Grand Theft Auto IV

[LimpingFish]

I'm all GTA'd out. I've lost interest, honestly. I don't want to live out the story of an East-European thug's rise to criminal power. I've already lived such a life as an American, two Italian-Americans, and a couple of African-Americans, and I'm bored.

I'm not casting aspersions on the quality of the game, I just don't want to play it.

I'm bored of Rockstar.

[ManicMatt]

I wasn't excited about GTA IV for a long time, as I didn't want to allow myself to get that way about a game, and then have to wait ages for it. However.. having customers ask me when the game is out in my shop every ten minutes, recently, makes it hard to forget about it!

Cust: "When is Grand theft-"
Matt:" 29th April."
Cust: "What-"
Matt: "Tuesday."

Oh okay, I have to let them finish their sentences, as it's only polite!

[Gamer_V]

I'm all GTA'd out. I've lost interest, honestly. I don't want to live out the story of an East-European thug's rise to criminal power. I've already lived such a life as an American, two Italian-Americans, and a couple of African-Americans, and I'm bored.

So were they, so it's not about 'rags to riches', but about 'rags to slightly less rags.'


Also, I'm so f*cking hyped for this game right now. 13 days is a long time.

[Jack Sheehan]

I forgot to pre order so im just going to buy it in tesco, where they don't take preorders.

[Emerald]

I forgot to pre order so I'm just going to buy it in tesco, where they don't take preorders.

Something tells me that the "most anticipated game ever" will be a bitch to find even a month after the release date... I should've pre-ordered...



When you say '16-player free-roaming', does that mean 16 people just faffing about, driving around and shooting stuff, or does it mean the full gambit - shopping, pimping cars, doing missions, robbing houses, etc.?

[vict0r]

When you say '16-player free-roaming', does that mean 16 people just faffing about, driving around and shooting stuff, or does it mean the full gambit - shopping, pimping cars, doing missions, robbing houses, etc.?

There are plenty of modes which look awesome! Check out the "cops n' crooks" mode! There is a regular TDM or DM mode as well though. AFAIK, it's raffing about, but with the whole city as their playground!

[Domino]

GTA 4 has gone gold!!! It will be here soon.

Cannot wait. Sucks that it comes out during the busiest time of year at work.

Will not get much time to play it.  :'(

[JD]

Pre-ordered it at various stores, just in case. They seem to be expecting a shortage of the game, at least in Holland. I love the game series. Every game just got better and better. Also looking forward to the multiplayer modes, and the DLC on Xbox 360!

[Chicky]

I'm guarenteed a special edition on release date 

The online free roam has the entire city to play with, exactly as it is in the single player. The whole city is open at the start of the game and its the same case in multiplayer, all cars, boats and helicopters are there as well as every other little detail from the sp. Just the mission spawns are gone.

I don't normally get worked up about a release date, but there is SO much work gone into gta it's like the 90's again!

[Stupot]

GTA IV smashes all kinds of records!!!

You'll have to modify the url slightly because it contains the letter 'r' which those eggheads at bigbluecup have cunningly edited to are because they think i'm an idiot who can't spell.

[Domino]

I am having a great time with this. Easily one of the best games i have played next to Bioshock.

I loved GTA3, VC and SA, but this one is amazing IMO.

It sucks that you can't ride the rides in the amusement park though. 

Bowling & Darts are fun too.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6190520.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnewsag=latestnews;title;0

[Nacho]

I have played it from the release day and I have some conclussions (Comparision between GTA IV and GTA:SA):

Bellic is not so carismatic as CJ. (As Carl Johnson, I mean, but hehe... Chris Jones is more carismatic than Bellic as well...)

Missions are easier. (Maybe because I had to aim with the mouse in GTA:SA and with GTAVI I aim "automatically", since I am playing with a PS3 sixaxis?
Missions in GTA IV hasve less variety: In SA there was which was about aiming polices where Catalina was robbing a bank, if you let the polices reach to his weapons with their hands, they would shoot at you and make the alarm. You had to steal something to the army, drive trucks, get into an Hercules aircraft with a motorcycle and make it explode, get into a carrier and steal a fighter, make more races, sneak into houses and steal things... Dunno, I have the sense that 90% in GTA IV are "drive and shoot to people".
GTAIV has less "silly things that make you feel this is a videogame and not the real life". The "hidden objects" are pigeons with a discreet orange blow, not horseshoes or shells floating in th air, for example.
Radio stations were far better in GTA:SA, IMHO.
GTA IV map is smaller, but has more volume of things happening... Not sure if this is good or not, since I loved to go to the desert of San Andreas, put my leather jacket on, and ride my Harley with a country station on...

Anyway, I am discovering that GTA IV is not that great as the media says... except for the city. It' s just the possibility of walking in NY and the feeling that it is alive (without danger of getting your wallet stolen) that makes it great for me.

[evenwolf]

They certainly cut some corners with the size of the map and the number of "fun things' like the eat to get fat and DDR type stuff.    But this is all good since they focused on realism.    The Euphoria physics are amazing!


I think I admitted long ago I got caught up in San Andrea Multiplayer.     I actually have a test server where I've been coding.    This is where I have been for so long.    *sigh*    Addictions.

