Living the American Dream in GTA IV is about riding cabs ‘cause you can
I’ve just hit the jackpot in Grand Theft Auto IV, and it’s only going to get even better. Remember when Rockstar representatives said that the game is a progression of “rags to slightly-better rags”? I think the publisher’s powers-that-be should sack these reps because they don’t really know what they’re talking about.
At my current playthrough, Niko Bellic has already made it big. Our likeable protagonist is already getting paid thousands of dollars for whacking each of his clients’ enemies. Niko wears the most expensive suits, takes a cab to his destinations (instead of manually driving from point A to point B), pays for each taxi trip no matter what the rate, and goes about in style. I may not be able to get him a new pad since one can’t buy property in GTA IV, but Niko is practically rolling over in money with all the financial rewards I’ve gotten him.
The best part? The tedium of driving long distances is now limited to missions where Niko must use a certain vehicle. Driving around a huge virtual city may be fun at first, but it gets old soon enough—especially when you have to deal with things like traffic (depending on the time of day), cops lurking in every corner, and multiple tollgates, among others.
Interestingly, the option to ride a cab as a passenger was never given in previous GTA games even if you’ve already purchased multiple properties and achieved some sort of status. If not being able to get property were a penalty for being able to skip long and tedious driving, then I’d choose taxis any day. This is not “slightly-better rags.”
Without the driving grind, I get to focus on the game’s best parts: surviving extreme car chases and shooting people in the face with big, fancy guns. True, you can shoot individual body parts now, but I have an affinity for firing hot lead into people’s mugs. That way, enemies don’t get to shoot back.
Image for Grand Theft Auto IV is courtesy of Rockstar Games.
I completely agree. Sometimes the driving can be so frustrating and tedious because of all the traffic. I love the new taxi service in GTA 4.
The taxi service also makes me feel “special,” and not some average GTA pedestrian. It’s weird that GTA IV is realistic enough to capture the aversion we have for traffic.
Aside from Niko’s suits (and sometimes ammo), taxi fare is my only main expense in the game. I’m rolling over in cash and I don’t know what to do with it other than ride cabs to escape traffic.
It’s interesting that my favourite addition GTA4, apart from the multiplayer, is the taxi. That lets you skip some of the most repetitive and boring parts of the game.
Meanwhile, it’s about time reviewers started calling Rockstar on GTA’s many flaws, including
- extensive and badly-placed loading times (such as when you die or when it’s searching for a multiplayer game)
- clumsy multiplayer interface (what, I can’t see which of the other players is the annoying kid singing?)
- clumsy third person mode instead of giving an option for the precision of first person.
@Jeremy
Very good points on the flaws because I agree with most of them. ;) I’m just not too sure about the extensive loading times and the need for a first-person view that you’ve mentioned.
I checked your blog for more details and discovered that you were using a 360, not a PS3 for GTA IV. I did some reading on the differences between those two platforms when it comes to GTA IV, and while the 360 has the visual advantage (since the game was developed for that platform), I believe the PS3 holds the edge in loading times. However, there’s a hefty installation required.
Your points have opened up a more insidious issue: using review scores to show a product’s quality.
I used to be completely sold on using numerals hand-in-hand with written reviews because hey, it’s easy to see. When a review gets too verbose, I usually just skipped right to the score at the bottom.
When I realized that the written word and the numeral doesn’t always match, I started reading entire reviews even if they’re a bit too long.
GTA IV is definitely not perfect despite the 10 that pundits have given it. Then again, so was Ocarina of Time. I think we should all take that high rating with a grain of salt and focus on the level of enjoyment that the game provides.
Does GTA IV deserve a 10? Not at all since it’s still crawling with bugs. But if I must put in an appropriate numerical value to my enjoyment, I would say 10.
But you know what? I don’t believe in those numbers anyway. I’ve started having an appreciation for well-written reviews not just for my information, but also for the enjoyment of a quality piece that’s either a rant or rave.
Oh, I don’t mind loading times per se – it’s just when the game puts them in stupid places. LIke not letting you press start and reload when you die, but making you wait through the death, then loading the hospital. They’ve actually deliberately disabled the start menu.
And the way it insists on loading to get to the multiplayer and then loading back out again without giving you the choice to have a look for other multiplayer games available or anything else. Given that the loading times are not insignificant, they haven’t put much thought into avoiding them where possible.
The 1st person controls point is simply a reflection of how badly Nico handles, for example when you change direction. There’s too much running into things and getting stuck on walls and it just reminds you you’re playing a video game. As well as being frustrating.
As far as scores – I guess the point is giving people an idea of how you rate games compared with each other. It doesn’t matter what scale you use, what matters is your recommendation – ie, “if you’re looking for a multiplayer game and can only get one, I recommend COD4 instead of GTA4″. That sort of thing.
I don’t think any game should be getting perfect scores if reviewers can see major things which should have been fixed and which would significantly improve their enjoyment of the game.
Good point on the automatic loading. I don’t find it a big issue though, since we would get a text message asking for a retry, something which we’ve never had the luxury of in the previous games.
There’s a downside to that too–retrying does not return the original amount of ammo or armor you previously had. :P
Now that you mention it, I also kinda dislike the control change in GTA IV. Previously, running into walls didn’t happen as often because the protagonist still gets to move left or right while the camera stays in its original place. Because of the change, the camera sticks behind Niko and walking into walls has become a common tendency.
I think this control issue is still a problem no matter what scheme a game uses. It’s inherent because of a console controller’s design. First-person or third-person games control best using a keyboard and mouse and no analog sticks are going to do better. Since proprietary tech is passe and USB is more prevalent in game consoles nowadays, why won’t developers put in a third scheme that allows the use of keyboards and mice?
Despite the game’s imperfections, I still find it perfectly enjoyable. Why, I haven’t had this much fun since…forever. The “closest” was San Andreas, but it’s still far off. GTA IV has its annoying quirks, yes, but there’s nothing quite like it.
I don’t hand out numeric scores, but I’ll make sure to put in my frustrations when I come out with its review. ;) I’ll put in the fun stuff too though.
I have yet to find myself asking for a first person mode.
@Mike, in reply to your points on review scores. While GTA 4 may not have deserved perfect 10’s, I do agree that it is a 10 for my enjoyment too. However, you have to remember that some of these reviews are most likely monetarily influenced.
Wasn’t that whole Kane & Lynch fiasco over at Gamespot about a paid review, and how the publisher didn’t want to write a good review for such a terrible game?
@Xbox 360 Controller
I agree that money is a huge factor to consider in the GTA IV reviews. That Kane & Lynch fiasco may have been a paid review, considering the effect it had on GameSpot employees’ morale.
A part of me also does agree that Jeff Gerstmann is also to blame because he’s such a terrible journalist. Never mind that the guy lasted 11 years in GameSpot–it only goes to show the quality of the work there. Jeff insists on using adjectives like “neat” or “cool,” but never really elaborated on why such games are neat or cool.
Going back to the GTA IV reviews: Another thing to consider is that the articles came out on launch day. That means that the “journalists” got their copy of the game earlier than everyone else. How early? It’s hard to say, but considering the sheer size of GTA IV, I believe one would need at least a month to make a review.
Or, another practice is for a publisher or developer to invite said “journalists” to their offices and play the game in optimal conditions, which would definitely influence perception of the game. Of course, these people should also be fed and sated, so the favors just keep on piling up. How do the publishers cash in? A good score.
I’m not saying that this is the reason GTA IV got a 10 in almost every online publication out there. What I’m saying is that if these factors are practiced, the review score may be influenced in some way.
So who do we trust? Game bloggers that don’t give a shit. ;)