Five Days Locked in a Room With GTA IV 220
bippy writes "Five days, one game. The Rocky Mountain News has a write up of five days spent playing Grand Theft Auto IV recently in a San Francisco hotel.
It ends:
'In Grand Theft Auto IV the story isn't just an amalgam of cut scenes and cleverly written dialogue, it's the experiences I create, too. It's now, watching Niko stand, his shoulders slumped, that the depth of this game finally hits me.
Niko's journey, the one crafted by Rockstar, may have ended, but Niko's adventures in the story I am creating have just begun.'" The most anticipated game in a while, to be sure. I'm certainly looking forward to busting some heads and jumping ramps.
What next? (Score:2)
Looking forward to this one.
Re:What next? (Score:5, Funny)
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From there you can do all sorts of fun things like use your political influence to avoid getting arrested. Get drunk, drive around with
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Re:What next? (Score:5, Funny)
They go 60's camp. You are a super villains side kick, dressed in fluro spandex you have to try to dominate your city before the other super villain gangs do, all the while evading police and the occasional vigilante dressed in a leotard with a really cool utility belt.
Karma Girl (Score:2)
If that's what you want, read Karma Girl, by Jennifer Estep [jenniferestep.com]. It's superhero chick lit.
Re:What next? (Score:5, Insightful)
They go 60's camp. You are a super villains side kick, dressed in fluro spandex you have to try to dominate your city before the other super villain gangs do, all the while evading police and the occasional vigilante dressed in a leotard with a really cool utility belt.
A sandboxy Batman game would also be pretty good.
I would also buy "Grand Theft Auto: Mushroom Kingdom", a self-parody with Wario running around outrunning Toadstool cops and the like.
Re:What next? (Score:5, Funny)
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Profit!
Re:What next? (Score:5, Interesting)
Chicago gangs of the 1930s? (I know it's been done by other games, but I'd love to see a GTA version.)
Re:What next? (Score:5, Interesting)
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It brings to mind Need For Speed, Porsche Unleashed
But in "Need For Speed" you couldn't do a drive-by on a rival bootlegger's speakeasy front with tommy guns at 50mph (it goes so fast because 1930's mobsters can afford blazing-fast hotrods).
I submit that slow cars can be made fun with automatic weapons! But really, what can't be made more fun with automatic weapons, now that is the question.
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Kids these days...
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Basically you're a cyber-cop that gets upgrades through game play, and goes from being a bad-ass to essentially being a super-hero. I wouldn't call it a deep story game, but there is a plot, the world is kind of open, and it made me stay up many a night, cackling into my XBL headset as my friends and I would see how long we could keep a corpse in the air with our heat-seeking rocket launchers. Fun and since it's older you can
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Yeah, but a new 3D one.
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Sort of like Team Fortress, with cool cars.
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hmmmm... (Score:5, Insightful)
Is it just me or are people getting way too excited about this game?
Now before everyone instantly mods me troll, I'll point out that I own GTA3, Vice City and San Andreas and loved two of those three games (I'll leave it to you to guess which ones), but I never saw them as deep or as art. I saw them as a fun way to pretend to be a gangster and run around causing mayhem.
Yet this GTA comes out and people are practically wetting themselves over what is going to be the same thing but shiny? Don't get me wrong - I'm sure it'll be a good game and win lots of GOTY awards, but does anyone honestly think they'll see a lot they're not expecting?
Re:hmmmm... (Score:5, Interesting)
GTA is still the finest sandbox-game series, of course we're eager to see it. And the incremental upgrade approach works fine for me so long as we keep getting new storylines. Odd games tend to introduce game mechanics and even ones provide a large world in the game; this title improves mechanics, and the next one will probably have the large world again, AND the new complexity. At least, that's been the pattern so far. So yes, I think that people are justified in being excited.
Personally, I want to see new things done to continue improving replay value. I will keep buying the games if this happens; otherwise I'll get tired of them eventually. It hasn't happened yet, though.
Give me split-screen and/or LAN play, and I can keep the game fresh basically for eternity.
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I guess you're right. I mean no disrespect to people who are looking forward to it --- it just seems that GTA is going the way of FIFA, which worries me slightly.
Re:hmmmm... (Score:5, Insightful)
what... the... fuck... ?
they just released the first game in 3.5 years. aside from downloadable content, the rumours are that the next full game won't appear until the next generation of consoles.
so I ask again: what... the... fuck... ?
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does anyone honestly think they'll see a lot they're not expecting?
