gunsmoke on 15/5/2008 at 12:57
Actually, the original XBOX always got the best looking version of GTA games (until SA that is). The PC Vice City/GTA 3 were ported from the PS2 versions and XBOX got a NICE graphical upgrade.
SA was very jaggy on XBOX and PS2, and the PC version was FAR better looking than either. Shadows, resolution, AA/AF, draw distance, etc... all added up to a much cleaner looking game.
Manwe on 15/5/2008 at 15:02
I just finished the game last night, and I have to say it became quite tedious towards the end. I literally had to force myself to play through some missions because they were so horribly designed. It's mainly due to the lack of checkpoints (you'd think they'd have fixed that by now...) which forces you to restart missions from the beginning quite often. It would be fine if all the missions didn't include a really long and boring driving sequence at the start.
Every missions in the game works like that :
First you go to the icon on the map to start the mission, then you have to drive to a certain place in the city (usually very far away) then when you arrive there's a shooting sequence, and sometimes just to make it really frustrating it ends with a chase sequence. Most missions basically last 10-20 mins (for one try). Now if you die at a certain point in the mission you have to restart everything from the beginning. The good thing is you can sometimes take a cab to speed things up, the bad thing is in most missions you are required to drive a specific car to the location, thus you can't use a taxi.
There was this absolutely awful mission where you have to drive a really slow truck (really really slow) to a boat yard to steal some cocaine from some russians. The mission starts on the third island and you have to go all the way to the first island with it, where you then have to kill all the russians. The trip itself takes more time than the actual mission. Of course you're accompanied by a npc which does everything he can to get killed. It's like they tried to make the most frustrating mission possible. I had to do it three times to succeed. The first time I fired a rocket at the russians from behind my truck but it exploded in my face (blind firing with a rocket launcher is a bad idea), and the second time the npc died.
Another thing that's very irritating too is the scripting of the missions like someone said earlier. Most of the time the people you're chasing aren't supposed to die until a certain point of the mission, so they're basically invincible up to that point. It's especially annoying during car chases, you never know if the car you're chasing is invincible or not, so you'll usually waste a ton of ammo trying to destroy an invincible car.
It may seem like I hated the game but I actually quite enjoyed it, even though it had some of the most frustrating sequences I've ever played, but then again I was probably frustrated just as much by the previous games and can't remember it. I like the fact that you're given a few choices towards the end of the game though, that's a step in the right direction. Now if they could just extend that to the whole game.
MorbusG on 18/5/2008 at 11:39
Quote Posted by Manwe
Most of the time the people you're chasing aren't supposed to die until a certain point of the mission, so they're basically invincible up to that point. It's especially annoying during car chases, you never know if the car you're chasing is invincible or not, so you'll usually waste a ton of ammo trying to destroy an invincible car.
A good indication of the invincibility seems to be that if you see them going full-speed head-on into a truck, and the truck just jumps into air.
Making
Packie a good friend can be a big help with the chase missions.
One funny thing is to try to get hit by a bike from front while walking.
ercles on 19/5/2008 at 07:53
Man this game is awesome, although it certainly isn't as good for crazy dicking around as the previous ones were, maybe it's just because I haven't started with the cheats yet. I'm heartbroken that (As far as I know) you can't hop in any planes. I personally really look forward to the chase scenes, as long as you have a half decent car, ripping through the streets with some music blaring is really really cool.
On the topic of the music, I do reckon the radio stations are much worse than they have been in the past few games, I really enjoyed the effort put into the talkback stations in SA, but this time around it's just one show on each station that doesn't seem to change.
henke on 19/5/2008 at 10:23
Oh yes. There seems to be less music than in previous GTAs. Or maybe it's the same amount, but spread out over more channels. It's mostly pretty obscure stuff, the few artists I've recognized so far include Justice, The Black Keys, Aphex Twin, Marvin Gaye, The Rapture and Smashing Pumpkins. GTA4 also has this really cool song-identification phone-service called ZiT. You just dial a number into your (in-game, duh) cellphone and you get an SMS-message with the song-title and artist name. After you've dialed the number it gets stored in your Contacts so you don't have to type it every time you need a songtitle. The phone also works as a camera and you can use it to call contacts for side-missions, activites, dating. It also has a calendar which keeps you informed of meetings and apointments you have to keep. And you access the multiplayer from it. And of course you can also buy over-priced ringtones and themes for it online. Just like a real cellphone once you get it you start to wonder how you ever survived without it before.
Of course, just in case the stress of always being reachable by everyone, all the time, starts remind you too much of Real Life and getting in the way of you escapism; Rockstar have also included a very handy Sleep Mode.
icemann on 22/5/2008 at 11:33
Quite nifty overall the mobile phone feature. I completely hate the radio music in the game though. The trance station is the only one I can stand. The rest is just completely unknown bands. Reminds me alot of GTA3 in that respect.
Shame cause I absolutely loved the radio stations in Vice City and San Andreas.
gunsmoke on 22/5/2008 at 13:29
I am sorry, but to me, this is the weakest of the series. After the masterpiece that was San Andreas, they removed a LOT of the improvements made to the tried-and-true formula. I mean PLANES AND TANKS?!?!? WTF? The radio stations are weak, the city was smaller than I had hoped, the driving physics are horrible. I don't want sim-driving in GTA. I want GTA driving.
The story and characters are great, though, and I do like the mobile.
foldy on 22/5/2008 at 14:36
I love the driving. I got used to it within two or three days of playing, and now, going back to San Andreas, the driving there feels like something's missing.
ercles on 22/5/2008 at 14:47
I am starting to head towards the end of the game, and I do feel that this has failed to top San Andreas. Firstly (and I want to check this out) but I do reckon the storyline in SA was longers. Secondly, it just doesn't feel as epic, which is what I was really dying for.
Don't get me wrong, the characters, dialogue, cutscenes, morality aspects, combat and a bunch else shits all over SA in GTAIV, but I do just get the feeling that it isn't quite right. And I reckon the second my laptops up and running again I am going to install SA again just for some cross country driving antics.
It also strikes me that there is less to do in this game than in SA, in that I can't figure out how to initiate Taxi/Ambulance missions.
I desperately wanted this game to be better than it is, and it is a great game, but unfortunately it just falls short of what they have achieved previously, in my opinion.
