GTA IV DRM B****ing Free Impressions: Check out Hard Charger + new mods!

[CeeKay]

ok, so I got past the oh so horrible it's infringing on our civil rights and hates America plus kicking all of our dogs and raping our sisters/mother/pet goldfish copy protection that allows unlimited installations on unlimited PC's and got in about an hour of gameplay between watching a bunch of Netflix rentals (Batman Gotham Knight=meh, Doomsday= heh, Prince Caspian=surprisingly not too bad).

First off:  you really need a gamepad to play this game.  sure, they set it up for the mouse/keyboard, but when your driving with WASD and moving the camera with the mouse it really sucks that you don't have a third hand to hit the enter key to answer the mouse.  for some silly reason they decided to not let you map anything to any extra mouse buttons you may have.  Luckily, I have a 360 controller and the adapter for the PC, so those of you who don't can suck it  

Secondly:  this game is 2008's Crysis when it comes to system requirements.  Rockstar has even said that most current systems will only be able to run it on medium settings, and they ain't lying.  I can run Far Cry 2 maxed out but this one brings my system to its knees.  Still, it does appear to be sharper than the 360 version was.

Third:  Destructor smells funny.

Fourth: I have encountered no real bugs other than the Social Club servers being b0rked and giving me an error when I tried to launch the game while connected.  this was fixed by simply not logging on to them when the launch menu asked me what I wanted to do.  I think there may be a memory leak as towards the end of my playtime it was starting to chug a little.

[Razgon]

You need to yell more at DRM for this to be real impressions...else its, as the MMOkids like to say, Failzorz... ;-)

[baelthazar]

CeeKay is a Fanboi!!!!111!1!!!1!!1!! 

Yeah, those system reqs pretty much make it impossible for me to run it. My brother-in-law has it for the PS3, and it LOOKS really really sharp. The gameplay was pretty much, rinse and repeat from the earlier one, or at least that was my impression. They did put in some nice additions that the series really needed, like, I don't know, internal locations... (ok ok, San Andreas has SOME internal locations, but this one seems to have more).

One thing I did like is that they seemed to model New York city to almost a T, making me wonder if they drove down streets taking tons of pics (or laboriously used Google Maps street view). Liberty City is smaller than NYC, but the main major landmarks are there. My former neighborhood in the Bronx was too far North to be on the map (the game only models the South Bronx), but the giant "Stripper Warehouse", gentleman's club that is right across the river is actually in the game (and the model for it looks nearly exactly like the real building). I very much appreciated the level of detail here. I wouldn't want to play it now, really, as it would probably make me miss New York City while I am on my sojourn away from it! 

I would like some impressions of the game's "innovations" in gameplay from San Andreas.

Bael

[Destructor]

Third:  Destructor smells funny.

 

[CeeKay]

I would like some impressions of the game's "innovations" in gameplay from San Andreas.

I never got into San Andreas beyond the first couple of missions so I'm probably the wrong person to ask about that.  I know they put in a 'dating' sim, where you have to hang out with people to keep them on good terms with you, and if they like you enough you get different benefits.

I did notice some areas that I don't remember being in the console version: a mini golf course in the amusement park (not sure if you can play a game but it's open for you to get into) and I had to pick Roman at a hospital which seemed like a new event.

[Kevin Grey]

I far prefred GTA4 to it's predecessors but not because of any innovations.  San Andreas, in particular, tried to do everything and the kitchen sink but pretty much everything it did was executed poorly.  In contrast GTA4 peels back the options a bit but what is left behind is done far better than the previous installments IMO.  The driving feels better, on foot combat is vastly improved with a cover system that works well, and the biggest triumph is the scope and attention to detail of the city which grounds everything much more than previous installments. 

[Ridah]

I agree, the city itself was the true star of the show. What I want to know is how good the game looks on medium settings, I would be absolutely fine with simply a higher resolution than the console versions.

