And wait until you see the rain.. O M G!
Framerate never ever dropped to the levels that you usually associate with a GTA title, even with insane levels of mayhem going on.
To even mention Saints row in the same breath is laughable.
From the draw distance, lighting, animation, physics, to the sheer density of stuff on screen it's peerless imo. And wait until you see the rain.. O M G!
Framerate never ever dropped to the levels that you usually associate with a GTA title, even with insane levels of mayhem going on.
To even mention Saints row in the same breath is laughable.
Surfheart said:
Well, that's my only concern out of the window, GTA games on consoles before had always had framerate issues, if Rockstar have sorted that, all is Golden.
Tuesday still can't come soon enough, why can't ASDA break the street date like they usually do, growl!
Really? Did you play the PS3 or 360 version of the game? It was the 360 version of the game I tried and I swear that the framerate is a mess. I'm fanatical about framerates in games so it's something I notice right away.Surfheart said:
I suppose people who don't mind the blur will enjoy the graphics in GTA4. I personally found it extremely annoying.
psycho_snake
I went to WAGs boutique and all I got was a sniff
Well I've not been playing much for the last few months, so I've not really paid attention to their reviews during that time, but before the whole gertsmann thing happened, there were some games that were expected to receieve higher scores but didnt and I usually agreed with those scores.Yoboman said:
Sectus said:
It was the 360 version. The framerate wasn't perfect by any means, but to be honest, I was expecting much worse. Certainly, by GTA standards, the framerate was stellar.
It does have that odd depth of field look going on in the background, and sometimes shadows and stuff in the distance look a little "dotty" Depending on time of day, those effects can look amazing or sometimes a little rough.
Such stuff is nitpicking I feel. The overall look of the game blew my expectations away.
Tchu-Espresso
likes mayo on everthing and can't dance
No idea if this was already posted but for MMA fans, Bas Rutten makes an appearance in the game:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yh3Ir3ztsV8
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yh3Ir3ztsV8
With the more realistic handling I can't wait to play Crazy Taxi in this game, doing all the Taxi missions (that is, if they're in this one). Of course, it was the special moves that made CT so fun, but more realistic vehicle handling and physics + euphoria should make this a blast.
Felix Lighter
Member
So many people have the game now. This is excruciating now. Rockstar let me give you money. I have money and I want to give it to you but you just won't let me. 
Francias Castiglione
Banned
indie85 said:
GAF should offer free adult literacy classes. Only one of those is actually accurate about the PS3 version.
Bojanglez
The Amiga Brotherhood
indie85 said:
Yep I think it will be a big factor. My friend has the 360 version (via methods we do not talk about here) and the first thing he mentioned was that there was a lot of pop-in and framerate issues. So first thing on Tuesday he is going to buy the PS3 Bundle, if this anecdote is anything to go by I think Pachter might be right in GTA driving PS3 hardware. A guy that normally doesn't often pay for games, is playing £300 just for GTA.
Bojanglez
The Amiga Brotherhood
MMaRsu said:Well he might have burned it wrong, it could be the disc or the dvd burner he is using.
Yeah that's what I thought, but he has never complained about it in other games and I can only assume he used the same process. Either way, I think it was that combined with the IGN comments in the review that swung him. I only mentioned it to highlight how much the franchise means to people and that they are willing to pay £300 to get the version (for whatever reason) they think will be the best.
Fallout-NL
Member
MMaRsu said:Well he might have burned it wrong, it could be the disc or the dvd burner he is using.
:lol
Your console either reads the disc or it doesn't.
Francias Castiglione
Banned
Fallout-NL said:
Writable discs are definitely not all equal.
BenjaminBirdie
Banned
dejay said:
"EVERYTHING I PUT IN THAT REVIEW WAS IN MY NOTES, GUS!!! IT WAS IN!!!! MY NOTES!!!!!!"
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
Judging by what happens when you click the logo, that probably isn't a good idea.guidop said:
guidop said:
Bad, bad, bad bad.
Oh, you've got rid of it, clever boy, links to....you know what you linked to is not a clever idea, at all.
Anyway, please can we have one thread devoid of system wars shit, please?
If it gets the shit out of here, go ahead, might be a good troll-bait thread too, should get rid of at least a few twats from this place.chubigans said:So I guess I'll start up the comparison thread that the mods requested, unless someone else was going to do it. Will be nice to keep alllllllll that fighting contained.
BenjaminBirdie
Banned
chubigans said:So I guess I'll start up the comparison thread that the mods requested, unless someone else was going to do it. Will be nice to keep alllllllll that fighting contained.
GAH! Do it already!!
From your posting in the past 24 hours you went from the guy who laughed at the people nitpicking technical differences (REMEMBER?!? WE WERE BROTHERS!!!) to basking in them.
Make the thread so I never have to read about them again. I'm begging, here.
BenjaminBirdie
Banned
chubigans said:
*cries*
*returns to watching stream*
*looks at Niko's hat*
*laughs*
nofi said:
Exactly.
Anyway, why are you posting here, get back to GTA4 you slag, if you're going to get it early at least play it like you're to be killed by firing squad tomorrow (I've ordered them, 24 hour service, even on weekends, excellent).