A Defense Of GTA4

[GonzoGamer]

The real travesty is that Chinatown Wars is so much better than gta4 and it's not getting recognized.

I love Chinatown wars but in many ways it's a regression back to previous GTA games and apart from the Drug-dealing mini game (which is fantastic) really falls back on the previous games' legacy. Was it great? Yup. Was it new? Nope.

I didn't say it reinvented the series (even the Drug Wars isn't new; though it's new to GTA that exact game has been on cell phones & calculators for years) just that it's way more fun than GTA4.

I'm glad they regressed back to the old style for their DS entry; it's way better than trying to cram a whole console game onto the DS like the travesties they made of Burnout and Resident Evil.

 

[Strafe Mcgee]

He may have regrets of his actions at the end of the story, but lets say you choose the Path where Kate dies... you tell her you will change yet 10 minutes later you are hunting down the very thing you promised you would change from doing.

That's YOUR choice so technically you only have yourself to blame if Kate dies at the end of the game.

Also, what happened to rampages? They were so fun but what do they do? Take it out maybe because Niko is a "genuine fella"? Lies... HE IS A MURDERER AND I DONT CARE WHAT YOU SAY HE IS NOT A GENUINE PERSON, no matter what you say, he put Roman's life in danger as well as Kate's. If he really cared about the people he loved, he wouldnt be a mass murderer, if so many people are out to get him, why does he associate with innocent people like Kate.

Nico got dragged into the gangster world of GTA by Roman, who is a complete and utter idiot. Most of the story from that point on revolves around Nico trying to get out of the trouble that Roman landed him in, apart from his revenge upon Darko that made his life a misery before coming to America. Nico didn't have any choice when he came to America apart from joining the Gang system. Is he a murderer? Yeah he is, but not through choice. You can tell from Nico's reactions throughout the first section of the game that he doesn't want to get involved in violence any more. The element of freedom that's offered to the player in GTA can be at odds with the story, but you've got to remember that outside of the cutscenes whatever Nico does is YOUR decision, not his.

Here are some things why it wasnt as good as any other GTA.

1. Missions in GTA III = Very Fun
2. GTA : VC = Better City, liked the brightness and unique new buying of properties.
3. Removal of Ambulance and Vigilante missions was annoying since they were fun to do when bored after a mission and good to see how high you could get.

1. The missions in GTA4 are pretty much identical to those in GTA3, one of the main problems that I have with the game is the lack of imaginative missions.
2. Fair enough, I never liked the property buying system myself.
3. The vigilante missions are still there. You get a cop car, access the computer and then go hunt criminals.

 

[Mackinator]

He may have regrets of his actions at the end of the story, but lets say you choose the Path where Kate dies... you tell her you will change yet 10 minutes later you are hunting down the very thing you promised you would change from doing.

That's YOUR choice so technically you only have yourself to blame if Kate dies at the end of the game.

Also, what happened to rampages? They were so fun but what do they do? Take it out maybe because Niko is a "genuine fella"? Lies... HE IS A MURDERER AND I DONT CARE WHAT YOU SAY HE IS NOT A GENUINE PERSON, no matter what you say, he put Roman's life in danger as well as Kate's. If he really cared about the people he loved, he wouldnt be a mass murderer, if so many people are out to get him, why does he associate with innocent people like Kate.

Nico got dragged into the gangster world of GTA by Roman, who is a complete and utter idiot. Most of the story from that point on revolves around Nico trying to get out of the trouble that Roman landed him in, apart from his revenge upon Darko that made his life a misery before coming to America. Nico didn't have any choice when he came to America apart from joining the Gang system. Is he a murderer? Yeah he is, but not through choice. You can tell from Nico's reactions throughout the first section of the game that he doesn't want to get involved in violence any more. The element of freedom that's offered to the player in GTA can be at odds with the story, but you've got to remember that outside of the cutscenes whatever Nico does is YOUR decision, not his.

Here are some things why it wasnt as good as any other GTA.

1. Missions in GTA III = Very Fun
2. GTA : VC = Better City, liked the brightness and unique new buying of properties.
3. Removal of Ambulance and Vigilante missions was annoying since they were fun to do when bored after a mission and good to see how high you could get.

