i hope a bunch of us play this. i know i will put 100 hours into it the first week.
i just read two very long articles about the upcoming release. lots of great additions! several brilliant ideas are being taken from Saints Row (which was better than GTA in many ways) and improved upon.

i am not happy still with what i read about the shooting. they seem to think they have improved upon it, but i am not sure until i try it. a partial pull of the left trigger to free aim (best) and a full pull to go to lock on (like in the recent gta games = bad).

so is anyone here getting this game? if so which one? ps3 or 360 and which version. i preordered the ... forgot the name, the expensive one
looks like:

and:
is an amazon exclusive so i wont get that sadly...
special edition i guess.
i preordered it from ebgames/gamestop long ago and now the wait is less than 2 months.

gotta run for now but discuss. :smirk

the guy at gamestop talked me into preordering it a couple of weeks ago, so as of now i'll be getting it... i think you know the answer to the platform question, though. there is exclusive dlc for the 360, though. 2 extra missions, i believe. it sounds good, but i'm still supporting my ps3, they need some love.

also, i'm not a die hard gta fan so don't expect me to get very far. of the 2 i've tried, i've only gotten about 2% in... the psp one because the controls sucked. and vice city because i didn't have enough space on my memory card, and didn't feel like going back and doing it again. maybe this will be the one for me.

cool. ya the ps3 needs to sell some games.
im going 360 for the achieves i guess.

i liked vice city so much! the psp ones were fun but the controls for shooting were crud.

umm... okay i am at lunch now so i have a couple minutes.
cool things that GTA4 will have that saints row did:
1. better aiming.
2. listening to music outside of the car (in GTA4 you will upgrade your phone later and can use it as an mp3 player). i loved this in saints row!
3. gps system so you can mark a location and be guided by arrows to the destination. gta adds that the luxury cars will actually speak the turns to you through the gps system!

for you members that hated the way the character upgrades were handled in san andreas: this time your character niko will be who is and not level up ever. what you need to manage this time is your RELATIONSHIPS. call your friends. meet them on time, hang out with them sometimes, etc. a little like dating in san andreas was but more work and more connected the way the game plays out.

i hear the driving will take some getting used to. the physics are different. maybe more realistic. easy on the gas in the turns, less use of the E brake.

the wanted levels now is like a giant dome over you. if you escape that dome you are not wanted any more. more wanted (more stars in the old games) the bigger the dome.

people can be ejected from their cars. one developer drove with a high wanted level straight at the water, hit an object and was thrown into the water. he then swam to a boat and drove it to safety. COOL!

i hear the phone will ring A LOT! from gfs, friends, potential missions, etc. at least early in the game. that bothers me a little so far. you can silence your phone.

dial 911 to bring emergency vehicles. you can use a cop car computer to look up info on other criminals to go make a hit at their house. take em out before they become big trouble even.

you have a rasta friend. i think his name was little jacob maybe. you can call him to bring you weapons from his trunk anytime almost. he smokes mj, and in one mission when you drop him off, smoke drifts up outta the door. nice touch.

all i can recall at the moment. :thumbsup

nice, i hate the wanted levels, they suck. i hate being chased by cops... i guess that's kinda part of the game, lol. that and i suck at the missions. yeah, i'm wasting my $60, i think, but that's ok i guess.

it will be the biggest, most interactive virtual city you have ever goofed around in though. that alone will be fun. my friend rusty likes just wandering around causing trouble in games like that.
if you go too close to the terrorist site early in the game the cops will be all over you.

i always cheated wanted levels and weapon sets in GTA3 - san andreas (and the psp). now for achieves i will have to play legit! :doh oh no!

if you fail a lot you can near instantly pop back and retry the mission! i will use that a lot (like i did in san andreas). ol burnout could have used this feature big time.

yeah, i changed the wanted levels too. :P aw cheating is so much fun on that game, then you can beat people up and suffer no consequences. we'll see how i fare, i may do better this time around.

some of the stuff i've read has me really meh. driving through toll booths without paying the tolls will earn you wanted stars? wtf. girlfriends appear to be back. dammit.

but some stuff like wax mentioned has me excited.

