GTA gets a perfect 10

[shmokes]

So, first it was the official Xbox magazine.  Now IGN and IGN-UK have rated Grand Theft Auto 4 a perfect 10. 

Presentation - 10
Graphics - 10
Sound - 10
Gameplay - 10
Lasting Appeal - 10

Total (not an average  ) - 10

I love the GTA franchise.  Vice City and San Andreas are two of the best games I've ever played.  I really wish I had the means to play this game.  I can't wait for hardware prices to come down further.

[patrickl]

Didn't we have a thread about this a week ago?

Anyway, I'd love to play this game too.

I saw a preview of "GRID Race driver" on TV and it looked amazing. The reviewers were completely wild about it. They rated it much higher than Gran Tourismo 5 (prologue). Of course GTA is much more than just racing though.

[DaveMMR]

I've kind of lost interest in GTA after Vice City but I'm ready to try and rekindle my affection for the series.  I'm just glad it's coming out for the 360 because I'm more inclined to purchase that than a PS3.

[shmokes]

That's too bad.  San Andreas was a better game than Vice City in every way (other than the soundtrack, if you're into the 80s, I suppose).  It was bigger, deeper, better graphics, better gameplay, better dialog, etc.  It was just a fantastic game.  I know that a lot of people were turned off by the 90's gangsta theme, which I think is funny because it totally misses the point.  The game was a send-up of that whole world.  It was a spoof that lambasted everything about it. 

Regardless, though, GTA: San Andreas was easily in the top five games of the last generation, IMO, and definitely above Vice City (which is also near and dear to my heart).

[emerica]

My favorite out the series was GTA 3 but after that I thought the g ames were getting redundant. Vice City felt like an expansion pack of GTA 3. I do agree that San Andreas was deeper and bigger but I just couldn't get into the game the same as the GTA3.

Hopefully GTA4 will have that same appeal that forced me to waste hours upon hours carjacking and blowing up things around me.

[northerngames]

I liked vice city the most so far but have not played 4 yet.

[shmokes]

I actually never played more than about half an hour of GTA 3, just driving around randomly and killing people.  I never had a PS2.  Vice City was actually my first real exposure.  Was GTA 3 ever released on Xbox?

[AtomSmasher]

San Andreas was definately the best game of the series so far (I'm sure GTA IV with dethrown it though), but I know I spent a lot more time playing GTA 3 and Vice City simply because of the novelty factor of the new type of gameplay.  I'm going to try my best to resist buying GTA IV for the 360 anytime soon simply because there are a lot of older games I'd like to play, but if the reviews keep coming in with perfect scores, then I may break down and buy it.

On a side note, I picked up Crackdown last week for $15 and I haven't been able to stop playing it since.  It's a fantasic take on the open world gameplay and you really start to feel like a super hero once you start to progress your abilities.

[shmokes]

Speaking of which, I finally installed Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction on my Xbox a week or so ago.  Only played it for about an hour, but it was a riot.

[massive88]

I could be mistaken, but I think the last game that got a perfect 10 from IGN was Soul Calibur.   

I didnt get pulling into the GTA3 craze too much, though my girlfriend at the time did buy it for me, but with these high of marks, Ill probably snag GTA4.  Plus the multiplayer sounds totally sweet.

[shardian]

I am probably in the minority, but I prefer GTA I & II. Hell, I bet most of you haven't even played either of them! I played GTA I on the pc. When I was in HS Physics, the Teacher Assistant always sat in the back and played it during class. I spent way more time watching him than listening to the lecture.

I had part II on the PS1. That game had the "gang" aspect that really made it a hard game. 4 gangs, and you gained or lost reputation with all of them depending on what you did in the game.

[AtomSmasher]

I am probably in the minority, but I prefer GTA I & II. Hell, I bet most of you haven't even played either of them! I played GTA I on the pc. When I was in HS Physics, the Teacher Assistant always sat in the back and played it during class. I spent way more time watching him than listening to the lecture.

