GTA IV overrated?

[Mimi Nakamura]

I decided to finally purchase GTA IV, but I have to say that I'm incredibly disappointed. The graphics are terrible, the control system is very poor, and the gameplay seems to be very repetitive. The music is impressive though, and some of the cut scenes are funny. It doesn't feel like much of a challenge, and I feel it's definitely not worthy of all the good reviews it received.

I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with me, but is there anyone who shares the same opinions?

[dayzed4life]

I like playing gta iv quite a bit. mostly for just something to do between other games I'm playing. I definitely don't get as much enjoyment out of it as some of the other gta titles.

[G-Boobie]

Absolutely. To my mind, there is no more over-hyped series in gaming than the GTA games. Terrible controls, poorly designed missions, shady checkpoints, and cliched story.

To be fair, there are some clever and enjoyable pieces in the GTA games, but the overall package has never delivered for me. I much preferred Crackdown and Saint's Row.

All, of course, in my opinion.

[miaandjohnrule]

To be fair, there are some clever and enjoyable pieces in the GTA games, but the overall package has never delivered for me. I much preferred Crackdown and Saint's Row.



Well put. My thoughts exactly. I have played all the GTA IV expansions, they aren't all that. Pretty Meh.

[SPAZ-12]

GTA IV is way over-hyped, and I love the GTA games. My biggest problem was that they made things more "realistic." In reality all this did was break the driving portion of the game (aka: the best part) and made some other parts very annoying. After playing it for awhile I started enjoying it, but it took way too long before I was good enough to be able to have fun; in the previous GTA releases almost anyone could pick up the controller and have fun immediately.

[kupomogli]

I've never been a fan of GTA until GTA4.

The frst GTA I ever played was the first one. Amazing game, for about 20 minutes. Then boredom set in and I gave it back to the friend who let me borrow it. After that it was GTA3, Vice City, Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories, and last(before GTA4,) San Andreas.

If you ask me, GTA3 is just an overall bad game. The presentation is nice, but everything else is just bad. The only reason to even play GTA3 nowdays is to listen to Chatterbox. Lawlow Jones ftw.

I just recently finished GTA Liberty City Stories and it did have a nice backstory to GTA3 including a lot of characters such as Donald Love, who owns all the radio stations in GTA3, Eight Ball, Salvatore, etc. However. Despite having a great backstory, the game sucked. It's gameplay is better than GTA3, but not much, and for a game that came out 5 years later. I'd expected so much more.

Vice City and Vice City Stories. Now Vice City is pretty much GTA3 with another storyline. Not much has changed and the game is only slightly better. Vice City Stories is actually much better than any of the others with the inclusion of the rackets that you can own to make yourself extra money, but overall the game is finally decent.

San Andreas actually improved on the series a lot. This is honestly the first actually good GTA game. I still don't like it in comparison to Driver, Driver 3(yes, I like Driv3r better,) and Scarface the World is Yours, as those games are so much better, but it's actually good for a GTA game.

-
Then I played GTA4. GTA4 is amazing. This is coming from a person who has mostly disliked the GTA series and has merely only played the games prior to playing GTA4. GTA4 is the very first game in the series that was good enough for me to play to completion.

Now the first thing I noticed on the game when starting it is the driving. The cars controlled very realistic. Much to how a car would control in real life. I enjoy simcade driving games much more than arcade style, so the new style of driving was something I really liked and this was in the first 10 minutes of playing the game.

What I didn't like at fist was the camera angles when driving. Due to this I put the game down and didn't play it for the longest time, picking it up three months later and actually one more time giving it a chance. Previously already changing the controls to older style racing games rather than the trigger buttons for acceleration and breaking, etc, it had a button placement that I liked, and then figuring a good way for the camera not to suck while driving I started to enjoy it. When driving and making a turn around the corner, press O(or B on the 360) to change your cars view to cam view but immediately let it go and it'll directly position itself behind you. Sure this really sucks to have to do this since the camera doesn't turn behind you quick enough, but fixing the camera issue was easy enough.

So I got back into the game. Played more and got up to the shooting. If you've ever played Scarface the World Is Yours, you'll know that the aiming system is exactly the same. Now I used auto aim when first playing and unlike the other GTA games, instead of auto aiming towards a random person three blocks down the road behind you, you can only aim at someone within the camera's vision(meaning only straight ahead of you.) With lock on, it then allows you to aim at a specific part within the body instead of just at a character and shoot them in the chest until they die. Shoot at their leg and watch them fall or even their head and, well, also watch them fall.

The stoyline was also very good. It didn't try and take itself seriously, but the voice acting was great and the characters were extremely likable. You didn't go and do a mission and then like the other GTA games. Oh go do this, etc, etc. It gave you quite a bit of story on these characters before missions even started.

Anyways. While there isn't as much to do in GTA4 as there is in San Andreas, there is definitely more to do in GTA4 than GTA3, VC, and LCS(not sure about VCS.) This is also the only GTA I actually enjoy driving around in and not just doing mission after mission.

Last. There's the multiplayer. Playing deathmatch isn't as good as playing deathmatch on a fps etc. However, playing deathmatch is still fun. Team deathmatch is even better. The Race mode with I think 20 different races, Cannonball run, a few helicopter races, and boat races as well. A few other different modes and then even some story like modes where you can complete a story like mission with friends.

