So, this "GTA 4" thing then...

[Wrestlevania]

Just experienced the hammer blow 1-2 of Michelle's betrayal and Manny's truly baleful demise inside 5 minutes...

Not that I cared for either of them much at all, but... fuck me... :\

I think the fact the music in this scene from Silence of the Lambs was playing on the car radio, as I drove Manny to 'The Doctor', might have added to the depressing morbidity of the thing.

[Nachimir]

Manny was such a prick that I found that particular cutscene with Elizabeta hilarious.

[Thrik]

Heh, I liked Manny!

[Marek]

Just got to the part where

they burned down all of Roman's shit

and it genuinely affected me for a bit.

This story is actually good.

[Nachimir]

I spent chunks of Saturday and Sunday tracking down and murdering all of the pigeons. It quickly started to feel very, very boring, until I turned the GPS line off.

I think this may have been one of the reasons the missions were feeling so tired - the GPS line drags your eye down to the bottom left and you just go through the motions. I'm finding it much more fun, spending more time exploring the city, and and am learning a lot more about the way it's laid out by just using a waypoint without the line to get everywhere.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I spent chunks of Saturday and Sunday tracking down and murdering all of the pigeons. It quickly started to feel very, very boring, until I turned the GPS line off.

I think this may have been one of the reasons the missions were feeling so tired - the GPS line drags your eye down to the bottom left and you just go through the motions. I'm finding it much more fun, spending more time exploring the city, and and am learning a lot more about the way it's laid out by just using a waypoint without the line to get everywhere.

Yeah, when I got to the races (with their big arrows in the middle of the road), I kind of wondered why they didn't use the same system for waypoints. I would have preferred being able to enjoy the scenery!

[ThunderPeel2001]

Just got to the part where

they burned down all of Roman's shit

and it genuinely affected me for a bit.

This story is actually good.

Agreed, that bit got me too. Very nicely done.

[Wrestlevania]

Decided to sit dawn (in-game) last night and sample the TV a bit. Had to turn it off again after 15 minutes, as I was laughing so much I was in danger of waking up the kids.

Republican Space Rangers was a particular highlight--hence the change in avatar again. And note the armour design.

[miffy495]

I did exactly the same thing about a week ago, but I ended up watching for about 2 hours because I didn't have to worry about waking anyone. Brilliant stuff.

[Cigol]

Check out this video

and experience the pure awesomeness for yourself

[ThunderPeel2001]

That is brilliant!

[Nappi]

I know I'm late, but I didn't buy this game for nothing, so here it goes.

There are a couple of irritating things in this game like having to drive through the whole city again after failing a mission and the fact that I'm always late for the chases thus having to follow the one escaping using the minimap and only reaching him when he leaves the car. Missions so far (and I'm not very far at all) have been a little dull too.

I'm mostly very impressed about this game however so here are a couple of things I love about GTA IV:

Little details like the aforementioned radio interference before the phone rings. The opening credits. Trying to answer the phone without any luck only to hear the nearby pedestrian start talking in an annoying manner. The fat people. Being able to hit someone in the face then run around the corner where the police arrests the ones chasing me, except that the other one manages to escape. The cranky citizens of Liberty City. The mobile phone. The fact that I had a nostalgic Mafia moment when driving through the old part of the city in the dawn with the jazz station on. The radio stations and their commercials. The guide to Liberty City and all other forms of USA bashing. The taxi. Realizing that there are characters that speak actual Jamaican English (?) and that I can't understand a word they are saying. The fat cops. The choice not to make all the missions harder than the ones before. Getting drunk with my cousin, trying to drive him home and as it proves to be too hard, deciding to take a taxi, getting hit by a couple of cars while doing it and finally getting my ass kicked by the angry drivers as I was too drunk to defend myself..

[ThunderPeel2001]

After a while you get to know the city better and what you can do, and then it also becomes a great big sandbox to play in. Lots of fun!

The missions aren't great, but they get better. Also the ones you're describing sound like the Jamaican's side-missions which you don't need to do those in order to progress (I found them VERY hard).

[Nappi]

OK, I just had an incredible chase with someone I had to

kill.

Before jumping into my car I managed to shoot one of his front wheels which slowed him down a bit. Then I chased him for quite a while shooting and pushing him until his car finally caught on fire. He jumped out of it and I tried to run over him but hit his car instead. I jumped out of the car as well and executed to poor burning man.

Then the car exploded behind me and I woke up in the hospital.

