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 LATEST UPDATE (FEB 7): Episodes 41 & 42 -- LP FINISHED!  "Life is complicated. I've killed people, smuggled people, sold people. Perhaps here, things will be different..."  Grand Theft Auto IV, developed by Rockstar North and released in April 2008 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and in December 2008 for Windows, is the fourth main installment in Rockstar Games' open world crime series and GTA's first foray to HD. It is also the second best game ever made. That's what Metacritic says, so it must be true! GTA IV is sometimes considered a bit of a disappointment by fans of the series, as it went for a more down-to-earth approach after the insanity that was San Andreas and put more emphasis on the storyline and characters than any of the previous GTA games (to the detriment of the urban mayhem gameplay most people enjoy the best in GTA -- I tend to focus on the missions in these games and rarely go on any rampages so I had no problem with it, but a lot of people were very angry). If I were a game reviewer in 2008 and used appalling clichés in my writing, I might call it "darker, grittier and more realistic". Since this is a game everyone bought but nobody finished (apparently, only 28% of all players finished the story on the Xbox 360 version), I decided it would be a decent choice for an LP. I did finish the game back in 2008 and enjoyed it at the time, so I'm also trying to see if it holds up at all. GTA IV could be best described as an ambitious (the open world is amazingly detailed) but extremely flawed game, which tries to be both an open world rear end in a top hat simulator and a serious crime story and doesn't really pull either of those off. The issues are compounded by the increased presence of tight mission scripting, which really started to pop up in San Andreas but is even more jarring here as the game frequently breaks its own rules to make the story missions more cinematic. The game may tell you that you need to kill a biker, so you chase him down only to find he's impervious to bullets until a certain point. Or you're pulling off a huge bank heist and decide to steal one of the police cars out front to get away, only to find the game does not allow you to steal cars in that mission until you're specifically told to do so. The button to steal a car still works, but you only break the window and that's it. To reiterate: A game called Grand Theft Auto does not allow you to escape the police by stealing a car. How about that. There are several examples of this kind of thing in GTA IV, although other missions do at least allow for more lateral thinking and are more fun as a result. Since this is a 2008 release, the combat is now cover-based - while this might sound like an improvement over the earlier GTA games and their rather wonky shooting mechanics, the combat in GTA IV is really a bit of a slog that tends to devolve into a bunch of men sitting behind boxes and slowly plinking away at each other (there is no health regen or mid-mission checkpoints, so you don't want to try anything reckless). Cars are much heavier than they were in previous GTA games, and while some folks dislike the handling I absolutely love throwing the muscle cars and high-end sports cars around corners. Bikes are utterly awful, though; luckily we don't have a bunch of extremely difficult scripted chase missions involving them or... oh yeah, we do.  GTA IV's protagonist is Niko Bellic, a Balkan war veteran who fell on hard times and turned to crime after the war and now comes to Liberty City (completely redesigned for this game, now heavily based on New York City) in an attempt to escape his former life and search for "something". Since this is GTA and Niko is a man who is only good at violence and killing, you can expect things to go south pretty quickly. For one, it turns out that Niko's cousin Roman, who has lived in Liberty City for ten years, has embellished his stories about life in America just a little bit and is actually up to his ears in debt to some Eastern European gangsters. Also, he would really like if you took him bowling. Or to play pool. Or darts. Or to drink. Or eat. Or to the strip club to look at BEEG AMERICAN TEETEES. Or... yeah. He's not the only one who wants to spend time with Niko, though; many of the upstanding citizens of LC Niko meets along the way will also want to hang out and constantly call your phone to tell you as much. This generally happens when you're right at the mission marker or save point, of course. If you still find your phone isn't ringing often enough, you can go out with various ladies and try to figure out what their idea of a successful date might be. Realism! If you can't be bothered with any of this, you can just stay at home and watch lovely shows on TV (or surf the internet at an internet cafe). Excitement!  