GTA IV.. A GTA Clone?

[Dog--]

After playing GTA4 for a little bit, I realized they took out alot of good stuff and replaced it all with pointless gimmicks..

You can't customize your look, your clothes yes, but barely, they all look pretty much the same (although I've only been to 2 clothing shops, so I may be wrong)

Sure, you can break into cars now, woo...

They took out car customization.. why. Oh sure, I can get thousands upon thousands of dollars from a mission, so what will I spend it on?

Maybe I'll get a simple haircut! no wait...

Maybe I can pimp out my car with hydraulics and some other sweet shit! no.

Maybe I could buy someone else's car! Or I could steal it.

Maybe I can get my guy fat buying ten thousand burgers.. no. He can't change physical appearance any more..

Maybe I'll go work on my weapons skills so I shoot a bit more accurately.. I can't?

damn, maybe I'll go make my guy buff and learn some new moves.. no? ****.

It's ok though, they improved the melee combat! oh wait, everyone has guns.. Oh well, I'm sure I can spar with some guy at a boxing ring or something.. nope.

Guess I'll have to kill a bunch of civilians - yes! oh wait, kill one and instantly have to get rid of the cops... Even if none are around.. Even if the guy doesn't die..

Oh, hold on, the computers! Police computers and the internet oh what fun! For about 10 minutes.. No online games, no good stuff really, atleast I can buy ring tones for my phone.. For a hundred bucks a piece.. I guess that's what I can spend my money on..

Oh hold on, hold on, we can watch TV, yes! It actually IS entertaining! Too bad they only play a total of around 10 shows.. over and over and over.. I'd rather be playing the real game then sitting there watching TV tbh. It is a nice thing to have, but I'd give it up for car mods any day.

The list of small improvements goes on, and yes, they are all very cool, and a nice touch, but what do they add on to?

This honestly doesn't really feel like a GTA game, I can't say what it is, but compared to all the other games, it just doesn't feel like a GTA game.. Maybe it's your guys' background, he's basically an awesome bad-ass action hero, laughs at torture, lightning quick reflexes, very good solder, fighter, etc.. That's not how a no good criminal is supposed to be like! Look at CJ, he started as a skinny no-one. All the GTA characters started as nobodies, except in #1 and #2, those don't really count though..

Don't get me wrong, GTA4 is a great game, and I'll no doubt continue playing it, and I know you all love it, but you guys just bought it. Really look at the game and you'll soon realize how much content was stripped to make the game 'realistic'..


P.S. - The soundtrack is no where NEAR as good as ANY of the other GTA games.

I also realized the quality went down, yet that's exactly when they added multiplayer.. I just made a thread on how multiplayer is ruining single player games, too.

 

[Que-Ever]

I think they're holding on to good stuff for expansions.

 

[Dog--]

Hold on, there is expansions? I thought they were just releasing new episodes? Which, to me, sounded like new missions.. I may be wrong on this whole thread if they are actually adding new content with these episodes.

I'm not being sarcastic, either, I'm serious.

 

[Ol'Master]

The majority of the features you mentioned are San Andreas specific, I would hardly say removing them makes them feel less 'GTAish'. I found the RPG elements pretty tedious, and I never modded cars, but I can see your point. To be honest I thought things like 'you can get fat if you eat too much', hair style, learning melee moves that don't really help the game much etc. more gimmicky than what's in GTA4.

Soundtrack is quite subjective, but I like it. And I'm pretty sure I've killed quite a few civilians and no one's 'raised the alarm', as it were.

 

[Dog--]

I found that those things were the evolution of GTA, each game they added a bit more, and more, and more, and it just seemed really odd to me that for the newest, supposedly greatest one, they took all the fun stuff out.

I mean, if you're just playing to beat it, then you don't need anything besides the story, but I always like to cruise around in a cool looking hot rod or something, listening to some good tunes, and, should the moment arise, start some havoc. This one is alot different, it just doesn't feel the same.

