Poll: GTA4... have you really played it?

[kuyo]

everything mentioned in the advertising suggested it was shit, and it was worse than that. For example, it gets really annoying and provokes deterioration having to tap A to move at a decent pace. I'd have expected them to fix it for RDR, but then I would've also expected them not to do it in the first place.
The payoff wasn't even worth it. What Niko got out of the experience was a couple of apartments and dead friends, so he would've been better off not doing any of the missions.
Playing this game is detrimental to both the player and the character, and I would've been seriously pissed if I'd had bought it for more that four bucks. (still pretty pissed about the four bucks though.)

 

[Yopaz]

It was indeed a chore to play; somehow the great setting and music could'nt hide the fact that you're driving your cousin to a f*cking bowling alley half the time; I just could not be bothered to play further. Somehow they took all the fun out of the gameplay.

Bowling alley was OK, it was boring, but you didn't suffer enough to want to gnaw off your arm, what I hated was when he wanted to take you out drinking. You had to use 5 minutes to get to a car without falling over, then when you entered the car you seemed almost sober.
If GTA didn't take itself so damn serious it could have been fun. I also really disliked the story...

 

[Kadoodle]

I've played it, but I sort of prefer Red Dead Redemption for its increased realism and graphics, as well as the western setting. Plus they use the Euphoria engine way better in RDR.

 

[HealthyMateus]

Doesn't anybody have fun on police chases? Doesn't anybody bother to turn off the cell phone? Oh well, I just find that GTA IV and the Liberty City expansions have the best physics, explosions, and immersion of the series. The police chases have always been the biggest draw for me in any GTA, and IV is the most fun because now you can aim freely while driving. That usually leads to some interesting accidents!

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

GTA IV wasn't as good as the predecessors imo. It went too serious for the series previous and would have worked better if it had been canned as a reboot from the beginning. Sure there were elements of the previous games in it, but overall there felt like major downgrades were done as San Andreas was a way bigger map in terms of variety. LC just felt bland and gray and while populated, it still felt more like an animatronic Disney ride (were it built by psychopaths and drug addicts).
Story bored the hell out of me after about 10 missions though I did finish it for posterity. I found Lost and the Damned to be way better than the original, and Gay Tony was only fun for the intersecting missions and the "hit the dude with golf balls" mission.
In the end, I feel disappointed with the game itself, although I liked the ideas presented in the maps. I'd like to see a bigger map, better engine to draw objects so I don't have concrete barriers appear underneath my car while driving, and a better protagonist. Also, please please please give me an option to have the NPC's STOP CALLING ME! Or at least not get pissed off that I'm busy and maybe hang out later... after I commit some genocide.
Saints Row 2 was a spiritual successor to what I loved about the GTA series. Over the top and lots of options to destroy people/things. If only Volition could introduce decent DLC...

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I played GTA4 for around 50-60 hours.

Great sandbox, ruined a little by terrible mission design and shoddy combat mechanics (no mid-mission saves, having to travel half the city during missions listening to people talk, taking Roman for Bleeder Burgers)

 

[Outright Villainy]

I finished it, but I lost interest soon after. Gameplay is pretty sluggish, the overall tone is inconsistent, the ending is maddening, and the level design is frankly boring.

I understand they wanted to go in a different direction to san andreas, but they failed in that regard. Luckily, Red Dead Redemption made up for a lot of the flaws, as will as giving a much more active world that felt alive, a plot that was ten times better, and gunplay that could actually be done without auto aim.

Go ahead and try and and finish Gta 4 without the auto aim.

I dare you.

That said, some of the potential for madness is still there; rocket launchers and grenades launch cars in a spectacular fashion, bodies crumple sickeningly over the hood of your car and rattle the road. It's the great irony of the game to me, that the very elements they were trying to get away from are still the most fun.

 

[GBlair88]

Completed GTA IV on PS3 and PC as well as starting again on the PC thanks to not backing up the save files before re-installing Windows. I've got 19 hours of that on Steam and 45 hours of Episodes from Liberty City.

I do quite like the game but wouldn't say I love it and I do prefer the expansion.

 

[cefm]

Never played it. I absolutely adored GTA-Vice City. I thought it had the perfect level of huge open sandbox, comprehensible story line and entertaining missions, and sublime voice acting. I also just liked the look and feel of 1980's Miami.

