Things GTA IV did better than GTA V

[JosephStalin]

Better subplots I was hoping for subplots like the Diamonds cocaine & heroin etc which were all cleverly intertwined, there were no subplots in V which were of that quality.

Edited July 29, 2016 by FuckingYokel

[PhillBellic]

V's protagonists are so Bland, I prefer playing as my "Online" Protagonist.

 

 

Meet Highway Patrol Officer Natasha Brooks.

 

[PhillBellic]

Pedestrians don't freak out when you Drive past them.

[HaythamKenway]

The writers cutting off the fat and focusing on solely on the core plot is a double-edged sword. I do like that V's story doesn't have nearly as many dead spots, with the plot just aimlessly faffing about, as in IV (Bohan) or RDR (Mexico), but it also made the setting feel much smaller. IV was a true journey across the LC's criminal underworld. We've seen everything, from Jamaicans dealing guns and marijuana in Broker to Puerto Rican coke barons in Bohan. From lowly Irish mooks in Dukes to Italian kingpins in Algonquin. It was a much broader picture of the city, that placed Niko as just one of many pieces on the chessboard. And then the DLCs fleshed everything out even further and even more empasized the spirit of the old LCS tagline: "There are a million stories in Liberty City".

 

Meanwhile V is so focused on the trio's personal quests that it feels like the world revolves around them. We don't get to know anything in-depth about the Ballas and the Families, the Aztecas and the Lost, the Madrazo cartel... It's all very personal, and that could be a good path to take, but the writing doesn't do much to capitalize on that either. Franklin is sidelined after Trevor enters the picture and his relationship with Lamar isn't really further developed and expanded upon. Tanisha is a specter hanging in the back, only propelled forward to act as a guilt trip device in the final act of the game. Trevor is just an aimless mess, existing solely for entertainment, and when the game does try to grow his character, it comes off as clunky and absurd (Patricia).

 

The only protagonist who is done justice here is Michael and even he suffers from the writers taking his family out of the picture for 2/3rds of the game. The studio chapter could have been much more expansive too.

 

The FIB plot has a complete priority and precedence over everything else in the story. And while I enjoy the FIB-IAA squabble and the characters; Haines and Norton, but it doesn't make for a very engaging plotline. The trio is blackmailed into doing their dirty work, they are dragged along, with no end in sight and with nothing personal to get out of it. Compare with RDR, where John too, is blackmailed by the government, but there is a very personal motivation at the heart of it. He wants to get his family back, bam, I'm invested, I'm on board. CJ, too, was forced to do Tenpenny's bidding, but that was an overarching plot, hanging in the background, while CJ was working on his personal agenda for the most of the story.

 

The trio doesn't have anything like that. Michael just wants to get this over with. Franklin is in because of Michael - and wants out too. Trevor wants to get Brad out of the prison - but we know practically right from the start that Brad was dead all along. There is nothing driving the plot forward, nothing to make me excited. It's just stuff happening, until the writers decide that it's enough and create an awkward, inevitable doublecross that sets Haines against Michael and Trevor.

 

Weston's involvement is the only thing that injects some energy into the story midway through it - but that doesn't live up to it's full potential either. He sets up the studio business for Michael (this is a plus) and then gets the crew to steal a few cars (yeah, we have this Donald Love-ish mogul character and all we're going to use him for is to get the protags to steal cars - wonderful). Immediately afterwards, the Patricia chapter and more emotionally detatched FIB hijinks take over the plot and Weston disappears from the picture until the time comes to set him up as Michael's antagonist. Why wasn't that time rather spend building him up as Palpatine to Franklin's Anakin?

 

IV might have been much more unfocused and spread out, but I've never felt bored or that I wasn't making any progress. The carrot in form of Darko was always far away from me, but I was invested enough in the individual subplots to keep me going. They were concise enough to rarely overstay their welcome too and so the story always moves forward, introduces new characters, new conflicts, even if Niko's main goal remains unreachable. I don't like the Playboy/Dwayne story too much, but it never drags on as I know I'm done with it in a couple of hours at most. V on the other hand, is very centered on the FIB plotline - and when that gets stale, there's pretty much no getting away from it.

