Grand Theft Overrated

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I started and finished my Grand Theft Auto experience the other night with GTA 4. I really don't understand how this game is so highly rated...I got annoyed and quit about 3 hours in.

I will say that the developers aimed for black humor and they absolutely succeeded. This is the second funniest game I've ever played (second to Portal). There were points where I couldn't play because I was doubled over from laughing -- usually at the various talk radio stations they included, but sometimes at just the banter between Niko and his cousin Roman. But mostly from the radio stations. The psychic network...oh my God. And that right-wing talk radio parody. I even sat and watched TV for a minute, and saw the most hilarious political advertisement spoof that I've ever seen in my life. Too good.

That's where the game's good points start and end, though. The biggest problem for me has to be the driving. The controls are total shit, unresponsive, and extremely difficult to get used to. Also, the camera blows and is always defaulting to this location where it's impossible to see what's going on ahead of you. Now, I've played driving games before and they didn't have this problem; in fact, driving was pretty easy. Games like F-Zero GX and...well, F-Zero GX is the only driving game I've ever played, but my girlfriend's brother assures me that Midnight Club does this excellently as well. You'd think in a game where half of what you're doing for the entire game is driving, they'd at least get that done right. But they didn't.

That actually brings up another point, and that's how hard it is to do something as simple as drive and not break the law. Simple shit like breaking, turning, and not running red lights is almost impossible, and when I'm just ferrying a guy around (especially on a criminal mission) I really don't want to be attracting attention to myself by breaking traffic laws. But the game wants you to break traffic laws, and makes it next to impossible to not do so.

The combat is also sluggish, and the minigames are annoying and boring. Do I seriously have to take Roman, Michelle, and who the fuck knows how many other people out bowling and dart-throwing and whatever for the rest of the game? Wow, no thanks.

The 'open-world' design in Grand Theft Auto 4 is a total crock too, something that should be immediately apparent to anyone who has played something like, say, Morrowind. With Morrowind, I can explore the landscape, and suddenly and randomly uncover a castle. From there I can embark on a quest to figure out why the fuck it's there, and why there's nobody there / everyone there is a dog / the place is infested with ghosts / who the fuck knows and go on to own the place or whatever. Morrowind is hardly perfect and his its own restrictions in terms of options, but with Grand Theft Auto the only thing going down the city brings is another horde of human-shaped automata whose only purpose is getting run over. Yawn.

I'm willing to grant that 4 might be a bit of a black sheep in the later GTA family (3, Vice City, San Andreas, and 4) and perhaps I should go back a couple years to San Andreas and see if that game is to my taste. But my first foray into the GTA world has certainly not been a good one.
 
Yea GTA4 is no where near as fun as the previous 3D GTA games, with my personal favorite being Vice City.

Most of the problems you have experienced stem from the game trying to become "realistic" but still trying to hold on to its roots as a more light weight and well, insane, fun experience.
 
I agree that the satire in the game is awesome. Nobody does it like Rockstar. Also agree that the game got scores that were far too high for it. They obviously didn't play very long. I got 10 hours in and haven't played since. The missions are repetitive, the save system is horrible, and the narrative is lacking.

I was hoping that Niko would start off as someone trying to reform himself and be slowly dragged into a world of crime as an immigrant trying to make ends meet in America. Instead, he goes from "nah i've changed my ways" to "cold hard killer" in about 1 mission. Far too quickly. Agree with the driving controls too. Ugh.
 
I didn't play 4, but I really had none of these problems with 3, VC and SA, so yeah, probably black sheep syndrome.
 
Meh, I played Vice Cities for roughly 10 hours and wasnt too impressed. I think alot of people get turned onto it by the thought of what your doing, and how badass it is to be trying to become a crime lord, kill people, sell drugs, pick up hookers, ect, and that mindset makes people overlook the games many flaws, gameplay and repetetive.
 
I didn't play 4, but I really had none of these problems with 3, VC and SA, so yeah, probably black sheep syndrome.
I only ever played 3 and that wasn't really the main game. I just fooled around. From what I've heard, IV moves backwards in a lot of cases from SA. Another reason why I'm completely confused as to why it got 10/10 from so many outlets.
 
Ir's just to repetitive, honestly. Run around, drive around, snipe some people, shoot some people.

