Sansha said:
Well I've been playing the hell out of GTA4 on PC, and San Andreas on X-Box, often at the same time, and I can't help but pick SA as my favorite, and indeed Rockstar's flagship title.
The defining difference is activities to do after the storyline is over. GTA4 offers very little of this. Finding pigeons, jumps, the car stealing jobs, assassinations etc.
Now let's get one thing straight - I fucking love crime for money, it's that GTA4 has very little of it. I think nine assassination jobs, 36-something cars and bam, you're done.
First off, let me say that GTA IV is tied with Vice City for my favorite GTA game. San Andreas is one of my least favorites by far. Partially because CJ is such an unlikable and incoherent **** (I'll discuss it ahead) and partially because of all the extraneous crap that clutters the game.
That said, this is one of the reasons where I think we're fundamentally different. You expect the game to make your fun for you, I expect the game to let me make my own fun. Yes, lots of side missions are a plus, but when I want to go nuts on GTA it usually means grabbing a car(performing the eponymous Grand Theft Auto) and start car chases and mass murders. GTA isn't over for me once I hit 100%, it's over for me once I stop having fun, and GTA IV gives me so much stuff to have fun with... Especially the cover system while fighting.
You know what I hate in my sandboxes? Leveling. Leveling gun proficiencies, running proficiencies... Mindless boring chores GTA SA is stuffed full of. At least in GTA IV I can turn my cell off and won't be bothered by NPCs calling... Can't turn the leveling mode off here.
Sansha said:
Finding the pigeons is a boring, mindless chore, but it's still a giggle when they explode from a point-blank shotgun blast.
This confuses me. If it's boring, why are you doing it?
Sansha said:
And the jumps - hooboy. Some are ruthlessly difficult to do, some aren't even 'jumps'. The SA ones were more fun. Once you launched off them, you got the 500 dollars and credit no matter what, not to mention that getting airborne got you money anywhere.
You're really not forced to do those either, but I for once appreciate the challenge, as opposed to previous GTA's "just launch yourself off this ramp and it's cool" mode.
Sansha said:
Sure SA had scavenger hunts, but there seemed to be a point to them. The horseshoes for better luck in the casinos, and the oysters to have women love you.
...What?
Sansha said:
In GTA4, that's about it. SA had all these, plus other jobs, safehouses to find and purchase (compared to 4's two or three), casinos, and the constant gang war to keep you occupied, and of course, my biggest gripe,
The only thing I miss is the property purchase. I liked buying real-estate, and miss having proper garages.
Sansha said:
The game world
SA had a massive, massive game world, with varied settings and locals, from the sprawling Los Santos to the huge open plains between the cities. A big place where you could really open your throttle and do incredibly stupid stunts. Liberty City has none of this, just a succession of tightly-populated streets in one huge city. The islands are indeed varied, but not enough to call it anything other than city, more city, and revenge of the city.
Most of what I remember from SA was indeed big...and barren... What's the point of having a huge map that's filled with a lot of nothing? Personally prefer the GTA IV map style by leagues.
Sansha said:
Six-star police chases are also ruthlessly difficult, while the inbredly stupid police in SA were just fun to mess with, while being just challenging enough to pose a threat as you jet in between them, which brings me to my next point,
That's the point. Maximum star chases SHOULD be difficult. In previous GTAs they were little more than a joke. Don't want that level of challenge, don't get 6 stars.
Sansha said:
Survivability.
If CJ is hit by a car, he goes "OOF" and walks it off. When he's rocketing at mach 4 on a motorcycle and hits something, he's launched off, but again he walks it off.
When Niko is hit by a car at the same speed, he takes a massive chunk of health off, which is a pain in the ass when you have shit to do. And with motorcycle crashes, he doesn't even have to go very fast before an impact launches him into the fucking stratosphere and is killed. And staying on a rocketing motorcycle is, again, much more difficult in the dense city. Speaking of getting killed,
Different styles. I enjoy the more realistic style myself, although Niko does seem to have grease on his ass with how often he's shot off bikes (fixed in The Lost And Damned though), and the lack of ability to base jump/jump off planes/helicopters without dying (returns in The Ballad of Gay Tony).
