Well, I finally bit the bullet and picked up a copy of GTA IV for the PC. I saw it had price dropped to $30 and figured might as well. I'm about 20% through the game and the plot is cool. Niko is awesome. I can't remember the last time a game made me laugh out loud. Some of the stuff he goes through, with people giving him shit, and his responses...good stuff. The graphics are good, although my PC can't play them full. The controls are alright, although I was kind of pissed because I couldn't map the right mouse button to walking forward as I like. Getting used to it though. One thing I knew I wasn't going to like was the dreaded SecuRom crap. It's why I hesitated buying the game. Still don't like it. Also don't like having to log online all of the time when playing single player. Sure is a system hog. Overall so far it's a cool game though. What do you guys think of it? (I thought there was a thread on this game but I can't find it now.)
I bought it on launch date for the XBOX 360. I liked it OK and found the multiplayer amusing, but would not rate it anywhere near the 10s it got from the review sites. It was more like a 7/10 and I really thought it paled in comparison to Vice City.
Got it for 360 not long after it came out and while some parts really annoyed me like the long drives if you had to restart a mission and the scripted chases so you didn't know if too shoot them or to follow them and just drive. However a great plot and in the end a fun SP along with a pretty enjoyable online aspect (co-op could be expanded though) made me give this game 8.5 out of 10. A perfect 10 it was nowhere near.
I found the game world to be fun and interesting but in general, an over rated game. I suppose I just can't get into open world games
I was one of the traditional GTA fans since the 2D days and what blew me away most about GTA3 was how well crafted the world was. Vice City and San Andreas had more to do and were arguably more fun, but I always thought that GTA3 was the highlight of that trilogy. That's why I love GTA IV, they focused on making the world more immersive than they could have possibly accomplished before, I find it fun to just walk around in the world and look across the river at Algonquin. There are definitely some features from San Andreas which I miss, such as the lack of a parachute, and the story goes on too long (the mafia story in Alderney was unnecessary) but it is still one of my favourite games. It's a pity you can't get The Lost and Damned expansion on the PC version because it is well worth the money, the story may have been shorter but there is a far greater variety in the missions.
It was the the last game I actually spent hours on end to beat, and while that's high praise coming from me (my games tend to collect dust), I think it was an overrated game. Something I didn't like was the abundance of vehicle chases, and not knowing if you're supposed to actually take the guy out or if you're just supposed to follow him to get to the cut scene.
While the graphics and surrounding world were incredible, I got so sick with the insanely difficult missions, the insanely rare checkpoints in said missions, and the insanely wonky and frustrating controls that I gave up before reaching the halfway point.
GTA IV was my first GTA game (I'd watched my cousin play III and friends play Vice City, but was never really interested enough to play myself). It was fun, but I haven't picked it up since I finished the storyline.
I was never a big fan of the GTA3 trilogy but I picked up GTA4 due to the crazy amount of hype and the reviews. It was easily the one of the most disapointing games I've ever played. The on foot and vehicle controls were awful. The story started out strong but after a few hours characters would just randomly drop in and out of the story and I just stopped caring. Most of the missions were boring and uncreative, with the best mission being a ripoff of Heat. The lack of checkpoints in missions (both mid-mission and beginning of the mission so I wouldn't have to leave the hospital, go and buy armor again, and then back to the beginning of my mission, only to then have to drive to wherever I have to go for the mission) feels archaic. The characters always calling you wanting to go bowling or to the strip club was extremely annoying. To me the game felt like a cheap GTA clone. I expected far more from a game with a huge budget and in development for years.
It's funny, because they finally added checkpoints in Lost and the Damned, but they're still fairly rare. Either way, as a game, Saints Row 2 is the way to go.
While I agree with you about SR2 over GTA4, I still got bored with that game too. Most sandbox games get tedious after awhile since the devs pad the length by adding boring, pointless missions.
When I bought my PS3 from a kid on Craigslist last may, GTAIV was one of the games that came with it. I played it right up to the part where the main guy has to take his cousin to a card game, and then the dudes he owes money to showed up outside. Saved it, went to do something else and never bothered coming back to it. This was over a year ago.
Yeah, it's unfortunate that you have to do a set number of side missions in order to progress... but the flip side is that at least they confer in-game bonuses if you do complete them.
I think the most annoying part so far is having to play darts or go bowling all of the time to keep your contacts happy.
What's funny is that the game won't let you do certain things. For example, I flew my girlfriends up in a helicopter and landed on the roof of a tall building. Then I pushed her off to her death. While she was falling, she broke up with me, then she died. But a few hours later, she was calling me from the hospital wondering when I'm going to pick her up.
^Yeah, you can't actually kill any of the girlfriends or your friends. You'll just severely impact your relationship with them instead.
The first trailer for The Ballad of Gay Tony has been released and signals the return of parachute jumping and golf carts. It seems like they're bringing some of the over-the-top fun back.