Also. GTA4 isn't as overhyped as you might think. Once it came out, yeah, but after it came out you have so many fans of the series that says GTA4 is the worst one. I see a lot of times when people say GTA3 is such a great game in the series but then say some sortof remark towards how GTA4 isn't any good. Sure everyone has their opinion, but I think that's nothing more than a fanboy of the series being biased because it's not the same crap we've been seeing with the series since day one(in 3d atleast.)

So overall. I think the GTA series sucks overall. GTA4 however is by far one of the best current gen games I've ever played, one of the best games of all time. Now I haven't played GTA Episodes From Liberty City, but that will be soon since it's finally coming out on the PS3 this month. Gameplay the same as GTA4 with a different story is definitely something I don't mind.

*edit*


GTA IV is way over-hyped, and I love the GTA games. My biggest problem was that they made things more "realistic." In reality all this did was break the driving portion of the game (aka: the best part) and made some other parts very annoying. After playing it for awhile I started enjoying it, but it took way too long before I was good enough to be able to have fun; in the previous GTA releases almost anyone could pick up the controller and have fun immediately.

Nothing against you Spaz, but people should read my second to last edit after reading this quote.

This is what I'm talking about though. The previous GTA games were just extremely poorly designed arcade racing style games with bad mechanics for shooting etc. When everything was expanded, the driving was redone, and the shooting no longer sucked, this is what made the GTA series good for me. They fixed everything that was wrong in GTA games prior to GTA4 so that it had great racing mechanics, great shooting mechanics, great story, a world that is actually nice to explore even on foot, and easily the best soundtrack to date on a GTA title(except for Chatterbox being better than Integrity 2.0.)

[Icarus Moonsight]

I had a lot of fun playing my homebrew mission "crotch-rocket" (what I called it) in Vice City (last GTA I played). You jack a motorcycle, moped, scooter or whatever. Drive it somewhat fast, down a straight. Aim for a group of people and then hit the bail button while yelling "Crotch-Rocket!". Taking out a beat-cop gets you bonus imaginary points... Possibly a gun! Then you go pick up the monies and your bike, or just jack another one and do it all over again. Don't worry about yelling the warning, they can't hear you. :D

After doing that for about an hour, you never have to play the games again.

[otoko]

I honestly never got GTA for the story. I ignored it and just found someone with a complete save game.

I like the control scheme, so whatever. I just usually use it as a time filler. Recently since I got it for my growing PS3 collection I've been playing with friends online and that has been tons of fun.

Recently, we've been doing wars between us and using the strip clubs as bases!

[johj1987]

gta 4 sucks. you should try saints row that is a great game you could customize you character and your cars

[Swamperon]

I played it and it was... okay. Certainly not enjoyable as San Andreas. It was most certainly overrated upon release, not deserving the amount of perfect scores it received. In fact I've seen reviewers admit that they became swept up in the hype and rated it to highly.

[exit]

GTA has always been overhyped and overrated, but so are all of the other big name games. I personally never intended to get GTA4, but then I did get GTA4 and put countless amount of hours just messing around alone. It's no Vice City or anything, but I got my moneys worth.


gta 4 sucks. you should try saints row that is a great game you could customize you character and your cars

Saints Row is just the poor man's GTA, Saints Row 2 was just horrible.

[Cryomancer]

Saints Row 2 = king of the genre.

GTA4 is pretty lame and boring when compared to either Saints Row or any previous GTA title in my opinion. The game penalizes you for skipping the taxi ride? cmon now. Every mission seems to be "drive the hell way across the entire map, get your orders, drive the hell other side of the map to carry them out", and then when you beat it someone wants to go out and they are, surprise, way the hell on the other side of the map. Of course I'm gonna start taking taxis when it gets like that all the time. Why are you punishing me for getting to the GAME part of the game and not just the traffic simulator part? Everything that is fun about the previous games is gone, replaced by incredible blandness. I really, really hate the BROWN = REAL!!!! / GREY = GRITTY!!! trend of modern games. Even the music stations are lacking in GTA4. San Andreas is a far, far better game in my experience.

[jonebone]

Personally I thought it was a great game. I mean how many series can you honestly say have improved with each version? Even if you hate the series, you have to at least admit that GTA IV > III and III > everything else.

Sure it may seem a bit repetitive, but what game doesn't? In Super Mario all you do is jump around, get powerups and use fireballs. That's repetitive isn't it? Still doesn't stop it from being a great game.

I enjoyed it and I'm not a GTA fanboy by any means. Got my 40-50 hours of use out if it at release and probably will never touch it again. However, at no point in the gameplay did I ever thing "Wow, this is stupid" or "Man this really sucks".

[megasdkirby]

For me, I always thought it was overrated. I tried liking the series, but it just never grabbed by attention. It might be great, but I never understood or realized why.

"Just not my cup of tea" or however it is said.

[chicnstu]

What I'm having a hard time understanding is how people can't see that GTA IV is a quality, polished game. The story is the most well-written in the series, the missions have more variety than ever, the physics are amazing (the way the characters react to everything, the vehicle damage is better than any game I've seen), the multiplayer is great to be an extra to an already huge single-player experience, and, for such a massive environment, the graphics are amazing. That's why Crackdown and Saints Row are cel-shaded, they didn't want to spend the time or couldn't get the graphics to look good realistically, Rockstar did.

Crackdown is cool, but very repetitive. Most of the fun is in being on rooftops. And the Saints Row series is just cheesy, and not in the good way.

