Grand Theft Auto IV

[Aragorn]

On one hand, even if you can't see the bad guy, your lock-on option will.

On the other hand, the Jimmy Pegorino mission where you have to watch his back during a meeting should be played during the day, because there are no freaking lights anywhere at the meeting point.

 

[Aragorn]

So I took Alex onto the subway tracks, and then jumped out of the way when one came flying by. Alex got splatted, but where's the body? But what was funny is a fat cop was chasing some crook and the cop got run over by a subway train.

Carmen survived getting pushed off a 10-story rooftop and was walking around at the bottom like nothing happened.

 

[Hermiod]

^You're a sociopath.

 

[Daedalus12]

Finished the main storyline tonight. Total game time just a bit over 25 hours. The ending was a bit anti-climatic unlike the one in Vice City. At the moment I am not sure if I want to complete the 100%. Probably not as I think I have already wasted too much time in the last 5 days on this game. Overall I give this game an 8 out of 10. Way overhyped but still it provided a very fun and addicting experience. Not much replay value as the shooting and driving feels very console'ish i.e. more about button smashing rather than precise hand-eye movements especially during the shootouts. I almost managed to get through the game without dying or getting arrested but alas I killed while trying to doing one of the stunts.

 

[firehawk12]

Oh god yes. Even on GAF, there are people who are coming out of the woodwork stating that San Andreas was by far a more interesting game.

 

[Hermiod]

For me, compared to San Andreas, this is much more enjoyable - and I loved San Andreas.

GTAIV is less arcadey. There are less stupid, unrealistic missions, no pointless remote controlled cars, the controls are better, no time limits, no spook-o-meters, no flying through hoops in the sky, no Go Kart races etc.

They took out pretty much everything I didn't like about San Andreas and left what I loved in. The only thing I miss is the countryside.

 

[firehawk12]

I'll admit, when I played it on PC, I used mods to take out the lame RPG elements. I hated the flying, and the weird conspiracy stuff was a bit too much.
But the core story... I think that was just more interesting than most of what happened in GTA4.

 

[Hermiod]

I dunno, by the end I wanted Dmitri Rascalov dead! There was only one choice for me when the storyline offered me the chance to deal or take revenge.

 

[Daedalus12]

To be fair I played the original, Vice City, and San Andreas on the PC. The mouse and keyboard combo does make the on foot part a more enjoyable experience plus I played the driving parts in San Andreas with the Logitech MOMO steering wheel/pedal. No other interface can beat that.

 

[PKerr]

After playing GTA4 I thought I would give San Andreas a chance but I gotta say, the game sucked.

Granted I went from a Next Gen game to to a Last Gen but still, I just couldn't get into it.

I know it's silly but one thing that bugged me right off the bat was that I couldn't find the button for hommie to pull up his pants.

 

[gh4chiefs]

I haven't yet finished GTA4, but in looking at the guide, I'm getting close. I didn't finish San Andreas because frankly, it was boring. So I have to say I'm enjoying GTA4 a lot more.

However that being said, I still don't think GTA4 is the OMG orgasmic 10/10 game that it's often hyped to be. There's still WAY too much tedious and boring game play in it and as best I can tell, for no apparent reason other than to pad out the length of the game.

For example. Last night I played the first Jimmy Peragono (sp?) mission. So you have to pick him up at his house which is fairly far north on the island and drive all the way to south end of the island for the actual mission. And when the combat is over, you have to reverse the process. A taxi did not appear to be an option, the game forces you to take a long, boring drive for really no reason. You're not racing against the clock, the cops are chasing you, you just have to drive a long ways from Point A to Point B and back to Point A.

I'm just amazed as to how any game designer/programmer could possibly think that adds anything fun at all to the game play. Good lord, there are plenty of chances to drive around the islands, we don't need to be forced into with poor mission designs.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

I discovered something pretty cool last night when I was playing. So, I was just going apeshit with the rocket launcher, blowing up everything in sight, when I blew up two cop cars sitting side by side. Well, not actually side by side, but the cars were far enough apart so that the other car didn't catch fire. But, the shockwave of the explosion caused the other car to cave in on itself, so it was only, like, half its regular size. So, I went driving in it. It handled like shit, because two wheels on the same side were caved in, but it was still funny as hell

 

[Phillip Culley]

For example. Last night I played the first Jimmy Peragono (sp?) mission. So you have to pick him up at his house which is fairly far north on the island and drive all the way to south end of the island for the actual mission. And when the combat is over, you have to reverse the process. A taxi did not appear to be an option, the game forces you to take a long, boring drive for really no reason. You're not racing against the clock, the cops are chasing you, you just have to drive a long ways from Point A to Point B and back to Point A.

I don't mind driving from one place to another; however what amazes me is that they didn't add a checkpoint when you reach the destination! It gets really frustrating doing missions like Three Leaf Clover where I have to drive across the city to the bank, inevitably die and then have to do the whole drive again - granted they made some concession for this by having different dialogue for subsequent attempts, but the continual driving does begin to annoy.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Three Leafed Clover is another example of what I think is just horrendous mission design. And I didn't even get the different dialogue that you're talking about. I got the same dialogue verbatim in EVERY trip over the bank.

A checkpoint system, or a "save at any point" system would greatly help issues like this, but I still contend that the long drives are simply unnecessary in the first place. It just adds NOTHING to the game play other than time needed to complete the mission.

Why not have the mission take place close to the starting point? Or better yet, let me get the in car, cut to a loading scene, and then boom, I'm at the destination. The drive is just unnecessary, especially that late into the game.

 

[Daedalus12]

Yeah I agree it's not sound in terms of game design. Of course the solution to all of this frustration is to finish the mission in one try which is not that hard. Just make sure your are packing everything and use heavy explosive if necessary. The carbine takes care of the cops very easily. They were fallen like flies for me. The autoaim button makes that trivial. Switch to shotgun for CQ combat and grenades to take care of clusters or vehicles. The key is always stay calm.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Well I did beat the JP mission on the first try, but that still didn't stop me from having to make the long, boring, and totally unnecessary drive to and from the actual mission place.

 

[firehawk12]

Yeah, the lack of checkpoints is one of those things that inflates the length of the game. And death is kind of meaningless because you just restart anyway... there's no reason why you shouldn't just reload a saved game when you die rather than go to a hospital.

 

[Hermiod]

^In San Andreas, Rockstar claimed there was. I don't know if I believe them but they said that if the game found that you were failing a particular mission too many times it would automatically make it easier so you could progress.

 

[firehawk12]

Yeah, well... those flying training missions never got easier.

 

[Garak]

I really miss being able to hop in a plane and parachute out of it, a la San Andreas.