🚀 go-pugleaf

Spalls Hurgenson  <spallsh...@gmail.com> wrote:
>* Grand Theft Auto 4 (replay) 

Coincentally I was also playing Grand Theft Auto IV last month, though
it was the first time for me and without any mods.

>The gameplay is pure GTA, with all its strength and weaknesses. The
>huge open world is wonderfully detailed; more so, in my opinion, than
>that of GTA5. The vehicles control as terribly as ever, and the combat
>is middling. But it's the scale and variety of the world far more than
>the gameplay that was always the draw of the franchise.

Controls are the worst thing about the Grand Theft Auto games, at least
the ones I've played.  It's always the reason why I can never play them
to completion.  Grand Theft Auto III I played on the PlatStation 2 with
a PS2 controller and got stuck less than half way because I could never
manage to shoot anything.  I played GTA: San Andreas on the PC with
keyboard and mouse and got stuck halfway trying complete the airplane
tutorial mission.  I thought was going to be able to finish GTA IV (PC
with keyboard/mouse) but gave up after the final mission suddendly put
me in the controls of a helicopter on a collision corse with a skyscraper.

I don't know why Rockstar thinks they should include accurate flying
simulations with accurate controls when the car driving simulation
that makes up 99% of the game is so arcadey.  GTA III:SA includes a
controls for the landing gear and accounts for their drag if they're
not retracted, while in GTA IV the only car stat that seems to matter
is how easily the car skids out when making turns.  Which for most cars,
is ridiculously easily.

>The satire and humor, on the other hand, are decidedly sub-par; too
>biting and nasty to be enjoyable even for a Rockstar production (even
>for the guys who made literal murder-simulators with the Manhunt
>games). I did quite enjoy the early parts of the game which focused
>more on Nico, the protagonist, and his relationship with needy cousin
>Roman. Nico is a truly broken person and the developers managed some
>surprisingly deep and satisfying characterization, making him equally
>loathsome and pitiable at the same time. Unfortunately, the latter
>half of the game degenerates into broad stereotypes with increasingly
>fantastic adventures, and this early magic is sacrificed for cheap
>jokes and over-the-top action cliches. I struggled to play the game to
>the end.

I found it hard to sympathize with Niko.  It's hard to reconcile
statements like him saying cops are just doing their jobs and trying to
survive when he killed dozens of them in a bank heist.  Real life hitman
think their victims deserve to die, gangsters in movies usually only
kill when they feel "forced" to.  Most of the time Niko kills people
for no other reason than they're standing between him and a paycheck.
It's also kind of absurd when Niko considers sparing someone after
killing a dozen of his friends.

Otherwise the story isn't too bad.  It might had made more sense if it
was told in a form that didn't require massive body counts or like other
games didn't spend much time considering Niko's motivations.  I agree
with you the best parts are with his cousin Roman.  The last chunk of
missions with the Italian mob are a mess.  I thought Elizabeta was a
missed oportunity but like the bits with Dwayne as he felt like one of
the most real and likeable characters.  The McReary clan was interesting
but maybe could've used one less brother.

I liked how big and detailed the city was, although in parts it
did feel a bit rushed.  Things like restuarants you couldn't visit
except on dates, and resturants you could go inside but not buy food.
The friendship/dating mechanic sounded like an interesting addition
at first, but then soon became a pain in the ass as your friends keep
calling you.  You either spend most of the game trying to keep your
friends happy or just ingore them and get on with the game.

I really began to hate the overdone scripted car chases.  Many missions
include a car chase where the car being chased is completely invulnerable
and impossible to catch up to.  That's so you don't miss a single scripted
event, mostly consisting of a truck losing its load or a bus suddenly
moving to block most of the road (the only time you'll see a bus driving
on the road).  The chase either ends with a scripted car crash or the
car becoming vulnerable but with no indication of that other than the
fact that you stop seeing buses.

One interesting thing about the game is depsite the fact the game is 9
years old how dated it appears a times.  You have a mobile phone, but
you can't access the Internet from it, instead you need to go to an
Internet Cafe.  There's pay phones everywhere and sometimes there are
so many 50's and 60's style cars on the streets you'd think you were
in Havana.

On the other hand the game could be suprisingly prescient.  One of
the characters said "You can be whatever you like.  It's the land of
opportunity.  Any fool can become President."  I had to laugh at that.

Overall I'd recommend playing this game, but I'd have a hard time naming
an open world game I thought was worse than GTA IV.  Come to think of it
the "open world" parts of the game were pretty barren.  I suppose FarCry
2 or 3 are worse as I stopped playing both halfway through as they got
repetitive, but then I'd also have to say GTA III and GTA:SA are worse
because I only got half way, despite them otherwise being better games.
As better games, I'd recommend Saints Row III (you get to make your own
character!), or one of the games where you're playing an obstentially
good guy like Sabotuer or Sleeping Dogs.  The protagonist's motivations
and concerns about them were much better portrayed in Sleeping Dogs. 

And needless to say any open world game not named Grand Theft Auto has
better controls.

GTA IV took up most of my gaming time in February.  I played Endless
Legend at the start of month.  It's a decent 4X turned based strategy
game, that does a lot things differently.  That made it hard to master,
but once I did it's became clear that the AI is weak and doesn't do a
good job of economy management.  But poor AI pretty much par for the
course for any 4X strategy game that isn't named Civilization.

I started playing King's Bounty: Armored Princess after GTA IV, but I
haven't gotten far enough into the game to say much about it.  So far it
appears to be pretty much the same game as King's Bounty: The Legend,
just with a new campaign in a new world with a new hero that's female
rather than male.  But as I enjoyed playing the original, so I don't
mind playing what amounts to an expansion.

					Ross Ridge

-- 
 l/  //	  Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU
[oo][oo]  rri...@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
-()-/()/  http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rridge/ 
 db  //