The story missions alone are 65%. You should drive. You'll save yourself A LOT of time.
GTA4
- Thread starter Scott_Arm
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The story missions alone are 65%. You should drive. You'll save yourself A LOT of time.
I bought a Xbox 360 and GTA IV on Sunday and so far it's been pretty fun (enjoyment factor I think San Andreas was better at this point, but we'll see) but for one issue. I tried to play again but it keeps saying "Reconnect controller" even when my controller is connected. The batteries are fine, I've tried another pair even, all other games work and demos, even with this up I can navigate back to the dashboard, etc. Any clues on how to fix this?
How does driving from point A to point B save me time when all I do is hit the button and watch a short loading screen? Some of the missions have you driving accross town which can take 2+ minutes, the taxi trick is 10-30 secs (depends only on how long it takes to find a cab, which spawn everywhere around you).
Didn't know you could skip over the cab ride. I only rode in the cab once and I watched the whole thing. Ooops.
You have to pay a little bit extra to skip. But by the time you finish Packie's storyline, and if you're never arrested (rebuying guns is expensive), you should have all the money you could possibly need.
It's not really a 10 game, and I'm not even going to touch on graphics. (It's certainly not a 10 in graphics.) It's a very good game, but not more than a low 9, probably a high 8. I'm going to be pretty negative because there's been plenty of praise so far; most of the points made by others stand: the world is huge, there's a ton of neat content, the combat is no longer utterly horrible. The plot is... well, mostly interesting.
The AI's nothing special: traffic's slightly better, but I'd really love to see a game where the AI reacts to the fact you're driving like a maniac, rather than merging into the lane you're speeding down at 140km/h. The enemy uses cover, but they don't really do anything else: you can sit behind a single cover point and use the more accurate weapons to kill everyone, with little chance of being flanked, other than by enemy spawns. The only reason you really have to get out of cover is to help your computer-controlled allies, who like to run into danger. Police is about as dumb as ever, and mostly wins by cheating and spawning in cop cars wherever is convenient.
No in-mission saves! What gives? I seem to remember San Andreas having a taxi you could take that would often take you to the spot of the mission you stopped at. I remember failing to catch my brother on the very last mission... and being able to redo just -that- mission. Even Bully avoided this by having one mission immediately start another. If I could start from my destination I'd be happy enough -- but having to drive to the spot of the mission, fight through a couple dozen bad guys, and then fail at the very end is just horrible.
Essentially, it's a Rockstar game: they haven't learned much from previous games, just scaled up to next-gen. Why block off the other islands? Why can't I drive to Algonquin from the beginning, while force us to do story missions to see this great huge city they created? Why can't we use cool cars from the get-go, why do we have to slog through missions to get to cars that don't handle like boats? Progression? You don't really get better cars in Alderney than you do in Algonquin. You already have a more effective form of progression via unlocking weapons. The game doesn't really do this, but they could use the friend system as another way of charting progression. Too bad that possibly the most useful one (Little Jacob) you get really really early on in the game.
Several sandbox games created since GTA haven't imposed this sort of artificial barrier, but then again, according to one of the Housers, 'they don't look at other games, they take their inspiration from movies'[paraphrasing]. It's sort of upsetting that they didn't really take some of the neat ideas from their own games. There are a ton of things from SA or Bully I'd like to see in GTA4, Bully particularly (like a hand-to-hand combat system that isn't absolutely painful, or a social interaction system).
As for plot/storyline/development. For once I'd love to see a GTA game where the protagonist isn't everyone else's errand boy, even with hundreds of millions in their bank-account and a body-count in the low thousands. Tony Vercetti had a bit of this, but he did a lot of gopher work too. At least Niko's not as bad as CJ, playing chump to his thug brother even when he owns a dozen businesses across the state --
It's not really a 10 game, and I'm not even going to touch on graphics. (It's certainly not a 10 in graphics.) It's a very good game, but not more than a low 9, probably a high 8. I'm going to be pretty negative because there's been plenty of praise so far; most of the points made by others stand: the world is huge, there's a ton of neat content, the combat is no longer utterly horrible. The plot is... well, mostly interesting.
