Yea calling GTA IV the worst is just post ironic hipster garbage and I’m with Trevor on his opinion of that attitude ;)
Just poking fun here.
Tom M
Dude, you’ve got an Xbox! use it!
It can’t be, because the thread ended before the release of The Ballad of Gay Tony, which is really the only remarkable thing about GTA4.
It was the most amazing city of any of them at the time, obviously. And for me, that went a long way even when I hated Nico and the rest of the characters, so I still had fun with it, but I can’t really argue that it’s not the worst of them, at least of the 3D era.
GTA IV has a really slow start, but it’s mostly great once you get past that. If you don’t want to, just play the DLC, which is great from start to finish.
Playing through the opening forty minutes of GTA IV again on Xbox One through backwards compatibility today, I was amazed at how much I love the gameplay.
Some highlights:
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Unlike in GTA V, the breaking is not instant. If you’re going really fast, and you approach an intersection, and you slam on the breaks, you go right through the intersection, brakes screaming the whole way. Really well done. This is the only GTA game in the whole series that does braking distance in proportion to the size of the world I think.
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I love that one of the camera views is a behind-the-car view that’s really close to the car, but puts it just left of the car, so that you can see exactly where you’re going, while still keeping the camera pretty close to where you’re driving, so you get both immersion and visibility.
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I love that they give you a “look” button when you’re chasing someone. So chases feel pretty dynamic. Instead of watching the mini-map all the time like in GTA V, you can press “B” on the controller and keep an eye on your target, even when he starts getting ahead and losing you. It’s a really nice idea. I don’t remember it being in the sequel. They should have kept that around.
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Also the music, oh, the music is so good. I’ve even forgotten most of these songs by now on Radio Vadstock, or whatever it is. And that opening theme to GTA IV is so good, isn’t it? Man, this game rocks.
It has its flaws to be sure, but it sure is nice to come back after all these years to discover that it still holds up in all the right ways.
@divedivedive, did you get to try it out yet? I think I’ll join you in the quest for that “New York Minute” achievement.
It will be tough though. Even now, even though Manhattan is closed off to me, there have been missions that took me to beautiful vantage points where I can see the City from across the water. It’s tough not to sit and take it in. Or to drive around with the awesome vehicle physics and listen to the conversations. I’ve already had to cut off Roman during missions because we got to destinations faster than the length of the conversation. In my original playthrough I remember several times slowing down and taking the long route just so that the conversations would play out fully.
I did. I only got through maybe the first three missions last night but it was really nostalgic firing the game back up - between the base game and the expansions I spent so much time in Liberty City.
As far as the achievement goes, everything I’ve found online seems to indicate it’s a fairly easy one. You just have to stick to the “core” missions, no dates, shooting pigeons, the like. Some folks have done it in 12 hours, apparently.
No dates!?!
Won’t Michelle get really mad at me? I already told her I’d take her out. And then Roman’s problems with the Albanians prevented me from picking her up.
Oh yeah. Everyone will hate you. How bad do you want that achievement?
“Pop quiz, hotshot.”
I felt the same last night. The musical cues, especially, seem to have a deep root into my memories, so the nostalgia was in full force.
And I have to admit, what with the current political climate in this country, the story about immigrants trying to make it in this country is especially endearing this time around.
Not that it’s a great endorsement for immigration when the main characters are literally blowing up trucks, crashing helicopters, and killing hundreds of cops, while trafficking drugs.
Well I mean, it’s GTA. There’s always going to be a persistent Awfulness Quotient (patent pending) involved.
Not so far! So far, it’s Roman trying to make it big with a humble cab business, and trying to make the rest using gambling. Unfortunately his gambling debts are what’s getting him in trouble.
He’s a job creator! Yay!
Ha, I think we stopped at the same point. Probably should just quit right there and have fond memories of playing the American Dream.
I played some more tonight. Took Michelle on a date at the Coney Island carnival place, and we went bowling. Then I took Jermaine to where he wanted to go and then outran the cops.
It’s such a contrast to be in a car chase in a game where you actually enjoy the driving, versus something like GTA V where you’re just waiting for the mission to be over so you can get the next story beat.
They have such a unique lighting model in the game too. When it’s cloudy and overcast, this is the only game I can think of right now that almost completely bleaches the world of color. I remember not noticing that about real life before I played GTA IV. It was only afterward I went out on an overcast day and looked around and noticed that yeah, that’s about right. Compared to sunny days, the world really does feel like it’s been drained of color. GTA IV just exaggerates the effect a little, and it certainly leads to a pretty unique feel.
By the way, there was a ~480 MB patch today for GTA IV.
I’m hoping what they fixed was the frame pacing issue found by Digital Foundry. I didn’t notice any anomalies myself.
Haven’t played GTA IV for a long time. But I do remember liking the driving model better than most people did. Of course, I didn’t have any issue with it in GTA V, either. I think the only game I really couldn’t stand the driving model for was Watch Dogs (WD2 was much better).
Still - looking for a game to take me through to the release of Mass Effect Andromeda. Maybe this is it.
Can I purchase the digital edition of GTA IV and install it on my XB1? Would that work or do I need the disc?