 

V is kind of an aimless game. It lacks direction. It's more like a window into lives of these three characters, an escalation of a crisis they've gotten themselves into, rather than a cohesive, clear story. A collection of events, nothing more. IV at least embraced its episodic approach, while V tries to be more of a singular piece of storytelling, but isn't quite compact and structured enough to support it.

Edited July 29, 2016 by HaythamKenway

[PhillBellic]

I often wonder what could have been regarding V. No doubt there was too much fat cut out of it.

 

IV's 'fat' was at the prefect ratio, in my opinion.

[Algonquin Assassin]

Haytham: Brilliant post and I absolutely agree. That summary makes it hard for me to believe GTA V's story came after the masterpieces of GTA IV and even RDR. It makes me depressed R* dropped the ball so much when we know they're so much better.

 

Hopefully GTA VI returns to form instead of falling back on terrible shock value tactics (The Johnny situation) and develops more subplots to create a more interesting experience of the criminal underworld like GTA IV.

[Eugene H. Krabs]

V's protagonists are so Bland, I prefer playing as my "Online" Protagonist.

If there was a way to play as your Online character in single player, then I would play V more often.

 

OT: Pedestrians are funnier in IV. If you go near a pedestrian in V to eavesdrop on their conversation, they just walk away.

[PhillBellic]

 

V's protagonists are so Bland, I prefer playing as my "Online" Protagonist.

If there was a way to play as your Online character in single player, then I would play V more often.

 

There's a way. It's called 'Skin Control'.

[Algonquin Assassin]

 

V's protagonists are so Bland, I prefer playing as my "Online" Protagonist.

 

If there was a way to play as your Online character in single player, then I would play V more often.

 

OT: Pedestrians are funnier in IV. If you go near a pedestrian in V to eavesdrop on their conversation, they just walk away.

Or they call the entire LSPD.

[Eugene H. Krabs]

IV's wanted system > V's wanted system.

 

In IV, I can get away with shooting 2 hobos in the abandoned Sprunk factory, but in V, if I taze a police officer in the desert whilst in stealth mode, automatic 3 stars.

[Devdevi45]

Airport

[Jabalous]

I hope that Dan Houser and other co-writers of V's story read that post of yours, HaythamKenway. As for my what I can add to this topic, I say that IV was better in the aspect of managing the story of three different protagonists living in the same world. They made an excellent job at allowing us to see Liberty City from three different angles and these are the perspectives of an illegal immigrant coming from East Europe, a member of a notorious biker gang living in a run-down house in Alderney, and the glamorous life of a Hispanic night clubs bodyguard. Each one had his own set of problems to deal with and they only crossed paths within the diamond subplot.

 

We were given the opportunity to know and understand the background and motives of each protagonist and to experience Liberty City from each one's own and only perspective. It's a much better approach to storytelling than what we saw in V, from the fake and cold chemistry between Trevor and Michael to the unnecessary involvement of Franklin. Modern San Andreas could've been a more interesting place to explore had Rockstar invested in a storytelling approach similar to IV's, that is, giving each protagonist his own set of problems and they could only cross path within a subplot, if any. In this way, we experience the lives of the modern and rich Los Santos family man, the black guy who again gets involved in hood disputes, and the crazy drug and arms dealer of Blaine Country.

Edited July 30, 2016 by Jabalous

[PhillBellic]

Hotels have Bell Staff/Valets standing outside of them.

[Uncle Vlad]

Hotels have Bell Staff/Valets standing outside of them.

 

"I think you should leave, sir, before I call the police".

 

Okay, Leavis isn´t standing outside, but he´s hilarious.

[jpm1]

you guys are going to kill me

[Uncle Vlad]

Hahaha, good thing that I banned coffee from my desk when visiting gtaforums, you guys are crazy! Great job with the "Risitas" and the "Downfall" video. Although I have to mute the latter, kinda breaks the illusion when German is your mother language.

Edited August 1, 2016 by Uncle Vlad

[PhillBellic]

Another Entry: Police Cars don't disappear when the Chase is over.

[PhillBellic]

EPIC! VIDEO!