The AI's nothing special: traffic's slightly better, but I'd really love to see a game where the AI reacts to the fact you're driving like a maniac, rather than merging into the lane you're speeding down at 140km/h. The enemy uses cover, but they don't really do anything else: you can sit behind a single cover point and use the more accurate weapons to kill everyone, with little chance of being flanked, other than by enemy spawns. The only reason you really have to get out of cover is to help your computer-controlled allies, who like to run into danger. Police is about as dumb as ever, and mostly wins by cheating and spawning in cop cars wherever is convenient.
No in-mission saves! What gives? I seem to remember San Andreas having a taxi you could take that would often take you to the spot of the mission you stopped at. I remember failing to catch my brother on the very last mission... and being able to redo just -that- mission. Even Bully avoided this by having one mission immediately start another. If I could start from my destination I'd be happy enough -- but having to drive to the spot of the mission, fight through a couple dozen bad guys, and then fail at the very end is just horrible.
Essentially, it's a Rockstar game: they haven't learned much from previous games, just scaled up to next-gen. Why block off the other islands? Why can't I drive to Algonquin from the beginning, while force us to do story missions to see this great huge city they created? Why can't we use cool cars from the get-go, why do we have to slog through missions to get to cars that don't handle like boats? Progression? You don't really get better cars in Alderney than you do in Algonquin. You already have a more effective form of progression via unlocking weapons. The game doesn't really do this, but they could use the friend system as another way of charting progression. Too bad that possibly the most useful one (Little Jacob) you get really really early on in the game.
Several sandbox games created since GTA haven't imposed this sort of artificial barrier, but then again, according to one of the Housers, 'they don't look at other games, they take their inspiration from movies'[paraphrasing]. It's sort of upsetting that they didn't really take some of the neat ideas from their own games. There are a ton of things from SA or Bully I'd like to see in GTA4, Bully particularly (like a hand-to-hand combat system that isn't absolutely painful, or a social interaction system).
As for plot/storyline/development. For once I'd love to see a GTA game where the protagonist isn't everyone else's errand boy, even with hundreds of millions in their bank-account and a body-count in the low thousands. Tony Vercetti had a bit of this, but he did a lot of gopher work too. At least Niko's not as bad as CJ, playing chump to his thug brother even when he owns a dozen businesses across the state --
Niko's never a big player. 'Big' character development sort of comes across the last 4-5 missions, in a flash, and is resolved just as quickly, and in a pretty cliched way too. It does bother me how fast Niko goes from 'kill him? No way, I couldn't do that' to 'I'll do anything for 5k'. The side-missions you do for Eddie, the wife-murderer really bothered me. I really wish Rockstar would have allowed me to put a bullet in his head, but no, he gets killed in an act of God, which was just a let-down.
I skip over every ride except the cab rides from the Roman's service. The guy who picks you up has some entertaining dialogue that last around 2-3 minutes. He constantly talks about all the women he gets as a cab driver and complains about having to give you free rides. He even complains and insults you when you ask him to change the radio station.
I didn't notice he had any dialogue until I got to the second island and he different dialogue everytime I used the service (8-10 times).
There have been times when I have been tempted to put a couple through the windshield after the ride but was scared that it might have some permanent effect and I didn't want to miss out on any of our future conversations.
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I'm a couple of hours into it now, but I don't think I'm all that far yet. (I just play very slow)
What I can say is that I like it, as long as I don't have to drive too fast a lot, because I hate the camera work. It looks good, imo.
And I like the story so far.
I haven't got anything else to say right now, but I'll probably keep playing till I finish this game (I guess this says something about the game because I don't think I have actually finished 5 games in my entire life
).
What I can say is that I like it, as long as I don't have to drive too fast a lot, because I hate the camera work. It looks good, imo.
And I like the story so far.
I just got to the part where Vlad has been shot, and when Niko tells about the war, I actually felt sorry for him.
I haven't got anything else to say right now, but I'll probably keep playing till I finish this game (I guess this says something about the game because I don't think I have actually finished 5 games in my entire life
).I'm almost finished. Must be very close. I keep getting distracted by multiplayer with some friends, which is fantastic.
Anyway, I'm not as enamored with the latter portion of the story. It didn't go where I thought it would go, and Niko really seems to stop developing as a character part way through. Still, the gameplay is not worn out on me yet. I'm a little disappointed with the wanted ratings. Four, five and six stars all seem to be nearly identical. The attack helicopters are stupid. I'm not sure I've ever seen one of them fire at me. Mostly the helicopters can just be a pain to escape from, unless you're in the downtown core, where they'll mostly kill themselves for you.