I had part II on the PS1. That game had the "gang" aspect that really made it a hard game. 4 gangs, and you gained or lost reputation with all of them depending on what you did in the game.

I played the first three GTA's quite a bit on PC (GTA, GTA II, GTA: London), but I pretty much always just did random destruction instead of going through the storyline missions.  I seem to remember all of the missions were given through payphones, so the storylines didn't really hold my interest for too long.  GTA 3 did a great job telling the story with cutscenes and great voice actors to help pull you in.

[somunny]

IMO, while Vice City and San Andreas were great, it was really too much of a good thing.  The games (espeacially SA) were just too vast and it seemed too easy to lose focus.

GTA 3 is my favorite, though the soundtrack from Vice City can't be beat!

[Samstag]

I am probably in the minority, but I prefer GTA I & II. Hell, I bet most of you haven't even played either of them! I played GTA I on the pc. When I was in HS Physics, the Teacher Assistant always sat in the back and played it during class. I spent way more time watching him than listening to the lecture.

I had part II on the PS1. That game had the "gang" aspect that really made it a hard game. 4 gangs, and you gained or lost reputation with all of them depending on what you did in the game.

You can download both for the PC (for FREE!) from Rockstar.  Just google "free GTA download" and you'll find them.  For some reason the London pack isn't available.

I played a lot of the original on the PC, including the London expansion.  I didn't really like GTA 2 much, but I wasn't playing games as much by that time.  Everything since GTA 3 has been pure gold as far as I'm concerned, although playing Vice City on my 360 recently I'm finding it much harder to control and look at than I remember.

[shmokes]

I never played the originals.  I don't think I had even heard of them before GTA III was released.

BTW, the perfect 10's just keep coming in.  Metacritic is showing quite a long list of them.

For anybody who might actually pick up a system to play this game, the consensus seems to be that the PS3 version runs a bit better, and has the slight visual edge, but the 360 version has achievements and will have some significant, exclusive downloadable content this fall.  In the end, though, the game looks perfect for either system, so you should probably just buy whichever system appeals to you more for other reasons.

[Mauzy]

Crap. I just bought a bunch of arcade stuff or I would pick it up...

I have the first 2 and london for PS1. They're good but they took time getting used to after playing GTA3 for so long. I didn't get to play Vice City all that much as my PS2 wont read the disc. That is the only disc it doesnt read. Anybody have this problem?

[ablizno]

I am probably in the minority, but I prefer GTA I & II. Hell, I bet most of you haven't even played either of them! I played GTA I on the pc. When I was in HS Physics, the Teacher Assistant always sat in the back and played it during class. I spent way more time watching him than listening to the lecture.

I had part II on the PS1. That game had the "gang" aspect that really made it a hard game. 4 gangs, and you gained or lost reputation with all of them depending on what you did in the game.

I am with you. GTA 1 and 2 are the best, III is ok and everything after III is the same thing.

[Franco B]

I loved the first GTA on PS1. Me and my friends had a demo of it that we got with a magazine. You only got something like 10 minutes of play time but we must have played that first few minutes hundreds of times.

GTA3 was the major games (up to now for me). After playing it at a friends house I went and bought a PS2 that day. I still prefer it to Vice City and San Andreas.

I picked up GTA4 last night at midnight from Blockbuster. There must have been about 70 people waiting for it and I imagine our Blockbuster is one of the least accessible vendors to get to. I went to reorder it from Game but they had ran out of reorders. I dread to think what the queues were like there.

I had a couple of hours on it last night and all I can say is wow! It really is amazing. The physics engine is awesome, from little things like hitting your head on the steering wheel when braking suddenly to actually flying through the window when you come to a stop at full speed. It was also impressive to see people try to grab on to your car after you jacked them and watch them get dragged along when you speed off.

