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Is anyone else getting stuck on the loading screen? Three times I have powered up the PS3 to play GTA it goes though the pictures, then it can't get past the black Loading - Whatever level. Any ideas?
 
Well MRU at least you live to tell the tail huh....but did you reach the top...was it worth it?

Buffalo: disable your PS3 internet connection....GTA IV(PS3 Version I don't whats wrong with the 360 version) is locking up and freezing because the game is trying to reach the server but R* servers are messed up right now....just disconnect from PSN.



Bless
 
Well MRU at least you live to tell the tail huh....but did you reach the top...was it worth it?

Oh man I'm sore today ... Yea we made it to the peak, as for worth it ? No it really wasn't as it was not enjoyable, it was just 9 hours of torture because of the severe weather conditions.
 
Well, after days of playing, I finally found my first pigeon today, by the statue of happiness. Damn, it will be damn near impossible to find all 200 of those buggers...
 
Well, after days of playing, I finally found my first pigeon today, by the statue of happiness. Damn, it will be damn near impossible to find all 200 of those buggers...


Played the game for an hour or so today and I have yet to find a single pigeon either.

Is it me or are there not as many stunt chance places in this game ? I know I'm still early on (spoiler only just killed vlad and started working for his boss) but this part of the city doesn't seem to have many ramps or anything ? Or am I missing somthing big time ?
 
Played the game for an hour or so today and I have yet to find a single pigeon either.

Is it me or are there not as many stunt chance places in this game ? I know I'm still early on (spoiler only just killed vlad and started working for his boss) but this part of the city doesn't seem to have many ramps or anything ? Or am I missing somthing big time ?

I think there's supposed to be 50 total in the whole game. So far, I have found 3. They're a little more cleverly hidden, not the obvious "oh look someone built a ramp here" from the previous games.
 
I've been pretty dissapointed too. On the first island you're on there's a couple up near the middle above the highway near the water I think. Then there's one on the main road on the Long Island. That's been it for me.

Crackdown really ruined this series for me. If they could have a love-child I'd be happy. Actually a GTA/Crackdown/Ass Creed...that'd be nice. The style of GTA, realism and fluidity of AssCreed and then the challenges and ramps and stuff from Crackdown. Perfect...but probably get all the bugs of all those series :D

I'm a bit let down on the drive around doing nothing side of the game so far...was expecting something more enjoyable...

Paul
 
Found a bug on the 360 version- Went onto an island I hadn't unlocked yet and ran around the subway section, fell into some pit and ended up back on the surface, only buildings no longer loaded up. Could see roads and cars. Then the 360 crashed!
 
Crackdown really ruined this series for me. If they could have a love-child I'd be happy.l

Yeah Crackdown really was fun and the rewards for exploration were truly excellent. It made you scour every part of the world top and bottom.


Other thing bugging me about GTA4 (unlike GTA San Andrea's and even Saints Row) is the lack of control over the physical look of the central protagonist.

Sure you can buy crappy clothes, but it doesn't stop him looking podgy with his beer belly and stubble.

Surely running miles and miles around a city and being ultra active has to count for something ? Heck does buying food in this version make any difference either ? Seems like were going backwards in regards to character customisation in this version way too much for a 'next gen' game.
 
So I have played the game for quite some time now, but am still clueless as to why the Islands are blocked off story-wise. I think I missed it during the radio sequences. Could someone tell me the backstory to why the Islands are blocked off? (BTW, I have only 1 island left to "unlock")
 
So I have played the game for quite some time now, but am still clueless as to why the Islands are blocked off story-wise. I think I missed it during the radio sequences. Could someone tell me the backstory to why the Islands are blocked off? (BTW, I have only 1 island left to "unlock")

The jist I got from the radio was that its an anti-terrorism measure. I've just unlocked the middle island but haven't played enough to catch a reason for it on the radio.
 
I almost smashed this disk last night. Was on a really stupid, easy mission. But it required you to drive all the way across "long island". Get there kill a guy fleeing from the arcade. Easy enough. Except stupid crap would happen and he'd get away. Then I'd have to reload, get another car, drive all the way there again, chase him again and then have something stupid happen. They really, really need mini saves once you've gathered info and driven somewhere...its not realism it's tedium.

