I've thought about GTA IV, but have not yet taken the plunge so to speak. I've read both positive and negative aspects of the game, but that is consistent with what I've experienced with FC2. Who knows, maybe if someone is interested in moderating a forum for one of their favorite games one of these days, we'll expand our game choices.
GTA IV is a game I'm about to buy... was just waiting to finish Crysis and keep my actual playthrough in FC2. So maybe this week my PC will have it installed ;D and I will definetly consider the possibility of creating a board to it :-X
I remember you guys mentioning that you were not fond to play the GTA series due to its gang and drugs related stories. Well I understand that, but let me share my thoughts...
GTA Vice city was my first experience with the GTA series and it was absolutly amazing.... yes, its violent and yes your character is not someone you are proud of, neither would you have a friend like him.
The game is based on "Scarface" with Al Pacino... your character is him, the story is the same as the movie, the soundtrack is from the 80's.. even the chainsaw scene is in the game. Imagine yourself playing as Al Pacino.... its a great movie despite the violence and drugs, so it's easy to imagine GTA Vice City as a great game as well.
The openworldness and freedom of roaming is maximized on GTA San Andreas. Again, the story is violent and could be a Hollywood blockbuster movie...
The GTA IV story keep up to the franchise... its violent and has drugs and kidnapping and assassinations etc... that's why its a game for adults, not for kids definetly.
One thing is for sure... Rockstar knows how to do openworld and deeply created characters and story......
I'm playing both right now FC2 and GTAIV.
No game has anything on GTAIV, be prepared to ROFFL.
In size and scope, GTAIV is 10 times FC2, get the guide or you'll be lost.
Just when I thought after the hot coffee thing Rockstar would tone it down a bit, they moved the bar even higher.
I've always thought of GTA as a parody of society, not much goes untouched, everything is over the top.
All this talk of GTA (Rockstar) makes me even more excited for Red Dead Redemption (http://openworldgames.org/owg/forums/index.php?topic=88.0). An open world western made by Rockstar due later this year. Think GTA meets Call of Juarez. It's on the list boys.
Quote from: spaceboy on May 04, 2009, 10:22:58 AM
All this talk of GTA (Rockstar) makes me even more excited for Red Dead Redemption (http://openworldgames.org/owg/forums/index.php?topic=88.0). An open world western made by Rockstar due later this year. Think GTA meets Call of Juarez. It's on the list boys.
Dang, I forgot all about this one - thanks for the reminder spaceboy... (man, I need to take notes...)
Edit: OK, I've started a simple notepad file with a list of things to do - don't want to clutter up my task list with any more things. Because the number of posts is growing exponentially, I don't want to miss any of these choice tidbits.
I like the sound of Red Dead Redemption.
I recommend GTA IV to everyone. People may feel put off by it being mainstream and being bad taste but it is a great game. The main character does have a heart of gold deep down though!
I am thoroughly enjoying Drake's Fortune, it is an old game so if you can get it cheap then go for it. I also really enjoyed Resistance 2 and Mirror's Edge. Mirror's Edge is very stylish and each level has a cool bit in it. It is short though but that is a good thing because it is a bit repetitive. Give it a go if you fancy something a bit different. If anyone is in the UK you can currently buy a new copy of ME at most Blockbuster outlets for £10.
Update: Sorry for hijacking this thread by talking about other games!
Thanks for the tips rick2468, I did download the demo of Mirror's Edge and liked it, but was too busy with FC2 to buy it. I may need to check it out again now that it's cheaper.
Oh and I forgot to mention when I was marketing inFamous to you :-[ that the first batch of games are coming with a code to get you into the Beta for the Uncharted 2 multiplayer this summer. I never did play Drake's Fortune either, another one I missed, but Uncharted 2 is supposed to be huge.
No problem, we go where the conversation takes us - then when one of the moderators takes notice, they'll split into a new topic. We're easy-going here at openworldgames.org.
Thanks for the high recommendation regarding GTA IV - my boys loved earlier versions if it, and personally I don't care too much about the social implications, after all, it is just a game however much one becomes immersed. For instance, I love FC2, but that doesn't meant that I'll shoot up the first propane tank I see at a gas station. (At least I think so...)! ;D
Nice tips rick2468...
I'm getting GTA IV for sure this week, as Operation Flashpoint seems to be far from its release and I'm almost over with my other games.
Mirror's Edge is a game I'm interested in, too bad its too short and quite repetitive as I heard... low replay value is something I tend to avoid this days
About GTAIV, I read SO many bad things about the PC version (and I don't like to be forced to sign up with multiple services which they make you with that game, speaking of ms live and whatnot) mostly I read and heard that game has a knack for locking up PCs (game doesn't start at all etc). Any thoughts?
Thanks for splitting the thread. It means no more sleepless nights for me worrying about how I hijacked a thread :-).
If anyone wants to add me to the PS3 network I am Ace_H1gh on there.
Quote from: rick2468 on May 04, 2009, 03:06:27 PMThanks for splitting the thread. It means no more sleepless nights for me worrying about how I hijacked a thread :-)
I say, better splitting threads than splitting heads ;D
Quote from: Art Blade on May 04, 2009, 02:09:08 PM
About GTAIV, I read SO many bad things about the PC version (and I don't like to be forced to sign up with multiple services which they make you with that game, speaking of ms live and whatnot) mostly I read and heard that game has a knack for locking up PCs (game doesn't start at all etc). Any thoughts?
It runs fine on PC, at least I never had a problem, but your right about the installation.
They make you jump through a few hoops with the Windows Live, and their Rockstar
Social network thingy, whatever, I just typed in some ID, and ignore it.
"Nevermore."
GTA4 is a great game, I stopped playing it because I got a little annoyed about the mini games, where you have to take your brother (?) out on dates, the mini games are rubbish and there is a part where you have to drive while drunk, which is beyond annoying, but other than that the game is very good.
Its full of so many incidental things like FC2, that will show the amount of effort that went into it. eg :
I just started the game and was unused to the controls, so I bumped into this guy, he started fighting with me, so I killed him and got arrested.
I reloaded and the same guy starts fighting with me, I didnt retalliate and the cops came and arrested HIM! Then they thanks me, because the found forged bank notes on him, they said they had been looking for him!
Get the game :)
The Lost and the Damned DLC is just the icing on the cake for this game and the stories slightly intersect.
OK, OK, OK... I'm getting it ;D
GTA IV is a great game. Just make sure you have a good rig (pc), it is a resource hog. I don't like to promote competing websites, but here is a good reference for anything GTA. Read the forums for tips and tricks, and other things to make the game run better.
http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showforum=120
Quote from: Hacko on May 05, 2009, 08:21:23 AM
.... I don't like to promote competing websites, but here is a good reference for anything GTA. Read the forums for tips and tricks, and other things to make the game run better.
http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showforum=120
Hey, don't worry about posting competing web sites information - the most important thing to do is post anything that you think will enhance the enjoyment of others in the gaming world (legally of course!).
