GTA IV sales hit 600k on day one Comments by Ellie Gibson

Look, if we want to do something about this questionable journalism, we have to unify

All who agree that GTA IV's 10/10 score (and all the other high press scores) is just wrong, join this group.
http://gamers.eurogamer.net/groups.php?g...

The fantastic GTA IV is not perfect group!

Fight the Power!

Well those stats certainly suggest it did a lot more for PS3 sales than 360 sales, if nothing else. Well done Rockstar, you deserve it. 12 hours in and it's nothing short of sublime.

Is there a group for people that are embarrassed to share a hobby with people that love to argue over semantics? Or a group for people that want to ban moaners who don't read the explanation of scores? The one that clearly states that 10/10 is not a perfect game?

Gran Turismo got kinda beaten...

"Is there a group for people that are embarrassed to share a hobby with people that love to argue over semantics? Or a group for people that want to ban moaners who don't read the explanation of scores? The one that clearly states that 10/10 is not a perfect game?"

I find the ignore button works well here :-)

@Prodigy_BE

I really don't see what you are getting so worked up about.

Why don't you just enjoy the game, or let others enjoy the game and drop the review score debate.

Not everyone thinks it is worth a 10. But so what. This applies to all review scores - they are only opinions.

And while we are on the subject nothing is perfect. Nothing!

Just think of a 10 as the highest accolade that can be awarded to a video game - not perfection.

Quel surprise

I agree that its not a 10/10, whether you see that as a perfect score or not. I applaud it for its sheer level of content but is it really any different to the old GTA games? Also is it just me who thinks they spank the draw distance just to get a few more up close visuals? I thought crackdown had a better balance of distance to level of detail.

Just ignore the tossers. Of course you can find fault in GTA IV, but that doesn't mean that it's not a 9.6/10 game.

Problems so far (just for the fools):

Feels sluggish (but that might improve with skill)
Changing game sessions online is needlessly awkward
Frame rate in places (Quel surprise)
Generally could have had the online side fleshed out a LOT more.
No mission checkpoint save for multipart missions (as far as I've seen)

etc...


Yadda, yadda... they didn't ignore the noticable issues in the review, and that's the important part. There aren't exactly very many.

Re the 'does it deserve 10/10' - I've personally had no technical issues at all (PS3 40gb) as in lock ups, crashes etc however... after spending hours in GTAIV (PS3 version) I'm going to sell it and buy something else. I've tried to get past the visuals but just can't. Call me a graphics whore if you like (you are wrong) but I can't take the blurred vision, it feels like I need to put on some glasses at all times. That in itself is one thing, but factor in the amazingly slow frame rate and it's completely horrible to play from a 'feel' point of view.

I know the whole world is in love with GTAIV and I too was blown away at the start by the story and the depth of detail they've put in, it's truely stunning in that regard. Also I loved Vice City (PC) and even replayed it a few months back so it's nothing to do with the level of graphics per se. I can take 'lesser graphics' but what I can't take is 'Swimming pixles' (Aliasing on textures), Blurred Vision (Scaled up from non native resolutions and absolute KILLER to my eyes; i'd rather play it at 640p non scaled in a little box in the centre of the screen - I NEED SHARPNESS OF VISION or it makes me TIRED. And Certainly anything less than 30fps is pushing things and this game easily drops to half that a lot of the time. It just feels horrible to interact with.

Now aside from those technicalities I find the entire premise and detail of the environment amazing, I love NYC and have been looking forward to this game for months just so I can drive around (even if it didn't have any gameplay). I just can't get past the feeling it gives me, it's tiring and makes me blink all the time as I try to get a clear focus on objects, the frame rate induces near motion sickness and the aliasing may or may not be better than the 360 version but it's still very bad. Objects (like phone wires) completely disintergrate from view sometimes it's that bad.

This messes with your head and Induces a feeling of poor focus/depth that in real life would actually fuck your eyes up.

In breif, I applaud Rockstar for what they reached for but to put it bluntly, the technology simply isn't up to it yet (not consoles anyway). I'm praying they release a PC version and I'll rebuy it and ramp up the resolution and AA and hope for at least a constant 30fps (prefer nearer 60). I don't want to play through it on PS3 and ruin it/experience it like this when the only thing stopping my enjoyment is that scaled up look and the damn slow frame rate (even aliasing I can deal with if the game moves slickly).

