What is the final consensus on GTAIV?

I still think it was great, still the only GTA I have beaten. I think people completely ignore just how much better the game PLAYED than earlier GTAs. I have played all of the series, and while GTA3 - SA all had some very cool things that they did, and allowed for some batshit insanity. the controls in all of those games was CRAP. Aiming sucked, driving sucked, and even trying alternate PC control schemes did nothing to help. One may say that GTA IV had a bland mission structure, but at least it had relatively few completely broken mechanics based missions that just threw up roadblocks in a game that I was otherwise enjoying. San Andreas was the king of this, I never made it out of Los Santos because of some of those BS missions like chasing the train or the goddamned forklift.

Those missions SHOULD have been fun, but the control was awful.

RDR is still the bast this genre has ever given us, but while earlier GTAs may have been far more creative, wacky and been a lot better for just messing about, but GTAIV was the first GTA with controls that allowed me to enjoy the game and play.
 
Played it on PS3 and loved it. Sure it has its issues, but which game doesn't. However I still think the only game that can actually look it in the eye is Just Cause 2 just because of the sheer amounts of fun it contains. Sleeping Dogs was a good enough clone (but very short) and Saints Row 3 didn't make much sense to me.

In hindsight I think it was not a fully-fledged GTA game though, but rather a game engine experiment that worked good enough to the point where two expansions were deemed good additions for some extra cash.

Hopefully 5 will be the game we all hope to be.
 
I liked it quite a bit and enjoyed the slightly more serious tone. I can see why people don't like it regarding the lack of side side quests and rather needy friends of Nico.

The one complaint I do not understand is with the driving. The cars in GTA have always had a weight to them and they did a great job modeling the lack of handling that regular passenger cars possess. The rough but accurate handling made getting away in a overweight underpowered SUV all the more rewarding to me. I hate the dead box on a flat surface that other open world games use for their cars. I hope GTA V does not make the driving dumbed down.
 
The city is an awesome technical achievement.

The game is no fun, lead-footed and tedious.

The writing and VA is pretty good for a video game.
 
GTA4 is pretty overrated in my mind. It's not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, but I think it's one of the weakest entries in the GTA franchise.

This generation, I can think of numerous other open world games I'd play before GTA4.
 
I really like it, nothing else has come close of that genre this generation. Been playing through Ballad of Gay Tony again recently, few developers can match Rockstar on their social commentary, humour, and general world building.
 
I liked Gay Tony better than the main game and the Damned simply because it didn't take itself so seriously. I still think that Vice City and San Andreas were better games, but some QoL things like being able to shoot in all directions around a car make it hard to go back to the GTA 3 games.

As far as the general genre goes... I hope the folks making GTA V paid attention to competitors like Sleeping Dogs and Saints Row. Say what you will about the story (or lack thereof) of SR or the depth (or lack thereof) of SD, it better look that good, it better be that engaging, and it better be more than just two punches and one kick when I get into a fist fight.
 
CRACKDOWN

Crackdownfinalbox.jpg


way better game
 
Fantastic game overall. Too much focus on the main story, lacked side activities.
Horrible social stuff with that phone, incredible driving physics compared to SA. Suspension should be stiffer though.

Also pretty bad performance on consoles, especially when driving at high speed. It felt like slowmotion sometimes.

Rockstar has never ever disappointed me, so bring on GTA V!!
 
There's no final consensus but the same thing happened that happens with many high budget highly rated games: a lot of people start hating it sometime after release and the dislike grows and grows over the years. Then a topic like this comes and some people think it's the worst game ever made.
 
I laugh at all the " terrible driving" comments.

I REALLY hope the driving in V is the same as IV, but better suspension, less traction control and better gear changing ( to allow drifting), I bet if many of you just understood what has to be done ( break before turning, slow down, don't turn and accelerate when turning, don't play it like SR/JC/ previous GTA games) you wont have had a problem.

Saying you don't like it is fine, saying it is terrible because you are not good at it is stupid.


ANYWAY, I really enjoyed IV, not better than SA but still a great game. I understood and accepted the different style they went with and enjoyed IV for what it was, a new GTA game, not a sequel game, just new.

Graphically now it's not good but still is decent. Controlling NIKO was bad but that has since been improved ( RDR) and the rage/ euphoria software is without a doubt the best thing to happen this gen of consoles IMO, never has running someone over, shooting or just falling felt so real and impactful, great addition.


Driving physics are one of the best in a game, except maybe mafia 2. Could write a hell of a long list why, but can't be bothered.


Lots of cool stuff ( most hidden away on the website or phone, many did not know this) to do and the story to me was pretty good.

Probably the best open world game this gen to me and 2nd/3rd best GTA game.

PLUS online FREEROAM, made the MP great, I mean hardly any other open world game does this, so fucking annoying too.
 
There's no universal opinion, but most people I think were disappointed with it overall.

