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GTA IV

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Gets choppy for me as well, but I'm also on a core 2 duo 2ghz and 8800gt. For the most part it runs fine though. Finished TLAD, enjoyed it. Really dug the MC dynamic, probably cause I love Sons of Anarchy. Been trying the multiplayer which is surprisingly fun, though not many people were playing. (GFWL ID is Betrothedcoot if any PC gamers wanna try stuff out)

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There's some great fun, but it's strictly for people who have mastered GTA/find it too easy (IMO). You should keep going though, it's more "extreeeme" and fun than the other games (main story and LaD).

At least I could drunkenly roam the streets in those two!

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Not finished it yet, unlocked the third island now.

Hmm, hilariously disengaged from the options to kill people or not. What I didn't get is that there is no third option; Playboy X or Dwayne HAS to go. No way to kill both or neither. Urg. I looked it up online what did what, and Dwayne was just the better choice because I had more things to do afterwards (and he half redeems himself or whatever being your friend).

The Niko attitude shift is something I saw too - I'm totally vaguely wandering between missions basically killing things for money - ie; any earlier GTA game - so it's got pretty monotomous. Damn man, why do I need money? I just robbed a bank for 250,000 and I'm STILL looking for money?!? I CANNOT PURCHASE ANYTHING FOR A QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS IN THIS GAME :(

Also, I just murdered like, a thousand cops getting away from that bank heist (It must be okay, they're only cops! :/ ). I then went back to the bank (I wondered if I could steal those special vans, they were still locked) and the dudes you fight were all respawned! Only attacked me when I went near the bank entrance, and my allies were just happily sitting in the car complaining about being shot for a while. Weird...so many mission things are just like the old games, I love seeing what I can "break".

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The gameplay is pretty dry, although I like exciting chase sequences even if the cars are like Mako Jumpy style and have no grip or weight whatsoever.

It's hilarious seeing the AI (cop car, taxi, race car, whatever) trying to go through heavy traffic though. Bumping the cars up to max makes it more fun, but in a decidedly odd way :) massive car pile ups almost everywhere, wooo.

Plus points for a nice set of things to do out of missions (even if they are inane after a while, and there is literally nothing to explore in the city), although man, just doing things takes a lot of effort and there is really no real reason to continue apart from some vague "Niko wants vengeance on two people he's barely mentioned" thing going on.

Am wondering about the expansion things, might get them, but need to finish this first.

Good and bad all round then. Multiplayer is okay I guess, I like the fighting NPC missions myself, co-op is always cooler then competitive :)

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While I haven't been paying attention to every comment ever made, that has to be the first time a poster has described a point in the game where they are 60 hours into a game(third island, Im guessing of course unless your doing a speed run) but writes in length how shit it is, even if they liked the shit option.

hilariously odd.

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What are you on about? It was just a pretty terribly done non-choice for me that was so far the most pointless part of it.

You know there can be parts of the game you dislike, even though you still play the whole game? Why is that hilarious or odd?

I "liked" the result of the "shit option" more because it simply gave me more to do; I really didn't like either character much (one was a dickhead, the other was a depressed whiner criminal), and the missions leading up to it left a lot to be desired. There is some minor befriending and a mansion and that's it (I looked it up online since it seemed such a silly choice), so I took that option since I had to do *something* it seemed, since those pesky mission icons don't disappear by themselves.

Do you want me to go on? I only brought it up because it both stood out as one of the poorer attempts to put a junction in a story path the player has a choice in (one of the paths was a choice which lead to...simply nothing), and was commented on earlier in the thread! I've heard the ending is similar - two paths, no doubt I'll not enjoy that much either, but we'll see.

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I killed Playboy X simply for his penthouse... yeah I'm a bad person.
Same here, otherwise I would have killed Dwayne, he was a loser.

I'd like to eventually pick up the two episodes for this, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

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I'd like to eventually pick up the two episodes for this, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Me too, i'll probably eventually just get them off Steam.

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The "kill Dwayne or Playboy X" choice is something which pinpoints what's wrong with GTA and what has to be changed in the future to keep the series interesting (for me).

The lack of choice you have is irritating in a game which is usually described as a free-roam experience. You can't choose when to spare someone's life. And in case of Dwayne and Playboy X the choice has no purpose other than getting a neat penthouse and Dwayne and his gansta-bros or getting nothing.

