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n0wak

GTA IV

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I know that in some places it's en vogue to hate on GTA. It's violent and boorish and the controls aren't even all that good. A lot of people take the game way too seriously. But, I can't help it. I still love me some GTA action precisely because it is the total opposite of serious: absurd and self-referential. I love all the references to films and pop-culture and the little goofy, humourous touches they sprinkle around the game's more "serious" storyline.

And hey, I know it's pure marketing but the new GTA IV site has me more excited for the game than all three trailers combined. Why? Because it has stuff like this and this and Sprunk and, my favourite, Banging Trash Can Lids For an Hour. This is something that all those GTA-clones, even if they have better controls or better graphics, totally miss.

Man, I hope that April 29th date doesn't change.

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I certainly don't mind a bit of GTA myself, though I confess to having played the first two a serious lot more than the 3D versions. What I look forward to most is seeing how they've attempted to make GTAIV 'next-gen'. As in, improve on the more or less oldfashioned devices of the earlier titles. As far as I'm concerned, they can't get away anymore with just more of the same, only bigger. They'll have to introduce some pretty nice new ideas if they want to keep it fresh and be able to compete with modern games.

But exactly how far can you push the sandbox genre? With any luck, we'll find out in April.

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I love the 3D GTAs, but I never finish them. Usually, towards the end of the game some impossibly frustratingly hard mission comes out of nowhere and I just give up. I spend fucking days playing it, though. The maps and physics would be enough for me to spend a good while playing, and with cool story and side quests, awesome cut-scenes and also an awesome soundtrack, it's like an explosion of awesomeness every, what, three or four years?

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I'm getting excited about GTA IV, and I never get excited about games, films, books, etc. I still enjoy half an hour in San Andreas now and then.

I wonder if this panned out as a good source of content or a load of crap.

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I also am a huge fan of the GTA series. I'll confess that the 2d ones never really grabbed me. Good as I can see they are, the controls are infuriating for me. The 3d however, are brilliant, and the stories always seem to grab me. The only one I haven't completed is Vice City Stories on the PSP, and even that I'm working on at the moment on slow shifts at work. There's one mission I'm stuck on about three quarter of the way through the game, but I'll crack it sooner or later.

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To my disgrace, I've never completed any of the GTA games even though I've played them all (excluding the Stories spin-offs, yet) for a considerable amount of time.

I'd also have to confess to liking Vice City over San Andreas by some margin, but that's largely because of the setting and the soundtrack. I'd burnt out on gangsta rap by the time San Andreas hit, but I can never get enough of 80s Electro-Pop, "fashion" or cars.

Still, I'm very much looking forward to the 4th iteration of the series -- it's looking fantastic and I mean specifically in terms of its locales, timeframe and central characters. Lots and lots of potential for treading some much-less worn ground again.

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I'd also have to confess to liking Vice City over San Andreas by some margin, but that's largely because of the setting and the soundtrack. I'd burnt out on gangsta rap by the time San Andreas hit, but I can never get enough of 80s Electro-Pop, "fashion" or cars.
I liked San Andreas most of all, and I don't think I spent much time listening to Gangsta Rap. Wasn't there only one station with really hardcore rap music anyway? I think the SA soundtrack is awesome. Mississippi Woman, Mississippi Man, for example -- classic.

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I'm not talking about just the music, I mean the whole 'world' the game was set in.

Yeah. I preferred Vice City too and it's the only one of the GTAs that I played to "completion". I think they just tried to do too much with SA and it became this overwhelming, daunting thing.

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Me too, I love Vice City and played it lots, but I've only dabbled briefly in the others.

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Yeah. I preferred Vice City too and it's the only one of the GTAs that I played to "completion". I think they just tried to do too much with SA and it became this overwhelming, daunting thing.

I think I liked San Andreas because I knew very little about hip hop and gangsta rap, and had a friend who could teach me about them at around the same time - it was very interesting to see how the game squared up. I also loved that it took half an hour or so to drive all the way around the islands; it seemed so vast and explorable.

Though getting the maroon tracksuit with white stripes in Vice City was a high point :grin:

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I have to say, after reading previews, I'm a little bit disappointed in the fact that there's going to be a health bar again. It sounds like they've really nailed the combat in this one, I've been hearing comparisons to Uncharted and Gears of War, but a big part of those two was the fact that you could take a few shots while taking aim out from cover. Not a lot, but enough that you could line up a nice headshot or something. I'm not sure how well that would work without rebounding health given that every time you go to take aim you would get a little more of your bar taken away. It's not like I'd expect to be able to survive a long extended firefight in real life, but on the other hand I died a bunch in Gears and Uncharted too. Oh well, everything else looks brilliant. I guess I'll just have to see what happens.

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Hey, I've gotten so used to not having them by now that the fact that I'll be using one again weirds me out a little. Of course, as I'm currently playing Vice City Stories whenever I get the chance (finally beat that mission that had had me stuck for a week about an hour ago! YES!) I'm still kind of in that good old GTA mindset. Actually, the main reason for me picking VCS up again after having ignored the PSP for ages is that I wanted to be fully caught up on my GTA before IV hits. Never know what kind of reference they're going to make, and I always like to be in on the joke with games like this.

