Grand Theft Auto Grieving Thread - Yep, I've been drinkin' again...

[The Last Stand]

One underrated aspect about GTA IV: its story arcs.

Not just with Niko's adventures coming into Liberty City, but how they intertwine with Johnny and Luis' misadventures.

Remember playing GTA IV and hearing about diamonds in some missions? There's a whole story arc revolving over how the diamonds came, how you got involved and what ultimately happened to them. There's a few plot holes but overall, it's a well written story of criminality and greed.

Somebody even edited all the missions with the diamonds into one video. It's almost like a movie.

 

[Mr. 0]

One underrated aspect about GTA IV: its story arcs.

Not just with Niko's adventures coming into Liberty City, but how they intertwine with Johnny and Luis' misadventures.

Remember playing GTA IV and hearing about diamonds in some missions? There's a whole story arc revolving over how the diamonds came, how you got involved and what ultimately happened to them. There's a few plot holes but overall, it's a well written story of criminality and greed.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=LUVL0mCMLac
Somebody even edited all the missions with the diamonds into one video. It's almost like a movie.

same user did this with the heroin and the cocaine missions:

 

[The Last Stand]

same user did this with the heroin and the cocaine missions:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=nWlJnOds46A

whatever57010 makes some great informative GTA IV videos. I recommend taking a look at them if you want to see story threads involving IV and V. He also does Fun Facts videos about IV and V, among other worthwhile content.

Let's talk about Red Dead Online:

Because of the lack of updates from R* since the Moonshiners update 7 months ago, players are dressing up as clowns in the open world to protest. I believe this Youtuber, OnlyPVPCat, started it.

On a less positive note, PC modders are spawning in as KKK NPCs and griefing players online. Enough to get an article about it.

 

[Vault Boy]

Because of the lack of updates from R* since the Moonshiners update 7 months ago, players are dressing up as clowns in the open world to protest. I believe this Youtuber, OnlyPVPCat, started it.

They seriously had the nerve to not update RDR2 for months? All without giving single player fans some DLC?

 

[The Last Stand]

They seriously had the nerve to not update RDR2 for months? All without giving single player fans some DLC?

So much for the excuse of Online occupying their time for future content.

All they could've done was remade the original Red Dead Redemption with RDR2's engine. That would've satisfied enough people.

 

[Mr. 0]

So much for the excuse of Online occupying their time for future content.

All they could've done was remade the original Red Dead Redemption with RDR2's engine. That would've satisfied enough people.

Or did the same thing with Red Dead Revolver and let even more people know it existed

 

[The Last Stand]

Or did the same thing with Red Dead Revolver and let even more people know it existed

To be fair, it is on PS4 as a PS2 Classic along with the original GTA trilogy and Manhunt. However, those don't get as much popularity as their other titles.

I disagree with the bolded part as I think updating Red Dead Revolver with modern visuals and gameplay mechanics provided by RDR2 would compromise the campy intent of the original.

Red Dead Redemption's multiplayer offered Revolver's characters as unlocks.

Speaking of which:

Here's how Red Dead Revolver came to be.

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

Dressing up as clowns is perfect because only a complete clown would continue playing an online game they dont find fun simply cause they want the dev to release more pointless shit for them to buy.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Toreno's missions were also total bullshit which was another big reason I quit. Seriously, fuck the plane controls.

Toreno's missions often sucked, but god damn I loved the man.
"Don't worry you will be back in time for A Baloney Sandwhich and a Blow Job."

I think GTAIV was designed from the ground up to be "next gen" on every level. The graphics, the physics, interactions, driving, etc. Having a living, breathing city with residents who respond to weather and other conditions.

Yeah and in doing so they completely removed everything that was good about the series out of it, instead having some "Gritty Realistic Story" about a boring Bald Russian who bitches about having to do bad things while doing absolutely nothing to get out of said life.

