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Utter disappointment

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: June 11, 2008
Author: Amazon User

After a few days of playing, I finally had the words to accurately describe my feelings towards the much-beloved GTA IV: "GTA IV is like that friend you had when you were 13. You thought he was cool because he wore the latest pair of Air Jordans, gratuitously and uncompromisingly dropped the F-bomb, and was fun to hang out with in short bursts until he started to get on your nerves." The review on this site, and many of the users on this site, have given GTA IV a perfect rating. I have disagreed with some highly-beloved, and highly-rated games in the past (most notably Halo, particularly numbers two and three), but I find that giving a perfect rating to such an obviously flawed game is absolutely egregious.

Let me explain ... First off, with this being the "next gen" of gaming, many games try to pass of snazzy graphics as a cloak to disguise horrible game design. I find this not only to be true with GTA IV, but I don't even find the graphics that appealing. In every cut scene I watch, I cringe at the modeling done on Niko, the main character's face. It looks like his face is made out of leather that can't be reshaped in any way. The lighting on his face is weird, as well, as he seems to have a such a constant spot of light under one of his eyes that he might as well just be wearing a bandage there. I am a few hours into the game, but I've really only found one, maybe two characters that I found believable to the point where graphics pretend to be nowadays, where I almost thought that it was actually a person who was recorded, and not a digital image. I know I may take heat for this later on, so let me remind the readers: I do not rate games on graphics purely for their "realism." I rate games based on the look they were going for, and what they actually pulled off. Here, I feel that GTA IV fails. Additionally, in the options menu, the game has a "brightness" setting, which I turned to the brightest it could be and I STILL have trouble distinguishing the finer details at night, such as cars, people, turns, poorly lit streets, etc. I have also outdriven the draw distance on this twice. Once was nothing major: just a few barrels on the side of the road that popped up out of nowhere. However, the other was about three or four seconds of me driving on a gray slab with generic block walls on the side of the street before the game caught up and rendered the textures. This, in this day and age of high technology, where foreground and background textures can be buffered as you are approaching different areas, is entirely unacceptable.

As with all of the GTA games, the sound is superb. The radio stations and the street chatter are all of an excellent quality. Some of the voice acting is absolutely atrocious, though. The main thing that bothered me, though, was not so much the voice acting, but the dialog that was created for the characters and street chatter. (This is where I actually picked up the previously mentioned reference to the 13-year old.) I have absolutely no problem with profanity and will casually drop a four-letter word here and there with no second thoughts. However, even I, as mentioned, find the use of this to be, to quote what I said in the first paragraph, "gratuitous and uncompromising." It's hard to listen to a character and take them seriously when all they do is drop those bombs.

The value of GTA games is always high, with a high amount of missions, side-missions, and hidden package-type pickups. As this game is not currently holding my interest, I will probably not pursue 100% ... I don't even know if I'll complete the story (more on that in a bit). (Update to this ... see below.) However, there are plenty of things to do in Liberty City and you can even take your game online for multiplayer matches, if that's your thing. (I personally don't see the appeal of online play like this unless it's with a couple of your friends or to make new friends. This "battle anyone just to become number one even if it means dealing with cheating and giving up your life outside of the game" mentality that's sweeping up gamers these days does nothing more than perplex me.) However, for me, this game held virtually 0 value as I not only have no motivation for 100%, but no motivation to even complete the story.

