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GTA IV

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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.

I found everything totally fine, except for the horrible helicopter controls

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Jesus Christ, you just reminded me about the truly horrific PC aeroplane controls in San Andreas. That shit nearly led to me having a nervous breakdown in my teens.

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I found everything totally fine, except for the horrible helicopter controls

Yeah, actually I got used to (almost) everything else as well. It's just strange to see that lack of precision for character control for the first time in a PC game (though I suppose GTA IV on consoles felt the same initially).

But I think they screwed up this PC control by fucking up mouse sensitivity controls. I don't really understand why some games mess this up, while vast majority is fine: mouse sensitivity in menus vs. in game (and only one changeable). But, in this case, it seems they used the non-changeable (or so it seems to me) mouse speed for the following: menus, golf minigame, helicopters, and a few other things in game where you are not controlling a car or a character, but something else. Maybe I'm wrong and the sensitivity setting does control the mouse speed there, in that case they just used a horrible scale for it.

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Yeah, actually I got used to (almost) everything else as well. It's just strange to see that lack of precision for character control for the first time in a PC game (though I suppose GTA IV on consoles felt the same initially).

But I think they screwed up this PC control by fucking up mouse sensitivity controls. I don't really understand why some games mess this up, while vast majority is fine: mouse sensitivity in menus vs. in game (and only one changeable). But, in this case, it seems they used the non-changeable (or so it seems to me) mouse speed for the following: menus, golf minigame, helicopters, and a few other things in game where you are not controlling a car or a character, but something else. Maybe I'm wrong and the sensitivity setting does control the mouse speed there, in that case they just used a horrible scale for it.

What I ended up doing was making heli controls keyboard only, still fucking shitty, but nowhere near as bad as trying to mouse it.

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I thought it would be more appropriate to post this here than in the GTA V thread. Someone linked to this video in the RPS comments to the GTA V trailer, wanting to make the point that the story wasn't really that great.

(exact time link:

)

NYPl8ppuIJA#t=6m

When Nico kills his first guy, he says "Argh! I promised myself not to kill people here!"

Stuff like this is why I never understood why some people thought Nico was a great character or that the story was good. I do admit that the game has lots of good dialogue, though. I think two things that influenced my opinion of the story the most was the above, plus a mission where Nico meets some new boss/mission-giver, is then asked to kill some people and gladly obliges.

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Was it Nikos moment to moment conversations or actions that made GTA 4 great or was it the theme of immigrant coming for the American dream, about trying to leave a past behind him?

I wont defend anything in GTA4, but the themes and character motives were pretty god damn great.

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Was it Nikos moment to moment conversations or actions that made GTA 4 great or was it the theme of immigrant coming for the American dream, about trying to leave a past behind him?

Was it really a theme if it only applied to maybe 1/20th of the game?

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There's always going to be massive disconnect between a) The actions of the player. B) The actions of the character in a mission. And c) The integrity and likeability of a character.

As much as I want the story and characters to improve in quality, I can't see how they can get past this. Especially if people are going to try and hold them up to such standards...

When I'm driving around Liberty City, it's often quicker to take the pavement. That often means ploughing through swaths of pedestrians. I don't want the game to try and make me feel bad about that. And I don't want the character I'm controlling to suddenly have a nervous breakdown because he's committed genocide on the way to meeting his cousin for a game of darts.

Likewise, I don't want the gameplay in the missions to be altered, so that there's a period of grief following each bad guy I execute with a flawless headshot.

But the only way these two actions can marry with the third thing, the integrity of the lead character, is if they're a completely unlikeable, despicable, psychopath asshole... Who, personally, I'd rather not play in a game.

So, to be fair to Houser and company, I'm not sure what the solution is. Go for a heightened sense of reality that's more jokey and fun, perhaps? I don't know.

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Was it really a theme if it only applied to maybe 1/20th of the game?

Then I'll call it perceived theme.

They did layer it on pretty well throughout the game even if it wasn't what it was about most of the time, then couple that with the satirical newyork, I like to think it was the theme of the game.

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I still think the theme is just being a criminal in a big city and would say that the beginning of the game with the immigration theme can be considered Nico's origin story. And even then I don't see how simply being an immigrant who wanted to start a new life but hardly even tried* makes him all that interesting.

* because it wouldn't be a GTA game if he had succeeded

Perhaps I am trying to hold Rockstar up to a higher standard, but I'm talking about this mostly because I just don't see the story of GTA IV being any better than most game stories, but lots of people are saying that it was. It's ok though, I still play lots of games with even worse stories.

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I think the problem is that the writers never thought to make Nico come to America "for the American dream". If they had, the satirical aspects of the depiction of the US would have resonated a lot more, and the game would have been all the better for it.

I don't think that crossed Dan Houser's mind, though, because we got the same GTA universe that we've always gotten, and a character who wanted to escape something. Nico never shows any interest in the American dream, and he berates his cousin whenever he does.

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