GTA IV = A-? Something wicked this way comes...

Lethean

Rookie
...FANBOYS! RUN!

I made a new topic since the beating a dead horse one got pretty...Lame.

So you gave GTA IV an A- Jesse

Good for you! It's nice to see another honest review on GR. The main reason I haven't picked up GTA IV yet myself is because everything I've seen made it look like a big upgrade to the previous GTA titles since III. That nice IGN review didn't say anything bad about the visuals, and it made me wonder how they secured the exclusive "first review" because even in the official X-Box magazine, when testing the game out pre-release they had said the visuals weren't the best they had seen.

I figured it would be "more of the same" and as it turns out, it is. Also, this may help bring the metacritic score down. Good job!

(I'm not a GTA hater, but I am a fanboy hater and I'm getting annoyed with people seeming ready to blow up at anyone who says the game is anything less than perfect.)

Edit: Can't wait for the mailbag with this one. (There is still a mailbag right? Right? :( )
 
To be honest, quite often I find that GR gives games lower scores not to be "honest" but because they want to maintain the reputation that they're hard on games. Sometimes it just gets irritating.
 
TheNesMan said:
To be honest, quite often I find that GR gives games lower scores not to be "honest" but because they want to maintain the reputation that they're hard on games. Sometimes it just gets irritating.

That's an interesting viewpoint, and one I can't really comment on as I don't play many games compared to "gamers", so I can't really say much concerning a lot of their reviews. It's more or less they've hit the nail on the head for the most part with the games I have played, so you may very well be right...Or wrong!
 
TheNesMan said:
To be honest, quite often I find that GR gives games lower scores not to be "honest" but because they want to maintain the reputation that they're hard on games. Sometimes it just gets irritating.

Such honesty is irritating.
 
Nick_Tan said:
TheNesMan said:
To be honest, quite often I find that GR gives games lower scores not to be "honest" but because they want to maintain the reputation that they're hard on games. Sometimes it just gets irritating.

Such honesty is irritating.
Sometimes I agree, other times I feel like GR's just doing it to be hard.
 
Ugh...yeah this was disappointing. It really is an exceptional game. It really isn't disappointing. It kicks the pants off of any previous GTA game, easily. I'm a little confused, really...
 
-FCM- said:
I'm a little confused, really...

Edit: FCM is NOT a Bush supporter. I read a few of his posts before that seemed pretty conservative, and took his stance on the Iraq war and completely assumed he was. My apologies :). Assumptions FTL!
 
LetheanDreams said:
-FCM- said:
I'm a little confused, really...

Yeah, but you're also a Bush supporter so confusion is expected from you.

I don't support Bush...when have I said I support Bush?

I can't believe nothing is said about the atmosphere of the game. Just about how it's scaled down. What about the fact that it perfectly captured the atmosphere and energy of New York? This is hardly the time to be judging a game off of a common rubric. The game clearly does things that no other game has done before as far as scope goes.

You said that about San Andreas. It's revolutionary in how big it is. You could say the same thing here as far as an immersive game world goes. Honestly I didn't find San Andreas all that thrilling and it's really frustrating and ironic that this is the one GTA game to get less than an A (from what I can remember).

Yeah, San Andreas was big, but it was just a bunch of shitty hills and forests and fake buildings. Big deal.

I'm not saying the game is perfect, but an A- is a bit rough. Yeah there's some clipping and graphical slowdown, but the game world is enormous and you can enter so many buildings. Calling it not innovative in any way? I dunno.

I really don't mind when GR gives a tough review but it just didn't seem like a fair review when it mentions nothing of the scope, story, atmosphere, other than "it shrunk".

Oh well. An opinion's an opinion.
 
I agree with Nesman for once, sometimes it seems as if GR is trying to stay with their heads above water by being hard on big releases, I agree GTA has its flaws, but it's an A game if there ever was one, to give it the same grade you gave a demo is pretty.. baffeling
 
Its good to see a review of GTA 4 that points out the flaws. Most of the other reviews only talks about how good it is. Good job on the review Jesse.
 
