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

I love the fact that I dinged up a potential GF's car on the way to the bowling alley, beat her in bowling, dropped her off, charmed her enough to get her to consider future dates, and got her car, too! Only in America!

i agree that the grafx aren't spectacular... but they are beautifully designed with lots of nice moments. it would be hard to create a world that big and detailed and keep up the level of graphical detail you see in something like uncharted. on the other hand, art direction trumps graphic power for me every time.

getting used to it geographically before I totally get lost in the city.

Kinda what I was doing all last night, but I'm still completely lost!

This map seems so much more condensed than previous games, and I'm loving that you can climb (most) fire escapes and things like ladders.

and WOW at motorbike helmet wearing, which seems totally optional depending on if you pause after mounting a bike. WOW

Everythings costing too much money at the moment, I came across a homeless chap on the beach. It said "press L1 to give him a few dollars", when I pressed it I'd gone and fucking given him TEN dollars!

yeah slocki otm. GTA games have never pushed machines graphically, it's all about their design rather than ooh how detailed can we get the textures.

And with all the other areas of gameplay that need attention in GTA games, it's now wonder anyway that a compromise has to be met.

'no wonder'

(i'm not a geordie)

Yeah about the helmets and have you noticed yet that the helmet makes a huge difference in whether or not you die from high-impact crashes on the bikes? I had a helmetless one this morning where I t-boned a cop car going like 100, flew off an overpass into the wall of the building below, and fell 40 feet onto a parked car. That probably would have killed me even with a helmet, though.

One thing this game really needed: saveable replays, and better still some kind of community hub for them like in Halo 3 or Skate.

oh I never noticed that. Time to experiment with bike crashes then.

and the colour changes to match weather and time of day are fucking delicious in this game!

would be good if you could take pics on your handi and upload them to the social club... so many times I've seen a dude and thought woah he looks funny

I had sex, but I don't think she was into it

loll

also I cannot understand a single word little jacob says

he's pretty cool though

(in a character creation sense, not in a 'oh you are really cool' way)

brian is hilarious!!

i really didnt find him that hard to understand!

omg i ws totally sceptical bt the multiplayer is so much fun!!!

Yes - it was finally working this morning. Being able to do free roam was cool - just to see more of the city - times square looks amazing. I only had time for two deathmatches and while it didn't seem very competitive, it was crazy fun. In the first game I happened to spawn right near a rocket launcher - which was quite the advantage - loved seeing a guy driving a car to run me over then launching a rocket at him and turning his car into a giant fireball

FUCK YOU, SOME GUY ON E-BAY

And now word has it on Ars Technica of reports of UPS guys stealing the game out of shipments.

oh god, don't tell me that! game's still in transit.

I really enjoyed the first taxi and train rides - the game really looks best when you can just sit back like that and watch.

Also the only station I've been listening to is The Journey

hey this game is pretty good

sold out in central london, heavy sigh...

For a large number of people, I'm betting that Bush Tax Refund Checks = New Console + GTA IV

I know at least three that have done this within the last two days.

mailman just came by, no package today. DAMN

Didn't Bush originally run for office promising "a murder simulator for every home"?

Didn't Bush originally run for office promising "a murder simulator for every home"?

There's...SO...many just horrible jokes that could be made here.

Ok, I give up, can someone point me towards an armour spawn?

Oh, and do you get extra wanted stars now simply because a cop sees you? I managed to get 3 after punching a bloke once and being chased for it for a few blocks. I quite like the way you have to escape from them in this game though.

Are you sure you didn't run over a cop on the way from punching the guy? I haven't ever gotten over two stars without killing a cop. And yeah the escaping from the cops is way better

Maybe, I don't know where the third one came from though.

Early spoilers ok now???

Failed the early mission where you chase a guy up to the top of a construction site because I didn't notice he was hanging off the edge, which I managed to run right past, falling to my death.

SPOILERS

I think early spoilers are OK now...

Not for some :( I'll stop reading from now on.