This LP is going to be a straight playthrough of all the storyline missions and most of the relevant side content with (more or less) informative solo commentary in my sexy Nordic accent, somewhat in the vein of the Red Dead Redemption LPs that have been done here on SA. Each video has a couple of story missions (probably one mission per video once they get a bit more involved), along with some side stuff like hanging out with friends or doing the stranger missions (a type of side mission introduced in this game and later used in RDR and GTA V, where you meet random weirdos in the open world and perform various tasks for them). I edit out a lot of the downtime, so you won't need to see me go bowling a million times (I'll briefly show each activity the first time they come up, but since nobody wants to watch me play pool or something for ten minutes I'll just cut most of it out) or drive ten miles to the mission area. Any important dialogue during these parts is kept, of course, and occasionally I keep shorter drives in the video if there's something good on the radio during that particular trip or I need to explain a game mechanic or something, but as a general rule I'll cut out most of the driving. If you find I'm cutting out too much (or too little), yell at me in the thread and I'll see what I can do. No, I will not hunt down all the goddamn pigeons, and you should be ashamed of yourself for even thinking about such a thing. I will shoot any I come across, but getting all 200 simply isn't worth it. I don't have any kind of strict update schedule because I'm a lazy bum, but I generally try to update at least every couple of weeks. As for the two DLC episodes, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, I plan on making a separate thread for those somewhere down the line after I'm done with this and a few other projects.   NO SPOILERS! Not even in tags! The story has its issues and most people watching this will probably have played the game, but let's keep this spoiler-free anyway. Aside from that, just keep things civil. I know GTA discussions can get somewhat heated at times, whether they're about which GTA game (or Saints Row) is better or about Rockstar's handling of certain topics.  The first three videos (as well as two other episodes very late in the LP) were recorded on the Xbox 360 version, so they don't look that great. From episode 4 on (with the exception of the two later videos I mentioned), I'm playing the PC version for that 1080p/60 fps goodness. Well, 40-50 fps for the most part because it turns out lossless recording at 1080p/60 fps does a number on the framerate especially on a terribly optimized game like this. The PC version also has some minor graphical glitches popping up every so often, but they shouldn't be too distracting. Youtube playlist for all the videos! Episode 01: The Cousins Bellic Episode 02: First Date(s) Episode 03: Physics Episode 04: Little Jacob & Uncle Vlad Episode 05: A Faustin Deal Episode 06: Final Destinations Episode 07: Rush Rush (Side Missions #1) Episode 08: Easy As Can Be Episode 09: The Lowest Point Episode 10: Cleaning the Hood Episode 11: Luck of the Irish Episode 12: No. 1 Episode 13: The Snow Storm Episode 14: Proper Grenade Use Episode 15: Hostile Negotiation Episode 16: GENETICALLY SUPERIOR (Side Missions #2) Episode 17: Bonding Episode 18: The Holland Play Episode 19: Waste Not Want Knots Episode 20: Three Leaf Clover Episode 21: Actions Speak Louder Than Words Episode 22: I Need Your Clothes, Your Boots, And Your Motorcycle Episode 23: A Long Way to Fall Episode 24: Taking In the Trash Episode 25: Museum Piece Episode 26: Weekend at Florian's Episode 27: Late Checkout Episode 28: Tunnel o' Death Episode 29: Blood Brothers Episode 30: Union Drive Episode 31: Pegorino's Pride Episode 32: Do It Again, Stupid Episode 33: Flatline Episode 34: Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend Episode 35: To Live and Die in Alderney Episode 36: Pest Control Episode 37: That Special Someone Episode 38: Mr. & Mrs. Bellic Episode 39: A Dish Served Cold (R Ending 01) Episode 40: Out of Commission (R Ending 02) Episode 41: Stranger Mission Roundup Episode 42 (FINAL): The Victory We Longed For DMorbid fucked around with this message at 15:17 on Feb 8, 2017 |
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Apr 10, 2016 17:14