Ah ... the gameplay ... I've been licking my chops in order to rip into the game, as this has been the most frustrating part for me. I'll get a few of the good things out of the way first: every car that you are in will trace a path to your objective, destination, or waypoint via your GPS system. This can really help you learn the city and find the best and quickest routes. The aiming is improved and you can even take cover (in addition to crouching). HOWEVER, I find it to be nothing other than a broken control scheme if while auto-aiming from behind, you can manual aim by moving the right analog stick, and then fire using the O button, which also must be hit with the right thumb. I guess you can try holding R1 with your middle finger, adjusting the aim with your thumb, and firing with your index finger, but we're not all double-jointed. Since you can't move (left analog stick) when you're behind cover I guess it would be too much to ask Rockstar to use that as your manual aim or to still use the right for your manual aiming, but have the option to press R3 to fire. I wasn't sure where to put this next point, so I guess here is just as good as anywhere. As your character is Russian, but speaks predominantly English, he will occasionally toss in a few Russian phrases, which are translated in the subtitles. Since the chances are highly probable that a majority of the people who play this game will not be fluent in both Russian AND English, would it be too much to ask that the Russian translations be put up on screen as a "forced stream" subtitle? Again, I guess it would. Another thing about the subtitles is that one of your contacts speaks heavily in jargon which is either standard speak for Jamaicans or a stereotype of said standard. I remember in Vice City, your Jamaican contact spoke exactly the same, but those subtitles were not only translated into "normal" English but were only during cut scenes. I can't understand one thing this dude is talking about whether or not I read the subtitles, in addition to the fact that it's difficult to read them while driving at top speeds. That brings me to my biggest complaint about the game: the driving. The mechanic is DRASTICALLY changed from the previous GTA's. In III and Vice City, driving was fun because, while it wasn't "crash into anything you want to without due regard or consequences" a lá the Need for Speeds, it definitely had an arcade-y feel that I found comforting in the fact that it was easy to get used to, a bit of a challenge, but still fun. The new driving mechanic feels more like something out of Gran Tourismo. I don't consider chasing after someone or running from the cops, touching the e-brake for a split second to make a sharp turn, and spinning out of control a full 360º as I crash into everything in site and wreck up my car to be very fun. I also don't consider it fun when I'm going over a bridge and I don't stop to pay a toll and have to spend the next five minutes outrunning the cops before I begin my next mission. Yes ... PAYING A TOLL. Another "yeay for realism, boo for videogaming" moment that I had was having someone chasing me and shooting at my car and watching not only my car's health, but my character's health decrease, as well. Yeah, great, random bullets are hitting me, but when my car gets trashed from both bullets and the ATROCIOUS driving mechanic, I now have to go running around the city trying to jack another car while at or below 50% health. Another thing that bothers me is the introduction to the story. In GTA III, your character gets double-crossed on a bank heist. In Vice City, it was a drug deal gone wrong. (I won't even bother mentioning San Andreas ... I was not a fan.) Here, I watch as Niko goes on his first date (early in the game) and telling the girl that he's trying to keep his nose clean and try to start a good life in a new country. Then I watch as the next two missions he drives someone over to a lockup with some "hot parts" in it and then watches over a drug deal with a gun at the ready. What is his motivation? The final thing that irks me about this game is the "friendship" bullcrap that you have to deal with and the other pointless junk put in the game. You can take your friends to bars, grab a bite, or even take them bowling or to play darts. Not only is this an aspect of the game I find to be tacked on for no good reason (yes, you can get rewards from them, but let me finish), but it's already annoying me early in the game and I only have three people to please, in addition to having just met a few more. And those rewards that I mentioned are not permanent. Yes, just because you earn a reward, does not give you the right to say "OK, mission accomplished ... onto the next friend." No, if you ignore your friend and the "status" drops below a certain point, not only do you lose the reward, but it's harder to get back than it was to get in the first place.

As I would assume is obvious right now, this game is not very important to me or my collection. The only reasons I am trying to complete, at the very least, the story are because I've heard that it's very good and I'm STILL (a year later) trying to justify my purchase of this $500 piece of hardware that's done nothing except allow me to re-play my PS2 games with wireless controllers. After dropping $60 on this (on a pre-order no less, although I did save on shipping), I'm now looking to Hitman, Splinter Cell (only a temporary 360 exclusive), God of War, and Resident Evil to be my justification.

