Tobisausage

Played it for around 5 hours last night, came away feeling a little underwhelmed. For someone who has never played a GTA title before then I can see it would be an 'amazing 10 out of 10 gaming experience' but to me at the moment it is just like playing GTA San Andreas with better graphics.

I am going through the exact same process of get girlfriend, get clothes, run erands zzzzzzzzzz

What are other peoples views?

The viper and going through the windscreen is good though

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

Only managed 2.5 hours on it. Done 6.8% or something.
This is my first GTA on a console. I completely missed SA (life sim zzzz) but I loved Vice City on the PC.
I'm enjoying IV at the moment. Depends on how 'samey' the missions get I suppose. I love the graphical style
I went through the windscreen of the M3 the first time I tried to ram that van off the road!

PeteBrant

Graphically it is simulataneously dreadful and fantastic. Sometimes it looks like SA/VC on PS2, and at other times, the effects and movement are staggeringly good.

The targetting is a big improvment, and it really needed an overhaul, it was easily the weakest part of the series. I really like the new SatNav system, no more check the map every 10 seconds.

I like the fact that if you turn a car over it doesn't blow up automatically. I like the fact that if you die you don't loose every thing.

I am really pleased they have taken out all the life sim aspects of GTA:SA

I haven't played enough of it to know whether it is more varied than VC, or just more of the same.

At the end of the day though, if you didn;t like GTA, you aren't going to find anything here to change your mind.

messiah

First ever GTA for me - blurry graphics and cutscene's to rival Metal Gear Solid...

LG John

I played about 5 hours worth yesterday and I'm yet to be convinced! It seems to lack the 'do anything' approach of VC & SA whereby you could eat and get fat, work out and get strong, get better at fighting, buy stuff like knives, hammers, screwdrivers, etc. It seems to have some of these things but nowhere near as readily available.

I decided I wanted to go on a killing spree and it was virtually impossible to find a knife or gun - I eventually found a shotgun at the airport. Half the appeal of VC for me was how quickly you could tool up and go on a destruction bender and also how you could readily go to lots of interesting places. I also find it annoying that the landscape is so similar; in SA there was countryside and mountains, etc, etc. All 3 islands are basically city and when you've seen one tower block you've seen them all. It somehow lacks wonder and anything really new and the fact it's graphically better just doesn't cut it on its own. So far it seems to lack the 'pick up and shoot' playability of the previous versions. For example I drove to the airport and there are a number of planes there that can't be accessed!?! All you can steal is a poxy helicopter which, despite having guns, is a nightmare to fly and use to destroy stuff.

Another part of the GTA appeal was finding out what new and often stupid/funny things you or other characters could do. Silly things like getting a lowrider with hydro shocks and bouncing it; picking up a hooker and banging her; driving out to the country to take on an obscene jump! So far the only thing that has happened in 5 hours of play that made me really laugh was when I had a head on and both me and the other guy came through the windscreen.

Then there is the issue of gaining 6 stars on your wanted thingy! Where are the military?! All I ever got was cops and swat chasing me!! I want tanks and gunships hunting me down; I want destruction and carnage of the highest order. In SA & VC there was seemingly loads of vehicles you could nick and have fun in, but so far the only thing of interest I've found is the chopper. I also found a commercial chopper when I illegally flew to one of the other islands but no decent boats, tanks, etc.

In conclusion my first impressions are that they have tarted up the graphics but actually dumbed down the games main appeal which was that you could do pretty much anything you could imagine within your environment.

messiah

6 stars are easy got my 40G achievement for lasting 5 minutes already!

Tobisausage

I never thought about it from that perspective but you are pretty much spot on Saxo Boy.

The car handling is also very very strange, to me it seems like they have tried to make the car handle like cars in a movie chase. The body roll on some cars is comical and even though I managed to steal a viper there was no sense of 'holy ****' this is fast. The understeering in a straight line when braking is annoying, as is the uncontrollable handbrake turns. I cant find that feel for how the cars handle. I hit a curb at some speed and did a 1080 spin which was wierd.

Does anyone else get really bad clipping and texture shearing in the cut scenes?

Iain Young

I've found the handbrake turns to be easily controllable

It takes a bit of getting used to, but I'm finding the cars pretty easy to control now. The trick is to not expect them to behave in the way a real car would, but instead they behave how they do in the movies.

As for the game itself. So far it's been good, but not great. Not sure if I'll see it out to the end or not. To be honest, I'm finding the language and constant references to male/female body parts to be rather tiresome. Comes across as if it was written by and for spotty teenagers...

