Grand Theft Auto IV

**baumy300** · 04-12-2008, 12:53 PM

Re: Let's talk about... Grand Theft Auto 4

Is it pathetic that I already switched days at work, changed my work out routine, and planned my finals schedule all around the release of this game?

**Hoos** · 04-12-2008, 01:00 PM

Re: Let's talk about... Grand Theft Auto 4

Originally posted by baumy300

Is it pathetic that I already switched days at work, changed my work out routine, and planned my finals schedule all around the release of this game?

Not pathetic at all!!! In fact, pretty brilliant

**gamelover13** · 04-12-2008, 04:28 PM

Re: Let's talk about... Grand Theft Auto 4

Would someone like to do this from OS?

http://boards.ign.com/grand_theft_auto/b5257/161063098/p1/?110

I was just looking around at the GTA board over at IGN and i found a pretty good idea. I don't wanna play online with people from IGN so i was hoping someone wanted to create a OS GTA account so we can see when people from OS are on. It would be a lot easier than setting up a game from here.

**chadskee** · 04-12-2008, 04:49 PM

Re: Let's talk about... Grand Theft Auto 4

Originally posted by gamelover13

Would someone like to do this from OS?

http://boards.ign.com/grand_theft_auto/b5257/161063098/p1/?110

I was just looking around at the GTA board over at IGN and i found a pretty good idea. I don't wanna play online with people from IGN so i was hoping someone wanted to create a OS GTA account so we can see when people from OS are on. It would be a lot easier than setting up a game from here.

I have a secondary account that I won't be using anymore so we can do it from there.

I will delete all of my friends I currently have on the account.

Account name is x Hazardous15 x. I could change to name to OS something or other once I get my 1600 points for my Halo 3 maps.

**gta95** · 04-12-2008, 05:07 PM

Re: Let's talk about... Grand Theft Auto 4

Thats a great idea.

**nyisles16** · 04-12-2008, 07:14 PM

Re: Let's talk about... Grand Theft Auto 4

Originally posted by chadskee

I have a secondary account that I won't be using anymore so we can do it from there.

I will delete all of my friends I currently have on the account.

Account name is x Hazardous15 x. I could change to name to OS something or other once I get my 1600 points for my Halo 3 maps.

yeah - someone did this at another board I belong too.. works good too.. just have to remember to add it to your friends list

**ProfessaPackMan** · 04-12-2008, 08:08 PM

Re: Let's talk about... Grand Theft Auto 4

What are ya'll doing to help you pass the time to 4/29?

**ProfessaPackMan** · 04-12-2008, 08:17 PM

Re: Let's talk about... Grand Theft Auto 4

IGN Good Cop/Bad Cop of GTA IV(Read At Your OWN Risk)

Good Cop, Bad Cop: GTA IV's Multiplayer

IGN AU tag-teams Rockstar's latest offering.

by Patch Kolan & Cam Shea<nobr>, IGN AU</nobr>

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Australia, April 11, 2008 - With everything that's been said, seen, speculated on and editorialised, I don't think anyone can dispute that Grand Theft Auto IV is destined for greatness. It's practically written in the stars. But one area that has remained puzzling and elusive has been the multiplayer component to the game. How does it work? What's the performance like? How does it control? Towering above all else, is it fun enough to pull you away from the assuredly awesome single-player story?

We're going to take a slightly different tack with our look at GTA IV's multiplayer; with a number of solid arguments for and against some of the game's decisions, we thought it might be cool to do a 'Good Cop, Bad Cop' discussion, with Cam taking the sour, embittered Bad Cop role and yours-truly taking the glowingly affirmative stance.

Who's right? Who's wrong? Honestly – you won't know until you play it.

But at least you won't have long to wait…

<hr align="center" width="80%">
<center>Controls

</center>
Good Cop Patch:

It's as good a place as any to begin, I think – how does it all control? Well, those expecting an over-the-top, arcadey experience will be surprised by the slow, deliberate and even heavy control scheme here.

