discostu1337

I told everyone a few days ago the game wasnt that great...still and 8/10 though. I beat it in 20 hours, and did most side missions already. We played a lot of multiplayer tonight and the only good mode is Team DM and maybe the Cops&Robbers thing. The rest are awful, and Free Mode is boring as crap. Also, every other time we played, the host would get booted, or a random person would get booted. This game is in need of some serious fixin'

nickdawgy

I play plenty of games. Has any reviewer mentioned the controls? It must not be that big of a deal.

nickdawgy

I just got my first freeze. I was about to do and it hung at the loading screen. I waited a good minute or so before I had to reset.

This is for the 360.

beesonosu

Believe it or not I'd never played more than 30 minutes total of any previous GTA. The graphics look great on my LCD (a step below Bioshock/COD4?) and I'm enjoying the hell out of the storyline and I'm just a few hours in. The controls will take/have taken some time to get used to although I'd be saying that no matter what the controls are like. Sure, it can be hard to drive an old jalopy at full speed down the highway with cops chasing me - but shouldn't it be?

Oh, yeah, my game "froze" once during a cut scene. The voices kept talking so I didn't miss any of the conversation but the screen itself was stuck on an image. The controller wouldn't respond at all but I kept the X button held for 20-30 seconds(?) and, right before I was going to restart my 360, my profile blade came up and the cut scene resumed back to normal as it wasn't over yet. Doesn't sound exactly like what I've been hearing but it may be worth a shot.

Also, is it odd that the first achievement I earned other than the getting of the boat one was "Stay alive for 6 minutes with 6 stars"? In fact, I stayed alive for 22 minutes with 6 stars because I really, really wanted to see if I could get out of it with no knife and no guns (and no vehicle for most of the time as my ambulance crashed and burned). I actually got very close a few times but each time an invisible cop would spot me and the cop circle centered on me again. I can post what I did and where I went if someone is interested. And, to be clear, I didn't purposely try to get this - I just sort of drove into an area that, for some reason, the cops didn't follow me into although it seemed like they knew I was there.

maxfisher

I got to play for about an hour and a half last night and was having some brutal freezing issues. I got the disc read error 3 times and got a flashing red light in the lower right quadrant of my ring twice. I've occasionally had disc read errors in the past, so who knows if it's the game or if my 360 is just dying. Either way, it sucks a lot of fun out of the game to have to restart the console every 10 minutes. Another night of that and I'll be calling Microsoft to see if I can get them to send me a coffin. Oh well.

kaze0

I agree with the controls being horrible. The controls have always been horrible in GTA games. I can never understand how no reviewers ever mention how awful the controls are. At least they made shooting a bit more tolerable.

ElementZ

I've been finding the controls and driving just fine for me. Camera is a little iffy but to each his own.

Great game so far.

jonw9

I guess I will weigh in. I played for a couple of hours last night.

I don't think the driving is terrible. I have gone on 2 wheels, but not rolled a car yet. Maybe I was ready for the driving by reading posts, or maybe it was all of the Gran Turismo/Forza driving I have done. I am not bother by it in the least.

The walking controls leave a bit to be desired. They are not flawless, but good as GTA controls go. Part of it may be the "open" world" messing with me a bit. I try to go to the apartment, walk through the door and I am now stuck besides the stairs. When I finally make it inside, I end up blasting through the kitchen table or running on the bed.

I am more disturbed by the camera controls, but maybe that is my view setting. I think I am using the third behind option, the furthest away. When driving a go up a hill and I lose sight of the road ahead and end up rear-ending a cop or missing a turn. I will dabble with the other camera angles to see if this helps. It is also noticeable left getting in Roman's cab, and the camera is looking at the front, so then I need to rotate manually to see where I am heading.

I am not disappointed, however, I am not a "hardcore" gamer either. I think even comparing this to the Bioshock Demo I would rate GTA as a solid 8 or 9. Then again, I would never rate anything a 10, because that leaves no room for improvement.

The Bus

Yay... shitty controls.

I'll still get this but if I didn't have the BB gift cert, I probably wouldn't have bothered.

lotsofdvds

It's pretty much a given at this point that GTA games have shitty controls, hence why no one mentions it in reviews anymore.

Most of the previews I read specifically pointed out that people would have issues with the driving.

So far I've found that it really depends on the car you're driving. Roman's taxi is simply an awful car to drive. But I've jacked other cars that drive nice and smooth. And the motorcycles seem to be pretty responsive as well.

My main complaint about the controls is when you're driving, the camera doesn't swing around fast enough when you're going from Reverse to Drive to be able to see where you're going.

For me, the story and overall fun factor outweigh the tricky controls.

redbill

Here's my recap of my freezing issues. (60gb ps3):

notice some 1-sec pausing, stuttering several times in the first 30 minutes. Then the first lock-up happened during a cut-scene. Nothing responded, needed to reboot. Happened twice more (not just during cut-scenes), within 10-15 minutes of rebooting. Searched the web, and read about this issue. So I tried deleting the game data (not save), and re-loading. Since then, about 2-3 hours of playing no more pauses or lock-ups. Hope it sticks...

other than that, great game! haven't tried multi yet.