I didn't actually read that spoiler though, so thanks for the heads up.

2 separate threads? : /

did you get a copy, jim? I had a real nightmare trying to find one

i like how much more visceral the gunplay is in this one though it kind of cuts down on the pleasure taken from murder sprees.

i really appreciate that it draws a best route for you to take on the mini map, so you don't have to keep switching up to the big map & thinkin' about if you have to go left or right & getting lost. It's a big help. I do however wish the mini-map was a little bigger. I guess they didn't want to take up a lot of screen real-estate, but that thing is too small

did you get a copy, jim? I had a real nightmare trying to find one

-- czn

Ended up not being able to go out looking at lunchtime and had a doctor's appointment straight after work. Working 'til 6 tomorrow as well. Might check on my lunch hour but doubt anyone will have either a) Still stock left from yesterday or b) will have had a restock of it since selling out yesterday.

The long national nightmare continues.

Actually might just get my friend to do a certain not quite legal thing to my Xbox so I can play it tomorrow.

love:
- the in-car SatNav/GPS on some of the fancier cars
- toll bridges!

Aah, I think you get extra stars if you don't outrun the cops quickly enough.

i also really like the cover system. like everything else in gta games, it is not perfect but running from car to car, spraying bullets at the police, trying to make it to the alleyways to effect your escape... nice.

satnav does offer some crazy routes sometimes (but perhaps r* didn't fancy spending a lot of time coding a cutting-edge system).

I think I'm getting way more lols out of the multiplayer right now. Cops n crooks is still the best but the races are pretty fun. And try and do a deathmatch in the airport... where there are three helicopter gunships available.

Also the only station I've been listening to is The Journey

lol, same here.

finally opened up the second island, the place is pretty awesome especially when viewed from a chopper.

I found some armour on the beach but fuck knows if i can remember where abouts.

I'm adoring the combat system, the cover feature is brilliant and the last few missions I've done with it have felt really satisfying to complete.

Almost smashed it to be bits though, for the mission where go get a car for Brucie. He's fucking hilarious!

gawd i just can't be arsed to do the 'dates' with my contacts, am i going to miss out on anything?

but i kinda like LJ and so last night i agreed to go play pool with him, but i was stuck on the second island. I thought I'd try my hand at using the subway, so out came the foldaway map. After completely going in the wrong direction I ended up in uptown. Then scrambling around subways looking for the flippin J line, by which time LJ had cancelled.

I tried ringing him back for a game of darts, but he blew me out lol.

this game is too real!

body armor in Broker: take road East from Soldier Monument (i think that's what it's called - the one with the circle around it) and on the first block there's a Y-shaped alleyway to your left. inside that is a building with a gate out front - go inside the gate to the right, and there is a respawning body armor tucked in the corner.

Thank you!

Ste, you definitely want to keep up the friendships in the game. I don't know about the other guys or the gfs, but Roman gives you a free car service you can call from anywhere, and LJ will show up to a location you specify with a trunk full of gunz.

Thanks, I got Romans, but he still rings. Do i have to keep taking him out, will he take away the free car option if I don't?

LJ sounds more useful

I do however wish the mini-map was a little bigger.

as someone who always gets completely overwhelmed by these sandbox games I could not agree more. it would also be convenient to have active locations made a little more apparent on either the minimap or the actual map - I missed a date with Michelle last night b/c I was driving around like WHERE IN THE FUCK AM I EVEN SUPPOSED TO BE GOING WHAT ARE ALL THESE ICONS WHICH ONE IS MICHELLE WAS I SUPPOSED TO TURN THERE ARGH

but then again I make no claims to be anything other than a GTArd - is there a way to set navigation points like in Assassin's Creed? and if so, will the GPS plot a course for you to it/them?

Yeah, go to the map and you can set a waypoint, then if you're in a car it'll plot the GPS route.

Heh, I've just worked out what the hidden packages are :).

I've just been blowing all my money on taxis - I must've laid down £2k at least today on taxis alone