 

[Que-Ever]

Don't get excited, I actually have no idea. But they had expansions for all the other games, right?

 

[Hectic Glenn]

All the eating system things, modding cars, fitness crap in the last game I detested. It took away so much time when all you wanted to do was sandbox and enjoy the game with mates. It really wound me up and I hated SA for it, Vice City was my true love. I think lots of people felt this way so they dropped all those RPG elements, which is fantastic. It was TEDIOUS, don't you remember!?

Adding hydraulics to your car? What!? I'd own a car 3 minutes maximum then trash it to pieces, you actually modded cars? I think we are coming from very different perspectives here. Regardless...I'm happy they've been removed for GTAIV, I prefer it like this.

 

[AmishSlayer]

All the eating system things, modding cars, fitness crap in the last game I detested. It took away so much time when all you wanted to do was sandbox and enjoy the game with mates. It really wound me up and I hated SA for it, Vice City was my true love. I think lots of people felt this way so they dropped all those RPG elements, which is fantastic. It was TEDIOUS, don't you remember!?

Adding hydraulics to your car? What!? I'd own a car 3 minutes maximum then trash it to pieces, you actually modded cars? I think we are coming from very different perspectives here. Regardless...I'm happy they've been removed for GTAIV, I prefer it like this.

Exactly.

They purposely took out all the elements you're complaining about Dog-- because they and many fans didn't like them at all. In an interview they said that they didn't like how everybody was so focused on themselves - so they toned it down to clothing choices and added a lot more character interaction which is infinitely better.

Previous GTA games were filled with stereotypical bosses and douchebags that nobody cared one bit about. GTA IV has some characters you really come to care about.

It sounds like you WANTED a GTA clone and not a great advance in the GTA franchise.

It's ok though, they improved the melee combat! oh wait, everyone has guns.. Oh well, I'm sure I can spar with some guy at a boxing ring or something.. nope.

Guess I'll have to kill a bunch of civilians - yes! oh wait, kill one and instantly have to get rid of the cops... Even if none are around.. Even if the guy doesn't die..

These two are flat-out false.

 

[taviow]

Though I didn't play GTA IV yet, it was good news for me that they took some of the RPG stuff out. I didn't really like San Andreas that much because of that, the best one I played so far is Vice City. But I agree that modding cars should at least be in the game for people who actually... mod cars. I, like Glenn said, don't keep a car for 5 minutes without trashing it, but there's many people who like to take care of modded cars, so there was no point of taking that out.

 

[Krynn72]

From the list in the OP, it just sounds like they CUT a lot of the gimmicky San Andreas shit out of GTA IV.

 

[mastag]

The rap station in this game is the best in the series, if you like rap.

But yeah, that's the only radio station I listen to, besides integrity for Lazlow. I'm not really into the other 2 talk stations.

I'm glad I don't have to waste time eating and working out in gtaIV. That bugged me in SA.

Also, screw you, multiplayer is fantastic.(<3)

 

[Ren.182]

I agree with Glenn and Amish here.

I HATED the RPG elements in SA. It just made me feel like I was playing the sims rather than a GTA game.

I never modded my cars, tried it once to see what it was like, it was pretty good and a lot of stuffwas customisable. But you drive out of the garage and crash... your rides ruined, just seemed like a waste of time to me. The nitrous was kinda helpful for mission where you had to chase someone, but thats about it.

I guess the modding cars stuff was taken out due to space restrictions on the Xbox's disks. And it would be a lot of work to implement.

And I've killed plenty of people without the cops coming after me, just depends if theres a cop there to see it happen, or if any of the peds actually bother to report the crime.

 

[Zeus]

The melee combat is really good, and not everyone has a gun. One time some guy on the street punched me and I fought him, then I pulled out a gun and he's like "He's got a gun!!" and took off running. Also the flying through windshield thing is hilarious, my dad watched and couldn't stop laughing when I flew through my cars windshield after a high speed, head on collision, and did about 4 or 5 flips and traveled a distance of a couple hundred feet.