GTA3 was successful because it took the whole sandbox game idea and really ran with it, and made something where it really was enjoyable to just mess around in for a long time with no real restirctions, while still providing a story to give everything you're doing a bit of background and meaning (if you so desire, of course). Very different from most everythin
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San Andreas for example was absolutely fantastic, if only because of the sheer size. But the more incremental tweaks certainly helped it a lot, such as the vehicles (especially the bikes) actually handling significantly better; or th
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It does a smooth disconnect though. Basically you won't know your friends are off. They get "re-controlled" by the game's AI. You both go from a joined network game to two separate single player on the fly.
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Re:hmmmm... (Score:5, Insightful)
GTA is still the finest sandbox-game series
Civilization 4, Fallout or The Elder Scrolls are better candidates for the "finest sandbox-game series" than GTA will ever be.
Not that GTA doesn't fill it's own little crime-and-mayhem niche or won't be fun or anything.
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You'd have an argument if those are sandbox games, but thats highly disputable.
Elder Scrolls has the best argument, but I would argue both Fallout and Elder Scrolls are actually simply RPGs with larger worlds than most computer versions. The thing is that even if you're doing nothing, you're still advancing one of the primary components of the game/plot (gaining XP/equipment whatev
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I respectfully disagree on the Elder Scroll claim. I tried to get into it, being one of the highest rated games on the 360 ever, but I simply could not. The world doesn't feel like a world, and side quests do not feel like they are part of the world, allow me to explain.
Oblivion has a very straightforward main storyline, and one can follow this through without doing the vast majority of side quests. The characters in it are well voice-acted, but the animation and the characterization was simply very poorl
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Civ4 requires one to expand and progress fairly efficiently lest one be quickly wiped out by barbarians or opponents. Sure, there is room to try something different each time but generally, one must be far more concerned with doing the right things rather than doing new things or one will not have the time, safety or resources to play around.
The Elder Scrolls allows as much time as the player wants for screwing about but does not provide enough avenues for entertaining oneself without doing a fixed missio
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I'd say it's rivaled by Morrowind (and maybe Oblivion, though I haven't played it yet). They're so different that they're more complimentary than competitive, though.
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Rockstar really did go all out with the story and plot twists with this game and it could easily be turned into an awesome movie.
Near the end of the game when you have to make certain decisions which have different outcomes for Niko's life,
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Re:hmmmm... (Score:5, Informative)
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"Niko's journey, the one crafted by Rockstar, may have ended, but Niko's adventures in the story I am creating have just begun."
It's a game, not a novel, and even as a game the story in it is on the lower tier as far as game stories go. This isn't Half Life or Bioshock where the stories are integral to the game. It's a game where you go around k
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How do you know? Have you played it? Maybe the reviews are saying what they're saying because it does actually have a great story!
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Grand Theft Auto Four is gonna make Grand Theft Auto Three look like Grand Theft Auto Two.
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It might be the same basic idea, but it's the details, not the basic idea, that makes a game great. The details in this game are going to be very different from the details of the previous games.
You could ask yourself the same question about people buying new cars, new computers, new TVs - They serve the same basic purpose as their old ones, but you get them for the quality and the new fe
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Also, I've not played GTA4, but the previous versions certainly feel like they could rather easily adapt to an MMO-style environment.
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Screw technical issues, the real problem is that it's just not easy to translate single-
censorship (Score:3, Interesting)
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What's the mistake exactly? The 360 version outsold the PC version 10:1 at retail stores. The PC gaming market might not be dead, but it's a small minority now.
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There was a time when people said that FPS games would never catch on with consoles, but dual-analog controls proved them wrong. RTS games and MMOs are another two PC-centric genres, but maybe it's only a matter of time until their console equivalents get worked out as wel
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There was a time when people said that FPS games would never catch on with consoles, but dual-analog controls proved them wrong. RTS games and MMOs are another two PC-centric genres, but maybe it's only a matter of time until their console equivalents get worked out as well.
They've caught on but I'm still hostile to the controllers. I can play Oblivion well enough with the standard 360 controller, though I did move like a drunken Bush on a Segway for the first few hours. But the shooters I've tried playing on it, ugh! I'm going to have to put it on "arthritic grandmother" difficulty mode to get anywhere, I lack all accuracy. Give me a mouse and keyboard, I'm just hopelessly used to the idea of playing shooters hunched over a keyboard with the screen a foot from my face, ready
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A major worry being floated around the industry right now is the idea of PC sales cannibalism. How many people who bought it for PC also have a console, and would have purchased that version if were no PC SKU? More directly, how many people pirated it for the PC and never paid, but might have purchased it for a console where pir
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Depth... (Score:2, Insightful)
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You'll note I didn't say it was a bad series of games, just don't pretend there is any depth to the 'story'.
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Did it evolve new and complex mechanics?
If you sat a noob down in front of an advanced level would they be lost?
If you want to see depth look at chess or Escape Velocity... Actually EV is an excellent example of what GTA fails to accomplish.
