What is the big deal with Grand Theft Auto IV? Enlighten me. Say 3 or 5 things that will make it as awesome as it's supposed to be.
my major gripes with GTA4:
- from a gameplay standpoint, what's it bring to the table? the leftovers from wringing out the series in a food processor, thats what. It looks the same as GTA3, ok sure you're a vodka chugging ex-KGB or whatever and you're in New York City, but that's it? cover system? oh wow, took 'em long enough to put one in. anything else I'm missing?
- I'm not one for graphics debates really, but the animations in GTA4 look... pretty bad. I've seen smoother and more fluid animation on last-gen hardware. The environments looks pretty good though, Rockstar captured the NYC look really well. Also I know it's not supposed to be a graphics showcase but still, I know it can look much better.
- the driving in it looks meh. I like it how Rockstar tried to make it a bit more realistic with the handling and whatnot, but by doing that it makes it not fit with the rest of the game. GTA games have always had a bit quirky and un-realistic/true video game-ish feel, with power drifting through turns in cars, surviving multiple molotov cocktails exploding on you and the mere ability of cheats shows how it's not shooting for hyper-realism. But then GTA games have always had that slice of realism that roots it in a nice niche.
What I'm trying to say is, ok you know what, think of Metal Gear Solid's story and setting. It has a definite sci-fi vibe but you feel as if everything in it could really happen, say in the near future. Like in 20 years Rex and Ray will be real threats and poeple like Psycho Mantis will be the real deal. That's kinda how GTA's gameplay has been like, impossible but with a smidge of realism. The new realistic driving doesn't fit in GTA.
- Rockstar could easily jut give the player a lot of things to blow up, weapons to shoot, people to beat up, rob and have fun in bed with... and they could call it a night. But what about outside the sandbox aspect? I have read like one GTA4 preview so far and don't know anything about the story, and I haven't heard much about it.
Hell, I don't even know the main guy's name, it's Nicholas or something boring like that right? Should of been something funny like Tchaikovsky Gorbachev and have the 4th movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony no. 4 remixed into a hardcore trance song with a title named Perestroika as the theme song. Now that would be awesome.
- Box art, yeah I'm complaining about this as well. Come on lose the faux comic book look, it's not working Rockstar. Coloring is decent I'll give it that, but the black outlines are on the fence of heavy or weak, which I don't like, the lighting doesn't accentuate it and the collage-ish look is not working out. It's too subtle as a main picture and too busy as a background, in my honest opinion, the box art is just ok.
Well drop a comment in the box and some rubber bands in my hand. (I'm building a giant catapult with the intention to launch myself to mars and claim the planet as my own.)