Zero Punctuation: Grand Theft Auto IV

[Kinokiro]

I must say, going to the bar and then driving drunk has been one of the more entertaining bits of any game that I've played in the series... Outrunning the police while you're swerving all over the road... hahahaha, what a sense of accomplishment!

Though, I must comment on the police being lazy... one/two stars, yeah they're lazy. 3/4 They dog you pretty darn bad... it's really hard to evade em. 5/6 near impossible and 6 is impossible to dodge, they are insane on those!

For a quick demo, if you've not unlocked the islands yet... go to one where you're not supposed to. Auto 6 star... have fun dodging the rampage of bull**** to come flying your way!

 

[FACT.50]

you didn't mention anything about failing a mission...and how big of a fucking headache that is. you have to start completely over, including the long-ass drive to the mission (or chase or meeting or whatever...). y not have a checkpoint or something in the mission. I don't know about anyone else but driving from the far side of one island across three bridges to the far side of another island four or five times for the same mission blows. To head off the oncoming train of "maybe u just suck at the game" i can say yes, I could probably play it better but I have something called a job and as yahtzee put it so eloquently, this game requires something of a time commitment. love the reviews though, keep up the good work.

I guess you've never heard of hailing a cab, or even calling up Roman for a free ride if you're a total cheapskate?

Oh and at least this time if you fail a mission, you can retry it, and be dropped right back at the starting point of the mission.

 

[FACT.50]

I'm glad someone else finally called Yahtzee on this. I just went through all of the comments hoping someone else would point out that escaping the cops isn't as easy as he makes it out to be. Also at each star the search radius you must escape from gets bigger. As you mentioned too, even if you get out of the radius and some beat cop spots you, you're thrown right back into the center of the search.

I thought it was kind of strange that Yahtzee pointed out the side missions as slowing the game down, when they are almost all (with the exception of the first few) completely optional!

I just finished both endings last night, and I have to say I was not let down by this game in any way at all. I did notice a few minor glitches and bugs here and there. But nothing severe enough to ruin the game for me.

Now to find all of those damn flying rats and stunt jumps!

I consider GTA IV to be one of the best games I've ever played - not THE best because of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - , but the review was perfect. Congrats, Yahtzee, excellent work.

Deep breaths, Jim... deeeeep breaths... easy now... count to ten...

As for the review, I wonder if Yahtzee has somehow avoided getting a three star wanted level when a helicopter happens to be nearby, or in heavy traffic. It's not quite as easy as 'driving really fast', because you may just end up driving really fast into a police car, which lets all the cops know just where you are. You need to use your brain at least a little bit to escape with three stars... and a bit more with each additional star. I think it's a substantial improvement over the police in the last few games, who were paradoxically both near-omniscient and borderline retarded (we KNOW where you are, and we'll never stop comin-oh nevermind, we were chasing a BLUE car, so that can't be him).

I am also annoyed by the inconsistencies in what you can knock over by hitting it. If a bus hits a small tree, that tree is not going to stand there without even losing a bit of bark. That fucking plant is going down!

Once more, Yahtzee makes a semi-related statement in his review that addressed an issue I agree with him on; the Sixaxis is trash. Of course, I also thought the Dualshock 2 was trash, because it's not ergonomic for any known form of intelligent life. Sony's had a decade to correct this, but they are apparently too stupid or stubborn to do so.

 

[Kinokiro]

Another thing I like about this, is that the game rewards you for being a skilled driver, and not just foot-to-floor driving. It's very realistic in the fact that if you're going 180 and you come to a dead stop, you're flying out of the windshield top speed. I remember in past games, you could fly 30 feet after jumping out of a car and not get damaged.

The handling on the cars is really well done too. Some cars have better handling than others, on certain speeds. I enjoy this game overall, even though some of the missions can get really annoying.

 

[caseyday09]

Great finisher line, but not his funniest work.

 

[Knorke]

Good review, makes me acutally consider getting GAT IV.
And the "The Half-Live and Death of Gordon Frohman" reference was just made of win

 

[Firia]

Why do people keep on banning people who comment first,

I can generally support the "first post" donkeys getting banned, I'm not sure why this bunch got banned. They generally seemed to enjoy the review.