[CeeKay]

here's some screenshots.  I'm still playing around with the settings as I found that the game drops to a crawl when it rains with the ones pictured below.  AA does not currently work with the game:



I'm probably going to be dropping another 2 gig of RAM into my system next week as part of an upgrade, which will bring it up to 4 gig total, and then within the next couple of months I may end up putting a Intel quad core in the rig too (current an Intel e6400 I believe).  I'm running it on a nVidia 8800GT w/768 of RAM.

[CeeKay]

and these are the auto configure settings.  the only thing I changed manually was upping the vehicle density to 100.  2 things I noticed:  the camera view when you are drunk is even worse than the console version; I started to feel sick just watching it, and there seems to be more waves in the water when you go swimming.

[baelthazar]

Well, there is one screenshot that I see that kills the realism.

It looks like you are swimming in the Hudson river and your skin isn't melting off or you don't have broken glass and hypodermic needles in you. Furthermore, if it is the north Hudson, then there should be at least one human body on the shore. 

Actually though... I do have a funny story about how the girls of my university's rowing team got a bottle thrown at them from a building along the Hudson. When one girl got hit, they pulled over to check her out... and on the rock they pulled over to rest they found a human body...

Funny part is, the news made it sound more shocking that the girl had been hit with a bottle... and then tersely added the body part near the end!

Bael

[Suitably Ironic Moniker]

Well, there is one screenshot that I see that kills the realism.

It looks like you are swimming in the Hudson river and your skin isn't melting off or you don't have broken glass and hypodermic needles in you. Furthermore, if it is the north Hudson, then there should be at least one human body on the shore. 

To be fair, you can't actually see his face in the shot .

[CeeKay]

hmm.. apparently the PC version is considered a separate game when it comes to achievements.  I was playing around and got a bunch of them I thought I already had, so I check my profile and sure enough there are 2 listings with the same achievements available.

[CeeKay]

well, I found a description of the graphics settings:

GRAPHIC SETTINGS OF GRAND THEFT AUTO IV PC

Most users using current PC hardware as of December 2008 are advised to use medium graphics settings. Higher settings are provided for future generations of PCs with higher specifications than are currently widely available.

Graphics settings are limited by system resources by default. 256MB video cards force minimum settings by default. If a user bypasses these safety measures using command line arguments and exceeds their system resources, the users gaming experience may be compromised.


Video Mode
Resolution scaling effects water, reflections, shadows, mirrors and the visible viewable distance. The resolution settings relate to the amount of available video memory. At 2560*1600 the game will require 320MB of video memory in addition to all the memory required for content. At 800*600 the game will require 32MB of video memory in addition to the content. Medium resolution settings are recommended for most users as higher settings are only usable if there is available video memory.

Texture Quality
Texture quality affects the visual quality of the content of the game. High setting for textures will require 600MB of video memory at a setting of 21 View Distance in addition to the memory taken by the Video Mode. A medium texture setting is recommended for most users.

Render Quality
Render quality is the texture filter quality used on most things in the world rendering. Most people would know this as anisotropic filtering. Medium settings are recommended for most users and will provide filtering beyond what the console versions can execute.

View Distance
View distance scales the distance in which different objects in the world such as building and cars are seen. Raising this option increases the distance in which high quality objects must be loaded and will increase the memory it requires. Restrictions are established to ensure the game runs optimally for most users. A setting of 22 or more will provide PC users an enhanced experience over the console versions.

Detail Distance
Detail distance scales aspects of the environment that the View Distance setting does not including vegetation, trash and other moveable objects. A setting of 10 would be the equivalent to the performance on a console. This setting has little effect on memory.

Vehicle Density
Vehicle density scales the traffic density of the traffic in the game. It has no effect on the mission vehicles or difficultly of the game, but can have a significant impact on CPU performance

Shadow Density
Shadow Density controls the number of shadows generated for positional lights in exterior environments. These shadows are exclusive to the PC version and can have a major impact on CPU and GPU performance.

