Grand Theft Auto IV discussion

[Alyeska]

Kinda surprised to see no one has bothered to post a thread considering the game just released on Tuesday. Anyway, please be careful with spoilers, still playing my way through the game right now.

The story on GTA4 is quite fun. Niko has a very ruthless, but charming quality to him. He isn't exactly evil, but he is willing to do what needs to be done to get what he wants. He isn't the idiot hypocrite that CJ in San Andreas was. Roman, well I would kill him if I could. The story is progressing nicely. Recently unlocked the third main island. Geeze, by this point in the game you have contacts everywhere. I went from having hardly any money to all that I could need.

The game play is quite nice. While they retain some familiar elements from previous games, GTA4 is in essence a new game. They have revamped everything. Combat works differently. The cover system works nice. Driving is taking some getting used to, but its enjoyable. My one gripe on driving thus far is that the damned camera won't lock on the rear of my car. It seems that Rockstar demands that you use the mouse when driving. If I drive and pull a 180, I am staring at my hood. Makes driving difficult. You have to use the mouse for free look, no other choice. Absolutely no option to lock the camera on the back of the car. Grrr.

Graphics are very nice. Encountering some glitches, but they are acceptable. Though it seems the game is poorly optimized on some systems. I have a friend with a quad core processor and a 1 gig video card and he can't set the draw distance as high as I can when I use a dual core and GeForce 8800 GTS. Way to go Rockstar.

One huge gripe. The game ships with "Rockstar Social Club". Its a worthless piece of shit program that allows you to upload your score to the internet. This program is required to play GTA4, but it installs separately. You do not have to register, nor do you have to log in. However, it will nag you every single fucking time you launch the game. It asks you to log into Social Club three fucking times you launch the game. Oh yes, Social Club really isn't required to run the game. As soon as you launch the game you can Alt Tab out and close the program. Which is a good thing because it puts itself in your system tray, turns itself to launch on windows startup, and will not shut down on exiting GTA4. Who the fuck thought up this shitty software? Can't wait for someone to figure out how to remove Social Club. All it takes is tricking or removing the launch requirement that looks for Social Club. Its clearly not integrated into GTA4 since it runs separately and can be disabled at whim.

Anyway, I am very much enjoying the game. Sure its a little linear in several areas. So what? Crysis and Half-Life are linear in several areas. To tell the preferred story, you gotta script things. Even the original GTA was scripted. In all, it works well enough as far as I am concerned.

[Vympel]

It's a great game, but the mechanic whereby you feel obligated to go out with your dipshit friends whenever they ring you (so your friendship score with them doesn't go down) is a pain in the ass. It really starts to grate near the end - it's like you literally can't do a mission without one of your friends calling you and asking to do something. Grrrr.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

I spent all night after getting it off Steam trying to just get it to work, and finally jury-rigged my system into playing it about an hour before I had to go to school. I meet or exceed all the (extremely hefty) system requirements, but it runs like shit, looks like mud, and generally feels like I'm swimming through molasses. Gun combat is virtually impossible, it's so sluggish. I would love to play this game more and enjoy it, but I can barely stomach going through Steam, then Social Club, and then Windows Live just to get into a game that looks like death warmed over and runs about as fluidly.

[charlemagne]

One huge gripe. The game ships with "Rockstar Social Club". Its a worthless piece of shit program that allows you to upload your score to the internet. This program is required to play GTA4, but it installs separately. You do not have to register, nor do you have to log in. However, it will nag you every single fucking time you launch the game. It asks you to log into Social Club three fucking times you launch the game. Oh yes, Social Club really isn't required to run the game. As soon as you launch the game you can Alt Tab out and close the program. Which is a good thing because it puts itself in your system tray, turns itself to launch on windows startup, and will not shut down on exiting GTA4. Who the fuck thought up this shitty software? Can't wait for someone to figure out how to remove Social Club. All it takes is tricking or removing the launch requirement that looks for Social Club. Its clearly not integrated into GTA4 since it runs separately and can be disabled at whim.

