Grand Theft Auto IV Comments by Tom Bramwell

Hmmm

Wait, there's a new GTA coming out?

Sounds like a winner.

Only one negative: all the music's from Scritti Politti.

"When you begin playing, bridges and tunnels to the other islands are closed due to an undisclosed terrorist threat."

thats the 'planes are not in the game because of 911' theory out the window

really shouldn't read that preview,m now hype is coursing through my veins

Hurry up and get released already.

What version did you test, Tom? Any slowdown?

Inevitably pumped about this. Tried to ignore it, but it is too gosh darn charming.

So it's rubbish then?

sounds like 360, he said bumper button.

The guy in the trailer with the Uzi looks just like Common.

Probably the game I'll buy a new console for.

Hey, what's wrong with Scritti Politti?!? I think they're great personally!!! :O

Anyways, nice article... shame it didn't go into much detail about the graphics (framerate) and sound side of things though. Still, I'm even more excited about the game now and I'm hoping it captures the excitement I felt when I played GTAIII for the first time on the PS2 all those years ago. A new city might have been nice but hopefully this Liberty City will be totally different from the others I've played. :)

I'm a little disappointed that the city isn't open from the off though, that means you have to complete missions in order to access everything which kind of goes against the whole sandbox thing in the first place. Sure the previous GTA games were like this but Crackdown and Saints Row showed that they can work fine without artificially locking out parts of the game. Seems like a backward step now... :(

Ahh ahh! Too many games! Got to buy this, MGS4, Haze, R6V2, and the MGS4 heaset. And a bunch of Steam games. Ahh!

/ waits for reviews before buying

Of course, I'm expecting those reviews to be near awesome and hence will be buying, but I wasn't enamoured with San Andreas.

hoochiemomma.

Good article there Tom, u lucky bastard.

Can't wait!

Sounds pretty good.

The MGS4 headset is a game now?

Sounds great! I may have to pick this up now.... do a Woolworths jobbie.

"When you begin playing, bridges and tunnels to the other islands are closed due to an undisclosed terrorist threat."

Crap..!

This idea stinks and kills the open world concept for me...

"To offset that, the new "wanted" system is less intensive; when the police are onto you, they establish a search radius around your last known location, indicated on your mini-map, and if you can escape that bubble without catching their attention, you're free, no matter their interest in you."

I like this idea. One of the things that's always annoyed me in sandbox games is when the cops (or whoever) apparently has psychic powers and just homes in on you, even if you're nowhere near the scene of a crime or have even switched cars. It makes it all too obvious that you're just "the player" in a fake environment that revolves around your actions.

No word on the suspect frame-rate? Which version of the game were you allowed to see? Xbox 360, I presume? Any news about the PC version at all?

I still feel rather "meh" about this game. The ridiculous review scores and piss poor gameplay of the previous installments did little to improve my confidence in big name hyped through the roof games.

RE: locking parts of the game out...

I like this, means its a bit special when you get released to a new part of Liberty City. Like levelling up all of a sudden! Also gives you a good chance to learn the roadways of each area well.

I see the big bridge is still in Liberty City, I wonder if its the same Island layout as GTA3? I do hope we see an utterly massive sprawling GTA in the future like San Andreas.

11/10.

my ONLY concern about this game is that it might have lost some of the humour from GTA3

Dear god, the fun i had!

Oh mercy! This game has got time stealer written all over it. Resistance is futile…

Anyone else think this was the review? For a second when the picture loaded up with GRAND THEFT AUTO I got very excited.

"One of the things that's always annoyed me in sandbox games is when the cops (or whoever) apparently has psychic powers and just homes in on you, even if you're nowhere near the scene of a crime or have even switched cars."

I always assumed that was because they'd questioned some witnesses that pointed them in my direction...

The frame rate is going to chug. we might as well accept it really. all the others did, so why should this one be any different?

I'm sure the pushing some person backwards down steps will be fun. Not for the person falling backwards of course.
Are you still able to tune the cars up like in San Andreas?
Overall sounds like the step up to next gen has been a good one.
Especially like how you can call a cop car out, distract them and use the onboard computer to track people down. :D
However smashing the window in order to shoot out of it seems a bit over the top. Not just wind the window down?
Like the sound of the targeting system, similar to that of Crackdown. Looking forward to the review for more information but nothing that spoils things of course.