San Andreas was great, but GTA4 doesn't really need a lot of the features of San andreas. I don't see why changing the characters haircut is so important, I think I might have done it like once in san andreas. But I agree with you on the thing about the cops in the game. Like I shove some guy on the street by accident, he assaults me so I punch him in the face, next thing I know the cops are chasing me. Yet I could be driving at triple digit speeds on the wrong side of the road and they won't care (as long as I stop to pay the $5 bridge toll, LOL). As far as car modding goes, I actually never used it in SA, except to try out the nitrous once or twice. You spend all kinds of money pimping out your car, then crash it in like 5 secs and its gone.

 

[Sainku]

I thought the car customization aspect in san andreas was pretty pointless, and the rpg aspects were actually annoying. I do wish I could still purchase properties, but it wouldn't make much sense in the context of the story, which along with the basic gameplay has been much improved making this one the best GTA so far in my opinion.

 

[TwwIX]

Don't get me wrong, i love all of the titles.To be honest though, most of the features in San Andreas were way over the top and a distraction.
The RPG aspects were nothing but a chore and a time waster.The haircuts included.Although i miss the car customization they had no real bearing on the overall game play.After all, this a reinvention of the entire series just like GTA 3 was.The overall look and feel of this game is much more realistic then any of the previous titles were.

 

[Asus]

They just took the trash out to give the game a little more focus.

 

[Kadayi]

When people talk about the GTA series they refer to them as 'Open World games' but I'd actually argue 'Open World' gaming is merely another form of RPG, not that dissimilar to that found in 3D RPGs such as Morrowind, KotoR or Jade Empire, but unlike those games the rewards system (the player experience) is all externalized in the game space and resultant in your continued progress and investigations. You don't get more hit points in GTAIII or VC as you do the missions, but you gain access to better tools and newer locations. Just as you tend not to find the nifty gear in Morrowind unless you hunt around, the same is true in the GTA games (consider the whole packages shindig). Stalker operates in a similar space.

I think after the critical success of Vice City (GTA III was very much the testing grounds imho) Rockstar recognized this RPG aspect themselves, and felt they wanted to add more depth to their future games. The decision to introduce internal characteristics such as Strength, Stamina and competences such as Flying and Swimming may have been made as resultant of a desire to add that degree of depth in order to ape what other RPGs do, or (and more likely imho) they'd pretty much pushed the renderware engine to it's limits in terms of the externalised experience with Vice City (save game world size), and personal characteristics was the only way to go.

Although the introduction of personal statistics and skills did add depth to the game play, it didn't really add to the playing experience in a positive way and often turned the game into a boring time sink at times were you had to go level up to complete a task. Personally I recall having to waste a good hour or so having CJ endlessly diving to the ocean floor and back again in order to build up his 'holding breathe' statistic because it's a prerequisite for one of Woozies missions, and up until then there had never been a necessity for me to use it to any great degree. Save to impress the girlfriends there didn't seem much necessity to get fat or get buff, and both the working out and the binge eating were cumbersome tasks. The clothes shops were particularly tedious in terms of mechanics as well.

GTAIV it's clear that Rockstar have addressed the criticisms, dropping the irrelevant features and streamlining the relevant.

 

[Sparta]

Yeah i think pretty much everyone in this thread disagrees with you dog, sorry.

I love that they dropped all the pointless elements like having to eat and go to the gym and all that jazz. It was a chore more than anything else and wasn't enjoyable in the least.

 

[Dalamari]

Wait for the DLC

 

[Kadayi]

Wait for the DLC

I think they'll use the DLC to add in more content (and probably patch a few issues) but I'd be surprised if they bring back the barber shops etc. It never made much sense that you could go from Skinhead to Afro in San Andreas tbh.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Stop thinking of it as GTA: San Andreas vs. GTA IV in terms of expectations. It's the next generation, and the detail has taken a huge leap forward. Think of it in terms of GTA III vs. GTA IV, and look to the inevitable spin-offs from this one to make those kind of additions (and, hopefully, more).

