The hype came. The hype has past.

Now that I have beaten the story, I feel as if GTA 4 is just like the others. It is no longer fun. What kept me playing was the story line, but now it just seems like any other GTA game.....I thought things we're going to be different...

I think this game, for better or worse, changed GTA a great deal. you are entitled to your opinion, but this game is so different from past GTA games it is literally starting wars and debates throughout the GTA community because of all the changes to the physics and mechanics of the game. regardless of which side a fan finds himself on in this debate, I think it's universally accepted that GTA games have really been revamped.

i hear the online is bound to keep you occuppied as long as the story did...
which is bs imo, cuz the controls suk.
On the bright side, u can get 28 bux trade in and around 24 bux cash for it at gamestop, so if u dont want to save it just go ahead and sell it

I'm trying to understand why chasing dots was so appealing in San Andreas for me, but chasing dots round liberty city just doesn't seem to have been so enjoyable.

how can it be boring??? dont buy it then!!!!!!! jackass

quote harvestmaster247

how can it be boring??? dont buy it then!!!!!!! jackass

He has bought it, if you read he has completed the story and now finds the game boring due to lack of fun things to do... This is a huge fault of the realism, The Getaway has the same problem they reward you with free roam at the end of the game but it isn't a huge reward as there is nothing to do, he is not the only one to think this i mean i think this and i feel like a fool as i was spreading the gospel of the untouchable GTA IV to doubters like Chirovette, and he seems to be enjoying it more than me.

lol I am enjoying it more than you are because I am trying my best to overlook the things I really don't like about the game and give it a chance. Hahahaha though I think getting 100% completion may be a little more than giving it a chance.

Seriously, I am not saying realism is a flaw in games, but I personally hate it. I don't get the appeal. You want to hear something weird? I have the funny feeling that Rockstar, intentionally or unintentionally, is marketing this game to KIDS. It is a theory that I believe is sound.

Now obviously Rockstar can't say they are marketing it to kids. They have to tell the media and everyone else who will listen to them, that the game is meant for adults and they point to the rating as proof. <wink wink>

The truth is that I am an adult and so are all my friends. And I have to say that MOST adults do not like realism in games. Why? Simple. Because we deal with realism in driving and real life restrictions every day. For those of us who live in NY City, the problem is even a little worse with realism in Liberty. Because I drive in the cramped, crowded streets of NY City every day. I deal with rush hour traffic far too often. I know there are cops on every corner, etc., etc.

I work every day, drive a whole lot, and deal with realism in real life. I have seen tragedy. I understand that real life has miserable and depressing "endings" just as often as it has happy ones, maybe even more so.

So when I see a game or a movie with a depressing ending like GTA IV, I don't enjoy it. Why? Because it is TOO REAL. Life is real. Games and movies are supposed to be pure escapism.

When I am barrelling down the road at 150 MPH in my Croquette, and the rear end flies out and I start spinning, all because I hit a bump in the road, I KNOW that this is what would happen in a Corvette. Hell, I own one. When the cars and trucks fishtail all over the road like there is an invisible sheet of ice and the tires can't hold traction, I also know that there is no ice. This is REAL LIFE simulated driving.

Now my reasoning behind the belief that this game is marketed, albeit in secret, to kids, is that most kids love realism in games more than most adults. Why? Because they haven't done all of these things yet in real life. So having really strong consequenses like not being able to go on sustained rampages, realistic driving, realistic damage and overall realistic and SLOWED DOWN physics is appealing to kids.

Now this is not to say that NO adults like realism in games. I know Oz and Kuduros, for example are adults, and they love this game and the accompanying realism.

However, I honestly believe that most adult GTA fans would have honestly preferred the graphics and story to be the way they are, but the gameplay to have been a lot more wild and insane, without the "dire consequences" and harsh realism of IV.

This is not to say that the game isn't a great one, and that I am not enjoying a lot of it. It is and I am. However, I wish the game was less restrictive. You are right, Nikki. In many ways, this game really does feel like The Getaway. In many ways it feels like Parallel Lines, and the driving feels like Gran Theft Turismo. It is still an awesome game in terms of story, dialog, writing and graphics, but I don't see this game having the staying power of past titles.

Hell, look at the forums. 3 weeks after the game is released and both the 360 and PS3 forums are as dead as San Andreas and Vice City were 2 years after the games released. I think that gamers are starting to move on from this title to something else.

I mean i love The Getaway because it is real i don't like it after the missions but the game itself is incredible and i love the realism but what i hate, it is like my absolute peev with a game is when developers are obviously going for realism but to save face they add in an arcadey element to say "hey we are still the same".

