Grand Theft Auto IV -- It might feature crime and prostitutes.

Agh, and now there's an e-mail from Dwayne wanting to hang out. so eerie and sad.

Playboy was the aggressor, not Dwayne.

My friend had the controller. I was all "OLD SKOOL" and he was all "$$$".

Got 25000 for it, which is something. But Playboy was all "i don't ever want to see you again. you cold. you need to live for something."

The money won't seem worth it after the highly lucrative bank mission.

?What do you mean? Do I need Dwayne for that or is it just a massive payday?

kerching!

it only recently occured to me how expensive hospital visits are, oops.

Dwayne gets on my nerves, but he's stopped ringing me now. I tried getting in touch but he was all "sob sob ring me more often bye". Same with packies sister kate but her phone just keeps giving me an engaged tone.

i have to deal with this stoopid mind game shit in real life, why should i suffer it in my favourite games !!?

i've realised why most of the sub standard cars handle real shitty, it's so the high performance cars feel much much sublime. I think my favourite is the Comet but I love driving all the fast cars.

Comet, is that the Porsche? Man I dumped that shit in multiplayer, floating all over the shop, never all four wheels on the ground at once. Infernus 4 life, just cause it is goddamned fast. Banshee used to be my fave, but with the new realistic physics it seems a bit meh.

i have to deal with this stoopid mind game shit in real life, why should i suffer it in my favourite games !!?

this! otm! qft! ^!

When i received my Infernus reward it was the first time I'd driven one, another reason why I've left the multiplayer alone for now so that I don't spoil some of the stuff that becomes available to you. I was so chuffed I drove that thing so carefully back to my safehouse, I still haven't seen another one on the roads.

altho i'm very partial to the Trans-Am looking car

There are way too many spoilers in this thread. What the hell, guys.

Also sniping helicopter pilots is officially the best thing ever in this game.

Ah these threads always get spoiler-tastic, I never read them unless or until I've got far enough in the game.

I wonder if people on multiplayer without microphones know why they get kicked, or people leave games they're in, or randomly start trying to shoot them in the head and blow them up. IT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE ACTING LIKE A PRICK AND CAN'T EVEN HEAR INSTRUCTIONS LET ALONE FOLLOW THEM. Not that 90% of people with mics aren't assholes or simpletons too.

The Infernus has superseded the Banshee as the car of choice this time around...

Never felt the love for the Banshee, slips and slides all over the place.
Was always a Cheetah fan, the ferrari this time round is still amazing.

Was thinking how cool a Vice City game would be on the new consoles.

had terrible dream last night that me and my mates had just done a bank job, but it was the second job we'd done and so most of the dream was just us lot shitting ourselves waiting for one us to panic and get sprung by the cops.

Took three tries for the bank job. Not counting the one where I blew up the car before we even got there, killing Michael. My driving does get me into trouble. I called up Kate for a date and found a bike to get there - I love bikes and try to maintain a huge collection outside the safehouses - but the police got in the way and I came off the bike, and off the bridge I was on, landing in the river. So I called kate to cancel, found a car, and rightway arranged another date, man I'm smooth. Then twice nearly flipped the car after I'd picked her up.

man that *is* smooth, I gave up on kate ages ago after she dissed my clothing choice.

and has anyone dated Carmen yet? she's supposed to administer health boosts over the phone to me but it doesn't seem to work.

Should I get this game if my wife is sort of interested in seeing it?

your wife's enthusiasm will probably take her past the casual violence but will only last until the first time you go to the strip club or have sex.

Actually, it's much more likely she will get bored if you end up having to do the exact same thing over and over again than that she will be offended/turned off by explicit sexual content.

I end up doing Michelle again and again, but I guess I don't have to. So: not boring.

sexual content on the game, like with any other video game, is less offensive and more crepey. i would be embarrassed by playing through the sexual scenes with a ladyfriend because it's so nerdy and weird. but then i am a britishes and we embarrass easily.

never a dull moment, definitely won't get bored.

My wife watches me play and considers it her evening entertainment.

raise @ work means I think I go buy!

fuck there's some heavy explosions in this fine game!

The fire is greatly improved.

and has anyone dated Carmen yet?

OMG OPTIONAL DATING QUEST SPOILAHS

yeah, once you get the health boosts, you call her and select "health boost," she and niko have a funny conversation, then you stand there and your health SLOWLY fills up (about 30sec to 100%) but if you take damage, it stops refilling.

even better though when you date kiki enough, you can get her to make the cops fuck off of you. except i am literally scared of her because she like crazy in love w/ niko.

my friend took Kiki to the comedy club and she was so pumped. But friend got tired of the comedy stylings of Katt Williams and ended the gig, and Kiki was NOT PLEASED.