[Cryomancer]

Well, that's opinions for you. I like the crazy over-the-top ness of Saints Row and San Andreas. Saints Row 2 is especially excellent, as it provides many things that the genre should have had day 1, and should require from now on. Cruise control for example. Far too many sandbox games leave that out, it's a crime! You can have a car delivered to you; call your friends to come to YOU, with a car; you can have followers, who can get into their own cars and follow yours. Seriously, tons of technical improvements on the formula that more games need to pick up on. And since when is Saints Row a low graphics quality game?

[StoneAgeGamer]

GTA4 is over hyped. Its a good game, but not as ground breaking as previous versions and did not deserve the perfect scores it was getting from reviewers. My favorite GTA is Vice City. Fun story (not original, but fun), great 80s music, good controls, and just a fun game IMO.

[heybtbm]

GTA IV is excellent except for the music. After being spoiled with the incredible soundtracks from Vice City and San Andreas, the "let's do it as cheap as we can" music selection was a big letdown. That, and the multiplayer was embarrassingly awful.

Still, it's one of the best games this generation IMO. In terms of it's place on the GTA list, I'd say it's the 2nd best. Right below San Andreas but above Vice City.

[Therealqtip]

I grew up hating the gta games but I really like them now. They're only overhyped (besides the millions of people that love them) because its like OMG GTA YOU KILL HOOKERS, OH MANNN I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHAT ROCKSTAR HAS HIDDEN IN THIS GAME! (Hot coffee mod)

[kupomogli]

GTA IV is excellent except for the music. After being spoiled with the incredible soundtracks from Vice City and San Andreas, the "let's do it as cheap as we can" music selection was a big letdown. That, and the multiplayer was embarrassingly awful.

You didn't like the music. I thought it had a lot of great music.

First off. While not as good as Chatterbox from GTA3, Integrity 2.0 was awesome. Almost every song in Tuff Gong, Liberty Rock Radio, and Radio Broker was really good. Those were the ones I mainly left it on, but I could leave it on nearly anything and it was enjoyable.

GTA3 I left it on Chatterbox or Flashback. Lazlow is awesome and the Scarface soundtrack is amazing. I thought everything else sucked. Then as for Liberty City Stories I only left it on the last station LCFR and only when Lazlow was on because literally every music track on that game sucked balls. I had music completed turned off for half the game it just got so grating.

I can't tell you about Vice City. I only left it on VRock. But Vice City Stories had a really good soundtrack which is another I could leave it most stations without being annoyed as most of the music was very very good. I honestly think VRock was better on Vice City Stories, not much though.

San Andreas I only remember X Rock.

I'd say overall if it went by my favorite genre, Rock. It would be Vice City Stories(it had other stations I listened to and liked so that's a tie breaker,) Vice City, San Andreas, and GTA4 would be in that order.

[Icarus Moonsight]

To be completely honest, I got Vice City solely for the music soundtrack and 80's Miami vibe. The talk radio station when you were driving around was hilarious for a while too. Then you start hearing repeat segments and it looses it's charm... Oh well. I guess that's GTA. Super fun for a couple hours, then meh afterward.

[Mimi Nakamura]

What I'm having a hard time understanding is how people can't see that GTA IV is a quality, polished game. The story is the most well-written in the series, the missions have more variety than ever, the physics are amazing (the way the characters react to everything, the vehicle damage is better than any game I've seen), the multiplayer is great to be an extra to an already huge single-player experience, and, for such a massive environment, the graphics are amazing. That's why Crackdown and Saints Row are cel-shaded, they didn't want to spend the time or couldn't get the graphics to look good realistically, Rockstar did.

Crackdown is cool, but very repetitive. Most of the fun is in being on rooftops. And the Saints Row series is just cheesy, and not in the good way.

I strongly disagree with your comments about the graphics, they pale in comparison to other PS3 games.

The physics are inconsistent in the game, all objects and furniture seem to have the exact same weight, any of them can be knocked over just by touching them.

You should try Burnout Paradise for vehicle damage...

[Mimi Nakamura]

You didn't like the music. I thought it had a lot of great music.

First off. While not as good as Chatterbox from GTA3, Integrity 2.0 was awesome. Almost every song in Tuff Gong, Liberty Rock Radio, and Radio Broker was really good. Those were the ones I mainly left it on, but I could leave it on nearly anything and it was enjoyable.

GTA3 I left it on Chatterbox or Flashback. Lazlow is awesome and the Scarface soundtrack is amazing. I thought everything else sucked. Then as for Liberty City Stories I only left it on the last station LCFR and only when Lazlow was on because literally every music track on that game sucked balls. I had music completed turned off for half the game it just got so grating.

I can't tell you about Vice City. I only left it on VRock. But Vice City Stories had a really good soundtrack which is another I could leave it most stations without being annoyed as most of the music was very very good. I honestly think VRock was better on Vice City Stories, not much though.

San Andreas I only remember X Rock.

I'd say overall if it went by my favorite genre, Rock. It would be Vice City Stories(it had other stations I listened to and liked so that's a tie breaker,) Vice City, San Andreas, and GTA4 would be in that order.

I agree with you on how good the music is. They've enlisted some true legends to select the songs, Francois K, DJ Premier, Femi Kuti, Roy Ayers, Iggy Pop. Impressive stuff for a video game.

[kupomogli]

I strongly disagree with your comments about the graphics, they pale in comparison to other PS3 games.

When you say other PS3 games, what PS3 games are you talking about. I'll list some PS3 games that came out the same year.

Metal Gear Solid 4. No contest. Is anything is as good as this in the graphics department? Oh yeah. Fighting games and FF13 just came out.

Soul Calibur 4. A fighting game. Character models of Dead or Alive 2 on the PS2 look just as good as GTA4 character models, and better than most character models on most 360 and PS3 games actually.

