Grand Theft Auto IV - Gen. Discussion & Info

[quote name='Mr. Anderson']The hand-to-hand combat controls are really, truly bad.[/quote]

that I can somewhat agree with. It's kind of like Assassin's Creed combat. I think they where aiming for a more rhythm based hand-to-hand style (the dodging, taking take to actuality throw the punch, and not just blocking but having to hit it at the right time). I don't know I haven't played around with the fighting too much, but I agree that it was not done very well. It's workable.
 
[quote name='dastly75']Anyone who messed with the brightness and other video settings now have it nearly impossible to read the cellphone, at least during the day?

[/QUOTE]


Yup, I adjusted and couldn't read the cell so i had to just put the brightness back to default. Its fine most of the time, but sometimes stuff is just too dark.
 
[quote name='dastly75']Anyone who messed with the brightness and other video settings now have it nearly impossible to read the cellphone, at least during the day?

As for the driving, I think a lot of us didn't want the simulation experience. I really don't care for the realistic Niko running out of breath after running for awhile either. Oh well, I really hope Crackdown 2 comes out some day....[/quote]


The sprinting and running out of breath has been in all of the GTA games, at least the most recent ones. I think you could actually increase your stamina in San Andreas so that you could sprint 100% of the time.

I'm getting used to the driving, and it is definitely more of a sim feel than the arcade-like qualities of the previous games, but that being said, a lot of the game has more of a deliberate, sim feel. There are bonuses to it like not taking damage when running down stairs ;)

BTW, Crackdown 2 is coming, it's called APB.
 
[quote name='Artie Lange']A great game slightly ruined by terrible controlls, and they are terrible.[/quote]

what's terrible about them? No offense, but maybe your just not good at the game, or haven't given it enough time. I mean I hate racing game controls (pgr, gt, moto gp, ect). I know they have excellent controls; I just suck at them really bad. I love driving in Gta, Shooting it touchy but fun (drive-by is hard, but they should be, since your driving a car and shooting), hand-to-hand seems experimental and not fully developed, walking isn't amazing, but its a huge improvement over the previous installments.

Have you ever played an actual game with actually "terrible" controls? I am thinking no.
 
[quote name='Artie Lange']A great game slightly ruined by terrible controlls, and they are terrible.[/quote]

Well put, but it more than slightly ruined it for me. Most people will play the game and not care too much about the bad controls and will really enjoy the game. That's truly great, I unfortunately cannot however.
 
[quote name='ArthurDigbySellers']Crackdown 2 is coming, it's called APB.[/quote]


Although both made by Realtime Worlds, APB isn't part 2 to Crackdown. It's a totally diffrent game. Even EGM had an article last month where they stated Crackdown 2 is never going to happen.
 
The controls are pretty bad. When you're running around Niko can't turn for shit. It makes some of the missions where you have to do close quarters combat a lot harder than they should be (like Snow Storm). And they should have just used the left analog stick for running/walking, click it to sprint COD4 style. Holding/tapping A to run is archaic.

I posted this earlier but I agree that Crackdown and Saint's Row both have far better controls. I don't remember ever being frustrated with the controls in Crackdown yet I get frustrated with them in GTAIV in pretty much every mission. It kind of breaks the immersion.

(drive-by is hard, but they should be, since your driving a car and shooting)

See here's where I disagree. I don't want this game to be a sim. I want more arcadey driving physics and I want it to be real easy to do drive-bys and stuff.
 
[quote name='CosmosTheMouse']Although both made by Realtime Worlds, APB isn't part 2 to Crackdown. It's a totally diffrent game. Even EGM had an article last month where they stated Crackdown 2 is never going to happen.[/quote]


I figure that was artistic license on his part.
 
Man I need to stop going on here it just drive me nuts. Did all you people bitching and complaining about this game, even read anything about the game at all before it came out. From day one; R* has said they were scaling down the game, making it more realistic, and taking some of the more absurd concepts out of it. They mentioned it in almost all interviews, previews, and reviews.

Yet, one out of every 4 posts is about how the game is too focused on realism. Really....

Man, I need to buy Saints Row II and complain about how absurd the physics and story is.

It does not have terrible controls for the last time; if you want a point of reference go play the Dukes of Hazard games.
 
[quote name='Aleman']Holding/tapping A to run is archaic.[/quote]

That's how it's been for every GTA game.