Also, as others have said, not everyone liked those things.

I do agree with you on one point though - making the melee combat better was ****ing pointless when you only use it in the first 2 or 3 missions.

Edit - Niko is a very static character, that's how they intended it, that's how they built the game. That's why there are no gyms or barbers and why all of the clothes follow a similar trend and don't look too outrageous. It's all in service to the plot and the sense of investment in the character, and if you ask me it paid off. If I want any of those things, I'll play the Sims. (which I won't)

 

[The Monkey]

The Sims is awesome.

 

[Kadayi]

The Sims is awesome.

Yeah I wouldn't be too hard on the Sims. Without Will Wright dreaming up the whole wants and needs mechanisms for Sims, we wouldn't be seeing the more dynamic AI we find in games like Oblivion or Stalker. Sure they might have their own names for it such as Radiant AI or A-life, but it's all a rip on his original ideas.

 

[99.vikram]

You can't customize your look, your clothes yes, but barely, they all look pretty much the same (although I've only been to 2 clothing shops, so I may be wrong)

Maybe I'll get a simple haircut! no wait...

Maybe I can pimp out my car with hydraulics and some other sweet shit! no.

Maybe I can get my guy fat buying ten thousand burgers.. no. He can't change physical appearance any more..

Maybe I'll go work on my weapons skills so I shoot a bit more accurately.. I can't?

damn, maybe I'll go make my guy buff and learn some new moves.. no? ****.

^Thank God Rockstar got rid of that garbage.

 

[MFD00M]

Amen.

 

[Tagaziel]

Previous GTA games were filled with stereotypical bosses and douchebags that nobody cared one bit about. GTA IV has some characters you really come to care about.

Lance Vance.

Now shut up.

As for the thread... if you haven't yet realized it, GTA IV is the GTA III of the new engine. We'll get a remade Vice City and San Andreas afterwards.

 

[AmishSlayer]

Lance Vance.

Now shut up.

As for the thread... if you haven't yet realized it, GTA IV is the GTA III of the new engine. We'll get a remade Vice City and San Andreas afterwards.

Who is Lance Vance? I don't remember him at all.

 

[Krynn72]

Who is Lance Vance? I don't remember him at all.

Oh come on.

 

[AmishSlayer]

Oh come on.

I haven't played the game since its release which was SIX YEARS ago :|

After wiki'ing some background on him I kind of remember him. It seems like he was a Scarface ripoff bitch-boy.

 

[knut]

Previous GTA characters haven't got shit on anyone I've been in contact with so far. I think the main reason is simply because you actually interact more with the characters in a not-so-2D way as someone like Tommy did, and also that the mission videos aren't just you getting a mission - it's often that you actually have a in-depth conversation with the person about other characters, you, your history, etc.

 

[ericms]

I'm actually quoting this from /v/

Anyone who doesn't think GTAIV makes all the other GTA games look like utter shit in comparison simply lacks the maturity and integrity to play and experience the game anywhere beyond "LOL JUMPIN OFFA BUILDINZ." Which by the way, is also superior to do in 4.

You're insanely materialistic and don't know how to really enjoy videogames if you gave two shits about not being able to give your character a pink afro, or make him fat. GTAIV has a GOOD story, and core gameplay far superior to San Andreas, from driving physics to gunplay to general non-car activities. GTAIV is retardedly smoother and more fun than SA was.

So stop bawwing about not being able to ride bicicles and planes, and go out and buy GTAIV, because really, it's the first GTA game that actually feels like an enjoyable videogame, and not just something you spend $50 to drive around getting lost in unnecessarily large deserts and killing cops with the same death animations over and over again.