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PC version? (Score:2, Interesting)
I just checked Wikipedia, but only the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions were listed.
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My Impressions (Score:5, Interesting)
My main complaint is that GTA IV is just a souped up version of the previous GTA games. You play a gangster who goes around breaking laws and doing gangster stuff. The missions are basically the same since the first GTA III - Steal this, muder that, etc. Also there are some frame rate issues, I notice FPS lagging on some occasions. Strange because Burnout looked better and didn't have these problems.
Overall it's a great game. But in many ways it's the same game you've been playing for years.
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You have to feel bad for Take Two though; a leak after all the hype and so much care, and all the kids that would have camped out to get it first but now know they're seeing it last because they don't know how to pirate games. That'd be a bummer.
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Burnout doesn't have PEOPLE, for starters! GTA4 does a lot more than a racing game like Burnout or Gran Turismo does.
It's like comparing a fighting game to a game with dozens of enemies onscreen at the same time.
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So they didn't much care about the game being realistic then...
IGN Review (Score:5, Informative)
http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/827005/grand-theft-auto-4/videos/gta4_review_042508.html [ign.com]
They have proclaimed it the best game of the decade.
Text review: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/869/869381p1.html [ign.com]
Yay (Score:5, Insightful)
What about Wii (Score:3, Interesting)
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Go and buy 'The Godfather: Blackhand Edition' if you want a GTA-type game on Wii. The motion controls on that are wonderful. After overdosing on Nintendo's in-house games, which are great but, you know, saccharine, the first time I played this game was a revelation. Grab a guy by the collar with one hand, pummel his face with the other, fling him through a plate glass window,
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Re:Yay (Score:5, Insightful)
And they most certainly do make enhancements to the PC versions. They all have higher resolution textures than their console counterparts. They all support using a mouse in a reasonable fashion while also using a controller for driving/flying. You can configure every single key, and you never have to deal with unbindable keys or unchangeable binds. If anything R* probably is one of the best development houses at making decent PC ports of titles that started on a console.
Still, it's certainly disappointing how little they appear to care for PC gamers.
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One thing that did suck was the draw distance - things faded into the fog when you were very close, so when you were flying a plane you sometimes couldn't even see the horizon when flying straight and level.
Fortunately some of the game files are plain ascii, and its possible to increase these draw levels TONS, even on the XBOX.
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Gotta Say It... (Score:3, Funny)
No you can't download one. Second Life does not count.
The Hype Machine (Score:3, Interesting)
Other games that were overhyped and failed to satisfy me: Oblivion, World in Conflict, SupCom, Prey... Oh sure, I was stoked to be playing the latest and greatest on really good hardware, but after a couple of hours the shine starts to wear off and then it becomes a job. I have tried to play these games, really tried to finish them, but I just can't. And then, buyer's remorse sets in--it's a viscious cycle because you feel like you have to play all the way through regardless of enjoyment because it cost 50 damned dollars and you have to get your money's worth, right? I mean, come on, what's wrong with me? Why aren't I shivering in adulation of these gods of the gaming universe? Everyone tells me and I keep hearing how awesomely, Earth-shatteringly, mind-blowing these games are. I've got plenty of horsepower in my rig to run them, so it's not that; I know the developers worked their collective asses off making them, so quality isn't an issue either. I guess I just finally learned to stop buying games based on the "objective" reviews, and once I realized that is when I let my magazine subs lapse.
xx01dk's law: All. Game. Reviews. Are. CRAP.
-and its corollary-
Thank goodness for BitTorrent and leaked/pirated releases.
Do not misunderstand me here; if I like a game that I download, I will go out and buy it. If I do not, it gets deleted and I save my money. In addition, just like my favorite musicians, I will buy outright almost any game that is made by my short list of trusted companies/developers. (i.e.: Frank Delise, Sid Meyers, Stardock, Valve, and Rockstar)
Where was I. Oh yes, the hype machine for GTA4. I'm going to buy it but not because of any stupid review. I own GTA3, Vice City, and San Andreas and have played them all through because they were fun. I don't even care that GTA4 won't be out for PC anytime soon because the content is what matters here, and it will still be fresh (to me). I like what Rockstar does, so I will support them by buying their product sans reviews (I actually liked Postal, I think PCG gave it a 0 out of 10 rating...).
Queue fanboy flame wars in 3... 2...