So far for me the only gripes I would have is that the soundtrack is less than desirable. I can turn it off so it's no big deal. And that it seems like HOURS of tutorials. After a while I got used to the driving, and that seems to be everyone's major complaint. Going from a cartoonish game to a more real world driving situation. The combat i've had NO problem with whatsoever... and i'm so glad they fixed it up from what it was. It's funny in multiplayer though that nobody uses the cover system at all. It majorly saves your ass.

Overall I would have to agree with the IGN video review that this could quite possibly be the best game I've played in teh ast 10 or so years.
 
[quote name='gareman']what's terrible about them? No offense, but maybe your just not good at the game, or haven't given it enough time. I mean I hate racing game controls (pgr, gt, moto gp, ect). I know they have excellent controls; I just suck at them really bad. I love driving in Gta, Shooting it touchy but fun (drive-by is hard, but they should be, since your driving a car and shooting), hand-to-hand seems experimental and not fully developed, walking isn't amazing, but its a huge improvement over the previous installments.

Have you ever played an actual game with actually "terrible" controls? I am thinking no.[/QUOTE]

I have..

Bill Lambeer's Combat Basketball.. everything in that game was mapped to one button (think a basketball game you generally need 3 buttons, shoot/block, pass/steal and turbo(or run) but this game had all the shooting/passing/blocking/stealing mapped to one button.. it was flustrating to play.
 
Combat controls aren't that great, especially since when they dump you into combat, the guys are usually right on top of you already. I usually lose 50% of my health before I can even retaliate, gun or otherwise.

My biggest gripe, though? Niko is an idiot. Really. Here's an idea... instead of walking up to the person you're going to kill and explaining to them that you're going to kill them and why, maybe you should just, I don't know, KILL THEM. I'm getting sick of these 'eliminate this guy' missions which could be over in about 30 seconds, yet are drawn out with pointless driving because Niko felt the need to say 'this is from Brucie!' instead of just kicking down the damn door. Subtlety is not Niko's strong point.

... right, sorry. Had to rant about that.
 
[quote name='gareman']Man I need to stop going on here it just drive me nuts. Did all you people bitching and complaining about this game, even read anything about the game at all before it came out. From day one; R* has said they were scaling down the game, making it more realistic, and taking some of the more absurd concepts out of it. They mentioned it in almost all interviews, previews, and reviews.

Yet, one out of every 4 posts is about how the game is too focused on realism. Really....

Man, I need to buy Saints Row II and complain about how absurd the physics and story is.

It does not have terrible controls for the last time; if you want a point of reference go play the Dukes of Hazard games.[/quote]

I'm personally starting to think this topic should be closed.
I mean it had 50+ pages even before the game was out.
 
[quote name='gareman']Man I need to stop going on here it just drive me nuts. Did all you people bitching and complaining about this game, even read anything about the game at all before it came out. From day one; R* has said they were scaling down the game, making it more realistic, and taking some of the more absurd concepts out of it. They mentioned it in almost all interviews, previews, and reviews.

Yet, one out of every 4 posts is about how the game is too focused on realism. Really....

Man, I need to buy Saints Row II and complain about how absurd the physics and story is.

It does not have terrible controls for the last time; if you want a point of reference go play the Dukes of Hazard games.[/quote]

I don't care what Rockstar has said. I haven't read all the previews and such because I wanted to discover the game on my own. I am still loving the game and I think complaints about the controls are valid. Who cares if other games are worse, that's a terrible excuse.

[quote name='CosmosTheMouse']That's how it's been for every GTA game. [/quote]

And it's always been bad design. Running should be analog.
 
[quote name='Aleman']I don't care what Rockstar has said. I haven't read all the previews and such because I wanted to discover the game on my own. I am still loving the game and I think complaints about the controls are valid. Who cares if other games are worse, that's a terrible excuse.[/quote]


ughhh..that's not my point. My point is why would I go out and buy Saint's Row knowing that its going to over-the- top and unrealistic, and then go complain after I buy it for it being over-the-top and unrealistic.
 
The soundtrack is pretty disappointing. I'd never imagined a GTA with at least four stations I loved, much less not being able to find one with something good on at times.

Sure wish I could access a custom playlist ..
 
[quote name='gareman']ughhh..that's not my point. My point is why would I go out and buy Saint's Row knowing that its going to over-the- top and unrealistic, and then go complain after I buy it for it being over-the-top and unrealistic.[/quote]

And that's a good point. But my point is that making the game more realistic is not a good excuse for having bad controls and I'm a little disappointed that Rockstar didn't evolve the control scheme.
 
running should be the default like it is for every game.. it should be "all the way forward" on the left stick run, press to sprint.. "half way" to walk.
 
