GTA IV

[Azazel]

Alright, fuckit.

I just bought it from Play-Asia. Their website says it's NTSC-J, the pic shows the Hong Kong flag, and the cover art suggests it's the Euro version. Either way, it's confirmed as PAL-friendly and not priced at a ripoff amount as those on eBay are.

EMS so hopefully by the end of the week. If not, Monday. Hoping it's the European version.

[Jeff Kelly]

I got it yesterday for the PS3 and had the chance to play the first 10 missions.

It is GTA through and through. The graphics are not best of class but the game world is filled with so much detail and crafted with so much care that you don't notice it.

I still have a few complaints. The camera still sucks, especially when you drive the camera angle is often so that you have to adjust it manually to see. It is as annoying as in previous GTAs.

It is fucking dark. In the dark corners of Liberty city you cannot see a fucking thing unless you turn gamme way up. That might be realistic but it is annoying.

Cars handle the same as they did in previous GTAs which means that they are usually crap to handle also the NPC ai is the same as before which means that people usually drive like hell.

[schild]

It is GTA through and through. The graphics are not best of class but the game world is filled with so much detail and crafted with so much care that you don't notice it.

After playing GT5p for a week straight, you notice fucking instantly. It looks like a really really really high end Xbox 1 game with MUCH better animation.

The camera still sucks

Yep.

And yea, Liberty City is filled with worse drivers than Paris and worse AI than New York City.

It is an incredibly fleshed out experience and if I'd been a reviewer, it would've gotten the most solid '9' ever. The camera is unforgivable for a AAA Next-Gen title with god knows how much budget and hype.

[TripleDES]

Cars handle the same as they did in previous GTAs which means that they are usually crap to handle also the NPC ai is the same as before which means that people usually drive like hell.

That why I used to look out for specific cars with similar handling when playing GTA, unless it was a timer mission. It's easier to learn and master the driving of a few cars than all of them. Once you're used to the handling, it's usually fine. Apart from the game intentionally sending AI into you.

[JWIV]

It is GTA through and through. The graphics are not best of class but the game world is filled with so much detail and crafted with so much care that you don't notice it.

After playing GT5p for a week straight, you notice fucking instantly. It looks like a really really really high end Xbox 1 game with MUCH better animation.

The camera still sucks

Yep.

And yea, Liberty City is filled with worse drivers than Paris and worse AI than New York City.

Having been in Paris during the transport strike in November, this statement fills with me abject terror.

[Falconeer]

Very first impressions:

- The game is great storytelling-wise. Meaning the acting, the setting, the screenplay.

- Many of the bits about the "breathing 'n alive" city are hyped. It's beautiful, it's awesome. It's better than anything else, but it's not what you ( I ) probably dreamed about by reading the reviews. They definitely exaggerated.

- Vladivostok FM:          . I am addicted.

- Camera: oh, ouch. Fuck you!

[Margalis]

Am I the only one who really loved the car handing in The Getaway? I can't play GTA because driving in that game was so much more fun.

[RUiN 427]

i have been being really cautous for some reason so i havn't really caused any mayhem... but i did hit one pedestrian... the euphoria engine makes it look so fucking real and unscripted

[LK]

I got hit by a car at 20mph and I was impressed at how smooth my character looked as he rolled on the pavement.

Being drunk in this game IS FUCKING AWESOME.

[schild]

Being drunk is the shit. At the same time, the Euphoria engine adds another aspect to the Uncanny Valley. I was OK with Ragdolls. Euphoria is just a little more than creepy.

[Falconeer]

First song you hear in the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Es1nPWzJ-0

Win.

[lesion]

Multiplayer should be renamed BUS WARS: REIGN OF TERROR.  That shit be cray-zay.

[Predator Irl]

What a game. Yes the handling was better in the getaway (far more realisitic) but the game as a whole is just a work of art. Its all the small details that make it - the internal lights in the cars, the blood smears on the hood, the ejecting through the windscreen from forgetting your seatbelt... ahhh...

I think the graphics on Saints Row were better in certain ways, but I like in GTA that the distant buildings are always visible and never suffers from "pop-up" or noticeable fade-in.

[Big Gulp]

I'd give you my gamertag for multiplayer but honestly, I just plan to drive around with a fast motorcycle listening to Vladivostok FM.

Might I recommend a little band someone on Last.fm recommended to me?  Gogol Bordello, east European gypsy punk FTW!

[bhodi]

When you fail and retry a mission, the 'driving someone to the area' banter is different the second time -- the information is similar, but the fact that they recorded two entirely different scripts is simply amazing.