 

[The Last Stand]

Dressing up as clowns is perfect because only a complete clown would continue playing an online game they dont find fun simply cause they want the dev to release more pointless shit for them to buy.

They still love the game. I think that was the idea of the clown getup.
I wish the GTA community had a similar protest when R* discontinued single player DLC.

Yeah and in doing so they completely removed everything that was good about the series out of it, instead having some "Gritty Realistic Story" about a boring Bald Russian who bitches about having to do bad things while doing absolutely nothing to get out of said life.

It's certainly not for everybody, which I can get. I do wish that they would bring their focus back on single player games.

And the events of Red Dead Revolver are not canon with Red Dead Redemption I & II.

A lot of people are probably wondering how Undead Nightmare fits into the overall narrative of Red Dead Redemption. Should we read this as Red Dead canon, or more of an alternate reality or dream sequence scenario? Can you explain the reasoning behind that decision?

DH: The Undead Nightmare story takes place during the "home" period of the main game, while John is trying to rebuild his ranch but before the end of the game--a period that we imagined took several months. (If you've played the game to the end, please don't put spoilers in the comments.) You play Undead Nightmare as John, and it is an entirely stand-alone game that runs separately from Red Dead Redemption's main story and not part of any Red Dead Redemption canon, if such a thing exists. Red Dead Revolver is also its own universe, but the world of Red Dead Redemption was always meant to be a world in which the myths and realities of the American frontier collide. As for whether it's literally a nightmare or not--you are going to have to play the game and find out for yourself.

Although, if you have a keen eye for detail, you could find NPCs in Red Dead Redemption that talk about said events. Great approach; folklore was very popular during those times. True or not, they make for entertaining stories.

 

[capitalBBustard]

Yeah and in doing so they completely removed everything that was good about the series out of it, instead having some "Gritty Realistic Story" about a boring Bald Russian who bitches about having to do bad things while doing absolutely nothing to get out of said life.

4 is the first game in the series where the shooting isn't a hot load of cowshit. Replayed 3 through SA a month ago, and boy are 3 and VC complete garbage on the gameplay front, while SA tries to improve it the best it can by improving enemy ai, movement and adding positional hit reactions, its's still limp, stiff and limited by the engine.

Getting into a big police chase and random shootouts feels terrible too. Cops spawning 10 feet from you, only a couple at a time, cop cars chasing you are retarded. It's all barren, primitive and shallow. Those old games fail horribly at making the 'GTA' part of GTA fun. That's always the thing you did when you were bored, since GTA1, go on a crime and chase spree and holdout against cops. 4&5 make that fun. 3&VC&SA suck at it.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

4 is the first game in the series where the shooting isn't a hot load of cowshit.

Your Mileage can vary there, I felt that 4 Played incredibly poorly compared to SA and Vice City. The Driving controls felt loose and worse to me, and any mission that involved Driving and Shooting at the same time was a chore to me.

 

[capitalBBustard]

Your Mileage can vary there, I felt that 4 Played incredibly poorly compared to SA and Vice City. The Driving controls felt loose and worse to me, and any mission that involved Driving and Shooting at the same time was a chore to me.

That's nostalgia kicking in for you. 3&VC driving is ok for what it is, which is sure shit better than the shooting, which is liquid waste matter, but it's still shallow in how it handles and tends to spaz out once collision comes into play. It's not fun, in a racing game way, but it's servicable. SA tries to improve this also via more in depth car physics, but like combat, is still limited by the engine. Atleast the races are kind of fun this time, but collision and retardo inertia is still and issue.

4 overdoes the suspension physics and feels heavy, but beyond that the car handling, acceleration etc. all feel pretty good, like in an actual racing game way. 'Loose' is not even close to being an accurate descriptor, the controls are not impressise or hard to gauge. You have a lot more fine control over turning than in the old games. I'd think 'floaty' would be an impression based on how the chasis moves, but the controls are not floaty, that's just visual. 'Slidy' might be the biggest complaint due to the way inertia works.