Don't get why VCS gets looked at as the black sheep of the GTA series. While SA was arguably the better game than VC, Vice is still my favorite location from GTA. Returning to the city with the voice acting nearly the same quality (given that I doubt VC will be equaled for quite some time, that's a hell of an achievement), a solid story, and remarkably well done controls given the limited layout of the PSP (flying a helicopter is, if anything, smoother than the other GTAs made it) put the game on even footing with its big brothers, I think. Personally, I'd probably rate them SA, VC, VCS, GTAIII, LCS. And I love Liberty City Stories, so there you have it.

Anyone who hasn't had the opportunity to try the Stories spin offs, I highly recommend them. I'm fairly sure you can get both for PS2 now, so they shouldn't be so hard to find. They're both fantastic for giving context to a lot of the characters you meet in the original PS2 games. Particularly in LCS if you're at all interested in the character of Donald Love. He's huge in that game.

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I've really wanted to play Vice City Stories since it was first announced and I should be getting a PSP some time soon, courtesy of my brother. He's back from Iraq for good(!) today and says I can have his PSP as he doesn't want it any more. Double bonus.

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I'm a big GTA fan and I've completed all 3 of the recent titles (GTA3/VC/SA) - in fact I'm in the process of going through them all again via Steam (which is crazy now I think about it as I bought them all on their respective release dates for the PS2 :D)

My personal favourite as with a lot of others (for the same reasons) is Vice City, but I think San Andreas is a great game despite the lacklustre setting.

The first two games in the series I've never completed - I played them for points, just doing my own thing killing people and creating havoc. That's not nearly as much fun in the 3D versions so I find myself compulsively going from mission to mission in order to progress the storyline and get to the next island.

I can't wait for the new GTA personally - which means I'm going to have to end up buying a PS3, which with only MGS4 and GTA piquing my interest doesn't bode well!

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Why do you have to buy a PS3? It is coming out on the 360 and eventually the PC. In fact most talk has been that the number IV has been delayed because they can't get it to work on the PS3, properly (wouldn't surprise me what with Saints Row being cancelled).

My only really problem with the GTA series is the fact that it seems to sacrifice good controls with sensible mission structures for open ended worlds. I found myself getting bored of each of the games within a week and frustrated with the missions, that if they had been a more linear nature critics would have laughed at them for their amature nature.

So far, every bit of footage I've seen doesn't look all that good, but that might be because they are using in-game footage. Still, it is going to take me a lot of convincing to buy it. shock of horrors I'm looking forward to Mercenaries more.

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Why do you have to buy a PS3? It is coming out on the 360 and eventually the PC. In fact most talk has been that the number IV has been delayed because they can't get it to work on the PS3, properly (wouldn't surprise me what with Saints Row being cancelled).

Well without dragging the thread off topic I simply don't see any value in buying the 360. It's catalog of games is hardly inspiring and the PS3 has an ace up its sleeve in also functioning as a bluray player. I have a decent PC gaming system and I'm not a fan of either the PS3, the XBOX or their type of games (besides the few exceptions that there are tend to be on the PC... eventually).

I do like GTA and MGS but beyond that I can't see anything dragging me to the PS3 which is where my reservation lies. Of course I'm also waiting to see what the deal with the PC release is, as they've typically been some way off the console releases since the switch to 3D.

My only really problem with the GTA series is the fact that it seems to sacrifice good controls with sensible mission structures for open ended worlds. I found myself getting bored of each of the games within a week and frustrated with the missions, that if they had been a more linear nature critics would have laughed at them for their amature nature.

Didn't 'Getaway' try that angle? The controls are also simple enough on the PC, and I've not had too many problems with them on the PS2 either so I can't say I agree with that. GTAIV however is supposed to be smaller in scope than San Andreas, with more focus and tighter gameplay. If that's true it could be a balance between what your describing - but I imagine it's difficult to pull off.

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Man, I really had so much fun with the first two GTA's. They're so arcadey and in a way offer much more fun and games, and crazy stuff you can do. Just things like lining up stacks of cars and blowing them all up,selling cars at the harbour, finding the tanks, and the walking queues of elvises or Hara Krishna's... GTA3 was so pale and serious in comparison.

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I agree but I reckon there's room in the world for both types, the serious and the non-serious. It's just a pity that the trend is a linear path towards yet more serious and realistic game styles.

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You know you can still do all that in the latest ones, right? Seeing a huge crowd of Elvis impersonators gathering on the Las Venturas strip is very common while playing San Andreas. Just saying...

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The tone of the game prevents things that were once fun in the originals being as fun in the later games. At least that's what I find when I play. Its satisfying running people over in the originals (eek!) but not in the newer versions, is that not the same for you? :erm:

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Very true. I also liked the schlocky announcer with his 'kiiiiill frenzy!' and 'massive damage!'. Ha, I do get it wouldn't fit the 3D games though, I'm just saying.

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No, I don't find it too serious at all. The story itself is played seriously for the most part, and it's all the better for it, but when you want to go on a simple rampage I find it more funny than anything else. I think San Andreas really took it to extremes. Flying around with a Thunderball-esque jetpack while laying waste to area 51 is too serious for you? Really? And that's one of the main story missions! If you're just left to your own devices, things can get even more ridiculous. I personally enjoyed participating in street gang turf wars using a harrier jet instead of a gun. Good, wholesome fun.

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