Game Reviews for Grand Theft Auto IV (PC)
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ahhhhhhhhhhhh my eyes hurt Because this game keeps me up playing at night. SO FRIGGING COOL· Like · Go to review -
I was keen when GTA 4 finally came to PC, I absolutely loved the GTA series, started with 3, and play Vice City and San Andreas and they were all great, each one a good improvement on the other and I played them multiple times. By the time GTA 4 had come around there was such a huge number of free roam games on the market that the entire genre had lost alot of excitement and interest for me. So while I was keen to see what GTA 4 brought to the market, I wasn't excited as with all the previous GTA's, and sure enough after getting the game and playing it for a bit I had lost much of the interest I had originally had for this game.
Gameplay:
Heres the first problem, the gameplay is boring. I'm a lover of games, i'm the gamer that always seems to like their games more then the rest, i've played most games i've ever heard are good and i've liked a huge amount of them. So when I say the gameplay is boring, it carries with it some meaning. For me the game was trying to be an FPS, the problem being that its the dullest FPS around, you end up driving to a house, killing everyone, then either escorting someone out or just completing the mission on the spot. There are a few exceptions and the story behind why your doing it is different but it never got remotely exciting for me. I only finished the game for the achievement, and to unlock the whole city cause I was quite looking forward to doing all the fun side missions and jumps that GTA 4 entails. The combat system is decent, but incredibly basic compared to an FPS, which was fine when missions were unique but when the game turns into an FPS in a free roam environment, it gets very dull. The story wasn't at all interesting for me, I tried to watch the cutscenes but ended up skipping most of them to get on with things. All in all the main storyline held little to no appeal for me.
So once i'd finished I was quite looking forward to experiencing the side missions and activities. This was one of the most enjoyable facets of GTA in the past and I was keen to see if it was still good. In the end, its a giant, kinda. There is still a large amount of content in the game and I haven't done everything, but i've cruised around and done alot of different things and its a bit hit and miss. The super jumps are good fun, the low flying helicopter achievement was enjoyable, the heli tours are interesting but at this point, thats about it. Cruising around finding hidden places and causing havoc is still reasonably enjoyable but that does get old quick. Once again the life seems to have been sucked out of the side missions. Where are the brilliant rampages from GTA Vice City I think it was, the vigilante missions seems to be dull and repetitive, there are no fire or ambulance missions anymore, you can't buy any properties like you could back in San An and before, theres no car customization, no body customization, the only way food comes into it is to fill your life up, wheres the crazy weapons you could unlock for your safehouse to refill up on everytime you went out, wheres the jetpack missions, the monster truck missions, why can't I buy an airfield to fly planes from. I mean the old gta's were so creative, there were hundreds of unique things you could do that no other game offers, and GTA 4 carries through some of that, but from what I can tell once you've jumped all the jumps, killed all the most wanted, 'settled' 20 current crimes, shot all the pigeons, found all the cars (for both Bruce and Steve), gone out a billion times with your friends and ladies, raced all the bog standard races your kinda done. There may be a few things i'm missing out, but from my standpoint, that whole bunch does not sound anywhere near as fun as just a few of the things I remembered above from GTA 3/Vice City/San Andreas.
Overall the gameplay is ok, theres nothing glaringly wrong, there are some nice touches to the free roam concept, and driving around is still enjoyable but apart from that its just bland on my opinion.
Graphics:
Now I had high hopes for the look of this game, I had heard much praise for it on the consoles and was keen to see what they did with it. Once again I was disappointed, while the graphics may be good for a console, compared to the current crop of PC games it looks bland, basica and aliased up the ying yang. The worst part about it is that you can even run it at "Maximum Bland" because the game seems to be such a shocking console port that most high end computers can't run it past medium settings. When I upgarded to my Q9400 and GTX 275 i could finally put the settings up, but not as high as you'd think, the game still doesn't run very nicely and the shadows still look shit, the game is still very aliased and the only positive thing i've noticed is the game does seem to have decent lighting/textures. Overall a pretty disapointing and boring look that you can't even achieve on many high end pc's.
Controls:
The control scheme is ok, theres nothing very unique about it, the mobile phone is a kewl addition but the control setup for it seems a bit messed up for pc. Nothing glaring bad about the controls in GTA 4, pretty stock standard, nothing overly good either.
Audio:
The sound in GTA 4 is surprisingly good, it supports surround sound very well, and sounds quite good. Voice acting seems decent, random people on teh street say some reasonably funny things, all in all decent. The radio however seems to once again be lacking. I mean its definitely GTA radio, completely rediculous and over the top which is great. But its not funny like it used to be, its not hilariously silly, its just silly. The independent FM is a nice tough, allowing your songs to turn into a radio station but yea nothing overly entertaining in the radio department either.
Multiplayer:
This is where the game can slightly redeem itself, Multiplayer GTA has been on the wishlist of many for a long time now. The idea of cruising around in free roam with 3 players in your car mowing guys down is a nice, if not slightly disturbing one, and enjoyably enough it does come through, I played a few games and it was some good free roam mp fun. The GTA races are good fun, its what the racing in the game SHOULD have been. Co-op missions are pretty enjoyable as well. The main downside is like many many console games, no dedicated server. For australians it means we hardly ever get a lag free game, it means it takes forever to get a game full stop, it means everyone starts lagging when the idiot hosting it starts downloading porn, etc etc. It is good that GTA 4 have included a server browser, while matchmaking is nice, after 50 times of getting put in the same game you don't want to, the custom server selection is a welcome addition. But the fact is your still dealing with peer to peer on a game thats not incredibly popular on PC. The game came out many months after its console release, so the majority had already bought and played it. If dedicated server was released on it, people would be more inclined to get it for PC, there would be more popularity in the online gaming for it and the gaming would be much less laggy and you wouldn't have to wait for ages til your game is full. But as it stands it just has peer to peer and after a few games of insane lag, its unlikely i'll ever try the multiplayer of GTA 4 again.
Gameplay: 3/10 - Very dull main story, side missions are a bit better.
Graphics: 5/10 - Once your computer is a powerhouse the game can look pretty ok, but still nothing special at all and most will be done with the game before they get the hardware to run it at anything good.
Controls: 6/10 - Nothing unique, just default FPS controls, with the default console port problems.
Audio: 5/10 - Radio stations lack very much comedy, independent fm is cool, surround sound works surprisingly well.
Multiplayer 6/10 - Rather enjoyable multiplayer but rendered useless due largley to lack of dedicated server.
My Score - 40/100 - Doesn't come close to the old GTA's, the most fun i've had with it is randomly cruising around causing havoc but that gets old pretty quick.· Like · Go to review -
Pretty good, had it for the 360 and now for the PC, runs pretty good, i have a steady 45-60 FPS. Though i would get better FPS on a 64 bit OS. Anyway, great game, for all consoles and PC.· Like · Go to review -
Just 4* because after I bought yesterday a new GPU and more memory I was finally able to play it. The game itself is just amazing!· Like · Go to review -
Would be a 5 star if Rockstar (!) hasn't f*cked up porting it to PC. This engine requires more specs than Crysis and the result is very disapoiting. The XBox version is way better. The game itself, just perfect!· Like · Go to review -
This Game Is MAAAADDD Cool. Everyone Should Try It. You Will Be Addicted For Hours. Ya digg Me.· Like · Go to review