My biggest problem was that they seemingly spent too much time on pointless and 'realistic' detail instead of adding in enjoyable features. It was apparent after about 10 hours of playing that there were far less worthwhile activities than in San Andreas and that is really hard to overlook when judging it.

There are other problems, too.

- The buddy system was totally annoying. There were useful perks to becoming good friends with people but the game pestered you with pressure to 'hang out' with them and so it was hard to take advantage of any of those perks.

- The game was very blurry(on the consoles at least). I dont usually mind graphic blemishes, but it was hard to not be bothered by it. I would have taken some bad aliasing if it meant things looked crisper. San Andreas had an option to turn the blur off, but GTAIV didn't for some reason.

- Handling of the cars wasn't good at all. They wanted to go more realistic, which I appreciate, but they messed it up terribly by making every car except the supercars understeer like boats. All the weight felt like it was over the front tip of the car or something. Pretty much ruined any enjoyment to be had from the more 'weighty' driving physics.

- Radio stations were 'meh'. I guess thats a bit subjective of course, but there was hardly anything appealing to listen to.

- The setting felt super dull compared to the variety of San Andreas. City city city city. It was a very well done city, but if you spend a lot of time playing the game, it got old.

- The multiplayer lobby system was rudimentary. There's obviously a ton of potential with GTA multiplayer, but it felt like it was some beta version or something. Hopefully thats just due to it being their first stab at it.

I never played either of the expansions, which I heard were better, but I just never really felt inclined to revisit the game due to being bored with it the first time around.

GTAV looks like its going to be the GTA we've been waiting for. Cant wait.
 
Calling this game horrible, here in 2013, is just ignorant. There have been actual horrible games over the last five or six years, but maybe the difference is that they didn't have a big reputation to fill like GTAIV did. But now, we're looking at a years-later consensus.

The game isn't quite as good in retrospect as some thought it was, but calling it words like "horrible", "awful", "shitty", or anything of the sort are just misguided ways to try and balance out the game's previous hype, which has long since died out, but here you guys are, trying to rebel against some kind of video games establishment anyway, like you're mad at your dad or something. The hype-monkeys of 2007 are the user reviews on Metacritic giving the game a 10, you're the user reviews giving it a 0 to try and bring down the average. Other than the score, the big difference between you is the people in the former group mostly stopped.
 
Terra said:
It did not age well, did it? Those controls...
Click to expand...

Definitely not. Going back and playing it years later, after playing Sleepy Dogs & other games, I had a rude awakening. I'm glad I finally played through those two episodes now instead of after GTA V, though!
 
Its a solid game with fantastic driving and improved but still not good shooting mechanics hampered by a far to long and overly serious plot with mainly bland, uninteresting characters.
 
FWIW, for those calling the controls horrible... I absolutely have hated the controls in VC and SA going back to those two. I mean at this point those controls are like 10 years old... but man they didn't age well. For me, IV's controls were greatly improved over those..

also remember that many of the games that are compared to GTAIV are MUCH newer (including JC2... which I don't get... man talk about a game never clicking with me. Free through PS+ and I actually deleted it from my PS3.....), so yeah... when sleeping dogs is 4 years newer... it BETTER have improved controls (which they definitely were... on-foot).
 
I loved it, played it incessantly for a good long time. Don't know why people are so down on the driving, and i genuinely don't recognise the game as a whole from some of the descriptions given by those who didn't like it in this thread.

So I'm thinking there probably is no consensus.
 
Great game but has its fair share of flaws.

The story was two steps forward and one step back.
It was too unfocused but the characters were great.
 
borghe said:
So here we are, 5 years later... Generally people find TBGT a great game, TLATD so-so.. RDR is generally thought of as one of the best games of the generation.. So where do people stand on GTAIV itself?

I know when it came out, the press gushed over it... With a lot of laughable hyperbole (mention of Oscars, stunning realism, game of the generation only two years in, etc).

Then of course the love meter swung back the other way and people basically hated it seemingly just to even out the press feedback of it.

So five years later. Amazing game? Turd? Fun but flawed?

I started it up brand new this weekend for the first time in years. And honestly so far it is better than I remember it. Certainly not as incredible as RDR.. but a lot of the groundwork was obviously laid out in GTAIV for that game.. and it didn't age nearly as poorly as the controls and gameplay from say, GTA:SA or GTA:VC (IMHO). Even today I would easily give the game an 8... if for being solid but nothing exceptional by today's standards.

Your thoughts?
Click to expand...

Read this.

http://whatculture.com/gaming/5-things-grand-theft-auto-5-must-must-not-have.php

This basically covers all of my gripes about this game. :\

Fuck it. Here's an attempt meme. He's THAT obnoxious.

v40031_Roman-Bellic-Hey-cousin-Lets-go-bowling.jpg

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=let's go bowling!
 
Niko also moves like he's running in 3 feet of water from the waste down.