Fallout 3. Everyone says the game has amazing graphics and it does, but the textures and everything in it is too repetitive. Fallout 3 is fairly realistic as well, but anything in the game has the same weight, whether it's a dead body, a head that was blown off the body, any of the items lying on the ground, any boxes that can be picked up. Getting perfect physics is near impossible because you can't tell the weight of most items in a video game and while they may be different you can't tell.

Devil May Cry 4. Character models were amazing, and the first area had some good graphical detail, but the rest of the game was pretty bland. Great graphics yes, but not as much detail as the first areas, and literally nothing was interactive. As small a world as DMC4 is, it should have great graphics. And also. Speaking of overhyped. I like DMC4, but this is an overhyped game. Please remake DMC or DMC3 with DMC4 graphics Capcom?

Valkyria Chronicles. Great game, but we all knew this game was never going to win the graphics award. For Cel Shaded graphics, they're not too impressive being on a next gen console either. If you take a look at Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3. Those graphics are impressive and that's on a last gen title.

Disgaea 3? This is for PS3? At first glance I would have thought this was for the PS2 at best.

Anyways. GTA4 blows Fallout 3 out of the water. The game isn't repetitive textures and rock formations reused over and over again. Also winning out over DMC4 and Soul Calibur 4, it is extremely detailed which very little detail is put into these two games. The buildings themselves. Extremely well done. The cars have a lot of polish, they can get dirt on the cars themselves when running through places but also taken to a car wash, running into a parked car going fast speeds will send Nico flying out the car window, a car slamming on their breaks will cause the front to lower while a motorcycle can actually drive up the front of the car and ramp off the car(have done this in multiplayer.) Very very beautiful and realistic graphics. The very last thing is the water effects. Other than Uncharted Drake's Fortune, I haven't played one game to date with water effects as good as they are in GTA4.

Now character models, while they look good, I'll agree those are the worst looking part. But the amount of detail everything else is given, the character models can be forgiven. Let's not forget that you can go driving through the entire city without any loading.

So compared to a bunch of "high quality" games on the PS3 at time of release. GTA4 has some of the best graphics.

[HappehLemons]

GTA4 was ugly. Maybe it has good graphics for the scale of the game, but it's still ugly.

[G-Boobie]

I'm not trying to say that the fans of GTA (and especially iV) are wrong in their opinions -they are, after all, completely personal and therefore completely relevant- but I honestly believe that GTA IV was carried entirely by its marketing and game journalist hype.

I hated the GTA III series because for me, mechanics are paramount in games. There might have been two hundred side missions to do and hours of "emergent gameplay" to enjoy, but they were ruined for me by how the games controlled. That is, like shit. I tried every entry because I thought that I MUST be missing something.

Having played Crackdown and Saints Row, I found out how much fun a polished open-world game could be, and I pre-ordered GTA IV, thinking that it was impossible that Rockstar, the pioneers of the sandbox genre, would fail to meet the same standards as their imitators. And what did I discover? Shady driving mechanics, a busted targeting system, missions that no longer even offered more than one way to complete them, and a story that ACTIVELY BROKE DOWN AS YOU PLAYED IT.

Imagine: I'm taking a girl out to dinner. My car gets hit and flames start shooting out of the hood. Seeing no other option, I bail out and the girl does too. As she's asking whether or not I'm a deviant criminal scum bag, I tear an old lady out of her car, shoot her, get in with the girl who's STILL ASKING IF I'M A CRIMINAL, and drive off, the cops in hot pursuit. Mind you, the girl had complimented me on my new clothes before the date, which were bright orange and pink: truly garish, and therefore it's possible she was mentally handicapped. We ditch the police, and as I drop her off at her house, she says something along the lines of, "I'm glad you're such a nice guy, Nico". Yeah.

Then there's the fact that the game wants you to sympathize with Nico, who's painted by the cut scenes as a decent guy who just happens to always end up in trouble. That illusion failed pretty quickly, because Nico (or you, the player), kill all kinds of people, all the time, sometimes just because it seems like a fun idea. Never before has a game had such a gulf between it's core mechanics and narrative, and it drove me nuts. I usually try and ignore stories in games anyway, but in the case of GTA IV, it was impossible.

[Richter Belmount]

Square enixs newer stuff is overrated as well

[Icarus Moonsight]

I like it when game devs are hungry and have something to prove. You can feel it through the controller! LOL

Not saying the large devs are incapable of a great production... It's the whole art through adversity, and substance/style thing. Established studios with substantial budgets for production and marketing are more prone to being complacent. Never get lazy, in other words... It's tempting to just throw money at things and call it a solution, because it's easy and usually works well enough, in the short run.

When I play a game and it's righteous fun for a couple hours and then I loose interest... Something went wrong somewhere.

[ScourDX]

I decided to finally purchase GTA IV, but I have to say that I'm incredibly disappointed. The graphics are terrible, the control system is very poor, and the gameplay seems to be very repetitive. The music is impressive though, and some of the cut scenes are funny. It doesn't feel like much of a challenge, and I feel it's definitely not worthy of all the good reviews it received.

I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with me, but is there anyone who shares the same opinions?

You must unlearn what you have learn from all other game. GTA is not about how realistic or poor the physic or poor control system. It is all about letting lose and do whatever you want. Steal a car, screw a prostitute, kill your girlfriend, kill a cop, create massive explosion and etc. The game is known for openness and you should be more creative than simply follow the mission.

