GTA IV - The "IT'S OUT!!!" Thread

[The Region Legion]

I'm getting "this is not available in your current location", which doesn't make much sense.

[Slaaaaabs]

I'm getting "this is not available in your current location", which doesn't make much sense.

Same, but I couldn't get the Gears 2 DLC here in Cyprus either. Fuck!

[The Region Legion]

Same, but I couldn't get the Gears 2 DLC here in Cyprus either. Fuck!

Seriously? So when they say "worldwide" they actually mean the US and the UK? This is fucking ridiculous - the whole point of online distribution is to break down international barriers surely?

[Slaaaaabs]

Seriously? So when they say "worldwide" they actually mean the US and the UK? This is fucking ridiculous - the whole point of online distribution is to break down international barriers surely?

Sony are exactly the same. It's weird as online PC stores like Steam and Direct2Drive work with no problems.

[The Region Legion]

Well, its downloading for me now, so I guess it just hadn't been released yet, despite the release time coming and going, and being listed on the marketplace since this morning. Can't sit down and get into it until the late evening though sadly, but WOO! New GTA!

[Slaaaaabs]

Yup apparently they removed the region lock. Nice.

[The Region Legion]

Welp, tried playing it for the last half an hour and it's crashed twice - once right at the beginning after the standard "drive to location" opening mission it just hung on the loading screen, second time on the mission directly afterwards where I was driving along and suddenly my bike froze and the world ahead of me wouldn't load.

So is it a buggy piece of shit then, or is it my suspiciously old xbox 360 that I just bought from amazon but was manufactured back in July and is probably a returned one they're trying to stiff me with?

[Father O`Blivion]

Yup apparently they removed the region legion lock. Nice.

Fixed.

[The Region Legion]

Still fucking crashing, can't even get to a save point so I have to start all over again every time. Is no one else having this problem? The deathly quiet hanging over the thread suggests not.

[Jack Shaftoe]

No such probs with my X-Box, soz.

[bill hicks]

Still fucking crashing, can't even get to a save point so I have to start all over again every time. Is no one else having this problem? The deathly quiet hanging over the thread suggests not.

A friend of mine crashed 3 times early on, but he downloaded it in 45 minutes whereas mine took 4 hours so I assumed it was just some "playing it before me" cunt filter they put in.

Other forums have had people with problems too so you aren't alone. Personally I've had no trouble so my guess is it's either an impending death for the 360 or a corruption in the download somewhere. Maybe try redownloading it and see if it still happens?

[The Region Legion]

Redownloaded - was better but crashed eventually. Then installed GTA4 on the HD and it's been fine since (although textures don't load as fast as they should be). I think the disc drive is fucked basically, so that's great news.

[Neil]

Well - IS IT GOOD?

[buntyman]

I've played the first 5 or 6 missions and I really like it so far. Billy, the leader of the motorbike gang is really well acted and I like the tense relationship between him and Johnny (the guy you control). There's a few new weapons, guns and minigames to play on top of the main missions. I like the new perspective and, having never really used any DLC stuff before, i'm really impressed at how much can be done to freshen things up. Are there supposed to be more chapters coming later? With the size of the city, there's a lot of potential for all sorts.

[bill hicks]

It's really good. The cutscenes are as excellent as the main story, great writing and brilliantly acted. The characters really stand out immediately. The new bikes are fantastic. I never used bikes in the main game because I couldn't get a handle on them (the stats show that I basically used them for the Stunt Jumps at the end of the game when I was going for 100%), but these bikes are just so well tuned in the corners and easy to weave through traffic. It's a great sign that I don't ever use a car anymore, it just feels wrong for Johnny to get in a car.

That sort of feeds into the main point about the DLC. It sounds kind of stupid but playing as a different character changes the game almost completely. Even though the city is the same as before just the fact that you are a leather clad biker cruising the streets on a chopper rather than a Serb immigrant driving around in a suit and a sports car makes everything seem different and new. I suppose it could be to do with the fact that you are based out of Alderney rather than Dukes or Algonquin and that Alderney was only really used at the end of the game for the Itailan missions, but the whole area feels fresh and exciting with 'new' locations you never visited in the main game popping up.

The new radio and TV is great as well. There's a new episode of Republican Space Rangers on TV that is awesome, and some great new adverts. If you love your metal then the updated LCHC is great, cruising through the streets of Alderney in the rain while listening to Bathory and Sepultura...total badassery. Haven't tried the new Hip Hop stuff yet or Broker.

But again the real revelation is how much a change in character and focus revitalises an old environment. I talked about something on another board ages ago about how I wanted the DLC to go. Basically treating GTA4 like The Wire. Keeping the same city and location but focusing on different themes and characters with each iteration in the way that The Wire went from the Projects, to the white working in the Docks, to the Political establishment, to the media. I hoped that this was the direction they were going in then and seeing how they have treated this expansion I am even more hopeful that North will go in that direction.

Imagine a pack where you play as a white collar crook in Algonquin, dealing with crooked bankers and politicians perhaps a politician himself trying to get re-elected? Or playing a dirty cop? Or a journalist? The scope of stories that can be told are enormous, Liberty continues to throw new nuggets at you as you explore and it could be exploited for ages before it began to feel old.

And when it does you simply release a new disc with a new city and start over again. Somebody tell Leslie Benzies and the Houser's to get on this stat.

[niat]

I'm really getting into the DLC. I love the voice and animations for Billy, his facial expressions are excellent, and are the most realistic I've seen in a game.

The bike handling has been massively tweaked, and is much smoother and much more fun. I've haven't fallen off my bike yet. The head-on collision with a car was another matter, and was entirely my fault.

