Anyone NOT Looking Forward to GTAIV?

[Ranis]

Please tell me there's some other soul out here that can't stand the series.

[Morty]

Well, I don't dislike those games as such, but I've never really cared about them and I've been unable to grasp what do people like so much in them. And the whole "gangsta" atmosphere really drives me away.

[Tengu]

You're not alone - I played some GTA but never got into it, so I couldn't care less will GTA 4 be released tomorrow, in 10 years or never.

[ufo]

I can't stand the series. I've played a few of the games, and I fail to see how anyone can find them entertaining. After the third boredom-fuelled killing spree, it gets boring beyond all recognition.

[Drascin]

For my comment, go a couple posts up and read Tengu's. While I don't detest the saga per se, I fail to find it entertaining enough to actually devote any number of good hours that could be devoted to Hellgate London, Valkyrie Profile or getting better at Smash Bros and Melty Blood, instead of driving pointlessly and killing random people to quench my boredom - and care a grand total of nothing about when it's released.

[Dihan]

I couldn't really care less if it came out or not. The whole series is overyhped tripe.

[Xuincherguixe]

It's not even good for the anti social elements you'd think it was about. It's just one big farce really. It gets old fast. For something that owes it's success to "shock value" it's not really all that shocking.

Nope, it's one series I don't care about.

And while I like violence, I like fun more.

[DraPrime]

I actually like the series. It's not as great as it's hyped up to be, but I like it. The killing sprees are really most fun when you have friends around to enjoy all the ridiculous things you can do. And the missions are often fun. I loved it when I was driving a limo while a bunch of drunk rockstars tried to defuse a bomb in the backseat. It's missions like that, along with the crazy police chases that make the game enjoyable for me.

[Daze]

Let me state first (and foremost) that I respect everyone's opinions and not trying to convince anyone to like anything that they do not. It's a free country... some like pizza with pepperoni, some with anchovies. Who cares?

But frankly, if you dont like GTA then you probably hate pepperoni too. (Ha ha... ok not really, but you see my point).

From the posters I always see who don't like this game series I always see the same criticism of: "Driving around and running people over is boring".

It's really your loss if you think that's all there is to these games.

Playing through scarface-esque missions in Vice City as Tommy Vercetti (voiced by none other than Mr. Goodfellas Ray Liotta)? Did any of you guys actually DO the story (and side) missions? Amazing stuff... top flight storytelling and game action. (Do the Phenom Phen '86 mission...wow, great fun).

GTA San Andreas was a pretty darn good game too (albeit I think a slight step down in some ways from Vice City). The problem I always hear with this particular chapter is the "gangster" story. I wonder if there's not some race elements undiclosed in such criticism, because once again Rockstar hit the plot clear over the wall with a sledgehammer. Totally Boys in da Hood, totally riveting and real.
And again.. fun missions, tons of "side" things to do... expansive world. All that jazz.

The standard for gaming sandboxes has been Rockstar's domain since GTA III... while they may not have been technically "first" in some individual aspects, they sure were the first to package all the elements together and if nothing else deserve credit for it (in addition to deserving credit for that slick & dry British wit we all enjoy in most media formats).

Additionally it was a first for "mature" adult gamers... my generation (I may be a bit older than some of you) had grown up and craved something a bit more than the same fighting games and first person shooters. GTA delivered on that. I know they werent the first "mature" game, but they certainly were the biggest and the best.

Lastly, running people over and stealing cars in between (or during) missions is fun (virtually of course). Seriously, if you've never had the urge to do that, you probably dont have a drivers license yet...
*bump bump* 10 points! heh.

Anyways... if you dont like GTA? Cool, thats your thing. To each his own. But to despise it? To call it a crap game? I'm afraid that lowers your gaming cred just a tad. After all, if rice is good because a billion chinese people cant be wrong...

There are legitimate problems/issue with the GTA series. The sometimes clunky targeting and shooting system most notably.
But from what I've seen of IV... looks like they took that criticism to heart and fixed it up. Add some multiplayer to the mix.. and WHAT?!?!
A TRUE next-gen crime sandbox, set in a very real looking model of NYC?
I'm getting this game the very first day! Can't wait!

