Grand Theft Auto IV

[Chris Beveridge]

Nothing like getting it for practically free.. got in my gift card from Best Buy for having bought a Toshiba HD DVD player from them two years ago. $50 in pocket, a pair of $5 reward zone coupons and a free game on order (for the PS3; Toshiba helps me buy Blu again!).

Hopefully this game will get me away from Call of Duty 4 for awhile...

[Johnny]

Hopefully this game will get me away from Call of Duty 4 for awhile...

I don't know about that, Chris - the new maps are scheduled to hit the PS3 right around the time GTA IV drops :P Guess you're just gonna have to cut back on the anime reviews to make time for both ;)

But yeah, this game is gonna kill it (especially with the multiplayer stuff) until MGS 4. Depending on how the 360 DLC works out, I'll pick up that version as well as the PS3 version I have on preorder somewhere down the line. I'd actually prefer it to work out like the Mass Effect DLC where you can just start a fresh game. I don't think I'd have the time to play through the PS3 one and then go back and do it all again on the 360, just to get the most out of the DLC.

[Jarred]

Just got done reading the multiplayer hands-on in the recent issue of EGM, and I'm pretty stoked. Sounds like the game will ship around 5 4-player standalone co-op missions, along with 10 other versus game types. The game is definitely shaping up to add a whole shit ton of value.

I only wish it had came out the beginning of April, rather than the end, since I'm currently at home by myself for the month.

[Chris Beveridge]

Hopefully this game will get me away from Call of Duty 4 for awhile...

I don't know about that, Chris - the new maps are scheduled to hit the PS3 right around the time GTA IV drops :P Guess you're just gonna have to cut back on the anime reviews to make time for both ;)

But yeah, this game is gonna kill it (especially with the multiplayer stuff) until MGS 4. Depending on how the 360 DLC works out, I'll pick up that version as well as the PS3 version I have on preorder somewhere down the line. I'd actually prefer it to work out like the Mass Effect DLC where you can just start a fresh game. I don't think I'd have the time to play through the PS3 one and then go back and do it all again on the 360, just to get the most out of the DLC.

I'd forgotten about the maps updated on COD4... damn. Well, I can play that game when the kids are around so it's not an issue, since GTA4 will be a night game.

[AdyHart]

I have been waiting for something to give my PS3 a good work out as it has only had Devil May Cry 4. Grand Theft Auto IV is going to be immense, it is a bit disappointing you cant fly any winged aircraft but I doubt that will have any impact on the quality. 3 weeks cant go quick enough

Depending on how the 360 DLC works out, I'll pick up that version as well as the PS3

I havent been following most 360 news about GTA IV, but what is the deal with the Xbox DLC? is it going to be anything worth while?

[LordGeo]

Well, this looks like the first console-made GTA that I won't be able to play immediately; my brother always had bought GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas at launch, and I played them when he didn't.

Oh well, it's not like I ever beat any GTA game anyway. I always play the game seriously for about a little less than half the game, if that, and then I get bored and start going crazy trying all kinds of stuff. Then I stop playing the game...

[Jarred]

I havent been following most 360 news about GTA IV, but what is the deal with the Xbox DLC? is it going to be anything worth while?
Nothing's been spoken about it yet. There's a rumor the first bit will be out within a month after release, and others are thinking it's going to be stuff along the lines of the standalone co-op missions.

I imagine MS wants to talk about it before the game ships, to try and swing the console sales to them, so I would expect some news about it before then.

[Johnny]

I havent been following most 360 news about GTA IV, but what is the deal with the Xbox DLC? is it going to be anything worth while?

The specifics haven't been revealed with. To be honest, I'm expecting something substantial but in the end, not really worth getting worked up about. I mean I can't see a whole new area unless MS have dropped some serious $$$. Maybe a few new story arcs.
Having said that, I would love to be proved wrong to give me the incentive to also buy the 360 version.

[Jarred]

[QUOTE=AdyHart;1274352]I mean I can't see a whole new area unless MS have dropped some serious $$$. Maybe a few new story arcs.
$50M is some serious bank to snag just DLC. And Rockstar already has the cash in their bank, so I imagine MS wants some good value in return.

[brycec1701]

I'm definitely gearing up for this one. COD 4's new maps should hold me over as I am working on getting my Gold Cross avatar on COD4.

The new maps a great. I just wish that Infinity Ward would move them out to all of the game types on XBOX Live.

[Johnny]

The new maps a great. I just wish that Infinity Ward would move them out to all of the game types on XBOX Live.

OT but they'll be on all game types at some point this week from what I've read.

[GHardin]

Nothing like getting it for practically free.. got in my gift card from Best Buy for having bought a Toshiba HD DVD player from them two years ago. $50 in pocket, a pair of $5 reward zone coupons and a free game on order (for the PS3; Toshiba helps me buy Blu again!).

I'm in the same boat - the $50 giftcard will go nicely towards the purchase of GTA4...or some more anime; I'm hoping more on the former at this point. ^_^;;;

To be honest, I wasn't really stoked until looking a little closer in late March / early April. Guess it helps me keep my expectations in line.

Either way, it'll be yet another game to keep my 360 nice and busy (I probably should buy something for the PS3...but I'm only buying exclusives for that. :P).

Hopefully this game will get me away from Call of Duty 4 for awhile...
Yeah...good luck with that.

[Chris Beveridge]

Nothing like getting it for practically free.. got in my gift card from Best Buy for having bought a Toshiba HD DVD player from them two years ago. $50 in pocket, a pair of $5 reward zone coupons and a free game on order (for the PS3; Toshiba helps me buy Blu again!).

I'm in the same boat - the $50 giftcard will go nicely towards the purchase of GTA4...or some more anime; I'm hoping more on the former at this point. ^_^;;;

To be honest, I wasn't really stoked until looking a little closer in late March / early April. Guess it helps me keep my expectations in line.

Either way, it'll be yet another game to keep my 360 nice and busy (I probably should buy something for the PS3...but I'm only buying exclusives for that. :P).

Hopefully this game will get me away from Call of Duty 4 for awhile...
Yeah...good luck with that.

heheheh. Yeah, I'm just real glad I've been doing as well in multiplayer as I have been. I usually suck heavily at console shooters because they feel so unnatural due to years of KBM use on the PC. But it's been, god, three years since I last played counterstrike? My skills were gone and it was easier to transition into COD4 style and adapt. I think I'm at level 47 now which is pretty nice for someone like me who rarely gets far at all.

[Sheldon]

Nothing like getting it for practically free.. got in my gift card from Best Buy for having bought a Toshiba HD DVD player from them two years ago. $50 in pocket, a pair of $5 reward zone coupons and a free game on order (for the PS3; Toshiba helps me buy Blu again!).

Hopefully this game will get me away from Call of Duty 4 for awhile...

CoD4 is fantastic, i dunno how to get online from over here tho :(

[GHardin]

heheheh. Yeah, I'm just real glad I've been doing as well in multiplayer as I have been. I usually suck heavily at console shooters because they feel so unnatural due to years of KBM use on the PC. But it's been, god, three years since I last played counterstrike? My skills were gone and it was easier to transition into COD4 style and adapt. I think I'm at level 47 now which is pretty nice for someone like me who rarely gets far at all.

That's more than me....outside of the Battlefield series on the PC, I haven't gone online with an FPS...at least in a competitive arena; I always play cooperative, as it just seems more fun for me to take down the computer with some friends (or experience the story mode with a group, anyway).

[TheStrongMan]

So...does anyone know if any of the major retailers (Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, Walmart) are going to be doing midnight launches for GTAIV?

I wouldn't be surprised if EB/GS is doing a midnight launch, but I don't want to deal with any of that preorder BS.

The end of April is going to be a fun little disaster. I work on the 28th. Have the 29th and 30th off, but have to be into work at 3am on the 1st to do the end of month inventory. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to be a good employee and go to bed early, or be a bad employee and stay up and play GTA. :devil:

[Lego]

With the launch coming up I figure that I'd chime in that I'm getting this for the 360. Granted the younger brother will be playing it more then me since he really enjoyed the first three, but it's a great game to mess around in. So feel free to message me if any AOD'rs want to play one of the many multiplayer modes(lol, like thats going to happen).

[hermione]

Anybody else been watching the live feed of the guy who downloaded the ripped PAL version and has been playing it and showing it off?

GOd the game looks awesome just from the feeds and the IGN review (first 10/10 in four years from the IGN editors).

[Jarred]

Anybody else been watching the live feed of the guy who downloaded the ripped PAL version and has been playing it and showing it off?

No. I'm avoiding all video footage other than the quick clips in video reviews.

But I have been reading all the reviews pouring in for the 360 version: 10 perfect scores, 2 98s, 1 95. Looks like we got a hell of a game on our hands! Mario Galaxy's quick stint as the highest rated Metacritic game might be in jeopardy. :D

[JackC]

Wow, I thought this game was going to be great, I did not expect it to be revolutionary.

[Lego]

Anybody else been watching the live feed of the guy who downloaded the ripped PAL version and has been playing it and showing it off?

No. I'm avoiding all video footage other than the quick clips in video reviews.