[Andail]

Not that I was about to acquire GTA IV any time soon (you need xbox 360 or playstation 3 first, right?) but I'm kind of disappointed to hear that it involves less of the quirky details that made San Andreas kind of fun, even for a non-hardcore gamer as myself.

[[Cameron]]

It does have a few less of those quirky things, but it has an amazingly engaging storyline, with a really rich character. If they'd kept in a lot of the quirky stuff I think it may have held it back somewhat.

[Nacho]

I don' t want to focus the discussion on the quirky things... I preffer the game without them.

But missions are easier and more repetive, IMHO.

Of course, Liberty city is SUPERB! But San Andreas was as great (About atmosphere and detail, I am not taking of th emap size) as Liberty City (Considering the TECHNOLOGY they had in the time when both games were released).

I feel teleported when I a play in LC, I feel that nothing better could be done to represent a real city in a game made in 2008... but I felt the same when I was playing in LS, SF and LV in 2004.

I enjoyed inmenselly the change of directions that took in SA, the badlands, the desert, Las Venturas... I really liked Mike Toreno' s missions. I felt that there was a logical evolution between the guy making an easy drive through in mission 1 to the Jamesbondish guy we had at the latest.

Mike is allways the same. It is just that the missions are longer, and there are more enemies, but mission 5 is vistually identical to mission 25.

Dunno... I have the same feeling that I have when I compare an action movie made in 1981 (Raiders of the Lost Ark) with one made in 2007 (Spiderman 3, for example). The newers are tecnology better? Yes. Do I preffer the new ones? Definitelly not.

And I am not saying I am not liking GTA IV. I really like it...

It is just that I feel that "it' s not that much" as the media says. I mean... 100% in IGN, 100% in meristation, 5/5 in Play Station magazine, etc... IMHO, too much. 8.5 of 10 would have been enough.

EDIT: To explain it better... GTA: SA was a Vin Disel movie, and GTA IV is more like Coppola. I' d preffer the second option if I had to go to the cinema, but I am not sure about a videogame I had to play.

[radiowaves]

One German shop stated that PC version will be out in Nov the 23. But I doubt it. PS3 is still quite new and they don't want to lose their market for the PC yet.

As for me, I think its time to take up GTA III again.

[Emerald]

Finally got this game. Personally, I think it's a bit of a step down from San Andreas in most regards, except perhaps in the atmosphere.

The thing that really pissed me off though was that they got authentic Eastern European actors, Russian actors, Jamaican actors, African American actors, Italian American actors, American American actors -- they even got Ricky Gervais -- but they couldn't get a single focking Irish guy! All they had were these New Yorker guys who threw in the occasional perversion of Irish slang, and made vague references to the Troubles. I mean, WTF?

This is almost as bad as when Atlas turned out to not even exist. Why are Irish characters always disappointing?

[evenwolf]

Thought "In Bruges" was pretty good.   It was nice to see Colin Ferell ( who I typically hate) in a role I enjoyed.     I could name some really great performances.  Take Gary Oldman and Ed Harris in "State of Grace."   Thought they did a phenomenal job as Irish american mobsters.

But to your point I think its a matter of perspective.  Sure. GTA4 got some good voice acting for eastern europeans.   But this is not always so.  Almost every ethnicity has played victim to this annoyance.   The stereotypical Russian or Italian or Mexian or Indian guy in movies is so overdone (and it stings when its an out of place actor).    With all these horrible portrayals I couldn't single out the Irish... but I'm sure you could since movies like Boon Dock Saints probably take the piss when you watch them.


But if I were to place my finger on it,   I would blame all the American actors of Irish descent who get jobs because they have red hair.   Specifically...  blame douche bags like Michael Rapaport.    These shitty actors practice their Irish accents for two weeks and put "authentic Irish accent" on their resumes.

As an actor myself I'd peg the "irish accent" as the actor's laziest best friend.   No effort, no research.   Just "gimme me lucky charms!" and you're in.   So yeah I'd say most hack actors in Hollywood are to blame, not Hollywood itself. 

[Emerald]

Maybe so, but there's nothing more irritating to an Irishman than people who pretend to be Irish.

We're a very proud people, as many Europeans are. We're all self-conscious about globalisation and becoming 'Little America', and we love the stereotypical view that we're silver-tongued, party-loving devils who can hold our liquor and are always up for a laugh. It's a sense of national pride that's so palpable even companies like 'Carlsberg' pick up on it.
And when Americans start calling themselves Irish because their "great great great grandma took a piss in Dublin on the way over from Leeds" it's like they're stealing our personal identity because they think it's cooler than being just a 'normal' American.

So it's incredibly annoying when this American gobshite is there shouting "Crickey, boyos! I haven't seen this much combat since Belfast!"

I mean, if they were actually taking the piss, it'd be grand, but the fact that they're actually trying -- and helping the Irish mob takes up about a third of the story missions, more than any other ethnicity -- without a single bit of research into what Irish people are actually like, is just retarded... (not to mention that they seemed to get almost every other ethnicity right, without portraying them solely as a pack of dysfunctional drug addicts)