[Roderick]

The car chases are undoubtedly the most awesome thing in the game. I miss them, now that I've finished the missions and have only the stunt jumps and car stealing jobs to do. And pigeons. But I digress. Chases. Awesome.

The best one was the one in the park in one of Bernie's missions. I won't spoil anything though, it's too hilarious.

Also, during one chase scene I had almost completed the mission, but I accidentally blew up my car with me in it, with my own sloppily tossed grenade.

[miffy495]

That Bernie mission, while undoubtedly awesome in concept, proved really irritating with me. Again, avoiding spoilers, goddamn it was hard to steer. The best driving mission for me was when dealing with a rather spirited passenger in a certain convertible. Those who played it will know. That one only became a chase if you were unlucky, and was great fun any way it played out.

[Roderick]

Ah, it didn't become a chase in my case. Also, I managed to finish the Bernie mission in one go. It was pretty lenghty though, so I can see how it might be irritating.

[miffy495]

Oh, I still did it in one try, but there was simply too much "Lost him. Got him! Lost him. Got him!" etc during the chase for my liking. It felt like I was always trying to catch up to him after I'd collided with something rather than actually chasing.

[Nachimir]

THIS POST CONSISTS ALMOST ENTIRELY OF SPOILERS

I'm finally trying the last mission (Dmitri version), and it's a fucking ball ache.

The driving part is so easy it's incredibly boring. Likewise the shooting at the casino. Hopping onto little Jacob's helo I'm finding about 50/50, sometimes it seems I just can't catch up with him in time, but the first time I found it easy. Helicopter chase, I've only been in once and got shot down by a rocket as I was turning round a building.

Getting in the boat is frigging annoying, and the last time I did it just now, it got FUCKING BLOWN UP WITH A ROCKET just as I was getting in.

I don't mind missions being hard, or having to try them again and again, but wasting ten minutes of my life on the boring car chase and shooting part every time I fail is going to drive me insane It's just appallingly bad and joyless compared to the rest of the game

[Nachimir]

It turns out you just have to have one good bitch about it on a forum before you can then do it in one go.

[Roderick]

I got so frustrated with that one that I threw my controller away for the first time ever. I had to do it some 14 times before succeeding, and every stinking time you had to do the same fucking boring easy shoot-out before being blown up or failing simply because you don't know you have to go at breakneck speed to catch the helicopter or need to chase the chopper or avoid missiles or whatever.

It isn't the difficulty that's too much, it's the tediousness of no checkpoints, forcing you to do boring shit fourteen times. Huge design flaw in the longer missions: no checkpoints.

Also, once you finish all the missions, it's ghastly to see how quickly Liberty City becomes an empty place that just doesn't feel alive anymore. It feels like they should've done a bit more end-level game there, with houses you could buy with the usually nigh-million on your bank account. What's all that money good for if you can't buy anything with it?

[Nachimir]

Yes, definitely tedium rather than difficulty. I like the drama of the ending, but as a mission it feels like an anti-climax compared to chasing a fire engine or firing missiles at a helicopter from a dam.

I know what you mean about the world becoming empty, I felt that way after finishing all of the others though. I made sure to do the pigeons, jumps etc. before going for the last mission, because otherwise I probably wouldn't. I wanted to learn the city well for playing online, and now know it pretty well.

[Nachimir]

Edit: I take a little of that back. It's still not as empty as the other games became.

--

ok, I went back to it last night, bumped it up to 100%, then spent four hours going on rapages (erm... I meant rampages) and getting more achievements.

Getting 100% lifts the ammo caps. I spent all of my money in a throwaway game and got 140 rockets for it

Turning off the GPS line really made this game for me. Until then it felt boring, but afterward the city became something to learn and know about. I didn't really appreciate the design or understand where anything was in relation to anything else while I was following the line, whereas now I know loads of shortcuts and can get from one place to another without having to think much about it

I was very pleased to find the "Under the Radar" achievement (fly a helicopter under the 13 main bridges in the game), flying things under bridges was one of my favorite mess around things in San Andreas so I managed it without crashing. One of the bridges gives about an inch above and below the heli ¬¬

80 hours of play, and I've not yet touched multiplayer. I like that the single player doesn't just give game skills, but effectively area knowledge too :tup:

[Roderick]

Ooh, those are good recommendations! Turning off the GPS! And getting 100%, though I'm still far off at 66%. Good to know that achievement too. I know what I'm gonna play tonight again!

[toblix]

I always liked how you gradually became really familiar with the cit[y/ies] in the previous ones. I'll probably also turn off GPS guidance too, as well.