Topic: Grand Theft Auto 4

[Cobra951]

Except no one buys a videogame because of the voice actor. They buy it for whatever the programmer is making the game do.

It'll be kind of funny if this stuff all changes. Lots of game still have no voice acting, with everything in text. VA fees too high? Screw it.

Though it won't ever get that far. As a young VA that wants to get their name out there, what better place than something like GTA? Big name stars wont take $100,000 with no royalties for what is sure to be a huge blockbuster, but some no-name will jump at that gig.

They'll even whore themselves.   

[Cobra951]

I guess everyone lost interest in this game except me.  I finished it last night, at least one way.  I understand there is another.  This is the most frustrating game I have ever stuck with all the way to the end.  The flaws are many, yet I never could walk away from it.  I did things so many times that they became almost easy.  Combat, in particular with the carbine (assault) rifle, got to be second nature.  Lock, zoom, nudge, headshot, repeat . . . Still, with scripted unfairness and wonky controls, the game managed to keep me pissed off all the way to the bitter end.

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The final mission along this branch one-shots you at the very end without warning.  Only losing once, after nearly completing it, lets you know that you can have RPGs shot at your helicopter at close range.

What's most disappointing, ironic even, is that after spending so many mountains of cash, after employing all those people to put so much effort into it, they still managed to fall short in some of the most important criteria for a game, like the paramount area of player control.  Streaming and real-time performance in general leave much to be desired.  And the AI is bush league.  These problems boil down to a few key people letting the rest of the crew down.  It was so close too, but not fully cooked.

No one can deny the richness of this world, though.  It is compelling despite the nasty flaws.  I guess that's why I'm still in Liberty City, frustration notwithstanding.  Now I want to follow the other path.

[Quemaqua]

I got my GTA fix, and while the story was compelling enough to keep me going for a while, eventually it just stopped being about a character I liked and cared about, and lost its way.  I won't say that I doubt I'll ever finish it, since if I need a GTA fix again there's zero reason for me to avoid going right back, but if and when that'll happen, who can say?

[ren]

I'm still playing. Just unlocked the third island and finished a mission where Nico tries to find someone with Roman for the first time. I don't remember names but I imaigne that's specific enough for anyone who's played to follow.

I'm about 22 hours in right now. Progress is slow because the game is quite monotonous at this point. I want to finish but I'm getting bored a lot. It's a damn good game but not the 10/10 it's been getting

[scottws]

I'm still playing, but yeah the story right now is stupid.  "I'll do anything for the right price" seems to be Nico's mantra at this point, as he's said something like that for like the last 30 missions.

I thought he wanted to get away from that sort of thing at the beginning of the game?  Obviously, it wouldn't be GTA if he didn't do this stuff, but they really let the story slip away from them.  I don't even know what's going on now.  I'm dealing with these Irish guys and that must have come from left field because I don't really remember meeting any of them through the other characters.

I still have fun with the game though.  It took getting used to the new driving model, but I'm very used to it now and still think driving is fun.  Sometimes I get annoyed by how you get thrown from vehicles in a bad crash because I used to love plowing full-speed into stuff in the other games.

[MysterD]

We know Mafia 2 coming out this year for the PC, as well.
But, if we get GTA4 this year on the PC as well, goddamn -- that'd be crazy.
It'd be one hell of a year for 2K Games and the crime action/driving games, to say the least.

[Quemaqua]

Scott, you meet Patrick doing missions for Elizabeta.

[Cobra951]

That's what I was going to say.  The Irish family does wrap back into the main story, but Scott is right.  For a long time, the story seems to be on hold as you get to do lots of missions.  Everything stays interconnected, though.

My take on Niko is that he is a sociopath who will do whatever it takes to survive and get ahead.  He genuinely cares for some people, and his main loyalty is to family.  He can sympathize with people who have endured hardships similar to his own.  But he would kill anyone else if he thought it would benefit him, or keep him alive a day longer.

The mission path is long, and seems thinly connected to the storyline at times.  Still, there is a consistent thread in Niko's mind.  He is searching for something, and staying alive in this ugly world until he finds it, the best way he knows how.

[Ghandi]

Just bought a PS3 along with this game. I love it. I don't really have anything else to add since it's already been said here, so I'll just get back to playing now...

[Ghandi]

So my one gripe with the game was the auto aim, which was really annoying me to no end. But then I got the bright idea to turn it off, and that helps immensely. The auto aim really dumbs down the game.