1. The missions in GTA4 are pretty much identical to those in GTA3, one of the main problems that I have with the game is the lack of imaginative missions.
2. Fair enough, I never liked the property buying system myself.
3. The vigilante missions are still there. You get a cop car, access the computer and then go hunt criminals.

Ahh thats something ive missed then, but whoo you are good at defending it

I guess im mostly annoyed that i cant have Nitouss

 

[Stewie Plisken]

GTAIV doesn't need defending; it's already ridiculously overrated. It can parade around its overblown ego as a protective forcefield.

OK, that aside, I don't think anyone really believes that GTAIV is a bad game, it's just a game that missed its own point. Driving around the city was somewhat interesting, if you didn't get bored having to stop at every other traffic light, but that's as far as the real fun went. The rest was just "humoring" the game; playing along.

And, by the way, the story gets a lot more credit than it deserves. It works Niko's character well and that's all there is to it. It's adequate, but nothing more.

GTA died for me the day they removed the standard taxi missions.

 

[maffro]

escaping the smarter police

The police were definately smarter but once you figued out driving fast in any direction would always lose them, and that you were never that far away from a long, straight stretch of road they stopped being fun for me. I miss the idiot cops from the last game who you could just play around with after a while, making them swerve and crash over and over again ^_^

I think I moment that really shot the game up in my estimation was when I realised the police ACTUALLY look for you. A few times escaping a high rating I've discovered it was more effective to find an alley and hug a wall. That upcoming cop car that was about to intercept you will drive right by, and if you find some scaffolding the helicopter right over your head will lose interest and fly away.

Sure, a lot of it is mindless driving on the straights, but there is that added element of tactics for those who want it. Escaping a 5 star rating by jumping through gardens is incredibly satisfying.

 

[phar]

Remember this generation has a heap more new gamers than the last and they do not appreciate all the things modern games have to offer.

Please do not say the cars handle realistically..

 

[Avida]

escaping the smarter police

The police were definately smarter but once you figued out driving fast in any direction would always lose them, and that you were never that far away from a long, straight stretch of road they stopped being fun for me. I miss the idiot cops from the last game who you could just play around with after a while, making them swerve and crash over and over again ^_^

I think I moment that really shot the game up in my estimation was when I realised the police ACTUALLY look for you. A few times escaping a high rating I've discovered it was more effective to find an alley and hug a wall. That upcoming cop car that was about to intercept you will drive right by, and if you find some scaffolding the helicopter right over your head will lose interest and fly away.

Sure, a lot of it is mindless driving on the straights, but there is that added element of tactics for those who want it. Escaping a 5 star rating by jumping through gardens is incredibly satisfying.

I've gotta admit that escaping on foot was great fun but hiding never seemed to work for me, i'd be spotted by all the time because they'd spaw at the end of the alley way or sometimes for no valid reason at all ¬_¬

 

[TheTygerfire]

Yes its realistic woop dee doo. If I want realism I open my door and walk outside. A game should never sacrfice fun for realism as GTA did.

Really? Because it's still fun as it is...

 

[MiracleOfSound]

He may have regrets of his actions at the end of the story, but lets say you choose the Path where Kate dies... you tell her you will change yet 10 minutes later you are hunting down the very thing you promised you would change from doing.

That's YOUR choice so technically you only have yourself to blame if Kate dies at the end of the game.

Also, what happened to rampages? They were so fun but what do they do? Take it out maybe because Niko is a "genuine fella"? Lies... HE IS A MURDERER AND I DONT CARE WHAT YOU SAY HE IS NOT A GENUINE PERSON, no matter what you say, he put Roman's life in danger as well as Kate's. If he really cared about the people he loved, he wouldnt be a mass murderer, if so many people are out to get him, why does he associate with innocent people like Kate.

Nico got dragged into the gangster world of GTA by Roman, who is a complete and utter idiot. Most of the story from that point on revolves around Nico trying to get out of the trouble that Roman landed him in, apart from his revenge upon Darko that made his life a misery before coming to America. Nico didn't have any choice when he came to America apart from joining the Gang system. Is he a murderer? Yeah he is, but not through choice. You can tell from Nico's reactions throughout the first section of the game that he doesn't want to get involved in violence any more. The element of freedom that's offered to the player in GTA can be at odds with the story, but you've got to remember that outside of the cutscenes whatever Nico does is YOUR decision, not his.

s.