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  MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS Music has always been a major part of GTA's appeal, and GTA IV is no exception there. I occasionally hear complaints about this game's radio stations and the music selection, but I've never understood them. Obviously, it's all very much a subjective thing, but GTA IV has an absolutely gigantic selection of music spanning numerous genres and eras and frankly I'm quite baffled if you can't find anything to enjoy on the soundtrack. As such, I decided to showcase some of the music in the episodes. This is by no means a comprehensive list, just a bunch of songs I enjoyed while playing the game. --- Episodes 1 & 2: Glukoza - Schweine (Scripted to play during the drive in "The Cousins Bellic" in the console versions, not on PC for some reason) Oleg Kvasha - Zelenoglazoe Taksi (Club Remix) Episode 3: Ruslana - Wild Dances (Ukrainian FM Version) Episode 5: Ranetki - O Tebe Leningrad - Nikogo ne Zhalko Episode 7: The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog The Isley Brothers - Footsteps in the Dark Episode 8: Sisters of Mercy - Dominion/Mother Russia Electric Light Orchestra - Evil Woman Episode 9: Kino - Gruppa krovi Philip Glass - Pruit Igoe Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene Part 4 Episode 10: Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell Episodes 11 & 12: Q Lazzarus - Goodbye Horses Smashing Pumpkins - 1979 Stevie Nicks - Edge of Seventeen Genesis - Mama David Bowie - Fascination Queen - One Vision Brand Nubian - All for One Jeru the Damaja - D. Original Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak Episode 13: Hello - New York Groove Episode 15: Juliette and The Licks - Inside the Cage (David Gilmour Girls Remix) Episode 18: Duke Ellington - Take the A Train David McCallum & David Axelrod - The Edge Episode 21: Underdog - Back to Back Episode 28: Kavinsky - Testarossa (SebastiAn Remix) Episode 42: David Axelrod - Holy Thursday DMorbid fucked around with this message at 15:38 on Feb 8, 2017 |
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Apr 10, 2016 17:15
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 Episode 01: The Cousins Bellic (Polsy) In which we arrive in America and find out our cousin is a filthy liar and kind of an idiot. We also drive around in lovely cars and stab a man in the junk to cap off our first night in the land of freedom.  NOTE: This first video is mostly cutscenes and dialogue. My commentary, what little there is, is also a bit underwhelming as I tried to go for a "relaxed" style and it didn't quite work out the way I hoped (mainly I just sound really bored even though I'm not). YMMV, I suppose.  Episode 02: First Date(s) (Polsy) We go bowling with a lady, meet Liberty's finest for the first time, and repeatedly fail to smash a window with a brick. MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS UPDATE: Glukoza - Schweine (Scripted to play during the drive in "The Cousins Bellic" in the console versions, not on PC for some reason) Oleg Kvasha - Zelenoglazoe Taksi (Club Remix) DMorbid fucked around with this message at 23:10 on Jun 19, 2016 |
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Apr 10, 2016 17:15
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Looks good - I'm looking forward to someone actually doing an informative LP on GTA4.
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Apr 10, 2016 23:24
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UPDATE!  Episode 03: Physics (Polsy) In which we go get drunk and go a rock-a-rollin' courtesy of the fantastic Euphoria physics engine, and a record company in Italy decides to claim copyright on a chiptune version of a Russian folk song (stupid copyright claims on Youtube, it's almost like I'm a real LPer!  Update: The questionable copyright claim has since disappeared, the ones I've gotten for subsequent episodes are legit). We also get in a pretty intense chase with a van and go do a bit of repossessing work, while Vlad continues to be the best character. Word of warning: if you're prone to motion sickness, the bit with the drunken shenanigans will probably be hard to watch. I originally wanted to do the whole thing in fast motion, but forgot how bad the shakycam gets in these. The drunkenness effect is actually better on the console versions than it is on PC, because the PC version removes the blurred vision for some reason. MaskedHuzzah posted:Looks good - I'm looking forward to someone actually doing an informative LP on GTA4. Now, before I go ahead and record the next update, I have a question for the thread. I'm currently playing on the Xbox 360 because that version is more stable than the PC port, but it kinda looks like butt and having the future videos in 1080p/60 fps* might be pretty cool. Should I keep on playing the console version or just try to get the PC version to co-operate? At the moment, I have a save file at the exact same spot in both versions. *GTA IV PC does not run at a constant 60 fps on anything. My rig can handle Assassin's Creed Unity at 1080p60, but I'm getting frame drops in GTA IV. DMorbid fucked around with this message at 01:11 on Aug 29, 2016 |
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Apr 11, 2016 12:08
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Higher video quality is not a major selling point for me - I'd say use the thing that would be easier for you to record on.