Sansha said:
Wasted/Busted
In SA, when you're killed, there's a little scene showing your corpse before you wake up at a hospital and off you go. If you're nailing Katie, you get out for free and don't lose your weapons. Getting Busted is the same if you're dating Barbara.
Niko, however, has the color wash out, slow-mo set in before fading out and appearing at the hospital. He pays a HUGE hospital bill, which from what I can tell is a percentage of your money. My first playthrough had Niko paying $350,000 total hospital fees. Mostly thanks to his total, total inability to operate a seat belt. (What's with that? He puts on a bike helmet but never a car seatbelt?) And getting arrested, Niko again pays huge dollars and loses tens of thousands of dollars of weapons. There's no way around this, the girlfriends instead 'helping' you prevent death/custody. Also,
You do realize that being a percentage of your money means it's rather fair. If you're paying that much it means you have more where that came from doesn't it? Getting killed/arrested in previous GTA titles meant fuck all. Actually, take that back, in Vice City and GTA III you lost everything if you died/were arrested... In GTA IV you only lose a percentage of money, which you get in droves anyways.
Sansha said:
Weapons
Weapons in SA are cheap, plentiful, and no limit to your ammo supply, and are much more varied to what you like. Niko's guns are expensive, and there's tier1 and tier2 weapons. Melee, pistol, shotgun, SMG, bla bla bla. The rockets are stupidly expensive, leaving me to never actually use them. At least CJ gets a minigun or flamethrower for free at the ranch. For free?
Don't really have any issues getting weapons... The RPG being wildly inaccurate does bother me though.
Sansha said:
MONEY and income
At time of writing, my Niko has $600,000 from re-loading the last save every time he dies to avoid the fees and being ultra-conservative with expensive weapons. Once you do all the car and killing jobs, your ability to make money suddenly becomes a crisis situation.
CJ has exactly $168,486,065 from roulette tables, while carrying hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammo, every safehouse full of expensive, pimped-out cars and expensive clothes. Making enormous amounts of money and spending it irresponsibly in SA is fun and easy. Oh shit, cars and clothes.
Why do you even need that much money in GTA IV? You can't buy properties, there's no need to buy cars since any car in the game is one titular "Grand Theft Auto" away from your ownership (and "pimp my ride" gameplay can fuck off and die), and clothes really serve no purpose...
Sansha said:
Customization
Niko has three clothes stores to pick from with a laughable variety, and one of the stores does nothing but make him look like Bernie's playdate, which is strange considering his face is a permanent scowl (which by the way I am sick of looking at), can't change his hair or even supe-up his cars. (side-note: Niko can own and save a maximum of eight cars around the city. CJ can hold maybe 100ish) With GTA4's graphics, custom cars would look and sound fantastic, yet aside from PayNSpray, you're shit out of luck.
Why is this gone from GTA4 yet featured so prominently and with as much detail and options in SA? CJ could be a morbidly obese man spending the entire game in his underpants with a pink afro for all the player cares, and who hasn't thought of doing that?
I don't care about customization. To me it's more pointless than GTA IV's in-game TV which is still good for some laughs while you're having a meal.
Sansha said:
Character
Niko is a whiny, angsty **** who never shuts the fuck up about his own problems. Jesus Christ.
CJ is more... sorry, is actually a three-dimensional character driven by different motivations for different circumstances. Not just "I MUZT FIND THIS MAN AND KEEL HIM" that Niko never, ever stops saying.
Really...? CJ was easily the WORST character out of any GTA so far for me... He's incoherent and poorly written. I admit SA was the GTA game I least played, but part of that was because CJ was such an unlikable fuck that I couldn't get enticed by the game. I suppose part of it is the retarded "gangsta" mentality which instantly makes me want to put a bullet between his eyes, but part of it also owes to the fact that CJ comes across as the same type as Playboy X does in GTA IV.
Niko was easily the best character in a GTA so far, and if you honestly think he's so unidimensional then "Woosh", I guess.
Ultimately it's all a matter of opinions, but SA so far as my least favorite GTA by far.