While I agree that the omission of atmosphere was puzzling, and the "shrinking" was hardly a bad thing, the reason the game gets an A- is because it is, in most part, more of the same. If a game got the same grade year after year simply for being good, sports games would truly be NOTHING more than roster updates. "We keep getting 9.0, why do anything?"

Look at the average on GR, an A- is still a very good grade on here, and far from "disappointing." Besides, in the review it's mentioned that everyone should play the game, and that it's a landmark in this console generation. That's pretty high praise coming from GR.
 
I would say the score is justified. Rockstar went all out on some features while completely neglecting others, and that does not make a game worthy of a perfect score. The most bizarre thing to me is that they took things out of the previous GTAs. Every GTA since III has introduced new things, GTA IV is the first game to step backwards. Why does the jump to next-gen consoles result in a smaller city? Why are there no planes, why can't I parachute, where's the Tank, why can't I buy other houses, why can't I dual-wield weapons, and so on. Yes, it's probably true that for everything they took out they added something else, but is there a finite number of features the game can have? Why would things have to be traded? Rockstar tried to explain away everything with the old realism excuse, but that gets pretty flimsy after a while.

I think GTA IV's a fantastic game, as does everyone else, it just has some glaring flaws that, if fixed, would make it fantastic-er. I don't think the low score has anything to do with GR trying to keep up appearances (especially since I don't remember them having that appearance in the first place). Personally I expected it to get an A, but I'm still caught in the thrall of the game. It's like a mild case of Star Wars Episode III syndrome. When I left that movie I thought it was great, and it was only a few days later that I realised it was the worst of the six. GTA IV's not the worst Star Wars movie, but it's no Empire Strikes Back.
 
Jesse_Costantino said:
Everyone else is just too easy. We're the Catholic girls of game journalism.

Catholic girls are easy. That said I'm about to read the review now.

[EDIT] Ok I've read it and I have to say that although most points are on the money it's an overwhelmingly negative review, the first seven paragraphs after the introduction are solely about the game's shortcomings and although it's attempted to close these negative points by saying they're only being mentioned due to the game's heritage it leaves a bad taste throughout. I can't say that any of the comments are wrong as such but there does seem to be far too much emphasis placed on them rather than enjoying the game for what it is. I enjoy reading GR reviews but the importance placed on innovation usually seems far too strong, innovation is great but what's wrong with having more of a brilliant thing?

Sam
 
^Yes, but what about all the positives that were completely missed?

They took out the stats and made the city smaller for one thing: focus. They focused on the parts of the game that were important. San Andreas was just like "oh you can do this by the way." RPG elements were completely unnecessary. Buying buildings was just stupid. What bothers me is that it could have been +more cohesive and focused but instead it's -smaller.
 
since when is an "A-" a low score? id say its a pretty high score for a game that didnt even deserve that much. anyways, the review was great, i agree completely. i love the game, its great, but only after playing for a few hours it already feels like im just playing one of the old games. all the "new" stuff like the physics and new controls for driving got old fast, and what is left are repetitive missions and sketchy graphics.
 
It was a well written review, a justified review, and a justified score.

Hard or not, I think it fits the game as of right now. We will see in the future. In the end though, the game is still good, so don't complain about the score, it's better than most games out there anyway.
 
It's not the grade that bugged me, it was how it was reached. No, A- isn't a bad grade, but this is a truly incredible game, and the part that makes it so incredible, to me at least, wasn't even mentioned. It's a living, breathing world, and that is so important to the GTA franchise.

Of course it's important to keep your head above the hype, and I'm proud of GR for doing so, but, as stated before, it does seem a little like it went back for the sake of going back. Not saying it should get an A+, but I think it's a pretty fair A. It's as if the entire review is there to counter the admittedly too-high place it's finding in the overall averages. The first two paragraphs don't even talk about the game.

And this is coming from someone who thought the last three were incredibly overrated. I suggest you play it before coming to that conclusion, WR. I totally understand where you're coming from, but you might change your mind.
 

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