Crossfire/SLI
With the latest ATI driver (8-11 series) the game supports crossfire modes (ie. 4870x2)
SLI is currently unsupported. Support will be added through a future game patch as well as an updated Nvidia driver.


NOTE: Background Processes
Certain background processes can have a detrimental effect on system performance when playing GTA IV, especially on systems with minimum required system memory. Users should ensure they disable their Virus scans when running the game to maximize performance.

[cheeba]

I don't understand why it's such a system hog. I mean it's not like the Xbox 360 is a powerhouse compared to computers today.

[baelthazar]

I would think that, on high, the PC version should look FAR sharper than the X-Box 360 version. I believe that there is a difference in TV resolutions and PC resolutions even though the HD TVs can get up to high resolution pictures. Not sure how all that works, the XBOX 360 is capable of 1080p, I believe, but I don't know what that compares to with, say, an XVGA LCD monitor. More tech savvy people could answer all that.

Bael

[Laner]

The 360 version renders at 1280x720 - a relatively low resolution compared to what PCs are capable of these days.

[CeeKay]

so, the mouse/keyboard combo makes some missions so much easier.  I've ended 2 chase missions quite quickly thanks to the precision aim, one of them being a certain early motorcycle chase scene that was always a pain to navigate.

[CeeKay]

so, the mouse/keyboard combo makes some missions so much easier.  I've ended 2 chase missions quite quickly thanks to the precision aim, one of them being a certain early motorcycle chase scene that was always a pain to navigate.

and the Snow Storm mission was a cake walk with the controls.  I'm curious to see how Three Leaf Clover holds up.

[CeeKay]

the controls for the helicopter are interesting.  you need to use w & s to control your altitude and on the keypad 8 & 2 for your speed and 4 & 6 for turning.  it actually seems to make it easier to control (the Paper Trail mission should be interesting)- you can also use the mouse but it's much harder.  the only bad thing is the framerate takes a hit while flying.  I did get the Most Wanted achievment when I accidentally violated the third islands airspace and spent time flying around with the 6 star wanted level.

it seems like using the mouse/keyboard knocks the dificulty of the game down a couple of notches.  on th 360 I could not win Brucies first race but knocked it out on the first try with the PC version, and like I said before chase missions are much easier with using the WASD keys for the vehicle and the mouse for shooting.

I've also been running into alot more of the random guy on the corner missions than I did in the 360 version.

[CeeKay]

so, I made it to the final mission, and I'm not sure what to make of it.  basically, they require you to do at least 3 chases in a row: the first is a simple cra chase, then a big gun fight, and then at least 2 chases using the worst vehicles in the game control wise- first a motorcycle chasing a boat down the shoreline and then a helicopter.  I'm considering the game complete at this point as it isn't worth the aggravation, not to mention the whole boat chase sequence could be ended quickly had Rockstar decided to let you complete things your way.  when the boat takes off you have a good line of sight and could easily take down the people on board with either a burst of rifle fire or a RPG, but they had to make it plus the targets indestructible and make you jump through their hoops.

[Godzilla Blitz]

I've been messing around with the Playstation 3 version. It's been fun, but I absolutely hate when you fail a mission and have to start from the beginning again. It's to the point where I'm ready to just give up on the game.

There is that "retry" feature, but it always starts without your body armor and you lose whatever vehicle you had, which means stealing another vehicle (usually easy, of course), then driving to a gun shop for more body armor, then going back to the mission's triggering point, then getting to the place where the action starts, then trying the mission all over again. If I load a saved game instead, it still involves driving from my safehouse to wherever the mission trriggers (sometimes far) and starting all over again from there. In either case, there is usually five to ten minutes of boring stuff you've already done before you can get to the challenging part of the mission. One of the missions I'm stuck on now is where you have to snipe union guards on towers, then go into a construction zone and kill a series of bosses. The sniping is cake, and I have little trouble with the first few bosses, but the last boss is tough for me. For this mission, it means about 15 minutes of tedium just to get to the part that I'm stuck on.