I'd say 4&5 are decent at the semi-arcadey "realistic" driving, while GT3&VC were on the meh side of arcadey. SA, square in the middle.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

That's nostalgia kicking in for you

Or I just disagree that 4 was some huge step forward in the game. I have very little Nostalgia for Grand Theft Auto games, I played the campaigns and once I beat it I stopped playing them because I really don't care to "100%" them. 4 Put me off the series for, until march.

And Quite Frankly 5 didn't impress me, There is an entire act of the game fucking missing and the controls still feel like shit to me.

like in an actual racing game way

Aka a genre I hate.

ll feel pretty good

To you, it all felt awful to me.

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

3D era shooting is fine on PC...

Also the shooting being better doesnt mean much when general movement is complete dogshit like in GTA IV and V.

 

[jje100010001]

For some reason, I liked the exagerated, floaty manner of the cars in IV, in that the exaggerated drifting and maneuvering felt fun in a weird way. V's glue-on-road driving felt a bit too arcadey for me, IMO. Combined with the vehicular damage models and RAGE character engine (missing in V), it was a whole barrel of fun.

But I did love the way the DLC also expanded the story laterally and fleshed out its side characters- it gave us more of the world, but from new perspectives. A shame though that because of early Xbox Live exclusivity, the DLCs sold poorly and soured Rockstar on the whole model.

Honestly if there was a few more fantastical, light-hearted missions, free-roam rampage challenges (like the ones introduced in TBOGT), and tanks/weird overpowered vehicles, I think it might have been better received by the community.


On another note, most of the main characters in GTA IV are pretty physically ugly/plain (aside from a few of the female characters)- I wonder if it was intentional (influence of Ian McQue's art style on the process/making the characters more 'ordinary'?), or just an effect of the graphics engine?

 

[The Last Stand]

Getting into a big police chase and random shootouts feels terrible too. Cops spawning 10 feet from you, only a couple at a time, cop cars chasing you are retarded. It's all barren, primitive and shallow. Those old games fail horribly at making the 'GTA' part of GTA fun.

Not to mention you could just go to a pay and spray and have it magically go away. Or search for police bribes. The police bribes made chases more interesting.

Chinatown Wars did the wanted system perfectly. You could evade them or make them crash, which lowers your wanted level. It encourages fast paced driving and learning the map's shortcuts to cause crashes. I liked with IV that they had a proximity method to get rid of your wanted level.

 

[jje100010001]

On the notion of Rockstar's game mechanics:

IMO, using the same mechanics isn't inherently bad when your game is tightly story-driven (i.e. see Naughty Dog games), but it can be frustrating when they end up overly fiddly like in RDRII, where there's tons of overlapping control mapping, or when they manifest themselves as mission design incompatible with the spirit of an open world.

 

[The Last Stand]

But I did love the way the DLC also expanded the story laterally and fleshed out its side characters- it gave us more of the world, but from new perspectives. A shame though that because of early Xbox Live exclusivity, the DLCs sold poorly and soured Rockstar on the whole model.

It wouldn't be the first time. R* had signed a deal with Sony to have the trilogy exclusive to PS2 for a year or so.

GTA IV was originally going to be a PS3 exclusive until Microsoft paid them to make the DLCs exclusive.

 

[The Last Stand]

What would you guys say would be the easiest/hardest GTA to complete? 100%, story, anything.

The easiest for me would be tied between Liberty City Stories and Chinatown Wars. I don't remember a tricky mission that took me more than a couple tries to complete. It does ramp up at the end when Sal is locked up. Roadblocks, tailing and an invisible barrier but nothing like those drone missions from Vice City and SA.

Chinatown Wars, once you get used to the controls and mechanics, wasn't very challenging. I even damn near 100% just from casual play. Those cameras, drug spots, and Lions of Fo are a bitch to get.

The hardest would be III based on controls, San Andreas because of dated designs and the size of the map, and Vice City with the precise side missions and RC car missions.