Also, getting away from the cops is pretty easy at this point. 3 stars and below is a breeze. And none of the missions have seemed hard so far (5-6 hours in). Lets hope it gets a little tougher.

[Quemaqua]

It will.  I'd be very surprised if you leave that autoaim turned off.

[Ghandi]

I hate auto aim. I like to be in control of where I'm shooting at all times, and auto aim essentially caps your skill level at a certain point.

[Quemaqua]

And my guess is eventually your skill level will fall below what the autoaim will allow.  I dislike autoaim as much as the next guy, but it really wasn't feasible to be without it for a good number of missions IMO, unless you like a lot of pointless frustration.

[Cobra951]

You can nudge the aim point away from the lock point as well.  I get plenty of head shots that way (with auto aim on).  Also the zoom (right stick in toggles) is much closer if you're locked on target.

[scottws]

Not sure how it works on PS3, but on the 360 if you only hold the lock-on trigger halfway, it gives you the crosshair but doesn't lock on to anyone.  The manual also says the same thing about the right trigger, but I'm used to the left so I haven't tried that.

As far as mission difficulty, there are some harder missions but I've yet to replay a mission more than once.  For refrence I have all the islands open.

[Ghandi]

Not sure how it works on PS3, but on the 360 if you only hold the lock-on trigger halfway, it gives you the crosshair but doesn't lock on to anyone.  The manual also says the same thing about the right trigger, but I'm used to the left so I haven't tried that.

I'll have to try that. I was trying to find a way to disengage auto aim but I couldn't.

Also, Que, you totally underestimate how awesome I am at this game.

[Cobra951]

Auto aim, like some of the other controls, has problems.  It always seems to lock on the closer targets, even if they're nowhere near what you're aiming at, and even when they're behind cover.  The halfway thing for manual aiming really is necessary.  If that's tough to do on the PS3, it's a big problem.

It took me most of the game to stop sucking at it.  I think I was too wound up about it before.  I've replayed most of it from the beginning, and it was so much easier.

[Ghandi]

Well I tried the halfway thing on the PS3 and it works - I guess I'm just so used to mashing down the buttons as hard as I can that I didn't realize it. I still don't like it, though. It works against you on the street because it always seems to aim for the pedestrians. Plus it just seems a little cheap.

Anyways, so far I find it easier just to turn up the sensitivity a bit and aim for the head. I can usually gun down people quicker and it uses less ammo.

[scottws]

I was thinking recently that in many ways, GTAIV seems scaled back from previous games.  You don't have things like hydraulics on cars.   You don't seem to have the car missions that past games used to have (like you get into a certain van and then you do RC missions).  No planes.  No Apache.  No Army.  No tanks.  None of the trucker missions like in GTA:SA.

Don't get me wrong, I like the game and there are many things that have improved.  But I feel that in a lot of ways it's a step back.

[Quemaqua]

I think they endeavored mostly to remove stuff that was superfluous.  A lot of stuff was missing, but most of it was pointless and inconsequential, and removing it kept the focus more on what they wanted to really drive going forward.  Some of those omissions may ultimately have been missteps, but I think I see the logic behind it.

[MysterD]

I didn't like VC's RC mission -- If that didn't make it into GTA4, then good.

[Cobra951]

Actually, there are attack helicopters, but they're lame and hard to get.  The map is smaller than SA's (though much denser), so airplanes don't make much sense.  Helicopters are the perfect air travel for the conditions.  I do miss the military vehicles.  A bus makes a good tank, though.  Engine's in the back, so they're indestructible battering rams in this game (because only engine damage disables vehicles).

Did anyone else battle the cops from Playboy X's penthouse?  Use some ammo cheats, and you can keep it going forever.  Just make sure you blow up the propane tank by the gas grill first (from a safe distance).

[ren]

The mission "Paper Trail" is really annoying me. I'm supposed to get in a helicopter, locate another one and follow it until it gets over water so Lil Jacob can shoot it down. So I get in the helicopter, fly up, start going south and in about 15 seconds it tells me I've lost the helicopter I'm supposed to be following. This happens again and again yet I've never even seen the other helicopter. I tried locating it by pressing B which locks onto a target. In this case it locks onto what appears to be a blank spot.

[scottws]

Must be a bug.  On my game, the helicopter was plainly obvious.  I believe it starts off right in front of you.