As is most of this f****** game. Sure it's good and realistic. But to keep up relationship with LJ recently I had to drive back to the old island and take his stupid a## to a strip club. Can't it just have me picking him up a bit of dialogue in the car and we can skip and be there and vice versa for the return? And getting in and out of safe houses, etc...do we really need to run up and down stairs. Don't get me started on the level where you take a window cleaning lift up to the top floor...up and down!

Next Gen games seem to promote and tolerate tedium as part of the "realistic atmosphere". Like AssCreed having to run down a mountain at the start of every level. Stupid. Big open environments mean lots of running around pointlessly. So your 24 hour game became 12 hours of actually playing something, 6 hours of cheesy dialogue, and 6 hours of travelling somewhere. If you're lucky. Eternal Sonata was like 20 hours for me...5 of gameplay that was interesting and involving, 10 hours of horrible writing, and 5 hours of walking in a linear line.

Do we have more of this kind of tedium to look forward to?

Paul
 
I almost smashed this disk last night. Was on a really stupid, easy mission. But it required you to drive all the way across "long island". Get there kill a guy fleeing from the arcade. Easy enough. Except stupid crap would happen and he'd get away. Then I'd have to reload, get another car, drive all the way there again, chase him again and then have something stupid happen. They really, really need mini saves once you've gathered info and driven somewhere...its not realism it's tedium.

As is most of this f****** game. Sure it's good and realistic. But to keep up relationship with LJ recently I had to drive back to the old island and take his stupid a## to a strip club. Can't it just have me picking him up a bit of dialogue in the car and we can skip and be there and vice versa for the return? And getting in and out of safe houses, etc...do we really need to run up and down stairs. Don't get me started on the level where you take a window cleaning lift up to the top floor...up and down!

Next Gen games seem to promote and tolerate tedium as part of the "realistic atmosphere". Like AssCreed having to run down a mountain at the start of every level. Stupid. Big open environments mean lots of running around pointlessly. So your 24 hour game became 12 hours of actually playing something, 6 hours of cheesy dialogue, and 6 hours of travelling somewhere. If you're lucky. Eternal Sonata was like 20 hours for me...5 of gameplay that was interesting and involving, 10 hours of horrible writing, and 5 hours of walking in a linear line.

Do we have more of this kind of tedium to look forward to?

Paul

Take a cab. You can skip the driving that way and it isn't that expensive.

P-Worm
 
There is the cab and subway/train. The subway is not as convenient, as I can't figure out the lines and stations (they could have included an over lay on the map specific to subway lines), but that is realistic at least.

Ramps and stunt areas are very well hidden and not as common as before (at least at the stage I am on, 22% - not had much time, plus did a lot of cruising). But I don't get the comparison to Crackdown and Saintsrow, both these games had MAJOR flaws, and just a few positives, but suddenly everyone's holding them up against GTAIV as gold nuggets. Maybe its a backlash from the perfect 10/10 most reviewers are giving it, I don't know. However, IMO, GTAIV excels so far, not just in story, or the technology, but also in the emotive response - it actually makes me want to be a 'good citizen' in Liberty City - I sometimes break a few traffic laws, but I don't go gunning everyone down and I even stop at red lights (only sometimes mind you), and thats a great thing. That IMO is so much more beyond completing missions and collecting 10000/10000 stars, etc. You can be as good or as bad as you want to be, and this is not in the usual "do I kill target X at the end of a mission or not" (although that is also there), such as in other games.

Sure, everyone's got different expectations from their games, so just wanted to throw in my 2 euro cents : D

BTW, is it me or is MP still broken on PSN, tried to log onto GTA Race, but there was no one playing it last night.
 
Can you take taxis on the friendship missions? A lot of these say get in your car and take such and such to a certain place. Didn't seem to say you could get a cab. Would be nice when you have to take them to a club and have no control over your character getting drunk or not. Or the missions where you need to immediately chase someone down after the cutscene? I know you CAN take taxis, but it's also a pain at times.

But the bigger point is how much travel gets dumped on us these days in games. Let's not forget the king of all...World Of Walking. I never made it too deep in that game, because I don't need to walk my stupid character around all the time to feel like I'm emersed in a game. Even when you took the stupid flight paths...sit and wait. Stupid. Waste of my time. As an adult gamer who sometimes will only have 30 min- 1 hour gaming time a night...I don't want to spend it freaking going to a mission...I want to play the damn mission.