 

[Kadayi]

As for the thread... if you haven't yet realized it, GTA IV is the GTA III of the new engine. We'll get a remade Vice City and San Andreas afterwards.

That's not entirely true. Liberty City in GTA III was pretty much an amalgam of a number of diferent places rather than specifically a reference to New York. This time around Liberty City is much more focussed in that respect.

As for Vice City and San Andreas being replicated/repeated, Rockstar haven't really given too much away about future expansions. I wouldn't be surprised if they tackled San Andreas again simply because California has a place in peoples collective consciousness through Films and TV (there aren't many Cities in the world that possess such universal identification), but I'd expect them to focus the story in a much more detailed version of Los Santos/LA rather than extending the game out to San Ferro and Las Venturas as before.

 

[Sulkdodds]

I have to say I really enjoyed the RPG elements in San Andreas, and loved a lot of the more ridiculous stuff, but with the additions of a complex and special story, massively enhanced social interaction, a livinger world, a sudden new turn towards realism and MULTIPLAYER (no new innovations here!), I really don't think I'll miss the burgers much.

 

[Dog--]

I'm actually quoting this from /v/

Except I never said the game sucks, in fact I said it was a really good game, I just think they shouldn't have excluded these things.. I mean really, what do you do with your piles of money in GTA4?

Atleast sulk agrees sort of.

 

[AmishSlayer]

I mean really, what do you do with your piles of money in GTA4?

You mean you don't have a Ducktales-like vault where you can swim in your vast fortune?

I just need to do a few more missions and then mine will be deep enough for me to put in a diving board.

 

[staticprimer]

You mean you don't have a Ducktales-like vault where you can swim in your vast fortune?

I just need to do a few more missions and then mine will be deep enough for me to put in a diving board.

I just put in a water, or rather money, slide.

 

[Cpt Tenacious]

I agreee with you about the cops. I was in my safehouse, my SAFEhouse and I was kinds bored so I shot a box across the room. For that I got 1 star then I turn around and theres a cop starting to arrest me to I broke the arrest and got another star. The cops started to shoot so I had to shoot them that got me 3 stars. I ran out got in my car and drove off the pier into the water for lulz. I look up and there was a chopper so I shot the guys out of it and shot the cops around me. After a while I got 4 stars I jumped into the water so a boat would come so I could grab it and escape. Eventually I got a boat and escaped, it was retarded. Any time you try to shoot a ped if you fire once like 75% or the time you get a star. It's silly.

 

[knut]

I had a ****ing annoying run in with the cops today. I was doing a mission which involved taking out a bunch of guys in a house and as soon as I brought one guy down the cops were on to me. So I ran away, thinking that perhaps I had to be in the house with the bad guys to kill them so that the cops don't see, and I came across the typical WHERE THE **** ARE ALL THE CARS empty road annoyance. I was running away from these two on foot cops for so long that I got 2 stars, which just added to the time I had to get away from them.

Anyway, I got away from them, went back to the house, killed one out of the 7 or 8 guys then the cops are on to me again. I clear out the downstairs of this house and then the cops start busting in whilst I'm on my lowest health. I tried to get upstairs and away from them to kill this last guy because I really didn't want to start getting into NOOSE firefights but because I'm rushing I run right into a guy with a shotgun at the top of the stairs.

Well f'kin annoying.

 

[Bad^Hat]

The only thing that annoys me about the cops is how you get a wanted level from shooting the pidgeons. WTF is that? It's not like you can step on them (although they seem to have a George Costanza-like arrangement going on with Niko when you try to run into them). That and the way they go after you when you're doing vigilante missions for them, until you kill off the last guy and then it's all "oh, it's YOU, sorry bout that," and they even acknowledge the threat's been dealt with on the radio... YEAH, NO THANKS TO YOU FAT F*CKS.

 

[Kadayi]

The cops probably get on you for shooting the pigeons because it's the illegal discharge of a firearm in a public space at a guess.