This game is still a 9 for me. I'd rate the single player portion around an 8 and the multiplayer pretty darned high.
Anyway, I'm not as enamored with the latter portion of the story. It didn't go where I thought it would go, and Niko really seems to stop developing as a character part way through. Still, the gameplay is not worn out on me yet. I'm a little disappointed with the wanted ratings. Four, five and six stars all seem to be nearly identical. The attack helicopters are stupid. I'm not sure I've ever seen one of them fire at me. Mostly the helicopters can just be a pain to escape from, unless you're in the downtown core, where they'll mostly kill themselves for you.
This game is still a 9 for me. I'd rate the single player portion around an 8 and the multiplayer pretty darned high.
dubyateeeff
Newcomer
I'm a couple of hours into it now, but I don't think I'm all that far yet. (I just play very slow)
What I can say is that I like it, as long as I don't have to drive too fast a lot, because I hate the camera work. <snip>
but I'll probably keep playing till I finish this game (I guess this says something about the game because I don't think I have actually finished 5 games in my entire life
Good luck with that! GTA has a long playtime so you might still lose interest
But I found the game to be suffuciently easy so that I could jump in do a few missions and jump out again, or do the same mission a few times, get tired, frustrated and retry later. Yeah, what I am trying to say is that you don't need to finish it in one sitting.Also I mentioned in another thread, GTA broke my PS3
but that was after I finished it, but still sucks since I am on sick leave and ordered 3 freaking games for the system!Good luck with that! GTA has a long playtime so you might still lose interest
Also I mentioned in another thread, GTA broke my PS3
Oh, I'm definitely not doing it in one sitting. I got the game on release day and have been slowly chipping away as time permits. I'm at 62% only having done a small amount of side missions, so I should be close to the end.
Once a couple of friends had their hands on it, I started to spend more of my game time in multiplayer.
One complaint I have about multiplayer is I always seem to end up in mostly empty lobbies. There are games that are completely full and games that are nearly empty. There is no middle ground. I'm sure there are enough players that it should be more balanced. I imagine the game mode you choose also affects that greatly, as I seem to have a better time finding opponents for racing.
I finally finished the story last night. It took about 30 hours and seemed to drag for the last 10. While the graphics made it to the next gen, the game play and mission structure is almost the same as the last. It's a great game, but I fell for the hype expecting an epic game. I would not touch any DLC unless it took a large step in new direction. More missions with a newer part of the city is not worth much when I could barely get through the core game while skipping most side missions.
Solid 8.8/10
Here's hoping GTA5 is a larger evolutionary step.
Solid 8.8/10
Here's hoping GTA5 is a larger evolutionary step.
RancidLunchmeat
Veteran
..shrug. It is what it is. What sort of evolutionary step do you have in mind? The DLC will most certainly be more of the same, as IV was just more of the same of III with better graphics and physics.
Then again, I can't think of any sequel that made evolutionary steps over its predecessors.
If you want something evolutionary, you want a different game.
Last I heard there was talk there wouldn't be a GTAV just for the very reasons you've mentioned. How long will people continue to buy more of the same? Although, after the sales and scores of GTAIV, you'd have to think they'd be encouraged to milk it for at least one more iteration.
Although, all interest might be dried up after the two DLC expansions are played through.
San Andreas was a bigger leap from VC than IV is from SA, which is part of the problem. You had a wider range of vehicles, some of which were really offbeat, like the jetpack or the thresher (GTA4 doesn't even have the tank!). It had character customization and stats. Not to mention that GTA 4 doesn't only have other GTAs to compare itself anymore: there have been other sandbox games, since.
Mercenaries gave us on-foot combat that didn't suck, as well as destructible environments. Saints Row did the 'side missions' far better than GTAIV, with tons of options, while 4 gives you darts, pool and bowling. Mercenaries and Crackdown gave us a much a more 'sandbox-style' approach to missions, while GTA4 puts you on rails for most of the games' missions. In fact, for some reason the GTA4 designers seemed to be afraid of the idea that you'd actually use the city in your fights, and so restricts most missions to very narrow sections of the map, like a single building. It's no surprise that the most interesting mission, at least to me was
the one where you have to escape, Heat-style, from a bank heist gone wrong, cutting through the city
It's not like the sandbox genre has stagnated; we've seen tons of new stuff, while GTA4 mostly gives you GTA3, only next-gen. So I also hope that GTA4.2 will be like Vice City was to GTA 3.