Iain Young

Yep, seen that in both versions. Try watching the cabaret acts. In places their legs go through each other (and the chairs etc). Very poor...

Tobisausage

Yeah, the woman reading some whack poem was really bad. In the cut scenes the only thing I could work out which was better than previous versions is that the textures are of a higher res and the characters have fingers insted of a stump.

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

Did anyone else think the woman in the cabaret show you go to (with Roman) looked remarkably like one of the female charactors you could pick in Test Drive Unlimited?

SirFozzalot

I haven't bought it yet and by the sounds of it, I'm not sure I'll bother!

I regularly used to load up GTA-SA to purely go on a killing spree and create carnage, doesn't sound like that is really possible so far

Is there any online play?

Tobisausage

Thinking about San Andreas more, I actually liked that SIMs side of the game.

I managed to get a Girlfriend whom you had to regulary take out or she left you. I got annoyed with doing this so I made myself really fat then went round her house in just my dirty Y-fronts riding on a lawnmower. Because there was only room for one on the lawnmower she started to get annoyed as we were not getting to the restaurant fast enough. I just carried on driving along side her letting her get more and more angry. After about 5minutes she dumped me so I got off the lawnmower and beat her to death with a baseball bat.

Greatest GTA moment for me.

Iain Young

Yes you can.

Yes.

SirFozzalot

What is the format for the online play? Is it small areas of team vs team or is it bigger maps with more general missions?

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

It's the whole city I believe.

LG John

This is pretty much the appeal of GTA games for me and so far this new one seems to fall massively short of the mark. I was hoping in this version you might be able to hang around in the park and flash women or drag them into the bushes or something. Also the fighting so far is terrible; what happened to being able to causally cruise past someone and proper spark them out with one punch? I want to be able to go into an old persons home with a baseball bat and go granny bashing or to go to a view point where teenagers make out and beat the guy to death in front of his women! I want to be able to knock people out load them in my car then push them off a cliff! I want to rope someone to the back of my car and drag them behind me through the streets! I want to set up cables that I can pull to closeline bikers! I want to set down a package in a big crowd and blow it up!

Where's the violence, where is the "omg, how did they get away with that!" moments??? I always liked the fact that GTA flew in the face of the PC brigade but now they seemed to have lost their bottle big time.

kernel

As a GTA virgin I played for about 3 hours last night and got no where really. I was expect Roman to tell me what to do but he doesn't. I did beat him at darts and got my 180, however he stuffed me at pool as I couldn't work out how to get the shot strength right. Similarly with the 10-pin bowling but I did win that against Michelle.

It's all a bit confusing at times. I got the train to the airport, got off the train and got arrested. Why? I have failed to find any way on to the airfield except by walking passed guards. They do nothing to challenge you until your about 20 yrds in then they all come and shoot you. Because this whole episode takes so long I can't be a***d to keep trying.

The graphics are way lower quality than I expected. Rain/Fog etc are ok but the lack of polys on many things is too obvious.

Hopefully it'll click when I find out what I'm not doing right

bob269

http://www.rockstargames.com/IV/#?page=multiplayer

STi wanna Subaru

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like a case of the Emperors new clothes to me. all these game reviews too scared to fly in the face of everybody else so all give it 100.

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

lol Saxo, you want to rape women, kill OAPs, decapitate bikers and be a terrorist?

PeteBrant

I think to be fair, if you are expecting anything radically different from GTA you are going to be dissapointed. But. It is GTA, and GTA done next gen. I mean it takes the likes of Saints Row and empties a clip into the ****.

STi wanna Subaru

iTrader: (1)

Better fun than Crackdown?

bob269

To be fair, chessmaster empties a clip into Saints Row

PeteBrant

Not sure if better "fun" is apt - Better game, almost certainly. Better produced, more polished, more "GTA".

Bear in mind this is based on a couple of hours with GTA and a couple of hours with crackdown.

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

The single player game will last longer than Crackdown and there's more to do, but whether it's 'more fun' I'm not sure.
edit: I loved Crackdown, thought it was very underrated.

Daft Lad

I've spent about 3 hours last night doing a few of the missions, at first not as blown away with the graphics as I hoped I'd be, but then I never really was with the PS2 games either....although I f**king loved them, GTA SA is still one of my favourite games ever!

So......not as completely in awe with IV as I thought I'd be, but who cares? Its still GTA, and I'm sure before I know it, it will be taking most of my life up just like the old games!

Flaps

iTrader: (1)

So far i'm not impressed with anything other than the graphics.