But I have been reading all the reviews pouring in for the 360 version: 10 perfect scores, 2 98s, 1 95. Looks like we got a hell of a game on our hands! Mario Galaxy's quick stint as the highest rated Metacritic game might be in jeopardy. :D


Only one more day...

I had my local Gamestop call me saying they're having a launch party for it, but I most likely won't be able to pick up my pre order until later that day. But still I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on IV now that the reviews are insanely positive.

[Johnny]

Yup, the Gametrailers, IGN and Gamespot video reviews have given me a permanent erection.

As of right now, I'm heading to my local Gamestop's midnight opening in 11 hours and 38 minutes! :sdsmiley:

[indigo0086]

This game is confirmed to be one of the best games this gen, can't wait. All these video reviews are awesome, I can't wait to see it in person. The Ladies of GTA is also crazy, they really upped the ante on a lot of the light weight risque stuff in previous games. The multiplayer will also be insane, rocket deathmatch, racing, and cops n' crooks are going to be badass. Also the physics engine in action is wild. It's been a long time coming that we have a gta that not only plays great but has taken a great leap graphically and gameplaywise.

Now I just want to know what the DLC for the 360 will be, I hope it's significant additions that affect not only the story but the multiplayer as well, so that it will really set it apart from the ps3 version.

[Cyber Inviso]

Anybody else been watching the live feed of the guy who downloaded the ripped PAL version and has been playing it and showing it off?


Tom's Hardware (http://www.tomshardware.com/gta-rockstar-game,video-259.html) did a video about that a few days. Guess players really want to play GT IV really badly on the PC.

[Jarred]

As of right now, I'm heading to my local Gamestop's midnight opening in 11 hours and 38 minutes! :sdsmiley:
*checks watch*
Dude, by my count you've have 4+ hours to post your impressions to us all, with pics! I'm so let down. Tsk tsk.

I'm thinking of heading to the midnight sale tonight to grab my pre-order as well. I've always avoided them, but now I have this voyeuristic urge to see who is going to show up at the downtown Seattle store on a late Monday night.

So, any 360 players going to be online for some multiplayer modes tonight? Or is everyone just going to dive straight into the single player?

[JackC]

No I'm not that obsessed with getting it immediately. I have something called work.

[Lego]

As of right now, I'm heading to my local Gamestop's midnight opening in 11 hours and 38 minutes! :sdsmiley:
*checks watch*
Dude, by my count you've have 4+ hours to post your impressions to us all, with pics! I'm so let down. Tsk tsk.

I'm thinking of heading to the midnight sale tonight to grab my pre-order as well. I've always avoided them, but now I have this voyeuristic urge to see who is going to show up at the downtown Seattle store on a late Monday night.

So, any 360 players going to be online for some multiplayer modes tonight? Or is everyone just going to dive straight into the single player?


I'll be on Xbox Live tonight probably playing single player with my bro, but feel free to message me if you want to get a multiplayer game going.

[Johnny]

As of right now, I'm heading to my local Gamestop's midnight opening in 11 hours and 38 minutes! :sdsmiley:
*checks watch*
Dude, by my count you've have 4+ hours to post your impressions to us all, with pics! I'm so let down. Tsk tsk.

I'm thinking of heading to the midnight sale tonight to grab my pre-order as well. I've always avoided them, but now I have this voyeuristic urge to see who is going to show up at the downtown Seattle store on a late Monday night.

So, any 360 players going to be online for some multiplayer modes tonight? Or is everyone just going to dive straight into the single player?

Haha, well I got it, got into the house at 12:30am and played til about 2:30 then went to bed. Straight up and back into it though! :sdsmiley:

More people than I thought at the launch, probably 200+ here alone and that's only at one shop.

I got the PS3 version so not one of the 360 players but haven't done any multiplayer yet although I think once I get more playtime with the game, I'll dedicated a day to MP :)

[Johnny]

No I'm not that obsessed with getting it immediately. I have something called work.

We all do but we do the smart thing and take a week off to play it!

[pathos]

I'll probably end up picking this one up sometime before the week is out, although I wont bother to rush out and get it.

atm, I'm still trying to figure out which platform to get this for. I'd like for my ps3 to be something more than a ps2 game player (I own 4 games for the ps3, and the only 2 that ever got any playtime was tekken and virtua fighter). But, I'm also a sucker for add on content (multiplayer I can do without). The ps store add on content department was still pretty meager last time I bothered looking.

But, on the other hand, my 360 is getting long in the tooth. Still haven't had the first trouble out of my 360 (more than I can say for my ps3), but I bought it a couple months after launch, and they aren't exactly know for their longevity.

Ahh, decisions, decisions. Perhaps I'll wait until after I finish FES. That will give me a bit more time to decide

[roastedpekingduck]

I backed out of video games three years ago, but GTA IV is one game I'm very tempted to play. I'm mostly interested not in the gameplay, but instead, I really want to see the writing, which supposedly is damn amazing and just brings GTA IV to another level compared to other games. Shit, looks like it'll take a while before I get to play it though, given that I need to rack up enough cash for college.

[Jarred]

I really want to see the writing, which supposedly is damn amazing and just brings GTA IV to another level compared to other games.
I've played about 90 minutes, and yeah it's another winning script by Rockstar. The whole opening sequence and first apartment scene was just a hoot and the characters are instantly multi-dimensional (but at the same time over-the-top in that Rockstar way). They also get the right voice actors to sell it.

I'm just amazed at how much shit is going on in the environment. It's easy to get distracted with everything happening and the city feeling so alive. I mean, it's gotta be a nightmare for anyone with strong ADD. :D

[Johnny]

I really want to see the writing, which supposedly is damn amazing and just brings GTA IV to another level compared to other games.
I've played about 90 minutes, and yeah it's another winning script by Rockstar. The whole opening sequence and first apartment scene was just a hoot and the characters are instantly multi-dimensional (but at the same time over-the-top in that Rockstar way). They also get the right voice actors to sell it.

I'm just amazed at how much shit is going on in the environment. It's easy to get distracted with everything happening and the city feeling so alive. I mean, it's gotta be a nightmare for anyone with strong ADD. :D

I'm around 8 hours and 18% in and looks like I'm about to unlock another part of the city and the story and voice acting is fantastic! Obviously not going to give anything away but it keeps you hooked.

There really is an insane amount of little details. From more or less every citizen looking different, to the rain effects, to being able to hear people when they're talking on their phone and so on. There's also some amazing bits later on like getting online and being able to look people up from inside a cop car via the police computer

The hype has definitely been lived up to. The only issue I'm having is that, aside from the fact that my backlog of around 20 games that I am still playing or am yet to play isn't gonna be touched, MGS4 is out in around 6 weeks! I don't know if I'll be done in Liberty City by then!

[MKVarana]

Well, a friend of mine convinced me to order this. I was a fan of the first 2 (only the PC versions, though, as i hated the PS1 controls), but try as I might I got really bored really quickly with GTA 3 and Vice City (and I gave 3 quite a while to convince me otherwise), so I had given up on the series. I did enjoy Crackdown, though, so it wasn't a loss of interest in the sandbox style in general, just something about 3 and VC that got boring too quickly for me.

That being said, for those of you who have played it, how does it compare to 3 and Vice City? Is it just more of the same, or has it been improved quite a bit gameplay-wise? And since the main reason I caved in and bought it was the 16 player multiplayer, how did that turn out?

[Lego]

[quote=roastedpekingduck;1300991] I really want to see the writing, which supposedly is damn amazing and just brings GTA IV to another level compared to other games.
I've played about 90 minutes, and yeah it's another winning script by Rockstar. The whole opening sequence and first apartment scene was just a hoot and the characters are instantly multi-dimensional (but at the same time over-the-top in that Rockstar way). They also get the right voice actors to sell it.

I'm just amazed at how much shit is going on in the environment. It's easy to get distracted with everything happening and the city feeling so alive. I mean, it's gotta be a nightmare for anyone with strong ADD. :D


I'm about at the part where I've done a couple missions for Vlad(taking the car) and have been dating Michelle twice. The game does feel very organic, the effects are really well done. I have no real complaints about the game aside from the camera while driving. I've only played a little but I like what I've played and I'm sure it'll get more interesting city wise once you unlock that other part of the city that the cops are blocking.

Oh, I hope the cousin gets killed ;)

[Fluffy]

-------8<-------------

' (http://www.news.com/8301-13772_3-9931705-52.html)GTA IV' poised to break entertainment sales record (http://www.news.com/8301-13772_3-9931705-52.html)

'Grand Theft Auto IV' could break the all-time entertainment industry record for first-day sales. That record is currently held by 'Halo 3,' which earned $170 million in its first day last September.

Executives at Electronic Arts have to be kicking themselves right about now.

It appears that Take-Two Interactive, the video game publisher EA has been trying to buy (http://www.news.com/8301-13772_3-9877637-52.html) for the last couple of months, has a potentially record-breaking hit on its hands with Grand Theft Auto IV. And EA isn't pocketing the cash.

While it's too early to know exactly how many copies of GTA IV sold Tuesday, the game's launch day, anecdotal evidence suggests it will likely be one of the most successful launches in the entertainment industry's history--if not the most.