What obonicus said. I would like RPG like character progression (Crackdown). I'd like pathing skill trees for specializing weapon skills, not to mention more weapons which are upgradeable. More stuff to spend money on. Better missions, not just drive and kill a person, which is 80% of GTA4. I'd also love co-op like Crackdown.
With all the 10/10 reviews I expected more.
RancidLunchmeat
Veteran
I guess my perspective is skewed or perhaps backwards, not having played Crackdown or Saints Row.
I played Mercenaries and except for the destructible environments, I thought it was crap. I also think the side missions are just time wasters and as far as time wasters go, I don't know how one can be better than another.
The Jetpack and Tank thing are just vehicles that can be easily added (and probably will be) in the DLC expansion packs. I didn't really think they added anything to SA other than 'free for all cheat time' fun.
My main problem with IV is the same as it was with III which is that I'd rather have a smaller 'sandbox' with more interactivity. I'd rather be in a small city or town than be on a movie lot, which is what all the GTA games give us. Yeah.. that's not really a store. It's a store FRONT. You can't open the door or break the windows.
But I didn't expect anything more, so I don't think it's justified to downgrade the game on that regard. I also understand that if they made it small enough so you could go in every building and through every door, the location would be so small you wouldn't be able to drive.
I'd also like to add that I thought the RPG elements of III were cool until I realized they didn't influence the game at all. So what if I look buff or fat? It didn't really matter.
I don't think you should add in RPG elements just for the sake of giving people something extra to do.
As far as gaining specific weapon skills and such that Doc just talked about... sure. That'd be neat, but GTA isn't an RPG.
I agree that it would be epically cool if GTA added an RPG element so you could upgrade your physical skills or your mental skills or driving or shooting and you could solve each mission different ways depending on how you choose to 'build' your character.
But I think that game is a LONG way off. Probably not even available in the next generation. It's just too many different aspects of different games thrown together.
GTA already suffers from the fact that it's not a fighting game so the hand to hand fighting is nothing more than something to play with, it's not a driving game so after the fun factor wears off the driving isn't anything more than a chore, it's not an RPG so changing clothes, accumulating cars etc.. is a waste of time. It's a melting pot of all things and does none of them to perfection, but combines them all fairly well.
Perhaps if I had played Crackdown or Saints Row, I'd expect more from GTAIV. As it is, besides the destructible environments and the movie lot rather than interactive city atmosphere, the one problem I have is that in GTA III there was something to do with your money.
Not being able to buy safe houses everywhere is really annoying. Why do I have 400k? Why do I keep killing people to get more money, there's nothing I can do with it.
I played Mercenaries and except for the destructible environments, I thought it was crap. I also think the side missions are just time wasters and as far as time wasters go, I don't know how one can be better than another.
The Jetpack and Tank thing are just vehicles that can be easily added (and probably will be) in the DLC expansion packs. I didn't really think they added anything to SA other than 'free for all cheat time' fun.
My main problem with IV is the same as it was with III which is that I'd rather have a smaller 'sandbox' with more interactivity. I'd rather be in a small city or town than be on a movie lot, which is what all the GTA games give us. Yeah.. that's not really a store. It's a store FRONT. You can't open the door or break the windows.
But I didn't expect anything more, so I don't think it's justified to downgrade the game on that regard. I also understand that if they made it small enough so you could go in every building and through every door, the location would be so small you wouldn't be able to drive.
I'd also like to add that I thought the RPG elements of III were cool until I realized they didn't influence the game at all. So what if I look buff or fat? It didn't really matter.
I don't think you should add in RPG elements just for the sake of giving people something extra to do.
As far as gaining specific weapon skills and such that Doc just talked about... sure. That'd be neat, but GTA isn't an RPG.
I agree that it would be epically cool if GTA added an RPG element so you could upgrade your physical skills or your mental skills or driving or shooting and you could solve each mission different ways depending on how you choose to 'build' your character.