To see if I was imagining it I played for an hour then put the Burnout Paradise demo on, now while I'd admit Burnout Paradise isn't trying to do even half of what GTA is (in scope/size/detail/life) straight away, even with minor jaggies, it felt slick and clear. It was like I'd just had my vision corrected.

And in case anyone thinks i'm a 360 owner bashing the PS3 i'm not, I'm certain the same and worse applies to the 360 version, maybe the lack of scaling (ie it being non scaled 720p) would help my specific hate of the blurryness, but I know it would still be aliased (more so perhaps) and worse it would have the erratic frame rate and Pop In... again, it's a trade off as to which is better. My 360 has been dead for months (3rd one; I gave up sending them back and bought a PS3 instead), but I know neither console is actually up to delivering this stunning game how it should be delivered.

On the PS3 I think I could take 'most anything other than sub par frame rate and scaling blur, I'd easily prefer them to ramp down the detail/amount of objects/people/cars/lights if it meant it was fun to interact with.

As it stands now I feel sick just buying a hotdog and moving the camera around becuase it's so jerky, Actually attempting critical missions and precise gun use/driving would be even worse.

So, it's been massively overhyped (again) but in fairness, this time I do believe the underlying game itself does deserve all the 10/10s it got, the scope is huge and the detail that went into it is mind blowing. The characters/TV/etc are genuinely funny and very well written.

All of that however had to be shoehorned into 2 consoles, neither of which could deliver the vision properly, I even have doubts that a top spec PC (8800gtx) could fully deliver it without fault.

Now while most people may see me as nitpicking trivial faults it's really not. games have always FELT better when they are slick and fun to interact with on an intrinsic level, get that right (visual clarity/Frame rates) and THEN put in features which are the added bonus. It seems they started out with the grand vision and rather than cut back on that vision decided to give low performance and poor visuals instead.

And when I say poor visuals I mean technical graphics not artistry. The art direction is gorgeous, some of the scenes in game look almost photorealistic and really try to immerse you, the fault doesn't lie with the level desigeners or artists the fault lays firmly with optimisation and the lack of power on the PS3 and Xbox360. There's specs simply are not up to the task of delivering a fully living city without all these technical anomolies.

And please understand I KNOW the majority of people will think i'm talking crap as they don't mind these issues but really, I think a game should only be delivered when the tech is ready. Even Crysis (which on my PC ran at over 30fps on very high @ 1440x900), which is 'slow' by other PC game standards didn't feel anywhere near as treacle like as GTAIV does. And above all the resolution was crisp and you could visually 'breathe'.

And that's what it comes down to, I can't visually 'breathe' in GTAIV as it feels visually constrained, draw distance (on PS3) isn't a problem, it's the blurriness that comes with it and the aliasing in the immediate area of the player again, exaggerated by the very poor frame rate.

I just hope anyone who reads this can understand it's a valid technical opinion and i'm not just moaning for the sake of it, I love the game underneath and I've really enjoyed ALL 3D GTAs (on PC) even when they've had silly polygon people and much much less detail than what is in IV and it's come down to have a decent frame rate and a crisp resolution. Something neither current top Console seems able to deliver.

I'm dissapointed but hopeful for a PC version that may go some way to fixing those seemingly minor but VERY important problems (to me).

If you are enjoying it then great, have fun I don't want to dampen your spirits, I just want a 'living breathing city' to blow me away and this failed to because of the over reaching concept. I would still give the game 8/10 in this state if you can put up with the graphical flaws and more importantly the treacle like feel.

I would love to test in 360 to see if it feels better but I doubt it considering how most reviews said the PS3 had the technical edge, if so I can only imagine the 360 version must feel very bad to play (rather than to look at statically).

yawn.

Yes, the 360 version will be smoother.

The PS3 version loads textures more quickly from the HDD.

Get a blog.

And how is it doing more for PS3 sales if it sold more on Xbox 360?. I expect PS3 sales of the game to dry up now as game starved PS3 owners have all bought it already.

Really.

It's doing more for the PS3 simply because of the amount of 360s out there, double I believe. It hasn't got double the sales though has it?

Also, retailers were supplied with more copies of the 360 version (naturally) so PS3 sales were effectively stifled. Expect these figures to change significantly (more in Sony's favour) over the next few weeks/months.

@Pac (and about everyone else here asking Prodigy_BE to stop whining)

Its fair enough for you to have your opinion, so why can't those who don't agree with the 10/10 scores.
It seems to me that gamers have the most biased opinions towards products they love or hate (more so than footy fans with teams) so there is bound to people on the extreme sides of this particular topic.

sharpfish - talking about blurring, have you played the drunk level yet? Yeah the game is often very blurry with lots of patchy post processing. Whats the news on the crashing anyway?

