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f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  Gaming  |  But is it Fun?  |  Topic: Grand Theft Auto IV - Rockstar Games - PS3 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
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Author Topic: Grand Theft Auto IV - Rockstar Games - PS3  (Read 8328 times)
schild
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on: September 11, 2008, 02:42:45 PM

Sent in by K9.

So we finally got around to purchasing this, and I have to say I was looking forward to playing this and have been for some time. I enjoyed the prior installments of the series and had hopes for similar enjoyment here. Sadly this was not to be.

GTA IV continues the broad style of the GTA III games in that you control a lone antihero in a 3D sandbox city where you run around committing crimes with a goal to greatness, or something. The main protagonist is Niko, a rather bland and erratically uninteresting character who didn't have any clear motivation for coming to America until several hours in when he suddenly spills out a rather weak-feeling story about betrayal and revenge. The other characters you meet are either instantly forgettable, or unforgivably annoying, and the need to pay constant attention to them in order to progress gets tiresome too fast.

The biggest change overall seems to be a shift towards ever-greater realism; apparently real is brown, and the first area you have access to is pretty uninteresting to look at, and really doesn't encourage you to explore. The major hindrance in exploration is the second major shift to realism, the handling of the cars in the game. Quite simply, all the cars I could find handle like arse. In fact the only vehicle that handled remotely well was the rubbish-truck. The game seems to want you to act like real life and drive around at 40mph. This is a slice of realism I could have lived without, I would prefer cars with godlike handling if they would allow me to hare around the city being chased by the police. Sadly, the police have been dumbed down to extraordinary levels in this game, and give up after a couple of turns usually, and then seem to suffer instant amnesia and cheerfully ignore your smoking/flaming car as it trundles back to where you started from. All in all, the city sandbox seemed to have been conceived amazingly well, and executed with extraordinary dullness. There are other changes and innovations, particularly in the combat, which was probably one of the better aspects of the game. Fighting has been tightened up a lot, and the controls are better than I remember from previous games. However in the time I played, there really wasn't a whole lot of fighting in comparison to driving around slowly and doing really boring things. One thing that made all the slow driving around worse was the soundtrack, which was inferior to the previous games in my view.

Is this game fun? Honestly, no. It is enjoyable at moments; it is playable throughout, but fundamentally it just is not fun. Maybe it becomes something special later on, but personally I lost interest before even getting off the first island. The GTA series started off as a wacky romp around a 2D city where you got cash for every pedestrian you ran over, extra for running over Hare Krishnas. It was a game that didn't take itself too seriously and was all the more enjoyable for it. GTA IV really has none of that; it is a game that focuses far too much on what normal people do in our day-to-day lives anyway, and not enough on the fun escapist action that we never get to see. There are games where realism is appropriate and adds to gameplay, such as the Call of Duty series, but here the escapism is part of the reality. In GTA IV, the bulk of the reality is rooted in incredibly mundane activities: micromanaging friends, answering the phone, sleeping, eating and talking to a succession of bland, one dimensional characters with no apparent depth or substance. Technically this is a very good game, and on the strength of the series prior, they managed to sell millions of units. However I feel that the direction GTA IV is taking isn't one that works to its strengths and this game doesn't represent the best of the series in any way shape or form.

Rating: Rent it.
Murgos
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Reply #1 on: September 11, 2008, 07:41:19 PM

I disagree with just about every point.

Go kill a hooker, get your 20 bucks back, run some cops off the road and stop playing it like it's a IRL sim.

"You have all recieved youre last warning. I am in the process of currently tracking all of youre ips and pinging your home adressess. you should not have commencemed a war with me" - Aaron Rayburn
bhodi
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Posts: 6817

No lie.


Reply #2 on: September 11, 2008, 07:48:03 PM

You know, I liked GTA4 but I can't disagree with the conclusion. I never actually finished it, as the later missions tend to the same "Kill these hordes of guys" missions, and the story was no where near as interesting as "San Andreas". I absolutely hated the relationship micromanaging, and they called every 2 seconds, sometimes in the middle of a critical mission.

I would pretty much agree with "Rent it" - it's a game worth playing, but the game is the same after 10 minutes as it is after 10 hours. Get cars, run over hookers.
Murgos
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Reply #3 on: September 11, 2008, 07:52:10 PM

I guess I'm weird, I turned off the cell phone except for when I wanted to do a date thing or if I ran out of missions and needed to have it on to advance the plot.

I finished it at about 60 hrs played.  *shrug*

"You have all recieved youre last warning. I am in the process of currently tracking all of youre ips and pinging your home adressess. you should not have commencemed a war with me" - Aaron Rayburn
Samwise
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Reply #4 on: September 11, 2008, 07:59:35 PM

The missions have too much walk walk bang bang and not enough vroom vroom kaboom.