O, and don't get me started onto airplane controls.
 
Well i played Vice City and it was cool for the time, it was fun to just hang around and kill people, start a riot and etc. The story was short and most of the time i was doing something else than playing it. So my opinion at that time was "ok game", excellent sound track, and the satire and parody talk shows/propaganda was awesome, radio espantoso cracks me up because i understand Spanish.

GTA San Andreas wasn't that fun though, it felt repetitive and with the same problems than the previous game, also the story was repetitive and boring, the only interesting new feature then was to be able to customize your "nigga", other than that it was boring and i got uninterested.

These are my experiences with GTA, i haven't played 4.
 
Meh, I played Vice Cities for roughly 10 hours and wasnt too impressed. I think alot of people get turned onto it by the thought of what your doing, and how badass it is to be trying to become a crime lord, kill people, sell drugs, pick up hookers, ect, and that mindset makes people overlook the games many flaws, gameplay and repetetive.

Ir's just to repetitive, honestly. Run around, drive around, snipe some people, shoot some people.

O, and don't get me started onto airplane controls.

These.
 
I didn't play 4, but I really had none of these problems with 3, VC and SA, so yeah, probably black sheep syndrome.

same here, I've played lots of GTA games (including old-school top-view ones on the playstation) and they aren't bad. I didn't do the 'missions' or complete the 'story' though. Usually I just killed a cop, got his gun and went from there to wrecking havoc, and when i felt like having some REAL fun I'd put on some cheats and create chaos.

That's pretty much what's so entertaining about the GTA games, imo.
 
Agreeing pretty much with everybody above has said. The game is evidently nowhere near as good as the hype it got. I think the reason that people claim its so amazing is because they like the whole idea of being able to "rebel" against law and order and want to try "being bad"
 
The missions are repetitive, the save system is horrible, and the narrative is lacking.

I can agree with this, the missions got boring and then I really lacked motivation to play, and the online isn't great either.

Vice City and Liberty City (III) is where its at
 
I thought GTA3 was ok. I played Vice City for a bit and loved it because of the atmosphere (I grew up in the 80s), but Vice City seemed way too much like GTA3. I didn't play past the first couple of missions and haven't played a GTA game since.

Probably because I grew up. There is nothing exciting or interesting about murder and crime anymore (i've seen so much of it that it just saddens me), and that's all that these games have to offer. If you look past the ability to kill cops and slaughter innocents, there isn't much left.

I honestly think the series revolves around kids rebelling against their parents/society/authority or whatever.
 
I didn't love GTA 4 but just FYI the cops will only chase you if you kill someone or if you run into one of their cars. Running into other cars, running red lights, turning illegally, etc. do not cause the police to chase you. Also, the driving is not THAT bad, the turning is the part that takes the most practice to get used to. There are certainly some other annoyances, such as every tree being immovable (where as tapping a lightpost with your bumper causes it to fall over), cops charging straight into you, etc. While I do agree that the game wasn't perfect and probably shouldn't have gotten a perfect score, I think you're selling it a bit short. Maybe you have too high of expectations because of the ratings or something, but I certainly think that it was a pretty good game.
 
I thought GTA3 was ok. I played Vice City for a bit and loved it because of the atmosphere (I grew up in the 80s), but Vice City seemed way too much like GTA3. I didn't play past the first couple of missions and haven't played a GTA game since.

Probably because I grew up. There is nothing exciting or interesting about murder and crime anymore (i've seen so much of it that it just saddens me), and that's all that these games have to offer. If you look past the ability to kill cops and slaughter innocents, there isn't much left.

I honestly think the series revolves around kids rebelling against their parents/society/authority or whatever.
Well unless you're older you aren't going to get a lot of the satirical content in the game. I'd say that's definitely aimed at an older audience. The younger kids would just get off on the violence and "omg gangs!" but they shouldn't be playing the game in the first place. That's just the failings of American parents.

