Pretend that you are powering the TV.

LOL!

When a cab is driving by, hit L1, Niko will whistle. Said cabbie should stop, unless he's already got a passenger. Then yeah, just HOLD triangle and he'll get in the back

Agreed. To me, the driving in this version is the best it has been in any of the games in this series. I got that mission on the 1st attempt as far as the driving part (but died when he stabbed me at the end.) I think the driving is very well done, so far.

Is anyone absolutely enjoying getting hit by cars? I love the animations

Hahah same thing happened with me, even though I think you improvised your line. :D

Seriously though when people meet Packie, tell me how you beat that mission.

My first date with Michelle AFTER banging her, so my 4th overall, I wasn't thinking and took her to a bar. So afterwards I couldn't really take her home very well. It was the first time I tried to call a cab while drunk, and it's pretty funny all the different things your guy will do to get a cab. Finally after sobering up a little, but no a lot, a cab was willing to pick me up. When I tried to get in I ended up jacking it. Michelle got in to my surprise and was commenting on the cops on the way home. I didn't even try to get lucky after that.

BTW, I find it funny how I played a solid 7-8 hours last night and it sounds like I have fewer missions completed then most on here.

Yup. I barely was able to beat a guy with my fists while he had a knife and decided to power up at the hotdog cart right across the street. I didn't bother to check traffic on the far side of the street and ended up getting blindside by an Chevy Avalanche. The animation was just me getting slammed from the right side, as the car basically drove through me, in slow motion. I hate stupid deaths but the animation made me a bit happier

I accidently pushed the stripper out of the way as I was getting up and the bouncer came quickly followed by the other bouncer. 5 seconds later there are cops all over the place at the strip joint. Somehow I managed to escape...

Same here. I spent an hour plus of my time yesterday watching TV and I've just finally gotten to the mission where I got a gun and got to shoot people and I'm about 7 hours into the game.

I think the shooting mechanism is MUCH better in this version than past versions. The autoaim made taking down 4 guys very easy, and made me actually feel like I'm controlling a character who has handled a gun before which I suspect the story will reveal that he has.

First freeze up during concrete Jungle chasing the drug dealers in my car. hmmmph

Pacman, I thought you were in Dallas.

Got on a motorcycle today and went joyriding around Manhattan or whatever it's called in game. Got pretty far too until I clipped the back end of a car and ran head first into the side of a building and died. There doesn't seem to be as strong of a response to having a 6 star wanted level as there used to be. I always remember blockades and tanks every few blocks in past games, and I didn't see any of that there.

Screw you guys, I'm downloading the freeware GTA2 for PC. :(

Has anyone got in a cruiser yet and accessed the police files (you can do it on the internet too)? Anyways, I checked the most wanted list and took out the #1 criminal, now listed as deceased ;)

I love the motorcycle. My awesome moment came when I drove it between some buildings. I ran into a chain-link fence and I figured I would just stop. Instead, my character tried to ascend the fence while on the motorcycle. He made it about two feet and then my character fell backward off the motorcycle. The motorcycle then fell onto my character, and he died.

I laughed for five minutes.

Since I can't beat that one mission, I'm doing Brucie's which I was putting off. Brucie hands out the cheddar :D

I'll have to put this on my birthday list.

Best random line I've heard from civilians on the street.

"I'm pretty fucked up on meth right now. Want a handjob?" from a guy. haha

On the multiplayer front, I did some GTA Races tonight and might enjoy them more than any of the other modes. Makes me think back to my Road Rash days.

I'm having a ton of fun with the game. One of the best I've ever played. Still, I think the game was a bit overhyped by the review places. Deserves a rating in the 9's probably, but not the perfect scores I've seen on a handful of sites.

My problems:

-The cops really suck in this version. I've had 6 stars a few times and I can still get around with ease in a car. The older versions would have military guys dropping out of helicopters, spike strips, road blocks. This one just sends a few helicopters after you and some cop cars. I was hoping they would have vamped up the cops in this and made it harder to survive. Their AI is terrible too. They hardly look for cover and just walk around like moving targets. No strategy at all, I think I took out close to 100 of them in a scene before I got bored and turned it off.