[quote name='zengonzo']The soundtrack is pretty disappointing. I'd never imagined a GTA with at least four stations I loved, much less not being able to find one with something good on at times.

Sure wish I could access a custom playlist ..[/quote]

Oddly, I'm fine with it. I like the way it's scaled back, especially considering that for the last few installments, GTA hype seemed to be centered on the music, not the game itself.

I just wish that instead of saying that Liberty City has changed (Ammunation, radio stations) they would've just sucked it up and said it was Liberty City, but it wasn't a continuation of GTA3. I mean, they went to huge levels to distance themselves from everything in the GTA3 series, so why not just go for it?
 
[quote name='bfauble83']Yup, I adjusted and couldn't read the cell so i had to just put the brightness back to default. Its fine most of the time, but sometimes stuff is just too dark.[/quote]

I had this problem too, but I kinda figured it's an old shitty phone with a display that is impossible to read in direct sunlight. Walk in the shade and it's fine. I had to leave the brightness bumped up because it was just impossible to play without changing.
 
[quote name='007']Oddly, I'm fine with it. I like the way it's scaled back, especially considering that for the last few installments, GTA hype seemed to be centered on the music, not the game itself.[/quote]


I can't really agree with any of that - but if they were going to go from brilliant soundtracks to bleh I'd have certainly preferred that custom playlists be made available.

Great music really sets the mood for a drive, so it would make sense to me that the soundtrack should be a focus.
 
[quote name='Bazz']If anyone is having problems with frame rate, pop ins all stupid things try clearing your 360 hdd cache.

To clear the cache Go to the system blade and then select memory.
Press Y on the HD symbol and then press X,X,Left Bumper, Right Bumper, X,X. Once you do this a messsage will appear saying: Do you want to perform maintenance on your Xbox 360 storage devices?

Performing this function will also clear any software updates.
[/quote]

Yea I didn't notice any problems but that explains why. I just did that a few weeks ago for Universe at War lol.

I haven't had any problems with online but occasionally I start a race and my avatar is on the top of the car in the set pose they have the 3D character in the 3D program, its a T stance or relaxed stance (this is before they "skin" the character to move it with a skeleton system) and I loose connection. Sorry, I'm a game art and design student lol. Yea why do I have to go through all the menus again to get to GTA Race? Its a phone, how come I don't have the feature to set a speedial?! It would be a lot more enjoyable to go into a ranked deathmatch/GTA Race or any other mode you frequentyly visit by hitting a button and then 1/2/3. Those GTA Races are a blast to play and wipe Mario Kart off the map.
 
MULTI is a lot of fun. I like it a lot. Wasnt even planning on playing but I failed a mission that i felt was really hard and didnt want to play it again right away. I think im going to get the boys togother for some fun times soon.
 
There'd better be a fucking patch for this soon. This is driving me insane. I still can't connect, and there's absolutely no rhyme or reason to it.

Once I start the game, I can connect to one online game. If I want to play another one, I have to restart the entire game. I can only do a select few game modes, the rest simply don't work.
 
[quote name='XxSmityxX']I feel the same way about the game being overrated!
1. Driving is crap with the new physics
2. auto-aim blows (I know you can turn it off)
3. Story is deep BUT still reminds me of San Andreas
4. I have it for 360 and draw distance sucks (seems like i could see further with PS2 versions of 3?)
5. Having to change the camera angle all the time blows too!
5. Final Score 8.5 not even close to a perfect 10

Just my thoughts :)[/quote]

1. No. The driving physics went from unrealistic arcade game to a much more realistic feel. That's it.
2. As you say, you can turn it off, so the point is null and void.
3. It kinda does, but much better.
4. Oh, no fucking way. Nuh-uh. Nope.
5. I found the camera to be somewhat crappy as well, but not exceptionally so, like Ninja Gaiden or something like that.

And I think all this talk of Crackdown is really avoiding something; Crackdown wasn't really that great of a game. It was basically a $10-$15, completely depth-free game that doesn't accomplish nearly as much or even try to accomplish nearly as much as GTA4. It's a pick-up, max out your character in a few days, blow some shit up, never play again type game. I mean, the few days or maybe weeks you spend with it are certainly enjoyable, but it's like ice cream.
 
[quote name='Sofa King Kool']There'd better be a fucking patch for this soon. This is driving me insane. I still can't connect, and there's absolutely no rhyme or reason to it.