(full disclosure: as you see my hometown to the left, I'm a bit biased about IV being right in my backyard... figuratively speaking. But thats not the only reason I'm psyched about it of course)

Only irritant for me is that I have a PS3... and Microsoft bribed Rockstar to release 2 episode packs for the XBox360 exclusively... but oh well. Tough to be me.

[bluish_wolf]

Well, I understand buying a game that sucks and hating it because of that, but hating a game that hasn't even come out yet is a little weird. I mean, unless you were expecting Rockstar to be working on something else, I suppose.

As for me, I still have a number of games to buy, so I'm not paying much attention to games that I only have passing interest in. For instance, I still haven't bought Yume Miru Kusuri despite the fact that it's now been out in America for a year. I mean, exactly a year, oddly enough.

[Raroy]

I don't like those kind of games because I'm a pansy.:smallbiggrin: It's fine if you play it but I'd prefer to be a hero any day. It's the interactive bit that has me on the other side of the fence. I like thinking up character's who are the personification of lawful evil but I'd never play as any evil person.

[warty goblin]

Rockstar is one of the companies like Blizzard or Square whose releases I just simply don't care about. Not to say GTA IV is going to be bad or anything like that, I don't care about it. So I guess it is safe to say I am unexcited about it, yes.

[Dragor]

I don't look forward to GTA games, but I always do play them eventually. I hate the way the game has given video games bad reputation, and that it's become pop culture subsequently.

Yes, the story line and humour (most of it) is great. I don't enjoy killing sprees anyway, the story is what draws me to the games. Also doing co-op on San Andreas with my ex was classic fun.

[RyanM]

Not me. The only games I'm looking forward to are Starcraft 2, Half-Life 2 episode 3, and Spore.

[Ranis]

Did any of you guys actually DO the story (and side) missions?

No. And according to several polls, only about 20% of the people who play GTA actually do. Because most of the people who buy that garbage are people who enjoy repetitive mindless rampages over and over and over again while pretending to be a gangster at the same time.

[Daze]

No. And according to several polls, only about 20% of the people who play GTA actually do. Because most of the people who buy that garbage are people who enjoy repetitive mindless rampages over and over and over again while pretending to be a gangster at the same time.

Thanks for being honest Ranis.. you can always be counted on for that.

But you can see why that's a problem can't you?
It's a bit like me eating dry spaghetti and saying "ugh, this is horrible!" and never bothering to cook it and put some sauce on it.

I dont know about these polls you speak of (20% seems a bit low to me), but the point you make still stands. The immature 13 year olds who giggle uproariously at the idea of vehicular manslaughter and prostitution solicitation probably annoy a gamer like yourself more than the game itself does.

But I'm tellin ya amigo, if you approach the game for your own reasons with the desire to actually play the game as it was meant to be played, you might find quite a different experience than what these lame tweenoids would lead you to believe.

Rockstar allows the random shooting, driving, hooker thing because they know a gazillion lesser intelligent beings will buy a copy just for that. But thats the least of the parts... and a little digging will open up something much more meaningful & intense.

[JabberwockySupafly]

No. And according to several polls, only about 20% of the people who play GTA actually do. Because most of the people who buy that garbage are people who enjoy repetitive mindless rampages over and over and over again while pretending to be a gangster at the same time.

Wow, over-generalise much? Seriously, if that's the case then everyone who plays D&D is obviously a 15 year old overweight acne-ridden male virgin who will never get a girlfriend and aspires to work in a software company,right (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vin_Diesel)? I mean, that's what everyone thinks so it must be true, right?

And that must also mean that every person who listens to hip-hop is immediately a violent, anti-social gangsta wannabe who wears their pants around their ankles and carries a loaded fire-arm, right? I mean, because there's no possibility that there could be anything like intellectually (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesop_Rock) stimulating (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El-P) rap (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_(music_group)) music (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busdriver), right?