I'd like to thing that most sites are not so childish as to think that they are the only good show in town (although I'm probably a bit naive here.)
maybe I'm naive, but I think we are the best show in town. ;D
ya, we got it good here.
but if you look in just the gta4 root, there's 70,000 topics and over 1,000,000 replies. :o moderate that!
hehe, big city :) But that's numbers. That's like comparing the amount of Toyotas with the amount of Ferraris in the world ;D I think quality. hehe
That's good, Art - we're the high performance sports car of the forums world :-X
hahaha! Even our oldtimers have pimped-up walkers with golden medication boxes and sword canes for walking sticks! ;D
Quote from: Art Blade on May 07, 2009, 02:45:55 PM
I found the GTA IV (http://openworldgames.org/owg/forums/index.php?topic=412.msg4477#msg4477) topic where I asked about that. maybe we can go on there on topic?
Thanks Art... on topic... glad we have someone to tell the moderator that we are going off topic ::)
but I, ern... was... ern... about to do it... yes (ahem)... really, I was.... :-[
I know what you mean... I don't want to register too, unless I'm forced to do so. If I buy a game, that's it, I want to play it.
Besides, my gaming PC is not connected to the internet for obvious reasons.... although I'm thinking about a wireless router to be able to go online when OFP2 is out, and maybe with GTA IV... they say MP is great in GTA.... wait and see......
I think the game is cool for what I hear, only those heavy bug reports (and those registrations by force) keep me from purchasing it
Bugs will be present regardless..... Crysis is a game people love and I had a nasty bug on level 2 of my first playthrough that forced me to restart the game. FC2 was bug free for me till last weekend..... I haven't re-installed it since then, but I can live with a few bugs.
As for forced registration, its due to piracy, the same goes to DLC!!
I know piracy is wrong, but I understand how it works cos I live in South America....
Picure yourself in a country where the minimum wage is around US$ 250, maybe less, and an original game goes for about US$ 100-130 on release.... a pirate copy goes for about US$ 3-4, if you can't download it for free that is!!!
GTA went for US$75 today... more than a year before release.......
I know it's not an excuse for piracy, but you can understand how piracy will have a broad market to sell....
Leave alone the price of an original PS3...
Is it just the PC version that needs to be registered?
I have a 360 and didnt have to register.
I do remember buying Half Life 2 and then realised that you had to register it, to play it, which really irked me.
There was also an issue with Bioshock, you could only install it a couple of times on a PC, they had to incrase it to 10 after a huge outcry.
These are anti pirating measures and combating second hand sales measures, so I guess they serve a purpose.
GAME make more profit from second hand sales than new game sales, that is a significant dent in the revenue of the publishers and developers, which in turn inhibits investment and risk taking by producers.
Imagine a world of just Madden and FIFA sequels :'(, so I just consider it a necessary evil and get over it.
But .... there is always a "but", there are some anti pirate measures that just have "the suck" in spades causing all sorts of PC mayhem, GameGuard and Starforce spring to mind, Starforce being a darn scary one!
http://www.glop.org/starforce/
BTW: the MP part of GTA IV has a problem with cheaters, they were supposed to fix this with a patch, but the last I played it, it was not. But what MP game doesn't have a problem with cheaters. ;)
As far as I know you need a internet connection to install and activate the game,
same as FC2, but after that you can play without one.
GTAIV uses the same SecuROM that Farcry 2 does.
I know, I've hardly had any internet at home for more than a week.
Got my new modem today though, I can set it up tonight. Hallelujah, I've been saved!
hope I didn't speak too soon....
"welcome back" matey :-X
Welcome back indeed!
I finally had a new satellite Internet system installed, and while it is still not fast, at least it is on all the time so I don't need to do the dialup nonsense. Unfortunately, I doubt that I'll be able to play MP :'(
Well, is satellite internet that slow??
Or is it due to time lag?
As for MP on GTA... I'm not that interested to be honest, usually I use to play only SP campaingns, but its a pity, I think we could find a way to create great coop games with OWG crew!
Games like OFP2 and FUEL will have great MP experiences, I'm sure.
To Hacko:
What's in GTA to do in MP? Create havoc in Liberty City? Social interaction? Can you play a level along with friends?
I could check the net for answers, but I rather hear it from a member ;)
Well, people are claiming up to 2 second lag, but I'm more concerned about throughput - it seems to be relatively slow even with web pages.
sad, really :(
You're telling me... I was hoping for a reasonable throughput; according to their claims, it should have been sufficient, but you know how it goes with claims - their stats are probably based on a single user burst speed rather than real-world shared bandwidth.
Man... I have to tell you... GTA looks great, but its a damn heavy game to play.
Not only it takes +18GB of disk space, but also it runs a little slow on my rig. Note that I reach the recommended system requirements with twice the video memory necessary (512 recommended, mine is 1GB).
I can play Crysis on high settings smooth... will run a benchmark test in GTA to see what I can do to improve it.
spaceboy... I was running in Liberty City and couldn't stop thinking about inFamous... the city, islands, the elevated tracks.... all very similar, yet different studios.
Imagine Nicko meets Cole for a beer and some havoc 8)
Quote from: JRD on May 12, 2009, 06:50:34 PM
Imagine Nicko meets Cole for a beer and some havoc 8)
Sounds good. Don't ask me why but it reminded me of when characters from one TV show used to show up on others, like when Fonzie was on Lavern and Shirley...oops, showing my age again. Now I'll bet you never thought you'd see Lavern and Shirley in a GTA post. ::)
Quote from: spaceboy on May 12, 2009, 06:57:04 PM
Quote from: JRD on May 12, 2009, 06:50:34 PM
Imagine Nicko meets Cole for a beer and some havoc 8)
Sounds good. Don't ask me why but it reminded me of when characters from one TV show used to show up on others, like when Fonzie was on Lavern and Shirley...oops, showing my age again. Now I'll bet you never thought you'd see Lavern and Shirley in a GTA post. ::)
... neither Fonzie ;D
JRD:
There are different aspects to MP in GTA IV. There is the regular deathmatch, teamdeathmatch, and then there are things like races, cops and robbers or just free play where you can roam around the maps and do stunts.
As for getting the game to run better/smoother, there are tweaks that you can do to get it to run a little better. Read this thread.
http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=404147 (http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=404147)
Create a .txt file in the root directory of the game (C:\Program files\Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto IV) called "commandline".
Then try the settings at the top of the thread to see if you get better frame rates. Try different settings and different drivers till you find one that works for you. This game is a resource hog.
Thanks a lot Hacko... will try those setings today (if my wife ever stop playing her game ;D )
I did a disk defrag and clean up and tested different settings with the benchmark tool. Found a configuration that results in 20 FPS (medium textures and all others on high), which is quite good if compared to what I had before (10 or less FPS).
Still, I think I can get a beter config to play smooth like it deserves ;)
And thanks for the reply on the MP question... will try it someday, but I want to go on with the SP experience now... its such an amazing game.... :-X
One thing I forgot to ask... should I patch it?
You know, sometimes patches makes things worse :-\
JRD:
I learned long ago to get seperate computers for my wife and I, she had a habit of hogging the computer so that I couldn't play any games, I rectiified that by getting her her own computer. ;)
As for patching, I remember reading on the GTA site that I posted, that 1 of the patches DOES improve the framerates. I believe there is 3 patches. I think the 1st or 2nd one is the one that improves the framerate. You will have to patch it maually though, as if you let the game update it automatically, it will patch it to the latest one. And if you want to play online, you will need the latest patch.Hope this helps. ;D
Quote from: Hacko on May 13, 2009, 04:06:46 PM
As for getting the game to run better/smoother, there are tweaks that you can do to get it to run a little better. Read this thread.
http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=404147 (http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=404147)
Create a .txt file in the root directory of the game (C:\Program files\Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto IV) called "commandline".
