Grand Theft Auto IV - Gen. Discussion & Info

Yeah, I know it's only April, but if all the major sites are giving out 10/10's in mass unison, it's pretty much a given. Anyways, I'm saying that in a package deal sense: soundtrack, graphical detail, story, voice work, bang for the buck.

Metal Gear will be huge, but I don't see it taking many GOTYs from this game (graphics for sure though). Fable 2 might swoop in there if Molyneaux treads very carefully. I have high hopes for the next Splinter Cell, which could revitalize that franchise like GTA4 has clearly done.
 
[quote name='crunchb3rry']

The detail in the game is amazing. Cars headlights and tail lights don't work if you damage that quarterpanel, flies are hovering over open trash cans, a couple garbage men now hang off the back of the Trashmaster. The stuff people say when you bump into them is priceless. Then entire game is at least 100x more evolved than even what San Andreas accomplished since GTA3.[/quote]



The latest thing to amaze me is if you hold a burnout for an extreme amount of time, the tires will blow out, just like the real thing. Yet they still didn't fix the tread issue.
 
[quote name='Mr Durand Pierre']The game just keeps getting worse for me. The checkpointing is atrocious. You can retry missions, but most missions begin with you driving several minutes just to get to where the mission really begins. Sometimes you can call Roman for a ride (which still takes time as you have to listen to that message again and wait for the ride to show), but more often than not he won't have a ride available. Sometimes you can take a cab... if there's any around. So most of the time you'll have to just drive all the way back. Even worse is that a lot of missions are extremely vague or cheap. One had me following a guy, but I kept losing him, resulting in me losing lots of money and time getting back to the point where I could even begin to follow him (I'm now just reloading my saves so I don't lose all my money on hospital bills). The worst mission I've encountered so far dealt with me having to take a guy out at a train platform, but a cutscene plays when you enter the area and then when the cutscene ends you're in the middle of battle with no cover while enemies machine gun you. It seems like most missions expect you to take cover or follow someone right away before you even get a chance to get your bearings. Argh!

And maybe I'm doing something wrong, but it seems like I'm constantly alerting the cops and I'm not very good at shaking them. I can usually make it out of the circle, but then they'll still come after me. I've tried switching cars, or hiding in alleys, but that doesn't seem to help. I don't know what I'm doing wrong here.

I really want to see whatever it is that everyone else sees in this game, but so far it mostly just seems like an exercise in tedium.[/quote]

Driving is primary that's why it's called Grand Theft Auto.
 
[quote name='sp00ge']The latest thing to amaze me is if you hold a burnout for an extreme amount of time, the tires will blow out, just like the real thing. Yet they still didn't fix the tread issue.[/quote]

The treads going the wrong way issue?
 
I just quit playing about 30 minutes ago, but only because my contacts dried out, I can't see without them, and I don't own glasses.

I played about 3 hours of multiplayer (mostly Team Deathmatch) and almost 5 hours of single player (4 hours, 59 minutes, 5 seconds), taking breaks only to eat a couple times, take a phone call, and fill out some paperwork for my job.

Such an incredible game. I liked Saints Row better than the older GTAs, but this one's already on pace to top it. This is the first GTA I've bought at or anywhere near release, and I love it. Apparently, many others do as well. I had never seen any more than 28 people on my friend list online at once. Last night, there were 42 online- all but 2 playing GTA IV.
 
I only got to play this for about an hour thus far but my god, what a riot. Aside from a few early missions, I was screwing around and causing trouble. I discovered that standing atop cop cars will get you pursued, I thought that was pretty funny.
 
I played the game for about 15 minutes yesterday, and I couldn't believe how glitchy it was. I got the x360 version, and I know that I'll still be super satisfied w/ the overall game, but I already glitched through a wall and had to reload the mission. I'll post pictures later of my awesome wall glitch complete with blue floors!
 
[quote name='Halo05']I only got to play this for about an hour thus far but my god, what a riot. Aside from a few early missions, I was screwing around and causing trouble. I discovered that standing atop cop cars will get you pursued, I thought that was pretty funny.[/quote]

Yet running red lights, wrecking into other cars, and running over pedestrians right in front of cops does not cause them to even flinch or raise your wanted level....what gives?
 
