GTA4 - The Verdict
This could quite easily turn into a bitch, so I’ll try to stay on track here. I don’t think the game deserves at 10. I think anyone that does is blinded by hype. The game ‘is’ good, but its not without its problems. Camera angles and aiming issues are things that usually see games ripped apart in reviews from players and magazines alike. Repetition and samey stories also cost points to games. Keeping these few things in mind, let me start my quick review.
Of course, it’s still early days. I think I’m a grand total of between 3% and 7% through the game so I am yet to be wowed by later content,
Arguably, if I was driving ‘nicely’ these things wouldn’t happen. But driving around obeying all the road rules is NOT the point here. I would get bored of this game quicker if I did that, but with the amount of trouble I cause with camera problems, I rarely end up at the mission start instead of the hospital anyway. I can put this down to noobish impatience, as I have never EVER wanted to take a game slow. To skip over other issues, I have cover, auto-aiming and side-games. The reasons for this: they suck. Try to shoot from a moving car driven by your friend in multiplayer. Seems okay? Now have him turn down random streets. You might notice that instead of moving your gun as the car turns, Niko does this for you. For a lot of this joyriding I was constantly overcorrecting, so I think, okay they want me to be lazy, but that’s hardly true. In one of the earlier missions, Niko decided to take cover in front of a dresser. Sure thats fine if they are behind it, not so much if they are in front with you. I then auto-aimed to the person shooting. Niko decided it would make more sense to try to shoot the guy behind the wall, THROUGH the wall, instead of locking on said guy. Then, when I left the hospital, I played some darts. The aiming is a LOT better and it works exactly as you would expect. The thing wrong? Darts are boring.
There storyline is different, yet, the game plays like every other one, SO FAR. I will admit, I’m losing interest already. The multiplayer is great, more on that another time, but the game is hardly 10/10. Fanboys, you suck.
May 13th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Stick it to ‘em, man! Perfect scores? Peh. Rockstar slipped loopy pills in each reviewer’s morning coffee obviously.
May 15th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
I think it deserves 10. If you understand that 10 doesn’t mean “perfect” - it means it’s the BEST at this time. It is simply ILLOGICAL to think the top of the scale shouldn’t be achievable. By any other thinking you would have great games of the past, e.g. Mortal Kombat, which back in the late 90s certainly deserved a high 8/9 out of 10, today ALSO having the same score. Which doesn’t make sense! TODAY Mortal Kombat would get 1/2 out of 10 cos it’s a piece of POO next to modern fighting games. You HAVE to figure in the TIME of release and therefore at the TIME of release a 10 should be achievable because it doesn’t mean PERFECTION. A better game could be released next week that also gets 10 and it would still make sense.
Ok, I don’t know how many other ways to explain that.
The hype was huge and I didn’t expect it to deliver on it. For me, it HAS. I could go into all the details why but you can go off and read the countless reviews that agree with me
I can’t put the game down. I certainly can’t be bothered to pick anything else up to play. In fact, I can’t really be bothered to READ about anything else right now (so nice work on this post!).
I’d definitely say to you to give it more play time. I don’t think I was appreciating how good it was that early in the game. The story takes a bit to get into. Some of the funny characters aren’t until later than that. And the controls you don’t like (which neither did I at first) become natural and comfortable. The gradual/slow camera turn work well when combined with the other analog control (at least on 360 it does). If it were fast it’d be much harder in crazy situations to keep control. It’d overcompensate. I’m sure they tested it to death and figured that one out. The manual analog can be used slightly to get extra turn on the corners. All stuff you figure out and mold with the longer you play.
I know you’ll never agree to 10/10 but do follow up when you cover the MP (which is just crazy fun) and say whether it has grown on you at all cos I think it will if you give it a chance.
May 15th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
MOAR CAPSLOCK PLZ!!!
I’m not the only person on my side here. Check out some of the links in my blogroll and you will see my same opinion repeated. Maybe not as crudely as mine, but the underlying theme is the same. There are flaws, the game is good, but not amazing(for me).
Ive gone beyond bitching about scores, I can just say the game is good, I don’t think its ‘incredible’. I don’t really think that the fact that you get used to them is any reason to support the controls. If you play any game at all with the worst control system you will get used to it because that’s how you know it plays.
I’d still call MK and SF2 great games, because they still are. You can pick it up and bar the initial OMG WHATS HE DOING TO THAT GUYS SPINE? moments, the game is still the same. It’s sure as hell not incredible now, and it wasn’t back then, it was just a new spin on the genre as a whole, as opposed to the rehashed sequels.
But like the Zero Punctuation review says, if you can get past the tedium in the first dozen hours and the constant stopping of action, im sure it’s great. I just havent gotten past all the boring tutorial missions yet.