Polls are about as worthwhile as cardboard platemail. As shown by some of the most recent polls in England, more people recognised Homer Simpson than their own Prime Minister, and people thought Winston Churchill was a myth while Sherlock Holmes was real. You have to realise polls are only done by a fraction of an extremely large population. Polling 1000 people out of a country filled with millions is not going to give accurate results.

[Daze]

Wow, over-generalise much? Seriously, if that's the case then everyone who plays D&D is obviously a 15 year old overweight acne-ridden male virgin who will never get a girlfriend and aspires to work in a software company,right (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vin_Diesel)? I mean, that's what everyone thinks so it must be true, right?

And that must also mean that every person who listens to hip-hop is immediately a violent, anti-social gangsta wannabe who wears their pants around their ankles and carries a loaded fire-arm, right? I mean, because there's no possibility that there could be anything like intellectually (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesop_Rock) stimulating (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El-P) rap (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_(music_group)) music (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busdriver), right?

Awesome links, and great points!

(Vin Diesel being a D&Der always gets a chuckle out of me)

[Semidi]

I didn't care for GTAIII because I'm terrible at driving games and well... This game had a lot of driving parts. GTA Vice City was great and so was San Andreas. However, I found SA's plotline lacking in the last ¾ if the game and quickly get bored when the cool missions stop happening. Those of you who have played the game probably know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, that's beside the point really. I can honestly say that I find the games to be enjoyable, and I don't really go in for the whole "killing spree" thing unless I want to get 4-5 stars and see how long I can run from the police.

Anyone who doesn't go in for the story part of the games is missing out. Some of the missions are mind numbingly annoying (god damned car flip in SA), but many of them are cool.

Oh, but I hate GTA because I have to wait for a year before the new ones comes out on PC.

[Rogue 7]

I've never been interested in the shoot-em-all aspects of GTA- it bores me, and that kills any reason I'd have for playing the games- the plot's never looked to appeal to me, and the missions seem like something you could get in any other game- either races, shooting sections, or other stuff. So if I did play GTA, I wouldn't bother going on rampages. And that makes things fairly boring when I've got other games to play- I still have Mass Effect, Mario Galaxy, and Metroid Prime 3 to finish, plus that'll all be interrupted for Smash Bros, Halo, and Rock Band.

[Eakin]

Yeah, I played 3 for an evening or two, never really got into it. I don't really get why everybody is so crazy about the series. I would rather have my games do a few things very well than try to do a thousand things mediocrely.

Jabberwocky:
Hate to burst your bubble, put polling a few thousand people actually IS a good way to get accurate results, regardless of population size, as long as you have a good random selection process. I think that an n of 1000 gives you a result accurate to within +- 3% 95% of the time, unless I'm misremembering the standard error formula.

[NeonBlack]

The GTA games are ones that I tend to play in cycles. Extremely short cycles. They go something like this:

- See box in the shelf. Think "hey, it's been a while". Open box, get CD, install.
- Start new game, since it's been so long since I played last time that I don't remember where I was or what I was doing. Or I've simply lost the savegames to some hard drive sweep.
- Enjoy the setting and the premise. After all, Frontier is one of my all-time favs, I like open ended games.
- Enjoy the first missions. Yeah, the easy ones. Taxi for a while, dodge police, shoot static targets, things like that. Roam around for a while when allowed. Notice that graphics aren't that good, and that if I wanted to watch the scenery I'd be better served with a short trip down Golden Road in Oblivion. Get back to the missions.
- Stumble across the first missions that require me to move and shoot at the same time. Get frustrated with the sucky controls (I've tried both keyboard + mouse and pads, and both control schemes are equally horrible). Die a lot. Cuss.
- Start -> Program Files -> GTA X -> Uninstall
- Spend six months doing something else and not thinking about the game at all.
- Go to step one.

So, no, not really looking forward to GTA IV.

[Jibar]

I should like them...
I say should, because there's no denying that they're great examples of sandbox gameplay at work, but at the same time, they're not.
They kind of punish you for trying to play how you want. Gangs constantly attacking you, police constantly after you, certain areas being blocked off until you're forced through a bunch of story modes. And when you do the story modes, you just piss off even more people, effectively cutting off big areas of the game under penalty of death.