Though we were assured it is possible to rocket-jump somehow (though, pointing a rocket behind you seems like it's more likely to just blow your arse through the top of your head), controlling your character feels very solid. Your running speed is realistic, and tapping A (on the 360 version) gives you a very minimal increase in speed. You can't turn on a dime anymore – your body has weight and you'll need time to slow down before you stop, which is probably important to remember when you're charging towards a cliff edge or the lip of a rooftop.

But the really impressive part of the controls? The aiming.

I found the left-trigger auto aim to be a fantastic feature. It seemed to speed up the gameplay – just lock on and start firing with the right-trigger. You can still cling to cover and blind-fire too. Plus, if you're really crafty, you can lock on and just tap the right-thumbstick upwards a tad to nail headshots. It just feels solid – and about as far-removed from even the PSP GTA multiplayer as can be.

The camera controls, on the other hand... not even I can fully defend that.

Climbing fences, jumping over rails, the ability set is nice and believable. And what better place to show that stuff off than in a strip club?


Bad Cop Cam:

Damn straight you can't defend the camera controls. Honestly, I thought battling with third-person cameras in action games went out with the Macarena. Okay, so the reality is that few open-world games get the system exactly right, but GTA IV's execution really doesn't feel smooth. Want to glance down a side street as you run past? You've got to really fight for it as the camera judders its way slowly to the side, repeatedly trying to switch forward. More often than not, you're better off not using the camera controls and instead just turning your character to face the way you want to see. It's resolutely old-school, and while everyone has the same disadvantage, there's just no reason for it to be this way. Saint's Row (a game that I really don't like in other respects) and Crackdown both have much better, smoother systems than this.

On the plus side, at least the game has a 180-degree turn system, even if it is a bit clunky (click in the right-stick to look behind then target with the left-trigger). I'd hate to think how long it would take to look behind you otherwise.

I'm also not a huge fan of the lock-on system. I understand that you kinda have to have one in there – multiplayer battles can take place over huge areas and it evens up the odds when you can target someone coming towards you in a car or other vehicle, but in deathmatch especially, we kept having these shootouts where everyone was just strafing or diving about in streets, all locked on to each other, with the person with the biggest gun, or the most health inevitably winning. Sure, the cover system works well, but more often than not – unless you take up cover well ahead of a firefight – it's going to be a disadvantage trying to use it. Unless cover is right next to you you'll end up getting capped if you try to make your way to cover, meaning that the best tactic is often stand and deliver.

Good Cop Patch:

Erm, people are locking-on, driving and shooting with big, nasty guns – to score kills, no less – is kind of how third-person multiplayer games work, Cam! You can't really hold that against the game; it's the nature of the beast.

Bad Cop Cam:

Thought you'd get the last word in eh? Go to hell. Oh, and I HATE VIDEOGAMES!

**ProfessaPackMan** · 04-12-2008, 08:18 PM

Re: Let's talk about... Grand Theft Auto 4

Page 2

<center>Visuals and Sound

</center>
Good Cop Patch:

Okay, a small concession – the multiplayer game doesn't hold a candle to the single player game, visually. Or if it does, that candle is dim, fuzzy and kind of obstructs your view a little bit.

I love the animation – mostly generated on-the-fly through Euphoria. Watching a corpse crumple lifelessly as you administer the kill-shot is gloriously gruesome. The maps, which are really just sections of the city, are enormous and lovingly detailed. However, I need to put on my 'not-so-Good Cop' hat on for a minute. The depth-of-field blur effect is far too heavily applied to the multiplayer game. Everything that is more than 50 feet down the street from you starts to pixelate and distort strangely, as if filtered through a haze of tiny droplets of vegetable oil.

Now, putting my Good Cop hat back on, I'm going to go ahead and justify the filter-overkill. The framerate is mostly stable, given the amount of action going on on-screen, and the environment is still populated with loads of cars and pedestrians – all of which can be increased or decreased in density before each game. Without that filter-blur, I'm guessing the engine would struggle to keep up, and nothing's less fun than a choppy multiplayer game.