@Zander

I have no problem with other people’s opinions or their right to voice said opinions.

However when someone says that there is a conspiracy of "questionable journalism" just because the review scores do not match with their own opinion then I take umbrage.

@Zander

No question, gamers are some of the most negative, opinionated and rude people on the internet. And nobody is begrudging anybody the right to disagree with the 10/10 score. What I have a problem with is people that complain that giving 10/10 is wrong, simply because it implies perfection. When there is a very clear explanation of the scores that explains that 10/10 on Eurogamer does not equal perfection.

That has been mentioned by reviewers, other readers, etc so often, it is untrue. To be honest, it's getting annoying.

@Sharpfish
Sorry to hear about your discomfort in playing GTA. Hopefully there'll be a PC version soon.

@Prodigy

No offence man, but you're beginning to grate.

Perfection is always unobtainable, its always a goal, a journey, never a destination.

However, if a game is as good as it can be, given the resources at the time, if it serves to entertain and enthrall completely, then it deserves 10/10.

You confuse perfection with a high score. They're not saying its perfect. They're saying, for those people that want to enjoy it, this game will fulfill your every need. I would rate this game 10/10, but i'm not saying its perfect. I'm saying its a DAMN good game

You just sound like a bitter old journo

@Goodfella

The main reason there were more 360 versions of the game supplied to retailers was because there were more 360 pre orders. Retailers generally got enough to match all there pre orders plus an additional say 50 copies on each system (at least that's the impression I got talking to my local retailer). So if you have fun with numbers you can infer that the 360 sales have been more stifled by shortages than PS3 sales. That said i think eveyone saw GTA IV as the game that would really push PS3 sales but that won't stop MS shouting to publishers that it sold better on their system and therefore PS3 exclusives are a waste of money but 360 ones are quite sensible or something.

Chart-Track has said these figures may change once it's analysed the data fully, which it'll be doing for the rest of this week.

Yeah right, they'll be playing GTA like the rest of us (except Sharpfish).

360 version was sold out everywhere.

"It's a similar story for PS3 - no longer is Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, which sold 80,000 copies on day one"

0_o

@sharpfish

I do largely agree with what I could be bothered to read of your post.

My first few hours with the game were very frustrating, I adjusted the gamma settings, I messed with my proj, I squinted at the mobile phone display, switched my contacts for glasses, even switched over to an LCD TV to see if things improved (they did a little).

It's certainly not a good looking game technically speaking, but it does play very well so I'm going to continue with it.

It's worth noting that had not trouble with COD4 (also upscaled) on my stup, it's always looked clean and sharp and lovely, I'd certainly like to have more visual options in-game. Couldn't you turn off certain graphical fripperies in Vice City?

Impressive figure, though without knowing units shiped figures you can't really compair the 360 and PS3 sales. Both were stock restrained.

The biggest factor in the "console war" will be how GTA effects this weeks hardware sales. But even then will take the next month more then likely to a fair picture.

I expect PS3 sales of the game to dry up now as game starved PS3 owners have all bought it already.

WHAT! if every PS3 owner bought one they'd sell over 12 million copies world wide! which i don't see R* complaining about, but also to ship that many will take more then a week.

"I expect PS3 sales of the game to dry up now as game starved PS3 owners have all bought it already"

If that was the case why did i just sell my spare copy on PS3 on eBay for 82 quid?

Though you 'd have to minus most of the japanese PS3's off that figure, they just ain't very interested.

Ok 10 million then

Isn't a review one writer's opinion and not the whole site's? Regardless, how can an opinion be 'wrong'?
If the reviewer gives it a 10, they give it a 10. I respect their opinion - I don't have to agree and it doesn't lower Eurogamer's reputation for me.

My main concern is the lack of a true classic rock radio station - Thin Lizzy's all very well but it's not enough. They are playing fast and loose with the term rock in the one they've supplied. Such is my petty complaint.

christ anyone would think that gamers don't have anything else to worry about

oh

Also, retailers were supplied with more copies of the 360 version (naturally) so PS3 sales were effectively stifled. Expect these figures to change significantly (more in Sony's favour) over the next few weeks/months.

Not the Game I went in.had sold out of 360 with plenty of folks asking for it only to be turned away.

Loads of PS3 copys at the back of store but no one askin for them.

But then again who cares,I have it on 360.Looks fine,plays ok as I am sure the PS3 version does.Just enjoying the game.