Crackdown had bugs, but was really good for a first entry into the field. And the things they did right, they did really well. I've never played GTA for the story, but for the goofing around. They've made that less enjoyable than any other one I've played. And that's not because of the 10/10 rating. That's because I can get away from a 3star chase in 10 seconds seems like, no ramps, no building scaling, no great rooftop areas for motorbiking, etc. In focusing on their "epic story" I think they let down in some other areas. They succeeded in making a GTA that I'll play the story of...but ruined it for the pick up and play game it used to be for me on the old Xbox.

Paul
 
But I don't get the comparison to Crackdown and Saintsrow

One is by the orignial creator of GTA series and the other is basically GTA without the name ? Why is it so hard to get the comparison :rolleyes:

Saintsrow had its flaws, but it did a lot of things right too and some aspects were far better than GTA IV is doing them. I like to have complete control over MY character in a game, customisation of them to the ninth degree at least makes me feel like they are MY character and not someone elses. In 2008 and with the biggest franchise now on our doorstep with it's big next gen installment, it's pretty weak that we have no control over him in this regard. San Andreas had it and therefore it is a back step taking it out.

With NIKO your playing Rockstars Character.. not your own.

Is that so hard to understand ?
 
I didn't like the micro-management in San Andreas. I thought that was taking things too far for customisation in that it alters how the character plays. I skipped all the keeping fit minigames but I did like how you could change clothes and hair. Granted I'm not far into GTA IV but going off vids I've seen all you can change are your clothes.

And on the other extreme I thought Crackdown played way too much like an arcade game and the city felt very empty compared to the GTA series.

Anyroad I'm kinda bored of GTA IV now. I've given it my best shot and I'm just bored doing missions. Back to San Andreas and Vice City for me :eek:
 
With NIKO your playing Rockstars Character.. not your own.

I think thats the point R* is going for......I thought saints row/GTA:SA was too loose with all of that fodder...ES: Oblivion GTA is not. I like how GTAIV tightens everything up basically putting you in the shoes of this immigrant trying to survive.

I think its a plus not having to micro manage this guy.....I even hate going through the trouble in changing his garments.

Note: I thought crackdown was a big "meh" but I'm not a fan of sandbox games.


Bless
 
i too heard that a lot of people didn't like all that micromanagement of SA... i think it was more market decision than a design one .. after all they want to keep a more casual appeal for players who just play in stints and lots of micromanagment can be off-putting to such players

(i really like micromanagement that's why i'm addicted to hearts of iron 2, and silent hunter 4 again)
 
I was not a fan of the treadmill or weightlifting mini games in SA, it was a big drag for me, so that is why I see it rather positively that they didn't include it in IV. I mean if your complaining about the traveling to missions, where is the difference spending time lifting weights? At least the driving is more enjoyable - and on in this installment you can bypass it with ease. And as far as I can remember, R* stated it wanted to tighten up the game.

The thing about Crackdown/Saintsrow that is that its all the bits and pieces of GTA, but without the flair, set in an unappealing world - super cops looking like brutes jumping from building to building/ or driving and gunning, etc.

HI2 is a crazy game, I would have loved to get into it but it was too much micro. SH4 is actually less micro compared SH3, but great game too. Das Boot!!
 
Hey everyone. Just a quick question; I plan on buying either a PS3 or XB360 just to play GTA IV, is there any difference in graphics? My understanding was that the PS3 was marginally more powerful, but has GTA been coded with the same quality for both systems?

PS. with regards to the customization debate, I really liked that aspect of San Andreas. One thing lacking was steroids, that would have been sweet.
 
Does anybody know what to do with all the cash?

I have about $53000 gained but what the hell do I use it for? How I wish it were real cash. I can't give it away in this game.
 
Hey everyone. Just a quick question; I plan on buying either a PS3 or XB360 just to play GTA IV, is there any difference in graphics? My understanding was that the PS3 was marginally more powerful, but has GTA been coded with the same quality for both systems?

PS. with regards to the customization debate, I really liked that aspect of San Andreas. One thing lacking was steroids, that would have been sweet.

In a nutshell.

360- Higher resolution. DLC. Live integration & achievements
PS3- Rendering enhancement. Allegedly upcoming Home support.
 
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