Actual score: 5.4
Gameplay: 5
Graphics: 7
Sound: 8
Value: 6
Tilt: 4

From great hype to great tripe

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 16 / 35
Date: May 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Well, over two weeks after it came out and it still isn't getting better. My first reaction was disappointment and it has only grown into a hatred of GTA IV. In my opinion the graphics are amazing, which is the only positive thing I have to say about the game. From the beginning it felt like a polished version of GTA III which is a turd by todays standards. From that point of view, Rockstar simply polished a turd with GTA IV. All the variety the series had developed with Vice City and San Andreas was removed in favor of a very straitforward and boring series of missions. It really feels like the same two missions over and over again, bouncing back and forth between incredibly easy and incredibly tedious. The lack of safehouses makes for having to constantly drive great distances. After a few days I just started taking cabs everywhere and skipping the drive. Where is the fun in that? I have to mention the soundtrack as well. I was concerned about it based on the info that was released in the months before the game came out. It turned out to be far worse than I could have imagined. Rockstar's decision to remove the custom soundtrack station was asinine and based on greed. After a week of being incredibly annoyed by it, I turned the music all the way down in the menu. I'll probably give Saint's Row 2 a chance in the fall but I can't see spending my money on a Rockstar game again after this rubbish.

Killing has never been more fun, driving however...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: May 11, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game is through and through GTA. Not much has changed since the last 2 installments of this game. There are many pros to this game; but a few major negatives keep this title from a 4 star rating (and FAR from the coveted 5 star[which is handed out like candy on Amazon]).

Pros:
-Graphics: Everything is relatively smooth, and there is little more satisfying than laying into a police cruiser full auto and watching the glass and shrapnel fly...mmmmm welcome the sweet embrace of death coppers!
-Decent gameplay improvements: like hitting something at an insane speed and being ejected from your car. I for one like the melee; it can be a bit slow but it requires more skill than previous GTA titles, which only required you to rapidly press one button completely annihilating your opponent. The auto aiming is much improved over the other titles as well, but just like the melee it takes awhile to get it down just right.
-The storyline: it's GTA, so of course it's going to be above par (or under par depending on how literal you take golf metaphors)
-AI: You mean to tell me the cops don't just wander into my every shot now? How will I ever get rid of these 3 stars? The AI is much improved. Cops and enemies actually duck and cover a hell of a lot better than they ever did. Cops are more patient at the lower wanted levels, and way more intelligent at the higher wanted levels. Over all decent improvements all around.

Cons:
-Is that a trash can or a person? Holy God this game is dark. I've read that a lot lately and it is so true. I understand that it is a more realistic feel, but if I walk down an ally in this game at night I can't tell where the hell I'm going. If I drive around during the day, and than hit a shady spot in the city I can't tell any details, I can hardly see cars 20 yards in front of me and forget identifying people on the sidewalk. Yes, my brightness has been turned all the way up (in game and on the TV) and it is still ungodly dark. This was ok after day 1 and 2, when I was still drooling over the awesomeness of GTA, but not so much now. It really detracts from gameplay and it is a constant nuisance to play when the game begins to go to night...that's usually a good time to go eat or play a game of pool or something that requires NO reaction time and NO need to see in front of your face. Really...its dark.
-Driving!!! Dear gentle Jesus is this game horrible when it comes to driving! Quick side bar, My number one all time favorite games are racing games: F1, Gran Torusimo, NASCAR, I love them all and consider myself VERY adept at driving. That being said... I understand you break for speed BEFORE you begin to turn, and you shouldn't be breaking while IN a turn(unless your trailbreaking which is a techniques for a much faster entry, with an exit that sometimes suffers...but it's GTA so I'm sure it's not THAT detailed) but cars in this game REFUSE to turn at like 35mph. you have to slow down to an insanely slow speed to actually corner. It's ok, it can be over looked...but now these cars NEVER flip. It's like playing a NASCAR video game on the PSX circa 1998. they bobble around from wheel to wheel, rest on their side, than slowly sit back up onto four wheels. What??!! GTA hasn't had driving physics that bad since GTA2 on the PC. if you land JUST right on your hood it will stay like that, but you will never corner hard enough, get T-boned hard enough, flip fast enough to not somehow magically land on your four wheels again...weird and awkward. I mean the driving just sucks, I miss the old auto cam that panned around with your car, but it's not that big of a deal because I prefer to drive in the "hood" view, so It's not that important to me, but why get rid of the auto cam? It's fairly impossible to shoot, break, and try and fumble with your camera when also fumbling through the turn. bottom line the driving physics are absolute garbage.