[Quemaqua]

It's easy to lose, though.  First few times I did it I had trouble keeping track of it.  That was a very poor mission, IMO.  Fun once you get the hang of it, but it took several tries and the aiming at the end is horribly inconsistent.

[PyroMenace]

It seems to me that a lot of these little nuisance about the game are going to be more glaring over time, I mean even looking back on the game now, I still loved it, but it almost feels just like GTA3 now to me.

[Quemaqua]

The problem is that while nearly all aspects of the game evolved a ton, the gameplay only evolved a little.  It did get better, but there are still a lot of weak points and stuff that's just plain substandard.  It's a great game on the whole, but it needed to try a little harder in the gameplay department.  The evolution it needed just isn't there.

[Cobra951]

I was tempted at one point to compile a long list of those problems, but ended up deciding it wasn't worth it.  They're not going to get fixed, and that's that.  It's not the power of the system that limits the game.  I've seen enough excellent development dealing with similar technical demands to know it without a doubt.  I suspect the real limit is the borderline incompetence of some entrenched techies at Rockstar.

[scottws]

I was playing this last night and really struggling with seeing pretty much anything on the cell phone so I searched the web today and came across this:

http://forums.gametrailers.com/showthread.php?t=384100&page=1

I can't believe the number of complete and utter assholes that populate that forum.  It's amazing.  I have never seen a greater display of utter ignorance, incompetence, and lack of sympathy.

[sirean_syan]

Wow, that is lame. Funny how the console gamer is now the elitist.

The guy has a point too. Even on a big HDTV, those things seem too small at times. They would be pretty much worthless at that size on a standard set or a small screen. I would assume that games would take notice to the resolution the system is set and and use appropriate sized menus and items, but I know that's not the case. Dead Rising's text is a perfect example.

That said, I know there's an option to make the text bigger on the cell phone. The phone isn't any bigger and there's only like three words on the screen per time when you turn the option on, but it's there. Go through the options on the actual cell phone and you'll find it.

[Ghandi]

I can't read the text on the cellphone at all with my tv, and its 35 inches. The resolution just isn't good enough. I noticed today some similar issues with text when I was playing Battlefield: Bad Company.

I'm getting an HDTV soon so it isn't a huge deal, but it still seems like they make some of these games with a complete disregard for non-hdtvs.

[Cobra951]

I never thought about this.  I have no problems with any text.  The HDTV is only 23", but it's 2' away when I play.  Another common complaint is overscan.  On some HDTVs the edge text and minimap get partially cut off.  That's not a problem for SDTV, though if you can't read it, what's the difference?

[PyroMenace]

Well I have a 56" HDTV and I dont know how many of you have played this mission so I'll spoiler tag it, but its one I found really fucking annoying.

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The mission where you had to snipe a guy through his window from the rooftop across the street. But you had to make him get up to get into view. Your suppose to zoom in on his telephone to get his number so you can call him, I saw this but I could not for the life of me read that fucking number, it was just too small on the screen, the 5s looked like 8s. So I had to wait for the game to babysit me so Reily (I think his name is?) would finally tell you.

But yea, I agree some of those HUD details can be hard to see as well.

[scottws]

That said, I know there's an option to make the text bigger on the cell phone. The phone isn't any bigger and there's only like three words on the screen per time when you turn the option on, but it's there. Go through the options on the actual cell phone and you'll find it.

Can you describe the location for this option?  I looked last night and could not find it.  I just found options to change the ring type, the ring tone, keypad tone, and turn on sleep mode.

[ren]

It should be right around where you were looking. I believe the option is called "Text Size".

Pyro, I had that exact same problem. I saw it during the cutscene and realized what I was supposed to do so I had a vague number memorized and was able to guess variations until I got it. It was annoying though, it can't be that hard to test a game on different size screens.

[scottws]

It's definitely not there.  Maybe it's a PS3-only option?  I have the 2nd cell phone.  Not sure if there are any after, but maybe it has something to do with that?

[Quemaqua]

Don't think so.  I had it on the original phone as far as I know.  I can't imagine why it would be a PS3-only option, but for what it's worth, I do have the PS3 version.

[sirean_syan]

I just checked and it the option to change text size is in between the Theme and Keypad Tone listings.

That would be just lame if it's a PS3 only option.

[ren]

It's not. I have the Xbox version and it's there. If you give me a bit I can take a picture of where it is but what Sy said sounds right.

[ren]

Crappy picture but you get the idea. Just go to phone options and scroll down a little.