GTA IV is a massive piece of shit

[<3sRichardSimmons]

So I dicked around with the launch properties and finally got this running in a semi-acceptable state. I'm a little confused at the overwhelming responses here about how I must be trying to run it on a toaster since a quick google search shows that the game has a pretty extensively documented reputation of being a terrible port that requires numerous workarounds even on modern systems.

Anyways the game is... yeah it's still kind of a massive piece of shit. So far I've been forced to go bowling and play pool, the facial animations remain a special kind of derp, and the writing smacks of edgy teen fanfic.
Regarding the "heaviness" of the cars, that's really not the problem; if anything it makes actual crashes somewhat more satisfying. The biggest problem is the turning radius of the vehicles. There are multiple cars (compacts even!) in this game that straight up cannot make a right angle turn at an intersection because their turning radius is so shit. It's just baffling, like no one on the dev team has ever driven a car or understands how an axle works.

 

[DalekFlay]

GTA IV and V were built for 30fps on consoles and cannot keep a stable 60 at all times on any machine. Either it's the grass in V or just the random load in IV, performance in these games is always inconsistent... unless you lock the framerate to 30.

This is not correct at all in my experience, but it's been too long for me to really debate you. GTA5 is still included in a lot of benchmark videos though, and I've never seen the issue you're describing. I also played Red Dead 2 recently and never once dropped below 60fps, and that's the same engine.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

So I dicked around with the launch properties and finally got this running in a semi-acceptable state. I'm a little confused at the overwhelming responses here about how I must be trying to run it on a toaster since a quick google search shows that the game has a pretty extensively documented reputation of being a terrible port that requires numerous workarounds even on modern systems.

because the codex stopped being the codex. now it's a den of posers, graphics whores, shill-feededs. i wrote 5 lines and "tl;dr". i spelt numbers, easily verificable numbers, and "fake news". i'm so sick of it, every retard who thinks he's funny gets thrown into my ignore list. some threads make little sense, then sometimes i click to show the ignored content and the same thread keeps making little sense.

 

[Ash]

Vice City was the last great GTA game. San Andreas was a mixed bag with a lot of problems and some really shit missions. Later stuff in that engine were garbage rehashes.

Fake fucking news. When I look back at Vice City and San Andreas, lame missions belong to Vice City in equal quantity. RC helicopter mission in the construction site for Avery? A later mission that is all 100% on rails chopper gunner segment? It's all the same often lame shit in both games. Don't lie to us and yourself.

Vice City is a good game, but you can't be oblivious to the hundreds of improvements San Andreas featured over it. Hundreds.
About the only gameplay decline that springs to mind is the hidden package system being replaced by four separate collectathons that each required you find every.single.one before you see any rewards, which is fucking stupid.

Maybe you don't like the setting, story, overall vibe, and that's fine, but as a game San Andreas is vastly superior. While it also had broader scope, this was only a good thing. More man hours (team size), money (budget) and expertise (what they learned from doing prior GTAs) were clearly put into into it in kind. It is a labor of love like many games were back then. One of the last greats from the AAA space.

 

[samuraigaiden]

Vice City was the last great GTA game. San Andreas was a mixed bag with a lot of problems and some really shit missions. Later stuff in that engine were garbage rehashes.

Fake fucking news. When I look back at Vice City and San Andreas, lame missions belong to Vice City in equal quantity. RC helicopter mission in the construction site for Avery? A later mission that is all 100% on rails chopper gunner segment? It's all the same often lame shit in both games. Don't lie to us and yourself.

Vice City is a good game, but you can't be oblivious to the hundreds of improvements San Andreas featured over it. Hundreds.
About the only gameplay decline that springs to mind is the hidden package system being replaced by four separate collectathons that each required you find every.single.one before you see any rewards, which is fucking stupid.

Maybe you don't like the setting, story, overall vibe, and that's fine, but as a game San Andreas is vastly superior. While it also had broader scope, this was only a good thing. More man hours (team size), money (budget) and expertise (what they learned from doing prior GTAs) were clearly put into into it in kind. It is a labor of love like many games were back then. One of the last greats from the AAA space.

CJ getting fat and then having to go to the gym was good for you? All that bullshit? Hey, to each his own. San Andreas was bigger and had more stuff in it alright, but they kept everything bad about the previous games, made it worse in some cases (RC Helicopter missions) and added some extra crap on top.