As for story, I really wanted the game to be about what I said earlier. Niko trying to renew his life but being dragged slowly into a life of crime to make ends meet as an immigrant in America. The key word there being slowly. Not within the first hour of what is probably a 30 or 40 hour game. It made the rest of the story just plain repetitive and focusing on characters I honestly don't give a flip about. Not to mention most of the characters are plain unlikeable anyway. Except that Jamaican dude. It's been a while so I forgot his name. I can't understand a word he says without subtitles (and even then it's hard) but he's awesome.

same here, I've played lots of GTA games (including old-school top-view ones on the playstation) and they aren't bad. I didn't do the 'missions' or complete the 'story' though. Usually I just killed a cop, got his gun and went from there to wrecking havoc, and when i felt like having some REAL fun I'd put on some cheats and create chaos.

That's pretty much what's so entertaining about the GTA games, imo.
I think part of the reasons I feel GTAIV is lacking is because there are a lot more competitors in the sandbox genre so it can't just ride that anymore.
 
i played gta4 for a whole 30 minutes before i returned it. the first couple of missions were pretty fun but then it just got bland and boring.
 
I liked it, obviously it has problems like every other game ever made. If you don't like the style or genre you obviously won't like GTA...?
 
I thought it was apparent in my post that I did like the style (I mentioned how completely funny I found the game, which was the point) and the 'genre' (I mentioned how much I liked another sandbox game). But what I didn't like was the boring and repetitive gameplay, and the horrible controls.
 
i've always found the opinion 'its too repetitive' to be nothing more than an extension 'i dont like the gameplay'. if something is fun, you enjoy when it's repetitive, like mario for example. you just jump on stuff, but it's near unparalleled in terms of fun.

but if you find something boring, then it being repetitive will obviously rub you the wrong way because you don't like doing it.

as such, 'its repetitive' is really no more a valid argument than 'i just didnt like it' in my opinion!
 
I Think that the fact that the casual player is gatting bigger and bigger is affeting the ratings that a game has...i think that GTA4 was made for the casual player,and is not San andreas.
Taking that into account,it isnt a bad game at all,but comparing it with ANY other GTA(Except liberty city stories) IT JUST SUCKS!
 
That doesn't make any sense. The game does not appeal to any of the so-called "casual" gamers I'm aware of (my girlfriend's parents, my own parents, my 14-year-old sister). And even if you ignore the subject matter, the game wouldn't appeal to them anyway -- the controls are so monstrously bad, the scenery so difficult to navigate (especially when you're on foot) that they'd give up on the game almost immediately.
 
The thing i'm trying to say is that the "Casual" game(a 15 year old boy who had never played a FF,for example)Usually looks on the internet for a review before buying a game,so,when the boy looks at the amazing reviews,he BUYS the game.I dont care if he buys the game or not,he BUYS it.
Another thing: When the visual appeal is so worked on a game(even more that the controls,that sucked,or the history) I think that the game is made on porpouse to sell copies...because when you see the game on E3 or on a video,you CAN'T play it and therefore,you are only "charmed" by the Visual.
The casual player just go and buys what he thinks is the best,or what he likes the more(But always highly influenced by the media or the internet)

I hope that i clarified what i meant
 
The thing i'm trying to say is that the "Casual" game(a 15 year old boy who had never played a FF,for example)Usually looks on the internet for a review before buying a game,so,when the boy looks at the amazing reviews,he BUYS the game.I dont care if he buys the game or not,he BUYS it.
Another thing: When the visual appeal is so worked on a game(even more that the controls,that sucked,or the history) I think that the game is made on porpouse to sell copies...because when you see the game on E3 or on a video,you CAN'T play it and therefore,you are only "charmed" by the Visual.
The casual player just go and buys what he thinks is the best,or what he likes the more(But always highly influenced by the media or the internet)

I hope that i clarified what i meant
You mean mainstream gamers. Final Fantasy is the wrong game to pick there though because it's pretty damn mainstream as well. Has been since VII.

i've always found the opinion 'its too repetitive' to be nothing more than an extension 'i dont like the gameplay'. if something is fun, you enjoy when it's repetitive, like mario for example. you just jump on stuff, but it's near unparalleled in terms of fun.

but if you find something boring, then it being repetitive will obviously rub you the wrong way because you don't like doing it.

as such, 'its repetitive' is really no more a valid argument than 'i just didnt like it' in my opinion!
The reason Mario doesn't get repetitive is because they build a great game around the jumping mechanic. The problem with Grand Theft Auto IV is that the core mechanics are done in such a way that you feel like everything is the same.
 
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