The GTA4 thread

[GMT 389]

hm... 35k ahead of me...

congrats :-)

I refused to stay up half the night. you know, it was 30 mins past midnight, so the 18th already, and still no SC... although, when I registered, it said it went online at 6:01 pm est, so 29 minutes before I last checked and found none...

anyways, I'm in, that's what counts.

let me tell you a few figures about the sound in GTA4 (according to games radar):

4500 sound effects combined in 19000 different combinations

average peds have 200 lines of dialoge

at least 740 voices with 80000 lines of dialoge worth 29hours, 7000 alone for Niko

the sound was designed so you can determine your location and the daytime by just listening to the sounds around you.

further, lazlow gave away some more information on the game:

- Niko can meet women he found through love-meet.net and other dating sites

- sound recording was a tough time of 10 hour shifts each day for several weeks

- 100 different commercials on the radio

- Piswasser, the beer in LC, is a jab to budweiser, and there's also a Piswasser add sung by Anthony from the Opie and Anthony show (add an S to Piswasser so it gets Pisswasser, and you have german badword for bad drinks or dirty water)

- the internet ingame is massive! it contains blogs, several websites and a lot of spoofs of various news sources, conservative as well as liberal. and, of cource, we're cursed with pop-up advertisments

- injuries are important in firefights. since you are blessed and cursed with rather realistic hitzones and their simulation, you can get in serious trouble aswell as you can bring your opponent(s) in serious trouble by hitting certain parts of the body

- periodicly, security checks, police checks and other passanger-harrassing measures are announced and conducted at the subway

- the 360 downloadable content will have new missions, characters and other stuff like new comedy shows

[BurroDiablo 222]

I'm heading out for my 360 in a few days time... sucks though because i've just started work and i'm on 7 hour shifts which means I'll have very little time to play the sodding game when its released in a week and a bit.

I feel like going into my games store on Monday 28th and asking for it early since I have work on the Tuesday, lol.

[gurrgkud 2]

...and without starting, I already wasted my summer.

[GMT 389]

let me qoute Games Aktuell for you, another magazine that got their hands on GTA4 to rate it (actually, on an early version of the game, so the pretty good rating might have come out better if they had the final version of it):

* Graphics: 9/10

The gigantic size of the city makes you forget the few graphical imperfections of the game.

* Sound: 10/10

Best GTA soundtrack ever, and probably the most compelling feature in the game.

* Controls: 8/10

Far from perfect but a big step from the previous GTA games.

* Multiplayer: 9/10

Great concept and innovative integration with the single-player mode.

* Gameplay: 10/10

We can't score it 11/10...

* Conclusion:

GTA4 is by far the best action game ever created.

either way, this is once more a fabulous rating, ain't it?

[SimRabbit 48]

Well i think it is time to get an XBOX 360. I can't wait for GTAIV.

[ilikehotdogsalot 308]

My brother told me that our Xbox was just got to his house (It broke, so we sent it to Microsoft). Now all I have to do is preorder GTA. . .

[GMT 389]

let me conclude yet another review for ya!

this time, it's PSM3. and what did they write?

well, nothing spectacular. they rated 20/20 and say that GTA4 is the best game ever created...

info given on the game itself:

L2 & R2, as in all other driving games for the ps3, to speed up and break

the game looks great at 1080p

a weapon shop is confirmed in LC

pay and spray is still around, but only for recoloring and not to get rid of cops (what's actually wierd cuz another review said that cops are still fooled by this "trick")

aiming isn't 100% perfect, nor is the AI system, but that's minor flaws compared to what the whole game comes with...

[GMT 389]

I can't keep silent no longer.

I have the game. I got it. right here in my hands! already now! haha!

I'm dreaming. damn, I'm dreaming... really... that's so sad... just a dream... it's the san andreas box to be honest... :-(

well, IGN has a brandnew update on the game, mainly behind the scene, EVERY day.

plus, 1up.com wrote a review lately of the RAGE in action (for those who don't know it yet, it's Rockstar Advanced Game Engine, their very own engine for graphics)

check it out here

together with this text, there i guess 9 new screenshots showing what they are talking about, here's the link to the gallery

seeing all this, and recalling my yesterdays san andreas session, there's one thing I can't remember having read about it, what I really hope is in the game:

getting hurt in car accidents.

I mean, you can fall of a bike and hurt you a little, rarely die from it, but in a car accident, you can smash the wall at top speed with the fastest car and nothing happens to you...

[toxicpiano 125]

Is it true that downloadable content is exclusive to the xbox 360?

[GMT 389]

so far, yes.

if i remember the right thing, microsoft got exclusive rights on it. but maybe this changes one day...

ohhh, I can tell you, take a serious look at screenshots over at 1up.

you'll find some interesting things... america's next top hoo... ads, a flyus ad for las venturas trips... and so on.

plenty to see plenty to see

[Glenni 1,444]

And it's also time to Getalife.

