Grand Theft Auto IV

[BigFoot]

Well, I got the game on saturday and I've played it for about 6-8 hours so far. What can I say, so far it's been fun (once I got used to the new driving physics). What I do miss though, is the huge world from San Andreas. Here's it's all just a big city and I miss being able to drive outside of the city limits.

 

[Arrqh]

I picked it up on the way home from work on Friday... I played it just for a bit on Friday and Saturday. I turned the game on today and noticed my timer... my "little bit" turned out to be 10+ hours. Oops.

When I finally unlocked fake-Manhattan I was actually struck by the fact that driving there was exactly like driving in actual-Manhattan in the way that I hate... all those damned one way streets And there's not nearly enough cars!

 

[Skywalker]

Holy crap, the LCPD are a bunch of touchy bastards. I was just driving along, being careful not to damage my spiffy Banshee convertible, when I was a little slow on the brakes and just tapped the back end of a police car. Apparently that's enough to get you a one-star wanted level and half the entire police after you.

 

[firehawk12]

Hrm, I thought I broke the game during one of those chase scenes. I actually caught up to the guy as he was entering his car, tried to jack it but it was locked... but it gave me enough time to shoot him through the window. I thought I was screwed, but after I opened the door and the body fell out, I completed the mission. Weird.

I just kind of wish that they fixed the mission structure. In San Andreas, you could just automatically go back to a start point after you fail... it'd be nice if I could do that here.

 

[unimatrix7]

^ Agreed. I'm on my fifth attempt of...I forget the name of the mission. It's one of Elizabeta's, something to do with the snow. You basically have to drive across half of liberty city, retrieve her drugs from an old hospital, then outrun the cops.

Firstly, it's nigh on impossible because the controls suck eggs. My 360 controller had its first ever violent encounter with the floor after attempt number 3 (turns out they bounce. Who knew?) ended with my stopping the vehicle in an alleyway, then Niko being unable to exit the vehicle (which was in flames) due to some garbage cans stacked in close proximity.

God I hate these controls.

 

[Skywalker]

^ That was "The Snow Storm." I had some problems with it, too, mainly because the first few times I tried to play through it, it was nighttime, so I couldn't see squat. When I finally gave up, did some other stuff, and came back, I played through it during the day and got through it much fewer problems. I couldn't see where I was going in that hospital when it was dark, so I kept getting wasted by the cops.

 

[gh4chiefs]

And I find the cell phone text messages tough to read on my ghetto ass TV.

It's not your TV, it's their fonts and color scheme choices. I have a big 52 inch HDTV and I can't read it either. And I agree with you, this is NOT a 10 game. The cell phone is but one example of the "little touches" they just didn't work on enough.

 

[Trekker4747]

Just my personal thoughts on it so far. The game is good. Just like all other GTAs everything is sort of the same. What I don't understand is the hype around it. 10.0 in gamespot?? Come one Zelda: Orcania of Time was much better than what I've been playing so far.

Rockstar's "contributions" must be more signifigant than Nintendo's.

Seriously, that's pretty much how the whole review industry works. You bribe the reviewers. It's also possible overall gameplay is considered over plot and substance and, face it, GTA's open world enviroment is pretty damn fun.

 

[Trekker4747]

I just kind of wish that they fixed the mission structure. In San Andreas, you could just automatically go back to a start point after you fail... it'd be nice if I could do that here.

You can do that. In your phone call your contact and there's a "conversation option" to retry the mission. You'll automatically see the cut-scene of the mission and be transported outside your contact's hideout/location.

 

[Tomato]

I guess after the whole Kane and Lynch fiacsco that would explain it. I surprised that fanboys everywhere are jonsing after this game. Oh well, I guess with the 10.0 my expectations were set so high that even after making a great game I'm still disappointed.

 

[BigFoot]

And I find the cell phone text messages tough to read on my ghetto ass TV.

It's not your TV, it's their fonts and color scheme choices. I have a big 52 inch HDTV and I can't read it either. And I agree with you, this is NOT a 10 game. The cell phone is but one example of the "little touches" they just didn't work on enough.

Just for some info, I've got a 46" TV (Sony Bravia Full HD LCD) viewed from about 8 feet and I can read it just fine (without having to strain my eyes).

 

[gh4chiefs]

I hear that a lot and I don't understand what would be different about your HDTV compared to mine. I don't know what settings I could adjust on my TV to make the text messages NOT be black text on a dark gray background. I don't know what settings I could set on my TV to make the cell phone larger on my TV.

I readily admit my eyes probably aren't as good as yours BUT again that doesn't explain the black text on gray background. I do set further back, (maybe around 15-20 feet?) and I have to get out of my chair and get up close to the screen to read the text message.

And every time I get up to do that, I just want to kick the shit out of the Rockstar programmers for implementing the cell phone text in such a manner.

 

[BigFoot]

^ I honestly think the biggest difference is viewing distance. My eyes definitely aren't all that (I wear glasses and I have a mild form of colour-blindness). One thing you could try changing are contrast & brightness (either on your TV or preferably in the game itself). But yeah, I think viewing distance makes all the difference. I can't really imagine what it would be like to have to read the phone from about 15 feet.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Well I have adjusted the brightness and contrast in-game, and while it helped with other graphics, text message are still unreadable. Again, my beef really has to do with their color scheme more than anything. If you pull up the phone, each category has white text on a black background. It's a bit small, but I can read it from a distance without too much trouble.

But when you pull up those text messages that are black on a dark gray background, I have to ask myself, WTF where they thinking? Why didn't they make the text messages the same as the menu, i.e. white text on a black background?

As for adjusting the TV itself, I'm VERY reluctant to start messing with it's settings when everything else I watch on the TV (including other video games) looks just fine. It's just their damned ridiculous programming in this game that causes the problem.

 

[dark angel_707]

I really hate the repeat mission option as I'm finding it pointless for later missions as you have to buy armour and guns again then drive across town. It would much better if you started just before eg the location where the mission really starts


it is a good game but no way the perfect game reviews have described (the AI has not improved, missions are very much the same) While the game does a lot right (especially the humour) it gets some important things wrong. When you are having shoot outs in buildings, its stupid I can't open a door while in cover but have to walk into and got shoot and the doors seem to close on their own Edit: I found you can shoot the doors and they open like someone has walked through them

I get the feeling if this was not a rockstar game, gamers and reviewers would be less forgiving.

 

[biotech]

Got it today and a PS3 to play it on, I see the phone text just fine on my 42 inch screen.

The cover and shoot is giving me a few problems, and like other people have said, once your headlights gets smashed, driving at night is very problematic.

Didnt take me long to get used to driving the car though, which surprised me, since this is my first console since those big wooden atari things in the early 80s.

 

[biotech]

BTW, how do you pick things up, I was supposed to throw something threw a window and I had to end up shooting it.

 

[Twilight]

Well on the 360 you pick up items with left bumper - I think that corresponds to L2 on the PS3?

 

[Vegeta]

I seem to be able to see the text on the phone with no problem. Then again I'm playing on a 24" LCD computer monitor and I'm sitting about 2 feet away. My buddy had some problems reading it in the begining, but after I told him about the in phone option to make the text size large he can read it fine now. He is using a 4 year old 56" projection tv, that really needs to be professionally recalibrated.


I suggest that if you are having trouble reading the text on the cell phone that you change the text size to large and go and pay 100 bucks of in game money for a different theme for you phone. It changes the background and the text color. Also increase the brightness and contrast on the game pause menu.

 

[biotech]

I was pressing that and nothing happened.