GTA IV

[Cigol]

I never said it was too serious?

I'm saying the tone of the game is such that it's no longer as fun to do the simple things that made the original GTA games so enjoyable. I personally used to just drive around, shoot things up, run people over and create large swathes of hijacked cars to blow up in a chain reaction.

None of that is as rewarding in the 3D version as far as I'm concerned. I'm not saying you can't do it - you can - but the tone of the game (the removal of points, the humanization of the characters etc, etc), for me anyway, makes it less of an option.... but this is all in relation to the original games, had they not existed my opinion might be slightly different.

[werd123]

The only GTA I've finished is San Andreas, but vice city is the one I enjoy the most.

At first I was pissed that they hadn't announced the PC version, but they did and now I'm more excited about this game.

[miffy495]

I never said it was too serious?

I'm saying the tone of the game is such that it's no longer as fun to do the simple things that made the original GTA games so enjoyable. I personally used to just drive around, shoot things up, run people over and create large swathes of hijacked cars to blow up in a chain reaction.

None of that is as rewarding in the 3D version as far as I'm concerned. I'm not saying you can't do it - you can - but the tone of the game (the removal of points, the humanization of the characters etc, etc), for me anyway, makes it less of an option.... but this is all in relation to the original games, had they not existed my opinion might be slightly different.

Ah, then I see what you mean. Still, as I said earlier, I never played the earlier ones for more than a few minutes given that their controls made it impossible for me to enjoy the games. I'd blow a few things up, get frustrated that I couldn't even walk straight, let along lead the cops on a high-speed chase, and stop playing. If they're made the controls camera-relative rather than player-relative, or at least given you the option to switch, I probably would have had infinitely more fun with GTA and GTA2. As it stands though, I never got into GTA until I saw III running at a friend's house on his PC back when I was an impressionable whelp of 14. I didn't realize it actually had a story until I got older and actually started to look for engaging narratives in my games, but it satisfied completely then too. What a difference 6-ish years makes. Anyway, the point of this was to say that I was weaned on the 3D GTAs and as such have great affection for them. And I think it's entirely enjoyable and rewarding to do as you describe in them. For the first year I had GTAIII, all I did was keep on raising my wanted level and pulling of ridiculous rampages. When I started bothering to unlock islands, I spent days mastering the art of flying the Dodo. Very, very fun stuff. Even if I had to use cheat codes to spawn a tank because you can't get your wanted level above 4 stars on the first island.

[Cigol]

I know I used to go mad at my sister when I first got GTAIII as she would never do the missions. I couldn't understand it but she seemed to enjoy it more that way - which is fair enough. It felt to me like she was only playing a quarter of the game though and I wanted her to experience it properly - but she was having none of it.

I'd blow a few things up, get frustrated that I couldn't even walk straight, let along lead the cops on a high-speed chase, and stop playing. If they're made the controls camera-relative rather than player-relative, or at least given you the option to switch, I probably would have had infinitely more fun

This might explain the difference of opinion - if you never enjoyed the originals you won't have that frame of reference. The controls were finickity but I adjusted pretty quickly if I remember. The originals felt more like classic games, the newer versions retain a lot of the original gameplay but there's a slightly different slant on it all.

[Erkki]

I agree, and I think the camera in the 3D games will always be too close to the action to get exactly the same feel as the original GTA. The only way to achieve the same tone is to lift the camera up to a roughly similar angle as the 2D games -- and the game would have to be designed with that camera angle in mind. GTA III had a camera mode like that, but it didn't work as well as the default so I never used it.

But I like the 3D games just as much, if not more. Vice City was the high point of the series for me -- it took everything from GTA III and made it better. San Andreas made it better as well I guess, but it also made it a hell of a lot bigger, which gave a somewhat different feel to it, even to the point of becoming a mish-mash of sub-games* instead of a holistic experience. Come on -- riding the bicycle races in the mountains was really fun, but it wasn't really that GTA any more**

And because of that, I am glad that GTA IV seems to be going back to the roots into Liberty City.

* I don't want to say mini-games as that's a somewhat different concept

** I don't mean that in a negative way -- just that it was different. Actually I would like to see a spin-off game that is big like San Andreas, which doesn't necessarily follow GTA's main theme (whatever that is). Then again, as I've said numerous times, I'd also really really like to see Grand Theft Horse

[Roderick]

Yeah, Gun disappointed a little, yesno? It's on sale for a measly 20 Euros everywhere, but who cares; if it's a mediocre game I don't want it anyway.

I can't remember ever having a lot of problems with the controls of GTA 1 and 2. But what I find interesting is that maybe the age difference is in effect here? I'm about 3 or 4 years older than you, Miffy, so perhaps when I was in the 'hell yes blowing up cars!!' phase it was just when GTA 1 came out? =)

Then again, I still enjoy blowing up cars -hell yes.

[Nachimir]

But what I find interesting is that maybe the age difference is in effect here? I'm about 3 or 4 years older than you, Miffy, so perhaps when I was in the 'hell yes blowing up cars!!' phase it was just when GTA 1 came out? =)

Then again, I still enjoy blowing up cars -hell yes.

I was definitely in a hell yes blowing up cars phase with the first two - used to love filling a junction up with empty cars then chaining them. I enjoy the 3D ones more for some reason though, which I think is a combination of the way they approach the world and a preference for 3D over 2D.

I loved all of the "Elvis has left the building" and "Jesus saves" type stuff from the 2D ones, but they seemed to put all of that largely into the background for the 3D ones, which I kind of like.

"Subtlety" and "GTA" are not things I'd put in the same sentence, but the latter ones do have a bit more of it than the first two

[brkl]

I enjoy doing the stuff I did in the first two just as much in the 3D games (OK, maybe not quite but I'm not 12 anymore). However, the best moments I've had in a GTA game have come from just cruising around the world of San Andreas on the fastest motorcycle with DustFM playing. You couldn't do that in the old games.

[miffy495]

I enjoy doing the stuff I did in the first two just as much in the 3D games (OK, maybe not quite but I'm not 12 anymore). However, the best moments I've had in a GTA game have come from just cruising around the world of San Andreas on the fastest motorcycle with DustFM playing. You couldn't do that in the old games.

That's pretty much exactly why I'll still load it up today. Grab me a Freeway motorcycle, hit the back roads of the island that Las Venturas is on, and turn up Dust. Good times, great feeling.