Yeah, this really needs to be hacked out. As if that "Games for windows" bullshit wasn't enough nagging crap. I really couldn't care less for comparing scores or whatever with random people on teh internets. I hate how that crap logs on (or at least tries to) every time I start the game. I keep the crap behind my firewall anyways, but I hate how Microsoft shoves that bullshit down our throats (it's the same with FO3). It makes me want to vomit, and I really think of not buying any "Games for windows" branded stuff until that shit is gone or at least optional.

Other than that, I didn't have luck with GTAIV displaying any textures at all. It's just the water below the map and some traffic lights, it won't display anything else, and I can't be arsed to dick around with driver-sweeper and rebooting a million times right now, so I'll just wait for a patch to sort that crap out. Maybe then it'll run smoothly on my 8800GT, too, from what I read it's pretty much a gamble to get decent FPS right now.

[Admiral Valdemar]

I can't speak for stupid PC additions, but the main qualm I, and others, had was down to mission scripted events. The combat system takes getting used to, and some feel it could be a little slicker with CQC, but otherwise it's doing a mission as the game wants you to do it, not how you would even with the same ends.

Niko is, however, a very human character and probably the most relatable and empathic of all the GTA-verse.

[Stark]

LOL. It came out Tuesday? LOL!

It's a bit strange the PC implementation is so bad, and I'm sad to see that it uses propetiary Rockstar online awareness and not Windows Live. Otherwise, every single feature of the game was torn to shreds in discussion six months ago. LOL!

Fucking physics-invincible motorcycles.

[charlemagne]

I'm sad to see that it uses propetiary Rockstar online awareness and not Windows Live

It uses BOTH. BOTH. both.

It tries to log into the stupid Rockstar social club AND it does the fucking "Randomusername logged in" at start-up.

[Vympel]

LOL. It came out Tuesday? LOL!

It's a bit strange the PC implementation is so bad, and I'm sad to see that it uses propetiary Rockstar online awareness and not Windows Live. Otherwise, every single feature of the game was torn to shreds in discussion six months ago. LOL!

Fucking physics-invincible motorcycles.

Do you realize that you use LOL way too much? If you were a game, you'd be complaining about how repetitive it is.

One funny thing about GTAIV being a shitty PC port - so was GTA III. It wasn't until GTA:VC that the PC versions actually ran properly. I'm glad I got this on PS3.

LOL.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

I never had a problem with GTAIII PC. In fact it remains my favorite to this day.

GTAIV has been nothing short of a colossal headache. I even installed it on my laptop, and to my irritation it runs much smoother. So if I want to play around with the game, I have to do it on my laptop, which is a huge pain.

[Alyeska]

The game has installed and works nicely for me. The only irritation in that regard is Rockstar Social Club which serves no purpose. One thing about this game. It isn't a direct port. They have expanded multiplayer features. In addition, the driving has been significantly altered. The mouse look while driving? That was specifically built into this version of the game. Once you get used to using the mouse to look while driving, it works well. I just dislike that they left no option to lock the camera. San Andreas let you use the mouse while driving to look around, but also let the camera lock on the vehicle if you wanted to drive that way.

[Alyeska]

LOL. It came out Tuesday? LOL!

It's a bit strange the PC implementation is so bad, and I'm sad to see that it uses propetiary Rockstar online awareness and not Windows Live. Otherwise, every single feature of the game was torn to shreds in discussion six months ago. LOL!

Fucking physics-invincible motorcycles.

Do you have anything worthwhile to add to this discussion? The PC version was not released 7 months ago and I cared not to involve myself in such discussions to keep the plot a secret. So I wouldn't know shit about what your talking about. The game just released, I just got it and I am playing through it. Either participate in this thread or stay out. If you want to bitch about a specific aspect of the game, do so. Don't laugh at it being a bad PC port and don't use the excuse that you already took part in this discussion 7 months ago.

[Vympel]

GTA III is similar to GTA IV in that it wasn't a shitty port in the sense they didn't change anything in the transfer (i.e. like add a mouse/keyboard shooter interface, that was implemented), but it was hideously buggy and unoptimized - your experience with the PC version appears to be out of the norm, because the uproar about the problems with GTAIV on PC has made it onto a lot of gaming websites. They've even interviewed Rockstar about it, who are apparently hard at work trying to fix it.