Then try the settings at the top of the thread to see if you get better frame rates. Try different settings and different drivers till you find one that works for you. This game is a resource hog.
Weirdest thing happened...
Used those settings and the FPS dropped from 20 to 16 under the same configuration....
Turned texture qualities to low and FPS dropped a little bit more. And here is the weird thing: turned texture quality to high and deleted commandline.txt file - FPS went from 16 to 22-23!!!
Now That is intriguing :o
Will do more tests, and be back here ;)
Check this out JRD see if its any use mate :)
http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=386262&st=0
This game is very hard to get to run properly on most systems. I've read numerous complaints on the GTA forums that people have problems with this game, even with great systems and video cards. It mostly has to do with the way the game was coded. It seems to have a memory leak, as it plays fine for awhile, but the more you play it the slower it gets, sometimes locking up and crashing.
I have tried various tweaks, drivers, and visual setups, and the game still never runs great or good, for that matter consistently. It is frustrating cause the game is really good.
I guess what I am saying in his long post is read up on the GTA forums for tips, and try different things. Hopefully they will release better patches to fix the coding problems.
ow... a memory leak is a nasty bug. Bloody hell. Reminds me of TheGuild, had a nasty bug, the savegames grew bigger and bigger, after short I had savegames of like 20MEGS EACH lol
Thanks Hacko
Actually, its good to hear from other players about performance issues (better if we had none, of course ;) ).
I think my PC has a pretty decent configuration (Intel Dual Core, 2GB RAM, 1GB nVidia GT9800) and was frustrated and concerned at the same time.
I tried many configs, tweaks and drivers and now it runs, as you said, neither great or good, but smooth. In fact, all those patches and tweaks decreased my frame rate ( :( ) and what did the trick was a nVidia driver
I whish I could have a better performance, but apparently nobody does.
Anyway, I can enjoy GTA IV at least ;)
Thank you and thanks Fiach and all other members for your helpful advices...
Don't be too worried, most games look pretty good without being max'd out.
There is a point of diminishing returns as far as system power and game performance goes.
Yeah... I noticed GTA looks great even with medium settings.
Besides, not only textures and shadows are important, but also game dynamics like interaction with the scenario and NPCs, reaction of NPCs to your decisions, shootings and police escaping ;D ;D, hanging out with your friends and girlfriends... man, this is by far the best game of the series... and I'm at 7% yet :)
The screenie looks really awesome compared to the 360 :(
Hey JRD, last time I replied to your GTA experience you mentioned about moving to this topic, but so far I didn't see another message? How are you doing in Liberty? I'm planning a new playthrough, not sure what to do first; the DLC's or the main story. This game is so hughe that it's hard to decide where to start.
Maybe I'll try to do some pre-playthrough sidemissions first. I did that in all older versions (GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas) and that's allways fun!!
Not like in FC2 you can have early access to the locked islands if you survive long enough with a heat-level of at least 4 stars, and that gives an extra thrill to the gameplay.
Well, let me know how it went with the cool breese in your gaming-room. I think that really is a luxury-problem you have there; MAN, "gonna be winter and the temps are below 30 degrees.... Here in Holland, if we have temps above 30 degrees in mid-summer, ppl start complaining about the weather being so hot.. lol
I tried GTA IV to see how my new rig would perform running a game that drains so much resources from a PC.
It seem to run smooth regarding graphics... I have almost all set to max and yet the frame rate is great (35+ FPS). I do have a stuttering problem though, which I can't figure out how to solve. If I drive or walk on a straight line the game goes smooth but if I turn it gets the stuttering :D ... gonna have to w@&k over the settings and benchmark tests to see what's wrong... maybe a re-install can solve that issue :-( :-(
The thing now is that I'm absolutely hooked on Assassin's Creed 2 and can't think of any other game to play but this one. I still have Just Cause 2 installed and running smooth with all settings maxed out too but this one I just did a few initial missions before turning back to XV century Italy 8)
Rest assured that GTA IV will be finished - eventually - and I'll post my impressions on that game here. I play the series since GTA Vice City and can't let this one down >:D
regarding that stutter, try forcing "V-SYNC OFF"
I have Vsync off and AA set to minimum = 2x
That's got to be something else I didn't check yet. GTA IV has a great benchmark tool that run tests in about a minute or so and you can set your graphics accordingly... I just need to sit and spend some time tweaking as well as browsing a few forums (including this one ;) )
Did you check thge latest upgrades for the game through rackstar social club? They completely fixed a lot of issues and since you tell that it happens when you turn, that's when the PC or GPU needs calculating. It's maybe the same in a crowded street? I have the game never maxed out allthough the graphic upgrade screen shows me that the memory of my card isn't even half-in-use.
But try the fixes at social club. They really did a great deal on loowering all sorts of trouble with the game. Especally shadows. They look stupid and consume loads of processing space. But since they changed that, it's all working a lot better ;)
I predict that this topic is going to grow fast ;)
By the way, shouldn't this topic be more on its place in "war and combat section"?
War and Combat boards hosts games that are more military oriented or combat heavy. Since GTA stands for Gran Theft Auto it get a place at Race and Flight... it`s originally a driving game after all! ;)
It could`ve been place elsewhere but it`s a hybrid game, meaning it won`t fit perfectly in any board, and Art had to choose where to place it so he chose this board!
Hmmm, Okay I get the picture :-D
Well, there is indeed a lot of racing involved
I'm really enjoying the game, no problems on my rig. I stole more than 50 cars so far and enjoy the driving :)
@Art... you have a HD partition with W7 and another with XP 32, right? (at least you profile says so ;D )
Which one has GTA installed?
I was checking the game system specs and found out it has no support for W7 although you can actually install it - as I did unaware of that detail. I also read some forums reporting tweak to have it running on W7, which I found a bit odd as the installation process was smooth on my rig, so I was pretty sure W7 could not be an issue, but if I rule everything out, that`s the only explanation for me not running GTA ????
Hmmm, that's weird JRD. I run it on vista64 so don't know about the win7 issues, but Art got a brandnew copy through steam, which mostly porvides everyone with the newest fixes and patches automatically. That might have solved the issue? Did you check for patches and so?
Quote from: JRD on July 13, 2011, 01:01:35 PM
@Art... you have a HD partition with W7 and another with XP 32, right? (at least you profile says so ;D )
Which one has GTA installed?
I was checking the game system specs and found out it has no support for W7 although you can actually install it - as I did unaware of that detail. I also read some forums reporting tweak to have it running on W7, which I found a bit odd as the installation process was smooth on my rig, so I was pretty sure W7 could not be an issue, but if I rule everything out, that`s the only explanation for me not running GTA ????
Have you tried running it in compatibility mode for Win XP? And you might also need admin rights on your computer to run it.
I am running it on W7. No problems.
Quote from: Art Blade on July 14, 2011, 10:02:35 AM
I am running it on W7. No problems.
Dang it :D ... I almost bought GTA IV on STEAM just to have the latest patches and all but in the end I got a few other titles (Wings of Prey and Batman: Arkhan Asylum)
As a last resource I`ll try to re install the game, patch it and download the latest nVidia drivers... when I feel like playing GTA, which might take a while given so many games in hand and so many more to come in the near future!
I know what you feel JRD, it happened to me too quite some times things just didn't run on my system without a proper explanation for that. It's awful. I hope the patches will fix your problem.