Guess who's taken a week off during release week?

@Widge - Fair enough, locking out parts of the city can work well in giving you something new to see as you play it but for people who just want to mess around in a sandbox world, it's rather limiting and means they'll HAVE to do the missions if they want to see the whole game. I'm actually one of those people that gets bored of doing the missions (say if I get stuck on a particular one) and likes to explore so it's disappointing to go from the kind of environments that Saints Row and Crackdown had to a more restrictive one.

I might end up buying the PS3 version as well then (Xbox 360 version is the one I have pre-ordered) if this is the case as I'm sure someone will upload a save file on GameFAQs that unlocks the whole city: that's one of the good things about the PS3 over the Xbox 360 IMO.

"Guess who's taken a week off during release week?"


Half the country? ;)

I don't think we'll see any frame rate critisism on EG (no offence). So, unless Krudster posts that the frame rate is, surprisingly, silky smooth - then expect a bit of a chug.

Can't wait, but will obviously have to.

Guess who's taken a week off during release week?

Me. And, it would appear, you.

"The frame rate is going to chug. we might as well accept it really."

But how badly will it chug this time? :)

shame it didn't go into much detail about the graphics (framerate)

Is this really that much of an issue? The article says the models and animations are compelling and realistic. It says the environment is atmospheric and believable. That's what I look for in a game. If it chugs a bit when I make a dozen cars explode all at once, I don't generally give a shit.

Me neither. But if it chugs when I'm just driving down the street, with no explosions going off at all, then I'm concerned.

Ooh, come on, give us a break!!! It's hard enough waiting for its release without these so-called first impressions to wet our appetites even more, isn't it???

@Darren

Couldn't agree wth you more about getting bored with the missions. All the reviewers seem to love this game to death but, after all the overhype of stuff like Halo 3, MGS4 etc. etc. I have to be honest and say I don't hold much stock in reviewers anymore. I have this pre-ordered so i'll buy it. I don't think it's a 10/10 game though as Official XBox magazine does or a lot of the reviewers do.

Realistically I'm expecting it to be what I would class an 8/10 game. Lots to see but, ultimately I'll probably have actually done every ambient thing by day two. Then it's simply rinse and repeat or do the missions.

"I'm sure someone will upload a save file on GameFAQs that unlocks the whole city: that's one of the good things about the PS3 over the Xbox 360 IMO. "

What, that you can play games without actually playing them?

Wow!

/goes and buys PS3

Yeah Tom, how's the framerate in general compared to the earlier games?

"I might end up buying the PS3 version as well then (Xbox 360 version is the one I have pre-ordered)"

Even if you have plenty, there must be better ways to spend it... ;)

Personally, i thought that whilst crackdown was great fun, the city itself felt a bit soulless, the one thing locking areas off can do is give you more time to get a feel for an area before heading somewhere else, letting you soak up some detail. There is also the story argument, GTA4 needs to set the scene in a way that crackdown didn't want to. Although Crackdown always missed the little things, sounds like GTA4 is going to be a detailed as ever.

Nice Preview.

Had a moment of indecision the other day: do I pre-order it for the PS3 or the X360?

Location and size of the telly attached to the PS3 sealed the deal. And the fact that the noise of my X360 is starting to annoy me.

/will miss the Acheivement Points 'though :-(
/accepts instant saddo status having said that

@Bloke

As an owner of a PS3 and 360 I can say that the one thing microsoft got absolutely right was achievements. You're not a gamer unless you have an ego that requires you to do better at a game than your friends. Achievements are the perfect way of doing this. No dispute, no calls of foul, simply a list of set in stone achievements on a remote server.

I have the 360 version on pre-order but, may give that to my nephew (he's over 18) and get the PS3 version. Only thing I'm waiting on is a verdict on the framerates on both machines.

Took me a while to get excited about this, but my interest has definetly peaked now!

/waits patiently for pre-ordered special edition...
/lists possible sickday excuses...
/lists possible excuses for ignoring the missus for a week or so...
/plots suitable punishment for Tesco.com if release day delivery doesnt happen...
/giggles like school kid...