There are so many other little touches that make the game so so 'whole' (and Ive only played a couple of hours). I must have spent 30 minutes doing burnouts etc in various cars and watching the alloys speed up and start 'turning in reverse' to mimic the effect where your eyes cannot keep  up with the speed of rotation of a wheel or helicopter blades etc. There are so many other little touches but I wont go into them, ill let you discover them for yourself. I'm sure there are hundreds of other too as I guess I have barely scratched the surface.

I have a few hours before work this afternoon so guess what I'm off to do now

Enjoy the game guys 

[Hawk Daddy]

I've been playing this game for the past week and it is great.  The online team death match, adn car jack city are crazy fun.  It's gfun to get every one in the car and drive up to 1 person and pwn them.  Me and my friends have been playing almost non stop since we got it last Wednesday. 

Hawk

[Samstag]

I picked up GTA4 last night at midnight from Blockbuster. There must have been about 70 people waiting for it and I imagine our Blockbuster is one of the least accessible vendors to get to. I went to reorder it from Game but they had ran out of reorders. I dread to think what the queues were like there.

There were no more than 25 people at my Blockbuster.  While we were waiting for midnight a couple of the guys who came in late said they passed the Gamestop a couple miles away and saw at least 250 people lining up over there.  That was a source of some amusement for the few minutes it took to get us all checked out.

This game is incredibly polished.  Everywhere I go I see tiny details I'd normally ignore in a game, but I've been having fun walking around the city and checking out all the little shops, billboards, grafitti, etc.  And though they may have stolen the GPS feature from Saint's Row (I think everyone was hoping for that), they went a little extra and if you're in an "upscale" car you'll actually get a pleasant voice telling you to "turn left in 400 yards".  There seem to be a lot more radio stations to choose from than any other version, you can watch some really hilarious TV shows in your apartment, and I haven't even seen the comedy/variety shows or the in-game internet stuff yet.

So I've only done a few story missions and haven't even seen a gun yet, but already I'm overwhelmed by all the content the game is throwing at me.  But don't make the mistake of buying the game based on the hype.  As awesome as it is, if you didn't like previous 3D GTA games, you probably don't want to buy this one.  It's the same basic gameplay, but taken to a whole new level.

[shmokes]

Most people I know who hated the original GTA games (I said most people) never actually played it.  That is to say, they got in, drove around the sandbox, ran over some pedestrians, shot some cops, etc.  Sure it was novel, but it wore thin.  Just hype.

Most people who actually play the game to a significant degree, i.e., start the story line, play a few missions, cannot help but be sucked in and realize what an amazing series it is.

Anyway, that's not what I came here to say.  I was just going to point out that gamerankings.com currently has it listed as the best reviewed game of all time.  It beat out Ocarina of Time.  Now, this is the first day of release, so more reviews are bound to come in and could potentially pull it down, but that's a helluva milestone.  I really can't wait to play this game.  It's almost a blessing that I don't have a PS3 or 360 right now cos it's law school finals time, and trust me, very few of you have ever in your lives taken exams if you haven't taken law school exams.  They're the most horrible things ever.  And GTA IV would probably be doing its best to flunk me out of school if playing it were actually an option right now.

[Edgedamage]

I saw some 360 footage and was stunned. I think I might have a line on a 360, a co-worker said he is looking to sell his. He is getting back to me with a price tomorrow and he will let me pay him $50 each pay. Plus I love to mess with things I have some cooling mods waiting for that box.

[Samstag]

Most people I know who hated the original GTA games (I said most people) never actually played it.  That is to say, they got in, drove around the sandbox, ran over some pedestrians, shot some cops, etc.  Sure it was novel, but it wore thin.  Just hype.

Most people who actually play the game to a significant degree, i.e., start the story line, play a few missions, cannot help but be sucked in and realize what an amazing series it is.

