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Five Days Locked in a Room With GTA IV

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the looking-forwrad-to-this-one dept.

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.

15 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What next? by ChowRiit · · Score: 5, Funny

    So they've done Miami Vice, mobsters, LA street gangs, and now Russian mobsters. What's next? Uh, Cowboy Neal?
  2. hmmmm... by MagdJTK · · 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?

    1. Re:hmmmm... by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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?

      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.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:hmmmm... by TomHandy · · Score: 4, Informative

      Well, if you do read any of the in-depth reviews that have come out so far, what has surprised people has been the fact that the storyline is deeper and more "artistic" than the previous GTA games. As you said, most people expected this game to be the same thing but "shiny", which probably would have been enough any way for plenty of praise and GOTY honors. That they also seem to have made a more mature and complex story is why people are giving this even more praise. I can say that I've mainly played the previous GTA games as sandboxes and not really gotten much into the story itself, but if the early word is anything to go by, it seems like this will be a game where the story aspect will be a lot more compelling.

    3. Re:hmmmm... by Yahweh+Doesn't+Exist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      >it just seems that GTA is going the way of FIFA

      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... ?

    4. Re:hmmmm... by justinlee37 · · Score: 4, 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.

  3. Re:What next? by Freaky+Spook · · Score: 4, Funny
    What's next?

    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.

  4. My Impressions by Dr+Kool,+PhD · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've played the game a few hours since the ISO was released on Thursday. The main difference between GTA IV and previous versions is that the city feels more alive. Pedestrians say more and varied crap to you, people act in a variety of ways when you jack their car, the police act intelligently and hide behind their car doors, etc. There's a ton of stuff to do in the game and I'm sure it took a superhuman effort by the programming staff to get all this stuff packed into the game.

    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.

  5. IGN Review by I'll+Provide+The+War · · Score: 4, Informative

    IGN has the first video review.

    http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/827005/grand-theft-auto-4/videos/gta4_review_042508.html

    They have proclaimed it the best game of the decade.

    Text review: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/869/869381p1.html

  6. Re:What next? by Mr.+Bad+Example · · Score: 5, Interesting

    > So they've done Miami Vice, mobsters, LA street gangs, and now Russian mobsters. What's next?

    Chicago gangs of the 1930s? (I know it's been done by other games, but I'd love to see a GTA version.)

  7. Yay by OverlordQ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Remind me in a year or two when the PC version finally comes out.

    --
    Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
    1. Re:Yay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I agree that R* doesn't seem to care much about their PC releases once they've gone gold. And there are bugs that could do with fixing (not so much with San Andreas imho), but overall the PC ports are reasonably polished if you ask me.

      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.

  8. Re:What next? by CastrTroy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Would be an interesting storyline, but I'm not sure the whole "auto" thing would work out. There wasn't a whole lot of variety in cars back then. It brings to mind Need For Speed, Porsche Unleashed. Which was a great game, but the story mode kind of sucked, because you had to spend so much time driving cars from the 50s and 60s. Really shows you how much cars have changed since their early days.

    --

    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  9. Re:What next? by _KiTA_ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What's next?

    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.

    I would buy that in a heartbeat, there's not enough supervillain games out there.

    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.
  10. Re:What next? by WK2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciubx6RijLo

    --
    Write your own Choose Your Own Adventure. http://www.freegameengines.org/gamebook-engine/