I played for 27 minutes last night - so far I'm VERY impressed. The intro and cut scenes are awesome and oozing with personality. I found myself laughing on several occasions already. I was tired so I kind of fell asleep on the couch with the game on pause but I can't wait to get back into it tonight.
 
[quote name='woodcan']Yet running red lights, wrecking into other cars, and running over pedestrians right in front of cops does not cause them to even flinch or raise your wanted level....what gives?[/quote]

I think the main reason for this is to allow the player to actually move around the city quickly without being chased by police every time they run a red light or drive on the wrong side of the road.

While standing on police cars doesn't effect the user's ability to get around, plus I think it pisses off the AI a whole lot when they can't pathfind to the guy and arrest him.
 
There is some really funny dialog in this game. Example, after picking up Roman at the hospital after ignoring his call for help to go on a date, Niko apologizes and Roman says something like "That's ok cousin, if I had to choose between your personal safety and a nice pair of t*t*es, it would be a difficult decision."

I'm assuming that if I'd chosen to go help him the dialog would be different. i like that you now can choose whether to go when he calls.
 
The one-man army achievement (5 minutes with 6 stars) is really easy to get

I drove a bike into Aloquiun on the subway tracks which got me 6 stars, and just stayed in the tracks for 5 minutes.
 
Anybody else running into connection issues with multiplayer?

I can get into some games, but for others I get the message "cannot connect to one or more players" and am unceremoniously dumped back into single player. The symptoms seem to match a NAT problem on my end, yet when I test my connection on the system blade I'm told my NAT is "open".

Any ideas?
 
[quote name='IceBurgh']I'm assuming that if I'd chosen to go help him the dialog would be different. i like that you now can choose whether to go when he calls.[/quote]

I had no idea. I went for Roman and didn't even call the girl to cancel - didn't realize that could be done. Good to know there are many choices that have subtler effects.

[quote name='Mr Durand Pierre']Maybe I have been focusing too much on the missions, but I'm not sure what else there is to do really. I've tried going on killing sprees, but I always end up getting killed by the cops and lose more money than I've gained, so I have to reload anyway. I guess there's the mini-games, but they don't amuse me that much. And the taxi missions are just more driving which the game has more than enough of anyway. Maybe I'll unlock more cool stuff later. The helicopter and boat look neat, so I'll try to keep an open mind.[/quote]

It sounds like this game isn't for you. The driving is key.

If you're having fun with the killing sprees, why worry about money? You'll get money again, no worries about that, the key is to have fun ..

As you keep playing, more side missions will open up, much like the cab missions. But, again, most of them will involve driving.

It's a broad action game, as such that no individual mechanic will be stronger than in other games you've played specifically devoted to that mechanic. But the whole of the game ends up being greater than the sum of its parts, for being so inclusive.

But if you pick it up and play it and just aren't having fun with it, I figure you need to move on.

Maybe try multiplayer. Just keep in mind that you can pick your objectives. If you want to kill, go kill. If you want to make money, figure out how to make money. And so on.

Good luck.
 
Played for about 4 or 5 hours last night. Though 1 hour into the game it froze (when I tried to buy some sunglasses). That was the only time to game buggered up on me.

I'm liking this game a lot now, but it takes getting used to. The first time I went outside and drove a bit, I was a bit let down at the frame rate and the ugly Depth of Field effect. But I didn't seem to mind those later on. I'm still getting used to the melee fighting, which I'm not really liking due to having to having to adjust the camera so I can see when the enemy is attacking me.

Unlike the previous GTA games, I had to turn on subtitles to really figure out WTF Niko and Roman were saying most of the time. Kind of lame since I even up looking at the text more than the cutscenes.

Multiplayer is a blast. I only played a match of Turf War and Cops n' Robbers each, but they were great.

