GTA:IV Official Thread

[Nate Dogg III]

I pity the poor fuckers that have to write these comparison pieces.

[Pob]

I'll take exclusive episodic DLC over anything else.

That reminds me: I'm really looking forward to DLC now, even though I'm nowhere near completing the main story.

I think there is loads of potential for things to be added to Liberty City - new weapons, vehicles, clothes, side-missions. Perhaps new items, although I can't think of anything particularly exciting.

Do you think they can add more interiors? They could build up the city in other ways, with more things/people to interact with.

And given the amount of publicity the DLC has been getting, I imagine that'll be just the start.

[dungavin]

And the cop didnt spot me. ive done this several tmes now to experiment with the AI. if you're in that red circle then every officer in that circle knows exactly where you are no matter where you hide. Even if you change cars.

Yeah but if you listen you can hear them chatter to eachother about your last known position, and so other units turn up there on the looksee!

Also if there was a chopper above you, they can communicate to other units exactly where you're "hiding" surely?

Have ye never watched Police, Camera, Action! where yer man Suchet talks about dangerous drivers on mobile phones while he's driving along a motorway reading a script and looking into a camera?

..always annoyed me that.

Sorry to quote from page697 but I'm just working my way through this soon to be classic thread.

[Okotta]

Ahh fuck it, I'll pick up Mario Kart Wii instead

[Pob]

If you swap vehicles out of sight of the police, does that mean the chopper can no longer track you? Would make sense.

[dungavin]

If you swap vehicles out of sight of the police, does that mean the chopper can no longer track you? Would make sense.

But surely the chopper will just observe you changing cars and radio the new description to the rest of the fuzz?

I know Rockstar have said that this would help lose some heat but I'm not so sure.

As a matter of fact tonight I'm going to take a car, park it in an alley, take another car, shoot a civillian through the window, get 2stars, drive to the parked car and swap out of sight of any ground based coppers just to see what happens.

I'll also have radio off so as I can hear the coppers radio chatter...

[Bocuma]

But surely the chopper will just observe you changing cars and radio the new description to the rest of the fuzz?

I know Rockstar have said that this would help lose some heat but I'm not so sure.

As a matter of fact tonight I'm going to take a car, park it in an alley, take another car, shoot a civillian through the window, get 2stars, drive to the parked car and swap out of sight of any ground based coppers just to see what happens.

I'll also have radio off so as I can hear the coppers radio chatter...

If the helicopter sees you then you aren't out of the sight of the police, are you?

[Pob]

But surely the chopper will just observe you changing cars and radio the new description to the rest of the fuzz?

I know Rockstar have said that this would help lose some heat but I'm not so sure.

Swapping cars out of sight (i.e. when the wanted stars are grey) definitely does make a difference. It basically means the cops can't identify you from so far away. If they get close, they'll still spot you. Do it under a bridge or in a car park or something.

I was just wondering if swapping cars makes you 'immune' from the chopper, which would be very handy, and would make sense.

[jonathanhoey]

After failing it twice Packie says "let's just listen to the radio for this journey" (or something like that). You still have to do the drive though.

Hmm. On my third attempt I just got the same speech as the first time.

Oddly enough, that third attempt was an absolute walk in the park. Everything went right.

I think as long as you stay 'on the script' in this game, it's generally fairly easy. But if you deviate at all from the One True Path, you get punished hard for it. I expect it was probably playtested using extensive walkthroughs - more in the name of identifying any major bugs rather than checking to see if it's fun.

Three Leaf Clover went off first time as well, though I very nearly died. Glad to see the back of

Michael

as he was really starting to get on my tits with all the

IRA

stuff.

[DC Lemon]

That reminds me: I'm really looking forward to DLC now, even though I'm nowhere near completing the main story.

I'm about 50% through and fatigue is already setting in. In the words of Vinnie Jones, it's been emotional. Even if DLC comes to PS3, it's all about the wait for GTA IVice City now. A nice, bright Vice City.

[_dumb_numpty_]

Oh, and I shot the TV in my apartment so I don't get to enjoy the benefits of extra angles/higher resolution. I shot it because I could.

[Pob]

I think as long as you stay 'on the script' in this game, it's generally fairly easy. But if you deviate at all from the One True Path, you get punished hard for it. I expect it was probably playtested using extensive walkthroughs - more in the name of identifying any major bugs rather than checking to see if it's fun.

I did Hostile Negotiations

(rescue Roman from Nikolai's warehouse) by landing a chopper on the roof, narrowly avoiding an RPG. I sniped the roof guys and then worked my way down into warehouse from above using a combination of grenades and carefully-placed shots. I escaped with a sliver of health.

I assume the 'proper way' would have been through the front door, but I was pleased to see that

Nikolai's men

had predicted my airborne approach. It was all very Crackdown, actually, but better.