Once I start the game, I can connect to one online game. If I want to play another one, I have to restart the entire game. I can only do a select few game modes, the rest simply don't work.[/QUOTE]

same here. I have a damn perfect open NAT connection for my 360 and I still get this shit.
 
[quote name='evanft']
And I think all this talk of Crackdown is really avoiding something; Crackdown wasn't really that great of a game. It was basically a clever marketing ploy to get people to spend $60 to beta test Halo 3.[/quote]
Got it.
 
[quote name='evanft']And I think all this talk of Crackdown is really avoiding something; Crackdown wasn't really that great of a game. It was basically a $10-$15, completely depth-free game that doesn't accomplish nearly as much or even try to accomplish nearly as much as GTA4. It's a pick-up, max out your character in a few days, blow some shit up, never play again type game. I mean, the few days or maybe weeks you spend with it are certainly enjoyable, but it's like ice cream.[/quote]
Crackdown was easily worth $60. I had more fun in that game online and off than i do in many games combined. It was just fun, simple as that, nothing complex. Would have loved to of seen a Crackdown 2 by the same dev team.
 
[quote name='Matt Young']Nope. I wasn't even going to buy the game at launch, originally, but I got hyped up a couple weeks before the release and ended up buying it on Tuesday. I am pretty much a GTA noob... I got the double pack of III/Vice City for the Xbox a couple years back, but I maybe spent 6 hours on III and never opened Vice City. But GTA IV is one of the best games I have played in years.[/QUOTE]

Sorry man, I didn't mean to call you a taint sniffer. If you're on tonight we should try again. I'll most likely be on after LOST!!!!!! OMG TNEOIHSJ:KNCXV
 
This is frustrating to respond to but I feel that it needs to be said. Why the hell are people surprised that driving is realistic when Rockstar said that it was going to be LONG BEFORE the game came out? Also the draw distance in this game is significantly better than the old GTAs (addressed to the person who obviously has never played them or is a fanboy).
 
[quote name='JJSP']If hand-to-hand combat is giving you trouble, find a baseball bat. Much easier. :)[/QUOTE]

Screw that stabbing for the win!
 
Posted this in the PS3 version of this thread and got no help. Maybe someone here knows?

Quick question, is there anyway to enable a bluetooth headset once you are in a multiplayer game? A friend and I were playing Resistance and our headsets were working fine, then we quit the game put in GTA 4 and we kept getting a message that we couldn't call each other because our headsets weren't connected. After looking and looking we couldn't find any option we had to quit the game and go enable our headsets from the PS3's main menu. Surely there is a way to do it in game right?
 
[quote name='Callandor']Adam Sessler vs. Jack Thompson on NPR:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90102764

Listen. This is awesome.[/quote]

Jack: This is the most violent, most sexually graphic game released, Rockstar is mentally molesting minors..

Announcer: And have you played the game?

Jack: I.. eh.. uh.. The game just came out, and I have a life.

:dunce:

Announcer: And which law enforcements are you working with?

Jack: Psh.. I'm not going to tell you!

Announcer: Well, thanks very much for speaking with us today..

Jack: I'm done!?

Announcer: You're done.

GOLD!
 
[quote name='coolsteel']How the hell do you manage to fail 33 percent of the missions in the first 6 hours? Those were all ridiculously easy[/quote]

Mission #1 I failed a few times: Driving a car to catch someone
Mission #2 I failed a few times: Running to catch someone
Mission #3 I failed a few times: Driving a motorcycle to catch someone

In all three cases I tried to do what the game was telling me to do, which was actually catch the person. In all three cases it was incredibly frustrating and
I was really pissed when I finally discovered you couldn't actually catch the person
. The motorcycle was particularly frustrating. It is really really hard to drive the motorcycle right up to the guy and shoot at him multiple times. If you actually drive fast enough to catch up to him, then the slightest bit of contact sends you flying. And when you shoot you slow down and can't turn as well, so you have to constantly position and manuever to get a single shot off.

Note that it looks obvious here, but in game there is no clue that you're racing to a cut scene.

The camera and the fact that the trigger sucks for driving made it even more frustrating. The trigger is not sensitive enough to hold down between ~70-85% to maintain a manageble speed. I have to go through an endless cycle of holding it all the way down for four seconds and then releasing it. It makes it seem less like real driving and more like work.