[Kurou]

-------8<-------------

' (http://www.news.com/8301-13772_3-9931705-52.html)GTA IV' poised to break entertainment sales record (http://www.news.com/8301-13772_3-9931705-52.html)
Executives at Electronic Arts have to be kicking themselves right about now.

It appears that Take-Two Interactive, the video game publisher EA has been trying to buy (http://www.news.com/8301-13772_3-9877637-52.html) for the last couple of months, has a potentially record-breaking hit on its hands with Grand Theft Auto IV. And EA isn't pocketing the cash..

My heart just breaks for EA. Really, it does.

Thanks for sticking to your guns, Take Two.

[DeadlyMessiah]

I played it for about 6 hours today, and I like it. It is certainly far more entertaining than SA, and I'm going to have to say it is even better than VC. Most of all, that one radio station (WTTK I think) is awesome. I've just got the gun from the Jamaican guy, and am currently just walking around doing random killings. Another thing I like is I just got shot to death by the cops, but they let me keep my weapons this time around. That is pretty cool, but I wish there was an all weapons code, so I could have some REAL fun with the sniper rifle. Oh yeah, and that Russian music station kicks ass, as do the TV shows.

Overall, I am glad to have bought it, and look forward to taking my sweet ass time over the next year or two playing this game.

[ape2020]

So unless you have been living under a rock you all knew you had to make a choice as to which system to support. Of course with that you knew comparasons had to be made. So without further adoo here is the side by side comparason vid. Of course with my bad eyes there only seems to be some very minor color shading differences.

GTA IV: PS3 vs X360 (http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/18625)

-ape2020

[Johnny]

I played it for about 6 hours today, and I like it. It is certainly far more entertaining than SA, and I'm going to have to say it is even better than VC. Most of all, that one radio station (WTTK I think) is awesome. I've just got the gun from the Jamaican guy, and am currently just walking around doing random killings. Another thing I like is I just got shot to death by the cops, but they let me keep my weapons this time around. That is pretty cool, but I wish there was an all weapons code, so I could have some REAL fun with the sniper rifle. Oh yeah, and that Russian music station kicks ass, as do the TV shows.

Overall, I am glad to have bought it, and look forward to taking my sweet ass time over the next year or two playing this game.

The Jamaicans are fucking brilliant! The look of confusion on Niko's face when they talk is priceless! Another character I love is Brucie who never fails to crack me up.

As for cheat codes, apparently all the usual ones are in it. I've read that elsewhere online but haven't looked into it as I don't want to use them myself.

[DeadlyMessiah]

The Jamaicans are fucking brilliant! The look of confusion on Niko's face when they talk is priceless! Another character I love is Brucie who never fails to crack me up.

As for cheat codes, apparently all the usual ones are in it. I've read that elsewhere online but haven't looked into it as I don't want to use them myself.

See, one of the things I always do when playing GTA is put in the all weapons codes, I don't care if it is cheating or not, I'm there to have fun.

[TheStrongMan]

I finally have it...and I don't want to play it!

All this waiting, all this hype, all this torture and now, all I want to do is go fucking nuts with jrpgs...particulary FES, Lost Odyessy, FFXII, FFCC, and FFVII. Yesterday when I got my hands on GTAIV, it just felt cathartic. When I finally booted up the game instead of the excitement I expected to feel, it was more of indifference. But enough of my whining...

Some thoughts, although, I'm only a few hours in...
-GTA IV is yet another 360 game that does not play nice with wired guitar controllers. (If the guitar controller is recognized as controller 1, you have to pull the plug, and then either sign out, or reset the 360 to get your normal controller recognized as 1) As I am playing a fair amount of Rock Band and GH2 right now, this is frustrating.

-The heavy accents from some of these characters forces me to play the game with subtitles and/or the center channel jacked up high

-I don't want to date Michelle...she is an unattractive OCD freak.

-Does Roman ever stop talking about titties?

-As of right now, I like the new Wanted system. It's a little more difficult, and a little more realistic. No more of this, bee-line to the pay and spray...now you actually have to lose the cops. Now, when I get to the more difficult missions, maybe my attitude will change. :sweat1:

-I'm having trouble power-sliding with the new driving controls. It just feels way too stiff. If I use the normal brake, I barely turn at all. If I use the hand break, I do a 180 or a 270 and completely miss the turn. It's kinda frustrating.

[Johnny]

-The heavy accents from some of these characters forces me to play the game with subtitles and/or the center channel jacked up high

Little Jacob and Badman you will need the subs on for! :sdsmiley:

-I don't want to date Michelle...she is an unattractive OCD freak.

Yeah, but it's fun banging her :P Get a hooker or go online and hook up with someone!

-Does Roman ever stop talking about titties?

No! :sdsmiley:

-As of right now, I like the new Wanted system. It's a little more difficult, and a little more realistic. No more of this, bee-line to the pay and spray...now you actually have to lose the cops. Now, when I get to the more difficult missions, maybe my attitude will change. :sweat1:


Yeah, works a lot better. I've had up to a 4 star wanted level with choppers and it's hard to shake them off.

[Lego]

The Jamaicans are fucking brilliant! The look of confusion on Niko's face when they talk is priceless! Another character I love is Brucie who never fails to crack me up.

As for cheat codes, apparently all the usual ones are in it. I've read that elsewhere online but haven't looked into it as I don't want to use them myself.

See, one of the things I always do when playing GTA is put in the all weapons codes, I don't care if it is cheating or not, I'm there to have fun.

I love putting in the "all weapons" code and just having fun as well, time to hunt them down online.

[TheStrongMan]

Well...now I am just pissed.

I can not go longer than 5 minutes without the game locking up for 5-10 seconds, then locking up again for 5-10 seconds...then it lets me play for another couple minutes...then the cycle repeats.

No problems at all yesterday...now this.
No problems with any other games...just GTAIV.
What a crock of bullshit.

[Lego]

Well...now I am just pissed.

I can not go longer than 5 minutes without the game locking up for 5-10 seconds, then locking up again for 5-10 seconds...then it lets me play for another couple minutes...then the cycle repeats.

No problems at all yesterday...now this.
No problems with any other games...just GTAIV.
What a crock of bullshit.

There was something on Kotaku about people with the 360 and PS3 versions getting locked up during the opening or opening mission.

[Jarred]

Ugh, that sucks. I'd recommend clearing the system cache and see what happens. This will clear out any downloaded title updates/patches for all games (so you'll just be prompted to download them again when you load a game that needs one, like Rock Band), but it can sometimes help with those freezing issues.

How to Clear the Cache (http://news.filefront.com/xbox-360-remember-to-clear-your-cache/)

[Jarred]

Anyone tried multiplayer yet? If so, what are your thoughts?

The first thing I noticed is that other than Deatmatch, everyone seems a little "WTF?" on what to do. It's kind of funny actually. My buddy and I jumped into a Team Car Jack City game and I'm not sure most people knew that they had to go grab cars and we all just started shooting each other up. So I'd probably suggest picking a couple favorite modes, and then play the hell out of them a while before trying to pick up the others.

GTA Race is one hell of a chaotic good time. Yes, there is this "goal" of hitting a few checkpoints and getting to the end, but really, the true goal is to cause as much ruckus as possible before getting there. Mario Kart with RPGs is a description I've read multiple times that seems to fit quite well. The start of each match is hilarious, with 16 players scrambling on foot to find any set of wheels they can. Five players swarmed an innocent motorcyclist passing by to cop his ride. Others shot at each other to snag that super fast sports car. One lone guy was too slow, and his only ride he could find was a fork lift. Imagine my outburst of laughter as I come peeling around a corner only to see some dude laughing hysterically while driving 5MPH on a forklift and shooting wildly at passerbys. Hilarious. The race track wasn't long, but it still took us around 15-20 minutes to finish. :D (Of course, part of the problem was that none of us could find the checkered flag on our maps).

[Lego]

Anyone tried multiplayer yet? If so, what are your thoughts?

The first thing I noticed is that other than Deatmatch, everyone seems a little "WTF?" on what to do. It's kind of funny actually. My buddy and I jumped into a Team Car Jack City game and I'm not sure most people knew that they had to go grab cars and we all just started shooting each other up. So I'd probably suggest picking a couple favorite modes, and then play the hell out of them a while before trying to pick up the others.

GTA Race is one hell of a chaotic good time. Yes, there is this "goal" of hitting a few checkpoints and getting to the end, but really, the true goal is to cause as much ruckus as possible before getting there. Mario Kart with RPGs is a description I've read multiple times that seems to fit quite well. The start of each match is hilarious, with 16 players scrambling on foot to find any set of wheels they can. Five players swarmed an innocent motorcyclist passing by to cop his ride. Others shot at each other to snag that super fast sports car. One lone guy was too slow, and his only ride he could find was a fork lift. Imagine my outburst of laughter as I come peeling around a corner only to see some dude laughing hysterically while driving 5MPH on a forklift and shooting wildly at passerbys. Hilarious. The race track wasn't long, but it still took us around 15-20 minutes to finish. :D (Of course, part of the problem was that none of us could find the checkered flag on our maps).

I haven't even tried multiplayer yet, but it sounds fun. How are the people? I'm used to the normal slew of people while playing COD 4, was curious about IV.