[HAMMER FRENZY]

I played it for quite some time last night and am pretty impressed. It is still very much GTA, but it is duper polished and the story telling and characters are just really neat. The driving actually feels crappier somehow, but I am sure I can get use to it. The new shooting and aiming stuff is nice and the physics just kick my face in. I am okay with the fighting but the Godfather brawling was just too fun. I toss fools through windows like it's nothing hahaha.

What I thought was really funny was that if you walk around just pushing people with your body they go into this nerd getting bullied mode, it is funny as hell, they just get pushed around really funny and anything they hit they trip over, then, while they are getting up you can walk into them and push them over again. It is funny as hell to watch. Anyway, this is an easy way to get a hand gun early in the game, just run and push a cop over and beat him silly while he tries to get up..1 star and a free gun, you can walk that star off like nothing.   

[Bunk]

Discovered a couple things last night: Don't try to cross the bridge, and don't drive accross the runways at the airport. Both get you 5 stars. Amazingly I survived the bridge experience by jumping down to the subway track, running along it, and getting a car to the pay & spray.

The Airport incident was less successful, becuase I stole a chopper and tried fighting back...

[AcidCat]

i have been being really cautous for some reason so i havn't really caused any mayhem... but i did hit one pedestrian... the euphoria engine makes it look so fucking real and unscripted

Yeah so far I'm being purposefully very careful not to hurt random civilians or caus chaos.

So far I am really impressed with the game. After Saint's Row I thought I was burned out for good on this type of game, but I'm already sucked into GTA4's world. All the little details are amazing. Has anyone sat and watched TV? So funny.

[Big Gulp]

The Airport incident was less successful, becuase I stole a chopper and tried fighting back...

I never even got to see the choppers, but of course that's what I went to the airport to find.  At first it seemed cool, nobody freaking out, but there was a convoy of cops driving around.  Then all hell broke lose and I drove my bike into the water, resulting in death by swarming police boats.

[Predator Irl]

Has anyone sat and watched TV? So funny.

Awh yeah the TV is hilarious, I sat and watched it for about 10 mins. Also, look out for the TV on the mission where you have to go to the sex shop! Very dodgy! 

[ahoythematey]

At first I was excited.

Then I started playing a bit, and felt so underwhelmed.  I was getting shitkicked by fucking pedestrians.  The controls feel so different I was having a lot of trouble just doing basic shit I was pro at in vice city.

Watched some TV in the apartment, republican space rangers is so over-the-top ridiculous that it works.

I played some more, and while kind of disappointed at not having any big landmark buildings to help me get around without looking at the map all the time, the controls started to mesh and I was playing so much better.

Took michelle on some dates, played pool and darts, got drunk, scored a few times.  Game is a blast now.

Was doing a mission for Little Jacob, noticed Iggy Pop is the DJ for the rock station.  FUCK YES.

Don't bother with sixaxis controls on the helicopter unless you are a sixaxis god.  They are cool for the boat, work okay for the bike and reload, but fuck the chopper.

[Miasma]

Does the PS3 version ever force you to use that sixaxis system to do anything?

[ahoythematey]

No.  You have to turn sixaxis on in Options if you want to use it.  Why one would want to use it is beyond me, but meh.

[WayAbvPar]

Played for a couple of hours last night. I can see this game sucking time like no tomorrow. Detailed sandbox-y world ftw. I fucking HATE HATE HATE controlling with a 360 controller, however. It is ok for driving, but overall mouse and keyboard is SO much better. I might even pick it up on PC and play it again when it comes out to compare.

Voice acting is great. Roman is such a retard...totally cracks me up. Well scripted and well acted.

Does it still show the name of the car you are getting into? I seem to have missed that. I hate driving that goddamned taxi. I failed the mission to chase down the Russian mobster dude like 5 goddamned times due to the shitty controller, the shitty handling of the taxi, and my own incompetence.

Love the bowling and pool mini-games. That kind of stuff just makes games so much more fun.

I can't wait to get armed and armored and start causing some real mayhem!

[Murgos]

Played 2 hours last night.

It's GTA++.  What I mean is that it is GTA, from the driving style, to the graphics style and everything else on down.  It's also each one of those things better than what the previous version of the game did before.  What it isn't is new.  Sure there is lots of neat stuff (like I went bowling on a date and watched TV) but it's not like it's some biblical revelation of new and as yet unseen game play.

I don't see how that can possibly equal a perfect score.  But, I guess that's just me.

I actually liked the art direction on Crackdown better, and the building climbing as well.

[Valmorian]

I failed the mission to chase down the Russian mobster dude like 5 goddamned times due to the shitty controller, the shitty handling of the taxi, and my own incompetence.

