[Multiplatform] Grand Theft Auto IV. Not as much fun as shooting real Albanians

It's one huge behemoth of a game.
Which was to be expected, but I like it a lot MORE then I thought I would, and that's gotta mean something.
Sure, some missions can be a tad bit frustrating, due to me sucking at them, especially high speed chases with seemingly invincible guys to hunt.

Spoiler:

Did any of you manage to get that first biker OFF his bike by shooting at him? I'm sure I hit him enough to kill any other random gangbanger without him bothering...

But after those missions you can just go crazy or just do SOMETHING ELSE THAT'S AWESOME and all's fine again pretty fast... Love the game.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Infernal Monkey

I'm currently very annoyed at the

Spoiler:

FUCKING RACING 'MISSION' WITH BRUCIE. CARS CONTROL LIKE SHIT, THE LAST THING I WANT TO DO IS RACE ONE AROUND CHECKPOINTS, OH GOD WHY IS THERE ONE OF THESE AWFUL MISSIONS IN EVERY GTA, IT'S LIKE THE SPEEDERBIKES IN EVERY BATTLETOADS

But aside from that I'm having a lovely time!

I take it the "bunch of annoying missions" is necessary so the game doesn't go critical and turns into a real black hole of awesomeness, sucking the world in.

I guess what's annyoing me the MOST is that they have checkpoints now for missions, but sadly BEFORE the real missions, so you still have to usually drive for five minutes before really trying again. I'm aware that this IS actually an improvement, I just wonder why they couldn't have done it more reasonably, doing a checkpoint right before the action.

Spoiler:

HOT DAMN! Racing missions! I've hated nearly ALL chasing missions so far (where speed and maneuvering counts most), which ALL had a nearly nonexistant margin of error, and I believe I shouldn't do any RACING missions against the scripted and possibly cheating AI. Seriously. I've always hated racing missions in GTA style games, be it Crackdown, San Andreas or Mafia...

Good times. Just had a **** police chase, where the pileup of cop cars actually pushed me THROUGH the roadblock, and into safety due to a pay'n'spray nearby (though I think Pay'n'Spray is nearly cheating, real pros just shake the tail and get away, which is really hard but boy is it satisfying if you pull it off, even with ***-Levels...

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Police cars and taxis are usually the most dependable cars.
The BEST car IMO is the... Dammit if I now could recall the name... Roadster sports car, rounded overall shape, one big stripe from front to back.
It's been in all games IIRC so far. Great acceleration, great handling. It's just a little light, but so what...?
And, it's rather rare. I've yet to spot a regular spawn point...

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Yeah! The Banshee. It's been my favourite car since III.
The SUVs in IV aren't too bad either. Decent accelleration, good handling, good speed. No Banshee though. Most of the "basic" cars just suck at that though...
The Banshee, as usual, takes the cake.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Plus, it is rather well explained in IV, and makes it more plausible that you get a six star wanted level if you cross to a forbidden section.

I was speaking idiomatically.

GTA is a strange game insofar, that usually I hate games that I have to play for the sake of, well, playing them, getting "nowhere", getting no meaningful rewards, and so on...
But with GTA, I don't really care. Yeah, cash is basically worthless, once you've figured out some places where equipment spawns, cause you'll hardly spend it ALL on lapdances, hookers and taxi rides...
But it doesn't really matter to me. The game is fun enough to keep me interested even without providing any bigger sense of accomplishment.
Regarding ammo from fallen foes and missions: That's a part of the game that sometimes annoys me. I off a couple of guys on a mission, the game saves, maybe someone talks to me, and poof, the dough and the guns are gone...

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Or they just want to bring the metacritic / gamerankings score down, so that what? Ocarina can be the perfect game evar again.

Wouldn't argue about the rating though. The rating system as it is does have some benefits, but overall, I think it's more of a hindrance. I'm with the ones saying that game reviews should be more like OTHER reviews (books, movies, music) without a scoring system. Even if that means that you can't compare Final Fantasy XII with Manhunt 2 by just looking at the score any more...

As for the notoriously deviant people who keep shunning IV, yeah, Rockstar can't please everybody. But I think it's safe to say that if you really can't have lots of fun with IV, you should probably think about quitting video gaming. Or get surgery to remove that firmly planted stick from your ass. Whichever is easier.

FELIPE NO