[Jarred]

How are the people? I'm used to the normal slew of people while playing COD 4, was curious about IV.
Probably much as you'd expect mixing Live and GTA. :sweat: For me it was about 50% jerk-offs, 50% normal people.

Partying up is the way to go. You can join a group of friends and the system will keep you together between game sessions. And in team-based games, you only hear the voices of the people in your party where you are in-game and only have to hear the others pre/post-game. The best part is that the lobby system for the party is an isolated instance of the city! So once while I was waiting for my buddy to finish something up at his home, I took a helicopter tour of the city and decided to crash it into the tallest building. :laugh:

[DeadlyMessiah]

-I don't want to date Michelle...she is an unattractive OCD freak.

KILL HER!!! That is what I'm going to do in a few minutes when I start playing. EGM says just speed into traffic and smash into a car, and the girl will fly out and die.

[Johnny]

-I don't want to date Michelle...she is an unattractive OCD freak.

KILL HER!!! That is what I'm going to do in a few minutes when I start playing. EGM says just speed into traffic and smash into a car, and the girl will fly out and die.

I'm not going to give anything away or hint at anything in particular happening but she's an important character later in the game and I can't see how killing her early on will allow the story to develop, unless there's multiple endings in the game.

On the topic of the story, I'm continuing to be extremely impressed by it. You literally don't know what will happen next.

[Kurou]

I'm liking GTA IV, but it's got the same annoyances as the other games in the series do. I was hoping they'd rip off Saints Row a bit more than they did. Especially the regenerating health system. Having to run and eat every time I need to heal gets annoying.

But the top has to be the fact they're claiming it's an open world game..and it well..isn't. You can do absolutely nothing without unlocking it through the story first, and that grates.

SR let you do practically anything right off the bat, including clothing..which is my main gripe. I can't wear anything that doesn't make me look like a thrift store reject without playing through the story for hours first? *sigh*.

[Lego]

I'm liking GTA IV, but it's got the same annoyances as the other games in the series do. I was hoping they'd rip off Saints Row a bit more than they did. Especially the regenerating health system. Having to run and eat every time I need to heal gets annoying.

But the top has to be the fact they're claiming it's an open world game..and it well..isn't. You can do absolutely nothing without unlocking it through the story first, and that grates.

SR let you do practically anything right off the bat, including clothing..which is my main gripe. I can't wear anything that doesn't make me look like a thrift store reject without playing through the story for hours first? *sigh*.


All recent GTA games have been like that. III had the bridge exploded at the start, Vice City had a hurricane, San Andreas had em blocked off and now IV has them blocked for a "terrorist threat". It's an excuse to make you do the basic story missions so you can get over to the other side.

[DeadlyMessiah]

-I don't want to date Michelle...she is an unattractive OCD freak.

KILL HER!!! That is what I'm going to do in a few minutes when I start playing. EGM says just speed into traffic and smash into a car, and the girl will fly out and die.

I'm not going to give anything away or hint at anything in particular happening but she's an important character later in the game and I can't see how killing her early on will allow the story to develop, unless there's multiple endings in the game.

On the topic of the story, I'm continuing to be extremely impressed by it. You literally don't know what will happen next.

Meh, so I noticed as they won't let me kill her for anything.

[DustoMan]

Some thoughts, although, I'm only a few hours in...
-GTA IV is yet another 360 game that does not play nice with wired guitar controllers. (If the guitar controller is recognized as controller 1, you have to pull the plug, and then either sign out, or reset the 360 to get your normal controller recognized as 1) As I am playing a fair amount of Rock Band and GH2 right now, this is frustrating.

This is more a symptom of the console then the game. Whatever wired controller you have connected seems to take priority over the wireless ones. Also if you have your profile set to auto login, then your profile get's associated with the wired controller that lights up the first quadrant of the 360 guide button. You probably don't want to, but it's best to unplug all your wired controllers before using your wireless ones.

[Kouji Tamino]

Just bought this the other day with the money my younger brother was saving up for it. I have to say, it's a very gorgeous game. I love how detailed the city, people, and movements are. Bullet holes, cracks in the wall when you crash, the blood smeared on the car when you hit someone... Damn, they really went all out on this one. No freezing problems to report, either and we have the version of the PS3 that seems to have the most problems (non-launch 60GB).

[Johnny]

Can't get enough of this game! Just done what I consider to be the best mission yet, called Three Leaf Clover featuring plenty of Irish references and a reward of 250 G's!

The TV is cracking me up at the minute - Ricky Gervais' standup and The Boys Room especially :sdsmiley:

[Andrew Cunningham]

Some thoughts, although, I'm only a few hours in...
-GTA IV is yet another 360 game that does not play nice with wired guitar controllers. (If the guitar controller is recognized as controller 1, you have to pull the plug, and then either sign out, or reset the 360 to get your normal controller recognized as 1) As I am playing a fair amount of Rock Band and GH2 right now, this is frustrating.

This is more a symptom of the console then the game. Whatever wired controller you have connected seems to take priority over the wireless ones. Also if you have your profile set to auto login, then your profile get's associated with the wired controller that lights up the first quadrant of the 360 guide button. You probably don't want to, but it's best to unplug all your wired controllers before using your wireless ones.

Not in reality.
If I turn it on by putting a game in or pressing the button on the console, sure.
But if I turn it on with my wireless remote, that ends up being player 1, and every game I own will ignore the Rock Band instruments...except Cloning Clyde, which assumes I'm trying to to play multiplayer. Definitely the fault of the game.
As long as you have your instruments plugged into the second controller port, you should never have a problem.

[Jarred]

Actually, it's quite common to not turn on the system using the wireless remote, like for those who have everything running through a receiver or other home theatre setups. I turn on everything using a Harmony remote, which turns on/off the right components and sets the right video/audio inputs/outputs with a press of one button.

So in reality, there are many who are essentially powering on the system by pressing the button on the console. So it is a symptom of the system. Now, I don't think it's a badly engineered design or anything, just how shit works. You have stuff plugged in the USB ports, it gets turned on when you turn the system on.

[Lego]

Tried out some multiplayer with my younger brother, fun stuff. I really like the Team Deathmatch and Turf War modes. The only complaints is that it takes to long to get a game going, one team can flat out dominate in team deathmatch as if you set the game to really hard, and the multiplayer can get boring. Boring you say? In the sense that you have a good say 10 minutes of actual playtime only to waste four of it running back to where you died and finding a decent weapon just to possibly try to kill someone again.

Still it's a decent time waster.

[Cyber Inviso]

I saw this article yesterday about the game freezing up. Anyone having trouble with this?

From MegaGames (http://megagames.com/news/html/console/playstation3gtaivsuffersfromfreezingbug.shtml):

Just a few hours post its official launch, and reports about the Playstation 3 version of GTA IV are flying all around the place.

"I got home from the midnight release with my copy of GTA IV Collectors' Edition unpacked it live on the feed installed and guess what, it froze", wrote Matt Griffin on his "Playstation Network @ Home" blog. "I tried a couple more times and it even have reinstalled 3 times, it still keeps freezing."

Matt Griffin is not alone, though. The same freezing bug has been confirmed on Collectors' and standard editions of the game running on 60GB and 20GB Playstation 3 consoles.

There is no official response yet, but Rockstar's technical support told one Playstation forum member to erase the game's installation and save games then start over. Unfortunately, this seemed to fix the problem for some users but not for the majority. Matt Griffin, for example, went so far as to quick format his Playstation 3 and have his Collectors' edition disc replaced by a standard one, but to no avail.

Few rants about the same problem occurring on Xbox 360 has been heard, but they are not as widespread as the Playstation 3 ones, and they don't have any proof to back them up yet.

[Johnny]

I have a Japanese launch 60Gb PS3 and a PAL copy of GTA and after 24 hours playtime, I've had one instance of freezing on a cut scene and one when I tried to steal a car. Since then it's been fine although I do get the occassional 1 second pause when there are a lot of cars around which I presume is down to loading issues. Still, I'm happy my copy is working as normal aside from those minor niggles.

[Chris Beveridge]

Well, so much for me doing much else in the evenings now after the kids are in bed...

[Johnny]

Well, so much for me doing much else in the evenings now after the kids are in bed...

Exactly! As if the story mode isn't going to keep me occupied long enough, just player my first online multiplayer there and it's amazing! :sdsmiley: I'm gonna be playing this for months!

[Johnny]

Anyone seen the CNN news clip that Kotaku and others posted? Man, it cracks me up. I don't know how you lot put up with "news" like that! Funny thing is, it's exactly like one of the joke radio/TV stations in the game :sdsmiley:

[DustoMan]

Couple things cracked me up:

Jack Thompson's call into NPR with Adam Sesslar as guest ranting about how horrible GTA4 is. http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/281726359/sessler-thompson-square-off-on-npr-over-grand-theft-auto-iv

Take-Two 12-step Program to curing your GTA4 freezing problem.
http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/281782207/rockstar-support-suggests-12+step-fix-for-gta-iv-lock-ups

[Lego]

Couple things cracked me up:

Jack Thompson's call into NPR with Adam Sesslar as guest ranting about how horrible GTA4 is. http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/281726359/sessler-thompson-square-off-on-npr-over-grand-theft-auto-iv (http://feeds.gawker.com/%7Er/kotaku/full/%7E3/281726359/sessler-thompson-square-off-on-npr-over-grand-theft-auto-iv)

Take-Two 12-step Program to curing your GTA4 freezing problem.
http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/281782207/rockstar-support-suggests-12+step-fix-for-gta-iv-lock-ups (http://feeds.gawker.com/%7Er/kotaku/full/%7E3/281782207/rockstar-support-suggests-12+step-fix-for-gta-iv-lock-ups)


The part that makes Thompson look like an asshole(not that he needed that much help) is that he even mentions he hasn't played the game. He probably watched that video over on IGN.