[Commander 598]

GTA III is similar to GTA IV in that it wasn't a shitty port in the sense they didn't change anything in the transfer (i.e. like add a mouse/keyboard shooter interface, that was implemented), but it was hideously buggy and unoptimized - your experience with the PC version appears to be out of the norm, because the uproar about the problems with GTAIV on PC has made it onto a lot of gaming websites. They've even interviewed Rockstar about it, who are apparently hard at work trying to fix it.

By "hard at work" you mean passing the buck onto consumers with insufficient hardware (Which should be sufficient - according to the system reqs) owned only by a "small number of people" while tooting their DX10-less "future proofing" horn and making a patch that is probably at least 50% of nothing but addition/fixes to the "clip capture/movie maker" that nobody even wanted in the first place.

I also don't see the Windows Live hate. It doesn't actually DO anything noteworthy and just seamlessly logs on an [offline] profile as the game loads. Theoretically, I suppose it's where our patch is going to come from...

Anyway, framerate isn't too much of an issue for me, I don't know exactly what it is as the last time I tried to load the benchmark it wouldn't load, but it's playable. The shadows look like crap, there's no option to turn them off (It seems Rockstar believes such options would confuse us.), the BLOOM looks like crap and can't be turned down/off (Again, it would confuse us, though there is a certain file that would allow you turn it off with the editing of a few lines...), textures just plain refuse to load in a timely manner thus leaving varying amounts of the game invisible depending on just how high you've got texture detail, I can't exit the game without resorting to task manager to kill the process. There's no AA. (Not that I would be using it anyway) The "limiter" placed on your gfx options sucks in a most horrendous fashion, I have since disabled it and found things much more enjoyable.

It's hard to enjoy this game in it's current state. I personally want to find who's responsible for deciding that Euphoria should be applied to every single NPC seemingly 100% of the time and beat them in the name of efficiency. Some people believe that it's just running in an emulated 360 environment...

[Executor32]

Framerate was an issue for me, until I turned off clip capture and updated to the 180.84 beta Forceware drivers. It doesn't run as smoothly as, say, Far Cry 2, but it's at least enjoyable now.

[Darth Onasi]

It's hard to enjoy this game in it's current state. I personally want to find who's responsible for deciding that Euphoria should be applied to every single NPC seemingly 100% of the time and beat them in the name of efficiency. Some people believe that it's just running in an emulated 360 environment...

Sounds like more developers need to take a lesson from Mount & Blade, that allows you to adjust the number of npcs with ragdoll physics on screen.

[chitoryu12]

It's a great game, but the mechanic whereby you feel obligated to go out with your dipshit friends whenever they ring you (so your friendship score with them doesn't go down) is a pain in the ass. It really starts to grate near the end - it's like you literally can't do a mission without one of your friends calling you and asking to do something. Grrrr.

You can just set your phone to sleep mode. As long as you don't absolutely have to be phoned to be given the option to do a mission, it won't affect it. You'll still get calls (keeping it on sleep mode permanently keeps you from getting calls to start missions), but far fewer than if you didn't.

[Stark]

Do you realize that you use LOL way too much? If you were a game, you'd be complaining about how repetitive it is.

One funny thing about GTAIV being a shitty PC port - so was GTA III. It wasn't until GTA:VC that the PC versions actually ran properly. I'm glad I got this on PS3.

LOL.

Hey hey this is a special case; PC owners describing GTA4 as 'came out tuesday'. I mean come on that shit is funny. It's EMOTICONS I overuse, as we ALL KNOW! After the farce with the early GTA3-engine games I thought GTA4 would at least work fine - it's a shame they did the whole 'console port so who needs options to manage hardware load' thing.

Oh sorry I didn't notice ole Aly having a little cry up there. I love how he ignores, what, 80% of the words to focus on three! He orders me to 'participate' (which I guess means 'complain about bugs and system requirements' like everyone else) or 'stay out'. Frankly, the PC port being broken is absolutely hilarious, nigh-inexplicable given the nearness of the 360 hardware (unlike, say, PS3 or whatever) and the huge lead time they had on the port.