"I have not actually recommended many games, and I'll go on the record here saying my track record is probably best in the industry." - schild
Azazel
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Posts: 7735


Reply #5 on: September 11, 2008, 08:10:34 PM

Sent in by K9.
The GTA series started off as a wacky romp around a 2D city where you got cash for every pedestrian you ran over, extra for running over Hare Krishnas. It was a game that didn't take itself too seriously and was all the more enjoyable for it.

I've got GTA4, though I've only played about an hour ot two of it because I decided to finish off my other sandboxes first. I also spent half of that ingame time watching Bas Rutten on TV.

Based on the game not taking itself seriously, and being silly, over the top fun, I'd recommend Saints Row as an alternative that's much more in keeping with the original spirit of the GTA series. It's also dirt cheap now. As you've got a PS3, you'll probably want to check out Saints Row 2 when it comes out in a month or so.


http://azazelx.wordpress.com/ - My Miniatures and Hobby Blog.
FatuousTwat
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Posts: 2223


Reply #6 on: September 12, 2008, 01:06:31 AM

It really felt like it was taking 2 steps forward (better graphics, better combat system) and 6 steps back (worse voice acting, although BEEG AMERICAN TEE TEES really cracks me up, smaller environment, worse missions, worse story, less vehicles and weapons, and I also found the driving to be a lot less fun).

I just don't have the drive to go back and just go back and fuck around in the game, like I did in Vice City and San Andreas.

Of course this is all IMHO.

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?
Yegolev
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Posts: 24440

2/10 WOULD NOT INGEST


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Reply #7 on: September 12, 2008, 11:07:44 AM

I guess I'm weird, I turned off the cell phone except for when I wanted to do a date thing or if I ran out of missions and needed to have it on to advance the plot.

I finished it at about 60 hrs played.  *shrug*

You are actually doing it correctly.

I mostly agree with the OP, however I really like Little Jacob and Badman.  The game should have been about them.

Why am I homeless?  Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question.
They called it The Prayer, its answer was law
Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
Cyrrex
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Reply #8 on: September 12, 2008, 11:27:34 AM

The steroid freak cracks me up too, I must admit.

This is a game where I've put it back on the shelf even though I've finished less than half of it...but it's still a must have game.  I'll get back to it.  Someday.

"...maybe if you cleaned the piss out of the sunny d bottles under your desks and returned em, you could upgrade you vid cards, fucken lusers.." - Grunk
Murgos
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Reply #9 on: September 13, 2008, 10:58:53 AM

The steroid freak cracks me up too, I must admit.

Brucie cracked me up in every scene he was in.  I've known a couple people in my life that he could have been a direct parody of.

"You have all recieved youre last warning. I am in the process of currently tracking all of youre ips and pinging your home adressess. you should not have commencemed a war with me" - Aaron Rayburn
Amarr HM
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Reply #10 on: September 13, 2008, 11:24:13 AM

Steaming through the canals in a speed boat with the sunsetting and Crocketts theme pumping in the background just can't be beat. I reckon they'll never really top Vice City but San Andreas had some cool moments like kareening through the backwoods on a stolen police bike gave a real sense of game freedom that I hadn't experienced in a long while.

I'm going to escape, come back, wipe this place off the face of the Earth, obliterate it and you with it.
Bunk
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Operating Thetan One


Reply #11 on: September 13, 2008, 12:13:29 PM

I think that the big thing that discouraged me from finishing it, is the city. It's a big brown, overcrowded mess. It may be realistic, but it's not very fun. There just doesn't seem to be any real inspirartion to explore in the game. There's no where you can really open a car up for any length of time, and opening up the new areas really feels like "more of the same".

Also, if I want to go crazy, steal a tank from a military base and successfully hide it in my two car garage - I should be able to.

I will say though, the multiplayer aspect was really fun and well done.

"Welcome to the internet, pussy." - VDL
"I have retard strength." - Schild
Yegolev
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2/10 WOULD NOT INGEST


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Reply #12 on: September 13, 2008, 01:16:37 PM

The exploration of the city was killed by the fact that nine times out of ten, you find jack shit for exploring.  Take a lift to the roof of any building and you'll only find HVAC units.  The city model is great, but more effort should have been put into making it fun to play in.  I get the most entertainment in GTAIV from seeing how many pedestrians I can murder with my front bumper before the cops show up, or how many people I can beat with a bat before the cops show up, or how many whores I can shoot with my 9mm before the cops show up, or how many cops I can murder before they take me down.  The missions are only fun when I am tasked with murdering a warehouse/construction site/random lair full of people... thanks to the improved combat.

Multiplayer is pretty hot.

Why am I homeless?  Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question.
They called it The Prayer, its answer was law
Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
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