Plus, the protaganist of GTAIV looks like Gordan Frohman.
Seriously, look at him.

[Neon Knight]

I don't necessarily like the GTA series itself, but I've found that its some of its spin-offs can be as blast. I enjoyed Crackdown and Mercenaries: PoD. Without GTA, those games might not have existed.

So I guess I can say I look forward to GTA IV if only to inspire other games I might like.

[Swordguy]

Don't get me wrong - I enjoy violence a great deal. I choreograph fights for a living, and my non-gaming hobbies all include contact martial arts of varying styles. I've been in the Army, and I'm an avid shooter. I like violence. I'm good at it.

And yet...GTA's just never really done anything for me. I had the original GTA III on my PC, and I just never got into it. No idea why. Therefore, my response is a giant "meh" to the upcoming GTA game.

[Xuincherguixe]

Anti Social games were around before grand theft auto, it was just one of the few that was successful.

Carmeggedon was better for extremely reckless driving and awarding one points for running over people. Oh the fun I had with that game.

Most games that try and play the shock value angle aren't that great, and not that shocking.

[factotum]

I know people always say Vice City is the best of the GTA series, but I couldn't get into it precisely BECAUSE your character in the game was a thug who had no qualms about killing anyone who got in his way. I've seen videos of people playing the game like that--where they'll actually go out of their way to run down a few pedestrians in the middle of a mission--and I just don't understand the mentality.

GTA: San Andreas has a "hero" who I can actually get behind--sure, he isn't a saint or anything like that, but at least I can understand his reasons for doing what he does, and they're not all about money and killing people. Those few missions where you DO actually have to kill somebody, they usually deserve it in one way or another. I also quite like the driving sections (although the less said about the flying sections the better!). I think some of my favourite missions are simply driving trucks full of illegal goods and having half the state's police chasing you...

[Om]

No. And according to several polls, only about 20% of the people who play GTA actually do. Because most of the people who buy that garbage are people who enjoy repetitive mindless rampages over and over and over again while pretending to be a gangster at the same time.I call bull****. Source? In the meantime you can ditch the elitist "holier than thou" attitude and contemplate the number of people you have just insulted

I like the GTA series and have been a fan from the first game. The gameplay is relatively simple but enjoyable (certainly no more violent than any other major release) and, perhaps most importantly, the humour is superb. I tend to complete every mission in the game (which typically clocks in at an ungodly number of hours) before finding my interest waning. Even then rampages and the like are just fun - what's not to love about desperately hurtling around a city with a combined police/army force behind you?

That said, I wasn't a huge fan of SA. The game area was too big and the PC lacked the sheer psychotic charm of Tommy Vercetti. GTAIV I will definitely buy... when it comes out on the PC

[Various]

I didn't like driving games till I played GTA3. I love that I had a whole city to explore and drive around in. Honestly I think I played the game just to be a virtual tourist more than anything else. I couldn't be bothered with the rampages. I like the story lines because I'm a fan of those gritty crime movies that these games are based on. And the stuff on the radio stations always cracked me up.

San Andreas with its bigger world to explore was the idea game for me. Back in EQ1 and currently in WoW that's pretty much most of what I did. I only level up or advanced the game so I could get to new areas to explore. I'm really looking forward to GTA4 with a more interactive city environment.

I can see why people don't like it. The focus on violence by the media and mindless fanboys is a turn off. Also the clunkyness of the controls at times. But dang, watching the smogy sky over Los Santos while the sun rises is interesting to me. Reminds me of the places I've visited in the real southwest.

[Irenaeus]

Don't get me wrong - I enjoy violence a great deal. I choreograph fights for a living, and my non-gaming hobbies all include contact martial arts of varying styles. I've been in the Army, and I'm an avid shooter. I like violence. I'm good at it.