[Chase]

Looks like the PS3 wins the Eurogamer test then with it's faster loading and much reduced pop-up. Even the sixaxis functionality is done properly:

Case in point is the Sixaxis support on the PlayStation 3 version. Regular readers of these features will know that I generally tend to find the motion sensor to be too imprecise to be worth bothering with, but here there's a sense that the programmers have tried to get the most out of it.

There's a tutorial you access via the mobile phone that teleports you to the airport and lets you try out bikes, boats and helicopters - all of which offer Sixaxis support. Also invaluable is the way you can get the game to auto-calibrate Sixaxis each time the motion sensor is engaged, with the current position of the controller judged to be 'neutral'. This shows that some thought has gone into the control scheme, and there's no chance of your chopper suddenly lurching into the sky because your joypad isn't absolutely level.

Rockstar also makes use of the PS3 hard disk...There are also improvements in texture streaming as you navigate around Liberty City...a nice little touch is that the PS3 version of the game has much higher resolution versions of the various TV shows available to view in Niko's apartment.

Excellent.

[Joyrex-J9]

Looks like the PS3 wins the Eurogamer test then

Shave. Did you read the article?

[Chase]

Shave. Did you read the article?

Did you?

Rockstar has introduced a 360-specific post-processing effect that dithers just about every texture on-screen. It's an effect not present at all on the PS3 version and serves to introduce an oil-painting-like effect to the overall look of the game, particularly on background objects. Unfortunately, it also seems to actively distort the edges of detail in the textures and occasionally looks really ugly.

[Timmo]

I thought you hated the TV shows, Chase?

I'm really cut up about not having sixaxis though.

[kerraig UK]

I just completed the snowstorm mission first time. Absolutely loved it.

HOWEVER: I probably wouldnt have loved it if it wasnt for this thread. Thanks to others complaints i went in prepared.

-turned auto aim on

-got a jacket in advance

-made sure to check out the escape routes first

-kept my bearings at all times cos I knew it was easy to get lost

-made a run the boat as soon as the feds showed up

to be honest, I still very nearly died just through the sheer slow glitchy shitness of Niko trying to get on a boat.

The brief for this mission needs to be way more informative. Something like "make sure you're tooled up cos resistance will be heavy. its also pretty easy to get lost in there. A boat will be waiting for you out back when you've got the coke"

Still though, i found it great fun

[Big Gus]

Did they mention the fact that the online component was/is inherently broken on PS3? Been patched already has it not?

Why is there 5-6 pages in "Online" of people saying they cant connect to games?

What about the game freezes on PS3?

[tyler]

-turned auto aim on

You big woofter.

[Timmo]

-turned auto aim on

You complete gay.

Edit - excellent

[robdood]

I've played the whole thing with lock-on enabled. I tried playing with it off, but the lock-adjust-headshot is very satisfying and makes combat super quick

[Joyrex-J9]

Quote war

On Framerate

The bottom line is that no matter what material I put through the detector, 360 came ahead in all tests, sometimes dramatically so.

On 1080i/p support

Certainly, the lower resolution and (dare I say it) 'jagginess' are exaggerated in the scaling process, which isn't particularly good.

but in most cases, the PS3 port just tends to look like a blurrier version of the original Xbox code: not impressive considering that typically, PS3 hardware - and sometimes software - is more expensive.

As it is then, it comes down to personal preference, and in my view, Xbox 360 just 'edges' it

[Big Gus]

-turned auto aim on

Graham Norton levels of gay....

[Timmo]

I've played the whole thing with lock-on enabled. I tried playing with it off, but the lock-adjust-headshot is very satisfying and makes combat super quick

You're gay though so it's ok (jokes!!!!), plus you don't play shooters. kerraig plays shooters all the time.

edit - I just realised for the first time that I've been thinking dood and noob are the same person since... well ever.

[Chase]

The 360 version has screen tearing too? Shit.

One curiosity I found was that the PS3 version has v-lock enabled, whereas 360 can produce the odd torn frame.

[Looper]

Graham Norton levels of gay....

Nonsense.

[Joyrex-J9]

The 360 version has screen tearing too? Shit.

trolLOL

[kerraig UK]

The 360 version has screen tearing too? Shit.

40 hours in and I havent seen a single tear

And yeah, I turned auto aim on for that one mission cos i'd read that I was gonna get jumped at close range a lot and the manual aim really is shitty for the up clsoe stuff. Of course, bo fucker got near me did they.

[Eighthours]

The 360 version has screen tearing too? Shit.

Shit indeed, since I haven't seen any.

[Sponge]

Both times they got themselves killed before I could get to the green target upstairs. I don't use the cover button either, it's too slow and unintuitive.

It's quite odd to hear the different experiences. For me, the three guys appeared to be taking a lot of shotguns at close range - so many that I actually assumed they couldn't die, so I just left them to it.