The sound, on the other hand, is brilliant. I actually took time out to experiment with the radio stations, accessible in-car on the D-pad, and the range and quality is fantastic (as it has been in previous games in the series). The talk-back station was just as hilarious as it was stingingly insightful at times.

Listening to pedestrians scream at you, cuss you out and interact with each other is also startling. Most of what is spoken is reactive to what you're doing in the game. Then there's your customary explosions, rattling gunfire and creaking thuds of car collisions. It's all there; it's all good. Cam?

The very definition of 'just friends spooning'.


Bad Cop Cam:

Way to muddy the waters of our roles here Patch. Why don't I just start talking about how I think puppy dogs are the cutest things on the face of the planet and if I could be reborn as anything it would be as a Care Bear? Well I'm not going to do that, but I will say that the highlight of the audio in our time with the game was the sound effects of the rockets. There's just nothing like the whistle of impending doom as a rocket blazes its way towards you… generally followed by an epic explosion and my lifeless body spinning through the air and onto a nearby roof.

Oh, and who the hell wants a Good Cop hat? I've got a Bad Cop codpiece and it's bright red (think Cameo's Word Up film clip) and bad-***. I must say, I agree that the multiplayer visuals are a step down from the single player. Where the single player game basically left my jaw dragging on the ground, multiplayer was more underwhelming. It could be the depth-of-field, it could be the HDTVs we were playing on, or it could just be a number of small compromises that were made to ensure the game ran smoothly. Regardless, despite some lovely lighting effects and an architecturally diverse city-scape, I wasn't blown away. And there were a few moments where the game chugged slightly too. Mostly when cars were piling up and exploding, choppers were hovering ahead and a heap of stuff was going on.

There's also a bit of a trade-off between what looks good and what plays well. Remember that industrial area we were all battling in with rockets? It looked very cool, with all these metal walkways weaving in and around one another on multiple levels, but it was a pain to traverse on foot (basically the only option in the area) and if you happen to spawn away from everyone else it could take upwards of a minute to trudge over to the nearest firefight. Ah well. Guess this leads in nicely to a discussion of the weapons. What did you think of our rockets-only battle, Patch?

**ProfessaPackMan** · 04-12-2008, 08:19 PM

Re: Let's talk about... Grand Theft Auto 4

Page 3

<center>Weapons

</center>
Good Cop Patch:

Rockets-only multiplayer games are always good for a lark. I didn't have a problem with the industrial level – you could bail over the railing at any time with a tap of a button (sending you into a cool defensive roll on impact, by the way), so it's not like you're trapped or anything. And as for the size – what, you want a small arena with eight people running around, firing rockets at each other? I can see a two-seconds-of-play-per-respawn getting pretty old, pretty quickly. /end snarkiness.

Zipping, swirling rockets aside, I thought the weapon balance was pretty good – particularly in terms of distance accuracy. The humble pistol, which was the first weapon we used, had a solid feel to it; a nice, fast reload, combined with good accuracy when kneeling.

The MP5-style submachine gun kind of reminded me of the KLOBB from GoldenEye of all things – a lot of rattling noise, but not a lot of punch in the end. But the AK-47 – now that's a gang-bangin', thug-plugger I can sink my teeth into. That thing had a decent amount of zoom (click in the right thumbstick), but was hugely accurate. I remember plugging a few rounds into a family-van a fair way up the street, locking onto the driver as I did so. It only took a few bursts to take down the driver, spraying the interior with blood and leaving the wagon to roll into the curb.

Do vehicles count as weapons? Why not. There are few things more satisfying than getting behind a heavy-metal American roadster, bringing the V8 or V12 or V72 engine up to a serious click and then slamming straight into some poor schmuck who's standing in the middle of the street, looking the wrong way. Like Cam.

I believe this is the incident Patch was talking about. I walked away from it... what with videogames not being real and all.