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Apr 12, 2016 00:51
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Well, I downgraded my Steam version of GTA IV to 1.0.4.0, which makes the graphics on slightly worse than the latest update (1.0.7.0) but I now get a pretty consistent 60 fps at max settings (except for the sliders, which will cause frame drops on anything if you crank them up) and it's not really any more of a hassle to record than the 360 version now that it doesn't crash every time I adjust the graphics options. Despite my game being a legit copy, I also found out this game has a fun anti-piracy feature when I accidentally launched it straight from GTAIV.exe instead of LaunchGTAIV.exe; after a few minutes of playing, your car starts smoking and the camera wobbles like you're drunk.  I'm also working on improving the audio (which is intelligible enough, but it can always be better) by installing the noise gate plugin for Audacity. The somewhat tinny sound in the first three videos is in part due to Audacity's noise reduction feature, and setting up the noise gate should help with that, and I'll mess with the settings some more to make the sound more clear. I probably should have figured this out earlier, but better late than never (had I spent more time in the Tech Support Fort, I'd have never gotten around to posting this because I would've just been sperging over minor details forever) Whichever version I end up recording, I'll try to get the next update done by this weekend. DMorbid fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Apr 13, 2016 |
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Apr 12, 2016 02:48
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I'm really liking your detached bemusement style of commentary as a contrast to Niko's pessimism. They complement each other very well!
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Apr 13, 2016 07:54
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The best thing to come out of GTA 4 are all the silly videos about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7Ri6dhsnoU
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Apr 13, 2016 18:18
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I remember having to use my own music for the car radio back when, or else the drives were unbearable.
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Apr 13, 2016 19:58
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Yeah, the sheer amount of driving you do in this game is staggering and even though I enjoy the radio selection (especially after The Lost and Damned, which added a bunch of really good songs to the game -- as did Ballad of Gay Tony for that matter, but it also ruined Vladivostok FM and gently caress that), I also ended up playing music through the Xbox 360 dashboard when I was playing this back in the day as you can only hear the same stuff so many times. I really feel bad for those who don't like the driving model, because holy poo poo. Oh yeah, I decided to switch to the PC version for future videos, so from episode 4 on we'll be in glorious 1080p/60 fps. Well, 1080p/40 fps at night or in the rain because this port is not very well optimized, but overall it still runs far better than the console version. DMorbid fucked around with this message at 20:24 on Apr 13, 2016 |
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Apr 13, 2016 20:22
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I haven't played the Ballad of Gay Tony, but the original Vladivostok FM is an atrocity when you can understand what they're singing/rapping about. Which I can. According to Google, there are two bands there that are not utterly disgusting, but I did not remember that. Unlike the garbage.
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Apr 13, 2016 22:08
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In TBoGT, Vladivostok was changed to fit the whole club theme of that expansion, so instead of Russian/Eastern European music they just have David Morales and stuff like that. The music itself isn't bad, but GTA IV already had a station that played that kind of thing. Also, that's very interesting to hear about the content on Vladivostok. I don't speak much Russian (as my attempts to pronounce Russian words have shown... I studied it for a while some time before GTA IV came out, but I've long since forgotten the few things I learned and I always get the -ch and -zh sounds mixed up) so to me it's just "that station with the Russian theme and the lady who won Eurovision once, and that song where they rap over an accordion". What kind of horrible content is there? (I looked at some lyrics and so far I've only found references to drugs, sex, alcohol and general depravity) DMorbid fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Apr 13, 2016 |
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Apr 13, 2016 22:26
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I'm going by the playlist from google, because I haven't played GTA4 since the year it came out. Drugs, sex, alcohol, and general depravity are present. Apart from that, basically, with the exception of a couple songs, the lyrics are just really, really silly and look like they were written by a 10 year old. That is on top of the fact that the music itself is mostly garbage. It's one thing when it serves as a background noise, but to me it stands out so much in this overall English-language environment that I could never (and still can't) block it out. Also, while I can't speak for the entire Eastern Europe (duh), fun fact: actual Russian radio stations very rarely mix Russian and foreign music. There are stations that only play Russian music, and there are stations that only play foreign music. The only outliers are thematic things like one all-classical station that comes to mind. nutri_void fucked around with this message at 22:44 on Apr 13, 2016 |
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Apr 13, 2016 22:41
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Alexeythegreat posted:Also, while I can't speak for the entire Eastern Europe (duh), fun fact: actual Russian radio stations very rarely mix Russian and foreign music. There are stations that only play Russian music, and there are stations that only play foreign music. The only outliers are thematic things like one all-classical station that comes to mind. quote:basically, with the exception of a couple songs, the lyrics are just really, really silly and look like they were written by a 10 year old. That is on top of the fact that the music itself is mostly garbage. (EDIT: now there is a use for Independence FM on the PC version!)
