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

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.

does anyone know what money is good for besides buying ammo and clothes and spending $5 on a hamburger? i really don't care about hospital bills cuz otherwise money is kinda useless and it keeps piling up!

Trying to avoid spoilers (I've only just unlocked Manhattan), but I've already been frustrated at the amount of "go in here, shoot all this dudes" missions. Though now that I'm understanding they're mostly just hide-shoot-hide take-yr-timeathons I'm cooler with them.

where's the rape button plz

You're thinking of Dr. Mario.

I'm pretty far along, I think. I recently made the )SPOILER ALERT) choice of Derrick over Francis, and am doing a lot of missions in Alderney. I think there are missions in this game that are just way more fun than comparable missions in the other games because of their depth and how visceral they are (the bank heist, rescuing roman, the bike chase through the subway... ), but the other games definitely were a little more fun overall in the 1p.

On the other hand, like so many games nowadays, it seems like the best part, the most infinitely rewarding part, is the multiplayer, which is too bad because I generally dislike multiplayer. These multiplayer options are among the best I've tried, but it's still not something I enjoy as much because I hate either (1) talking to racist suburban 15 year olds, and (2) if you don't use the headset, you'll wind up screwing everything up or not communicating well whenever teamwork is needed.

And yeah, this game is definitely not a 10. It's fun, but highly flawed. Also, many of the cut scenes are embarrassingly bad in their rendering.

In all honesty, I don't need a lot of convincing. It's more the fact that I'll have to buy it for a console that isn't even mine. Ah well, provided it's as fun as the previous ones, I guess it's worth £40. Plus, I just got stuck on hard on Guitar Hero, so I need a proper game to stop me pissing away the hours on a nothing game...

sweet, (minor spoiler, maybe not)

only found out tonight you can ride the huge Tug ship. it's great for ramming every fucker else with.

i so want one of those black Fed cars, looks like a beast.

CraigG: Rental? It took me a good 40ish hours to get through all of the story (although I really took my time and did side missions and sat in the cxar listening to talk shows and stuff). Beating the story can definitely be done confortably under 30h-- rent it two or three times and book a few days off!

it took me 100+ hours lol. although i have done 88%

Went to the strip club, was preceded on my way out by one of the ladieeez who apparently felt like a stroll in the sunshine, all scantily clad like. She was probably drunk 'cause she kept on getting run over.

locking to cover in this game can be kind of sticky and annoying.

Yeah but... it's better than nothing.

Apparently someone declared WORLD ASSHOLE DAY on multiplayer today.

lol Dwayne

*ring ring*
"Hello?"
"Hey, its Dwayne. Did you just call me"?
"No..."
"Oh ok. It's just... I was in the shower, and the phone rang. I thought it might have been you. My bad."
*click*

Heh, I got that. I've now taken to ringing him and standing him up on purpose as much as possible.

Isn't that (the Dwayne phone exchange) from The Cable Guy? :)

Yeah, rental might be an option, but I'll probably just wait til my flatmate cracks and buys it himself, or I'll borrow it from one of my friends once they're bored.

gta moment #1233454

driving along very carefully trying to avoid colliding with cop car/pedestrians to avoid wanted star, only to hit lamp post/tree which sends you deflecting right into path of said cops/peds.

more moments..

accidentally walking into someone at the top of some stairs, and seeing them tumble all the way to the bottom

shooting the gas canister on the back of the forklift truck (hint: it doesn't explode like you think)

Casually flying your helicopter through the flames on those refinery chimneys, just to see 'what will happen'.

Just watching the shadow of your helicopter flying through the skyscrapers

The all time favourite, launching a rocket at an oncoming speeding car sending it soaring through the air in a ball of flames.

This has sat unopened in my living room for a week now. It is far too daunting. It's like getting into the Fall or Guided By Voices but probably even more of a time-suck and thus even more intimidating.

I don't know, I've been giving it an hour or two per play and it's been enjoyable enough.

I thought I was hallucinating for a while but no it's definitely true - you know the GPS lady who tells you which way to go? And when you get to where you have to turn the GPS goes bing-bong? Sometimes the lady actually says "bing bong".

there's some amazing grafitti around in this game, just on the east side underneath the main underpass there's a huge row of homeless areas with tons of artwork on the walls.

spent a good half hour last night just laying waste to my apartment, pretty satisfying. and i broke the telly.

and destroy - fucking side missions that actually cost *me* money!