I am in an argument about GTA and violence and the demise of civilization. Someone is telling me that you can rape people in GTA. Is this true?

No, I think you're thinking of Mass Effect.

you're thinking of smash brothers.

Sorry, I had to type "Is this true?" as she was watching over my shoulder. I was planning to be like WTF

Have you noticed in the game though that most of the time even when you succesfully 'wipe' someone in a mission out, they're not always dead? I've seen bad guys just get up and wander off 'stage'.
Is this Rockstar's attempt to 'soften' things up slightly?

yeah, once you get the health boosts, you call her and select "health boost," she and niko have a funny conversation, then you stand there and your health SLOWLY fills up (about 30sec to 100%) but if you take damage, it stops refilling.

Nope, still getting no health increase even after the phone conversation. Is broken i think.

do you think perhaps i should stay perfectly still for it to work?

so finished the hitman missions and the most wanted. what did i get for them? fuck all. Rewards are pitiful in this version.

i may be playing tonight, if anyone is around - though my strict NAT is still causing multiplayer to be a hassle...

Is online play isolated by console or can XBox and PS3 owners play each other?

isolated only :(

boo

BIG SPOILER ALERT !

okay i'm on the final mission, and i chose the 'money' option. this fucking mission is doing my pissing head in, i cannot for the life of me reach Jacob in the chopper. The worst part is having to do all the easy shooting parts before it, which takes absolutely ages. I have attempted this mission well over 10 times now.

So FUCK this game!

(i punched the shit out of a donut i got so frustrated)

Ah well, my strop with this game has given me good excuse to be getting on with other projects (which were mysteriously neglected after the arrival of this game).

There's a serious lack of sub games in this one, and the main missions are so 'samey' just hide-and-shoot all the time. At 82% already you have to question how this one stands up to the brutal greatness of the past games, and how obtaining 100% made you feel far more superior. The rewards are crap in this one too.

(but then 'minds' could change if I ever complete this last task)

I couldn't believe not one inanimate object in my lounge last night could help answer my ever increasing vocal query of 'who in their right fucking mind could have got away with programming such an awful level'

"simmers"

okay. did it.

shut up ste

So, now that you've finished it, how do you feel about it in comparison to the San Andreas and Vice City (and even III) GTA's? I have yet to play it, and really can't bring myself to justify buying it for my flatmate's 360 (he's too cheap to buy it). But, whenever I think of buying it, I question whether I would actually enjoy it that much.
A big part of that is that I'm cynical, and can't believe it could possibly be justified in the scores of 100% reviews, and the other part is that as much as I really enjoyed the other games, they still got a bit 'samey' eventually. I'm not one for the 100% stuff anyway, more just a main story-arc kinda guy. Pissing about is always fun though, I guess. Just wondering how you think it compares to it's predecessors on grounds other than prettiness, as I know you love the GTA games.

This one is a bit more samey than SA/VC, a lot of the missions are either "go in the warehouse and shoot the 20 people that are all firing at you" or "chase the car, kill the car". But there is so much more fuel for pissing about and procrastinating between missions. Maybe too much, your social life can get a bit hectic when everyone's calling you to play pool and you just want to wander around freely or finish a mission. Personally, I prefer SA for the variety of the missions, I never thought I'd say this but I think I miss the flying missions.

I'm still loving it though.

I hit some chick in the back of the head with an empty coffee cup and the fuzz came down after me. Puh-leeze.

I've gotten so bored at times that I just go down to Coney Island, find the red propane tank, and blow myself up.

Oh buy it, it's great fun.

I'd say at a pinch San Andreas was a better game. It has more variety in missions, more to offer, more side missions and just generally trillions of shit going on. I think this owes a lot to it being the third release on the same system. GTA III and VC were almost identical 'original gta-3d' launch titles. The jump in technical achievement between VC and SA will hopefully be mirrored between IV and the next installment.

Now that I've finished the story, it's time to batter this one over the head until it bleeds. Just like I've done with the prev ones. A proper assessment, in that case, will be a long way off.

And yeah, I miss the flying missions too. I also miss checkpoint missions and hidden vehicle secrets.

Pleasant otm. This one is more grounded, and some respects it truly is a bad thing. Hospital bills are astronomical, police wanted levels over 3 stars are a bitch to shake, you can't just drive into a pay n spray if the cops see you go into it.