UNLESS, however, they wrote that without having seen the review, which denotes shooting for first comment. In which case I support the mods. You'd think that the "first comment" crowd would learn a thing or two; it gets you banned. ^^;

But less on that, and more on the game.
I havn't gotten the game yet. I'm crazy busy with collage and work these days, and by the pillow-stuffing suggestion, I will need to commit more time than I have allowable. That's pretty standard for a GTA game, and I saw it comming (which is why I am sans game).

One thing I hope got fixxed was how sign/light posts would dramaticly screw up your driving. In every GTA since san andreas, every high speed chase I was a part of involved me devestating a number of light posts when whipping around corners. They would of course alter my movement, and cause me to run into walls, cars, more cops, or bring me to a full stop. They were one of my higher points of infuriation in the series. (Burnout Paradise does it right, and just lets you bowl over them.)

Can anyone give me some insight to the light pole thing?

 

[Mikky_H]

you didn't mention anything about failing a mission...and how big of a fucking headache that is. you have to start completely over, including the long-ass drive to the mission (or chase or meeting or whatever...). y not have a checkpoint or something in the mission. I don't know about anyone else but driving from the far side of one island across three bridges to the far side of another island four or five times for the same mission blows. To head off the oncoming train of "maybe u just suck at the game" i can say yes, I could probably play it better but I have something called a job and as yahtzee put it so eloquently, this game requires something of a time commitment. love the reviews though, keep up the good work.

Couldn't agree more!

 

[Magnetic2]

I have played this game on the PS3, why lightly tapping L2 is for free aim, and holding it just a little bit tighter is for shooting is beyond me. Auto aim is cool and needed, but I like to think some of my own shooting skills are to attribute for well done mayhem. Though for that i should stick to FPS with a mouse.

 

[Kinokiro]

Most light posts you hit take off with you, it's the trees (no matter how toothpick they are) that are immovable. You hit a stick-tree and you can bet you'll be close to a trip to the hospital.

 

[Walrus42]

i cant wait for Grand Theft Biggleswade!
That games gonna kick ass

 

[TZer0]

Another great review by Yahtzee (no bad ones tbh). I really liked the one with super-three, I've seen that in other games as well.

Comment on the other posts: why does ZP have so stupid fans that they first/second/third/younameit-post... it annoys me (their bans are well deserved, thank god they practice this on this forum).

 

[Jivedriveby]

Hey, thanks for the awesome review Yahtzee! Any video that combines hitting pedestrians with vehicles and mentions dinosaurs as well gets a tip of the hat from me.

Also, much love for the use of the word masticated. It really needs to be brought into common conversation more often. But on the same literary wanker note, the MS Paint'd "Libety City" made me rewind, pause and laugh for a good whole two minutes.

Pure win sir, looking foreward to next week.

 

[Takhisis]

Alot of banned people.....wow

Good review.....GTA is just so old and overused.....

Im kinda bored with it.....Ill give this one a go just for grins

 

[Gahars]

Great video.

So, what's next for GTA?

Hopefully it'll be out of the US this time with the gameplay and graphics (improved of course)of GTA IV and another fantastic story.

Here's Hoping.

On another note, so many people in this thread have been banned...

 

[pulse2]

Alot of banned people.....wow

Good review.....GTA is just so old and overused.....

Im kinda bored with it.....Ill give this one a go just for grins

Thats cos they just post lots of silly uneeded things, like F1R$T P0ST YAYA!!?!


I guess the next spot for GTA is Vice City as usual ¬_¬

 

[Vyce3]

Since I only have a PS3 I will just get this game for that version, but at the cost of sore hands.

P.S: Good thing I play Rock Band, with that game I will never get to mess up with the Sixaxis ever again.

The sixaxis controls in GTA4 are optional and turned off by default. Yahtzee's remark on them was totally stupid and irrelevant. I guess he tried too hard with that one.

 

[Digikid]

Well at least THIS TIME you can understand what Yathzee was saying.

Good review. 7/10 for sure.

Next up for GTA series? Simple! GTA 2142!