I have a problem with the setting too. GTA III and Vice City's protagonists are psychopaths. One canonically never talks like a fucking Sin City character, the other one rejoiced at every opportunity for mass murder. Then comes along CJ and of course Rockstar being the British pussies and posers that they are they put the kiddie gloves on and make the black guy a sort of nice guy, not really evil, just in the wrong place at the wrong time, you see?

And it's not like you don't have great black gangsters in movies they could've imitated like they imitated Tony Montana from Scarface for Tommy Vercetti. The black protagonist of a GTA game, especially one that comes immediately after Vice City, should've been modeled after Nino Brown from New Jack City down to the darkness, if you know what I'm saying. And they should've gotten Snipes to voice him too! Instead they made him a fucking goody two-shoes.

If San Andreas was live action, CJ wouldn't be played by Snipes or Tupac. He would be played by somebody like Mos Def. And that's just fucking embarrassing.

 

[samuraigaiden]

GTA5 is still included in a lot of benchmark videos though

Yeah, but they use the built in benchmark 90% of the time.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

So I dicked around with the launch properties and finally got this running in a semi-acceptable state. I'm a little confused at the overwhelming responses here about how I must be trying to run it on a toaster since a quick google search shows that the game has a pretty extensively documented reputation of being a terrible port that requires numerous workarounds even on modern systems.

because the codex stopped being the codex. now it's a den of posers, graphics whores, shill-feededs. i wrote 5 lines and "tl;dr". i spelt numbers, easily verificable numbers, and "fake news". i'm so sick of it, every retard who thinks he's funny gets thrown into my ignore list. some threads make little sense, then sometimes i click to show the ignored content and the same thread keeps making little sense.

as you can see, proof we hate retardation rooted deep into moderation.
i joined the codex because it was a place of prestige. brutal, deshilled, deplanted, honest, fun in its own way. now the place is ruled by old senile idiots with dementia.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I think the Vice City vs. San Andreas debate is a little pointless, and largely comes down to personal taste. I prefer Vice City overall as it's a "tighter" package and it's color palette and soundtrack are much more to my personal tastes than San Andreas'. There's no doubt that San Andreas is great though, I especially loved the addition of rural areas to the franchise, and brought a lot of QoL improvements to the series. I wasn't the biggest fan of the grindy manner they implemented its stat system, but I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with trying to introduce RPG elements to the franchise.

Also fuck that stupid dancing mini-game.

 

[DalekFlay]

San Andreas added a lot of bullshit I hated but it did improve the formula in a lot of ways I enjoyed. 4 and 5 kept the bullshit without really improving the gameplay.

 

[Ash]

samuraigaiden Yeah San andreas added a bunch of fluff in addition to the more meaningful new content and improvements, but the majority of the fluff was optional, including getting fat.

And I can agree that the contrast between CJ's character presented in cutscenes and the psychotic shit done in gameplay is in hindsight lame as fuck, especially in a series with historically psychotic white characters, but I care about the game before anything and that game is better than Vice City. I do prefer the 80s Florida vibe Vice city presents most of all I think, but San Andreas had quite a dynamic vibe and is notable in that regard too. California (or whatever) ghetto to redneck countryside to the desert and the vegas strip, and I love how the default radio stations is based on the locations (e.g steal a car in the desert, you get K-DST and a Horse With No Name) specifically to help set the mood.

Also to be fair, maybe by this point they were fed up with writing clear-cut psychos and wanted to try something new?

 

[Daemongar]

I've played every one, and I've got to give it to GTA: San Andreas:

• Tenpenny and Pulaski were fantastic game characters - from start to finish
• Driving school/flying school - could sit around all day trying to get gold in everything - liked leveling up bike/car/flying - was annoyed this was removed from GTAIV - it was optional. Why remove it? Kind of made driving kinda lame. "So, this is as good as driving will get, eh?"
• Minigames like Ambulance/Police/Fire/Delivery - added to your character giving in game permanent boosts. Still optional.
• Final GTA game where the wanted level made sense.
• Weight lifting - ok that took about 10 minutes to have max. strength so that was kinda lame, but it was something to do.
• A great amount of side races. Some of them fantastic, some a pain in the ass (Arena missions, etc.)
• Added the ability to swim/no water insta-death that was annoying in VC
• Incredible amount of ingame jokes, lots of radio broadcasts - still give the nod to Vice City for music, but SA is a close second.