DMorbid fucked around with this message at 23:07 on Apr 13, 2016 |
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Apr 13, 2016 22:52
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I would comment on names, if I remembered any Vlad's VA clearly sounds like a native Russian speaker, although the dialogue itself... as soon as Nico left and Vlad got a call, he said that he's very busy. Even though he was just sitting there. I remember that Niko and Roman are Serbian, so maybe Rockstar are making the usual mistake of literally everyone and dumping the entire former Socialist block together as the "Eastern Europe".
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Apr 13, 2016 23:08
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Hey now, Vlad is a very busy man indeed.
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Apr 13, 2016 23:20
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I'm usually good for an open-world bonkers GTA crime fest but GTAIV felt so drab and serious - we went from GTAIII with its Straight Outta Compton dreams and Area 51 jetpacks, to this dour flashback-sequence-in-The-Godfather coming to America mess. Naturally, I only played about half of this so I'm curious to see how it ends.
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Apr 14, 2016 05:33
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I like what they tried to do with the more serious tone (despite a few missteps along the way), but maybe they shouldn't have made this a mainline GTA game. By the point GTA IV came out, the hype was at a fever pitch and people were expecting something like San Andreas in HD or at least GTA 3 in HD (since a lot of features had to be cut out in the move to a new engine), but instead we got this game where you spend three hours driving people around and going bowling with your cousin before you even get a gun. (Spoiler: we get a gun in the next video)
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Apr 14, 2016 14:53
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people are just biased against this game because they took out the tank and the fighter jet and i theorize those two vehicles constituted 80% of collective playtime in san andreas the vehicles in this game are a little drab though, now thinking on it. very little in the way of particularly striking or otherwise iconic cars...
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Apr 15, 2016 00:34
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Update time!  Episode 04: Little Jacob & Uncle Vlad (Polsy) We meet a new friend and bond with him by shooting a lot of people together. Meanwhile, our old friend Vlad makes a bad mistake.
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Apr 15, 2016 01:54
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Hah. Character animation went so far in a few years. Look at Niko and Vlad waving their hands at each other at the end of video 2 - that's Garry's Mod quality modelling right there.
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Apr 17, 2016 12:56
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Yeah, some of those cutscenes that use the in-game models and animations look kinda crummy, especially compared to the nicely mocapped story cutscenes. Some of the animation there looks like it came straight from GTA III.
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Apr 17, 2016 13:44
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I could never wrap my head around Niko and Roman speaking English to each other when no one is around. Granted I'm guilty of the same thing myself, but I've never had someone not remind me to switch language a few words in
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Apr 17, 2016 20:50
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I really liked the story to this game, aside from the weird bank job stuff and the clashing of tone with the less serious stores and stuff to be found in it. I honestly wish a bunch of the stuff considered "fun" in earlier games had been excised and we had been left with an almost entirely serious GTA game, no matter what some might say. But only because these games haven't been too good at finding their tone for some time. Vice City had its tone set perfectly, San Andreas lost it a teensy bit, GTA 4 wobbled between serious and fun and GTA 5... poo poo I don't even know with GTA 5. I think Rockstar were trying to go back to a less serious and more fun tone, but must've forgotten what fun meant, aside from one or two characters (Trevor and Lamar).
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Apr 17, 2016 22:05
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Gotta admit, I found myself liking this game over V, even if it's considered one of the weaker links in the series. Might just be the familiarity of the dank, rundown, east coast environment that I've been around for most of my life, along with the immigrant experience theme. And I also liked how you could get around most of the game by cab if you wanted to.
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Apr 18, 2016 01:56
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Oh, hey. I haven't forgotten about this, I'm currently preparing the next update. Episode 5 is actually uploaded and processing as I post this, but since that ended up being another cutscene-heavy episode I don't want to post it by itself. As such, the next update may not quite make it by the end of this week, but it'll be another double feature with episode 6 (which I just edited and still need to record commentary for) more than making up for the lack of action in ep.5. I just might attempt one of the game's most infamous(ly bullshit) missions in that one, too. 