[Bluebeard 0]

So which version do you suggest?.

      I havn't got a Xbox or PS3 yet but I have played the older GTA and I'm hooked.

[Glenni 1,444]

Well, it's a matter of choice really, PS3 is great, but so is Xbox. It doesn't really matter that much...

[GMT 389]

from the technical viewpoint, I suggest the ps3.

(360 fanbois plz skip this paragraph)

it's expensive, I know. but more reliable than the 360 (as reports of the ring of death get more frequent lately) and, maybe the better idea, has more potential in the long term. the 360 slowly reaches it's limits now, and I guess by the end of the year, it will come to it's limits (maybe that's why insider consider it realistic to have a new xbox announcement before Gates' retirement). the ps3, on the other hand, can't reach it's real limits yet cuz it's still not possible to adress the processor's maximum. At first, this sounds stupid. why a processor that you can't use at full potential... but times change and so does processor adressing, and when the PS3 processor can be adressed 100%, you'll definitely know why you spent about twice the money of a 360.

so much for the general idea.

as for GTA4 itself, it seems like the 360 is the better choice for it'll have additional downloadable content (the basic version of the game is confirmed to be 100% equal).

But the problem is, that you can't say whether this content will stay a 360 exclusive or folks (at Take Two) will handle out deals to get this content to the PS3 aswell, be it downloadable, be it a disc, who knows.

sure, this is only speculations, but you'll never know because, to be honest, I doubt that TakeTwo won't try to get the additional content out of it's 360 exclusive position.

so in the end, it's up to you to decide whether to buy the 360 + GTA4 (there's a value pack available) or to buy a PS3 + GTA4 (I read about a value pack here aswell).

The first is cheaper and'll have additional content, the latter isn't cheap but the better choice in the long term.

[Bluebeard 0]

Thanx.

    I have heard  good and bad things about both consoles but then again nothing is perfect.My PS 2 has been really good to me so I'm leaning towards the PS 3 but waiting for the announcement at E3 for the next version of Playstation.

    

[ilikehotdogsalot 308]

Question, if I preorder it like today online at gamestop.com, Can I go to the store and pick it up myself on Tuesday? It says that it'll ship to your house so I'll have to wait like a week after release or pay 20 dollars more to have it come on time.

[Bluebeard 0]

You may have to wait a week for delivery but at least you will have it but if you wait till release date it may be sold out.

    So if you want to take your chances try to cancel the order.

[vilbe 6]

as if RL wasn't getting to me before, come tuesday i'll have the perfect excuse for RL....

about systems, i had a 360 which to my dismay never really worked. overheated to death with yes the infamous red rings. while frusterated, i picked it up to the fact i bought it off a friend for 1/3rd the price. ironiclly i got the money i paid for BACK from gamestop upon trade-in [it worked enough for them to take it, thankfully they didn't keep it on 15+ minutes]. now DLC aside, unlike the 360 i haven't had trouble keeping the PS3 on for extended periods of time [8 hours or so is the longest]. the free online gaming thing is the most under-used PS3 selling point [xbox live gold costs money]....

so for those who have yet to upgrade consoles, if your looking for an easy plug and play go for the PS3. the 40gb version is the same price as the 360 with half the troubles. the games are priced similarly so theres no loss there. also if you have an HD set up, you'll easily justify dropping the cash once you start gaming...

[GMT 389]

2 quick things to add to this:

1st: don't epect an announcement for a new playstation within the next 2 or 3 years

2nd: another point in which the playstation outruns the 360 is data storage.

gaming has become all about memory, and the playstation with bluray technology is definitely the better choice since the 360 has hd-dvd support.... not to mention that hd-dvds are dead meat.

[Bluebeard 0]

Well GMT,

     Word on the street is Microsoft and Sony will both be making some sort of announcement at E3 in June.

    So we will have to wait and see.

[EliteGeorge616 1]

I cant wait for GTA IV to come out , i pre ordered it a couple weeks ago, ive heard its good; not only that but ive followed the entire GTA collection from gameboy to ps2. I really cant wait for this game to come out.

[Bluebeard 0]

Parents don't forget the Rating on GTA 4 because if you buy it for your young folks under 17 it's your fault not the Rockstar.

[dabadon5 295]

OH I CANT WAIT !

[raikkonen 0]

what we all pc player do now, buy a console????

[GMT 389]

Originally posted by: Bluebeard Parents don't forget the Rating on GTA 4 because if you buy it for your young folks under 17 it's your fault not the Rockstar.quote>

That's bullspit. Everybody knows it's Rockstar's fault.

Why do they even release such a game?

It could have been mushroom eating, turtle torturing, flowerpower addicted plumbers aswell.