Those two reasons are why this game is not 4 stars. It really seems weak at first glance(trust me I know because I read all the reviews before I actually bought this game) but it hurts the gameplay severely. I mean when you get right down to the heart of it, you will spend 85% of your time in a car, so why such crappy driving physics. And seeing as half of the rest of that 15% will be at night, this equals weak sauce from Rockstar.

Now a quick defense on the 3 star and you can go out and buy this game shunning my every word. A 3 star review is NOT a bad thing, its above average. I for one think that there are very few things that deserve a 5 star (Gran Tourismo 4 and Battlefield 2 come to mind) Things that are really good deserve a 4, and things that you should own if it's up your ally deserve a 3. This is a 3 star game. I love the GTA series and do not regret buying this game a bit. If you liked ANY of the GTA games go out and pick this title up, you will love it. But I'm not about to say this game is great(4) or the best it can possibly be(5) because it isn't.

I've pulled the pin on my fire extinguisher, so flame on!

Needs more fluff

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: May 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Ok, I love GTA just as much as the next guy, but seriously! GTA SA had so much more to do. I really miss the car custimization. Even if we could just pick the color car would of been ok with me. But to take out car custimization altogether. That really upset me. The other thing is limiting the amount of ammo you can have at one time. You should be able to load up with as much ammo as you can buy(and this one leaves you with a surplus of money, because there really isn't much to buy in this game). Another thing that upset me is the music choice. They were talking about an award winning soundtrack blah, blah, blah. I turn the music off half the time, because they're are a lot of stations, but really not too many songs(good ones anyway). I would still recommend that you buy this, but maybe wait until the price drops a little. That said, the gameplay is fun and the graphics are pretty good. I was blown away at the beginning but after about 16 hours of gameplay, it has honestly got a bit boring. The other GTA's I was glued to the screen. This one just doesn't seem to have that staying power...sad

Grand Theft Frustration

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 11
Date: April 30, 2008
Author: Amazon User

GTA 4 is as good as all of those reviews say it is, but I thought I would throw out some of the negatives for people on the fence (it's easy to find a list of positives).

The game is far less accessible than GTA games of the past, in my opinion. It takes a few hours to get your hands on weaponry, the majority of the city is locked off from the get-go, and the driving controls take some serious getting used to. I am a decent gamer, and play a ton of games in all genres, and I had to retry quite a few of the early missions due to some seriously tough vehicle handling. that's not to say that it's bad, but rather that you won't immediately be zipping around, pulling off perfect drifts and turns. The combat, however, controls brilliantly, and is a blast.

So, basically, this game's amazing, but not without its flaws. If you get frustrated easily, it's still worth getting, just because there's so much "free play" stuff to do.

Don't Buy Until Rockstar Fixes Freezing Issues

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 17 / 43
Date: May 03, 2008
Author: Amazon User

On my 60GB machine Grad Theft Auto IV keeps freezing and now won't even load. Even after following Rockstar's instructions on the problem the game keeps getting stuck in an infinite loop while loading the last saved point. Don't buy until Rockstar provides a patch. No other game on my PS3 has had a problem.