This game screams to have a recording feature like Halo. One time I crashed into a concrete divider on the highway. Poor Niko went through the windshield, rolling along the road. But so did my car, flipping and eventually landing on top of him. :lol:

EDIT: Lawl. Got a quick glimpse of CNN this morning, where they were talking about GTA. I didn't catch the whole thing, but they were comparing it to the likes of Scarface and The Godfather. Then out of nowhere the news anchor asks the correspondent "Why is this virtual violence so popular?". The correspondent responds "I'm not going there..." and just went on to talk about the graphics and how these games have really taken off since the days of pong. Nice save.
 
[quote name='mrelusive']Unlike the previous GTA games, I had to turn on subtitles to really figure out WTF Niko and Roman were saying most of the time. Kind of lame since I even up looking at the text more than the cutscenes.
[/quote]

I had the same problem. Only gets worse with Little Jakob.

I find that if I miss something key in a cutscene, however, I can go look at a transcript after the fact in the pause menu. Under 'Briefing'. This won't include the random conversations, only essential mission text. Handy, anyways, if you don't want to leave subtitles on.

[quote name='mrelusive']
This game screams to have a recording feature like Halo. One time I crashed into a concrete divider on the highway. Poor Niko went through the windshield, rolling along the road. But so did my car, flipping and eventually landing on top of him. [/quote]

No doubt. The flips and flops are so beautiful, I sure hope they release an update to add that. It would be incredible.
 
Played a lot more multiplayer than single player last night.
The most fun I had was when we organized an all Fa-ggio scooter race (in GTA Race mode) which went fine for the 1st lap until someone jacked a charter bus and splattered a whole lot of racers.

I have to say that you can tell that people are having a lot of fun when you hear prolonged amounts of girly giggling and laughing while playing (I'd have to myself and Twenzor at constantly laughing at our own antics).

So much fun but I really need to put some time into the single player to get a better gauge of the game as a whole. I'll be on tonight so feel free to invite me for some more craziness (gt: Beanopolis83).
 
I haven't messed with multiplayer yet, but is there a mode like Halo 3's Forge where you can move and place objects to create detailed cutom games?
 
Post your hilarious / amusing / frustrating stories from GTA4. I know there's a thread for general discussion, but this could be an interesting thread of great non-scripted events which often happen in this sandbox-style game.

Here are a couple from very early in the game (not really spoilers):

*I went on my first date with Michelle and arrived at the carnival which was closed. She suggested bowling and we began walking on foot. Looking at the map, I thought we should cut through the mini-golf course. About half way in, Michelle accidentally fell off of a putting green and into one of the little fake ponds. She was standing with her head above water but never made any effort to jump out. So I got in with her and jumped out myself hoping she might follow my lead. She didn't, and a few seconds later, she died.

*On the (early) mission where you need to get Roman out of trouble at the basketball court, I arrived in a car that had gotten pretty banged up. Noticing it was on fire I bailed and the car rolled near another driver who was driving near the court. My abandoned vehicle finally 'sploded and severely damaged the other driver's car. The HE bailed out, ran off screaming, and I tried his car out - thinking I could use it to block in the loan shark's car you need to chase later. But the car was totally jacked. I guess the explosion blew out his tires and the thing would only lurch. Made me laugh.




 
Uh, I'm having problems with...
killing the first knife-wielding guy, the one who runs up some stairs after you chase him down with your car. I can't get dodge (A button) to work. So he stabs me a few times and I die really quickly. Am I not doing a combo, not timing it right, something else?
 
I haven't messed with multiplayer yet, but is there a mode like Halo 3's Forge where you can move and place objects to create detailed cutom games?
From what I've done, I have not seen anything Forge-like but there are a good number of options for each mode that you can do.

Such as picking a subsection of the city to play (or just all), what types of weapons that will be available to pick up as (like RPG's only), amount of traffic/pedestrians, enable/disable cops, on racing modes you can pick what vehicles people start off with (I would highly suggest the helicopters, thats a crazy race with 16 players).
Theres a few more but I can think of them off the top of my head. There is also a free mode where its mostly just do whatever you like.

A big thing I should point out that on some of the more open ended modes (non-team divided) is that communication and group participation in just crazy antics is where the game shines and where the most fun can be found.

Try driving over fire hydrants and then trying to flip cars with the water spraying out or doing a race mode where everyone is driving scooters except for one guy in a bus. The provided modes are great but I always prefer a bit of imagination for an extra layer of fun.
 