Then there are the missions. They are so undynamic/ heavily stricpted that it really hurts the experience. I hate it when you can't shoot someone or his car, because the mission would be over before I experienced the stuff the makers thoroughly prepared.

There is this one assignment where you have to steal a truck (full of drugs? can't remember). First you have a shootout in an alley - the truck is on the opposit end of it. After killing a specific amount of gangsters somebody enters the scene and gets into the truck. You can aim and open fire on this guy but after a while you realize that he is bulletproof, because otherwise there would be no chase. This is just bad scripting in my opinion. Why not hide the truck until the chase should start? Activating godmode for the driver just gives you the definite conclusion that you don't have a choice whatsoever.

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The "kill Dwayne or Playboy X" choice is something which pinpoints what's wrong with GTA and what has to be changed in the future to keep the series interesting (for me).

The lack of choice you have is irritating in a game which is usually described as a free-roam experience. You can't choose when to spare someone's life. And in case of Dwayne and Playboy X the choice has no purpose other than getting a neat penthouse and Dwayne and his gansta-bros or getting nothing.

Then there are the missions. They are so undynamic/ heavily stricpted that it really hurts the experience. I hate it when you can't shoot someone or his car, because the mission would be over before I experienced the stuff the makers thoroughly prepared.

There is this one assignment where you have to steal a truck (full of drugs? can't remember). First you have a shootout in an alley - the truck is on the opposit end of it. After killing a specific amount of gangsters somebody enters the scene and gets into the truck. You can aim and open fire on this guy but after a while you realize that he is bulletproof, because otherwise there would be no chase. This is just bad scripting in my opinion. Why not hide the truck until the chase should start? Activating godmode for the driver just gives you the definite conclusion that you don't have a choice whatsoever.

That is the biggest and most important complaint with GTA, perhaps there needs to be a rethink. Give us a reason why when we put 200 bullets into a man's face he doesn't die because he's not supposed to or just let him die.

I understand that you want me to see your hard work but if you're going to make me sit through it no matter what then I don't want to see ANY of your hard work, the same applies to unskippable cutscenes.

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Gets choppy for me as well, but I'm also on a core 2 duo 2ghz and 8800gt. For the most part it runs fine though. Finished TLAD, enjoyed it.

Jebus, how on earth can you run it on that system? Mine is close and it isn't even nearly playable.

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Jebus, how on earth can you run it on that system? Mine is close and it isn't even nearly playable.

Because I'm magic! I can run it mostly on medium but sometimes it slows down. I recently turned down some of it to low for multiplayer and it works pretty well.

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Jebus, how on earth can you run it on that system? Mine is close and it isn't even nearly playable.

I'm on a dual core and 8800gt as well, it runs decently for me.

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The comments about the linearity in this game is why everyone should play one of the Way of the Samurai games.

Seriously, if you want a game that lets you do anything, including completely fuck up your playthrough, you need to play WoTS3.

I convinced someone at work to play it and he sank about 100 hours into the game. It is also the only game I know where the gamefaqs info is incomplete and in many places incorrect.

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What are you on about? It was just a pretty terribly done non-choice for me that was so far the most pointless part of it.

You know there can be parts of the game you dislike, even though you still play the whole game? Why is that hilarious or odd?

.

Maybe I'm confused but you weren't talking about a specific part of the game, but rather it's core mechanics not being good. Maybe re-read your post or maybe I have an odd sense of humor, but you seemed to dump on the core mechanics pretty heavily, even when giving it a compliment.

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The game ran perfectly only once (smooth, no slowdowns ever) on my PC (C2D E8500 @ 3.6 GHz, GF 8800 GTS 640, 4 GB) with a specific combination of prerequisites (Win XP SP3 + specific patch + specific graphics driver). Even with "high" textures via "availablevidmem" multiplier. It never ran that smoothly again ever after.

With the newest version (GTA IV: 1.0.6.0, EFLC: 1.0.0.1) it's playable until the slowdowns begin. Then the game crawls for several seconds to minutes until it decides to run normal again. Rockstar said they improved the memory management. But I suspect they've made it worse (or like you say in german: Sie haben es verschlimmbessert.).

I've just started The Lost and Damned and was able to uncover wonky scripting once again.

