Us traditional GTA fans didnt appreciate GTA IV ENOUGH...

[E Revere]

Funny you post this. You know what I saw on GTA IV the other day? I saw four or seven female joggers all spawn in a bunch and go jogging in front of Roman's cab depot. Apparently, this is something they put into the game. Yet in my decade long playtime, I've never seen it before. GTA IV's world is mindblowing.

[Americana]

I'm not a fan of Grand Theft Auto as a series, I am a fan of the who idea and of Grand Theft Auto IV.

 

When I was a kid I was fan of Grand Theft Auto games because of the freedom - this was the most important aspect. However, now I see them as a joke when compared to the glorious IV.

 

[PhilPerlmutter]

 

On 5/23/2022 at 3:09 AM, The Made Man said:

[...] because it wasn't like GTA SA with all the open ended stuff and customization, little did we know that we were indirectly creating a nightmare.

I just don't really see how these expectations would lead to the described nightmare.

Let us look at GTA San Andreas:
You had all sorts of customizations, outfit, even shape of body depending on your eating behaviour, cars and weapons in terms of different sets (not really a customization like in GTA V, which is one of the few new things I really liked there, I am a fan of silent guns...).
These factors had a soft influence on the game, but not too much.

Now, let us look at GTA IV:
You had a bit of options in terms of outfit, but other than that you could not really customize much.
I disliked that for two reasons: First one is personal, I like it if you can chose who your character is (in certain limits of course, because the character still needs to fit into the story).
Second one is, they created this social environment in a really cool and convincing way, you can go bowling, eating and do whatever, but eating itself has no consequences on your body. Remember that this body shape could have consequences on your environment as well as the outfit, which was very limited in options (remember that you could be to fat in the jetpack mission in GTA San Andreas, I had no clue until 2 years ago).
They even created a dating website in the game pretending these things matter, while being really obvious that these factors do not even exist in the game.
In my opinion, the mission customization in GTA IV is a lost opportunity to make the game even more convincing, especially having in mind these wide variety of characters, yes, I find it very strange that while having these contrasts of different characters in different areas so well displayed, you do not even get the chance to influence a bit who you are yourself.

 

Now, let us look at GTA V:
Customization wide, it is a bit like a mix between GTA San Andreas and GTA IV and a bit new also:
New is the weapons customization, similar is the Clothes Customization, although more similar to GTA San Andreas in terms of quantity of items, but more similar to GTA IV in terms of consequences for game play, there are none really.
Car customization is similar to GTA San Andreas, although more focus on visual upgrades probably.

Eating and change of body is still not a thing, stats (that were absent in GTA IV) are very basic.
Although you have some variety with the three different characters, looking at each itself, you are very limited in the way they can be developed, in fact really similar to GTA IV: you are very limited to the story you are going through with each character, there is not freedom to develop the character a bit you like in certain limits.
They even (in Singleplayer) had this ridiculous "you have your own car" thing, with a symbol of the map, but when you buy a new one on these cool designed car websites, you cannot even make it your active car (was added in GTA Online).
(Basically the same crap as the dating website in GTA IV, pretending all options for the player while it becomes very obvious that there is only one as soon you use it).

Conclusion:
I really liked GTA IV, the story, the setting caught me, but that does not mean it was perfect (so wasn't San Andreas btw).
The only thing I really criticised was the blue color filter (that was unfortunately used in many games that time around).
But things should brought in some order.
In GTA San Andreas, you had a very open mission design, sure, the objectives were sort of linear, but the limits (especially fail conditions) were really wide, resulting in various ways you could solve a mission.
Customization was a big thing, you had many options to chose (some parameters even appeared seamless), and your decisions had some influence, but did not change the story, the customization sort of brought life to the city, because shops and restaurants had a purpose.
In GTA IV, mission design already got worse, the the limits were narrower (fail conditions, especially in terms of distance more stringent).
Customization existed in a minimal way but it did not really matter except maybe the dates, there was also not much to chose from.
You had so many shops and restaurants, but they were sort of useless. The developers focused so much on details to bring the city to life (successfully) and then allowed flaws like this (because in my opinion it gets very present that you cannot eat at all...).
In GTA V, mission design was awful. Limits extremely narrow, unbelievable fail conditions as soon you were like a meter next to the position the game wanted you to have, awful really.
Customization was there, but it had no real purpose other than visuals and certain missions, and for each character, these options were limited as well tp preserve the impression of each of these.
The customization was (except for the weapon one) not near to the one in San Andreas, but really more a bit an "upgrade" to the one in GTA IV, mainly quantity wise.

