GTA V vs GTA IV: A fair comparison

[Official General]

@OfficialGeneral?

 

Many? All I see is either you, SonOfLiberty or Xstingray, and ocassionaly some random joe that never appears again.

Sorry bro, I cannot help you if were not there during these discussions. They were in abundance before GTA V was released. Either you are new to this forum or like Son Of Liberty stated, you were not interested in these past discussions to partake in them or at least read them. Either way, there is nothing I can do about that now.

[CantThinkOfOne2013]

 

@OfficialGeneral?

 

Many? All I see is either you, SonOfLiberty or Xstingray, and ocassionaly some random joe that never appears again.

 

I take it you don't visit the GTA IV forum very much then.

 

To be fair, the complaints towards GTA IV were legitimate (no planes, awful vehicle variety, annoying phone calls, no customization, etc), but the complaints towards GTA V are just stupid (these complaints mainly come from the San Andreas fans however, most, but not all, GTA IV fans are story whores and talk about nothing but the story).

Edited December 9, 2013 by CantThinkOfOne2013

[The Jungz]

@OfficialGeneral?

 

Many? All I see is either you, SonOfLiberty or Xstingray, and ocassionaly some random joe that never appears again.

I guess I am one of those random Joes.

 

@Above

 

It's nice to see you're very open minded and do not generalize easily. Way to go. Btw, I have played a lot of GTA IV and GTA V in the last few weeks and I can tell you, the property managements texts and phones calls happen more often than the friends calls in GTA IV.

 

But please, if you want to clarify what you mean by ''stupid complaints'' go ahead.

Edited December 9, 2013 by ThroatSlasher2

[spamtackey]

 

 

@OfficialGeneral?

 

Many? All I see is either you, SonOfLiberty or Xstingray, and ocassionaly some random joe that never appears again.

 

I take it you don't visit the GTA IV forum very much then.

 

To be fair, the complaints towards GTA IV were legitimate (no planes, awful vehicle variety, annoying phone calls, no customization, etc), but the complaints towards GTA V are just stupid (these complaints mainly come from the San Andreas fans however, most, but not all, GTA IV fans are story whores and talk about nothing but the story).

 

 

To be fair:

 

Planes are not a legit complaint. We do not know how much of that coding is finished. All plane code proves is that they were working on it.

Vehicle variety is not a legit complaint. They were developing the basics for the vehicles, so creating a lot of unique vehicles would not be the biggest priority.

Annoying phone calls are a legit complaint. This is a system that was in the game and was not great. It's fairly inconsistent and should be improved.

No customization is a lie and not a legit complaint. Niko did have clothes to buy. It wasn't much but there was customization.

No car customization is a legit complaint. We can respray cars so why can't we at least pick the color? We don't need full customization but a little would have been nice.

 

 

GTA IV started with nothing. I don't see why you make me repeat this so often. It is equivalent to GTA III in that both started with nothing. Both used new engines, both used new gameplay, both were on new consoles that Rockstar could not fully understand. GTA III is not special just because it came out in 2001 and GTA IV in 2008. III could have been another top-down game if Rockstar had wanted, so it's not like this is the first time they have reinvented GTA. Starting over is starting over.

 

On the other hand, GTA V was developed on consoles Rockstar had been using for years, on an engine Rockstar were pretty much familiar with and had made several games for, borrowing gameplay from various Rockstar titles and tweaking the gameplay that had already been done while introducing very little unique gameplay. Most of what it introduced came from other games or was very lackluster.

 

Call it an 'excuse' all you want, it's an important factor when comparing the games. I'd say the complaints about V are more fair than the ones about IV.

[Algonquin Assassin]

 

To be fair, the complaints towards GTA IV were legitimate (no planes, awful vehicle variety, annoying phone calls, no customization, etc), but the complaints towards GTA V are just stupid (these complaints mainly come from the San Andreas fans however, most, but not all, GTA IV fans are story whores and talk about nothing but the story).

 

 

 

Well yeah. A lot of the complaints towards GTA IV I would say were legitimate, but it had its fair share of nit picking too back in the day and on the contrary not all of GTA V's complaints are stupid.

 

I think a lot of people are annoyed that R* seemed to have focussed on the leisure activities than the criminal ones. To me that is a strongly legitimate complaint R* need to take note of for GTA VI. Make it more balanced and there wont be an issue. The complaints about property being half assed are legitimate also and perhaps the biggest of all GTAO.

 

There is some some nit picking I agree, but the majority of GTA V's complaints are not stupid and need to be taken seriously in the long run.

[CantThinkOfOne2013]

But please, if you want to clarify what you mean by ''stupid complaints'' go ahead.

Here are a few examples:

• No CJ
• No gangster story
• No Dodo (yes, despite the appearance of the Mammatus, this is an actual complaint I have seen several times)
• No phone calls from friends (people complained about it all the time in GTA IV, and they still complain now that its gone)
• No San Fierro/Las Ventarus (when will people get the fact that it is no San Andreas 2.0)
• No enough generic vehicles
• Can't ride the bus (why would anyone actually want to do this in a game)

[Unknown16]

 

 

 

 

 

I think it's also fair to leave story out of the comparison for two reasons: neither story is better, it's just opinion and most gamers and critics do not care about gameplay and think that story is the only important factor in a game.