But I think that game is a LONG way off. Probably not even available in the next generation. It's just too many different aspects of different games thrown together.
GTA already suffers from the fact that it's not a fighting game so the hand to hand fighting is nothing more than something to play with, it's not a driving game so after the fun factor wears off the driving isn't anything more than a chore, it's not an RPG so changing clothes, accumulating cars etc.. is a waste of time. It's a melting pot of all things and does none of them to perfection, but combines them all fairly well.
Perhaps if I had played Crackdown or Saints Row, I'd expect more from GTAIV. As it is, besides the destructible environments and the movie lot rather than interactive city atmosphere, the one problem I have is that in GTA III there was something to do with your money.
Not being able to buy safe houses everywhere is really annoying. Why do I have 400k? Why do I keep killing people to get more money, there's nothing I can do with it.
After playing GTA4 for a long while now, i gotta say this game doesn't deserve all its 10\10 ratings. While i was pleasantly suprised with how the cars drive, and the graphics (sometimes) overall, this has to be the most overrated game ever.
If you read the reviews, reviewers give a lot of cudos to the game for tiny features. (Not to meantion features that have been in other Sandbox games for a long time).
Saints row allready had a mobile phone where you could call people and recieve calls like in GTA4. Nothing new, and nothing special.
I remember in the previews they made such a big deal out of this phone, and how you could set up and plan stuff. Now the game is out, and the only thing you can plan are 4-5 rather boring activities (drinking and driving is still hilarious imo) like eating, playing darts, pool etc.. From the previews, i thought you could use your friends more actively with missions, getting your m8s to help you out with whatever. Not just being able to call some guy up in order to go out and play darts.
The physics engine has gotten tons of good words, and yes its good. Its just as good as Saints Row physics engine (havoc based). (Well, the GTA4 physics engine is probably much more complex, but the end result, meaning what you see on screen is about the same ). Everything ive seen happend in GTA4 from physics i have seen in Saints Row.
The graphics, the graphics are okay, if you forget about the sub-720p resolution on the PS3, it can look great sometimes with the right lighting scheme. Sometimes it looks bad. Sometimes it looks like a xbox 1 shooter (indoor stuff).
The story is okay i guess, i think it starts out great but the last 10 hours feel like a drag. Also, why on earth do i keep killing people for 5,000 USD, when i allready have a couple hundred thousand?
While GTA4 is a very good game, i think its getting much more credit than it deserves. Yes its the best sandbox game out this generation without a doubt, but its not doing a lot of new stuff, while it keeps getting hailed as some godly masterpiece that has perfected a genre. It certainly hasn't.
I say 9\10 or so. Its the best sandbox game out there, but its far away from being a 10\10.
If you read the reviews, reviewers give a lot of cudos to the game for tiny features. (Not to meantion features that have been in other Sandbox games for a long time).
Saints row allready had a mobile phone where you could call people and recieve calls like in GTA4. Nothing new, and nothing special.
I remember in the previews they made such a big deal out of this phone, and how you could set up and plan stuff. Now the game is out, and the only thing you can plan are 4-5 rather boring activities (drinking and driving is still hilarious imo) like eating, playing darts, pool etc.. From the previews, i thought you could use your friends more actively with missions, getting your m8s to help you out with whatever. Not just being able to call some guy up in order to go out and play darts.
The physics engine has gotten tons of good words, and yes its good. Its just as good as Saints Row physics engine (havoc based). (Well, the GTA4 physics engine is probably much more complex, but the end result, meaning what you see on screen is about the same ). Everything ive seen happend in GTA4 from physics i have seen in Saints Row.
The graphics, the graphics are okay, if you forget about the sub-720p resolution on the PS3, it can look great sometimes with the right lighting scheme. Sometimes it looks bad. Sometimes it looks like a xbox 1 shooter (indoor stuff).
The story is okay i guess, i think it starts out great but the last 10 hours feel like a drag. Also, why on earth do i keep killing people for 5,000 USD, when i allready have a couple hundred thousand?
While GTA4 is a very good game, i think its getting much more credit than it deserves. Yes its the best sandbox game out this generation without a doubt, but its not doing a lot of new stuff, while it keeps getting hailed as some godly masterpiece that has perfected a genre. It certainly hasn't.
I say 9\10 or so. Its the best sandbox game out there, but its far away from being a 10\10.
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