GTA-San Andreas was better and worse in every way. It was bigger (too big), had more quests and missions (too many) more side quests and mini games (too many) and was more modern. I just didn't like the 1990's SoCal setting that well, and I thought the world was just too damn huge - I played it endlessly without making progress in any discernable way after I opened it all up. Great game, but more of a lifestyle than a start-to-finish game.

GTA4 was just more of the same. More and bigger of everything - including more of the stuff that wasn't necessary. From hooker pick-ups in Vice City to dating in San Andreas to driving your annoying buddies all over creation just to go bowling? Where did the FUN go? Plus, San Andreas was so huge that I never finished it, so why bother with GTA4?

 

[Auxiliary]

After Vice City I decided to change to Just Cause 2 and Saint Row 2.

 

[Dana22]

Nah, I finished after few hours and sold on ebay. Too buggy, too low performance.

 

[The Aimless One]

Loved it....Played through the whole thing.
Great story great fun.

 

[TheSchizoid]

Played it and beat it. Downloaded the expansions but haven't played through them yet.

 

[minimacker]

It was fun and I enjoyed it. Not amongst my titanic supergame list, but it was well worth it's value.

Also, I am apparently the only one on this continent that enjoyed the story.

 

[MetaMop]

I enjoyed it, but not as much as I think I should've. I usually play games for story, and GTA4 was very lackluster. So many pointless or unlikable characters, and when I say unlikable I mean they were dull, had little development and only existed to hand out missions.

That whole 'diamonds' arc should've been really interesting, but I found myself incredibly bored. I suppose it's because Niko (and John Marston for that matter) have very little stake in what's going on. Niko just wants "mah-nee" apart from the three or so points throughout the game where we get a mission tied to something that has an actual connection with our main character, the rest seems like filler.

 

[Berserker119]

I play online a lot with friends. It's quite fun.

 

[Dogstile]

It takes a while to get used to the steering for me but I got real good and driving and flying helicopters XD

In multiplayer I was always the chopper guy.

Hehe, try playing it again for the first time in a year. "Ah, this will be easy, you never forget stuff like this. ...OH GOD! *Crashing through everything that can move*" XD And I'm good at flying the helicopters. I'm flying under bridges like a pro. XD

Plus it's always fun to get into the attack chopper on top of Algonquin's police station then introducing the cops there to the rotor blades... XD

Theres one there? Ah balls, now I have to go dust off the copy.

Yes OP, I still play it

 

[USSR]

I got past the bank robbery, then started playing Saints Row 2 and..
Well..

You know how that goes.

 

[Scabadus]

I just checked my Steam records for GTA, I've got 120 hours exactly clocked on the main game and 22 hours clocked on Episodes from Liberty City. On top of that I've got many, many unrecorded hours back from when I had it on my 360.

Yeah, I'd say I've played it a fair bit.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

So we hear all the time about GTA4. In this weeks latest Extra Consideration, Yahtzee said "GTA4 was the biggest release of any form of media ever". Pretty big words for a game I've never played!

I'm pretty sure what he was saying wasn't meant to be an opinion. I think he's mentioned GTA 4 in many reviews as an example of what not to do when it comes to open world gameplay. What he meant (I think) was that it was literally the biggest release in sales numbers of any form of media. No book, movie, video game, or album, had sold as fast or in as vast amount of dollars as GTA 4 did. Here's what wikipedia has to say

"On 13 May 2008, Grand Theft Auto IV broke the Guinness World Records for 'Highest grossing video game in 24 hours' and 'Highest Revenue Generated by an Entertainment Product in 24 Hours.' It sold 3.6 million copies on day one, which equalled roughly $310 million in revenue. For first day sales it also broke the record of 'Fastest-selling video game in 24 hours,' previously held by Halo 3 at $170 million,[166] however, its record was broken in November 2009 by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2."

I played all the way through the story mode of GTA 4. I liked it, but the last third or so seemed to run out of ideas. Barely touched the online because live costs money and the free preview weekends were relatively unimpressive. I liked the Episodes From Liberty City package a lot more, especially The Ballad of Gay Tony because it was funnier, had a better story, and so much more variety. Red Dead Redemption was an even better game, but I enjoyed them both.