Brucie is the best character,his cut scenes are comedy gold.Unless we meet some one later in the game.7 hours in now.

ZOMGITSA10BUTNOGAMEISPERFECTLOL!!!!111!!

good for rockstar. i certainly picked up my xbox copy on releaseday. having played the other gta games on PC, i was not very happy with the framerate though. quick question for those in the know: i'm playing the game on a regular (sd, is that what it's called?) tv and still experiencing a generally low framerate. will it chug even more when i upgrade my tv and play in HD? or does the xbox render the game in HD regardless of my tv? i've always been confused by this.

Ryze, it's "Quelle surprise" (surprise is one of those confusingly feminine words in French). Just thought I'd mention it since you enjoy the expression. ;)

As for GTAIV, it's the first GTA game I've bought and I went out and bought it on launch day. I think it's certainly intrigued many people and, with the marketing push, will get many more to want to try it.

Been having so much fun messing around in game those past 2 days. It's huge.

Wendelius

^^^ As I said before swam, let's wait and see first.

It's far too early to say what effect GTA4 has on the sales of either console or what percentage of 360 and PS3 gamers are buying the game.

"a greater proportion of PS3 owners are buying a copy than their 360 bretheren"

Lol, "bretheren".

Yes yes me bredrins!

I'm surprised at how close the sales numbers are for the two consoles, given that there are more PS3s in the UK now (I think correct me if I'm wrong) and that GTA is considered a playstation game given it's previous three games were PS2 exclusive for 6 months. I was expecting the sales figures to give the PS3 60-70% of the games sales, especially with gamers who have both consoles seeings as it has faster loading times and less pop-in supposedly. Though if I had the choice I'd still take the 360 version, ignoring the 620p scaling things on the PS3 I'm just a fag for achievements.

you are a fag yes

This is so amusing, i just love how suddenly a score of 10/10 does not imply perfection. Humans have this natural ability to spin about everything.

Now, you gentelmen know that i was right....when i earlier said that there are people in the net who will argue to convince you that 2+2=5. ;)

As for the sales, according to some people at Neogaf. R* shipped the game at 55/45 for the 360/PS3 respectively, so both versions were sold out.

Ofcourse, i expect the PS3 version to fly ahead. even with a lower install base the PS3 version will be the overall biggest seller in 'Europe' which is a huge succes for the PS3. i,m eager to see the US sales result. if the ratio is anything close to 3/2 there, then i can safely say that Microsoft failed in capitalizing over GTAIV launch.

1. It's too early to determine sales. No console has outsold the other until all the cards are stacked.
2. I didn't think GTAV should have gotten a 10/10 but who cares really? It's an awesome game regardless and if anything, it should have gotten a 9.5.

@Wendelius

Cheers. I did French until year 9 - 14 years ago(!)

Was there ever any method for determining which are feminine or otherwise? I typed 'quelle' initially, but changed my mind.

Pot luck.

@Ryze

"Pot luck."

Pretty much. It's "une surprise" (a surprise) but "un cadeau" (a gift). growing up in a French speaking country is probably your best bet. Although, if the word ends with "e" it will generally (not always!) be feminine.

Wendelius

Madlax wrote: "This is so amusing, i just love how suddenly a score of 10/10 does not imply perfection. Humans have this natural ability to spin about everything."

I see. So you see a fantastic film and a friend asks you how you'd rate it, and you reply "It was absolutely brilliant, definately 10 out of 10". I guess that means you're saying the film was movie perfection then does it? Wouldn't you agree that you're actually saying the film was so good that it deserves full marks? The same is true for games. Or perhaps you've never rated anything 10 out of 10 in your life. ;)

Everytime a game gets 10/10 in a magazine or website review, we have the same nonsense from gamers claiming it can't be right because 10/10 means perfection, and nothing is perfect. But just as you'd give 10/10 to a movie which you consider as one of the best movies you've ever seen (despite not being perfect), reviewers will give 10/10 to games which they consider to be one of the best they've ever played, again depsite not being perfect.

So scores like 10/10 doesn't mean perfection, it simply means (for games) it's one of the best around and it's probably the best in it's genre and therefore deserves full marks.

I walked into Gamestation today and they had two big boxes - one full of GTA IV on 360 and another box full of GTA IV on PS3. Lots of happy people in Bury today I can tell you!

" but what I can't take is 'Swimming pixles' (Aliasing on textures),"

Good move getting a PS3 then huh?