Money in GTA IV?

[Corsion]

I had a quick rampage on GTA IV yesterday and had a quick look in the top corner. I have $700 000.00.
I quickly thought to myself:
"HOLY CRAP! Why haven't I spent any of that?!".
I decided to find something to spend it on, and couldn't find a damned thing, minus the very cheap and scarce clothing. Oh, and the hot dogs you can buy for health bonuses, which are also very cheap.
I mean if they HAD to have different outfits, why not make a wardrobe that would unlock certain outfits after you completed challenges (like in Read Dead Redemption)? And if they needed ways of getting food for health bonuses, why not just be able to get food from dead bodies or simply steal it?
There's an achievement for getting $1 000 000.00, but I doubt it's very hard considering you don't need to spend any cash to get by.
What was the point of money in the game?

 

[darklinkjf]

The achievement you're thinking about is Half Million or $500,000.00, which i believe you already have.
But yeah, money is useless in that game unless you want to stock up on ammo before a difficult mission. And even that doesn't use a lot of money.

And you said get food from dead bodies? O_O I'd rather not.
Stealing it? That seems like an okay idea.
But I'd rather have regenerating health. Unrealized sure, but I've grown used to it.

 

[dududf]

you can buy sports cars iirc.

 

[WrongSprite]

The achievement you're thinking about is Half Million or $500,000.00, which i believe you already have.
But yeah, money is useless in that game unless you want to stock up on ammo before a difficult mission. And even that doesn't use a lot of money.

And you said get food from dead bodies? O_O I'd rather not.
Stealing it? That seems like an okay idea.
But I'd rather have regenerating health. Unrealized sure, but I've grown used to it.

To be fair, it's no more unrealistic that eating a hotdog to fix bullet trauma.

As for the money, it's ridiculously scaled, there should be special cars/helis etc that you can only get by buying.

 

[HontooNoNeko]

That was pretty much the reason I stopped playing the game after awhile. I realized exactly how pointless my actions were in the game. Well that and the fact that I'm extremely squeamish and the thought of running over or shooting anyone myself is disturbing even if they aren't real.

*snip*

Joined in 2007 and just made your first post? Not sure if I should be welcoming you or not considering you've been here longer than I have... So I'll settle with Welcome!?!?

 

[Corsion]

The achievement you're thinking about is Half Million or $500,000.00, which i believe you already have.
But yeah, money is useless in that game unless you want to stock up on ammo before a difficult mission. And even that doesn't use a lot of money.

And you said get food from dead bodies? O_O I'd rather not.
Stealing it? That seems like an okay idea.
But I'd rather have regenerating health. Unrealized sure, but I've grown used to it.

My mistake, haha.
But by, 'food from dead bodies', I meant a RPG-style inventory. Probably a stupid idea, but it's all I could come up with at the time.
I just don't understand. It's like putting a whole gaming mechanic in that you can't use. What's the point? I mean, remember in the other games, where you could buy houses when you had a lot of money? What happened to that?

 

[Saelune]

Main use for money in GTA was to buy guns and hideouts. Cant buy any hideouts in IV though...

 

[Neverhoodian]

It seems most open-world games suffer from this problem. I think part of the reason is that developers assume you're going to play through the story missions/quests first, then start fooling around. The problem is that I often start fooling around and exploring before I'm done with the story. Combine that with my kleptomaniac tendencies when it comes to money and loot, and before you know it I'm left with more wealth than I could ever really need.

Take Saint's Row 2 for example. Between story missions I would just run around the city causing mayhem, such as throwing people into traffic and getting into fist fights with literally dozens of pimps. Not only did I pick up a reasonable amount of change from these incidents, but I also collected rent from the safehouses I owned from time to time. By the time the story was nearing its conclusion, I was practically swimming in money.

 

[darklinkjf]

Joined in 2007 and just made your first post? Not sure if I should be welcoming you or not considering you've been here longer than I have... So I'll settle with Welcome!?!?

Yikes quite the observer aren't ya? Thanks for the welcome.
I created the account back in 07 for Zero Punctuation. I love that stuff.
Can't get enough of it. But yeah first time in the forums. Didn't expect anyone to notice, haha..

 

[mjc0961]

The only problem with the money in GTA IV is that you'll be carrying around $300,000 or more, and all the characters still act like they barely have enough money for a packet of ramen noodles in cutscenes. Why do we need to rob a bank or do a giant drug deal if I'm already rich?

 

[Wintermoot]

to put a limit on how powerful the weapons you can use