Fun for about a week

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: June 17, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Let me start by saying that if it were not for all the ridiculous perfect 5 star reviews this game has gotten, that my real judgement on GTA IV would be closer to 3 stars rather than 1, however in the interest of fairness, I had to rate it 1 to counter all the biased positive reviews written by gamers who are just quoting what they read in a magazine review.
GTA IV falls incredibly short of what it was hyped to be, and indeed, what it could have been had its developers not rushed to get it out of the door too quickly.
I won't comment on all the glitches people are reporting because I haven't experienced any, but I will comment on the game's short comings in the way of mission variety, lack of side missions seen in previous series installments, and a general lack of fun as the game progresses.
GTA IV starts off strong with an interesting storyline that ultimately falters somewhere half way through when some of the most interesting characters you're introduced to don't get their just deserves and the story seems to turn into a rush job to finish rather than having any kind of really satisfying conclusion.
Reviewers and game designers have given players the false idea that the story is open ended and concludes based on choices that the player makes throughout the game's course. This is simply not true as no matter what you do, you're going to be presented with only one of two choices toward the game's end that will decide how the story wraps up. Even then, there's not much difference between the two endings to even warrant saying that you have much of a choice.
While there are a few incredibly fun and satisfying mission over the course of the game, there just isn't enough, certainly not as many as you had to choose from in San Andreas.
Also, there is not enough variety of good music on the radio stations and the looped conversations get old fast and become more annoying than funny.
I'm not asking for the sky, but I feel the game's designers and anyone who isn't under the age of 18 (who shouldn't being playing this title anyway) would agree if they were honest with themselves that this game was a rush job and could have been far better than what we ended up getting.
No wonder it got so much hype... word of advice to prospective buyers, any time a game gets as much hype as GTA IV got, it's a pretty good rule of thumb to think twice before buying something that's over compensating for a major short-coming.
You're better off spending your $60 on something that's worth the price like Metal Gear Solid 4.

Good game, definitely not a '10' though

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: May 09, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game is quite good, however I'm not sure it is entirely deserving of all the praise its getting. Several online reviews have given this a '10' rating...which would indicate perfection, no? Well while it is entertaining to play, there are definitely several things wrong that make this less than perfect.

The controls are are clunky, and are definitely a step backwards from San Andreas. The vehicle selection is more limited (no planes!). The camera is absolutely horrendous at times (especially in tight quarters), and when doing a u-turn you cant see where you are driving until the camera swings around...which takes a few seconds. In the meantime you just hit a cop and now have a wanted level. The missions are just the same old same-ole' like the other versions...car chases, shoot 'em ups etc. Nothing really new here. And quite frankly the 'Liberty City' world, in all its semi-HD glory, just doesn't have the personality of San Andreas or even Vice City. I guess I got spoiled in SA of being able to flee the urban sprawl for the countryside for a while. Here its just endless rows of bland buildings and such. The city looks gorgeous, it just doesnt have a soul. There's alot more music on the soundtrack, but I dont think most of it will appeal to many players. I usually just stick to the rock station, which is just s0-so. The euro station is probably the most amusing.

And while I absolutely do not mind the profane and violent themes of the GTA series (Jack Thompson is a 'tard), in GTA 4 it really seems like they went way over the top. Its not that its there, its just that its gratuitous and not done creatively. Literally every word out of the characters mouths is the F-word...and I believe I even heard the C-word dropped in once; which is a definite first in my gaming experience. It makes San Andreas look like Sesame Street. Again, I don't mind that its there, but really its just lame...its almost like they wanted to make as profane a game as possible just to annoy the politicians. Well, I guess thats not a bad thing.

Dont get me wrong, if you like GTA you wont regret buying it. Its still a blast to play some of the missions and cruise around the city causing trouble. But for me, it just felt like the same old GTA that was a step backwards in gameplay, with a moderate update in graphics. Enjoy but dont expect a groundbreaking experience.

Great Freshman Effort on PS3

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: May 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I purchased the game and have played through a good portion of it so far. My first compliment is the details that have been added. It makes you really feel like you are part of the action.

Okay my beefs:

Controls. They went and changed the control configuration; yes they added an option to revert to the classic style but...

You cannot easily look behind you anymore using classic controls. Gun targeting and aiming is horrible. You can take auto target off, but then you spend a few precious seconds trying to find the target. With auto target on, it is very tricky trying to manual aim; it keeps locking on to every other thing...and there is little help to correct this.

Also of irritation is the fact that you fly through the windshield every time you get in a serious collision. Ever heard of seatbelts?

Plus: the motorcycle handling has been seriously lowered. I used to speed about in bikes, but there is no serious cornering, even on the previously excellent PCJ 600.

The missions are rather dull at first and repetitive. The story is watered down as well. In previous versions, everything started with a bang: in this it starts off with a leisurly drive...

I would have preferred GTA Vice City's excellent story and missions with GTA San Andreas' excellent range and side missions. I only hope that the next version might go back towards the perfection that was Vice City.