Flay

Is it just me or has anyone had to buy any weapons yet? I'm 25% through the game now and the only time I even went into a weapon shop was on the mission that introduced it. The enemy leaves a ridiculous amount of weaponry laying around; I think I'm up to 900 machine gun rounds and 600 pistol rounds so far.

The only thing I've spent any real dough on was a new $2000 suit for Niko.

Groucho

I agree with this. You have to be ready and set the camera yourself or you're likely to hit a pole.

dvd182

Froze on the first chase mission, 60GB launch PS3. I have to agree with the growing sentiment here: the game is very good, but the freezing and control issues have put a damper on my fun.

aktick

Controls don't really bother me at all, took a little getting used to (I think I still had the Saint's Row controls in my head, even though I haven't played it for 6 months), but there are so many of them that's a given.

Camera controls would be the only minor gripe I have, but not really much of an issue at all.

The story is wonderful so far (~15% done), so much better than past incarnations of the game.

And as others have said, the amount of stuff to do outside of the main story is ridiculous. A single story mission obviously takes more % off the total than the side, non-story stuff, so I'm sure I'm not nearly 15% done with what I will end up doing in single player mode.

I didn't play anything other than free mode and party mode last night, but basically drove around pissing around in choppers and crotch rockets for 2 hours and didn't get bored. Maybe I'm just easily entertained, but this thing is going to have some serious longevity for me.

I would imagine a lot of the complaints wouldn't be coming up if the game had gotten even a 9.5 on average, since all these 10s make a person think there should be NO problems or glitches at all?

JHosk

I agree.....I find the camera movement (the right stick) fairly sluggish and it always seems to slightly re-position istelf automatically after each movement.

The weakest parts of the controls are definitely the parts where you control Niko and not a car (ie. walking, combat, etc.). Although to be fair, this is my first real exposure to GTA so it may just be the learning curve.

To be honest I enjoyed the combat non-driving stuffin Saints Row a little more.

firteen88

OK, I came here to complain and thought I was gonna get completely flamed.

My review so far....

40GB PS3

- My game froze about 15 minutes in. had to turn off the system and restart it. Obviosuly almost everyone has had this problem. I don't mind this so much as I'm sure there will be a fix soon enough.

- Multiplayer doesn't work, for anybody (it didn't last night anyway). But again, I'll deal with this for now as I'm sure it will be fixed.

- Controls: Like most people have already said. The controls stink. Driving was so much easier in GTA 3. The main problems I have with the driving are
- Turning: I can't figure out how to make a sharp turn. If I hit the handbrake I just do a 360 spinout. if I hit the regular breake, I can't turn as fast.
- Camera Angle: In GTA 3 you could quickly tap a button and the camera would be behind you again, you apparently can't do that in this game. When I peel out, the camera angle is totally out of whack and I have to do readjusting....very annoying

- Fighting: Fighting stinks too. It so awkward trying to punch someone

- The graphics and story line are so far pretty good. I have no complaints there. The first few missions seemed a bit hard to me, mainly because of the controls. I'm hoping I get used to them soon. At least you can change the controls back to classic (where the X button is used to accelerate)

aktick

I'm on the 360, so maybe it's different, but when driving if you press the right stick (to look backwards normally) and let it go, it should recenter things...I think.

GoVegan

I played for a few hours yesterday and have yet to kill anyone or brutalize any hookers. I found that confusing, because I keep seeing reporters who have never played the games before letting everyone know that's the point of the game.

I agree that fighting is awkward. I expect that when I hit, say, the punch button that my character will at least attempt a punch. Same with kicks.

I actually like the driving. The cab is fairly horrible, but it's still usable. As long as you slow down a bit before trying to handbrake around a corner you should be ok. You just can't go from 90 mph to pulling the handbrake.

I like that you can be thrown from the car in a collision. I wasn't expecting that when I crashed into a building at what must have been top speed.

Groucho

Yeah, I was doing the "protect the boss" game in multiplayer following behind the boss in a separate car as decoy/backup. He hit a cement divider and got thrown from the car. I couldn't stop and ran him over.

Phuzbox

60GB PS3 owner here. Got a freeze of video only during the opening cut scene with Niko in Roman's apartment. Restarted the PS3 and was able to play without any problems. My neighbor had a freeze up on his 80GB PS3 and restarted it with no problems afterwards.

lordwow

I don't have a problem with the braking because it's realistic. You can't take a turn like that in the real world without braking first. Nobody takes a 90 degree turn at 40+ MPH in the real world.

6669

I haven't seen this anywhere, but I have a (stupid) question.

How do I party up with a friend? I tried, but I can't figure it out.
Thanks.

firteen88

I'd tell you, but the multiplayer doesn't work for me to try it out.

bunkaroo

This has been my thought on the driving as well.

Now the camera while driving and fighting controls are another story.