To sum it up, Customization per se is not the factor that made (I guess we agree about that) GTA V a rather bad GTA.
It the way it was  implemented, focusing more on visuals and quantity rather than it being part of the whole story, it was mainly pointless.

Instead, they made three protagonists to counter that but forgot or ignored that that makes you distanced from each one (imagine such a system in GTA IV, you would not really experience these changes of areas and people if you switched between protagonists constantly).
The mission design became constantly worse since GTA San Andreas resulting in a low in GTA V.

In other words, the decrease of quality (gameplay) started already after GTA San Andreas with GTA IV and continued in GTA V, not after GTA IV.

[Zello]

Well at least Kanye West appreciates GTA IV

 

[Eugene H. Krabs]

Even as a kid I didn't understand the hate. Never gonna forget all the posts saying IV was bad because Niko couldn't get a pink afro, jet pack and tattoos or go to the gym.

 

Actually where tf would Niko get a tattoo to begin with? We never see his forearms.

[Racecarlock]

I don't like the ingroup/outgroup mentality this post is trying to create. Yeah, GTA IV left me colder than other entries like san andreas or 5. So what? What am I supposed to do, magically change the experiences and emotions I had while playing these games?

 

My biggest problem with, oh, let's just say the Niko edition of GTA IV is that while it has an excellent story, once that story is done, it is done. Weapon and vehicle and even fashion choices had been severely reduced, and I didn't give a crap about maintaining relationships in the game. And yet, if you desire a single one of the friend perks, guess what you have to do? That's right. Constantly take them to do side activities. Fortunately I cheat and therefore could mostly ignore this system, but you can't call other taxi companies to take you places so I essentially went through the game without being able to call a taxi. There's no tank in the Niko edition, meaning I had to wait for the Luis edition to come out in order to get to play with an APC. Meaning most of what you can do after you finish the Niko edition is mundane side activities with janky "we're still getting used to this new game engine" physics.

 

Episodes from liberty city somewhat fixed this issue. The tank-like APC is fun to mess around with, and base jumping with parachutes is something I actually do want to do in a video game. Of course, they still had your friends constantly calling you to hang out, but at least with armando and henrique I didn't feel like I was missing out on fast travel because I didn't want to go bowling every half hour. But even then, planes are still gone because the map is too small. That's kind of bullsh*t. I don't care if the map is too small for planes, I want to fly recklessly around the city at irresponsible speeds, and helicopters just don't feel quite the same.

 

So yeah, I like GTA V and san andreas more than IV. IV had better writing, but barely anything to do after the story. And no, multiplayer doesn't make up for that. It was good multiplayer, but if I didn't want to get constantly killed in free roam I was sh*t out of luck most of the time. Most of the good stuff from san andreas had been replaced with constantly taking friends to do side activities, and I just couldn't enjoy IV as much as other entries because of that. And yes, I do like over the top sh*t. I'm real sorry, what do you want from me? Am I supposed to NOT pick things I enjoy and instead be like "Well, this game doesn't have as much of what I like, but it's more mature so I guess I'm stuck with it." Sounds like an awful way to go through life. Am I supposed to not like over the top stuff because it makes me immature? Well, sorry, but I can't just change what I like on a whim, and even if I did, why should I do so at someone else's behest?

 

So, there we go, I guess I'm part of the outgroup. I guess I'm a "fake fan", whatever the hell that means. But I'd rather be a fake fan and living authentically than be a true fan by trying to make myself enjoy something that I'm not enjoying.