[Icarus Moonsight]

G-Boobie was talking about how that designed openness can double-back into WTF-land. Too open can become quite a bit worse than completely closed and linear that way, when it breaks causation and logic every chance it can. Is that the sandbox uncanny valley?

[Mimi Nakamura]

You must unlearn what you have learn from all other game. GTA is not about how realistic or poor the physic or poor control system. It is all about letting lose and do whatever you want. Steal a car, screw a prostitute, kill your girlfriend, kill a cop, create massive explosion and etc. The game is known for openness and you should be more creative than simply follow the mission.

That's an interesting post, maybe I wasn't playing GTA in the right way?

If I was to do any of those things, would it change the story / missions? If so, I'll definitely give the game another try!

[Mimi Nakamura]

When you say other PS3 games, what PS3 games are you talking about. I'll list some PS3 games that came out the same year.

Metal Gear Solid 4. No contest. Is anything is as good as this in the graphics department? Oh yeah. Fighting games and FF13 just came out.

Soul Calibur 4. A fighting game. Character models of Dead or Alive 2 on the PS2 look just as good as GTA4 character models, and better than most character models on most 360 and PS3 games actually.

Fallout 3. Everyone says the game has amazing graphics and it does, but the textures and everything in it is too repetitive. Fallout 3 is fairly realistic as well, but anything in the game has the same weight, whether it's a dead body, a head that was blown off the body, any of the items lying on the ground, any boxes that can be picked up. Getting perfect physics is near impossible because you can't tell the weight of most items in a video game and while they may be different you can't tell.

Devil May Cry 4. Character models were amazing, and the first area had some good graphical detail, but the rest of the game was pretty bland. Great graphics yes, but not as much detail as the first areas, and literally nothing was interactive. As small a world as DMC4 is, it should have great graphics. And also. Speaking of overhyped. I like DMC4, but this is an overhyped game. Please remake DMC or DMC3 with DMC4 graphics Capcom?

Valkyria Chronicles. Great game, but we all knew this game was never going to win the graphics award. For Cel Shaded graphics, they're not too impressive being on a next gen console either. If you take a look at Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3. Those graphics are impressive and that's on a last gen title.

Disgaea 3? This is for PS3? At first glance I would have thought this was for the PS2 at best.

Anyways. GTA4 blows Fallout 3 out of the water. The game isn't repetitive textures and rock formations reused over and over again. Also winning out over DMC4 and Soul Calibur 4, it is extremely detailed which very little detail is put into these two games. The buildings themselves. Extremely well done. The cars have a lot of polish, they can get dirt on the cars themselves when running through places but also taken to a car wash, running into a parked car going fast speeds will send Nico flying out the car window, a car slamming on their breaks will cause the front to lower while a motorcycle can actually drive up the front of the car and ramp off the car(have done this in multiplayer.) Very very beautiful and realistic graphics. The very last thing is the water effects. Other than Uncharted Drake's Fortune, I haven't played one game to date with water effects as good as they are in GTA4.

Now character models, while they look good, I'll agree those are the worst looking part. But the amount of detail everything else is given, the character models can be forgiven. Let's not forget that you can go driving through the entire city without any loading.

So compared to a bunch of "high quality" games on the PS3 at time of release. GTA4 has some of the best graphics.

You're trying to tell me that GTA IV has better / more impressive graphics than Soul Calibur 4, Devil May Cry 4, and Fallout 3?! Cmon...

[chicnstu]

I strongly disagree with your comments about the graphics, they pale in comparison to other PS3 games.

The physics are inconsistent in the game, all objects and furniture seem to have the exact same weight, any of them can be knocked over just by touching them.

You should try Burnout Paradise for vehicle damage...

We are talking about a massive, open-world game. Not linear Gears of War or Uncharted. Of course the graphics aren't going to look as good as those games because it has to have so much else showing/happening on the screen. Keeping in mind that it's an open-world game, walk around the city, get up close to the cars, and look at how detailed they are by aiming a shotgun or pistol or whatever. Check out how smooth the game runs and the quality of the textures compared to Oblivion or Fallout 3.

Also, very slowly drive towards a pedestrian that is facing your vehicle. Watch as they back up while grabbing the car trying to keep their balance. I love Burnout Paradise and the damage looks nice but it seems to break into too many little pieces. I'm not sure if real metal is going to be shredded to 100 pieces when slammed into something (at the speed limits of Burnout I mean, not 5,000 MPH). Even if it does though, it doesn't change that GTA IV has some incredible physics and damage thanks to Euphoria. I think it's the best in any game so far, better than the outdated limp Havok most games use. Lucas Arts tried Euphoria with Force Unleashed but it's not as impressive.

http://www.naturalmotion.com/euphoria.htm

[kupomogli]

You're trying to tell me that GTA IV has better / more impressive graphics than Soul Calibur 4, Devil May Cry 4, and Fallout 3?! Cmon...

You can shoot out windows, when getting in a wreck you can fly out through your window, enemies react to where you shoot them, vehicles have realistic damage, water effects are very good, you can pull yourself up onto ledges if it's too high, hang from places and shimmy over(even on helicopter landing gear.)

Fallout 3 is of similar scale to GTA4. The graphics other than character models suck in comparison to GTA4 though. There is "some" graphical interaction, but other than R3 to pick something up, that's where it ends.

Soul Calibur 4 has no interaction other than knocking the Lizard Man characters off the edge of the stage on one certain stage. Devil May Cry 4 boxes and statues can be broken. The scale of these games is ridiculously small, especially Soul Calibur 4 being nothing but character models other than the few small stages.