The duplicate buttons are also a pain in the ass. I'm sitting completely motionless in a police car and it tells me to press LB to access the computer. I press LB and I fire off a bullet and now have cops chasing me. I had this happen to me four times last night before I was actually able to access the computer. Having to drive around for a minute to evade cops because the game didn't register the correct action sucks. Then, when I finally got the computer to come up I had to go back and look in my notes and manually type the friggin name in. After that I just went to bed.

I'm glad I have other plans for this weekend so it will give me a break from this game. I can't even get excited about multiplayer because the single player has turned me off so much. It's really weird to me because I recognize that it is a great overall game, I played 20+ hours of four other crappy/mediocre games last weekend and I literally didn't sleep for like two weeks after I got other games with bigger issues (Assasin's Creed, Mass Effect and Saints Row). For all intent and purposes I should be loving this game.
 
[quote name='JJSP']Got it.[/QUOTE]

:lol:

Forgot that part.

[quote name='SynGamer']Crackdown was easily worth $60. I had more fun in that game online and off than i do in many games combined. It was just fun, simple as that, nothing complex. Would have loved to of seen a Crackdown 2 by the same dev team.[/QUOTE]

You know, I could definately see that, it was just for me personally, and I think for a lot of people, it was more like how I described. And yes, Crackdown 2 would have been awesome.
 
[quote name='jkanownik']Mission #1 I failed a few times: Driving a car to catch someone
Mission #2 I failed a few times: Running to catch someone
Mission #3 I failed a few times: Driving a motorcycle to catch someone

In all three cases I tried to do what the game was telling me to do, which was actually catch the person. In all three cases it was incredibly frustrating and
I was really pissed when I finally discovered you couldn't actually catch the person
. The motorcycle was particularly frustrating. It is really really hard to drive the motorcycle right up to the guy and shoot at him multiple times. If you actually drive fast enough to catch up to him, then the slightest bit of contact sends you flying. And when you shoot you slow down and can't turn as well, so you have to constantly position and manuever to get a single shot off.

Note that it looks obvious here, but in game there is no clue that you're racing to a cut scene.

The camera and the fact that the trigger sucks for driving made it even more frustrating. The trigger is not sensitive enough to hold down between ~70-85% to maintain a manageble speed. I have to go through an endless cycle of holding it all the way down for four seconds and then releasing it. It makes it seem less like real driving and more like work.

The duplicate buttons are also a pain in the ass. I'm sitting completely motionless in a police car and it tells me to press LB to access the computer. I press LB and I fire off a bullet and now have cops chasing me. I had this happen to me four times last night before I was actually able to access the computer. Having to drive around for a minute to evade cops because the game didn't register the correct action sucks. Then, when I finally got the computer to come up I had to go back and look in my notes and manually type the friggin name in. After that I just went to bed.

I'm glad I have other plans for this weekend so it will give me a break from this game. I can't even get excited about multiplayer because the single player has turned me off so much. It's really weird to me because I recognize that it is a great overall game, I played 20+ hours of four other crappy/mediocre games last weekend and I literally didn't sleep for like two weeks after I got other games with bigger issues (Assasin's Creed, Mass Effect and Saints Row). For all intent and purposes I should be loving this game.[/QUOTE]



I'll address this in order , the motorcycle mission was a funny one because it isn't obvious you didn't have to use a bike, car worked just fine. I'm not sure why racing to a cut scene bothers you, I mean realistically crap happens and not everything is all that simple. You mention the trigger not being sensitive enough so you have to keep holding for 4 seconds, then releasing. Problem is you can just hold it, you're doing 85 percent when 50 is all you needed. I've been doing that for awhile now and it works like regular driving.

Duplicate button problem I have not really run into, it really sounds like you're holding everything versus doing a quick tap which is all that is required. I will give you though it was an odd choice having to manually type in the name but thankfully pushing start shows what the name is again under brief, so no big deal. After your break I highly suggest just screwing around for a bit in the city, learn the controls a bit more, go on dates or something.
 
[quote name='Mattte']Saw an in-game commercial for knifes and such and it had a number (800-555-5555), dialed it any nothing happened...disappointment :cry:[/QUOTE]

All 555 exchanges are reserved for use in fiction, otherwise you get situations like you have with that 867-5309 song. What is cool is when they use numbers like in Scrubs where they had Turk's cell phone be a real number and you would get his vmail or cast members would pick up occasionally. Personally I think Rockstar should had used a 666 exchange- which they actually use down where I live.
 
bread's done
Back
Top