I'm also quite curious what you think of Batman Arham Asilum. I've been tinking more then twice to buy it, but the fast that it doesn't appear to me as a good game for me kept me from it until now.
I think it's too much 'playing a movie' if you get me. Please post some first impressions; maybe it will convince me finally to purchase it ;)
When I saw spaceboy`s posts and impressions I got hooked by the game... "playing a movie" as you said is something I can enjoy, depending on the movie and the play bit, of course. In this case, Batman AA is quite like the comic book (which I have in my book shelf, by the way ;D) in many aspects - the Joker is just like it`s been depicted in the comics and voiced by Mark "Luke Skywalker" Hammil :-X
I purchased Batman AA last week during the STEAM summer sales for US$ 7,49 - a real bargain, and I plan to play it as a warm up to Batman Arkhan City, this one an open world, sandbox game due October >:D
sounds great. I also saw that summersale action, too bad it's over allready :-(
But I'll find a way to get it cheap somewhere. It droped quite a bit in the regular retailshops, so I might check that out first :)
I think I found spaceboy's car. (if you know
how he drives, you'll understand)
Spoiler
And I thought, "how does he do it?" So I closed my eyes, hit the pedal to the metal, made occasional erratic movements and voilà, there we go.. >:D
[smg id=3522 type=link align=center width=500 caption="GTA IV 002"]
I just met an old buddy of mine at GTA racing. He was an okay pilot back then, and allways admired my flying. He asked me a dosen times to come back playing GTA.
Now I was racing with a heli again, and a new name pops up and beats me in any race, allmost. It was him :)))
Cool to be playing GTA again, I still think this is the greatest game ever made ;)
Hey, Art... how's GTA IV for you? Like it?
I haven't seen posts with pics, tactics and screenshots flooding this thread so I assume it's not quite your cup of tea? Am I wrong? ????
I believe you haven't played any GTA game before... if you like the movie Scarface with Al Pacino, then you'd have loved GTA Vice City... still a game I'd play again just for the fun of old memories ;) ...GTA is like that: either you get sucked into it or you just hate it! I'm quite disappointed with not being able to play it to the end.
On my deceased PC I was at the big heist, after the robbering and trying to escape shooting SWAT uniforms and trying to get make that Irish SOB (is he Irish or something alse? I can't remember ???? ) out of there alive. 8)
It is on the contrary, JRD. I've been playing so much GTA IV all day long I was too exhausted to even post much here. :-() I can't wait to go "back in" again.
A long time ago when there already existed racing games and flight sims and a couple of shooters I thought to myself if I were able to create a game it would include all of the above, plus being able to walk, swim, enter buildings and so on. In other words, virtual reality. A virtual world very much like what you see every day with the exception that you can do stuff you couldn't or wouldn't in real life.
That.. is GTA IV.
So yes, it is a great game :) :-X
Imagine that Rockstar kind of stepped back in GTA IV... in GTA San Andreas the game world was even bigger with three big cities, shore, high mountains, country side, small hill-billies-infested towns, deserts..... and you could do more stuff like flying planes... I mean big @ss planes ???
There was a mission where you were supposed to assault an underground army base, get into it and steal a secret weapon... turns out it was a jet pack 8) ... by getting to it you could open a hatch at the ceiling leading outside and escape the compound flying that thing. The jet pack then would be stored in one of your hideouts in the desert!!!
That`s one of my favorite games of all time 8)
I had a discussion about the series with Binnatics already, he too said that game was great. I won't get it though, I think, because it would be a step back even further (for me, game release date). I think there will be another GTA, a sequel, at some time, so I'll be better off with a new one rather than an older one. :)
Here is what I do in GTA IV when I'm not doing missions: Drive very exclusive vehicles, high class people by my side, wear best clothes and enjoy the nature.
Spoiler
Maybe I was too drunk and my mind was playing tricks on me when my cousin and I escaped from that cheap Russian bar with a vehicle I had parked nearby. It is exclusive, though -- nicked it at the airport some time ago :-()
[smg id=3532 type=link align=center width=500 caption="GTA IV 003"]
As far as variety of vehicles goes, GTA manages to go as far as a game can go... whatever it is, if it moves and can be handled by a human being, you can drive it >:D ... I once found a train and decided to check what it would be at the locomotive... Imagine my surprise when I entered the train as driver and pushed a button to start missions and received a mission to take my train from A to B in X time without derailing... I actually did a few missions before testing how fast a train can go before flying off the tracks >:D 8).
GTA SA would be a let down to you due to graphics and lack of a few moves Nico can do... CJ (GTASA) doesn`t have any cover moves or can shoot from behind obstacles... but the story... wow a great plot and a huge game...
Oh, and Samuel Jackson voiced a corrupt cop that is always after CJ... :-X
I completely agree with you about GTASA JRD. The game is GTA heaven, it's so damn well thought out, and so big, and so various, I believe I've never put so many hours in a game as San Andreas.
But what you say about the graphics is true. I remember everybody whining about the graphics even back then. I allways considered it stupid to complain about the graphics since the game was just so brilliant in all it's details. I installed it again though a few moths ago and then I found out how annoying these graphics are if you know better.
About the movements CJ (Carl Johnson) lacks, I don't totally agree. I mean the cover-option Nico Belic has isn't really my thing, I barely use it. I prefer to dive into the situation and blast my way through.
On the other hand, the lack of mouse-view in-car is something I miss in SA when I play it now. It makes the driving, and specially the drive-by-shooting far more realistic and intense.
About a sequel: I know there will be a sequel. Rumours are going round allready on the net about a GTA V, and there are numerous forums where they discuss (like allways) which city will be model for the new playground. Lots of ppl think it will be an outer US city. Well, that could be true. I remember how Midnightclub 2 moved out of LA and dropped you into the streets of Paris, filled with tiny Smart-like cars who did an amazing job playing for rugbyball waiting for you to smack them to whereever you'd like them to bounce into >:D
On the other hand it might as well be another US city. The game is so intensely interwoven with the US. Many people think it will be Miami again, standing model for the next version. Who knows... all I know is that they will be surprising us again :)
Sometimes I wonder about a possible sequel... what about an international GTA! I mean, hey, we allready flew boeings ;)
Imagine stealing a boeing on what you think is the final mission, and fly over to Amsterdam! Or London. How great would that be. Fighting or taking over an international crime sindicate with breeds in international media, presidential mansions and who knows what more. GTA doesn't only stand for Grand Theft Auto, it also stands for Endless Possibilities. I wouldn't be surprised if they took us to the moon ;)
:)
I just found a really exclusive car, behind an old villa, top left of the map. A Twin Turbo 3.5 Sultan RX with carbon fibre hood. Wow. That is about the fastest car I've driven so far (feels faster than a Tourismo) and when you release the gas, it has this tuner-like wheezing sound. Crazy :) Oh, and it respawns there. :-D
Any ideas where I might find more of those special cars?
[smg id=3533 type=link align=center width=500 caption="GTA IV 004"]
[smg id=3536 type=link align=center width=500 caption="GTA IV 005"]
GTA IV is really great :) :-X I just finished the main story ("revenge" as final branching decision).
Take a close look at the Sentinel XS, STD ("Sentinel Tuning Division") -- I haven't done any of Stevie's (I believe his name is) exotic car missions and it is none of Brucie's. I found that car (in dark metallic green) during the last mission before I had to chase the boat on a motorbike. After the initial car chase and before you enter that building where that bloke is hiding (before the boat/helo chase), there is a firefight and a lot of cars. Some are PMP600 and some are Sentinels. Only.. not the ones you use to see on the streets. When I realised that (and after failing the mission the first time I tried) I decided to do it again, kill enemies outside the building, and drive one of those cars to my safehouse. The map doesn't show the safehouse nor does it paint a way to the marker on the map/radar but I managed and indeed the game saved it :-() After completion of that (darn hard) mission and after the credits had rolled, I was very curious to see if the Sentinel STD had "survived" which it did. A few pay-and-paint jobs and I got a decent car (next to the Infernus) -- The regular Sentinel has always been my favourite car (and its big brother, the Oracle) :)
Nice find on the sentinel. I believe I've seen the car before, but I have no idea where. It's very cool, I like the back-window sunblockers, or whatever these stripes are called. In the first GTA (first in 3rd person view) that was the model the mafia used to drive. Allways black-gray with these sunblockers on the window. Only it was more 80's style and a little more rough ;)
:)
I hear that driving a Sultan RX may cause the very rare Sentinel XS to spawn as it is in the same league of tuned cars. Never saw one before, though. It has to be very rare :)
Oh and I read about a nice trick: Stevie's cars will respawn when taken away (like, when you crash them, makes sense) until you deliver them, so you take one and park in in your safe zone, go back to the respawned one and deliver that one instead. You keep the "duplicated" car -- I will check out if it works :)
Hahaha, all into car bussiness I hear :) That's what makes GTA so great. I remember wondering around and failing missions dozens of times to get exclusive bulletproof cars. Never checked much of that stuff in GTA IV though. The tuned cars are very nice indeed. I didn't know about stevie's car respawns but it makes sense. I think that works. But it may be also possible to order specific cars you brought in before, when you complete his list. I think that's through the phone.
I've never checked about missionrelated cars like your find in the final mission. That may indeed be a unique find. There are more of these possibilities during missions I guess. In earlier versions it was possible to steal bulletproof cars out of missions and they remained bulletproof, but I think they dissabled that possibility later on. They seem to loose that ability once the mission's over. Too bad imo.
I once stole a hippy-van. Remember these old volkswagen vans with the great sound, equal to the well known beatle? They painted it in sunny flowerpowerstyle, and if you failed the mission, you would be able to stall it in your carpark ;)
I remember them and the hippies -- I grew up in the seventies and my memories start around 1970 :-()
Actually, that made me check something from back in my youth. Hippies and 70s-lovers, here you go :-D
Spoiler
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFpfXGifKKg
Freeky ::)
Oh man, I do love GTA IV.
Free Roam after the main mission, still some side missions left, and friends to hang out with once in a while. Weapons, loads of cars, helos, boats, motorcycles, and a lot of pedestrians and drivers to kill, along with the police that come after you if you did. :-() :-X
Bond. James Bond. Errrrrr, Niko Bellic. :-D
[smg id=3543 type=link align=center width=500 caption="GTA IV 006"]
Indeed the GTA games are well known for giving the player a great virtual life... you earned it bro... now enjoy it as much as you can! >:D
Are you also playing the Episodes from Liberty City? The ballad of Gay Tony? Lost and Damned?
And don't forget the multiplayer :-D Races, mafiaworks, coop, or just imagine a team deathmatch in the streets of algonquin with 32 joinable players: Driveby shootings, sniper spots, massive firefights... Man I've had some fun in there ^-^
@ JRD: He has them, but careful not to overload the man! He only just began :-() :-() :-()
By the way... Helos... For a second I thought you ment Halos there... Halos in GTA, wtf??!!
But I guess you just ment egg-beaters there ;)
helos as in helicopters :)
For now I'm just driving around, exploring (just found a motorcycle shop) and doing some of those side jobs left. For example, I finished those email car theft jobs and those assassination missions you get over a public (land line) phone. Now I'd like that mysterious Stevie to give me jobs but haven't met (unlocked) him yet.
Later on I will play those DLC. :)
I think you just have to call him. Didn't Brucie give you his number in your phone?
no.
I found out that I fell victim to a glitch. When the phone is on sleep mode after Brucie tells you about Stevie, the first text never gets delivered to your phone. So the garage is there but I cannot trigger the Stevie missions any more. We need to keep the phone on after the missions "A Long Way To Fall" and "Smackdown" in order to receive the first text from Stevie. :D
Too bad mate. Never hered of that glitch before. Now you'll have to start all over again!! :D
Well, I'd have to do that if I did care about 100% and if I indeed was interested in those cars, but no if I thought all of that wasn't that important. I believe I'm of the latter type :-()
Particularly because the number of cars you can save is very small and if I crashed one of those cars they'd be gone for good, anyway. That is about the only downside to the game (and the "Stevie glitch"). >:((
Currently I'm playing The Lost and Damned DLC. Three things on the negative side to mention:
1) I hate rock music which keeps playing in the club house and safehouse. When I get into my safehouse the first thing I do is shoot the radios to silence >:D
2) I don't like bikes (this DLC is based on them) because the only way to get things halfway done is drive them in third person view (which I don't like). In FPS manner you can do a little cruising but once it's getting serious you really need to play TPS.
3) Graphics have noise ("mood?"), are mostly kind of pale ("mood?") and it is mostly rainy ("mood?") so, yergh.
However, generally speaking, it is interesting as I'm playing one of those rockers, the designated president of a biker gang, and the events are interwoven with the main game's story which leads to meeting Niko Bellic once in a while and other characters he used to meet. So this is part of the original story but from a different point of view.
One screenie I like (during bike races).. reminds me of FUEL ;)
[smg id=3544 type=link align=center width=500 caption="GTA IV TLAD 001"]
Nice pic :-X
Don't tell me you're trying to land on that bitty piece of rock...
cheers :) And no, I was on the beach and jumped off of a knoll going to land on the beach again, that rock was just in the background, to my side. :)
LOL, just a side note: I've taken 2,000+ screenshots during GTA IV so far. :-()
I think it is indeed "mood" there. I found it kind of fitting to the story. I like the 3rd person view, so I never had that problem with the mikes. But, speaking of Fuel, could you manage bikes there in FPS better then in GTA? How's that? I mean, driving them ain't so different right?
I can imagine you don't like TLAD too much if you're not a rocker and bikeplay lover, but I think you're really gonna enjoy TBoGD then. Totally different setting, and parallel to the main Nico Bellic story as well.
I remember most of this DLC the 100% completion mode on the main missions. That involved completing a mission without much damage taken, with at least a number of headshots, no scratches to your cars and completing the missions within a short period of time. That was SO DAMN HARD, it took me days to get past just a few missions. Then, during the last mission, I found out you could get these goals seperate from eachother. Do the mission 3 times, while first focussing on the headshots, then on damage reduction and in your last playthrough on time :D
I had done them all in one single playthrough, which was absolutely not required :D
Anyway, It was fun doing it, and when I finally got through I was such a damn fine shooter I could snipe with a pistol >:D That was the good side of the story ^-^
Quote from: Art Blade on July 31, 2011, 03:15:28 AM
I've taken 2,000+ screenshots during GTA IV so far. :-()
???