Bad Cop Cam:

****. In order for this to sound negative I'm going to have to write this entire response with the heaviest of heavy sarcasm. Here goes. I hated the weapons in this game. I hated the way you can't lock-on with the rocket launcher, thereby evening up the odds between rockets and less powerful weapons. I hated firing a rocket from an overpass fifty metres ahead of a speeding car, seeing it hit the ground just as the car arrived, sending a flaming ball of automated death flipping down the road.

That sucked.

I hated discovering that knife fighting was more than just running at someone and hammering the trigger, that instead there were a few different options. It was awful riding shotgun on a manic high speed pursuit through winding city streets, blazing away on the car in front until a lucky shot capped the driver in the head and it careened into a wall. I also really disliked trying to grab the sniper rifle and camping out beyond the other players' lock-on range. Actually, I did dislike that, but mostly because I had no luck.

**ProfessaPackMan** · 04-12-2008, 08:19 PM

Re: Let's talk about... Grand Theft Auto 4

Page 4

<center>Depth

</center>
Good Cop Patch:

Oooh, stinging sarcasm! What, is this opposites-day or something? If you liked it, that's, y'know, okay to admit. We all know it's hard to dislike this game, Camwise. And, erm, way to open yourself up to a whole lot of criticism from readers who don't understand sarcasm, either. *takes cover*

Though our time was running out, I did sneak a glance at some of the options on offer. Looks like you can tinker with weather, traffic density, crowd density, police presence, weapon types, location, personal character designs, friendly fire on/off, difficulty (in co-op missions mode), vehicle classes in races and respawn distance.

Sheesh.

For a subset feature, GTA IV has depth. It's got depth like Cam's got red hair. Honestly, it's probably more fully-featured than we deserve, at this point. I mean, who can honestly say they're picking up GTA IV for the multilplayer alone? So my fedora is off to Rockstar. They've gone beyond the call of duty for this one (though, not beyond Call of Duty, if you know what I mean).

Given the scale of the city, it looks to me like you could have dozens of different zones to play in, too, so there's no shortage on variety.

First person to leap out of a helicopter and kill someone by landing on their head wins our everlasting admiration.


Badly Wavering Something Cop Cam:

Okay, okay. Damn you Kolan. I might as well bite the bullet and say that while there are aspects of GTA IV's multiplayer that got up my nose a little, it's very solid on the whole and a great inclusion. We were taken through basically the same modes as the US guys (you can read their mode-by-mode impressions here), but there were plenty more lurking on the menu, so even after you've finished the single player game there's going to be a lot of content to be going on with.

And as always with this series, no matter which mode you're in or what part of the city you're causing mayhem through, you're never short on options. Why run when you can drive? Why drive when you can take a helicopter? Why arrive at your destination by landing when you could bail out from high above the city and watch the crunching impact? It's going to be a blast exploring all the tweakable options, learning to exploit the cover system to its full potential and even getting some serious teamwork happening in the team-based modes and co-op style missions.

At the end of the day, the multiplayer is as much a water cooler experience as the single player ever was in previous games, and this time it's in the most dense, interesting city yet portrayed by Rockstar. A city that still feels alive with traffic and pedestrians, even while sixteen people are blowing the living hell out of each other. Oh, and the network code? A thumbs-up from us. We were playing eight player on Xbox Live and had absolutely no lag.

You may now officially consider GTA IV even more of an essential purchase.

**chadskee** · 04-12-2008, 08:28 PM

Re: Let's talk about... Grand Theft Auto 4

I don't even have the energy to read GTA articles anymore. I just have to wait it out now.

**Munkey** · 04-12-2008, 09:18 PM

Re: Let's talk about... Grand Theft Auto 4

Originally posted by chadskee

I don't even have the energy to read GTA articles anymore. I just have to wait it out now.

lol same

**ProfessaPackMan** · 04-13-2008, 01:12 AM

Re: Let's talk about... Grand Theft Auto 4

16 More Days...

**Beantown** · 04-13-2008, 11:21 AM

Re: Let's talk about... Grand Theft Auto 4

Originally posted by chadskee

I don't even have the energy to read GTA articles anymore. I just have to wait it out now.

Yup. I haven't read anything on it in the past few days.

Grand Theft Auto IV

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