And yet...GTA's just never really done anything for me. I had the original GTA III on my PC, and I just never got into it. No idea why. Therefore, my response is a giant "meh" to the upcoming GTA game.I second all of the sentiments (though will not claim to have any of the skills) expressed in the post above.

I simply think that GTA series depicts violence in a way I find interesting, and I found the sandbox aspect tiresome. I don't really have a problem with it, but I don't care much for it either. Withine the genre, I much prefer Mafia, with it's tighter storyline and 1930s-style city.

I think I enjoyed the first GTA more for som reason, although I can't really remember why.

[Tom_Violence]

Playing through scarface-esque missions in Vice City as Tommy Vercetti (voiced by none other than Mr. Goodfellas Ray Liotta)? Did any of you guys actually DO the story (and side) missions? Amazing stuff... top flight storytelling and game action. (Do the Phenom Phen '86 mission...wow, great fun).

Yes, I did. And that more than anything else is why I dislike those games. I had great fun playing Vice City for quite a while, driving around, being silly, listening to Spandau Ballet, etc., but the instant I tried to do some missions the whole thing fell apart. The controls were simply so goddamn awful that actually doing the missions was an exercise is utter frustration. Whether it was having to retry a mission for the millionth time because the stupid vehicle you're trying to drive flipped out for no good reason, or because you got shot to death again by enemies that for the life of you you couldn't manage to actually attack, the game drove me absolutely mad. The whole thing just reeked of bad design. So that's why I'm not fussed about getting the next one.

Which is a shame really, because when I handed it over to my brother to unlock more bits for me (as he is a man of significantly greater patience than myself), it became heaps of fun again. But for me the sheer hard work and annoyance wasn't worth it. It actually stressed me out!

[Triaxx]

I'm not. I played about four hours then gave it back to the friend I'd borrowed it from. It's just not nearly as much fun as the hype makes it out to be. The story is good, but I've played the missions themselves before.

[Neithan]

You asked, here I am. GTA is stupid.

[BillsBioBlog]

Oh I totally feel the same way, I didn't like the series from the very get-go, and I was annoyed to tears (of blood as it were) when people wouldn't shut up about how much they loved GTA.

[d12]

Umm, I'm not actively looking forward to it, but I'll probably keep an eye out for things relating to it post-release. I'm pretty sure my computer is old enough that it won't be able to run GTA4, so my best bet would probably be the 360 version.

I mostly like either exploring the map or just driving around causing random mayhem (with or without cops tailing me, as the mood strikes). I've never been interested in their stories and almost never do more than the first 3-4 missions. I will occasionally do a few taxi missions and whatever other randomness the game contains (the hidden packages/tags/horseshoes/oysters/whathaveyou). The radio stations are also pretty good. K-JAH and Chatterbox were my favorites in GTA3, and much of the stuff in Vice City was listenable. K-CHAT and VCPR didn't disappoint either (loved the Thor interview). The talk radio station in San Andreas felt a bit lacking though. It just seemed like they could have done more than they did. Maybe it may have had something to do with the radio contents changing as the story progressed (or so my understanding went), but it wasn't as fun as in the previous two games.

I've always been irritated by the maps constantly being closed off for the sake of their precious little storylines. I paid for the entire map, and I don't need to prove to anybody that I'm worthy of having fun, so open up the damn map already! Luckily that was fairly easy to do in San Andreas, but who knows if that'll be possible if I end up being stuck with the 360 version. If it isn't possible to open the map from the beginning I'll probably pass altogether, barring something absolutely captivating.

[Mattarias, King.]

I've personally found GTA rather distasteful. I mean, sure, I like explosions, but guns? Cars? Set in the "Real world"? Bah. Give me swords and sorcery or give me death. :smalltongue:

I'd start rambling on about how guns are dishonorable and all that, but that's another subject for another thread. :smallamused:

Anyways, there's also the fact that I -hate- "gangster" stuff. Both "renditions". I mean, even spoofs of The Godfather bug me, and if I hear anyone within hear shot end a word in "-izzle" that shouldn't, it takes great self-control not to do something rash. :smallannoyed: