GTA4

It's pretty good, well worth getting. The voice acting and character stuff is surprisingly good.

It's not the 11 star game everyone is saying it is so far, but it's an incredible version of GTA *if you like GTA.* Also, multiplayer is fucking hilarious and has a ton of potential. I was driving around doing free play with a good friend, both of us on a motor scooter, evading the police. Even without direction (there are many mission type modes as well) the multiplayer game is a blast. It's been a long time since I laughed that hard.

The whole game seems a little... slower? Cars are harder to control and your character runs more realistically and slower. It's an adjustment but ultimately it's probably a good thing. It really accentuates the difference between driving a BMW 3 series and a shitty american sedan, which is nice.

How's the on-foot shooting stuff? That was always the series' glass jaw.

Better, but lock on can still be wonky (but way better than the others). Now you pull the trigger half to aim wherever you want and all the way to lock on--but what's cool is even when you lock all the way on you can still move the aim around right on/near the target to aim a for a specific part, lead them, etc.

The game is worth getting, particularly if you like Sandbox type games such as say Bully, Oblivion, or Crackdown.

The game appears to be more story driven, though you still have lots of side missions available.

The game is beautiful, you probably wont go wrong with either version (360 or PS3). The 360 version had a free month of XBL Gold, btw.

Online is a riot. I like team deathmatch the best, though familiarity with the map might help in the more objective oriented games.

I bought this on a whim, last GTA i played was 3.

I'm satisifed with my purchase now.

I haven't had any major difficulty with combat, especially since there is a lock on and free aim mode now.

The existence of a better free aim mode cannot be understated. Glad to hear you like it as well.

Just read this today...
MADD (Mothers against drunk driving)Just posted this on there site

MADD’s Statement Regarding Grand Theft Auto IV

Each year nearly 13,500 people die in drunk driving crashes and another half a million are injured in alcohol-related traffic crashes. This is why MADD is extremely disappointed by the decision of the manufacturers of the game Grand Theft Auto IV to include a game module where players can drive drunk. Drunk driving is not a game and it is not a joke. Drunk driving is a choice, a violent crime and it is also 100 percent preventable. MADD is calling on the Entertainment Software Ratings Board to reclassify Grand Theft Auto IV as an Adults Only game, a step up from the current rating of Mature and for the manufacturer to consider a stop in distribution – if not out of responsibility to society then out of respect for the millions of victims/survivors of drunk driving.

So shooting ,stabbing and running over people when your not drunk is ok?
Crist it just a fucking game !
Oh and the drunk driving in the game is hard as hell and the game does give you the option of hailing a cab.

hehe, drunk taxi calling...

HEEYYYY MISTER MAAAN!

It's just idiots going after an easy target.

Videogames have always been an all too easy scapegoat.

I'd love to send MADD a letter telling them how driving intoxicated is extremely fun in that game (it's a riot) and how many times i've ran over pedestrians drunk, then crashed my car, and pulled out my gun and went on a murder rampage.

It wouldn't be nearly so annoying if the afraid-of-everything media watchers didn't eat it up so much. But how do you fight a beast whose weakness is "having common sense"?

I imagine that the drink driving in GTA4 may in fact be a positive thing. It will raise awareness of drink driving and that it is a problem. The biggest danger is that people drink drive thinking that they are fine and don't feel inhibited when they are putting themselves and others at risk. I would encourage Rockstar to extend the loss of control to using a mobile phone and driving which is just as dangerous as being over the limit for alcohol.

The whole part where GTA is blamed for really psychotic homicidal behavior (screwing and then murdering prostitutes) that is *entirely the players choice* and not encouraged by the game at all, again drunk driving being a great example, is quite annoying. If there's no actual reason to do it and the game doesn't encourage you to do it, doesn't it say a lot more about you that you get your rocks off on murdering prostitutes than it does about the game?

Also, the TV channels in this game are occasionally hilarious. I was watching "Republican Space Rangers."

Gary Sax wrote:

The whole part where GTA is blamed for really psychotic homicidal behavior (screwing and then murdering prostitutes) that is *entirely the players choice* and not encouraged by the game at all, again drunk driving being a great example, is quite annoying. If there's no actual reason to do it and the game doesn't encourage you to do it, doesn't it say a lot more about you that you get your rocks off on murdering prostitutes than it does about the game?

Also, the TV channels in this game are occasionally hilarious. I was watching "Republican Space Rangers."

The TV, the Internet, and all the Talk Radio shows are just completely 100% hilarious.

Lagduf wrote:

The TV, the Internet, and all the Talk Radio shows are just completely 100% hilarious.

When I went to the easter egg site and found out it was a conspiracy theory forum, I couldn't stop cracking up.

I just had a wonderful moment with the game yesterday. What really makes it shine is the emergent gameplay--stuff that happens that is totally unscripted but happens through an interaction of the physics, AI, etc.

I was in a big car chase where I was trying to attack and murder drug dealer. It had been going on for minutes and I was on this guy's tail. Finally he gets on the highway and off the surface streets. We get into a high speed chase, like 100+ MPH and insanely swerving around other cars, I have the sirens blaring on the police car.

Then the car I'm chasing slightly loses control and bangs into the side of a moving style truck like 5-6 car lengths ahead of me. He keeps going, it's just a sideswipe, but what happens next is awesome--the back of the truck is jarred open and like 5-6 barrels that were occupying the truck roll out onto the highway, right in my path. I have to swerve to avoid them but end up plowing at full speed into the median.

It was straight out of a movie. There are a ton of little moments like this that are really the strong point of the game.

So this game has basically become, next to Sims 2, my wife's favorite game.

It sort of led to an interesting observation, I think this game is far more of a casual gamer game than anyone would give it credit for. I think it parallels boardgames a bit--to me the Wii is Carcassonne or Lost Cities, the Euro that everyone and their mother agrees is for new players and casual gamers. Some Wii games are good casual games but most of them are crap shovelware that nobody likes--i.e. the sea of crappy Euros.

I think people are really labeling a lot of games like GTA as hardcore games that really aren't hardcore games but go really well with casual gamers. I think you could park a ton of different types of people in front of GTA and it would be interesting and instantly relateable to them. Despite what other people say, the Wii doesn't have this magical monopoly on "fun" games for casual gamers.