Second GTA IV Patch Released, Early Look At DLC

IllusionMPN notes that a new patch has been issued for the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV. It primarily contains bug fixes and optimization changes, though it's created an issue with some input devices. We're also starting to get hands-on previews of the upcoming downloadable "episodic content," The Lost and the Damned. Trailers and an achievement list are available as well. The original game's Niko Bellic won't have much of a role in the new content.

First impressions

[Jupix]

• The game forgot all settings again
• Redoing them, again some of them didn't stick, and I had to redo them
• I think they've done something to the sounds. It seems the klack of shoes while walking, pedestrian sounds, environment feeling inside cars, and such is much clearer now. It feels like they enabled EAX or something. This is good
• Shadows are fixed, they're passable now and not like this [jupix.info]. Also, the shadow detail slider now actually changes something (how far away and detailed the game draws shadows)
• Playing pool is still broken, it's like a have a controller constantly pushing the rod forward. However this can't be controller incompatibility since I have none, and since this behavior occurs nowhere else in the game. This only means I can't play pool. (And anyway, I can't understand why they changed the pool controls from San Andreas, they were awesome compared to the console ones we have now. It's like Rockstar had a strange perversion to have as many functions in the game as possible controlled by the keyboard.)
• The longer I played, the slower the game seemed to load textures.
• Couple of hours into a game session I got some hitches of a few whole seconds. Then after a while I got a yellow screen before a scene change. Again a few minutes went by and the game froze, taking the OS (XP) down with it.

Overall some nice improvements, but disappointigly, the major issues of the game remained untouched (DRM and consoley UI).

Re:Meh

[Briareos]

Damn, man.. Yet another patch and yet again it manages to screw something up?! We're either talking some major bad luck or an assinine QC.

Nah, it's just stupid submitters and ignorant editors all over again - the "issue" that's linked in the summary was actually caused by the first patch and is now fixed [rockstargames.com] in the second one:

LOOK / SPIN / STUCK KEY ISSUES

The issue has been fixed in the latest Title Update 1.0.2.0. However, with Title Update 1.0.1.0, some users are experiencing a Look/Spin/"Stuck Key" issue that interferes with user input.

np: Frivolous - Forget The Funk (Midnight Black Indulgence)