aktick

Which reminds me to ask here...are there parachutes in this game like there was in San Andreas?

CKMorpheus

Which girlfriends offer benefits?

bunkaroo

I took Michelle for a second date to the bar, and I got lucky!

It was weird too, because when we got up to leave the bar, I thought the controls were going nuts, and then I realized Niko was drunk.

Deftones

No because they are too busy creaming at the fact it's a GTA game.

CKMorpheus

I still don't see why all the hate for the controls. It takes getting used to, I mean hell I was playing Burnout Paradise and GTA: SA these past few weeks, and you know how much of a leap these controls were. They're just not that bad.

BlackCapTen

PS3 60gb here, game froze when I was about to buy new clothes. Had to turn off and restart, then it froze as I was exiting the clothing store.

jonw9

Try out-running the cops drunk!

I tried to call for a ride from Roman, but I didn't realize you still had to whistle when the car came. So there I was drunk, on a date, and rapidly crouching on a street corner trying to catch a ride!

Liver&Onions

Interesting poll up on Joystiq about which consoles seem to be locking, etc.
PS3 seems to have the edge on freezing/lock ups(although small) - and the 360 has the edge in no-issue-founds.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/04/30/po...s-with-gta-iv/

IIG

After playing for 3 or 4 hours straight with no problems, I started having minor freezing. I disregarded it, and sure enough my PS3 locked up completely shortly thereafter. I had to flip the switch in the back to turn the system off. I'm tired of this...

PopcornTreeCt

I'm thinking this game is pretty overrated. I know its early but here are some points

1. The dating thing is cool, we can go bowling, drink, watch a show or play darts. So after doing all that I thought Michelle wouldn't mind going to a strip club. Well, I guess she had no opinion on it. She just followed me around the place like we were walking on the street. No interactivity whatsoever. For a 10 out of 10 game I expected something to happen.

2. The storyline is meh. I mean the storylines were never GTA's strong point including this game. And yet Rockstar must think they've written the Citizen Kane of video games because the cut scenes with the poor graphics and stereotypical characters last forever.

3. The humor isn't there. The stuff on the radio is funny but so much of this game seems like it was written by high school kids. It tries to be serious in the storyline but then ridiculous humor other times.

4. Lack of places to go into. Yeah, the internet is freakin' awesome but can you order clothes online? Weapons? Cars? Maybe later on in the game.

5. The graphics aren't all that great. It seems like dark city as it's always dark and even in the daytime in the shadows I can't see anything.

6. The controls are a bit wonky. Yeah, the gun aiming is better but the hand combat is lame. If I hadn't picked up a shotgun from the strip club early on I probably would've failed a couple missions. Driving controls suck worse than any game I've played on the 360.

Now, I'm still addicted to this game. Mostly because I want to open up the rest of the city. I don't understand all the praise this game gets.

Bring on Saints Row 2 please.

Spicollidriver1

Seriously tired of hearing people bithcing about the controls to the GTA games the scheme is different and takes awhile to get used to. And by the way does anyone think it easy to go full bore down a busy street in NYC and the fly around a corner using the handbrake crap the are hard but not because they suck it feels more like its somewhat real

fumanstan

Or, crazy enough, they might not actually have a problem with them.

Mok

I was running down the street trying to kick a hooker, and I ended up jump kicking some guy in the face who was running past me. In the end I actually ended up stopping a criminal a cop was chasing. The cop ran up and pulled his gun on him and told him to freeze. Well I guess I did my good deed for the day, back to kicking hookers.

nickdawgy

Are we playing the same game? The only thing I can agree with you is the game being too dark.

nickdawgy

In the old GTA's they used to give you money for "doing a good deed" like that.

Kicking hookers

Deftones

Must you have a counterpoint to every statement I make?

Yeah, it kind of does. I know fans of the series say "well the controls have been this way on other games."

My response is "they've sucked this long?"

Seriously, go play Crackdown or any other "open" game with a similar style and you'll laugh at how bad these controls are.

Liver&Onions

Has Rockstar included anything to do with "gouranga" since the old top down games?

