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

dudes i never found any of the missions in gta hard! the ones with the model planes in SA were frustrating as fuck, true. but in general my big criticism of the whole series is that most of the 'difficulty' is in completism -- it takes so fucking long dinking around getting all the secrets, but the actual story you can blast through in like 45 mins. harder missions plz!!

Some of the races were pretty hard.

i cant beat that dirtbike race in vcs right now!

gff pls to come round to mine and complete radio controlled planes mission for me thx

One mission I remember having a particularly hard time with was "Just Business" - an early one where you have to kill a bunch of mobsters inside a building, then outside a building, then (here's where I remember it getting tough) a really long motorcycle chase, where you had to do several things just right.

Also for some reason, the flying mission "N.O.E." where you have to stay below radar and drop off a package and then land back at the airstrip - actually caused me to give up on the game for about five months (until I recently picked it up again & did it on my second try).

Also was never able to do the zero mission shooting down those toy planes (ten or more tries) - luckily it's an optional mission...

But yeah - the hardest thing about the game is just the length. And all the new things you have to keep learning, like flying and landing the hydra only to have to use that knowledge on that one mission. Also when I finally got to the end of that one and was about to land, I panicked and hit the eject button instead of the landing gear down (doh - twice)...

It's too bad so many people give up on the Zero missions. The third Zero mission is one of my favorites in any GTA game. The second Zero mission is really fun too, but definitely the hardest mission in the game other than the final mission (sans checkpoint knowledge).

my trick for getting the races done -- and some of the flying missions iirc -- is to switch to 1st person view. it's a good idea in some of the missions where you have to drive a fast but fragile car, too.

also if i remember right: the last RC plane mission is kind of a crapshoot. you have to get the nearest one first and the furthest one last, and it's just kind of luck if they end up in open areas where you can shoot w/o other shit getting the way or turning around too much

Wow, do most people really just restart every time they die? I don't think I've ever done that. It's not like it takes that long to just go to Ammu-Nation and get new gear if you need it.

But it's expensive, and often you get stuff like rocket launchers, sniper rifles or powerful guns in the game way before they're available at Ammunation, and you don't want to lose them.

I just stock up on ammo/guns with the millions I earn at the $1mil blackjack tables. Otherwise I don't reset, only turn off. It's cheaper than throwing my controller at the tv set.

But do you reset your losses at the blackjack tables? Because THAT is cheap.

I AM CHEAP.

IF THEY PUT IT IN THE GAME IT'S NOT CHEAP.

Anything I can do to avoid some RPG-style, rote leveling up is well worth the scorn of a few gamers.

I thought it was cheap that before the last mission you had to take over a bunch of gang territory. That part was just a grind (I almost quit then).

Taking over gang territory was like my favorite part of that game.

Except for that 100 yards pwned by the Mexicans in east LS.

ooohhh... victory at last (what - four years in the making?). The Yellow Kid - thanks so much for your info about checkpoints - I doubt I would have gone back to it without that knowledge. Luckily I was able to get right up to that point again on the first try - though I did fail twice on the chase and once on the next section (I can't believe it was another one of those shoot the motorcycles and cars chasing you sections that I just mentioned hating earlier today - which I probably actually only failed the first time because over the noise of my shooting the firetruck I didn't quite hear / understand dude saying it was useless and to shoot the shit chasing us). My save is only at 61.5% so it looks like there is still I lot I could do if so inclined.

I'm ready for IV, but I guess I'm going to give III a try first, which I never played before.

III in my opinion had the greatest map, atmostphere, and level hardness.

Just be ready for the lack of swimming, camera rotation, climbing, flying vehicles and motorbikes.

You can't control the camera in III? I don't remember that. God that would drive me CRAZY now.

you can do the 'look behind' whilst on foot, or the look left, right, behind whilst in vehicle. But not the cool (and very handy) 360 rotate.

I definitely liked SA's map better. I spent a week in the Back O' Beyond once.

New trailer makes me kind of excited for the story on this one - it seems like it's going to be a little tighter, make a little more sense and possibly be a little more genuinely dramatic. The character animations on the other hand don't look to be advancing as much as the enviornments...

I'm liking the whole, New York, "welcome to America" vibe. If they make a 5 though, the should set it in Europe...

this is a great trailer, extremely similar looking to GTAIII. Which is absoloutely no bad thing.

That music is fantastic too.

Pause it where it shows two cops cars a police chopper, wow.

I should hope they let you supply your own soundtracks, it being the next gen and all.