Despite all these issues the game is incredibly enjoyable. The graphics are stellar, despite being screwed on the PS3...(360 got the 720i). With all of the rumors about Rockstar being purchased by Electronic Arts, possibly this was a little rushed in order to increase their asking price. Hopefully EA can polish the graphics and control for the next edition and tweak the missions and storyline.

Honest Review of GTA IV

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: May 21, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Having played this game for at least 30 hours, I feel like I can give you guys an honest review of the game. My overall impression is that, while extremely addicting and deep, there are some major flaws that greatly inhibit the flow and overall fun you could have playing this game.

PROS:
1) The open world. Yes, every GTA game has open-ended gameplay, but the sheer size of Liberty City is overwhelming (in a good way). Granted, you can only enter certain buildings, but the sheer size of the city and things you can do you throughout it is mind-blowing. You can go on dates, go out with your friends, go bowling, strip club, drinking, eating, the list goes on and on. The attention to detail really makes a big difference. For example, if I go on a date with Michelle and I pick her up with my motorcycle and i am wearing sunglasses, she will say "nice bike", and "I like those glasses on you." Next time you go on a date with Michelle, if you pick her up in a car, without glasses, she will say something like: "hey, where's your bike?" and, "i miss those glasses, they looked good on you." I mean, cmon, that attention to detail is so cool. Also, I think the developers knew that you would be repeating missions several times before you beat them. So when you repeat a mission, most of the time completely different dialogue takes place with whoever you are doing the mission with. Very, very cool!

2)Graphics. I think the voice acting and cut-scenes were done very well. Could they be better? Sure. But,I think they are just fine for my taste. I'd rather have a huge map to explore and sacrifice some graphic detail then the other way around. The game definitely looks next-gen.

3)The Storyline. Keeps you engaged and you find yourself trying to beat "just one more mission" before you go to bed at night. I think the dialogue can get a little corny in spots, but overall I found myself not skipping any cut scenes and actually enjoying them overall. They enhance the story and give you some structure to an otherwise open-ended game.

4)Cover System. Now, I know other games have done it better, mainly unchartered and gears of war, but, just the implementation of a cover system has greatly enhanced the gameplay in my opinion. You can come up with a strategy on how to handle each mission and pick your way through enemies by duck and cover. Very cool.

CONS

1)Driving. Awful. My best friend keeps telling me I have to "Get used to it", but this, in my opinion, is the biggest flaw with the game. Considering how much time is actually spent driving in the game, you would think they would spend a little more time testing it. I find myself losing control of my car all the time. It becomes VERY, VERY frustrating. Especially during a mission where you either racing, trying to catch up with an enemy, and/or trying to lose your wanted level. I've come close to throwing my controller against the wall. Major flaw that makes the game very tedious in certain spots.

2) Lack of checkpoints during missions. I mean, c'mon, I have to drive halfway across this huge map to pick someone up, then drive all the way back to complete the actual mission. Then, the cops are after me and I'm almost at my last destination and my car explodes? Most of the missions are very long and require A LOT of driving. You almost have to put a checkpoint in here or there, but there aren't any. Don't understand why they aren't there. This annoys me.

3) Side missions/dating. Don't really see the point in doing alot of these activities. Yes, if you hang out with someone enough you unlock their special skill, but in terms of dating women, it's really pointless. Don't get me wrong, it's very cool that you have a lot of options, but if they don't really help you, why do them?

4)Soundtrack. Awful. Worse than any other GTA game out there. Can't find one song I like. I'm a musician, so normally I would say that everyone has different tastes. But from reading other reviews on here, I can say that I'm not the only one that feels the soundtrack is lacking. Also, they should give you the ability to create your own soundtrack. They should have utilized the full capabilities of the PS3. They could have done a lot more.

Overall, GTA IV is a must buy for PS3 owners. You will have loads of fun, minutes will slip into hours, and you will have rewarding experiences throughout the game. However, it is far from perfect and does suffer from some major flaws listed above. I recommend this item for sure, but be forewarned that you will get frustrated.

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