but driving through toll booths SHOULD make you wanted a little :smirk its kind of funny i think at least.

yea to the gfs. kinda a stupid part from san andreas. this time it is dealt with differently but appears to matter more. "all about the relationships" you make or break.

skipping a toll booth should net you a ticket in the mail, not a full blown police chase. :lol :lol

if they do the gf part better, i might like it but meh....what a waste of time in SA.

funny! :thumbsup :lol

Dear Mr. Niko,
You ran one of our toll booths on this date in a stolen infernus. please submit the lower ha;f of this form with your check for TEN dollars.

yea, but maxing out a gf did have a few perks if you managed to put up with it. like never lose weapons in the hospital or jail for two of the girls. maaayyybbe even a lil hot coffee... :lol

i never continued after failing a missions. i would reload my save so those perks were pointless to me. i couldn't be bothered with that stuff. every gta game i played i did that. if i died or got busted, i'd reload and depending on the circumstances, i'd reload after a failed mission. those didn't bother me unless i lose weapons, etc.

that is assuming you save after or before every mission!?

you know what would be sweeeeeet!? a save anywhere, anytime feature like in oblivion. that would be helpful in a game this big. nervous at the entrance to the hotel in this mission? save first, go for it! OH NO!!!!! reload the save and go back in prepared.

i did always save before i did a mission and always saved afterwards.

i heard that gta iv has auto-save after every mission but i know it would take me forever to find the article that said that. i would hope there's other ways to save as well.

good to hear! thanks.

niko is eastern european, but we never learn exactly where he is from. he starts out a tough guy and does not need to upgrade like cj did in san andreas.

there will be all types of vehicles except for airplanes. motorcycles, cars, trucks, bikes, helicopters, etc all still return.

garages at your safe houses i guess are back but i have learned that there are yellow lines at your houses that you can park between and your cars will remain there forever.

niko can take cover behind objects. a button press will snap him to the object where he can shoot over blindly, pop up and fire, or shoot around corners.

the car and driving physics are way more realistic than all the previous gta games.

niko can get drunk and walk stumbling. if he drives drunk the controls will be off and the screen will waver and change colors... some are speculating that this will be another point for critics and politicians to complain about. a drunk driving simulator! oh the children! who will protect the children!!!! :glare

characters have an internal skeletal structure. you will see nikos feet connect with the steps, curbs, bumps in his path etc. it will effect the way people move when thrown and falling as well. more realistic than the ragdoll physics we see in so many games.

I just hope this realism doesn't take away from what makes gta gta.

it may at first with the driving. the (forgot if it was the oxm or the egm guys) writers that were driving poorly said it took some time to get used to it. it is like driving in a more sim game than old gtas. just easy on the gas in the turns and lay off the e brake.

doubt it will go too real though. like one bullet kills (against you) in a gta would suck!

granted each car had it's own stats and what not but i don't want that to play too heavily in the game.

Can't wait until this is out, very excited about the physics engine. Brawl will keep me occupied until then. :)

sms, what system you getting it for? i thought you don't have your ps3 anymore or am i thinking of someone else?

It was me, surprised you remembered since I've been gone a while. :P I'll be getting it for PS3. I'm just undecided on whether to get one now or wait for the MGS4 bundle. GTA4 will be out a month before that, so with me being impatient I might not make it until then. I'll let you know whenever I get it so we can add each other again. :thumbsup

i thought mgs wasn't till june? i could be wrong, i haven't been following it closely.

oddly enough, i'm really curious to see how they do the online for gta.

Yeah, GTA4 is April 28th and MGS4 is June 12th. So GTA4 would be out a month+ before the bundle is released. I know that the GTA creator is working on an MMO game for 360/PC, can't remember the name though. It's 3 bad guys vs 3 cops I think with loads of customization. It'll be interesting to see what they do for GTA4 though.

i don't understand the purpose of making the driving more realistic unless it improves the quality of the game. this isn't gt4 it's gta4. i guess it could be a good thing, but if they start focusing too much on physics and realism, then it will be more of a chore than fun for me. the whole eating, exercising, and girlfriends makes it seem like more of a sims game, and something i don't really want to be bothered with. did you guys like that part of san andreas?