GTA IV is full of this, the realism, realistic physics and driving mechanics but then you blow up a car with Roman in and he burns to death, is as black as coal but he still phones you 10 minutes later perfectly fine. I mean this is something Saints Row will never do, if it makes anything real it is something that will not effect the overall gameplay like Saints Row 2, it's story is darker but i mean the guy has just been blown up it is expected but the gameplay is like San Andreas on cocaine. Rockstar lost that balance in my opinion if they touted it as the real crime simulatror thats fine but they didn't.

quote doom destroyer

I mean i love The Getaway because it is real i don't like it after the missions but the game itself is incredible and i love the realism but what i hate, it is like my absolute peev with a game is when developers are obviously going for realism but to save face they add in an arcadey element to say "hey we are still the same".

GTA IV is full of this, the realism, realistic physics and driving mechanics but then you blow up a car with Roman in and he burns to death, is as black as coal but he still phones you 10 minutes later perfectly fine. I mean this is something Saints Row will never do, if it makes anything real it is something that will not effect the overall gameplay like Saints Row 2, it's story is darker but i mean the guy has just been blown up it is expected but the gameplay is like San Andreas on cocaine. Rockstar lost that balance in my opinion if they touted it as the real crime simulatror thats fine but they didn't.

Getaway and Saints Row have their own faults as well. If we're going to pick nits here, lets point out the extreme crap that is in The Getaway. You get shot to bloody pieces, inches away from dying, and yet all you need to do is lean up against the wall and dont move and all your health returns to normal. At least GTA uses the old body armor and med pack system that we've seen in countless games.

As for Saints Row being more real, Im just going to name one character for you. Lin. Lin is killed by David Carradine's character. Shot while in the trunk of a car and then drowned. But wait!! Who can you call in the game to assist you later? ZOMBIE LIN! Yes, that same dead character shows up rocking a pimped out hearse and attacks your enemies with her own appendages!! I think I can rest my case here.


Dont talk smack about a main story character in GTA being "killed" in GTA and then returning to life so that you can finish the storyline without restarting the entire game. Do you know how many people would be so pissed off about that if that were the case? Roman gets drunk on a friend mission, picks a fight with a ped. Ped pulls knife and kills him.

Game autosaves and a message pops up that says Roman is dead, story missions disabled. The very thought of that as a possibility is utterly ridiculous. Realism is one thing. Crippling the game is entirely another.


Moving on..

I think the online aspect of GTA IV is what hurt the game's overall single player worth. The extra things to do in the game were pushed aside or overlooked because of the mass amount of things that you can do in the city playing online. For those of us with broadband access thats well and good. But for those without, the singleplayer experience definately got shortchanged. Its been the trend for a while, many games relying on the online aspect to flesh out and complete the game, leaving the single player experience feeling like more could have been done.


Rampages, Fire/Taxi/Ambulance/Pizza missions, I think that stuff got booted because of the online play. R* didnt just revamp the mechanics and feel of their Grand Theft Auto experience, they have revamped the manner in which they present the game as well opting to take the leap into the online arena and when that happens almost always the single player aspect of the game is going to suffer a bit.

For one i did not say Saints Row was real i love it for being a shit storm of unrealistic madness... Where as i love The Getaway for being the same shit storm of realistic insanity, sure it used that health regain method but i prefer that than having some glowing green health pack conveniently in the middle of a warehouse i conveniently find myself having a rather convenient gun battle within...

As for the whole Roman dying i mean it is the main flaw in this game, i mean millions love it good for them i hope they continue to get their excitement from this game, but i mean they could have done a lot with this. The story could have drastically changed if a character died early on, even if it is random i mean lots of games are doing this now and its much better than the current method of, he burned to death after getting run over by a massive truck and wow he is fine...

I guess i am alone here but i hate games that are obviously trying to be realistic but have a team of developers so shit scared to go through with it they end up doing a half assed job, GTA IV is just like this where as The Getaway may be loathed and despised by many it has done something Rockstar never could, gone against the grain for the sake of trying something new... GTA IV is very average but thats my opinion not yours and i respect that.

lol Yeah I don't consider SR to be realistic. Truth be told, it is far more wild, zany and unrealistic than GTA IV. As for the Getaway, I thought that game was an absolute abortion. Also, I think that one of the problems I have with so called "realism" in a game, is it is an absurd concept. You can't make a game truly realistic or it would last 2 seconds. Ny problem with games like The Getaway is that they try too hard to MAKE the game realistic, when realism is not even possible if the developers were shooting for it.

Can't wait for Saints Row 2 after this game it is gonna be a stark contrast haha, dare i say it GTA IV may actually give Saints Row 2 the lift up to be a better game than GTA itself, since i am sure i am not the only person that craves an lesser realistic experience currently... I didn't think that Saints Row could take the open world crown so soon but it could be a possibility come August.

lol Seldom, I am more than double your age. At seventeen, you're still young enough to not have a huge experience with real life. I don't mean to sound condescending, but at your age, I also LOVED realism in movies and entertainment. Maybe I have become a little jaded, but the truth is that to me games and movies are for pure escapism.

honestly? I don't need a game to remind me of all the consequences of illegal activities. I don't need a game to FORCE me to adapt to realistic driving when I have been driving a car for over 20 years almost every day of my life. See what I mean?