Jesus, People... spoiler boxes please!

 

[Laughing Man]

What I don't understand is why people keep comparing the realism in GTA4 to the realism in the other GTA games and from that basis deriving how much fun the games were. On the basic levels GTA 4 did pretty much everything that the other GTA games did. If you wanted to go on a rocket launcher killing spree you could. If you wanted to give the cops the run around for hours you could. The opportunity for pure madness is there just as it was in the previous GTA games.

Realism is a very subjective thing. Just because someone else found it real doesn;t mean others will. Lets look at a comparative. No doubt people will say that GTA4 is way more realistic than GTA3. Even I would say that, but let's look at a specific point of each game. The airports, in GTA4 their are no aircraft to steal, even the airport itself is dead with one aircraft just constantly circling round and round and some NPCs just driving about, how real is that? Now GTA3 had at least one aircraft that could be stolen, it could even be flown if you knew how, but it also had something that most airports usually have, it had aircraft landing and taking off. Now from that point of view GTA3 had a more realistic airport than that of GTA4. So as you can see quite subjective really.

The overarching flaw with GTA4 was the place you were playing in however. The city was just so boring, so tedious. I dunno how big the driveable area was compared to GTA SA but the city in GTA4 just was so utterly unforgettable. Put it this way every GTA game that has ever been released I could have navigated from any point to any point on the map. GTA4 was the only GTA game that was never worth remembering.

It was this singular flaw that made the game so boring to play. When I was going on a crazy rampage in say GTA SA I could go. Right I'll shoot some guys here get a 4 star wanted level then do a runner for the airport, grab a plane fly to the military base, really piss them off by stealing a jet, to mount chilad, parachute off the mountain, then see how long I can survive. GTA4 on the other hand it's, shoot some guys here to get a 4 start wanted level then.... uh... drive around some samey looking regions of the city, uh drive around a bit more... uh drive around another bit that looks like the bit you started at.... yawn!

GTA4 didn't sacrifice fun for realism folks the primary story line and main game elements were quite fun and engaging. GTA4 sacrificed long term free roaming fun for story driven fun. It concentrated so hard on delivering a compelling story that it's like the developers forget to apply compelling interest to other non story based parts of the city.

 

[Velocirapture07]

Story
This is something that GTA4 really doesn't get enough credit for. Niko is easily one of the most compelling protagonists in gaming simply due to his realism as a character. He is sympathetic, genuinely nice to those he cares about and regrets many of his actions throughout the game. How many other games can you talk about which have a character that actually goes through a development curve throughout the progress of the game? Beyond Good and Evil is one of the few that I can currently think of, though I'm sure that you guys will be able to conjure up some more.

Gotta disagree with you, on just this one point. Niko was basically a one-note pony throughout 75% of the game.

He didn't really seem "cool" the way CJ in San Andreas was, or evilly awesome like Tommy Vercetti. (Who is basically Tony Montana.)

He's a violent ugly bastard with a beer belly, wearing an incredibly strange array of clothing, coming from a background I would HOPE most average folks would know nothing about...

Just really wasn't anything about him I could relate to, or really like.

Jonathan from the Lost and the Damned was a really cool character though.

Unfortunately I have to agree with you a little. While Niko wasn't the worst character ever, I just did not connect with him. The only time I ever felt okay about him was when I made a decision not to kill that guy at the end and his reaction to that. I enjoyed the nature of the previous characters better (not including GTA 3's protagonist).

I also have this serious problem with games when I think my character looks dorky or stupid....that's why I had to start over Oblivion several times before I liked how my character looked. And, seriously, I thought Niko looked pretty frikking weird.

 

[chase211]

implementing large amounts of realism destroys games,

Why?

which is why GTA4 was the most overrrated game in history; it was crap

Prove it, not being like other GTA games isn't proof in and of itself; go.

Realism helps massively with immersion, it can indeed draw you more into the game and the tension surrounding events. GTA is a series that is encapsulated by its arcady and sandboxy nature, adding boatloads of realism took that formula and made it into a cumbersome vehicle of...well not being fun.