it might not be bad. the human skeletal system should be a great addition!
you just have to drive a little more carefully from what i hear. i am not too scared of it. i imagine it will more arcade feeling than forza, or gran turismo. if it is straight sim based driving it will fail and i think they know that.

most people here complained about the gta leveling. i didnt mind it too much because i made my cj buff and he stayed that way.
once you get through the game a little you only had to eat like one time (eat two meals) a week. still a little silly i guess, but a worthy experiment.

i didnt mind the gf system but i never really focused on it too often either. this game WILL require more of it, but hopefully it will be more entertaining.
i kinda liked that cj had some strange in all these different towns. fit his character really well.

i never actually played sa, but parts of it just seemed like a hassle, but if the fans didn't mind too much then i guess that's a good thing. at least they are trying to add to the series and not do the same thing over and over again.

leveling was the stupidest idea ever and apparently more people agree so much that they took it out due to the complaints. i'm disappointed girlfriends are still there.

i might go and play some more of vice city and if i can't get into that, i might just move my reservation fee to another game.

does anyone know what the online is supposed to have? maybe co-op missions or something? didn't they do that in gta: sa?

they had 2 player missions in SA but no online. no one knows what the online is gonna be, they've been tight lipped about it.

vice might give you an idea of what IV will be like but only partially i think. SA added in some critical features like swimming so you might find that rather annoying in vice.

wanna a closer feel to gta4? try saints row. more advanced and more playable than gtas were. gta4 will top saints row though.

some leveling in gta san andreas was great! like weapon leveling! they use it in modern fps now.
gave me a reason to use a shotgun a bunch and whatever as you got better with it, and then you could reload quicker or hold two pistols at once, or more ammo or whatever. i liked that part.
fight training was okay.
body building was whatever, same with eating.
some people like micromanaging (like in nintendogs) but it didnt fully fit the gta formula. i think they were trying to build a world and get you to be one with your character so it was worth a shot.
they dropped pretty much all of it though! :smirk

you know, i've seen saints row and not until recently have i heard people talking about it. i think it's probably that it was supposed to be for the 360 and ps3 and was canned for the ps3... i didn't really pay much attention to 360 games then. oh, but there's apparently a sequel to that coming out on the 360 and ps3 this year, wonder if the ps3 will get the boot again... it wouldn't surprise me. i'll have to check it out, it's practically bargain bin material now, lol.

the weapons leveling was ok but at the same time, for weapons i didn't like...i just went into a quiet town and just kept firing at stuff until they upgraded. no skill there.

dual pistols was awesome though.

haha, vix cheats the system, sounds like something i would do, lol.

i used tons of in-game exploits in gta without ever really cheating with cheat codes. like in vice city, i can get all of the hidden packages before doing the first mission.

how do you do that? and this is coming from a totally inexperienced gta player :P i'm just here to be entertained.

there's a way to use an ambulance to jump through a gate that looks solid that isn't that lets you get to a boat to get across. and then as you collect the packages, you get cash so when you get 3000, you can buy one of the little save points that's a shanty on a roof and use it to save on that side. you don't want to by the condo save point till you have all the packages cause there's this weapon spawn glitch.

very interesting. i don't even know what the packages are for :lol

for every ten, you get something. in vice, i think it was 10 item spawns at your hideouts. armor, health, and weapons. there's 100 total in vice and i think it was for getting all 100 you got the army heli, i forget.

i have been wondering what the GTA4 package will be.

in san andreas i hated the photo ops one.
the spray paint ones were cool, and saints row also had 3 different gang tags as hidden items.
i like having items hidden in those places that hard core gamers end up poking around in. the back corner of a park, the top of a building, end of a dead end alley and places like that. such a nice feeling to be rewarded for my search.
i think games with hidden packages should leave a mark behind to let you know there WAS an item here and you have collected it already. (burnout paradise lets you know there was a billboard here, you have already broken through it).

more info:
http://gtaunderground.com

i hated that there were no hidden packages in SA, the tagging, photo ops, horseshoes and oysters were annoying. the only good thing to collect was the oysters.

and i agree, that once you find a package there should be some indication that you already got them. since they have "GPS" this time, it should show up on your map or something like that.