In the mission where you steal bikes from the competition rivaling gang members enter the scene as soon as you've loaded the first chopper onto the truck. I died on my first try and had to restart. This time parked the bikes in front of the truck on by one and no thugs showed up. Then I started loading the first bike onto the load bed and - surprise, surprise - they showed up. But now with all the bikes close by the truck already the whole mission was a piece of cake and done in no time.

I doubt it was their intention to proceed this way.

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Then there are the missions. They are so undynamic/ heavily stricpted that it really hurts the experience. I hate it when you can't shoot someone or his car, because the mission would be over before I experienced the stuff the makers thoroughly prepared.

Indeed - there were times when I found it refreshing I *could* kill people before they ran off and did a chase. Of course these were only ever minor missions.

Maybe I'm confused but you weren't talking about a specific part of the game, but rather it's core mechanics not being good. Maybe re-read your post or maybe I have an odd sense of humor, but you seemed to dump on the core mechanics pretty heavily, even when giving it a compliment.

I think you mistake "dry gameplay" as a purely negative comment as that is the only major time I describe the core stuff. It's fine, just dry - it works, and is functional (and pretty darn easy), but could be so much more. Makes me long for Max Payne-like action, rather then pop guns and people constantly hiding, heh.

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Give us a reason why when we put 200 bullets into a man's face he doesn't die because he's not supposed to or just let him die.

I didn't find this so hard to swallow; it's not as if the narrative is particularly convincing to start with, and procedurally generated or completely open missions have a habit of being quite bland against AI. I'd happily trade of a tiny sliver of freedom for the sake of better paced missions.

However, a better way to handle it would be to give Nico a reason not to shoot and make it impossible, Gordon Freeman style.

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When you have to choose between killing the detective or his brother...

... and they're sat on the park bench, did anyone try just bazookaing the fuck out of both of them? I had no bazookas but totally wondered what'd happen with GTA4's tight scripting. ;

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You would probably fail the mission. I thought about

killing the other brother as he walked away

but don't think I actually did.

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I killed Playboy X for his penthouse and because I had a sympathy for Dwayne, since he had pretty much nothing. I remember actually inviting him to do something because I seriously felt sorry, even though it's a game.

I really enjoyed the GTA IV saga. I can see why some people didn't, but the combination of the story, characters, and crazy gameplay kept me satisfied for the 30+ hours of the main story and 10+ each for Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony.

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Interestingly when I had to decide whether or not to kill that guy Niko had been chasing for like half the game, I decided to have mercy — but then a few minutes later he randomly appeared out of nowhere and I accidentally bulldozed him over, resulting in Roman changing his tune and me having reverted to a vengeful fuck. :tup:

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Wait, you can run into him? Is he still running around my city somewhere?

He limps off. You can follow him, push him over, etc. as I recall. I wonder what would happen if he "accidentally" fell under a car? :hmph:

When you have to choose between killing the detective or his brother...

... and they're sat on the park bench, did anyone try just bazookaing the fuck out of both of them? I had no bazookas but totally wondered what'd happen with GTA4's tight scripting. ;

Yes, I wondered this, too. Someone must know the answer.

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When you have to choose between killing the detective or his brother...

... and they're sat on the park bench, did anyone try just bazookaing the fuck out of both of them? I had no bazookas but totally wondered what'd happen with GTA4's tight scripting. ;

You fail the mission if you kill both. I just tried myself. It's the same situation as with Playboy X and Dwayne. The one or the other.

And btw, the mission I played before this was the one where you "free" a prisoner who ended in jail because Derrick McReary grassed him up. Derrick wants him dead now, because he is afraid that he is going to do the same. You end with him at the coast and get the order to kill him. No choice. I'm sorry with this guy. Derrick shat on him. Why help a betrayer? I once tried to just leave him there at the coast. But then I lost the mission. :(

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I got the GTA IV + DLC PC version (from Steam sale) since I never played much of Gay Tony on the Xbox. Is it just me or do the PC controls kind of suck (mouse + keyboard)? I remember having a much easier time controlling everything with the Xbox controller. Helicopters seem impossible and tuning the mouse sensitivity doesn't seem to help here. Also, on foot controls feel laggy (just because of the slow turns I guess).

I usually prefer mouse + keyboard controls to controllers in most games, and even in the first GTA 3D I found that to be much easier than a PS2 controller.

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