Anyway, that's not what I came here to say.  I was just going to point out that gamerankings.com currently has it listed as the best reviewed game of all time.  It beat out Ocarina of Time.  Now, this is the first day of release, so more reviews are bound to come in and could potentially pull it down, but that's a helluva milestone.  I really can't wait to play this game.  It's almost a blessing that I don't have a PS3 or 360 right now cos it's law school finals time, and trust me, very few of you have ever in your lives taken exams if you haven't taken law school exams.  They're the most horrible things ever.  And GTA IV would probably be doing its best to flunk me out of school if playing it were actually an option right now.

It's true to some degree that a lot of people who don't like the games never played the story, but a lot of people I know did try it and were turned off either because they didn't get the satirical humor or thought the mission pacing was too slow.  For most of those people (and the people who never played the story) this version may actually be worse.  The satire is more subtle than ever before, the cheat codes don't work until you've made considerable progress in the missions, and overall the story starts out fairly slow and low-violence.  So someone who isn't willing to give the game a chance will be pretty disappointed that the initial rampage isn't even much of an option, at least in single player.

But still I can understand people just not enjoying this type of game.  I didn't like Ocarina of Time, and I know that makes me weird.

[patrickl]

Most people I know who hated the original GTA games (I said most people) never actually played it.  That is to say, they got in, drove around the sandbox, ran over some pedestrians, shot some cops, etc.  Sure it was novel, but it wore thin.  Just hype.

Most people who actually play the game to a significant degree, i.e., start the story line, play a few missions, cannot help but be sucked in and realize what an amazing series it is.

I'm the opposite. I only played the original GTA on the PS2, but I didn't care much for the missions at all.

I love racing games and in GTA (and in Driver), I loved that it allowed the free driving around in a world. I did do the stunts, some chase games, outrunning the cops, getting a tank. There were a lot of things to do even in the original. With current hardware they can obviously do a whole lot more.

[Malenko]

I just wished they called it GTA VIII (GTA, GTA2,GTA3 (liberty city), GTA4 (Vice City) GTA 5(San Andreas) GTA6 (liberty city stories) GTA7 (Vice City Stories) like it really is.

mine comes in the mail today or tomorrow. everyone I know that owns it loves it

[ClubNinja]

I may wind up giving this a rental, but can someone convince me why I should give this game a go?  I have never played a single GTA game and always wrote them off as terrible looking, pointlessly violent and nasty games.  I've never gone on to denounce them since, like I said, I never actually played them; however the image I've had of them has been enough to make me believe I wouldn't enjoy them. 

The crazy excitement over the game has been enough to make me curious.  Should I give this a whirl?  A similar thing happened when Halo 3 came out.  I had never played a Halo game, but decided to give it a go (it helped that I scored a brand new copy for $4 only a week after it came out).  I was very underwhelmed with Halo 3 and don't touch it.  For reference, I have recently enjoyed Warhawk, Ridge Racer 7, Rock Band, and Orange Box.  How helpful, I know. 

[shardian]

I may wind up giving this a rental, but can someone convince me why I should give this game a go?  I have never played a single GTA game and always wrote them off as terrible looking, pointlessly violent and nasty games.  I've never gone on to denounce them since, like I said, I never actually played them; however the image I've had of them has been enough to make me believe I wouldn't enjoy them. 

The GTA games are very violent, very vulgar, very suggestive, very bloody, etc, etc. If you don't want to be part of that, then I suggest you don't get the game. If you want to get the general idea of gameplay, I would suggest The Simpsons: Hit & Run instead.

[patrickl]

The GTA games are as violent and vulgar as you make it. The game doesn't force you to go around randomly killing pedestrians or to go visit a hooker.

[shardian]

The GTA games are as violent and vulgar as you make it. The game doesn't force you to go around randomly killing pedestrians or to go visit a hooker.

Considering pretty much all of the missions have you killing a group of people, it is still very violent/bloody even without the random killing.