(as it happened to the very 1st GTA btw which was planned to be released on the NES(!) but the Nintendo boss back than refused it cuz it was too... not mario bros.)

pc users should wait... it'll be as it was with previous titles aswell: first the consoles, then the pcs a little later

[Bluebeard 0]

GMT,

   You maybe one of rich that can afford such a pc to play these high graphic games but most of here work for a living and can't afford to buy or build a fancy pc.

      If your a GTA fan then don't sit on hands and wait for a pc version.Save your pennies and buy a console.

    

[panthersimcity4 162]

It comes out in about... 5 days. *goes insane*

I can't wait - Liberty City looks extremely realistic and that's something that I druel over. I wonder what kind of safe houses will there be (and will they be "buyable" like in San Andreas)

[SimRabbit 48]

As soon as the PC version of the game comes out I will get a good Dell XPS gaming system.

But I wish we could have mods on the console version

[GMT 389]

I got me PS3 from long saved money bluebeard, initially for the plain and simple purpose of playing GTA4... and GT5... and MGS4... and for I can't stand the controller design of the Xbox (doesn't fit in my tiny fingers) and I totally wish to have the money for a fancy PC...

Mybe mods for the console version are possible thanks to the HDD of either console. If folks are able to crack the code to add content to the pc version, I doubt that there aren't any ppl out there to make HDD-saved content overrule the disc based original content.

Seriously, we are able to do this with SC4 custom content cuz we focused on it, I bet some of those who focus on GTA can achieve it aswell. At least I hope so.

anyways, since lots of gaming websites publish new information on GTA on a daily basis (1up.com and IGN to name 2), we got plenty new stuff to bridge the gap till tuesday.

(did I mention that I'ma trying to get me the game a mere 3 hours ahead of the regular shop opening thanks to a shopping licence at the Metro wholesale company, for those who never heard of it, it's a store for reseller to get their stuff, and they open a mere 3 hours ahead of all other stores)

Well, the recent 1up edition focuses on the Euphoria engine that GTA4 introduces to the gaming world:

It's the engine that renders everything in real time to get away from the boring canned animations, creating a unique look over and over again, from the ped you run over to the stuff he drops and the bricks you pick up from the street to throw on others (keep this in mind, I'm getting back to that point in a few). This makes everything react in a very natural way to what happens, instead of the prefab stuff we're used to see.

Remeber the bricks?

well, let's talk about weapons since Gamespot got a coverage:

- there's a total of 15 weapons in GTA, and in addition, you can pick up almost everything to use it as a thrown weapon, such as bottles, canes, bricks, dead birds, grandpa joe...

- looking for a gunshop with funny advertisments as the AmmuNation offered? you'll search yourself to death. I promise.

There ain't no gunshops. Well, no legal ones. All the gunshops are underground sales, and you have to be initially introduced to their locations. So don't look out for a gunshop sign, look out for guys who look like to know where to get a piece (just like in San Andreas where CJ wanna weld himself a silencer and Caesar gives him his silenced pistol, and answers the question where he got it with "Same place I buy my pants men, it's America")

- RPG projectiles start to sway around after a certain distance, just as in real life, so it might happen that you won't hit your distant target, plus they are affected by gravity AND wind. Goodbye ol' dirty straight line of fire

- the targeting, as mentioned earlier, gives you the opportunity to lock on or blindfire or something in between, like an aproximate aming if it has to be fast

oh, to cover more latest news:

Playstation world says we have never played a game like GTA4 and probably will never play such a game again

IGN has more coverage on: friendship relations, multiplayer and yet again how the development of the game was.

Amazon has given away some details of the soundtrack, incl. a playlist

so much until now, I bet there's plenty new stuff to read later today, since we get a WW2 like airraid of previews, reviews, behind the scenes coverage and Q&As with the staff...

of course make sure to check all the new screenshots!

[GMT 389]

ssooo

IGN reviewed GTA4

guess what?

it got a perfect 10/10

nothing special... but wait... a 10/10 at IGN... let me see...

oh yea, the last time a game got a 10/10 over at IGN was in the last millenium!!! (1999 Soul Calibur, just to name it)

anyways, this review comes with a mindblowing (I know I use this word to often... but that's what it is each time) video to see.

further, over at the original site, there's a new video introducing one more character of the game.

I don't need to mention the name if you think about who wasn't introduced yet... ok, I do it: Niko of course.

I like the video. doesn't show him as the bad ass stone cold killer, just as a normal guy with a terrible past...

plus, my all time favorite fansite, GTA4.tv has released their very own hands on of the game (the site I collect my news on a 50 times a day basis).

EDIT: it's much to read, pretty much like a trip diary, but I just can't encourage you enough to read it, you'll find spitloads of stuff that wasn't covered anywhere yet, like the internet, TV (yes, TV) and so on and so forth... read it! read! it! JUST GO N F... READ IT!!!

as always, be sure to check out the screenshots and read carefully

c u around

plus plenty of screens