[Lego]

Was just playing some "free roam" multiplayer, or whatever it's called. I'm loving the only helicopter in game, the blawkhawk. Was fun flying around but I can't land for shit.

The reason why I double post though is did anyone catch the anime dig they put in? I was listening to the classic rock channel and got hit with a commercial for an "anime movie". Something about a monster in Tokyo that can only be stopped by a school girl...

By sleeping with it..

Some hillarious faux dub bits, then at the end "a touching coming of age story about realizing shes a hot teenage girl".

While I know it's all fun in games, was kind of surprising for them to make mention of it. You can go see it in "trendy theaters everywhere". Maybe someones an anime fan on the Rockstar staff for them to denote a whole promo to it.

[Johnny]

The reason why I double post though is did anyone catch the anime dig they put in? I was listening to the classic rock channel and got hit with a commercial for an "anime movie". Something about a monster in Tokyo that can only be stopped by a school girl...


Yeah, heard that a few times, it's pretty funny. There are hundreds of little digs and refrences everywhere in this game, including a few Irish jabs which are hilarious! :sdsmiley:

Also, so glad that Lazlow is back with his own radio station (think this is unlocked after a while in story mode.

[Jarred]

Princess Robot Bubblegum and The Horny Radioactive Plant!
It’s a half robot, half radioactive plant destined to take over the world. Only one 15-year-old school girl can stop it… by sleeping with it [Japanese]. Princess Robot Bubblegum and the horny radioactive plant, in all good manga stores soon!

[Jarred]

BTW, I tried to do the first package delivery for Little Jacob last night, and I can't find the drop off point. I mean, I go where the yellow lines tell me, get to the dot, but I can see the yellow destination arrow anywhere in the area. Has anyone tried this first delivery? If so, can you help my dumbass out? I've tried it like 5-6 times and couldn't figure the damn thing out. I drove down the stairs, behind the building, through the grass, can't find it!

[Lego]

Princess Robot Bubblegum and The Horny Radioactive Plant!
It’s a half robot, half radioactive plant destined to take over the world. Only one 15-year-old school girl can stop it… by sleeping with it [Japanese]. Princess Robot Bubblegum and the horny radioactive plant, in all good manga stores soon!


Yep, thats the one. It's fun when you can actually laugh at yourself and your fandom :bigsmile:

[TheStrongMan]

So in reality, there are many who are essentially powering on the system by pressing the button on the console. So it is a symptom of the system. Now, I don't think it's a badly engineered design or anything, just how shit works. You have stuff plugged in the USB ports, it gets turned on when you turn the system on.

I dunno...I think it's more GTA IV. I was playing Rockband with the guitar, I then watched an episode of Yojimbo while eating dinner. Then I wanted to play GTA IV. As I was about to put GTA IV, I caught myself, and remembered to sign out of my profile on the guitar and sign in on the controller. For most games this is enough, that will fix the problem. But for GTA, it forces you to be controller 1. That was what frustrated me because I had remembered to sign out and in, but it still had to get back up and unplug the guitar when then caused the system to prompt me to reconnect the controller which forced a reset of the system.

Sometimes the whole profile system in general pisses me off...on a typical gaming day it's not uncommon for me to sign in and out of my profile several times because I'm going for controller, to drums to guitar and back again.

[Jarred]

Because the game doesn't have a title screen and just loads you right into where you left off, it does require you to have a controller connected. I saw the same message when I turned everything on with my remote and booted up the game without turning on any controller (and I don't leave anything plugged into the USB slots). It wouldn't load up my game until I connected a controller. And you're right, it looks for the controller marked as #1.

Are you able to turn off the guitar controllers like the others? Meaning, you hold down the guide button and select "Turn Off Controller". That way you should be able to leave it plugged in and then you just turn on the wireless controller to take the place of #1.

Anyway, back to GTAIV the game:
- Brucie cracks my shit up. Such a broad stroke meathead characterization that I find it way more hilarious than annoying. Some of the best dialogue in the game so far is between him and Niko, with Niko giving him shit all the time.

- Just met the Puckie the Irishman and Elizabeta. I like how they went after the East Coast American Irish satire. Did the one sniper mission and I think I'm getting close to this famed "Three Leaf Clover" mission everyone is talking about. I'm going to make sure to create a separate save file right before it so I can replay when I want to. :D

- The posing as a gay man to lure out a hit mission was hilarious, from the setup to the actually online personals I got to read. There was a line in Niko's ad that just had me rollin', something like "I have plenty of lettuce if you want some salad". I about shat myself.

- Car chase missions drive me fucking crazy. It's hard as hell to both fire and steer at the same time. That first Brucie mission where you chase down Rivas, pain in the ass. Took me about 5-6 tries, and then I got lucky by ramming him into an alleyway where his car got stuck and I was able to pull him out and beat him.

- Still can't figure out what to do with Little Jacob's drug delivery jobs. I know I'm just doing something braindead here.

[SASUKETIM]

BTW, I tried to do the first package delivery for Little Jacob last night, and I can't find the drop off point. I mean, I go where the yellow lines tell me, get to the dot, but I can see the yellow destination arrow anywhere in the area. Has anyone tried this first delivery? If so, can you help my dumbass out? I've tried it like 5-6 times and couldn't figure the damn thing out. I drove down the stairs, behind the building, through the grass, can't find it!

The yellow arrow is inside a little garage. They'll be a guy standing inside. Once you pull in, get out of the car, and you're done. I almost missed it the first time, it's not exactly easy the arrows in there.

[Johnny]

Anyway, back to GTAIV the game:
- Brucie cracks my shit up. Such a broad stroke meathead characterization that I find it way more hilarious than annoying. Some of the best dialogue in the game so far is between him and Niko, with Niko giving him shit all the time.

He's definitely one of the funniest characters in the game. You seen the bit where he's pumped on 'roids and headbutts the wall? :sdsmiley:

- Just met the Puckie the Irishman and Elizabeta. I like how they went after the East Coast American Irish satire. Did the one sniper mission and I think I'm getting close to this famed "Three Leaf Clover" mission everyone is talking about. I'm going to make sure to create a separate save file right before it so I can replay when I want to. :D

The Irish boys are really the only characters I don't like in the game, Packie is an asshole. But yeah, that Three Leaf Clover mission is epic!

- The posing as a gay man to lure out a hit mission was hilarious, from the setup to the actually online personals I got to read. There was a line in Niko's ad that just had me rollin', something like "I have plenty of lettuce if you want some salad". I about shat myself.

Same here, the gay banter between Niko and Brucie is awesome too, where he subtly takes jibes at him. There's more gay humour later in the game too ;)

[pathos]

Broke down and bought the ps3 version of it. Played for a few minutes, just past the tutorial, and put it away for a day. Next day, game just hung up. A few nice pics, then "loading the couric brothers", then just sat there. I was able to fix it by deleting the game install, and reinstalling, while keeping my saves. Not a big deal now, but if it does it often, and I'm farther in the game, I would like to keep those saves.

I remember seeing a tip flash on the screen about putting the story into sleep mode, and being able to run around without furthering the storyline, and I'm trying to remember what it was. The game keeps shoving me towards my first date and I don't have any money to actually do it. I'll like some time to steal and loot for a bit first :P

[Johnny]

Broke down and bought the ps3 version of it. Played for a few minutes, just past the tutorial, and put it away for a day. Next day, game just hung up. A few nice pics, then "loading the couric brothers", then just sat there. I was able to fix it by deleting the game install, and reinstalling, while keeping my saves. Not a big deal now, but if it does it often, and I'm farther in the game, I would like to keep those saves.



This is happening to me too. Sign out of the PSN before starting the game and it should be fine. Not sure where this leaves me in terms of multiplayer though...

[Jarred]

The Snow Storm
So far, for me, the hardest mission in the game so far. I think it took me around 8 attempts to complete it. The first section, blasting away the drug thieves, wasn't hard at all. The hard part was the second half of the mission, which after blasting away like a rat in the cage ended in a 3-star escape. It was the first time I had the wanted level above 2, and good lord, the cops get aggressive as hell. Didn't help that a lot of the roads around there are very narrow, so dodging 5-6 cops trying to roadblock you was a pain. Was finally able to just out run them after ditching the truck when it caught fire.

[pathos]

This is happening to me too. Sign out of the PSN before starting the game and it should be fine. Not sure where this leaves me in terms of multiplayer though...

Ahh, good to know. That will certainly be faster than wiping the game and reinstalling.

[Jarred]

Can't get enough of this game! Just done what I consider to be the best mission yet, called Three Leaf Clover featuring plenty of Irish references and a reward of 250 G's!

