Cymro

So, I'm playing GTA IV, I get busted and lose all my weapons, so in frustration I go on a rampage, running down peds in a cop car. Anyway, completely by accident, the coolest thing happens and I saved the clip. I also decided to give GTA's built-in video editor a go, it's fun.

Forgive me, I'm a bad driver

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"Let me tell you something about humans, nephew: They're a wonderful, friendly people - as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working.

"But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those friendly, intelligent, wonderful people...will become as nasty and as violent as the most blood-thirsty klingon."

Space Goat

Would you say GTA IV is worth a purchase?

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Cymro

When I first installed the game, I had to install Rockstar's "Social Club" shit and "Games for Windows-Live", as well as create accounts for both before I could actually start playing. On top of that, the system spec is immense - for it to run acceptably you really need a 512MB graphics card (I found it unbearable on a 256MB 8800GT). Even on my system, with a 512MB ATI 4850 it doesn't hit more than 40fps in most places on the map. There are also tons of people getting random bugs and crashes (I'm not one of them though) - I was actually tempted to return it when I first got it.

However, I got over it and into it, and discovered that my machine can run it in 1080p with higher settings than they set for the PS3 (and a PS3 doesn't even manage 720p). I also discovered that it's highly addictive and pretty much everything about the actual gameplay experience is simply magnificent. The Soundtrack, the map, the side missions, the characters - the storyline is something else. And I can forgive it's glutton with system resources because of the sheer scale and detail of the map, as well as the quality of the graphics. In fact, the game's main need is Video RAM so it has somewhere to put all the textures and meshes - playing with the settings and running it in higher resolutions doesn't really make much of a difference for me.

So, to sum it up, the game itself is fantastic, but is let down by the work it takes to actually start playing it, and the fact that unless you've got very good hardware, it's going to look like crap. My recommendation is to either get it for a console, or wait until the Windows version's been patched and/or come down in price.

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"Let me tell you something about humans, nephew: They're a wonderful, friendly people - as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working.

"But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those friendly, intelligent, wonderful people...will become as nasty and as violent as the most blood-thirsty klingon."

Space Goat

Thanks for the informative review.

I've got the hardware to run it. So I'll just wait for the Steam version to come down in price.

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Closet Racist

To quote some Asian guy I saw in a porn movie, "It more fun than peeing in eggdrop soup".

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Bean

That was an awesome clip Cymro lol. You'll have to post some more.

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"I haven't faced death. I've cheated death. I've tricked my way out of death and patted myself on the back for my ingenuity. I know nothing."

--James T. Kirk

Cymro

If you ever start to think GTA IV is bad, you should play Godfather II for a couple of hours to regain your perspective.

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"Let me tell you something about humans, nephew: They're a wonderful, friendly people - as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working.

"But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those friendly, intelligent, wonderful people...will become as nasty and as violent as the most blood-thirsty klingon."

Bean

Actually, despite my early misgivings with the game, I'm totally hooked on GTA IV now. And I'm no sure what you mean above by the PS3 version not managing 720p. I've been running it in 720 since I first started playing it.

Godfather 2 sucks eh? I liked the first one for about an hour, then realized it was just a less accessible version of GTA with a Godfather skin on it.

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"I haven't faced death. I've cheated death. I've tricked my way out of death and patted myself on the back for my ingenuity. I know nothing."

--James T. Kirk

Cymro

The internet's full of stories about how the game renders at 640p. Apparently, it actually stretches the image to 720 afterwards, in the same way a PC would do to play 480p videos at 1280x1024. The difference between 640 and 720 isn't that noticeable, but my original comment was in comparison to the PC version, which at 1080p looks miles better.

And yeah, Godfather II isn't even as good as the first one, which I thought was fairly decent, if anything because I liked playing out all the coolest scenes from the movie, and I found the executions think a nice little novelty. The second one barely has anything to do with the films, and has less execution styles than the first - you can't even throw people into fires!

The gameplay's tweaked and has it's plus points, but the feel of it's still very much that of a primitive GTA, without even stuff I take for granted like the ability to shoot out of a car - or jump! I like the idea of a squad system where I have my own Capos I can send to do my dirty work, but it feels clunky and unrefined. And the map's not very big either, WAY smaller.

The graphics are better, but not exactly miles better, they just updated the game engine with new HDR lights and shadows, but it still looks very cartoonish and never stops feeling like a tarted-up PS2 game. And more insulting is the fact that GTA has a fucking gigantic map, easily 10 times bigger with no loading times, and it's far more detailed, and that game doesn't stutter like GFII does.

Oh, and a 'tube version of the vid:

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"Let me tell you something about humans, nephew: They're a wonderful, friendly people - as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working.

"But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those friendly, intelligent, wonderful people...will become as nasty and as violent as the most blood-thirsty klingon."

Bean

Really? Huh, I wasn't aware. I just assumed that since my TV switched over to 720 that the game was in that resolution.

Ah well, it still looks better than it did before I got the HD cable

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"I haven't faced death. I've cheated death. I've tricked my way out of death and patted myself on the back for my ingenuity. I know nothing."

--James T. Kirk