So, I replayed San Andreas over the last month or so, because every few years I get a hankering for that world. It's an incredible game that just shows how GTAIV was really lacking. However, there are some issues with San Andreas that developers could not get away with today, specifically, long driving missions that result in basically nothing but a quick assassination.

One in particular, you're currently in one of the first missions in Las Venturas, it's a mission for Mike Torino. Torino has you drive a sanchez dirt bike back to San Fiero and tail a media guy who is going into the Brown Streak train. From there, you follow the train on train tracks across the country. The train parks in Los Santos, from here you hoof it on foot to follow the perp, who then gets into a slow moving cab. You get into a slow moving motorcycle. Again, you follow the perp in a round about trip through the Hollywood area of Los Santos, eventually the cab stops on the pier at long beach, and you assassinate him at the end of the pier. It's a 10 minute mission of annoying driving with one payoff, and then at the end of the mission you are dumped off in a region of the map where you likely have no other missions.

GTA4 does not do many of these missions, and San Andreas has more than a few. I don't think that devs could get away with this now.

However, GTA:SA makes up for this with so much mission variety. Even with this one, every mission in San Andreas is more interesting than every mission in GTAIV. GTAIV has one memorable mission, "Four Leaf Clover," which is in and of itself, a bit of a letdown because it has so much build up and it's a very straight forward mission with no room for deviance.
 
Philia said:
Read this.

http://whatculture.com/gaming/5-things-grand-theft-auto-5-must-must-not-have.php

This basically covers all of my gripes about this game. :\
Click to expand...

Out: Driving all over town to your mission


Umm, use a cab maybe? Could do this for the majority of missions to get were you wanted instantly.

Lol Hawaii shirt, really?

Don't mind the time thing for missions, makes the world and character feel more a live, just go to your bed and sleep, instant 6 hours gone ( and yes, use a cab, that are like 90% of the traffic in IV to drive home)

I would love the gym and the the more RPG elements of SA back, so awesome.


Agree with the rest though
 
Great world. Shitty, shitty gameplay.

I'm currently playing Sleeping Dogs and the brawling, shooting and driving makes you realise how badly GTAIV played.
 
I love it but San Andreas is still my favorite. And for GTA V they seem to be fixing many of the flaws that were in 4 so I can't wait. TBoGT was a step in the right direction.
 
Philia said:
Read this.

http://whatculture.com/gaming/5-things-grand-theft-auto-5-must-must-not-have.php

This basically covers all of my gripes about this game. :\
Click to expand...

Pretty good list.

I'd also like to add:
- Ways to make money
- Something to spend your money on.

GTA:SA and VC created a means to make money, usually by taking over businesses or doing unique non-story side missions. VC introduced the business model which was a great addition. San Andreas expanded this with a number of businesses to take over and scores of other odd jobs that were pretty fun... Specifically, taking over gang locales (which people still love to this day, even though it hasn't aged well), the night time brake ins, pimp missions, the import/export car trade, and so on.

But, beyond that, GTA:SA gave you something to spend your money on. This is something that so many open world games lack. Money is basically a score counter and you have nothing to spend it on. In GTA:SA, sure, you could do 1 lucky run of horse gambling and end up making more money than you will ever need in the game, but at least the game gave you something to spend your money on... Property. Buying property also had a tangible benefit to the game because safe houses provided garages for your rare cars and an outlet to escape the cops.

I will never understand why GTAIV removed this. It made keeping cars much more difficult and removed the only thing in the game that you could actually spend money on.

GTAV is unfortunately not including property management either (despite showing a "For Sale" sign going up in the original trailer), but I'm just hoping that it adds some method of making and spending money instead of money just being a score counter. I doubt that we'll get any investment business minigames or anything, but hopefully there is something there.

One addition I would like to see is borrowing a bit from Saints Row's car management, where you can own cars and they are available for you throughout the game in your garage... Except you have to pay a fee to have them fixed up. The mechanic was clunky in Saints Row but the idea was a good one. If you could buy cars in a GTA game that had some ablity to stay with you, it could give you something to spend your money on... Some asset to own.

I doubt they'll implement this, but I'd like to see it.
 
Probably the only guy here who enjoyed the brawling in GTA IV more so than Sleeping dogs lol.

Many ways for V to improve on and most of them seem to be there judging from the trailers and screenshots.
 
I love it. the first couple hours of the story was kind of boring, but it was nice to have a calm game for awhile. Not everything needs to be bang-bang explosions all the time. I just wish more people played Cops n' Crooks and that the One-For-All gametype wasn't so broken.
 
I bought the PS3 version when it came out amidst stellar reviews.


I found the characters morally loathsome and the game incredibly tedious and uninspiring.

I enjoyed driving around and listening to the radio for a while.

I thought it seemed technically clever which was its only other redeeming factor.

It sits unfinished at the bottom of my backlog. Its unfinished for the former reasons.

I found infamous 1 and 2 much more my thing for open world city experience.
 
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