OMFG! Just finished this one myself (first try!) and it was by far the best mission. Not the hardest, despite the 5-star level you start off with, but it was more of an intense, slightly guided cinematic experience. The car chase was the hardest part, but I think I got lucky by taking the cops against one-way traffic and they created their own blockade against themselves by crashing into all the oncoming cars. I think my heart rate doubled by the end.

Also, this mission was totally a riff on the bank heist shootout in HEAT, one of the greatest action sequences (http://youtube.com/watch?v=ONHHdjyyVHo) in the history of movies and I would recommend watching that clip, especially after playing that mission. It's spot on.

[Zorak]

This game has sucked up almost every minute of my spare time since Tuesday. I think it may have dethroned Vice City as my favorite GTA game.

Nice to see the series finally get a long-overdue visual overhaul. There's a few minor popups here and there but nowhere near as much as the previous games. Love the new targeting system! It's not perfect, but it's a major improvement.

The usual great voice acting and dialogue is there. I'm really feeling a kinship with Roman. Brucie's a great character too.

With the previous games, I breezed through the main story missions first and did the extra stuff and exploring on my second playthrough. I'm making an exception with this one. There was a time where I put the main story missions on hold and did some side missions. I spent a lot of time watching TV in my room. Lots of hilarious stuff on there! I especially liked "I'm Rich" and "Venturas Poker Challenge." I got a kick out of that one moment in "I'm Rich" where They showed Bullworth Academy from Bully. It was pretty odd to think that I was sitting in front of the TV watching myself watching TV. I felt like a display in some modern art museum.

I spent a lot of time surfing the internet. The MyRoom page was hysterical! Something funny happened while I was surfing the web there. I found a link to a website called Little Lacy Surprise Pageant. Little Lacy Surprise was the kinds' underwear advertised in Vice City Stories. When I clocked on the link, I got a message saying it was shut down by the police. I also received a four star wanted level! I dashed out of the Tw@ Cafe, jumped in my car and made a dash for the Pay 'n' Spray.

Great soundtrack! My favorite station so far has been Liberty Rock Radio. It's cool to drive around town listening to Black Sabbath, Genesis, The Stooges and Queen. I also frequently listen to Radio Broker, The Beat and Jazz Nation Radio. The Vibe is great to listen to at night. Sets a really cool vibe (No pun intended). Once you unlock the second island, a new radio station appears on the dial: Integrity 2.0, hosted by the great Lazlow!

Driving down Star Junction at night is breathtaking.

I got a kick out of the anime spoof ad on the radio. I wonder if Dan Houser and Lazlow are fans?

[Jarred]

Man, it's getting hard to talk about missions without spoiling anything. :sweat:

Hostile Negotiation
Really enjoyed this one. It wasn't the balls to the walls experience of "Three Leaf Clover", but the solo assault and great use of cover was a fun experience. And it had a good ending. ;)

GTA Moment: Driving away after all the shit's gone down, supposed to be a relaxing cruise back to the Safehouse, but I drove into an explosive barrel that sent my ride flying and my mission failed the first time.

Undress to Kill
TOUGH! Took me a number of tries to get this one. You have to locate and kill 3 guys in the strip club. Tight quarters gunfire with lots of bullets flying everywhere. And two of the guys get away and then you have to chase them down and hopefully not attract the coppers. If you want a hint, here's what I did after a few tries that seemed to work: take out the first guy who is counting money by the entrance, then immediately flee outside. You might have to take out 1 bodyguard, but at least not the whole place. Once it seems like no one is coming out, go back in. As soon as you cross the entrance, the other 2 start fleeing. Don't go all the way in and immediately leave again, jump in a fast car and then just go for the tires and take out the getaway car.

GTA Moment: Both cars caught fire at the same time, so we both jumped out while moving. I turned and started running at the last enemy, tried to fire, but both cars blew up at the same damn time--taking out myself, the enemy, and 6-7 cops and their cars. Boom.

It was also quite funny to see half-naked strippers running down the streets.

The Holland Play
Okay, DO NOT READ ANYTHING, EVEN SPOILERS, unless you've played this entire mission. It's two parts. But I just have to ask those who did finish it, who did you choose? Dwayne or Playboy X? I choose Dwayne, just because I felt Niko had more of a connection with him and Playboy X could turn at me in the future.

GTA Moment: Was supposed to engage in a roof chase, but I mistimed my jump and fell, but luckily caught the stair well on the way down and was able to land safely on my feet. I then found I ended up right at the point where I was supposed to end the mission, skipping the big firefight on the roof and only having to take out 1 guy. :D

[GHardin]

I wish I had time to devote to this game. But after working, sometimes I just feel like sitting down and watching TV...or going out and doing something. The only time I really feel like playing is around 10:00-11:00pm...which is kind of late. I guess this is why I haven't finished any of my games as of late. Damn you, work!

[Johnny]

I wish I had time to devote to this game. But after working, sometimes I just feel like sitting down and watching TV...or going out and doing something. The only time I really feel like playing is around 10:00-11:00pm...which is kind of late. I guess this is why I haven't finished any of my games as of late. Damn you, work!

Yeah, I've put 30 hours into the game since Tuesday and that was with a week off work. Back on Tuesday though so it'll cut down on my play time and isn't gonna help with the backlog :cry:

[GHardin]

Yeah, I've put 30 hours into the game since Tuesday and that was with a week off work. Back on Tuesday though so it'll cut down on my play time and isn't gonna help with the backlog :cry:

Seriously. I thought I was going to put some time into it today, but I've felt nothing but the urge to be lazier than playing a game...that's pretty bad stuff there. Well, at least I was not lazy enough to skip going to the movies... ;)

[Jarred]

Paper Trail
My favorite mission from last night's session. Not that it was hard, but flying through the skyscrapers of downtown LC while the sun is shining, ELO's "Evil Woman" is blaring, and Little Jacob's puffin' up in the shotgun seat all just made for an awesome 5-6 minutes.

Right now I'm running errands for Ray and the mob. Just complete Museum Piece and that whole diamonds bit. What the hell is up with Ray's freebasing, crack head girl? That didn't really fit for me.

[Lego]

Anyone up for some "mic on" free play online on the 360?

[lockmastah]

Well I'm certainly not as far into the game as some of you are (*glances at Jarred who he sees on XBL playing GTA IV constantly*), but having a lot of fun playing. Last night I completed the Do You Have Protection? mission, I think I've finished around 15 story missions. I also tried out multiplayer for the first time and played a few rounds of team deathmatch. In the first round, there were 3 teams and somehow I ended up being in a team all by myself. I got pwn3d pretty bad, but I still managed to score some frags and get a couple easy achievements. It's a shame you can't use rocket launchers while driving. :devil:

I never enjoyed the previous 3D GTA games which I bought for the PC. Maybe it's because I used the keyboard and mouse instead of a controller. The changes to combat in IV are definitely a big plus. I always felt combat in the previous games was horrible.

[Jarred]

GTA IV sells a lot (http://kotaku.com/5008102/take+two-confirms-gtas-half-a-billion-week). The numbers: $500M and 6M copies sold in first week, 3.6M within the first day. Halo 3's short-lived record of $300M is now peanuts.

I'm just amazed Microsoft was finally able to get their shit together on the Live service and it went off without a hitch (it's now the #1 game on Live as well).

[Lego]

GTA IV sells a lot (http://kotaku.com/5008102/take+two-confirms-gtas-half-a-billion-week). The numbers: $500M and 6M copies sold in first week, 3.6M within the first day. Halo 3's short-lived record of $300M is now peanuts.

I'm just amazed Microsoft was finally able to get their shit together on the Live service and it went off without a hitch (it's now the #1 game on Live as well).


Holy shit, thats half a billion. Of course games do cost more this time, so I don't know if it's any different having them at 60 bucks a pop.

[Jarred]

Well I'm certainly not as far into the game as some of you are (*glances at Jarred who he sees on XBL playing GTA IV constantly*)
Ha. I looked at the stats last night in the game, and it says I've logged 28 hours so far. The game has been out a week. Yikes!! :laugh:

My partner gets back home this weekend, so I'm trying to get through the single player before then and I think I'm getting really close.

[lockmastah]

GTA IV sells a lot (http://kotaku.com/5008102/take+two-confirms-gtas-half-a-billion-week). The numbers: $500M and 6M copies sold in first week, 3.6M within the first day. Halo 3's short-lived record of $300M is now peanuts.

I'm just amazed Microsoft was finally able to get their shit together on the Live service and it went off without a hitch (it's now the #1 game on Live as well).


Holy shit, thats half a billion. Of course games do cost more this time, so I don't know if it's any different having them at 60 bucks a pop.

No surprises in any of the #s. Comparing GTA IV's launch to Halo 3 isn't fair anyways since the former is a multi-platform game and the latter is not (a better comparison would be between Halo 3 and MGS 4 when it comes out). I recall reading it probably cost Rockstar Games around $100 million to develop GTA IV. The game is estimated to sell 11-13 million copies by end of year. Just imagine how many more copies it would sell if it was on Wii as well. ;)

[Lego]

GTA IV sells a lot (http://kotaku.com/5008102/take+two-confirms-gtas-half-a-billion-week). The numbers: $500M and 6M copies sold in first week, 3.6M within the first day. Halo 3's short-lived record of $300M is now peanuts.