Solution (Score:4, Funny)
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My gaming sessions typically don't last longer than a few hours, so if I find myself wanting to come back to a game, then I know I'm going to buy it so I can have a serial number and support and not have to mess with keeping track of cracks and blacklists and such. However, I can usually tell within the first half-hour or so if I'm going to want to continue to play a particular title. The last game I bought in this way was Sims2; and the last one I rejected was FlatOut 2 (got kinda bori
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Other games that were overhyped and failed to satisfy me: Oblivion, World in Conflict, SupCom, Prey... Oh sure, I was stoked to be playing the latest and greatest on really good hardware, but after a couple of hours the shine starts to wear off and then it becomes a job. I have tried to play these games, really tried to finish them, but I just can't. And then, buyer's remorse sets in--it's a viscious cycle because you feel like you have to play all the way through regardless of enjoyment because it cost 50 damned dollars and you have to get your money's worth, right? I mean, come on, what's wrong with me? Why aren't I shivering in adulation of these gods of the gaming universe? Everyone tells me and I keep hearing how awesomely, Earth-shatteringly, mind-blowing these games are. I've got plenty of horsepower in my rig to run them, so it's not that; I know the developers worked their collective asses off making them, so quality isn't an issue either. I guess I just finally learned to stop buying games based on the "objective" reviews, and once I realized that is when I let my magazine subs lapse.
I know what you mean but I think the real reason is that we're just getting older and we've seen more, thus it becomes harder to impress. The first time for everything is always the most impressive and revisiting any of those things can become a bore if you become jaded. Just sticking with game examples, a friend of mine was out of the gaming scene for years due to college, hadn't had time to keep up with anything. He gets out, buys a new computer, gets the Wolfenstein remake. I thought it was crap but he
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I know what you mean but I think the real reason is that we're just getting older and we've seen more, thus it becomes harder to impress.
Bingo! We have a winner (substitute the entire video game conversation above to "music" and it still fits).
As a kid who used to mow about 10 lawns a week to earn enough quarters to quench my thirst for Pac Man, Crazy Climber, Dig Dug, Asteroids, Defender, and Donkey Kong (to name a couple), I have noticed the long and tiresome tread of games sacrificing entertaining or realistic game play for the sake of the "gee-whiz" lighting effects. What keeps game companies producing vapid-yet-shiny games is that
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A great example of this is the game Grand Prix Legends, which to this day, is one of the most accurate replications of not only car physics, but the culture and history of the era as well. The manual for the game alone was worth the $19 I paid for the game in 1999. The game was dogged because you didn't "unlock" cars, there was no soundtrack, and it didn't have an "arcade" mode. The same thing has occurred with Papyrus (same company as Grand Prix Legends) and their high quality NASCAR racing line from about 2002-2004. Stupid EA Sports bought all the rights to having the "real" drivers and the "real" sponsors all at the expense of the "realism".
Yeah, EA's a bucket of twats and I'm not even in the demo for the sports games they ruin with those exclusive licensing deals. To hell with them and their ratfuck lawyers.
What you describe concerning the split between the hardcore and the arcade crowd, I've seen that in the flight and other military sims. I was hugely into them back in the day and the market seems to have simply tanked. Look at the flight sims. There are some people who want a paragon of realism like Falcon 4.0, other people just want to h
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I dont like this (Score:4, Insightful)
not getting old? (Score:3, Interesting)
Never had a chance to play San Andreas but many of the reviews said it basically became boring and repetitive. It also didn't help that while GTA3 was a sort of era-less generic mob movie and Vice City was an unabashed homage to 80's cheese, San Andreas was based around 90's gangsta rap and thug movies with a suitably nauseating soundtrack. And because it didn't bring a whole lot new to the table, it didn't feel as fresh as 3 and VC, got boring more quickly.
So, is GTAIV really all that? What have they done to keep things fresh and new? How does it keep from feeling like the same ol' same ol'?
The best part about GTA4 (Score:2)
Kiss my ass EA.
Come Agian? (Score:2)
[...]the story isn't just an amalgam of cut scenes and cleverly written dialogue[...]
When has it ever been about that? There has rarely been anything in the way of a story, cut scenes have always sucked, and the dialog usually leans toward the "trying way too hard" type of humor that only impresses the juvenile.
That said, I liked the first two games in the series. I thought that the third installment was terrible, but was mostly remedied by the time San Andreas came about. I'm not drooling in delirium and counting the days until this game is released. I will however probably pick it up o
Euphoria (Score:2)
Am I the only one who's not impressed a bit by the Euphoria physics engine? It's not that I'm so not impressed but more the fact that from what I heard before it would consist pretty much of a fully body simulation with no cheating, like, a muscle, brain and bones simulation. I haven't played the game yet, but I've seen gameplay videos made by players who played the leaked version, and I'm fairly disappointed. It doesn't look like such a realistic simulation at all, looks like you can still "run against a w
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PS3 is starting to become worth the money, but the 360 has a much more well-established playerbase and game library IMO.
If you are the kind of person that wants a lot of good stuff available to you NOW, go 360. If you do not mind waiting a while for a console to show its real value, go with the PS3.