Flay

The only chick I've manged to get something extra from is Carmen (sohogirl) so far. She's an obnoxious nurse that hates sick people. Anyway, I can call her up if I'm in a tough spot and she will boost my health.

fumanstan

Must you always be wrong?

Yeah it kind of does what? I played the Crackdown demo back when it came out and don't really recall it being that much more intuitive then these. I'll go back and try them again though.

I'm not saying they're great or that you're wrong in thinking the controls suck, but I just don't get why it's impossible that people don't have a problem with them, or reviewers didn't have a problem with them. It's funny that since it's GTA the reviewers must have been all hyped, but I bet Mario Galaxy would get the benefit of the doubt

Honestly, after picking up the game the only part of the control that bugged me was turning while driving. And i've seen reviews that have mentioned minor problems like that. It's not really that hard for me to believe reviewers didn't have any major problems because I didn't.

CKMorpheus

Can I use the "Sleep Mode" and still date/hang out with friends?

slop101

You'll understand why later.

Stick with it - the story gets a lot better, and then it gets great - but like any good story, it's all about the characters, which is what excels here.

I disagree, big time. Yeah, there's a lot of lame juvenile stuff, but there's also some brilliant satire and just plain funny things - look around and listen more.

(you forgot the TV station) Everything you mentioned is quite a bit of stuff actually, and you get even more places to go and things to do as the game progresses - it doles each thing a little at a time, instead of hitting you with everything you can do all at once.

The graphics are all about scale - and as for the darkness, there are brightness and contrast sliders that let you adjust that, and make the game way bright if you wish.

Driving certain cars feels like crap, but there are other cars (most of them, actually) later in the game that control great, and can turn on a dime.

Since I pretty much addressed all your criticisms, do you now understand the praise it gets?

nateman

Has anyone thought about changing the controls back to "classic"? Changing it from "standard" controls to "classic" makes the controls the same as GTA III, GTA: VC, and GTA: SA.

I've been enjoying GTA IV so far. I have a 40GB PS3 that I only really got for use as a Blu-ray player, and the GTA series and some sports games are about as far into video games as I get. I don't know if this one is better than GTA: SA, but It doesn't bore me like a lot of video games do.

Like I said earlier, I have the 40GB PS3, and it's frozen on me twice for the short time I've been playing it. Yesterday right after it loaded and about a minute into it the thing just freezes while I'm trying to get out of the parking lot. Today it froze after I dropped off Michelle at her place. I've seen some pretty noticeable slowdowns as well. I figured this would happen on the PS3 at least. If it's the largest environment in the GTA franchise yet, I fully expected this.

I've enjoyed this game so far, but some things are just keeping this game from being great or even really good:

-The freezing (both PS3 and Xbox 360) is probably the biggest issue GTA IV has.

-I, and a lot of other people can't access the PS3 online. It doesn't even work, and I don't how long we'll have to wait until it does.

-It is way too dark. If you're going under a train bridge (a lot of them in this game), it is impossible to see where you are going.

-The PS3 version is running on 670p and the Xbox 360 is only showing 720p or 780p. So both versions aren't in 1080p HD.

-The people (on the PS3 version at least) still look a little mutated.

That's all I can think of right now. I'm sure I'll run into a few more problems, but those are the main problems, and they're pretty major in my opinion.

tonyc3742

Driving definitely depends on the car you're driving. I stole some pickup, and it was slidey as hell. The little hatchback think, Blista or whatever, I can control that one pretty well, and the sedan I had last, I was making all sorts of bootlegger's reverses.
The dump truck, oh my god that was slow and cumbersome.
I think the humor's pretty good, it does vary, from Niko reacting to Little Jacob's speech, to some juvenilia on the radio.
I scored with Michelle after two dates (bowling and darts), although I let her win one game of darts.

I do think the graphics aren't all that, I've been more favorably impressed with other 360 games; but some of those were more limited in scope. I've got the brightness/contrast two clicks down from the max. (I was also playing in daytime, and the living room doesn't get totally dark.)

I don't think I'd give it a 10; like someone else said, to me that implies perfection (though I know other people intepret 10 differently); but I am enjoying it a lot so far.

RandyM

Maybe I'm an idiot, but I can't find this anywhere.

lordwow

holy crap, I think Niko just curb stomped a guy.