Just started III - only a couple of missions in but the camera seems fine to me... actually walking around seems a little less clunky than with the camera in San Andreas for some reason - the way the camera shifts around as you're driving is a bit worse tho (awkward). What I really miss is not being able to pull up a full city map to plot your routes - just having the little radar bubble makes it a little harder to tell the best way around (maybe since it's a smaller city, as one progresses through the game it'll be easier to memorize one's way around?).

I still get a little weirded out by the echoes of the pedestrians' laughs and comments as they walk around. Still loved the game, tho'.

yeah the ambience of III is well eerie

It's definitely easier to memorize the map in III. I knew that thing inside and out, it was a little sad.

gff, thanks for the cam tip! i won the dirtbike race!

yeah that in-car camera view is ESSENTIAL for that City Slicker mission because the car is a complete bitch to drive at high speeds round corners.

New hands on previews and screenshots are up now on various sites...

http://previews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1844/Grand-Theft-Auto-IV/p1/
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/847/847102p1.html
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=180050
http://www.videogamer.com/xbox360/grand_theft_auto_4/preview-734.html

Consensus seems to be 3-4 more months...

Three months max, they say. By the end of April. Nice to know it's not delayed any further.

Apparently - the game automatically saves after you complete each mission, and the missions also have save points during 'em - which if you fail the mission, you can automatically jump right back to via an onscreen prompt if you so desire. There's also still a safe house save system, for when you want to take a break, but say, haven't just completed a mission. Sounds like they have fixed the save system exactly like I was hoping!

Release date now set at April 29th, a long way away.

http://ir.take2games.com/ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=289342

Isn't that the anniversary of the LA Riots? COINCIDENCE I THINKS NOT

and i'm still undecided on whether to get 360 or ps3 for this

oh mang, i found out recently that someone i know really is well is working on this game! they wouldn't tell me anything about it though :(

Apparently - the game automatically saves after you complete each mission, and the missions also have save points during 'em - which if you fail the mission, you can automatically jump right back to via an onscreen prompt if you so desire.

I can't tell you how many times I'd complete a mission, only to get shot to death on the way home to save.

it's annoying but you laugh about it down the pub later.

If you ONLY want to play GTA, Ste, PS3 may be better at this point çause of the Bluray (unless the PS3 version is fucked up somehow as they often are), but if you're interested in playing online or playing other next-gen games you should get an Xbox, which has like 20 times as many good games for it.

yeah, that's basically the conclusions I came to. And I'm unsure whether I will or won't be playing other games. Past records show that I play very little on consoles other than GTA. I still have a few months to decide.

I hope that I can shoot from inside cabs, and I rillyrilly hope that I can shoot the cabbie while he's driving. (Pls no media a11iance ppl read this post.)

Ste - as somebody who owns both a 360 and a ps3 I usually wait to see if people are saying there is any significant difference between the performance of multi-platform titles. If there isn't - I will always go for the ps3 version 1. Because I feel like my 360 can die (again) at any moment 2. I just prefer the ps3 style, interface, controller, quietness etc... 3. I feel like the ps3 will have a significantly longer life span than the 360.

In the case of GTA 4 you will eventually be able to buy some sort of additional chapters or something on the 360, 4-6 months after the game comes out (maybe sooner? because of the delay?). In a weird way that kind of bugs me, but I've never bought additional add ons for a game yet and am not sure I would in this case either. There should be plenty of game in the original release. Unless I hear the ps3 version is gimped in some significant way (which I doubt on such a big title) that's the version I'll be picking up, but I don't think there is one right answer (at least not yet).

oh - a another thing in favor of the ps3 version... The game is supposedly to have a multiplayer online component - on the ps3 it'll be free to play that, on the 360 you'll have to buy a one year subscription to gold for $50.00 USD if you want to play it online (though when you first get a 360 I think you still can get one month free of gold).

You can also buy XBox Live Gold in 3-month chunks. That's what I do. You definitely don't have to buy the year... you're either Gold or you aren't.

I forgot about that - though gold is even more expensive when bought in smaller chunks (twenty usd for three months). It's not like it's super expensive, but it's not free either. I've been debating with myself if it's worthwhile re-upping (I think mine runs out in a week or two)

Anyhow - I'm excited it looks like the game has an official release date. April 29th will be here before we know it. I really didn't think the game would be coming out until the end of 2008

it's annoying but you laugh about it down the pub later.

-- Ste, Thursday, 24 January 2008 16:20 (Thursday, 24 January 2008 16:20)

After putting foot through screen.

you will eventually be able to buy some sort of additional chapters or something on the 360

Is there any technical reason why the PS3 isn't getting this offer? Because if not I'd say they'll probly bring it out sometime in the future, depending on rising increase of PS3 perhaps.