Usually I'm able to go try something else and come back to a mission, but now I've got two possible missions in front of me, and I'm stuck on both of them. Grrr.

I just don't understand why you design a game this way. Why make your customer do this? Where is the fun in it, and wouldn't this be obvious from testing the game? I realize that part of the problem is that I'm not very good at the game yet, but at the same time there have got to be a lot of customers that are new to the series and don't have leet skills.

[CeeKay]

There is that "retry" feature, but it always starts without your body armor and you lose whatever vehicle you had, which means stealing another vehicle (usually easy, of course), then driving to a gun shop for more body armor, then going back to the mission's triggering point, then getting to the place where the action starts, then trying the mission all over again. If I load a saved game instead, it still involves driving from my safehouse to wherever the mission trriggers (sometimes far) and starting all over again from there.

luckily some missions will start you back at a certain point when you do the retry feature, albeit without any armor/health/ammo that you spent on the previous try.  the last mission does this, placing you at the end of the first (and easiestof the three) chase, but then you have to go through the motorcyle chase and then change to helo portion, which really sucks if you haven't touched a helicopter beyond the 2 missions that require you to use it.

I hope in GTA 5 they get away from having a trigger point that can change the world around you (like the ones where suddenly your car disappears and you're stuck with whatever vehicle they want you to use) and cutscenes where you're stuck watching them instead of just making them in-game so you can just kill someone instead of having a conversation with them.  also, enemies that are invulnerable up to a certain point need to go bye-bye; if I have a head shot on a target then he should die instead of ignoring it just so I have to go on an elaborate chase scene.  the worst case of that I saw was a mission where I had to chase 2 bikers, and as aiming in the PC version is very easy I unloaded several clips into one of them as I chased them, and watched at one point as the guy actually disappeared from the bike yet it kept going until a preset point where he re-appeared.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Yup. I'd agree with all of those points. I can put up with much of that, but I do at times feel like I'm gaming the mission. For example, if I'm chasing someone, often it seems that I can't catch them until they reach some scripted point where they crash. So I find myself not actually chasing them, and instead just trying to stay in the same block. Which is just silly from a gaming standpoint.

In most cases, the retry feature isn't helpful to me because of the lost body armor. If the mission was hard enough that I died on my previous attempt, I'm not likely to make it through the mission the second time at what essentially is half strength. Sure, there are some missions where I do something stupid to lose the mission, but on most of my failures I die because someone shoots me a lot. Taking away my body armor and letting me try again isn't a big help.

I'm also not big on the story so far, which seems random, weak, and confused. I have little sense as to what motivates Niko, and things aren't really going anywhere.

But there are parts that are just incredibly well done. The voice acting, the writing, the dialog, and the detail in the world is stunning at times. Some of the missions are tons of fun.

I remember Bill Harris mentioning that he thought that this game was an amazing mix of awesome and shitty, and the more I play the game the more I agree with him. There are some incredibly well done elements to the game, and then there are some parts that are glaringly awful. It's almost as if the developers had a really smart team and a team of monkeys and each worked on half the game in total isolation.

[CeeKay]

looks like the Lost and Damned may be on it's way to the PC.

[Purge]

[Ridah]

I just bought this for $7.50 on Steam and got around to booting it up. I'm assuming they still haven't added AA since, well, there's a lot of jaggies.

I'm somewhat disgusted at all the sign-in spam I get, first with the Rockstar social club and then Windows Live. The Live one annoys me the most because it says I can sign in with my Hotmail account but when I try it doesn't work.

Anyhow, I definitely need to get a wired 360 controller because there's no way I can play with the mouse/keyboard.

As far as graphical settings, what are you able to turn up with minimal framerate impact? By default the game assigned a few settings to medium and a few to high/very high, I turned everything down to medium though.