I'm just amazed Microsoft was finally able to get their shit together on the Live service and it went off without a hitch (it's now the #1 game on Live as well).


Holy shit, thats half a billion. Of course games do cost more this time, so I don't know if it's any different having them at 60 bucks a pop.

No surprises in any of the #s. Comparing GTA IV's launch to Halo 3 isn't fair anyways since the former is a multi-platform game and the latter is not (a better comparison would be between Halo 3 and MGS 4 when it comes out). I recall reading it probably cost Rockstar Games around $100 million to develop GTA IV. The game is estimated to sell 11-13 million copies by end of year. Just imagine how many more copies it would sell if it was on Wii as well. ;)

Add in downloadable content coming for the 360 later as another source of revenue, Rockstar could survive off GTA alone.

[Jarred]

Out of Commission
Final mission. Pain in my ass. I've attempted this thing 10 times now and I still can't pass it. It's easy up until I get into the helicopter, and then it always ends with me blowing up or crashing into the water. Argh.

[NeoCortex]

I just played through "Three Leaf Clover" last night. That was...fucking...epic. It took me three tries, though. One was because I turned a corner right into a cop with a shotgun. That didn't end well.

This was definitely the best mission I've done so far. And one little thing I like about this game is that the dialogue actually changes each time I reattempt it. It made the ride over to the bank a lot less tedious.

[Jarred]

Out of Commission
Final mission. Pain in my ass. I've attempted this thing 10 times now and I still can't pass it. It's easy up until I get into the helicopter, and then it always ends with me blowing up or crashing into the water. Argh.
Aaaaaaand done. It's always funny how easy something becomes if you just put down the controller for a little while and take a break. Passed it on my first attempt tonight. 31hrs 17min game play time, 70% complete. Now to have fun with multiplayer and try out all those side missions.

Three Leaf Clover was the best mission in the game, by far. Other favorites were Hostile Negotiation and To Live and Die in Alderney (because blowing up shit with rockets is awesome).

[Lego]

Out of Commission
Final mission. Pain in my ass. I've attempted this thing 10 times now and I still can't pass it. It's easy up until I get into the helicopter, and then it always ends with me blowing up or crashing into the water. Argh.
Aaaaaaand done. It's always funny how easy something becomes if you just put down the controller for a little while and take a break. Passed it on my first attempt tonight. 31hrs 17min game play time, 70% complete. Now to have fun with multiplayer and try out all those side missions.

Three Leaf Clover was the best mission in the game, by far. Other favorites were Hostile Negotiation and To Live and Die in Alderney (because blowing up shit with rockets is awesome).

Me and wolve were messing around last night, I really stunk it up in Team Deathmatch but was kicking ass in Cops and Crooks. Cops and Crooks is the most fun for me because of the team aspect while Team Deathmatch is all spawn and the best weapon.

[Jarred]

Deathmatch is always the defacto MP gametype that everyone understands and can get their feet wet while playing. I want to do more CnC, as the one game I played was small and confusing but I saw potential. And I thought GTA Race was a fun diversion just for the chaos factor.

Anyone try the co-op missions yet? I'll probably be online in a bit after I watch BSG. Can start up a party and just jump into a bunch of different types.

[Lego]

Deathmatch is always the defacto MP gametype that everyone understands and can get their feet wet while playing. I want to do more CnC, as the one game I played was small and confusing but I saw potential. And I thought GTA Race was a fun diversion just for the chaos factor.

Anyone try the co-op missions yet? I'll probably be online in a bit after I watch BSG. Can start up a party and just jump into a bunch of different types.


The "cop op missions" are more things like cops and crooks just with added narrative. If you ever see me on I'll join in a cops and crooks game with ya.

[Johnny]

Out of Commission
Final mission. Pain in my ass. I've attempted this thing 10 times now and I still can't pass it. It's easy up until I get into the helicopter, and then it always ends with me blowing up or crashing into the water. Argh.
Aaaaaaand done. It's always funny how easy something becomes if you just put down the controller for a little while and take a break. Passed it on my first attempt tonight. 31hrs 17min game play time, 70% complete. Now to have fun with multiplayer and try out all those side missions.



Just watching the credits at the minute myself. Took me 3 attempts at that last mission but wasn't too hard. Total time of 39 hours 16 mins and 67.33% complete.

Overall a fantastic experience and it's going to be extremely hard for either Rockstar or other developers to create a sandbox experience that surpasses this anytime soon.

Believe the hype, it has its niggles but this truly delivered and is one of the most satisfying gaming experiences I have ever experienced in over 20 years of playing.

[MKVarana]

Been playing on and off between this and Mario Kart Wii lately. Haven't really been too impressed with single player yet, though I'm going to stick with it for a while longer to see if it gets better as I move to the other islands. It's not that it's bad, per se, but I'm just finding it very "dropable", if that makes sense.

I finally got a chance to play some multiplayer recently (I played Free Play with the friend of mine who talked me into getting it), though, and I had a lot of fun. It reminded me of what I liked about the first 2 games and was exactly what I was hoping for. Even if nothing ever comes of the single player mode for me, the multiplayer was well worth the cost of admission.

A few questions for those who have played the multiplayer, though:

Are there any vehicles or an option/cheat that will let the passenger use more weapons? I really wanted to shoot rockets at the cops chasing us....

If you unlock something in single player like the better helicopter and the unlimited ammo limit, does that open those for multiplayer as well?

Is there any way (a setting or a cheat) for the players to spawn with more weapons in multiplayer?

[indigo0086]

Anyone else had troubles recently on xbl ranked matches. I was able to play one game but after that before it even entered in a lobby it said that it couldn't connect and was sending me back.

[Lego]

Anyone else had troubles recently on xbl ranked matches. I was able to play one game but after that before it even entered in a lobby it said that it couldn't connect and was sending me back.


The whole online experience is one big cluster fuck. I played two nights in a row with wolve and Jarred and all three of us had troubles.

[TheStrongMan]

So...after my trip to Columbus, I am now back and able to game again. For reference, I am still on the first island, I just opened up the missions with Mikhail.

I mentioned earlier that I like the new wanted system...well, I still do, to a point. What I do not like though is that it is just too damn easy now to get a wanted level. Hop on top of a cop car...wanted. Crash your vehicle to the point of explosion...wanted. Knock someone over on the subway steps...wanted. Smack someone in the face...wanted. And on and on and on...it seems like every time I fire a gun or steal a car, I end up wanted. I'm exaggerating for sure, but it sure feels like it.

I'm having fun exploring, doing side missions. My favorite thing to do is just wander around and take pot shots at people, or try and score headshots on passing cars. I take a perverse form of enjoyment headshotting a driver and seeing the blood splatter on the windshield, the horn blares as they slump onto the steering wheel, and the car continues forward until it wobbles off the road and crashes into a wall. It gets even better when the ambulance comes and i headshot the ambulance driver. Another thing I enjoy is getting up to speed and then ramming other cars head on to see if I can kill the driver. I didn't even know I could until I realized it by accident the other day. It's also fun times to see how far I can launch Niko through the windshield.

I want to explore the airport, but I get slammed with a 4 star rating everytime I pop my head in there...so I will abstain. I haven't found a helicopter there yet, so I guess the thing just isn't available yet.

I banged Michelle (even though I didn't want to) and got the achievement. I was rather underwhelmed with what went on. They show far more if you get a hooker; so I don't understand why they did practically nothing other than audio for the girlfriend. Although, I did her again, it seems there is no benefit to keeping up the relationship with her, so I doubt I'll continue this "dating" business. Plus, it makes the wife mad.

[Johnny]

Although, I did her again, it seems there is no benefit to keeping up the relationship with her, so I doubt I'll continue this "dating" business. Plus, it makes the wife mad. [/FONT]

Keep at it, especially when you can date girls you meet online. They (and other characters you socialise with) will give you perks later in the game.

[DeadlyMessiah]

MAJOR ENDING SPOILERS


Well I did it, I finished it a little while ago. I went with the REvenge route, and watching Kate die was cool but kind of meh since she was truly never developed much. Most of all, I am disappointed that Packie never even called you or anything afterwards. YOu would have thought he would have been there with you for the finale. Oh, and that last mission was very frustrating as I never noticed that ramp needed to leap into the chopper until I looked at the guide after the 7th time.

Nevertheless, the game was just down right terrific and I look forward to doing the other ending over the summer (I want to play the other GTA games first, and then of course MGS) and maybe working on the Pigeon stuff. Right now, I hate to say this, but GTAIV could possibly be my favorite game of the year depending on how MGS turns out.

[Quarkboy]

MAJOR ENDING SPOILERS


Well I did it, I finished it a little while ago. I went with the REvenge route, and watching Kate die was cool but kind of meh since she was truly never developed much. Most of all, I am disappointed that Packie never even called you or anything afterwards. YOu would have thought he would have been there with you for the finale. Oh, and that last mission was very frustrating as I never noticed that ramp needed to leap into the chopper until I looked at the guide after the 7th time.