 

Another Entry: Vehicles don't Drive into you when taking a corner.

[Karls]

GTA IV's fan's make much better sh*tposting videos. :^)

[Megumi]

I liked that nice little detail when you punch a female ped in a crowded area, about 10 guys will immediately rush to protect her.

[PhillBellic]

I liked that nice little detail when you punch a female ped in a crowded area, about 10 guys will immediately rush to protect her.

Related: Niko will not punch them either when he is Car Jacking them.

[RedDagger]

Just a reminder that if you think someone is being off topic, you should report and otherwise ignore their posts - topics tend to get derailed otherwise

 

Thanks!

[Officer Cole]

Peds actually put up a good fight when you challenge them.

Edited August 1, 2016 by Officer Cole

[RogerWho]

Things GTA IV did better than GTA V: 142 pages

Things GTA V did better than GTA IV: 50 pages

 

It's been scientifically proven that GTA IV has 2.84x more good stuff than V

[Lancerator]

just deal with the fact that gta v is inferior to gta iv

Edited August 1, 2016 by Still Madd

[jpm1]

Things GTA IV did better than GTA V: 142 pages

Things GTA V did better than GTA IV: 50 pages

 

It's been scientifically proven that GTA IV has 2.84x more good stuff than V

good one

[B Dawg]

Things GTA IV did better than GTA V: 142 pages

Things GTA V did better than GTA IV: 50 pages

 

It's been scientifically proven that GTA IV has 2.84x more good stuff than V

: 92,779 Likes, 19,310 Dislikes; Like/Dislike Ratio of 4.8

: 19,123 Likes, 15,151 Dislikes; Like/Dislike Ratio of 1.26

 

GTA IV is 3.8x more liked than GTA V!

[RogerWho]

: 92,779 Likes, 19,310 Dislikes; Like/Dislike Ratio of 4.8

 

: 19,123 Likes, 15,151 Dislikes; Like/Dislike Ratio of 1.26

 

GTA IV is 3.8x more liked than GTA V!

Funny how the number of dislikes of the first video is almost identical to the number of likes of the 2nd one: something over 19k.

 

That would indicate that GTA V has some 19k fans that liked the video V as well as disliked the IV one.

GTA IV on the other hand has over 92k fans that liked the IV video.

 

Conclusion: GTA IV has 4.8x as many fans.

 

Furthermore, note that it doesn't go the other way around: V video doesn't have 92k dislikes, only 15k. In other words, while around 100% of V fans need to trash IV for some reason, only 16.3% of IV fans trash V. 100/16.3 = 6.12.

 

IV fans are 6.12x as mature as V fans.

 

Ain't statistics wonderful

Edited August 2, 2016 by RogerWho

[Catsby]

Great posts, Kenway and Jabalous I agree with your sentiments. In particular, I struggle to care about the characters--there's nowhere near enough background information for them, not even for Michael, who seems to be the main protag.

 

Additionally,I'm nearing the closing point of the game now, and I just realized I actually mixed up Devin Weston and Steve Haines. Like, for a good deal of the game, I thought Devin had the red hair and Steve was the older guy.

 

When two of your main villains are that forgettable/interchangeable, you've got a problem.

To add to that, I'm nowhere near 100%, but I don't feel any drive to find collectibles or anything. Might explore some stunt jump spots in between finishing the game or after I beat it, but that's about it. I preferred how IV packed a smaller map with lots of details, and finding those little things-say, an alley that could be an on foot escape route, or a new shortcut for longer driving sections-was enjoyable enough on its own. I enjoyed walking or driving around and taking in everything that the different parts of LC had to offer.

Meanwhile, to me, V's map is so big, and sections of it are so dull, that it becomes an unfulfilling chore to traverse the whole thing. Seeing a "freak/stranger" mission out in the boonies of the map where it's mostly empty space is annoying, rather than interesting.

Edited August 2, 2016 by Catsby

[Eugene H. Krabs]

I liked that nice little detail when you punch a female ped in a crowded area, about 10 guys will immediately rush to protect her.

Or if you f*ck around with a biker, his associates will try to clobber Niko.