The also brings up the new range systems for the cops where you have to escape their radar. It's just too easy. I can murder someone, drive 3 blocks in a fast car and be safe. While the missions were always fun, I used to love just trying to avoid cops and seeing how much damage I could make. It's too easy now.

- Missions are the same. I really thought they'd have gotten more creative with the missions. It's the same though, steal a car, find and kill a guy, etc. Nothing unique with the landmarks in the game either to this point. The AI for the bad guys isn't good either and I never get killed. They just stand in the open and get pumped full of lead. I was expecting more quality in this area of gameplay.

- I also don't get the point of the dates and friendships. I keep waiting for something to come of them but they don't. Same routine. Is there a point to these at all? At least in San Andreas when I did some of these Sims style activities, it'd affect my fighting ability, health, etc.

- Kind of disappointed in the lack of special vehicles in this one. No planes, no tanks, no big monster trucks. I had a blast with some of those in San Andreas, kind of sad they are missing from this.

It's not to say I don't really like this game, just that they seem to have put a lot more time into the belles and whistles and not as much on improving the gameplay. The AI is still really bad for any shooting game. It's made up for it by a fantastic storyline and sandbox mode. As cool as the TV stations and stuff are, I would have taken less of that if they could have improved the police/criminal AI.

Couple questions:

I'm still on the first board and wondering how I get the helicopter at the airport? I've heard of others being able to grab one but there is never one there when I visit. Do I need to go farther on in the game to get it?

And on missions where you have a choice of killing someone or not, does it change the story at all?

RainMaker, you must have not gotten very far as far as 'bad guy fighting' goes. There is one where you are with Lil Jacob and must take out probably 30 guys while you are ducking and hiding and they are doing the same. It took me only twice, but about 15 minutes to get thorugh it because you have to pick your spots.

I understand RainMaker a little, but I am just waiting to see what happens as well. It is starting off a bit slow but as you said Shorty, things seem like they will get amped up some.

I did several missions right now, after going the first 2 hours of my gameplay tonight not doing 1. hehe I have a bit of a ways to go I am sure. I know there are just so many little things I find that I like. The little side story of the crackhead that I never would have noticed if my daughter hadn't pointed out the blip on the screen. The cop who even after I had lost my stars was till after me and shot me dead (not sure if that is some kind of bug or not, but still cool).

I agree with the police being so easy to scape from, just drive fast for 5 minutes and they are gone.

From what I've heard later on down the line if you spare the people they'll offer items that are hard to come by or maybe special abilities. It sounds like there's no benefit from killing them.

Doesn't change the actual story from what I hear.

I ended up playing about 3 hours yesterday and didn't get very far along the main story line arc, but I did have a blast driving around exploring. I wasn't all that impressed with the graphics until it rained. The rain really impressed me with how realistic it looked. Looking forward to getting home tonight and getting some of the missions started.

Looks like Rockstar has identified the source of the freezing issues. Expect a patch for both the PS3 and 360 anytime............

Motorcycles are my favorite. I had a few minutes before dinner to kill so I grabbed a motorcycle and just cruised around town at high speed, had some awesome near crashes and crashes. Also, I found my first great jump spot.

I also agree. I think they tried to make all aspects of the game easier, and they went too far here. At least early, cops are too easy to ditch.

I'm recognizing certain parts of town from back when I played "Godfather". :)

If you are on foot, pursuers don't seem to stop. I had some gang dude chasing me for a long time.

I played for an hour or so last night, then got bored and went to bed. I'm really disappointed so far :(

play MP.

the team carjack mode is a lot of fun.

MP is kind of my last bastion of hope, but I can't see how it will be better than CoD4.

I think the game starts off slow. Give it some time.

May just not be the game for him too.

after six or seven hours, I'm the opposite. I'm having a blast and enjoying myself a great deal. I haven't even bothered touching MP yet and am not sure when I'll take that plunge. The SP mode is going to take me a LONG time to finish.

'm not sure how it can 'speed up' in a way that will please me though. I think my biggest problem is that the reviews seemed to go out of their way to point out how this is so much more than just an extension to GTA3, how great the storyline is (I read "oscar-worthy" somewhere I think), and basically that everyone should own this game. But in reality it is just GTA3 again with some nicer bells and whistles, and that just isn't my thing.

