I remember the good old days of GTA...you were waiting for a number? Nope, I remember playing GTA 1 and 2. Top down car hijacking, pedestrian squashing, insane stunt bonus fun. Hell, I remember when I had a PC that couldn't run number 2 smoothly. I skipped number three and the subsequent spin-offs, from San Andreas to London, because I never had a machine that could run them. By the time I did, it was too late. On the plus side, GTA4 came along.
I will say this: I loved GTA4. I am a sucker for a good story. I enjoyed playing as Niko Bellic. I enjoyed learning about his character, letting the story unfold and, oddly, some of side missions you played along the way, like taking Roman to play darts. But I didn't quite get why characters got to demand your time the way they did, especially when you're already in the middle of a mission. It's almost like they were scared you'd be bored doing one mission at a time.
Anyway, the one thing I never understood was why the game's controls were so clunky. There are quite a few 3rd person type games out there. Many give you somewhat limited movement but there's a reason for it. For example, in Dead Space you're in a clunky suit of armour, which is why the movement was a bit sticky. It was either that or the developers (like so many) didn't quite get the PC port thing right. They did in Dead Space 2 and it never took anything away from the game. In fact, it was a pleasure to move more fluently, but Isaac wasn't exactly bouncing off the walls while dismembering necromorphs like some amnesiac ninja engineer. So you don't have to go from one extreme to another. A healthy balance would be nice.
For example, Niko would take a while to start sprinting and getting him to stop or turn would take a moment too, but the man had near perfect aim. If you're going to go with "realistic" movement, allowing me to headshot everyone with a pistol isn't exactly screaming consistency. One moment your character is out of breath from sprinting too long and the next he is eating a hotdog to heal bullet wounds from a gunfight he had two minutes ago.
GTA4 could have learned a thing or two from previous third person games. I felt the movement was sticky and controls were slow to respond. I played Saints Row The Third and when I finally got some additional DLC for GTA4, I had to get used to the idea that you can't hijack people by crashing through a passenger window and kicking them out in one fell swoop. That's not to say I didn't enjoy either game. I loved both Saints Row and GTA.
Niko's story is what had me hooked in GTA 4 and I put up with driving across a virtual city, terrible helicopter controls (anyone who got those right is probably not human) and Brucie. Now, what happens if the story can't save the terrible movement? Or you're running out of reasons to put up with another trek across a highway after you just got home from afternoon traffic? Games are supposed to be an escape and throwing you back into a world of mundane tasks isn't fun. Getting a call from Roman while fending off very angry police, JUST so he can go to a strip club on the other end of the damn city made me wonder what part of it Rockstar thought would make players go "whee! I am having so much fun driving my virtual cousin to a virtual strip club just to tell him it's time to leave before I've had my first virtual lap dance". It was a chore. There is nothing else to call it. I stuck at it for Niko because I enjoyed the story and his character. It's a pity about the rest of the game though.
And seriously, there were way too many painstaking helicopter missions - they were not fun at all. The racing in the game was weird and the balls on the pool table reacted like the game's cars. Sometimes even a straight shot at the cushion sent a ball practically perpendicular to your shot angle.
What I am saying is, Rockstar comes up with a decent idea, characters with potential and a world that is intriguing, only to miss the mark at implementation. I loved Max Payne 1 and 2. Max Payne 3 just wasn't for me. I couldn't handle him whine about how crappy his life is - it comes off more as self loathing than gritty or ironic, which is PAYNEFUL to say the least (see what I did there?). Nor could I enjoy seeing Mr Payne's world degenerate into another generic cover-based shooter. I tried it, didn't like it.
Maybe I am weird for thinking games have to be, you know, fun? Maybe they don't deserve a 9/10. They're not terrible, but anything more than 8/10 for an inconsistent game filled with chores is a bit much.
I will say this: I loved GTA4. I am a sucker for a good story. I enjoyed playing as Niko Bellic. I enjoyed learning about his character, letting the story unfold and, oddly, some of side missions you played along the way, like taking Roman to play darts. But I didn't quite get why characters got to demand your time the way they did, especially when you're already in the middle of a mission. It's almost like they were scared you'd be bored doing one mission at a time.
Anyway, the one thing I never understood was why the game's controls were so clunky. There are quite a few 3rd person type games out there. Many give you somewhat limited movement but there's a reason for it. For example, in Dead Space you're in a clunky suit of armour, which is why the movement was a bit sticky. It was either that or the developers (like so many) didn't quite get the PC port thing right. They did in Dead Space 2 and it never took anything away from the game. In fact, it was a pleasure to move more fluently, but Isaac wasn't exactly bouncing off the walls while dismembering necromorphs like some amnesiac ninja engineer. So you don't have to go from one extreme to another. A healthy balance would be nice.
For example, Niko would take a while to start sprinting and getting him to stop or turn would take a moment too, but the man had near perfect aim. If you're going to go with "realistic" movement, allowing me to headshot everyone with a pistol isn't exactly screaming consistency. One moment your character is out of breath from sprinting too long and the next he is eating a hotdog to heal bullet wounds from a gunfight he had two minutes ago.
GTA4 could have learned a thing or two from previous third person games. I felt the movement was sticky and controls were slow to respond. I played Saints Row The Third and when I finally got some additional DLC for GTA4, I had to get used to the idea that you can't hijack people by crashing through a passenger window and kicking them out in one fell swoop. That's not to say I didn't enjoy either game. I loved both Saints Row and GTA.
Niko's story is what had me hooked in GTA 4 and I put up with driving across a virtual city, terrible helicopter controls (anyone who got those right is probably not human) and Brucie. Now, what happens if the story can't save the terrible movement? Or you're running out of reasons to put up with another trek across a highway after you just got home from afternoon traffic? Games are supposed to be an escape and throwing you back into a world of mundane tasks isn't fun. Getting a call from Roman while fending off very angry police, JUST so he can go to a strip club on the other end of the damn city made me wonder what part of it Rockstar thought would make players go "whee! I am having so much fun driving my virtual cousin to a virtual strip club just to tell him it's time to leave before I've had my first virtual lap dance". It was a chore. There is nothing else to call it. I stuck at it for Niko because I enjoyed the story and his character. It's a pity about the rest of the game though.
And seriously, there were way too many painstaking helicopter missions - they were not fun at all. The racing in the game was weird and the balls on the pool table reacted like the game's cars. Sometimes even a straight shot at the cushion sent a ball practically perpendicular to your shot angle.
What I am saying is, Rockstar comes up with a decent idea, characters with potential and a world that is intriguing, only to miss the mark at implementation. I loved Max Payne 1 and 2. Max Payne 3 just wasn't for me. I couldn't handle him whine about how crappy his life is - it comes off more as self loathing than gritty or ironic, which is PAYNEFUL to say the least (see what I did there?). Nor could I enjoy seeing Mr Payne's world degenerate into another generic cover-based shooter. I tried it, didn't like it.
Maybe I am weird for thinking games have to be, you know, fun? Maybe they don't deserve a 9/10. They're not terrible, but anything more than 8/10 for an inconsistent game filled with chores is a bit much.