[quote name='aerotive']Uh, I'm having problems with...
killing the first knife-wielding guy, the one who runs up some stairs after you chase him down with your car. I can't get dodge (A button) to work. So he stabs me a few times and I die really quickly. Am I not doing a combo, not timing it right, something else?
[/QUOTE]

I didn't do it this way, but my girlfriend did and it helped her..
back the guy up against the glass window and it should only take one or two punches before hes back up enough to go flying out the window and die of course. It literally took my girlfriend about 20 seconds or so, and it looks awesome!
 
I like this thread...


I'm not far in the game, but so far I laughed my butt off when I first started driving. Im doing high speed down the main drag where your safehouse is and tap the e-brake thinking I could just swing around a turn like in Saints Row.....

I did a 180 and hit a house harder than you could ever imagine...pretty much had to be there but it was awesome.
 
I'm loving the game as you guys are, but does it seem like there isn't as much to do? In San Andreas you were having Gang Wars and all these side missions. Maybe I'm just not far enough in the story yet, but are you guys getting alot more stuff to do besides just doing the main story? Or is that how you sorta "unlock" more of the side quests...
 
I killed a cop since I wanted a gun, while the cops were chasing after me one of them said "stop making more drama for your momma."
 
Fun game so far...a little slow at first but things are picking up. I'm saddened that they didn't adapt the Saints Row garage system where you could save all the cars you wanted. That would have been nice.
 
Kinda disappointed in the lack of jumping spots (unique stunts), but I suppose it wasn't meant to be in a more realistic city.

Played about 4 hours worth yesterday, about to get back into it again.
 
[quote name='Maynard']I'm loving the game as you guys are, but does it seem like there isn't as much to do? In San Andreas you were having Gang Wars and all these side missions. [/quote]

I understand how you feel.

The side missions seem to grow more from personal contacts.

But I really miss the hostile territory concept in San Andreas, where some neighborhoods were dangerous for you, people would open fire on you just for being there. I feel in some ways that the city misses some of that danger while you're driving around outside of a mission.

Hopefully it comes in later. Territory capture and defense was one of my favorite activities in San Andreas.
 
[quote name='CocheseUGA']Kinda disappointed in the lack of jumping spots (unique stunts), but I suppose it wasn't meant to be in a more realistic city.[/quote]

They are there, just less obvious. I hit one yesterday on a bike without knowing what I was getting myself into. It switches to slow motion.

Didn't make the full jump, but I landed it.
 
[quote name='LinkinPrime']Fun game so far...a little slow at first but things are picking up. I'm saddened that they didn't adapt the Saints Row garage system where you could save all the cars you wanted. That would have been nice.[/QUOTE]

Thats really unrealistic though. I'm only like an hour into it and I like the parking space saves your car type deal thing.
 
I haven't posted in this thread for a while because I've been playing. There are too many great things to say about this game, so I'm just going to pick one thing and get back to playing.

Republican Space Rangers = fucking win.
 
This is the first GTA game I've played where I don't want to smash up the cars. I stole some awesome black car yesterday and absolutely crept back to Roman's apartment with it because I liked the way it looked.
 
[quote name='Halo05']This is the first GTA game I've played where I don't want to smash up the cars. I stole some awesome black car yesterday and absolutely crept back to Roman's apartment with it because I liked the way it looked.[/QUOTE]
That's funny, I had the exact same feeling about one of the cars I stole, and I did the same thing.

Don't know if this question needs a spoiler tag or not, but just in case...
Still really early on the game, and I found something yesterday that I'm assuming is one of the hidden packages, but I wasn't able to pick it up. Do you have to unlock being able to get the packages? If so, how do you do it?
 
[quote name='Sofa King Kool']Republican Space Rangers = fucking win.[/quote]

Thats the one show I've completely watched through on the TV so far.
The writing is hilarious and is actually a pretty good parody on some certain recent historical events.
 
I'm trying to get into this game, but I can't seem to find anything else to do, besides taking Michelle out on dates and hanging out (bowling/darts/drinking/eating/pool/etc.) with Roman. :(

And yes, I've played for more than three hours.
 
