Caltrops - Grand Theft Auto IV





	[quote name="Fussbett"]GTAIV gifts us with such an awesome universe, it's fun to <i>anything</i> inside of it, which is important because they sure tried to fit a terrible game into the best GTA engine yet. The story starts off amazing (eastern European immigrant protagonist!) and eventually devolves into Italian mafia double cross Yojimbo padding for time. Other complaints include the linear missions, the linear order in which I have to do the missions (all GTA standard stuff, but still, worth pointing out) but worst of all, the harsh scripting <i>within</i> the missions. Watching the same garbage truck veer into the alley on a mission replay was depressing, but didn't compare to putting a million bullets into the back of a biker, only to discover that he hadn't become uninvincible yet. I had to chase him around for a while first, and dodge trains, cinematically, before he passed the invisible trigger that made him invincible. And how many enemies tires did we all blow out of cars that no longer adhered to physics, but instead followed their scripted path unhindered by four sparking rims? Looking at this old thread I can't believe worm wanted an easier out from the law. I would often prolong the cop chases just because they were the most free-form fun in the game. When things go wrong, GTAIV is at its best. As a comparison, usenet and forums lit up on the release of GTAIII, everyone their crazy stories from inside Liberty City. Like how did you beat the pimp in that early mission? One guy was able to blow up his limo, another had a gun duel outside of the cars, another guy lured him out into traffic, and finally one guy said he saw the pimp accidentally get run over by his own limo in the heat of battle. Now, let's all recall how you killed Luca in GTAIV. You chased him into Middle Park and shot him in a bathroom stall. We all did. And seriously Rockstar, put a fucking checkpoint or two into the missions. The flipside of this discussion is Saints Row 2, which people bring up constantly. The problem with Saints Row 2 is that although they reverse all the gameplay problems of GTA, capitalizing on the good and eliminating the bad, the game is designed by developers with the worst taste in everything and it's all built on an engine several rungs shittier than GTAIV. Being in the Saint's Row 2 vision of extra-bland Los Angeles is continually depressing and uninteresting, as is the driving model, the terrible cars, the terrible characters, the ridiculous everything. I even hate my own character in Saints Row 2. Back to GTAIV, I never got tired of the physics and the cars and the people. I would swap cars all the time not based on performance but just personal preference. Despite not having the licenses, the car selections were great: Grand Nationals? Monte Carlos? IROC Camaro? Outrageous. And even two types of choppers, one of which is the dumb style and the other clearly an <a href="http://www.exilecycles.com/index.php?section=1" target="exile">Exile cycle</a>. The ambient people are all amazing! As Niko I roleplayed a man who's trying to turn over a new leaf, but he still has a temper. I wouldn't go out of my way to kill innocent people but anytime I bumped into a person on foot and got some sass -- they got shotgunned. Anyway, how many hookers did you pick up, QB? I did several, one for each act. "My mother would be so proud of me!"[/quote]