The key here, so far as I can tell, is not to drive like you would in other GTA games.  The driving model in GTA4 seems to be more about controlling the speed of your car and less about doing e-brakes and driving as fast as you can.  

The first time I had to chase down that guy I barely made it (only to get killed by him) so when I re-did it, I was much more cautious about my driving and found keeping up with him easy..

[Valmorian]

I don't see how that can possibly equal a perfect score.  But, I guess that's just me.

I agree that it's nothing THAT new, but on the other hand, the multiplayer is the most fun I have ever had playing a console game in multiplayer mode EVER.  Cops and Crooks is a blast..

[Morfiend]

I failed the mission to chase down the Russian mobster dude like 5 goddamned times due to the shitty controller, the shitty handling of the taxi, and my own incompetence.

The key here, so far as I can tell, is not to drive like you would in other GTA games.  The driving model in GTA4 seems to be more about controlling the speed of your car and less about doing e-brakes and driving as fast as you can.  

The first time I had to chase down that guy I barely made it (only to get killed by him) so when I re-did it, I was much more cautious about my driving and found keeping up with him easy..

I think playing Saints Row really got me ready for this, as the driving is a lot the same. SR rewards control over speed the same way GTA4 does.

So far I am really enjoying it. Played a few hours of singleplayer, then met up with some friends for online, which was more fun than it had any right to be.

What I noticed so far, I dont mind the driving, although the two different styles of e-brake constantly mess me up, and the turning e-break really throws you in to a spin, I am having a hard time figuring out the correct mechanics for getting around corners fast. The camera is a pain in the ass when on foot as it constantly snaps back when I dont want it to, and when driving it doesnt snap fast enough when you spin your car around.
The fist fighting is a lot slower and harder than previous games, and I suck at blocking/countering. Other than that, the game is really fun. GTA++ is the perfect way to describe it.

[Big Gulp]

The camera is a pain in the ass when on foot as it constantly snaps back when I dont want it to, and when driving it doesnt snap fast enough when you spin your car around.

The only thing I've found that minimizes the pain in the ass camera is to zoom out as far as you can in order to keep some kind of situational awareness.  It's been a hell of a learning curve for me, because I've played all of the previous iterations of this game on the PC and am more comfortable driving with the keyboard and using my mouse to constantly sweep the camera around like a meth addict.

[Morfiend]

The camera is a pain in the ass when on foot as it constantly snaps back when I dont want it to, and when driving it doesnt snap fast enough when you spin your car around.

The only thing I've found that minimizes the pain in the ass camera is to zoom out as far as you can in order to keep some kind of situational awareness.  It's been a hell of a learning curve for me, because I've played all of the previous iterations of this game on the PC and am more comfortable driving with the keyboard and using my mouse to constantly sweep the camera around like a meth addict.

Yeah that helps for driving, but my main problem is that with all these GTA style game is that after a while, you learn to move by pushing forward with the left stick, and then moving the right stick ala FPS games, but in this one, it doesnt seem to work, cause the camera springs back, making you use only the left stick to turn.

[Morfiend]

Oh yeah one other thing, the options for character model in multiplayer suck ass.

[Murgos]

Yeah, the camera sucks ass.  On the 360 every time I let go of the left stick it slides back to this ass view of the car that is good for, well, shit.  Totally unusable.  I don't know how they made it though x-zillion hours of testing and no one said, "WHY THE FUCK WON'T THE CAMERA STAY WHERE I PUT IT!!!!!!"

[Riggswolfe]

This game was given a 10 and it has these issues? *sigh* I was thinking about trying to budget it in but I'll hold off now.

[schild]

Riggs, the sum really is greater than it's parts.

It's ugly, the controls suck, sometimes the AI is just bundles of retarded. But it's masterfully crafted as far as the actual game parts go. The design is dodgy at best. Still, I stand by my original comments that it would get a '9' if I were reviewing it out of 10. What they've achieved is nothing short of fucking really impressive.

[Riggswolfe]

Riggs, the sum really is greater than it's parts.

It's ugly, the controls suck, sometimes the AI is just bundles of retarded. But it's masterfully crafted as far as the actual game parts go. The design is dodgy at best. Still, I stand by my original comments that it would get a '9' if I were reviewing it out of 10. What they've achieved is nothing short of fucking really impressive.

Well, I have Persona 3 FES, Rogue Galaxy (to finish I got bored and stopped but am thinking of going back), Fire Emblem for the Wii, and Assassin's Creed (to finish). Maybe after all of those or if I get tired of RPGs.