May 25, 2008

What Game Reviews Forgot To Mention Part 2 : GTA IV

If you want to read a review on how amazing the new GTA game is, please start at metacritic.com where the game currently has an average score of 99%. For a more realistic assessment however, try here! Because GTA, despite its brilliance, is not as perfect as it hyped up to be and there are certain things you should know that game reviews forgot to mention !
In any development cycle (especially when making the big leap to next generation hardware), there comes a point in time when the developer realises that, in order to achieve what it initially set out to do , some functions, program code or allocated memory resources will need to be edited down out or cut completely. In Rockstar’s case, they also had to address the challenge of compressing all the data onto a Dvd or Blu-ray disc. Finding this balance is a major headache of game development : there is no easy solution. Sometimes things that work in theory or have worked in the past are cut just to make the game more playable.

With this in mind, here are things I have noticed are no longer in GTA :
No Car Garage: You can no longer store your favourite cars in your hideout garage next to your hideout / home.Instead,you are given a car park space on the street outside.
Some weapons have gone : no chainsaw, knuckle fist, flame thrower.
Safe houses no longer have “top ups” where you stock up on health, armour and ammo. Now you must find everything yourself.
Races must be accessed with your mobile phone. No more driving to a specific place and choosing which race you want to enter.
All the driving tests from San Andreas are no more : no car , bike , boat or plane tests.
No planes … and therefore no sky diving..
No swimming underwater
Most surprisingly, No custom soundtracks. You can play your own music but not on the “radio” like before.

In terms of gameplay, I noticed the following :
You die more often : A1 is more advanced and therefore harder to avoid.
Dying is more expensive : they seem to take more of your money when you leave hospital or get busted?
Frustration ! Despite the introduction of replaying missions on your mobile and taxis to drive you to mission points, its still very frustrating to fail a mission and then have to start from the beginning again…zzzz why could we not restart from where the mission takes place rather than from where the mission is given out ...

The game map is so detailed and real yet there are no huge play areas without traffic and people.. In San andreas we had huge areas of countryside to fool about in without worrying about police etc

Finally, the character moves around by "walking" : if you wish to run, then you must press the right button non stop . This should be the other way round : running unless pressing to walk. Walking in such a big world is a bit slow! Also, the mechanics of targeting and then fighting without guns is not well done. You often find you are hitting air rather than people.
Its worth pointing out that I am not even half way through this enormous game yet so its possible I will discover more later or be wrong on a couple of points… Its still an amazing game and most of the faults above are debatable : some will not notice them and others will . But they are simply not mentioned in any review I have seen on the internet so far.

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