Realism helps with immersion, but as Vivaldiscool said, large amounts can destroy games. For example, do you ever wonder why in 99% of shooters if you reload your gun when there are still bullets in the clip you don't hafto take all of the unshot bullets out of the clip and reload them into your new clip if you want to keep that leftover ammo? It would be realistic...but fun?

The statement that GTA4 is the most overated game in history is simply opinion, personally I would say Assassins Creed was much more so however GTA4 did not live up to the hype in my mind, or I think the majority of the fans of the series.

 

[NeoDeath90]

The one line that made me love Niko was this:

Mrs Faustin- Don't you fear for your soul?

Niko- *sighs and places the cup down, looks up in remembrance* When you walk into a village, and see fifty children sitting neatly in a line against a church wall, each with their throats slit and their hands chopped off, you realize that the creature that can do this doesn't have a soul.

My mouth was hung open for about fifteen minutes in the way that line was delivered.

 

[MrBrightside919]

I think Yahtzee said it best...

"Why do people feel the need to 'defend' games?"

 

[Ajna]

Attention To Detail
GTA4's recreation of New York is an utterly compelling area to drive around. The beautiful rendering of New York city is packed with detail and for the most part runs smoothly on the Xbox 360, which is an impressive feat in itself. The world is also full of the satire and jokes which GTA is famous for. Even now, a year after it was released, I'm still discovering jokes on the sides of buildings and in the names of companies which I hadn't noticed before. Even getting in a taxi and being taken for a drive around the city is a pleasant experience simply because it allows you to examine the care and attention that has been taken in bringing a virtual world to life. The GPS system, the television adverts which relate back to the rest of the world, the radio which refers to your and other peoples actions, the chat between characters which changes every time you repeat a mission... All of these touches combine to create a more detailed and realistic world than anything else ever seen in a game.

Realism
Initially it is difficult to get used to the way the cars handle in GTA4. After the gloriously ridiculous handling of the cars in previous games, realistic handling, suspension and control is a bit difficult to get used to. This is a major barrier point for GTA detractors, since they are used to jumping into a car in an openworld game, holding down the accelerator and letting rip. It took me a while to realise it too, but that's not what GTA4's driving's about. The improved physics engine actually encourages driving more akin to games like PGR4 than Burnout, which, when you realise it makes the game's driving much more crunchy and enjoyable. Using skill to navigate through the city successfully becomes enjoyable in itself, and makes all of the carnage much more satisfying. Though I will admit, they should have toned down how much force it takes to propel you out the windscreen.

These are the two major issues I have with GTA IV. They aren't the pros. They're the cons. I play video games to get away from the real world, not to play an extension of it. It's no fun to shoot someone who looks real. You don't want to blow up a building that looks like one you shop at regularly. Then you feel guilty.

I don't want a car that takes time to drive right. GTA claims to be a sandbox game, but I want to play in my sandbox. SR2 lets me. They know that it's not realistic that I can get into a car that's moving about as fast as me, or that I can kill thirty pedestrians without slowing down slightly. But they know that rules make games boring, so they gave me the metaphorical shovel and bucket, and told me to knock myself out. And so I did.

 

[LeonLethality]

hmmm never liked gta but i finaly gave 4 a try (i have played previous ones just hated them) and i did not like it, the bad overshadows the little good and who cares about realism or detail, a game is supposed to be fun if you want it artistic make it fun artistic like SotC but, when art or accuracy is all there is its not fun anymore games are an escape, impossible things that make them fun, realism brings it down... im sorry but you gotta come up with better points

 

[quack35]

I personally don't think it's fair to say SR2 is better than GTA4.

They ripped off almost every aspect of GTA4, did almost nothing original (except some different diversion) and just made everything "wackier".

And people complain about the lack of originality in games...

 

[sadpolice]

Personaly, I loved GTA4, The realism didn't make the game less fun it made it better, although two things I hated was The stife driving and Niko's brother calling you up during missions asking if you wanted to go bowling...

Although there were bad points the good ones out ranked them all, still actually need to complete that game. May get round to it soon.