I remember firing up GTAIV and said "is this all there is?" They stripped out all the fun elements for realism, and I remember just being bored the whole time playing it. After that, Saint's Row kind of took GTA's place for a schlocky sandbox game. Vice City and GTA3 still look really nice with updated graphics though and have their own charm - but just not as complete as SA

 

[Ash]

I should play Vice City and San Andreas with mods one of these days. I always forget they have modding communities.

 

[Ol' Willy]

I remember playing GTA IV back then, sometime near release. It ran like shit, true, even on absolute minimals, but that was ~2008 PC, OK? Shooting people was fine, the rest I don't even remember. Side activities? Fuck this shit.

But GTA IV gave us the best line in the history of GTA games:

 

[Ash]

I've played every one, and I've got to give it to GTA: San Andreas:

• Tenpenny and Pulaski were fantastic game characters - from start to finish
• Driving school/flying school - could sit around all day trying to get gold in everything - liked leveling up bike/car/flying - was annoyed this was removed from GTAIV - it was optional. Why remove it? Kind of made driving kinda lame. "So, this is as good as driving will get, eh?"
• Minigames like Ambulance/Police/Fire/Delivery - added to your character giving in game permanent boosts. Still optional.
• Final GTA game where the wanted level made sense.
• Weight lifting - ok that took about 10 minutes to have max. strength so that was kinda lame, but it was something to do.
• A great amount of side races. Some of them fantastic, some a pain in the ass (Arena missions, etc.)
• Added the ability to swim/no water insta-death that was annoying in VC
• Incredible amount of ingame jokes, lots of radio broadcasts - still give the nod to Vice City for music, but SA is a close second.

I remember firing up GTAIV and said "is this all there is?" They stripped out all the fun elements for realism, and I remember just being bored the whole time playing it. After that, Saint's Row kind of took GTA's place for a schlocky sandbox game. Vice City and GTA3 still look really nice with updated graphics though and have their own charm - but just not as complete as SA

My own list:

-All the new mechanics like climbing, crouching, free aiming, dual-wielding, kung-fu attacks.
-Content at every turn/rewarding exploration, you'll find secrets and challenges every fucking where.
-Some of the mini games: the vehicle schools, firing range, the bike and super bike challenges,. Others were very lame like the dancing, yes, but most lame shit was tucked away and completely optional.
-All the QoL things like dying in a mission and a taxi will sometimes be outside the hospital to take you back to mission start.
-Car customization and nitrous.
-RPG elements.
-BMX. This one thing w/bunny hopping was massive incline.
-All the little interactions, e.g shoot a car's gas tank for an instakill.
-Swimming I guess (I don't mind instakill water, but it was for sure an upgrade in SA).
-The Apache helicopter. This alone made it better than Vice City.

I have no idea how GTAV can be one of the top selling-games of all time, especially after already disappointing with 4. Neither of them have a fucking thing on Vice City and SA except their mostly superficial elements (graphics, physics).
well, I do know how. It's a mix of things: aggressive modern age corporate high budget marketing, most people not actually properly playing the games they buy (most people buy a GTA, dick around in a free roam context for a couple hours here and there and that's the extent of their experience), as well as people's standards being defined by the prior 8 years of decline leading up to GTAV.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

And I think I'm done with this game. I gave it a solid 4 hours and I hated pretty much every second of it. The real final straw is just the game's overbearing nihilism and lack of anything approaching the tone of the prior games. I mean sure, the PS2-era games were all undeniably psychopath simulators, but they were irreverent and absurdist in their approach. IV in comparison is just edgy, dark, grim bullshit wrapped up in a gray-monotone world populated by awful, unlikable, poorly-written characters (seriously, in 4 hours of play I never met a character that I less than loathed).

To be fair, that approach can work in movies. I'm a big fan of the Safdie brothers work, for example, but the people behind this clearly

A)didn't have their talent

and

B) DIDN'T UNDERSTAND THEY'RE MAKING A FUCKING GAME AND NOT A GODDAMN MOVIE

I could write more, but I've already wasted enough of my life on this stupid fucking excuse for a game.