 

Sorry, I cannot do that.

 

The story in a GTA game is the defining feature of it, it's the backbone of the game's entire structure. GTA IV' story sh*ts all over GTA V's in my view.

 

And that is the reason we can't have nice things, I like a good story just as much as the next person, but when gameplay has to suffer, I would prefer a bad story than bad gameplay.

 

 

That's you. I like to have a nice balance of both, which GTA generally always has. That's the reason why the series is so popular in the first place if you had not noticed. It was always a more or less perfect balance of a very engaging and intriguing story/plot succesfully blended in with action-packed, and explosively fun gameplay.

 

Well I like the perfect combination as well (I actually preferred GTA V's story to GTA IV's as it was different and the 3 protagonists made it so you didn't feel like an errand boy, but that is beside the point), but when I have to choose between the two, gameplay obviously wins because:

• It's a game.
• I paid for a game, not a movie.
• Bad cutscenes can usually be skipped, but bad gameplay can't.
• Games are meant to be fun, not chores.

The whole story ruining gameplay issue is present outside of GTA, have a look at Mass Effect 2 for example, the story is great but the gameplay and level design are complete and utter garbage.

 

That's complete and utter bull. You do what any person does when a video game has bad gameplay: you adapt. For example, in the oddly referred Mass Effect 2, you Adrenaline Rush then pick your enemies off, or in close quarters, blind fire until you're safe to regenerate health and shields. Rinse and repeat.

 

In GTA IV, you learn to stop using the handbrake in a car too much or use it wisely; not keep hold of it for 5 seconds then hope you'll recover perfectly.

 

 

Now about the story: In GTA V, the characters lacked personality. The only character I could relate to was Michael, and that was because he was stuck in a rut, he spent most of his day stuck in Nostalgia and his family (who he has to provide for) is a constant annoyance. I just don't think of Trevor and Franklin as proper characters, just place-holders in order to keep the story going.

[CantThinkOfOne2013]

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think it's also fair to leave story out of the comparison for two reasons: neither story is better, it's just opinion and most gamers and critics do not care about gameplay and think that story is the only important factor in a game.

 

Sorry, I cannot do that.

 

The story in a GTA game is the defining feature of it, it's the backbone of the game's entire structure. GTA IV' story sh*ts all over GTA V's in my view.

 

And that is the reason we can't have nice things, I like a good story just as much as the next person, but when gameplay has to suffer, I would prefer a bad story than bad gameplay.

 

 

That's you. I like to have a nice balance of both, which GTA generally always has. That's the reason why the series is so popular in the first place if you had not noticed. It was always a more or less perfect balance of a very engaging and intriguing story/plot succesfully blended in with action-packed, and explosively fun gameplay.

 

Well I like the perfect combination as well (I actually preferred GTA V's story to GTA IV's as it was different and the 3 protagonists made it so you didn't feel like an errand boy, but that is beside the point), but when I have to choose between the two, gameplay obviously wins because:

• It's a game.
• I paid for a game, not a movie.
• Bad cutscenes can usually be skipped, but bad gameplay can't.
• Games are meant to be fun, not chores.

The whole story ruining gameplay issue is present outside of GTA, have a look at Mass Effect 2 for example, the story is great but the gameplay and level design are complete and utter garbage.

 

That's complete and utter bull. You do what any person does when a video game has bad gameplay: you adapt. For example, in the oddly referred Mass Effect 2, you Adrenaline Rush then pick your enemies off, or in close quarters, blind fire until you're safe to regenerate health and shields. Rinse and repeat.

 

In GTA IV, you learn to stop using the handbrake in a car too much or use it wisely; not keep hold of it for 5 seconds then hope you'll recover perfectly.

 

 

Now about the story: In GTA V, the characters lacked personality. The only character I could relate to was Michael, and that was because he was stuck in a rut, he spent most of his day stuck in Nostalgia and his family (who he has to provide for) is a constant annoyance. I just don't think of Trevor and Franklin as proper characters, just place-holders in order to keep the story going.

 

No, what I do when a game has bad gameplay is eject the disk and put a fun game in, although with that being said, I did finish Mass Effect 2, but it took me over a year because the game is so boring.

[Official General]

 

On the other hand, GTA V was developed on consoles Rockstar had been using for years, on an engine Rockstar were pretty much familiar with and had made several games for, borrowing gameplay from various Rockstar titles and tweaking the gameplay that had already been done while introducing very little unique gameplay. Most of what it introduced came from other games or was very lackluster.

Call it an 'excuse' all you want, it's an important factor when comparing the games. I'd say the complaints about V are more fair than the ones about IV.

 

@ spamtackey

 

Yeah I agree. GTA V really should have capitalized on what good content was already in the previous GTAs and other Rockstar games this generation. In this case, I really don't Rockstar have any excuses.