If you had a Nikon or Canon or whatever fancy photographer you'd crash you harddisc with what you'd make picture of in real life I guess ^+-+
I found another glitch, this time in the DLC TLAD, apparently I can't trigger a main mission. Looks like if it has just happened the 2nd time, even, in a row. I had 12 hours wasted, got back to an early save, played 4 hours to achieve all main missions just as far as before and now I am waiting for the next mission to pop up. :(
Regarding screenshots:
I had been far beyond 10,000 screenshots in FC2. I deleted a lot because it was a little too much, only to end up adding another 5k worth of pics ^+-+
Generally speaking, you're not far from the truth. Taking a good pic with a camera is different from painting a pic. You do shoot several hundreds of pics and only a handful make it into a magazine or exhibition or whatever, in my case only very few make it into a post at OWG :)
Regarding bikes (and other vehicles), I always prefer FPS view unless I need to pay attention to what is happening around me which is the case in most missions of TLAD.
This is what driving in FPS view looks like and a pic of a nice looking (and performing) bike of that DLC. The bike and all of the pic clearly shows "noise" that is caused by the DLC ("mood") which is unnecessary in my opinion, I'd much rather prefer to see a clear image.
[smg id=3546 type=link align=center width=500 caption="GTA IV TLAD 002"]
[smg id=3547 type=link align=center width=500 caption="GTA IV TLAD 003"]
Oh, there is one more downside to that DLC: It uses the same 12 savegame slots (plus auto save) the main game does. Which means you're overriding your main game's savegames when saving within the DLC (which is what you're inevitably going to do in order to save your progress). Gah >:(( :D
Found the solution for the DLC glitch ("was it worth it?" mission not starting) on some forum. Incredible. You're not going to believe what it is:
Jim won't send you the text telling you to meet him at Ray's unless you're good friends which means do something like play air hockey with him. :D :D :D
Immediately after playing air hockey with him he sent me the text. :D :D :D
Now I have wasted 4 hours rather than 12 but still. I'm lucky I made a backup of before redoing all those 4 hour missions so I can kick off from where I had left. Phew ??? :)
Two mean MoFos.. >:D ;)
[smg id=3548 type=link align=center width=500 caption="GTA IV MP 001"]
^+-+ :-X
I learned that GTA IV uses "inspiration" when it comes to spawning vehicles. Best example: The car Infernus does not spawn in the SP game. It is a gift by one guy and a job for another guy called Stevie (which means it disappears -- on top, I can't even get it due to a "Stevie glitch"), that's it. So I got that gift, one orange Infernus (see previous posts) sitting in my parking space which keeps it from disappearing ("de-spawning" hehe). Now I decided to drive around with it, carefully, didn't want to crash and destroy the unique car. Now the magic: The game picks up what comes driving in when entering an area, along with random and scripted spawning vehicles. When I drove around with my Infernus, I saw another and another and another.. The trick now is to keep both cars alive. If you leave one too far behind it will "despawn." So I did "dual driving" which means drive ahead like 30 yards in Infernus 1, run back to Infernus 2 and drive with it past #1 and like 30 yards ahead, run back to #1 and rinse and repeat until I had both cars next to my saving parking space. Parked both (only two vehicles can be saved in it) and went upstairs my safehouse to take a virtual nap (initiates a savegame dialogue). Meanwhile I have two red, one black and one silver Infernus next to my original orange one (several safehouses). By the way, never try to pay-n-spray them. They will turn metallic dark green and never change colour again. Better keep what you got :) I now have both types of Infernus cars, one has a rear spoiler while the other hasn't.
Pic: That.. is a heavy drift :-()
[smg id=3554 type=link align=center width=500 caption="GTA IV 007"]
(I worked over the lower part of the pic, made it brighter because the dark car in the shadow kind of merged and was hardly visible).
Oh, apart from driving I like to blow up stuff. Part of a mission or just a decent pastime. :-D
[smg id=3555 type=link align=center width=500 caption="GTA IV 008"]
[smg id=3556 type=link align=center width=500 caption="GTA IV 009"]
GTA IV is interesting. I tried it but I gave it up due to my terrible driving skill. I always crashed hard when I turned at corners and failed at mission :-[
There's another way of getting an infernus: Start the first race with brucie and steal the best colour available at the start. They all drive one :-()
And indeed the carspawning is inspired by what you drive. It has allways been like that. I remember in the earlier GTA's you had car-find-missions too. You had to find a specific truck for example: Just go to a location where trucks spawn usually, like the docks. Steal a truck, and drive around. This first truck will inspire the game to spawn all types of trucks whereever you drive. Just wait until the right truck spawns and hop over ^-^
I did that a lot, since earlier the car-find-missions were to collect all available models in the game. When you completed them, you could make them respawn in the location where you brought them, any time you'd like. I'm not sure if this works for the stevie missions as well. I thought yes; you could order them by phone. But I'm not sure. I'll check it out in my savegame.
Edit: I thought wrong, it's not possible. You won't get Stevie's number and your telephone is worthless in this matter. I drove to Stevie's Car Parts location and what is left there after doing his missions is the garage. It will open and you can drive in any car you'd like; Stevie will pay you for it. The quantity he pays depends on the type of car you bring in, and the condition. If it's nearly crashed, you will get less money then when you bring it in mint.
In my 2nd playthrough I will leave my mobile on at all times so I won't miss any important calls and texts (particularly Stevie's). Now that I know the trick regarding friends (take any calls and just call them back to cancel the appointment without losing reputation) those calls and messages won't get on my nerves any more. :)
Collecting Infernus types is fun, and driving around in them even more :-()
This is about what it looks like when I bomb down a main road in my Infernus :-()
[smg id=3559 type=link align=center width=500 caption="GTA IV 010"]
:-X Cool pic!!!
cheers :)
I added some motion blur for dramaturgic reasons (else it'd look like parked cars) :-()
GTA SA had that motion blur very well implemented... when driving fast cars or boosting on highways the side of your vision would blur that way giving you a great sense of speed... that's one thing I really missed in FUEL :-(
Nice pic, Art :-X,
Cheers again :)
As you seem to like that speed type of imagery, here's one more with me going through the windscreen screaming at the top of my lungs. :-()
[smg id=3578 type=link align=center width=500 caption="GTA IV 011"]
Hand grenades are great in GTA IV. Recently my favourite pastime is driving around in my Infernus and casually drop a few grenades out of the window while passing a traffic jam.. and then leg it as fast as possible which is quite easy with that car.
Then I had the idea of doing some suicide bombings for fun.. :-()
[smg id=3583 type=link align=center width=500 caption="GTA IV 012"]
[smg id=3584 type=link align=center width=500 caption="GTA IV 013"]
[smg id=3585 type=link align=center width=500 caption="GTA IV 014"]
^+-+
Good idea to pick the "minor injuries unit" to do that ;)
I hoped someone would notice :-()
Funny Moments
Driving friends to (or home after) an appointment, at very high speed:
Dwayne: "Relax! You make me feel uncomfortable here, man!"
Little Jacob: "Niiiiiiice speed, Rasta!"
Packie: "You don't waste time, I like it."
Michelle: "Are you in a hurry?"
Roman: "Wow!"
Brucie: "You really don't need to drive that fast!"
When bumping into another car, Niko (player) goes,
"Only in this country they let blind people drive!"
"F*** me!"
"Outta my way!"
When another car bumps into Niko, he goes,
"Ow! That hurts!"
"Where did you get your license?"
"Idiot!"