Also. Go to the forest in Devil May Cry 4 and check out the shadows the trees reflect. They don't even cast good shadows in that game. That entire area looks like crap because of that.

Also Fallout 3 has to load a lot. Soul Calibur 4 has small areas and has to load a lot before entering a battle. Devil May Cry 4 has good loading times. GTA4 has no load times except when you start the game and inbetween missions, and those load times are extremely short.

So yeah. I'd say the graphics are pretty impressive.

[SegaAges]

I have been playing gta since it first came out on pc and ps1. I own all of them except for Vice Coty stories.

GTA4 is an incredible game, but far too overhyped.

The game improves on everything within the series. Sure, a couple things were left out like flying a plane and building up your character ala San Andreas style. The items that were left out did not matter in the end when put into this game.

The map was expanded like crazy. It is massive.

I will say that they made the game much easier compared to the other games thanks to the cover aspect. Many games are putting that in, but when you think about it, if somebody is shooting at you, you are not going to just stand there.

The game was trying to be realistic since 3. Sure, some of the story aspects got a little over the top like in Vice City and eventually in San Andreas, but with 4, it looks like they are trying to push that over the top aspect down a little bit, which is cool.

Now instead of trying to own the entire pie, you are trying to just get a piece of it. When Vice City came out, it was all about owning the entire city. This is similar to how San Andreas was as well with the gang areas. In 3, it was definately not like this, and so toning down 4 as well is acceptable.

The game plays well, controls well, and the story is not bad at all.

The driving has only imrpoved with time. Sure, it is more realistic, but it also feels much tighter and a little easier to control the vehicles.

It is an all around great game. Yes, it is completely overhyped, but that does not mean it is a bad game.

Part of the fun of the GTA series is not doing the missions. It does nothing to the storyline, but it is fun. The game is open enough to where you do not have to sit down and play through the story. It is open enough to where you can do whatever you want.

For the people looking for games just to play through the story, and open world game may not be for you.

The GTA games are good because they are open enough to where I can hop into the game, play it a little, do something dumb and over the top, kill 5 minutes or 5 hours, and not make any progress through the game, but have fun doing it in the process.

I like open world games like GTA because they help with the "just play it to have fun" aspect that many games of today are lacking. There is no story in Yar's Revenge (well, there might be, but I have no clue what it is), but Yar's Revenge is super fun. Do you play Yar's Revenge to go through the story? Well, you might. I play Yar's Revenge to kill time and just enjoy playing games. That is what games like GTA also provide for many people.

[norkusa]

I still hear more people talking about San Andreas than GTA IV. If any game in the GTA series is overhyped, it's SA, not GTAIV.

[CelticJobber]

I liked it, but thought it was a step backwards from San Andreas in many ways.

Honestly, the horrible soundtrack and a disappointing selection of talk radio shows in GTA IV were one of the biggest let-downs to me.

The story was great, the graphics were good, but the music selection was horrible (easily the worst of the series aside from LCS).

The controls took some getting used to (although I think you had the option of using the old-style controls if you didn't like the new ones).

I also didn't like the way they made it too "serious", and took out jetpacks and tanks. But overall, it's still one of my favorite games of this gen.

[Mimi Nakamura]

You can shoot out windows, when getting in a wreck you can fly out through your window, enemies react to where you shoot them, vehicles have realistic damage, water effects are very good, you can pull yourself up onto ledges if it's too high, hang from places and shimmy over(even on helicopter landing gear.)

Fallout 3 is of similar scale to GTA4. The graphics other than character models suck in comparison to GTA4 though. There is "some" graphical interaction, but other than R3 to pick something up, that's where it ends.

Soul Calibur 4 has no interaction other than knocking the Lizard Man characters off the edge of the stage on one certain stage. Devil May Cry 4 boxes and statues can be broken. The scale of these games is ridiculously small, especially Soul Calibur 4 being nothing but character models other than the few small stages.

Also. Go to the forest in Devil May Cry 4 and check out the shadows the trees reflect. They don't even cast good shadows in that game. That entire area looks like crap because of that.

Also Fallout 3 has to load a lot. Soul Calibur 4 has small areas and has to load a lot before entering a battle. Devil May Cry 4 has good loading times. GTA4 has no load times except when you start the game and inbetween missions, and those load times are extremely short.

So yeah. I'd say the graphics are pretty impressive.

Scale shouldn't result in such a huge graphical drop though. Just try comparing the graphics in GTA IV to Yakuza 3. Both games with large playing areas, yet the graphics are of a completely different quality.

[kupomogli]

While the Yakuza 3 graphics blow GTA4s out of the water, Yakuza 3 is nowhere close to the size of GTA4. This is only going by the size of Yakuza 2 as I still don't have my new tv in yet, but the graphics I know how good they are as I've played the Yakuza 3 demo over about 50 times. Half the size of one island on GTA4 is bigger than the areas in Yakuza 2, and while there's probably another city in Yakuza 3 like there was on Yakuza 2 when the original only had one, I'm sure one island on GTA4 will still be much bigger than Yakuza 3.

Also. Yakuza 3 is a 2009 game in Japan. Came out atleast a year after GTA4. You can't really compare a previous years game to something that came out a full year later.

Also, did you decide to skip over literally everything else I posted as well as what chicnstu said. The level of interaction on GTA4 is also a sense of graphical quality as well. When outside of battle, all you can do on Yakuza is run around the city and talk to people, knock people over or knock them back. You don't interact with vehicles, people don't display how hurt they are after you damage them enough(except Kazuma,) you don't interact with any objects, etc, etc. Just like like Devil May Cry 4, Yakuza 3 has almost no interaction with the environment.