The physics of the poor bastards on the end of my grenade launcher was a joy to see. One tip I have for the mission in which you get the grenade launcher is: make sure you get back on your own bike. I spent about an hour riding around the city after shaking the cops wondering why the mission was not updating, until I saw the "Vehicle" marker on the map and realised that I'd left my chopper at the scene of the crime.

Neil: YES IT IS GOOD!

[mobias]

I'm a sorry PS3 owner so won't be getting it for a while (360 exclusive my arse, give it 6 months) but apparently Frankie Bolye has taken over from Ricky Gervais in the comedy club with four different acts depending on what night of the week you go into to see him. Anyway its cool that a Scotsman is now in what is of course Scotland's proudest (ha ha) cultural export.

[mycroft]

I'm currently stuck on the pipe-bomb/vans mission, but otherwise having loads of fun with the thing. Before I started playing, I'd assumed most of the new material would have been recorded at the same time as the original, but the news and DJs' references to bankers and financial crises make me so happy to realise they've written new stuff to keep it all as topical as possible. rockstar really are brilliant.

Oh, and I'm wondering if the lawyer member of the gang is played by the bloke who was the vet in Trailer Park Boys. During a scene where i encountered him as a random person, he suddenly really reminded me of him.

[Rev]

That sort of feeds into the main point about the DLC. It sounds kind of stupid but playing as a different character changes the game almost completely. Even though the city is the same as before just the fact that you are a leather clad biker cruising the streets on a chopper rather than a Serb immigrant driving around in a suit and a sports car makes everything seem different and new.

It does sound stupid, but I couldn't agree more.  There's not really any concrete reason for it to be the case, either, as it's not like your behaviour is restricted in any way.  It was the case in the main game, too, though; I'm causing a lot more general carnage in this one, as Niko just wouldn't have gone crazy like that.

I haven't connected to Live today, but a patch for the hilarious censorship problem has supposedly been released.  I wonder if there'll be any repercussions in Australia?

[buntyman]

I've finished the main story now and really enjoyed it, maybe moreso than the Niko story.
I think I rushed the final mission a bit and

Spoiler alert

killed Billy before I noticed that there was a finishing move that I could pull on him. I just machine gunned him down rather anti-climatically like I did with the hordes of prison guards leading up to it. What happens in the more spectacular execution?

[close]

.
I actually think GTA works a lot better with the episodic approach rather than controlling one guy for the whole game. With a massive city and so many possibilities, I think it would be cool in a future game if you had maybe 6 different people who you controlled and flicked between the stories possibly culminating in a big final mission that you could play out from the perspective of each character. As for the next DLC part for the Xbox, I'd like to play as a character like Vic Mackey from The Shield. Has there ever been a game where you play as a crooked policeman, taking cuts from drug dealers, covering up murders and generally using excessive force?

[Jemble Fred]

The Lost & Damned sort of stole a march on them, but in sandbox biker terms, I'm more intrigued by: http://ridetohell.deepsilver.com

[Father O`Blivion]

I was thinking about downloading The Lost & The Damned but this has put me off somewhat.



How can they possibly justify that?

[mobias]

I was thinking about downloading The Lost & The Damned but this has put me off somewhat.



How can they possibly justify that?

Because its GTA and they know people will be falling over themselves for it. Most people seem to think its value for money though, you do get a fair amount of new game for that.

[bill hicks]

I've played nearly 13 hours of it and am at 48.5% complete. £13 is the bargain of the year.

[thugler]

I was thinking about downloading The Lost & The Damned but this has put me off somewhat.



How can they possibly justify that?

I actually expected it to be more. To be fair, since I'm getting more playtime out of it than most of the other shitty xbox games (which I tend to rent via lovefilm rather than buy for this very reason), it's not all that bad.

[Father O`Blivion]

I meant that they're (Microsoft) charging people in the UK more money per point than anywhere else in the world.
They incur no packaging or distribution costs, so why do they charge people in the UK an equivalent of nearly £4 more than people in the US or Japan for the same download?

[mycroft]

Spoiler alert

killed Billy before I noticed that there was a finishing move that I could pull on him. I just machine gunned him down rather anti-climatically like I did with the hordes of prison guards leading up to it. What happens in the more spectacular execution?

[close]

.

Spoiler alert

He refuses to make any sort of speech, egging Johnny on. When you finally pull the trigger, Billy makes to lunge at Johnny with a knife, but is taken down with a single shot to the head. Johnny looks at him for a moment, then runs off.

[close]

[Rev]

I meant that they're (Microsoft) charging people in the UK more money per point than anywhere else in the world.
They incur no packaging or distribution costs, so why do they charge people in the UK an equivalent of nearly £4 more than people in the US or Japan for the same download?

It's the long-standing 'screw the UK' tax, and the discrepancy between prices here and elsewhere has narrowed somewhat, if anything.  This can't be something you've just noticed, surely?

[Father O`Blivion]

I've never bothered much with Xbox live marketplace before now.

Edit - I decided just to get it but after spending about an hour setting up a live account and adding the updates to change from the blades to the shitey big head avatar cunts and then setting up a marketplace account, I find that although it says on xbox.com they accept debit cards with a mastercard logo on them they fucking don't.
(Plus the useless rip off cunts don't even sell a 1600 point card so I would have had to buy a 2000 point card for £17 anyway).

Play are doing a special GTA 1600 point card for £14, I might get that if I can be arsed.

[hoverdonkey]

But then you'd be diddling yourself out of a further 29p. If you get a 2000 point card, that'll go towards something in the future.