Nevertheless, the game was just down right terrific and I look forward to doing the other ending over the summer (I want to play the other GTA games first, and then of course MGS) and maybe working on the Pigeon stuff. Right now, I hate to say this, but GTAIV could possibly be my favorite game of the year depending on how MGS turns out.

The chopper jump is easy compared to what you have to do for the other ending mission...


In that one, the situation is reversed a bit, and YOU'RE in the boat, chasing after (the obvious other bad guy)... who is in a helicopter, shooting MISSILES at you. So once you get through the first section and see the cutscene (this part of the mission is identical to the other version) instead of fighting your way to the motorcycle, you RUN to the boat, dodging a few missles, then have to go after the chopper in the boat extremely quickly, all the while dodging rockets IN A BOAT. Your buddy comes along in a helicopter and you have a very small window to get your boat underneath the helicopter, if you've delayed just a bit during anything at all, or even took a slightly wider arc in the boat, you'll miss it and fail.
Took me almost 20 tries, goddamit, and I much preferred Kate dying to the other option anyway.

[TheStrongMan]

-Brucie's mission "No. 1" can suck it. It took me forever to complete this thing! I'm not the best driver in the world, that made it even more difficult since you have to get in first to complete the mission. Tried driving and bumping for a while, wasn't working. So then I tried shooting the other driver which caused mission failure. I tried a few more times actually driving, then one time I got frustrated and went for the tires instead...apparently, you can shoot the tires, but not the driver...whatever, that mission is also finally over.

-I opened up the second island and was a little let down by the fact that there wasn't a major event tied with it opening. I remember in the previous GTAs that there was usually an absolutely crazy mission resulting in opening another island.

-Where the Hell do I buy decent looking sunglasses? I bought up all the suits that I could find, now I just need some sexy shades to complete my "suave" look.

-Right now, my favorite radio station is PLR, specifically the Health-care skit. I love every minute of it. I almost have it memorized by now, but I don't care...it's just my favorite thing to listen to. It's sad, but sometimes I'll drive around even longer specifically to listen to the skit even though I've heard it tons of times by now!

[Johnny]

-Where the Hell do I buy decent looking sunglasses? I bought up all the suits that I could find, now I just need some sexy shades to complete my "suave" look.

The only glasses you can buy are in the initial Russian clothing shop unfortunately.

-Right now, my favorite radio station is PLR, specifically the Health-care skit. I love every minute of it. I almost have it memorized by now, but I don't care...it's just my favorite thing to listen to. It's sad, but sometimes I'll drive around even longer specifically to listen to the skit even though I've heard it tons of times by now!

The radio stations are fantastic, especially DJ Premier doing the classic hip-hop one! The Journey is also great for night time cruising.

[Jarred]

-Brucie's mission "No. 1" can suck it. It took me forever to complete this thing! I'm not the best driver in the world, that made it even more difficult since you have to get in first to complete the mission. Tried driving and bumping for a while, wasn't working. So then I tried shooting the other driver which caused mission failure. I tried a few more times actually driving, then one time I got frustrated and went for the tires instead...apparently, you can shoot the tires, but not the driver...whatever, that mission is also finally over.

I think I remember that mission and had the same frustrations. The guy is hard to tail, one of the hardest in the game, and I couldn't figure out if I wasn't allowed to shoot out the tires until a certain point or not (one of my minor frustrations of the game). Finally, I was able to bump him, he hit someone and spun out into an alleyway where he was then stuck. I got out, dragged him out of the car, and was able to stress relief my gun in his face. :laugh:

[NeoCortex]

-I opened up the second island and was a little let down by the fact that there wasn't a major event tied with it opening. I remember in the previous GTAs that there was usually an absolutely crazy mission resulting in opening another island.


Wait until you unlock the third island. It more than makes up for it.

[DeadlyMessiah]

You know, I was never that big of a fan of the GTA games. My brother loved them, so I always just grabbed his copy and had fun just doing mindless killings and missions here and there. However, GTAIV was just so great that it made me want to play the others, and so far I have gone through both III and Vice City, and just started Liberty City Stories (PS2 version) a little while ago. I also picked up the PS1 Trilogy, but I won't mention those since I had enough after 10 minutes.

III was pretty good, especially for its age. Graphically it was impressive on just how primitive it looked compared to IV, but I had fun actually going through the game's story (originally, I played 4 missions and then I was done). Granted though, there were A LOT of frustrating missions that were plain out rediculous. I never even won that stupid El Burro race, for when I finally got a car good enough, the Triads were always blowing it up just before I won the race. Finally, the ending was disappointing, which seems to be normal for a GTA game after beating IV and VC.

Speaking of Vice City, I remember have a lot of fun with this one, as it got most of my attention whenver I played a GTA game for fun. Whether it was just to listen to the radio (like the KCHAT interview with Thor) or driving around on bikes, this game was great. However, some of the missions were even worse than III's, especially the final mission which was just out right rediculous. And once again, the ending was bad, but even worse than III's ending. I guess when you think about how you can just continue playing on with the game without the main story, it makes sense, but if you are just out to play through the story, then it is blah. Still, overall the game is great.

Now I cannot just stop talking about how great IV was, which has its own topic, so I'll leave it at that.

San Andreas was a let down, and I never finished it. It was probably the first GTA game I actually got quite far into it, but thanks to the airplane missions, I just got way too frustrated with the game to care anymore. I may go back to it soon, maybe start it over from scratch, maybe not depending on my mood since I haven't touched it in over two years.

[guyverfanboy]

Has anyone gotten 100% on this game?

[Zorak]

Has anyone gotten 100% on this game?

I have.

[gnikdrazil]

I picked up EFLC on PS3 after waiting too long for it come out. I decided to do Lost and Damned first. Riding on a motorcycle is so much better now. I was hitting street signs and lamp posts but didn't get knocked off. I only did the first mission to get the President's bike back. I didn't bother to look at the instruction manual to remember the control scheme. The fight to get the bike back was a little ruff since I wasn't taking cover. I really have to say I hate the dialog parts when I'm driving. The combination of radio, motorcycle engine, and paying attention to the rode does not make the formula to listening to the guys talk. I can't wait to tackle it more over the weekend.

[DeadlyMessiah]

I just replayed throught GTAIV and now I plan to play BoGT and then L&D since I played that one on the 360 when I still had one.

[gnikdrazil]

Lost and Damned - Done. This was a fun chapter. It took me about 13 hours. I would have been done faster, but I took part in a number of races and gang wars. Gang War missions didn't vary enough; either shoot a bunch of guys or go destroy a vehicle. Races were more fun. It was funny a couple of times being knocked into water and being disqualified from lack of bike. I won most of the races on the Hexer, but there were a few that I needed a crotch rocket aka hair dryer. There weren't any horrendously hard missions, but on the few I had some trouble on, I'm glad they put in check points. It was good to see Niko and Roman again, but it has been about 2 years since I played GTAIV. I vaguely remembered some of their interweaving plots. My favorite mission had to be a drug deal gone bad, and the epic ensuing police chase. It was like a rail gun game with me on the back of a bike and shooting vehicles with a fully automatic shotgun and pipe bombs. Pipe bombs weren't that good. The mission that introduced them had me trying to destroy 3 vehicles with them. I gave up on the pipe bombs and just shot the until the exploded. I loved the grenade launcher. It was much more satisfactory than the rocket launcher. There was one mission against Gay Tony so I can't wait to play Ballad with their fun interactions compared to LaD's more serious tone.

[gnikdrazil]

Ballad of Gay Tony - After playing too much of Island of Dr. Ned for Borderlands, I put this game back into my PS3. I'm 6 hours into the game and enjoying it a lot more than Lost and Damned. Gang wars are much improved in this expansion with more variety by stealing helicopters, cars, and boats full of drugs with the occasional shoot out. I like Louis, but Gay Tony is much more fun a character even tough he is doped up much of the time. The random character icons on the map are very interesting. I've encountered a crazy woman who couldn't get over Louis, a British woman, and my favorite, a Frenchman with a life motto of "Drugs, sex, and and more drugs for tomorrow he dies". They introduced two new weapons so far: remote bombs and explosive shotgun. The shotgun was sweet taking down helicopters. The remote bombs were a little awkward when they were introduced in a boat mission. I didn't read the help tips on how to detonate them. I just kept throwing them expecting L! to detonate when I had to press the down arrow pad. I haven't participated in many underground boxing rings matches; just the mission only. I attempted a base jump and majorly screwed it up. I deployed my parachute way to early, attempted to circle around, and hit the side of a building to fall to my death.

[DeadlyMessiah]

Wow, you beat L&D in 13 hours? My final game time was 21 hours and 56 minutes.

I had a lot of fun with it, but right now I am having even more fun with Gay Tony. Hell, Tony has become one of my favorite GTA characters. The base jumps were excellent, but the drug wars are pretty much the same as the gang wars, which get boring after the tenth one. The club management missions are interesting, but sometimes you don't get enough information on what you are supposed to do. Like there is one where you have to drive all of the way to Bohan and back, but they don't tell you there is a time limit until you run out of time 4 feet from the destination. -_- There have been some incredibly fun missions though, while also some frustrating ones (anything that deals with Mori).