GTA’s Homecoming

I remember playing the first Grand Theft Auto game back when I was a wee boy. I was astounded by the fact that one could run over pedestrians with a car and in return receive points, Dollars even. It was a pretty simple game with a top-down view and pedestrians that looked like weird pixilated birds. Many kids around the world lost many hours of homework time to that game, and have continued to lose many more hours to the slew of GTA titles that have come out since then.

Now we finally have the latest version on the series on its original platform, the beloved PC. We have always felt that the entire GTA experience was always best on the PC, so it irked us a bit that PC owners had to wait six months after the release of the console versions for it to land. There was also a similar wait for GTA: San Andreas to come out on PC, and we imagine it will be the same with the next installment whatever that may be, so everyone should stop bleating and just accept it.

Was it worth the wait?

The answer is yes, and no. A few keystrokes and clicks on Google will literally show you thousands of people complaining about the PC version of the game and the huge array of technical problems that have been experienced. However, these issues have since been fixed with the latest 1.0.3.0 patch released by Rockstar, which not only ironed out the bugs but also added a few extra frames per second, allowing us to bump up the graphics to near full and enjoy the end of the storyline in its full glory.

The game is visually stunning. We often found ourselves admiring the tiny details that litter the incredibly designed Liberty City. Cars take realistic damage, and when you hit a lamp-post, scrape against a highway barrier, or hit a pedestrian, a mark is left on the car that actually looks like you hit that specific object.

If you felt inclined to shoot someone in the head while they were still in their car, they would die immediately and their head would fall down on the horn. You would then hear that horn sounding off until you pulled the person out of the car. Similarly, when someone gets their hand caught in your car door they drag behind you. These are some of the details that make GTA IV special.

It’s evident that a staggering amount of time and effort was put into this game and the figures speak for themselves. More than a thousand people worked on GTA IV and an estimated $100 million was spent on it. Watching the end credits is reminiscent of watching the credits for the extended version of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. It’s a good 15 minutes long, maybe longer…

With all this money spent it’s no surprise that everything about the game is top notch. The graphics are incredible, the story involving, the sound effects superb (the city’s hum and chatter is so entertaining you can walk around listening for hours), the soundtrack is massive and has something for almost everyone (you can play your own mp3s if your taste is specially refined), the missions are tough but never impossible, and it’s a long game with stacks of things to keep you occupied. Did I mention you can also play it multiplayer with Deathmatches and Races and Cop’s and Robber’s themed team games amongst others.

Multiplayer

When I could tear myself away from the storyline, I enjoyed a couple of online Deathmatches and Races, I even fragged a Rockstar game developer (I have the Windows LIVE achievement to prove it).
The multiplayer aspect is a great addition to what we have come to expect from the GTA titles, although I don’t see it exploding online like Call Of Duty 4 or Team Fortress 2 have recently, especially here in South Africa as there are no local servers to speak of and the latency, at times, caused some frustration – Especially when you’re the leader in a race one second and then ‘pafoompf’ some guy magically appears in front of you.

We were expecting the online experience to be unplayable with our substandard internet infrastructure, but were pleasantly surprised as the multiplayer component works well enough to shoot people off their motorbikes as they come whizzing by.

There are however a few gripes to be had with the game. We did not like the Rockstar Games Social Application that one has to log in to in order to play the game, it’s a little bit like Steam, but it’s only function seems to be to launch the game. Windows LIVE runs in the background of the game and you can bring it up at any stage. The achievements work well, giving players something to work towards much like console gamers do.

Many gamers will not like the fact that it took three meaty patches and more than three and a half months after release for Rockstar to get the game running smoothly on a mid-high-end PC. Even with the update, the system requirements in order to play the game as it is intended are a bit on the high side.
One final irk; the opening game menu loads up other online user’s captured and edited videos (it has a video editor too) and you can stream them like a Youtube video from within the game. A good idea, but for some insane reason you can’t play them full screen or even quarter screen. The videos are about the size of a matchbox on an average monitor, making the feature seem a bit pointless.

GTA IV walks a different path

GTA IV is not GTA: San Andreas. Rockstar has attempted and succeeded in changing the general feel and atmosphere this time around. It’s not hilarious like San Andreas was, but it has moments of great humour. You can’t do as many things as you could in San Andreas, but there is still a lot to do. The map is not as big as it was in San Andreas, but you can still explore for hours on end.

GTA IV is more serious and gritty. It is character driven and one gets a sense that Rockstar is using the game as a vehicle to make some rather poignant social commentaries about the failures of the American dream. It even manages to make one feel guilty about some of the atrocities that they are committing.
It is quite something when you hear a radio report about some gun fight that happened somewhere in town where innocents were killed and you suddenly realize that they’re talking about the last mission you did for Packie McCleary.

Should you own it?

GTA IV is a great game, but even with the patches it is bloated with bugs. However, with perseverance and some minor tweaking one can get it running fairly smooth on a decent machine.

Once having completed the storyline, we immediately forgave Rockstar for everything this game put us through in getting it working. The story is compelling and sucks the player in. The presentation is top notch, and the game just oozes personality.

The ending is satisfying and we would recommend this game to anyone who has a decent PC and the time needed to fully appreciate the game.

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