JohnnyRancid
Member
Posts: 498
Registered: 08-07 |
I'm not sure if I'm the first to make a topic about this, but this game is apparently expected to have made record sales. I can't say I disagree with this, because ever since the debut of GTA 3, Grand Theft Auto suddenly became the coolest game anyone could play.
I got this game about a week ago, I can honestly say I haven't started the campaign yet. My brother bought the game so he wants to beat the game by himself. So I don't know a whole lot about the campaign, aside from the little snippets I saw of my brother playing.
In case you guys care, I'm just gonna rant on and on about this game, so you probably wouldn't bother reading this unless you plan to get the game or that something irks you about it.
So let me start off saying that I'm not even gonna bother mentioning the good parts about the game because there are too many to list. The game is great and full of content, much like the previous games. So I'm just gonna skip to the parts that bother me about the game.
For starters, I was kinda annoyed when I heard the public crying out "The first grand theft auto with multiplayer yippee!!!" Wrong. Both Grand Theft Auto 1 and 2 had online multiplayer capabilities; except no one played them because it was pretty buggy. And I have to admit, they look a lot more fun than GTA4's multiplayer does. Here's a video of GTA2 Online Multiplayer in action.
I think something that's been bothering me the most is the player control, which I would assume should have been the biggest priority from the start. I played all the GTA's on PS2, and this is my first time playing a GTA game on Xbox 360. Most of the controls were pretty similar to the PS2's, considering the controllers generally have the same buttons, but they changed a lot that I assume is specific to the game and not just the console. (for example the left trigger button being to drive cars instead of the A button, which is located approximately where the X button is on a PS2 Controller) And the weapon aiming has improved quite a bit, which makes some pretty fun gunfights with police. For example, being able to duck and to roll, and peek around corners. But the movement of the character alone is pretty; for lack of a better word, sloppy. The entire time I was playing the game, I felt like I was in slow motion. The guy doesn't run very fast, and his reaction time seems a little dumbed down at times. I think this is due to the countless number of animations the character has. For example, he has different animations to running on flat ground than he does to running on stairs. He also has dumbed down reactions when trying to get him to do simple tasks, such as stealing a car, which I would imagine should have been the most effective action in the game, considering it's title.
It's not absolutely terrible, but what is really driving me through the roof, is how this game does not play nearly as fast as their previous games. In Grand Theft Auto 1 and 2, pressing the key to steal a car would make the character immediately make it's ultimate goal to find the shortest route to the nearest available vehicle. In GTA 4, I feel like I have to press to button several times in order to get him to take the car, almost like nagging him. This can especially annoying when playing online, where your character casually enters and exits vehicles while simultaneously being turned into swiss cheese by enemy players. The use of cars is pretty ineffective online due to this interminable process unless you can quickly maneuver in and out of a persons shooting range, which brings me to my next point.
Car control is pretty frustrating. It's much different than previous Grand Theft Auto games. Driving was fairly easy in GTA3, I seem to remember drifting pretty well and sweeping in between cars like a daredevil. I can't seem to pull it off in GTA 4 anymore. I'm not sure if they rewrote the car physics so that it would be more realistic, I wouldn't know because I don't often floor it everytime i come around a corner in real life. But many many times I feel like the car I'm driving never turns sharply enough. I tried using the brakes, which doesn't cause the car to drift very well unless used at the right speed, which in turn makes the car do a wider turn than if you hadn't used the brake at all. In addition to making cars not very handy, with the increase in the games memory, GTA 4 now stuffs an eternity of objects into every single sidewalk, 200,000 street signs, trash bags, trees, mailboxes, you name it. This is extremely annoying when trying to truck a bunch of people walking down the sidewalk, when they have all the debris blocking your path. This in turn makes it pretty rough getting the police on you. Which brings me to my next point.
GTA4 figured they try something new for the wanted level. You can still get 6 stars, but if you have a wanted level between 1 and 5 stars, a flashing red and blue area will show up on your radar where you commited the crime. Simply driving out of the red and blue area is the equivalent to going to a pay and spray in the previous games. Which I would imagine is pretty handy especially when you do something dumb during a mission and gotta lose those pesky pigs. However I have fond memories of playing GTA 1 2 and 3, death by death, how long I can hold off the police. In this game, High speed chases are out of the question. That of which, is now a real turn off for me when pissing off the fuzz.
Grand Theft Auto 4 also has many other little quirks that bother me. The list goes on and on. I don't think having 25 radio stations to flip through when there's only one you like is enough. (Don't correct me I don't know the exact number of radio stations) There's no "Voice Volume" control which I hoped to see in this game, mainly because It's embarrassing to play this game when theres company over, and the TV repeatedly screams "AHH FUCK YOU ANYWAY YOU DUMB BITCH". GTA 4 is also jampacked with useless content such as the ability to go bowling or play darts at the bar, which I don't intend to ever do more than once. You can even go to your safehouse and watch TV. Why would I ever watch TV on GTA 4 when I can turn off my xbox and do the same thing? Some of the things in GTA 4 are pretty cool, but it could have seriously done without.
I Should probably say now, that if I hadn't played Saint's Row (A really accurate GTA ripoff) prior to the release of GTA 4, I probably would appreciate it a little more. Despite all the shit I had to rake up on this game, It's good. I still play it more than most of the other games I have right now. Except maybe Call of Duty 4, but the game is still fantastic. It's addictive, most of the multiplayer game modes suck, but deathmatch, team deathmatch, and free mode are definitely a plus plus. I still reccomend everyone get this game, even at the cost of the things that bother me about it as compared to its previous games, GTA4 still does a really good job at being fun, which was essentially Rockstars plan from the start.
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05-16-08 03:41 