For completely random and brutal killing, I prefer the game "Postal 2". I got thoroughly addicted to that game when my roomate had it. Nothing like kicking someone in the gut, peeing in their face until they puke, tasering them until they twitch on the ground, then dousing them in gas and lighting them on fire.

[patrickl]

The GTA games are as violent and vulgar as you make it. The game doesn't force you to go around randomly killing pedestrians or to go visit a hooker.

Considering pretty much all of the missions have you killing a group of people, it is still very violent/bloody even without the random killing.

Well I must admit I played only the original GTA, but it's missions had me do things like run through a shop window, blow up a car or chase a drug dealer.

[slycrel]

I never played vice city through (though I own it for the original xbox), I have played GTA3 quite a bit.

The best way to sum it up is that it's amoral.  It lets you choose a lot.

I was turned off by the later games because they were a bit too over the top.  Pedestrians dropping the f-bomb all over randomly, etc.  I have 3 small kids, it's just not feasible to play those kinds of games much in our home.

I have to say, the gameplay of GTA3 was a lot of fun.  It definitely had a twisted side, and you could pull a lot of crap.  I am still nervous about this one for the same reasons though.  They have to push the boundaries more to get the same reaction with their crowd, and those boundaries are a bit too far for me.

I'm sure the gameplay itself is great though.

[SavannahLion]

People in the office are talking about this because it was on the news this morning. Christ, I really hate when people pull an opinion on a particular game title based on what some news anchor says. 

Anyways, the general consensus with these fuddyduddies is the game is far too violent. Well... duh! It's not like their kids or the parents are being forced to buy the game.

I finally got everyone to leave the topic alone when I made it very clear that I had every intention of buying this game. That you shouldn't believe everything you see on the news. AND my supervisor (also their supervisor) backed me up!

I love it when an argument falls my way. 

[Samstag]

So far this one feels a lot less violent than any previous version.  In some missions you even have a choice to let someone live when you're supposed to be killing them.  You'll have choices to make about how the story plays out, but on the way you will have to do some things that aren't very nice. 

On the other hand, the language and sex are MUCH stronger than before.  Think of this as an interactive R-rated gangster movie.  If you don't find any appeal in movies like Scarface, Goodfellas, the Departed, etc, or wouldn't watch them around your kids, this is all that and possibly a little more.

And I'll reiterate that if you're not sure you'd like it, rent it before you buy it.  It sets the bar for sandbox games incredibly high, but it definitely isn't for everyone.  I'm already hearing about lots of people who feel let down because after all the hype and rave reviews, it still isn't a game they like to play.

[ClubNinja]

So, I wound up buying it last night, played for 3 hours straight, and enjoyed it.  Even stuff I didn't think I'd like about it wound up making me chuckle since it's so over the top.  Looking forward to getting back to it tonight.

[shardian]

I saw a vid earlier that chronicled the sexual content of GTAIV. All I can say is DAMN! Hot Coffee was comical compared to the crazy ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- on this game.
I guess it is okay though because the models have nipple shields on instead of crudely drawn nipples...

[shmokes]

Considering the (rather ridiculous) political environment videogames find themselves in, I think that it was incredibly irresponsible of IGN to put together that montage.  Hell, why not burn the video to discs and have them overnighted to Senator Lieberman and Jack Thompson?

[ahofle]

As morally questionable as it may be, I always thought that a true interactive X rated sex game (without all the killing like in GTA) would outsell any game in the history of the planet.  I imagine that one which takes place in a MMO type universe would make even more money.

[shmokes]

You mean like the holodeck?  Heh . . . I hope I'm still alive for that.   

[AtomSmasher]

I just got back from shopping at Sams Club and wouldn't you know it, they still had one copy of the game in stock.  I wasn't planning on getting it any time soon, but the hype train must have gotten to me because I couldn't resist it when I saw it sitting there     I loved the previous GTA games, so I have no doubt that I'll enjoy this one as well.

[patrickl]

I see a lot of reports about consoles hanging while playing GTA IV.