I'm sorry I didn't post a giant summation of all the game elements torn up six months ago, I really am. That's why he went after me and not Valdemar... lol. What physics invincible motorcycles? What scripted events? What GODDAMN MOBILE PHONE RINGING?

And Charlemagne; both? What's the fucking point of that? The 360 version already reported shit to the RS website through XBL. I actually kinda like the XBL functionality in the seven games that use it; chat with XBL, whore for achievements, etc. But Windows Live is already present, so I'm not sure on the need for RS 'Social Club' which fucking nobody cares about.

Sounds like more developers need to take a lesson from Mount & Blade, that allows you to adjust the number of npcs with ragdoll physics on screen.

From the sound of it, the game doesn't have a proper PC-game options set. That's fine on fixed-hardware consoles, but you need it to let PC users load-balance to their hardware.

[charlemagne]

And Charlemagne; both? What's the fucking point of that? The 360 version already reported shit to the RS website through XBL. I actually kinda like the XBL functionality in the seven games that use it; chat with XBL, whore for achievements, etc. But Windows Live is already present, so I'm not sure on the need for RS 'Social Club' which fucking nobody cares about.

Yeah, that's my point. I don't care for Windows Live either, so I'd like to have that optional at least, but I could live with just Live, it didn't bother me this much in Fallout 3, for example. But having to click away the RS Social Club nag thing and then also see the Windows Live logon is rather... well, it just bothers me.

[Enigma]

Can't even enjoy the game. The moment I can do anything in the game, I can barely move. My computer basically choked on the game even though AFAIK I meet the minimum specs to play it.

I agree that the RSC is useless and annoying, they say it isn't necessary but they make it that you have to sign up. I may have read it wrong but I got a message saying that I would not be able to save the game if I didn't login to RSC.

[Commander 598]

As far as I can tell, you only need to log into RGSC like once and then just ignore it until you restart or something as it doesn't log you out and stays as a tiny icon in your task bar, or whatever they're calling it these days, that rapidly gets turned into a hidden icon, if you have that option on, from lack of use. Still annoying and useless bloat that the world would be better off without but not quite as annoying as it's made out to be.

Edit: It works for me because I put a shortcut to "launchgtaiv.exe" on my desktop that ignore RGSC so long as you're logged in.

[Executor32]

I'm still having one issue with it. Occasionally, the game will stop loading assets, including textures, models, and even the radio stations, and after a minute or so will conk out altogether. I'm not sure what causes it, but the memory usage when I went to kill the process this last time it happened made me think maybe Jack Thompson was right about GTA being evil:





Also, I've noticed the game is a lot easier for me than it was on the 360, possibly because I'm used to aiming with a mouse and can now actually shoot everyone in the face consistently.

[Oscar Wilde]

Also, I've noticed the game is a lot easier for me than it was on the 360, possibly because I'm used to aiming with a mouse and can now actually shoot everyone in the face consistently.

I always hear this, and yet have virtually no difficulty adjusting to either side, console or pc.

[Commander 598]

Rumor has it that it's probably got a memory leak somewhere.

[Stark]

Also, I've noticed the game is a lot easier for me than it was on the 360, possibly because I'm used to aiming with a mouse and can now actually shoot everyone in the face consistently.

Try 'learning'. Anyway, in most console ports the conefire is cranked up on PC versions to compensate; console versions generally have a pretty heavy amount of auto-aim too, even if not as much as Goldeneye's magical Tracking Hand.

[Commander 598]

First patch has been released and it...does nothing. (Nothing of any note anyway)

Also quote I pulled from another forum:

...they just didn't recode the engine to a full PC x86 codes, and even some codes are missing. Like, a good dual core detector which will let you play it with Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz instead of the hyperthreaded quad i7. And what's more, they still left the Xbox 360 core detector which will only let you play smoothly on tri-core or more.

Is that really as bad as I think it is?