[CeeKay]

when I first fired up the game way back when I too thought I'd need to use the gamepad, but after awhile I found mouse/keyboard worked great and actually made some of the more insane missions much better.  as for settings I don't remember a lot about them.  looking back the only thing I played around with was the traffic one, turning it up all the way.

[CeeKay]

new patch is coming, and the Rockstar Social Club as a separate app is going bye bye.

The full list of changes is shown below:

    Rockstar Games Social Club

        * Remove Rockstar Games Social Club application
        * Separate RGSC application no longer required to launch game
        * Social Club login now occurs during the launch process

    Shadows

        * A new, less memory-intensive, and better-looking scalable shadow solution has been implemented
        * Enhanced Night Shadows added with user-selectable level of detail (replaces Shadow Density)

    Performance

        * Rendering optimizations have been made to improve performance, particularly when enabling shadows
        * User-configurable graphics settings have been added for shadow control
        * Improved memory management

    Multiplayer

        * Enhanced security to isolate users from cheaters and hackers

    Episodic Content

        * Provide in-game support to purchase "The Lost and Damned" and "The Ballad of Gay Tony" (Not available in Russian/Japanese Versions)

    Bug Fixes

        * Vehicle shadows re-enabled between 8pm and 6am
        * Fix floating street textures
        * Pedestrians in vehicles appear further out from the player to allow for long range sniping
        * The Moon has been implemented with simulated lunar phases
        * Fixed garbled text in Japanese Multiplayer menus
        * "RESC 10" error fix for specific hardware configurations

[CeeKay]

OK, the new patch is out.  I'm not sure what they did but now I'm getting a lot of pop in in the distance when I turn around quickly in wide open areas.  it's pretty annoying.

oh, and it's not in the notes but there's an option for AA now.

[KePoW]

OK, the new patch is out.  I'm not sure what they did but now I'm getting a lot of pop in in the distance when I turn around quickly in wide open areas.  it's pretty annoying.

oh, and it's not in the notes but there's an option for AA now.

Where's the AA option?  I don't see one in-game.

I've heard the pop-in reports, but I haven't noticed it myself yet.  The new shadows look waaaaaay better, so far a thumbs-up for the patch.

Here's a tip though, turn the Shadows to 'High', not 'Very High'...it still looks 100x better than in previous versions.  Also turn Night Shadows off, it definitely makes things slow down significantly, and there's a lot of visual bugs with it anyway.

[CeeKay]

OK, the new patch is out.  I'm not sure what they did but now I'm getting a lot of pop in in the distance when I turn around quickly in wide open areas.  it's pretty annoying.

oh, and it's not in the notes but there's an option for AA now.

Where's the AA option?  I don't see one in-game.

sorry, it's AF, not AA that I saw listed.

[CeeKay]

The Salesman Ultimatum(NSFW), a fanmade movie using the GTA IV engine.

[EngineNo9]

The Salesman Ultimatum(NSFW), a fanmade movie using the GTA IV engine.

So was there a coherent story there at all, or was it just random shit?  I gave up after a few minutes.

[CeeKay]

The Salesman Ultimatum(NSFW), a fanmade movie using the GTA IV engine.

So was there a coherent story there at all, or was it just random shit?  I gave up after a few minutes.

it all ties together at the end, but there is some incoherent parts in it that really don't need to be there.

ps.  wanna buy a watch?

[CeeKay]

the Trashmaster, a near 90 minute fan made film using the GTA IV engine.

[CeeKay]

thanks to Enough I'm re-installing tonight, but while searching for that I also found some other mods it might be worth trying.

[CeeKay]

check out this new graphics mod.

[CeeKay]

new movie:  Hard Charger

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3lmWFq_W7Qk

[CeeKay]

the Brothers Mario return: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw7CKnfk4JY&feature=player_embedded

[CeeKay]

damn, check out iCEnhancer, another graphics mod.