Plus the biggest enjoyment I used to get out of these games was causing chaos, but the shock value of that seems to have worn off on me, so even that has become boring. I mean, seriously, once you've picked up a hooker, taken her to an alley for sex, paid her, then chased her down the street, beat her to death with a tire iron, stolen your money back, and then jacked a new car and sped off, what more is there?


I guess I just feel suckered by the reviews that all seemed to make it out to be more than it really is. It's not the games fault, it's definitely a good game, it's just that I should have known it wasn't for me... and I did know, until I got convinced otherwise by a bunch of online reviews. :(

FAIL

I think it's a great story and nearly took another day off from work to play the SP campaign again today, but to each his own...

Ugh...

Bought the game yesterday, I'm going to need a dose of dramamine. There is just something weird about the controller and movement that throws me off. Seems like the screen jerks and then recenters itself. Most shooters I'm ok with, but Bioshock did it and now GTA4...

i would expect better MP play out of GTA than COD4. i've already prestiged once in COD4, but it certainly gets repeptitive after a point. its one of my top 5 favorite games of all time and i didn't even finish the solo campaign - its all based on MP.

but there's certainly more of a variety it seems with regards to GTA MP. more weapons, much larger territory and the ability to just go anywhere and do anything.

even if its not better than COD4 MP, if it's at least on par with it that's still awesome. i think you're kinda walking away from GTA a bit too early. its trying to have elements of a real movie in it, and as with most movies it's not all guns and explosions from the 1st minute. i have progressed probably about the same as everyone has into the story, we're only into day 3 of the game being out, and i've already executed a character who i thought would be prominent in the game. i didn't see that coming.

What makes it so great? I'm going to put an example of what totally killed it for me in a spoiler tag:

i will say i've played a TON more SP mode than i originally anticipated. i've played a couple games of team carjack and that was fun, but i want to be in the know when people talk about the storyline so i've been focusing more on that than MP.

I'd agree with the point in your spoiler. The story really lacks cohesiveness in some parts. He says one thing and then does something totally against his thought process without any reasoning why he'd do that.

he's looking out for his cousin. Niko was in his country's military, so its not like he shy when it comes to guns. i took it more as "rather than put my cousin in harm's way, i can help you instead (considering that i'm familiar with using firearms)".

kinda seems like you're looking for reasons to not like it. not much anyone can say that's gonna sway you otherwise so hopefully you enjoy MP instead.

"Totally kills it for you"? These are video games. Your character is also able to carry around a SWAT van worth of weaponry without so much as a duffel bag.

I grow more and more concerned that the "everything sucks" era is overlooking the forest for the trees. If the game didn't provide an early opportunity to gun down some bad guys in a tutorial environment (which is how the Jacob scenario plays out) gamers would get bored. I think another early-ish execution is handled better than the Jacob scenario, but at the same time I see people here arguing over the difference between a 9-9.5 subjective score and realism in what amounts to an interactive cartoon.

Don't get me wrong -- I sympathize with those who are legitimately put off by the unsupported early violence -- but the idea of three minutes of early gametime being a killer for what (by my guess) is going to be at least 45 hours of gameplay just doesn't hold water. After you kids get off my lawn remind me to tell you about the glory days of Atari 2600 and first gen Nintendo, when the idea of realism in a game wasn't even a remote possibility.

It would be cool if he said no to his cousin and went home to read a book instead. Now that would be a cool and realistic storyline.

Then after a few weeks you get a job working at the GAP in the mall while at night you take college classes.

I read the 'oscar worthy' review as well. I'm at a point in the game where I don't think the story is Oscar worthy, but I think I am getting into the story to see where that idea comes from.

Play the game though the 'Uncle Vlad' mission. The story starts to gain some legs there, IMO.

I agree. Jacob is his cousin's friend, so he helps him out. I think the nose clean portion of Niko's story ends when he figures out that Roman is a bullshitter about his situation in America. He wants to help Roman. I guess I don't look for him to have a huge moral struggle over the use of violence. You start to find out more about why he's so desensitized to it later in the story. I don't know. I don't think anyone is wrong for not liking it or anything. I was just saying that I don't agree with that opinion.