When Niko runs over a pedestrian, he goes,
"I hope it doesn't hurt as much as it looked like."
"I hope you have insurance."
"Soooorry!"
"Didn't see you there."
***
I already had a serious police and health problem accompanied by a five star rating (6=most wanted) when I drove through a pile of burning cars rendering my rear tyres burning away so the car was short of blowing up. I didn't have time to slow down with the explosion of my car being rather imminent so I jumped out of the driving car -- and immediately hit my head on a lamp pole I was about to pass. That knocked me out and the car blew up a few yards away which finally killed me. :D ^+-+
***
Paramedics came to rescue the guy I had shot and ran over the cop who was chasing me. Cheers :-D
***
A police car tried to overtake and stop me but instead they hit a solid obstacle. The police car which had been on my side disappeared abruptly and fell behind but the cops, bared of their car (having gone through the windscreen), still kept overtaking, hollering, and somersaulting. Hilarious :-D
Oh, two more:
I had just shot down a police helicopter heading towards me and was turning back to the attacking police ground force when I got crushed by the burning tail of the chopper which had fallen right out of the sky onto my head. ??? ^+-+
***
Binnatics was driving a car and I was his passenger. We tried to get rid of police and suddenly we blew up and died.
Binnatics (surprised): "What was that?!"
Me (innocent): "I wanted to throw a hand grenade out of the window but kept it too long in my hand.." ^+-+ (it was my first ever attempt of dropping a grenade out of a vehicle)
Yeah, I remember you saying to me "I just didn't know what to do with it", like you were talking about a pocket handkerchief or something ^+-+
Anyway, it was a funny moment :-X Especially since I still was sitting on the driverseat of the burnt car :P No friendly fire can make some nice situations :-D
:-()
I just thought I might as well post a pic of what GTA IV is like when you're not racing, shooting, detonating, escaping and so forth but just walk around -- there is life in the streets :)
[smg id=3591 type=link align=center width=500 caption="GTA IV 015"]
Then again.. why would you want to do that if there are other options available? :-()
[smg id=3592 type=link align=center width=500 caption="GTA IV 016"]
Funny tales there, guys ^+-+
And cool pics, that's a great looking game :-X
Cheers :) And yes, a very good game.
When I first read about GTA San Andreas and GTA IV, the reports of countless serious bugs for the PC version simply nipped any desire to get it in the bud. Reports ranged from not starting at all over missions not triggering to game crashes up to freezing up the PC entirely. Who wants to buy 100% risk?
On top, when you want to play it, you need to register with STEAM, Games for Windows Live and some RockStar social network. Three social networks at once! ???
Now that I got this STEAM version with all the latest patches, thanks to Binnatics, I only had one glitch in the game (mobile phone switched to sleep mode which stops any calls and text messages, basically puts you in an undisturbed free roam mode) which prevented me from receiving the initial text message and thus all other texts from Stevie, hence the name "Stevie bug." He is the guy who sends you text messages to steal unique cars and after you stole them his garage is the only place where you can keep making easy money by selling any of the cars you "found."
Else, during perhaps 180 hours of gaming, there hasn't been any bug nor has the game ever crashed. :-X
This is one of those moments you're just lucky to have captured. I watched the cop throw a can of coke out of his window ^+-+
[smg id=3593 type=link align=center width=500 caption="GTA IV 017"]
Weird about all those bug reports you mentioned ????
I played through GTA Vice City three or four times, GTA San Andreas three times and, well didn`t play GTA IV yet ::) and never found a game stopping bug. I don`t even remember having any serious bug during all those experiences... sure something happened but whatever it was, didn`t stop me from finishing the games.
In fact GTA is pretty known for being a well polished game! 8)
I have never experienced bugs either during lots of playthroughs in GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas. I had them obtained with all types of patches, but it was all nice and smooth.
In GTA I have had recent crashes (not before, when I played it a lot) but I'm sure they are caused by something else but GTA. I think my current GPU driver is mismatching some of the engine used in GTA. Earlier didn't experience problems, except for not responding quite smoothly when the shadows were put to the max. They fixed that issue later, allthough it's still not the brightest engine of the latest years.
I've had weird artifacts with it 2 years ago, but that was caused by a broken graphics card. Glad I ccould change that at the shop since I still had garantee. ^-^
There's one downside (or has been) to GTA IV. It's (or was) absolutely not protected against online cheaters. At times it was even hard to find a ranked match without cheaters >:D
Somehow GTA attracts lots of modders and cheaters, who don't even care messing up ranked online matches with their stunts. There were great cheats, that really shocked me because of what you could do with it. But they shouldn't have used them online.
I believe they installed some anticheat protection later on, but I guess it only involved not getting achievements when you cheat. And there was a 'bug on perpose' that prevented a player from reaching absolute 100% completion when having cheated during the gameplay. That was a funny tactic. I've read a lot of comments on the net about ppl who tried to find out why the H*** they couldn't get that last 0.1%, after checking and doublechecking all their stats ^+-+ Finally they found out that cheating did the damage :-()
What I read was about the vanilla (unpatched) version.
Later, obviously, patches solved issues. I'm glad you guys didn't have any problems but bugs don't necessarily have to strike everyone at once; sometimes they affect few, sometimes many players, while some never have any problems. Like now, I suffer from a "Stevie bug" which had been unknown to Binnatics until I told him about it.
I simply didn't want to be one of those having major issues plus, at that time, I was very much against STEAM. On top, it (still) requires to be signed up with GfWL and additionally with Rockstar's social club or whatever it's called. Three online connections if I want to play -- well, today I can't do anything against it any more. Times have changed and I have learned to live with it. Probably like back then when they learned to exchange horses with cars :-()
You're right about 'learning to live with it'. But I still get mad when I think of all that DLC that's made only available through networksites which makes it necessary to buy the stuff with creditcards, even buying "microsoft points" for that :D
I still refuse to do so, and I'm affraid it will continue to get nastier then it allready is. Now, they only offer new maps, weapons and shiny cars in DLC's. There will be a time that they start to distribute a game through portions, like the Halflife Episodes. And only available through their damn distribution-networks I'm affraid.
I hope competition will prevent that future from being reality. In that matter I follow the recent argument between Steam and Electronic Arts with growing interest. It might cause EA to step over to, for example, GfWL. Or start their own services.
When it causes the online gaming bussiness to shatter the same way happend to online bookings for flights and vacations, that wouldn't be a good thing. I remember having bought some chairs in a KLM flight to Sweden by an agency who sold these chairs in a so-called 'special offer' which it wasn't. In fact, they kind of bought half the plane and sold the tickets for the same price KLM would have done. Then there was an issue with my wife's name; she has a large name (lots of tokens) and it didn't fit in the space available for the online check-in form. So she kind of made a abbreviation. I smelled trouble and called the agency explaining the issue. They claimed 100 euros for making the change to her name PLUS the entire price of the ticket (which would be refunded later on, they said), and didn't even listen to the fact that their online service wasn't delivering the needed space in tokens. We decided to talk to KLM, but they couldn't do a thing for us, since the agency was the one 'controlling these seats'. They didn't have the right to interfere in that matter. :o >:(
I remember calling the agency again after that, and with less polite words insisting on a free solution. I stopped swearing at the poor woman because I realised she didn't even understand what I was calling her. That bad was her English LOL.
We decided not to do any changes to the name, and took our chances. We were VERY lucky we found some nice ppl at the airport, but it would have been more then possible that they left us in Stockholm on our way back.