DMorbid fucked around with this message at 21:01 on Apr 23, 2016 |
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Apr 23, 2016 19:00
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Skippy Granola posted:I'm usually good for an open-world bonkers GTA crime fest but GTAIV felt so drab and serious - we went from GTAIII with its Straight Outta Compton dreams and Area 51 jetpacks, to this dour flashback-sequence-in-The-Godfather coming to America mess. Gyra_Solune posted:the vehicles in this game are a little drab though, now thinking on it. evilmiera posted:I honestly wish a bunch of the stuff considered "fun" in earlier games had been excised and we had been left with an almost entirely serious GTA game
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Apr 25, 2016 11:37
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SUPER DOUBLE FEATURE UPDATE TIME  Episode 05: A Faustin Deal (Polsy) This is another cutscene-heavy episode, in which we deal with the fallout of the previous episode's events and get introduced to our new bosses. One of them is an unstable drug addict with severe anger issues, and the other has a very silly name. (Rascalov? Seriously?) Maybe Vlad wasn't so bad after all... Oh, and we also find out what Niko is actually looking for in Liberty City. It's not a very uplifting story.  Episode 06: Final Destinations (Polsy) We get quite busy in this one. Not only do we kill a bunch of people, some of whom we probably shouldn't, but we also meet some new friends and even GO ON THE INTERNET! Capping things off is that one mission everyone hates. I apologize for the occasional graphical glitch that shows up in this episode, I don't know what's going on there. Either my graphics card is melting down as it tries to handle this horribly optimized game and lossless 1080p/60fps recording, or it's just GTA4 PC being GTA4 PC.
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Apr 25, 2016 13:08
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Is it bad that I consider it a personal achievement that I can understand Badman?
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Apr 25, 2016 14:45
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Lazy Bear posted:Is it bad that I consider it a personal achievement that I can understand Badman? In GTA-related news no one cares about, I picked up the iOS version of Liberty City Stories, the old PSP game that has been remastered for mobile with completely redone graphics (the models still look janky and the cutscenes don't have much detail, but overall it's a huge improvement) and new features. Having only played the PSP and PS2 versions, both of which look like absolute crap and run at 15 fps or so, I'm really liking this remaster. The touch controls are a bit poo poo for shooting people, but other than that it's easily the definitive version of LCS. LCS also benefits from the fact I haven't played it in years and certainly haven't played through it half a dozen times like I have the main series games on PS2, so the iOS version feels a lot fresher as a result. Vice City Stories is a better game and I hope that gets a remaster as well, but that one is also less janky on PSP and PS2 and still quite playable on those platforms (or at least on Vita and PS3). I did forget how terrible the Flashback FM host in LCS is, though. It's a shame, because the actual music (various Giorgio Moroder songs) owns. DMorbid fucked around with this message at 13:03 on Apr 26, 2016 |
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Apr 26, 2016 12:59
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Alexeythegreat posted:I could never wrap my head around Niko and Roman speaking English to each other when no one is around. There is one point in the game where Nico gets an e-mail from his mother. It is written in English since "you are American now and have forgotten our language" or something like that. Also, for some reason Niko and Roman also speak English to fellow Serbians from their past when they run into them.
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Apr 26, 2016 13:36
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Metal Gear Solid 3 handles this kind of thing quite well in my opinion. In that game, most characters are speaking Russian to each other, but for convenience's sake we hear everything in English, no accents or anything. Maybe it's not "authentic" but neither is Rockstar's approach here. If they hadn't tried to explain why the characters are speaking English, we could've suspended our disbelief just fine.
DMorbid fucked around with this message at 13:57 on Apr 26, 2016 |
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Apr 26, 2016 13:50
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Alexeythegreat posted:I could never wrap my head around Niko and Roman speaking English to each other when no one is around. Roman mentions really early on that, having been in America and out of practice as long as he has, he's forgotten a lot of Serbian.
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Apr 27, 2016 10:09
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I was playing some San Andreas and noticed that the mission OG Loc is basically the exact same thing as No Love Lost in GTA IV (which we saw in the latest video), except that it might be even worse. You're forced onto a PCJ 600 motorbike and have to chase some guy all over town while you're (or, in this case, OG Loc is) pointlessly firing an SMG at him because he's either invincible or has so much health he might as well be, and he finally leads you into an ambush with a bunch of his gang buddies waiting for you. It's the first time you have to use a motorcycle in San Andreas, and the kind of precision the game asks from you just isn't there unless you've practiced beforehand. Even then, I've spent countless hours riding bikes in GTA and some parts of the mission are still pretty tough. The traffic is also random, so you can't memorize when some idiot tries to ram you off the road. I failed this mission twice through no fault of my own (well, maybe some fault of my own, but mostly due to horseshit), once when I somehow fell off the bike when landing a jump and once when Loc fell off the bike when I slightly clipped a wall and wouldn't get back on. Failing the mission means driving back to the mission marker at Big Smoke's house, then driving to the police station to pick up Loc, and finally driving to the target's house all over again before you can even start the chase. At least in GTA IV, the chase starts pretty close to Faustin's place. I love these games but gently caress me, they have some infuriating missions.
