GTA IV - 360 & Ps3

[capcom_suicide]

Finished last night. 73% and 45 hours. I think with restarts and messing about you could easily say 50 hours.

My first GTA game for any proper playtime & I absolutly loved it. I loved the combat, the missions, the side quests, the story the visuals and the AWESOME scale of the city.

I will now mess around a bit with some side missions and then replay the PS3 version I think.

10.

[Rossco]

Are the Wanted missions the vigilante ones? I have hardly done anything apart from main story in this. At 55% over 45 hours I think. Just started playing again yesterday anyway and it was cool to be back.

[QualityChimp]

I'm glad somebody enjoyed it, Capcom_Suicide!

It seems like everybody else has got bored of it or think it's not all that. Maybe it was the hype surrounding it that meant it was never going to be as good as people were imagining it.

I've done the pigeons, the jumps and nearly finished the Wanted missions. Next up are the races. I love that there's so much to do besides the main story and so many different ways to do it.

My only complaint is there seems less bits than San Andreas at times and I forget they're not in this one.

I think I'll give it a 9.

EDIT: Rossco, Wanted and vigilante missions are different.
The "Manhunt" achievement is attained by taking out the 30 perps (10 per island) in the Most Wanted list on the police computer.
The "Cleaned The Mean Streets" is done by just taking out 20 criminals using the current crimes option.

[Dogg Thang]

I put this on last night for the first time in ages. First time since my 360 RRoDed (my new repaired 360 has a whole new noise added to the cacophony - joy) and, more importantly, first time since I got a big ol' 1080p HD telly.

Dear lord, what happened to my picture? Firstly, it's waaaaay too dark on television settings that look fine for tv, dvd, blu-ray and ps3. Okay, so that's easily compensated for by upping the brightness in both the game and the television. But on top of that, it has this hideous wobble effect, like it's trying to go for some pseudo-paint thing. It makes everything shimmer, smears away some details and actually makes it look like just really bad upscaling problems. It's really nasty and doesn't seem to have a trace of that filter in SD - it's a HD bonus feature.

I checked some other 360 games because my first thought was that it was because it was going through component (no HDMI on mine). On other 360 games, yeah, it doesn't look as sharp as the HMDI picture I have on ps3 and it seems this darkness issue is a 360 thing (I could barely see Gears of War) but the painting effect thing seems to be a deliberate thing in GTAIV.

It's nasty. It may have been mentioned and either I didn't see it or simply forgot about it because I didn't have to look at it on my SD telly but I'm surprised more hasn't been made of this filter-tastic HD bonus feature.

Is there a way of turning it off?

[Marmite]

Finished this finally last night, and to my surprise i got the acheivement for doing the story in under 30 hours. Nice bonus.

So just thinking of what other more fun achievements i might go for now (dont really fancy the sutnt jumps or flying rats). I just did all the car pick ups for Brucie. Also got the 4 star wanted level one, and was thinking of doing the 6 star one. However, im finding it really hard to get up to 6 stars in the first place. It takes forever. It was loads easier when i hadnt opened up all the islands and could just get the 6 stars automatically from trying to drive through. Any suggestions?

[FatGit_UK]

There are plenty of save slots, so could you start a new game and then leave the first island to get the 6 stars?

[buster_broon]

went back to play San Andreas yesterday and its does look very poor put against GTA4

I played it to death on the Xbox previously and i cant remember the Xbox version looking so bad, maybe the rose tinted glasses need a clean

Still say if you had San Andreas using the GTA4 engine, it would be perfect

[merf]

finally finished this last night, had given it afew days rest to ensue I was enthused and didn't find the last mission too hard, as always nice and methodical and clinical seems a far better approach than roaring in balls out.

I'd like to comment on the story though, I think it tailed off a lot towards the end and I cared for Niko a lot more at the start by the end, when for me he'd just become a bloodthirsty murderer or hire.

in particualar the supposed 'emotional impact moment', the game doesn't actually force you to stay particularly close to certain characters so I'd ignored them totally in order to get the quest finished,

->Open Spoiler<-

when the big hit and Kate's murder took place I couldn't care less personally, which made Niko's wailing and revenge pursuit seem very forced as she meant nothing to me, I'd have been quite upset though if Kiki who I'd wine and dined for ages got whacked.

all in all though pretty damn and for a GTA virgin I loved it, heading off to try San Andreas now.

[cutmymilk]

I'm still playing this - seen both endings, done all of the parcels and onto the Most Wanted now. The Most Wanted stuff is great - almost a game in itself. I've done most now, then its on to the jumps and assassin missions!

I've also yet to sample online. This could end up being my most played game ever!

[Distant Cousin]

HSDGAKJDHG I HATE

->Open Spoiler<-

THE BANK JOB MISSION.

I got to the end of the

->Open Spoiler<-

subway section

and the AI characters just stopped working. The police were flooding down from the street and they were just standing there. Grr.

The controls were cocking me about as well, I kept sticking to other bits of cover when I wanted to just leave it.

[merf]

my advice for bank job or any missions you get stuck on is to walk away, game seems for me to really favour a methodical slow approach to the bigger shooty missions and if you are playing with rage and wade in guns blazing you'll get stuffed time and time again.

I went back to this to try hoovering some bits up having finished the main story.
did all the assassin missions which were quite fun and now trawling thru the most wanted police computer levels.

I'm 60 hours and still really enjoying just dicking about with this.

[buster_broon]

i found it quite easy

every time you come to a corner just throw a grenade, nothing better than clearing a road block quickly and watching police run about on fire

the subway needs to be taken a bit slowly as police just jump from behind corners and if you do it slowly and have your gun ready its a matter of shoot walk shoot etc

[iloveannie]

I remember one attempt at the Bank Job had me stalling the car on a bridge during the getaway. Now that is a complete ****er I can tell you.

[Dogg Thang]

First time I tried it, the AI clapped out and the scenery stopped loading. Doesn't matter how you play if that happens.

[Distant Cousin]

Yeah, the AI just stopped for me as well. The two friendly NPCs just wandered about not shooting at anything.