Hmmm, hard to find the comparison with buying games and DLC's, but I'm sure some nasty scenarios are posible there :-\\
There is an ongoing discussion across this site, regarding online purchases of games and related stuff particularly via online game distributors like STEAM and GfWL. I read that Crysis2 is no longer available through STEAM, they started off a business of their own.
However, this is the GTA IV topic, so back to it :)
Nice.. Apocalypse Now >:D
[smg id=3595 type=link align=center width=500 caption="GTA IV 018"]
Looks really nice - my sons gave me the game for Christmas a couple of years ago, and I still have not played much. It will probably be something to keep me busy until the next smashing games come out in the last part of this year, and of course, when FC3 comes out next year. >:D
I have been thinking that this game might interest you, PZ, because of the open world type and mercs camouflaged as LCPD cops, among other disguises :-D Also, people talk a lot of stuff when you come to listen to pedestrians and so on it's mostly amusing what they're talking about :)
When you drive around a main street (Columbus Ave) casually dropping hand grenades out of the window as if they were apple cores, people who notice quite often not only get angry but mad.
For example, they keep running after you and grab whatever they find to get a hold of your car and won't even stop when you drag them behind your vehicle. You can only get rid of them when you manage to strip them off your car by hitting something :-D In case you're too slow, they'll pull you out of your car and pick a fist fight with you.
More severe cases won't bother and immediately start shooting at you, ranging from pistols to automatic weapons, depending on which part of Liberty City you're driving around. The funniest kind of madness is when they realise that they're not fast enough on foot to catch you. They'll stop a car, drag the driver out and follow you. If that previous driver is resisting the car-jacking then the madman trying to get the car will drag the driver out of the car and then beat him/her up :-()
I've seen drivers thrown to the ground and being kicked their guts out ^+-+ Police is very responsive so many times they'll show up and either shoot or arrest the troublemakers ^-^
I think that's one of the things that makes GTA so special; the fact that everything interacts with its surrounding. I'm not toom uch into AI to say that the enemies in missions act predictable or stupid, but they somehow managed to make a total interacting world in these virtual cities they created. Every artificial person lives it's own life and will interact to what's happening to him/her. That's great.
I read somewhere that Rockstar even spent quite some effort to make the citylife as realistic as possible; when you follow a pedestrian that you find somewhere, and don't draw a weapon or handgranade, not even try to run him/her over with your car, you'll find out that it really is living his/her life. They will go to a shop or to their home, and won't just 'walk around a block in circles'. They might even talk to people they meet in the streets or comment the things that happen near them. It's all a big interactive environment, acting and playing like a real city.
I've tried to follow a few pedestrians though walking around and driving vehicles, but the ones I picked did not go far from the area where I found them. They kept driving or walking the same few blocks. I spooked a driver and his friend though because I was tired of them stopping for the trafficlights, and they started to drive like madmen through the streets, ignoring any trafficlight, crashing streetlanterns and finally crash into a wall where I found out that they had both died in the carcrash :o
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Really, all I did was shooting their taillight once, and chase them >:D
Damn I'm frustrated that my machine keeps crashing on the game these days. Ati just installed a new driver on my system. Maybe that changed sonething. Hope so because I want to play around again there ;)
The free roaming random AI entities (thinking in particular about the police) are not bad at all, of course they chase the player and they go on search and destr.. err, arrest, missions in case you escaped before they arrived. When you're not leaving the area where you committed a crime, they will more than likely finish you off or at least bust you. They try to flank you, take cover, shoot from behind cover and if you're inactive they'll charge. The only thing that is quite unrealistic is the almost non-existent response time and how they almost always instantly learn about your felonies. The neighbourhood seems to be in an ongoing competition about who tells the police the quickest about what you just did. They're there almost in no time and in unlimited numbers (as in they kind of grow back).
Scripted AI (enemies waiting for you, script-spawned) however are mostly dumb. They only move in small areas if at all. Except those who are supposed to run away from you requiring you to chase them, they're mostly a pain in the back as they randomly pick their paths and turn corners where you least need it :-()
The general life in the city is convincing. The "people" have minor traffic accidents and sometimes beat themselves up over it ( ^+-+ ) which sometimes causes the police to interfere. They chat and banter. Frequently you see police officers chase a criminal on foot, arrest him and put him into the police car and drive away. Accidents with injuries are followed by paramedic deployment and the victims are sometimes entering the vehicle and carried elsewhere (I followed them a few times, they never get to a hospital but keep driving until they're out of sight and then dissolve into thin air).
All in all, very convincing and funny :)
I've started (well, meanwhile I'm already in the middle of it) a new playthrough and made different decisions this time. Like, I killed Dwayne rather than Playboy X (don't get his condo but 250k cash instead) and I'm quite happy about it. He was least fun to hang out with :-()
The main reason for me to do a second playthrough was to finally get Stevie's car theft missions which, I'm happy to tell you, worked this time :-X Apart from that, making different decisions and, knowing missions, it's easier this time around to play them again. It is quite pleasant.
Oh boy, I like the vanilla GTA IV :) :-X
By the way.. 290+ hours gaming time (not counting DLC) :-()
Although I have the game, I still have not had the chance (or desire) to start it up, but you guys are getting me a bit curious to see what it is all about. ;)
Start it up once, and you'll be sold >:D
I am quite sure that you'd enjoy it, PZ. Free roam in between and after missions :)
Driving is about the same as in FC2 but a lot more cars to choose from (around 170 I read elsewhere) plus bikes, boar.. err, boats, and helos. :-D
Although there are no guard posts, there are lots of opportunities to start a fight and get into a chase. I know you liked to beat up people in Assassins Creed, you can do that here, too. No pick-pocketing, but beating bundles of dollar bills out of them :-D
Although there is no Savannah or desert, there is plenty of environment: apart from all types of urban structures there are parks and of course the sea and river side. Nice sunsets (and eight types of weather) too :)
Missions are almost like faction missions in FC2. Kill someone, blow something up, steal something.. you name it, they've got it :-()
And instead of Diamonds there's pigeons. They won't make you rich, bit you help cleaning the city >:D
Quote from: Art Blade on August 12, 2011, 11:34:02 AM
... boar.. err, boats, and helos. :-D
^+-+ :-X You guys are both funny! I think I'll try it out as soon as I get the chance - maybe even this weekend ;)
:-()
Hahaha, pigeons. They're like those feathers you were supposed to collect in AC1 but pigeons are more rewarding as you're supposed to shoot them -- and when you do, you hear that funny high-pitched "ooh!" which I'm not sure about who's doing that, either you're going, "ooh!" or the pigeon when it blows up in a cloud of feathers and blood >:D
I found the pigeon (or seagul) 'collectables' quite original after the hidden packages, horse shoes and inca-sculptures they used earlier. Same for the 'spraying gang-tags' in Los Santos.
But shooting pigeons is much better ;)
It's a kind of collectable that can cause you trouble since you have to pull and use a weapon to 'collect' it. Police might be alerted ;)
Same for the tags by the way. They could even provoke a gangwar if you were unlucky and ran into a rival gang when spraying :-()
Reading the posts of Art and Binnatics makes me want to re-buy GTAIV ;D
It's dirt cheap now :)
Go for it :-() :-() :-()
Had the same thought a while ago ^-^ Just can't wait til the next sequel ;)