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Apr 27, 2016 16:15
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Doc Morbid posted:Episode 06: Final Destinations There were some good characters in this section. I like Jacob and Badman, I like Dmitri, and Brucie seems fun. But unfortunately we've still got Niko Bellic at the centre of it all. Doc Morbid posted:I can follow along pretty well when I have subtitles on (well enough not to need Little Jacob's "translation"), but if those were off I wouldn't understand a word of what he's saying.
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Apr 27, 2016 19:16
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That tailing mission is so bad. Like I said in the video, the guy just keeps walking and never once looks behind him, making my amazing stealth skills completely pointless. In the previous GTA games they would've had the spook-o-meter or at least something to spice it up, but nope. Walk behind this guy for five minutes while nothing happens. Fun fact about the tailing segment: until pretty much the last minute, I had it set to a music track from Assassin's Creed 2. There's no better music for tedious tailing missions than that, but I figured that Ubisoft will probably be a bit trigger-happy about their soundtracks on Youtube so I used the song from Deadly Premonition instead. As for the cars, yeah, they're pretty disposable in the GTA games and I generally treat them like that unless I get a unique vehicle as a mission reward. I could have saved Lenny's sports car in Roman's parking spot, but simply didn't care enough because I wouldn't be able to drive it to missions without it disappearing. Also, Brucie owns and will be the best character from here on.
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Apr 27, 2016 19:28
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Doc Morbid posted:I was playing some San Andreas and... You're forced onto a PCJ 600 motorbike and have to chase some guy all over town while you're (or, in this case, OG Loc is) pointlessly firing an SMG at him because he's either invincible or has so much health he might as well be, and he finally leads you into an ambush with a bunch of his gang buddies waiting for you. Just for reference, of the two, its the higher heath, not invincibility. I know only as the speedruns speed ahead of him on his fixed route via the actual roads rather than the back alley nonsense, and get set up so he ends up ridding directly into your line of 'drive by' fire. He dies pretty quickly from focused fire. But yeah, total BS if you're not meta gaming. Anyway, enjoying the LP. I was one of the people who just couldn't get into the game after a few hours and gave up on it, so nice to be able to see what the game has to offer. Not that it is important at all, but is this story in the same 'universe' as GTA5 is? Similarly to how 3, Vice and San Andreas are in the same continuity?
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Apr 27, 2016 19:43
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IV (and its expansions) and V are in the same "HD Universe" continuity, yeah. There's a couple of characters from IV that show up in V, although not in any major capacity. It's certainly not like San Andreas, where you're running around with half the cast of GTA3 and Vice City towards the end. Also, that's nice to know about the San Andreas bike mission. I thought I had read you could kill Freddy before he reaches his gang, but wasn't sure. It's just like the mission in IV, then.
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Apr 27, 2016 19:53
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| # ? May 4, 2024 21:37 |
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Doc Morbid posted:I was playing some San Andreas and noticed that the mission OG Loc is basically the exact same thing as No Love Lost in GTA IV (which we saw in the latest video), except that it might be even worse. You're forced onto a PCJ 600 motorbike and have to chase some guy all over town while you're (or, in this case, OG Loc is) pointlessly firing an SMG at him because he's either invincible or has so much health he might as well be, and he finally leads you into an ambush with a bunch of his gang buddies waiting for you. It's the first time you have to use a motorcycle in San Andreas, and the kind of precision the game asks from you just isn't there unless you've practiced beforehand. Even then, I've spent countless hours riding bikes in GTA and some parts of the mission are still pretty tough. The traffic is also random, so you can't memorize when some idiot tries to ram you off the road. Be sure to chime in when you get to the other motorcycle mission that took me like 3 days on mouse and keyboard in San Andreas. That goddamn train.
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Apr 28, 2016 09:43
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