Fuck this shitty game.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Honestly, GTAIV was such a letdown after all the madness and awesomeness that was the entirety of the GTA3 series, which I include Vice City and SA.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

And the wardrobe sucks donkey balls

 

[Child of Malkav]

San Andreas is the best GTA. Fact.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

GTA4 is a weird clash of ideas. Gameplay wise it's the best of the 3D GTA games. It has the best shooting, the best driving, the best AI, and the best stage layouts (both in terms of the city overall, and the areas some of your biggest missions will take place in) of those 3D games; in GTA5 shooting is made simpler, driving is made simpler, (while also not allowing you to flip a car) and the AI is dumbed down which doesn't let you create as many interesting situations to get into. Sadly they seemed to really get up their own ass with the writing, and they introduced a half thought out friend system that's tied to new options that completely sucks because despite having all the money in the world Rockstar can't seem to do extra side content even half as good as Yakuza or an Atlus game.

If you've got the The Ballad of Gay Tony DLC I'd say just play that. It's ironically not up it's own ass, being fun GTA as opposed to "serious" dour GTA.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

This video is always fun.

I've played every one, and I've got to give it to GTA: San Andreas:

• Tenpenny and Pulaski were fantastic game characters - from start to finish
• Driving school/flying school - could sit around all day trying to get gold in everything - liked leveling up bike/car/flying - was annoyed this was removed from GTAIV - it was optional. Why remove it? Kind of made driving kinda lame. "So, this is as good as driving will get, eh?"
• Minigames like Ambulance/Police/Fire/Delivery - added to your character giving in game permanent boosts. Still optional.
• Final GTA game where the wanted level made sense.
• Weight lifting - ok that took about 10 minutes to have max. strength so that was kinda lame, but it was something to do.
• A great amount of side races. Some of them fantastic, some a pain in the ass (Arena missions, etc.)
• Added the ability to swim/no water insta-death that was annoying in VC
• Incredible amount of ingame jokes, lots of radio broadcasts - still give the nod to Vice City for music, but SA is a close second.

I remember firing up GTAIV and said "is this all there is?" They stripped out all the fun elements for realism, and I remember just being bored the whole time playing it. After that, Saint's Row kind of took GTA's place for a schlocky sandbox game. Vice City and GTA3 still look really nice with updated graphics though and have their own charm - but just not as complete as SA

My own list:

-All the new mechanics like climbing, crouching, free aiming, dual-wielding, kung-fu attacks.
-Content at every turn/rewarding exploration, you'll find secrets and challenges every fucking where.
-Some of the mini games: the vehicle schools, firing range, the bike and super bike challenges,. Others were very lame like the dancing, yes, but most lame shit was tucked away and completely optional.
-All the QoL things like dying in a mission and a taxi will sometimes be outside the hospital to take you back to mission start.
-Car customization and nitrous.
-RPG elements.
-BMX. This one thing w/bunny hopping was massive incline.
-All the little interactions, e.g shoot a car's gas tank for an instakill.
-Swimming I guess (I don't mind instakill water, but it was for sure an upgrade in SA).
-The Apache helicopter. This alone made it better than Vice City.

I have no idea how GTAV can be one of the top selling-games of all time, especially after already disappointing with 4. Neither of them have a fucking thing on Vice City and SA except their mostly superficial elements (graphics, physics).
well, I do know how. It's a mix of things: aggressive modern age corporate high budget marketing, most people not actually properly playing the games they buy (most people buy a GTA, dick around in a free roam context for a couple hours here and there and that's the extent of their experience), as well as people's standards being defined by the prior 8 years of decline leading up to GTAV.

It ain't like Vice City and San Andreas didn't have massive marketing campaigns behind them too. Rockstar was Rockstar by Vice City. Also, Vice City, on a gameplay level, is pretty fucking terrible. Even on release Vice City's gameplay sucked. So I don't know what this talk is about when it comes to superficial elements, but the superficial elements are why people love Vice City so much even still. San Andreas was the first time it seemed like Rockstar was really figuring out what they were doing since GTA2, (which I'd say is still the best game in the series, they were far better at the top down gameplay than the 3D stuff) and GTA4 is the first time in the series I thought the shooting was actually good...it's just too bad they dropped everything that was so interesting about San Andreas.

 

[mogwaimon]

in regards to the GTA4 performance I don't recall having trouble running it like....a whole PC ago and that was on a 2600k with a gtx 560, think it was. If you're having framerate drops now on a more modern system...well, goddamn. I dunno, maybe they fucked the port somehow when they stripped GFWL out of it? Maybe it's just something with your particular setup, I recall having some bullshit stuttering problems when I tried to play DMC4 Special Edition on my current PC a few years back despite well exceeding the recommended system specs and I tried everything but the kitchen sink to fix it to no avail...yet now I think last time I tried it it ran like butter and the only change I've made is new monitors. though I guess that could have been the fix too come to think of it...but anyways!

like others have been saying GTAIV is pretty hit or miss. It was aight back when the new shine was still on it in like the first week but after that it was readily apparent that it was nowhere near the heights of San Andreas. TLaD was pretty fun when it came out I guess 'maybe' but I also was so bored I never even bothered to buy Gay Tony back then so...yea. maybe I'll get around to playing it sometime, but GTAV is the better game if you absolutely must play a modern GTA. At least it's not as stuck up its own ass as IV was and if you use a trainer you can spawn in the supposed 'online only' cars and have a good time fucking around with them in single player without having to spend 20 bucks for virtual cash or spend many days grinding heists just to get one car. GTA Online was a mistake...I mean it's fun with friends and all but otherwise bleh and Rockstar doesn't do shit with singleplayer at all now because they can just sit on their ass and collect from MTX bullshit.

also San Andreas may have been the better game, but Vice City definitely had the better vibe/atmosphere. Don't sleep on either of them. GTA3...well, it might be worth playing once just to get the story coz elements do tie into the later games but it's pretty skippable if you don't care about that TBH. In fact if you want to hit up a more refined version of Liberty City or Vice City there were a couple of PSP games that later got ported to the PS2, Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories where you play as a couple of side characters in those cities and they have quite a few of the improvements to the gameplay that San Andreas had plus a bit more, but still San Andreas is the king of that era of GTA games IMO.

EDIT: oh and yea GTA4 does have some incline compared to GTA5 like Manatee posted, I always forget about Euphoria being implemented and the cops being significantly less trigger happy, it's not a total garbage fire by any means. Just the game is kinda boring, which becomes way more apparent when you're done with the story since there was (IIRC) absolutely no real side content to speak of. This might be better in Gay Tony but I dunno.

 

[Pero_Gamechuck]

San Andreas > Vice City > V > IV > III > London > I > II (imo).

GTA IV was pretty good. Loved Niko Belić as character, and loved the gameplay.

Although, I still don't get why didn't Rockstar did their proper research on how people from Balkan countries (primarily Serbia, because Niko is apparently Serbian) are surnamed.

We don't have Bellic (with double L) surnames here.

Also, Niko tends to call himself "BeliK".

Oh well.

 

[Falksi]

GTA IV was fucking awful. A bullshit life-sim wannabee, which lost all the zest, vibrancy & fun of the earlier games. I thought so at the time, and was gobsmacked so many had a hard on for it.

The Saints Row games are really the spiritual successors to GTA. After San Andreas folk should drop onto Saints Row 2, and make sure they play 4 as well (3 I didn't like as much, but I'd still say try it)

As for best GTA, San Andras? Fuck off! It's OK, but all the bullshit it added and nigger-gangster tone was shite & the start of the decline which stsrted GTA IV down it's path.

Vice City is the best GTA game. Totally captures everything which it sets out to, with possibly the best sountrack in gaming history ever.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

and make sure they play 4 as well (3 I didn't like as much, but I'd still say try it)

SR 4 is even more of a mini game collection than 3. 4 is a story hub and mini games. I don't know wtf you're thinking here.

Totally captures everything which it sets out to

This is a total non-point as you haven't the first fucking idea what they were "setting out to capture" in any of the games. Even if you had a point here, would you suggest that San Andreas failed to capture a stereotypical LA gangster story, but that Vice City was thematically successful? Don't be silly. They both nailed their themes well, you just prefer one over the other.

I'll say it again, Sleeping Dogs is the best in the genre.

 

[Curratum]

OP is just over a decade later to the party.