[quote name='Halo05']This is the first GTA game I've played where I don't want to smash up the cars. I stole some awesome black car yesterday and absolutely crept back to Roman's apartment with it because I liked the way it looked.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, because as far as I can tell, there's no way to fix them.
 
[quote name='lmz00']I'm trying to get into this game, but I can't seem to find anything else to do, besides taking Michelle out on dates and hanging out (bowling/darts/drinking/eating/pool/etc.) with Roman. :([/quote]

Do you mean instead of doing missions?

You do have to progress the story a little bit in order to gain access to some of the side missions.

There's always the cop cars, too.

I think Rockstar has made the game somewhat less easily accessible, and some people have been reading that as a lack of availability of options. I'm repeatedly seeing people lamenting a particular side mission not being in the game, one that I've played myself.
 
[quote name='CocheseUGA']Yeah, because as far as I can tell, there's no way to fix them.[/quote]Taking them to the Pay-n-Spray will fix them.
 
[quote name='CocheseUGA']Yeah, because as far as I can tell, there's no way to fix them.[/quote]


Pay-n-Sprays, which also seem to remove wanted level in spite of initial claims to the contrary.
 
[quote name='zengonzo']Do you mean instead of doing missions?

You do have to progress the story a little bit in order to gain access to some of the side missions.

There's always the cop cars, too.

I think Rockstar has made the game somewhat less easily accessible, and some people have been reading that as a lack of availability of options. I'm repeatedly seeing people lamenting a particular side mission not being in the game, one that I've played myself.[/quote]
I don't know how to progress the story. The last time Roman called me was when these people were beating him up in some park.
 
[quote name='Danimal']That's funny, I had the exact same feeling about one of the cars I stole, and I did the same thing.

Don't know if this question needs a spoiler tag or not, but just in case...
Still really early on the game, and I found something yesterday that I'm assuming is one of the hidden packages, but I wasn't able to pick it up. Do you have to unlock being able to get the packages? If so, how do you do it?
[/quote]


You don't have to unlock them....
You SHOOT THEM! :D They are pigeons, aka flying rats, and there is supposedly 200 total of them. The guide suggest sniping them because some of them are near cop stations, etc. I still have yet to look for them though, they make up like 3% of the game.
 
[quote name='Khondor']Guns, where the hell do i get Guns...????????[/quote]

You haven't played long enough. Either kill a cop and take it, or wait until you start doing missions for Little Jacob.
 
[quote name='lmz00']I don't know how to progress the story. The last time Roman called me was when these people were beating him up in some park.[/QUOTE]

They don't call you start missions. You go to them. Go to the R on the map.
 
[quote name='lmz00']I don't know how to progress the story. The last time Roman called me was when these people were beating him up in some park.[/quote]


Ah, I see. So on your map there are no more mission markers?

You can try calling your various contacts on your cellphone to instigate the next story mission. Seems like you just haven't yet triggered the event ..
 
[quote name='lordwow']They don't call you start missions. You go to them. Go to the R on the map.[/quote]Oh, so I actually have to go to his shop? All this time I've just been calling him up. :[
 
Played last night (finished the first few missions) and had a blast.

Started playing multiplayer, and good LORD, that's ridiculous. Though it took us FOREVER to figure out how to set up a private free-for-all game with cops on, we had a blast trying to see how much chaos we could cause.

PROTIP - Try cooking a grenade while riding shotgun - instant suicide bomber. Great in a crowd.

Riding four in a chopper and bailing out at a high altitude is hilarious, espescially with the Euphoria engine. I thought I was going to land in the water, but instead veered towards the shipyard before ragdolling against the handrail of a tanker.

The only cons I've seen so far is that fistfighting inevitably leads to me getting my ass kicked - I'm having a hell of a time trying to disarm and dodge (though tossing dudes out of windows seems to work instead).

Crap, I love this game. There's so much to do, and the online part of GTA makes me wish it had it all along.
 
So...
On the Mission called "Shadow " how many floors do i have stairs do i have to chase that guy in order to know who his drug dealer is....
 
bread's done
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