Anyways. Yakuza 3 is going to be badass btw. I'm still unable to play it, going to have the TV here on Friday. Everyone buy Yakuza 3 so we can get Yakuza 4.

*edit*

How about we compare Saint's Row 2. You said you liked that better. Saint's Row 2 came out four months after GTA4. The game looks good. In comparison to GTA4, you really can't deny that it looks like crap. This is also a game that came out four months later. I'm sure Saint's Row 2 may be a good game, I've never played it, but the graphical quality sure does suck compared to GTA4. So there's a comparison as they're both in the same year and they're both the same exact genre.

However. Who the fuck cares. We're in a retro gaming site. I play games on a regular basis that look worse. It's like you have to make up a reason why the game sucks. Okay. GTA4 sucks, go play Final Fantasy 13.

[Cryomancer]

I would wonder about the budgets and number of developers on Saints Row 2 vs GTA4 as well.

I really don't see how SR2 looks like crap though. Hell, GTA4 looks more like crap if you ask me. Because it's so brown.

[Therealqtip]

I still hear more people talking about San Andreas than GTA IV. If any game in the GTA series is overhyped, it's SA, not GTAIV.

Cause of the hawt coffee mod, it blew peoples minds

[Mimi Nakamura]

While the Yakuza 3 graphics blow GTA4s out of the water, Yakuza 3 is nowhere close to the size of GTA4. This is only going by the size of Yakuza 2 as I still don't have my new tv in yet, but the graphics I know how good they are as I've played the Yakuza 3 demo over about 50 times. Half the size of one island on GTA4 is bigger than the areas in Yakuza 2, and while there's probably another city in Yakuza 3 like there was on Yakuza 2 when the original only had one, I'm sure one island on GTA4 will still be much bigger than Yakuza 3.

Also. Yakuza 3 is a 2009 game in Japan. Came out atleast a year after GTA4. You can't really compare a previous years game to something that came out a full year later.

Also, did you decide to skip over literally everything else I posted as well as what chicnstu said. The level of interaction on GTA4 is also a sense of graphical quality as well. When outside of battle, all you can do on Yakuza is run around the city and talk to people, knock people over or knock them back. You don't interact with vehicles, people don't display how hurt they are after you damage them enough(except Kazuma,) you don't interact with any objects, etc, etc. Just like like Devil May Cry 4, Yakuza 3 has almost no interaction with the environment.

Anyways. Yakuza 3 is going to be badass btw. I'm still unable to play it, going to have the TV here on Friday. Everyone buy Yakuza 3 so we can get Yakuza 4.

*edit*

How about we compare Saint's Row 2. You said you liked that better. Saint's Row 2 came out four months after GTA4. The game looks good. In comparison to GTA4, you really can't deny that it looks like crap. This is also a game that came out four months later. I'm sure Saint's Row 2 may be a good game, I've never played it, but the graphical quality sure does suck compared to GTA4. So there's a comparison as they're both in the same year and they're both the same exact genre.

However. Who the fuck cares. We're in a retro gaming site. I play games on a regular basis that look worse. It's like you have to make up a reason why the game sucks. Okay. GTA4 sucks, go play Final Fantasy 13.

Final Fantasy 13 sucks more then GTA IV though!

I don't know much about the Saint's Row series, I'm not sure if open world games are my kinda thing, but I do like Red Faction Guerrilla, Yakuza 3, and Burnout Paradise.

I don't want to give anything away, but you might be in for a pleasant surprise when you play Yakuza 3...

[otoko]

I'm not sure I see where everyone is getting this "brown" in the graphics. I've played GTAIV on both of my PS3s and my X360 and although the colors where kinda lack luster, I saw more orange than brown. It's not my just tv either, I've played each on a minimum of 4 different tv sets and my projector. My systems tend to travel to friends houses and my games come with.

[duffmanth]

I think the whole Grand Theft series is overrated. GTAIII was a groundbreaking game and remains one of my all time favorites, but everything after has been hit and miss. Vice City was too much like III with just a different setting. San Andreas was similar in some ways, but different enough in other ways to make it seem like a more original game. GTAIV was a great game, and although it offered some new features, it felt like treaded ground and very repetitive. The PSP versions were fun titles, but again felt like more of the same.

It seems like GTA games get awards sometimes just for having the GTA name. GTAIV was a great game in 2008, but I felt it should not have gotten game of the year when MGS4 was a better game in most ways. As far as the graphics go, they've always been shitty, but you sacrifice detail for shear scale and size. I think Rockstar needs to go back to the drawing board with the whole series.

[effalicious]

This game was O-V-E-R H-Y-P-E-D. That being said, the soundtrack was pretty bad ass

[Xtincthed]

for my personally.. GTA 4 is very overrated
I tried it for about 2 hours.. but got bored and put it back in the box (limited edition)
it's a nice set to have as a collector, but the game is not my cup of tea

[Lord_Magus]

Personally I never really understood the appeal of sandbox games; they always seemed like a poor excuse to do away with solid design and challenge, and just let the player's imagination make up for the lack of their own.

The (admittedly few) times I've tried playing games like GTA, it feels more like I'm navigating through an environment rather than a well-designed level, more like I'm attacking random dudes rather than distinct enemies, and generally need to find my own reasons for doing stuff rather than masterfully being led or directed towards them by the game's creators. I mean, I can understand the coolness of blowing cars up or running over an old lady as a diversion, but after you turn 14 it all becomes a bit uninteresting without meaningful context.

GTA: jack of all trades, master of none.

[kupomogli]

Recently finished Grand Theft Auto The Lost and Damned. Great game. Storyline isn't as good as GTA4 and for some reason it graphically wasn't as good either. Textures were slightly worse and the draw distance wasn't as good. They did fix the camera when turning, though.

Anyways. I decided to start Saints Row 2 since people have said it was a great game because of how much stuff you can do, great missions, great gameplay, etc. So after playing and getting out of the prison. The driving is more arcade style than any older GTA game(more than Crazy Taxi,) the game world is extremely poorly designed, and missions where you shoot everyone in sight with tons of crap in your way between them and you. How much stuff you can do and the third person shooting system are the only two good things in the game.

It's better than any GTA except San Andreas and the GTA4 games, but it's below average when you compare it to the other good games that have came out in this genre. It's playable and nothing more.

Btw. Because the shooting system is so good. Zombie Uprising kicks ass. Zombies make anything better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHKlrlw-Lis Zombie Uprising

[exit]

I just recently started playing this game again and forgot how well written the dialogue is, it's one of my favorite games this generation.


I still hear more people talking about San Andreas than GTA IV. If any game in the GTA series is overhyped, it's SA, not GTAIV.

This. I personally thought San Andreas wasn't that great, sure there was a lot of stuff to do, but it felt like most of it was all thrown in with no rhyme or reason. I see more people talk about SA than IV, but all they ever talk about is the jet pack, so I guess jet pack = win. Vice City was the best one in my opinion and III comes in at a close second,

[Icarus Moonsight]

Why jet packs are thought of as awesome: How else are you going to garner enough surprise element to shoot Vader in the face?

http://hphotos-snc1.fbcdn.net/hs123.snc1/5288_791079463308_5723301_45413753_1107924_n.jpg

...
...
...

http://cdn-www.cracked.com/articleimages/wong/jetpack2.jpg

Granted, there are two edges...

[AMG]

After spending hundreds of hours playing GTA3, GTA:VC and GTA:SA I was very excited about GTA IV back when it came out. Picked the game up and was extremely disappointed. Gone was the light hearted fun and feeling of freedom from past games. I hated the phone ringing every minute with people wanting to hang out or push me into missions immediately. I felt the game took itself too seriously at times too. After playing 20hrs I uninstalled the game and never played it again.

GTA IV is one of the biggest disappointments for me this generation.

[chrissylas]

After spending hundreds of hours playing GTA3, GTA:VC and GTA:SA I was very excited about GTA IV back when it came out. Picked the game up and was extremely disappointed. Gone was the light hearted fun and feeling of freedom from past games. I hated the phone ringing every minute with people wanting to hang out or push me into missions immediately. I felt the game took itself too seriously at times too. After playing 20hrs I uninstalled the game and never played it again.

GTA IV is one of the biggest disappointments for me this generation.

This. I love Vice City. It was ridiculously 80s, totally over the top and absolutely drenched in neon. GTA IV was just too serious. I didn't want to be bothered all of the time by the phone. Everyone around me was just so needy. Oh, I also hated the combat system and the driving gameplay.

My husband, on the other hand, loved GTA IV and finished both the game and the 2 expansions.

[Nirvana]

I loved GTA IV, but nostalgia with GTA III makes me believe it is truly the best one. The main character with no personality and never talked...when the game came out, there was no other game like it. It was ridiculously innovative and controversial as can be. Freakin loved that game. I absolutely loved GTA VC's atmosphere, because the 80's is hilarious, and San Andreas was alright. GTA IV to me was a bit disappointing, but a great game nonetheless.

[Nature Boy]

I don't think the game is overrated at all - I think it's rated fairly accurately.

I was initially very disappointed in it, as I was hoping to keep some of the cool things they had added in San Andreas, but grew to love it in it's own right. By the end I found myself identifying with the characters so much that the death of Kate just blew me away (I had planned on continuing to ask her out for dates to see if I could score with her, as sad as that seems to be now that I type it :) ).

[duffmanth]

I just picked up Episodes from Liberty City for PS3 a few weeks ago and although it's still boat loads of fun, it's just the same stuff over and over again.

[kupomogli]

Every mission in the Ballad of Gay Tony is fairly difficult. I haven't had a 100% on a mission yet. Graphics on Ballad of Gay Tony are better than both the previous titles though. One thing I'm curious about though. It says 1080p on the back and my TV is 1080p but it when loading the game it only loads up 720p. So it's not really native 1080p? This will be the first game I've came across on the PS3 that is only 720p that states it's native 1080p.

[Neil Koch]

I don't think the game is overrated at all - I think it's rated fairly accurately.

I was initially very disappointed in it, as I was hoping to keep some of the cool things they had added in San Andreas, but grew to love it in it's own right. By the end I found myself identifying with the characters so much that the death of Kate just blew me away (I had planned on continuing to ask her out for dates to see if I could score with her, as sad as that seems to be now that I type it :) ).

Even if you do the ending where Kate lives, she never goes out with you anyway. She calls you after the last mission and blows you off.

I think some parts of GTA4 are brilliant - Three Leaf Clover is one of the best missions in the whole series - but the game takes forever to get going. I just got done with The Lost and Damned, and am about halfway through Ballad of Gay Tony, and I really think this sort of thing should have how the main game was done. Do a few intersecting stories ala The Getaway, instead of really milking out the Niko story arc.