God bless us everyone, and especially 1UP, for what I consider to be a fantastic look at GTA IV several months later, in light of some of the other great games that have hit this year. I’ve been saying since about 5-10 hours into this title that it is one smoldering heap of an overrated game (though still incredibly well made). I can recognize the game’s quality, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still overrated.
What I find particularly interesting is the brief analysis of the characters and the story, but also how other games have given us virtual playgrounds such as Stillwater in Saint’s Row 2 and the Wasteland in Fallout 3 without short-changing us when it comes to our characters. It’s an interesting look at the game that everyone is saying “OMG BEST EVAR” about, and a sobering one at that.
What do you guys think? Is this reviewer and idiot, as some of the commenters have already suggested?
Source- 1UP
I think he hit the nail on the head, no doubt. Great game, but overhypped and I fell for it until I played it and reflected on it. I think if those reviewers went back and reevaluated, they would say the same.
Playing it felt like a chore, not a joy, like previous GTAs.
You’re right Anthony, playing it is like a chore. And more so for me and many others when your game doesn’t even work. I bought this last week for the PC and was extremely unhappy when…well first that you must have three programs installed to make it work plus two accounts (Live and Social Club). Then once I get in the game (after about 5 hours of setup) I find that my game freezes up on me about 2-3 minutes into gameplay. It doesn’t necessarily freeze, but the game moves at a deathly 3 FPS when normally it is like 25-30.
I’m very disappointed 🙁
I’ve been reading the comments on this review over at 1up for pretty much the entire work day. God, I love trolls. So amusing.
Yeah, that review is excellent. I wouldn’t say that the reviewer is be too harsh, I’d say that he gave GTA IV the lumps it deserves. His review is a lot more fair than IGN’s review of the PS3/360 version, which praised it as an “Oscar-worthy masterpiece”.
This is just another example of the need to manage the hype for a game. RockStar loves the GTA series, it’s their baby, but for the inevitable sequel they need to reign in the “best game evar” moniker. If you’re going to hype your game, honesty is the best policy.
Unfortunately, honesty rarely translates into green bills.
Mitch, I agree with almost everything you said, but one thing:
I never once saw Rockstar proclaim to be best game ever or anything. The media did that. Rockstar simply advertised the game and the media got carried away.
It’s definitely overhyped, and it’s certainly not all it could have been. Still, much like the halo series, that doesn’t make it a bad or unenjoyable game. The DRM is awful, but that seems to be more the rule than the exception these days. All in all, I’d say it’s like an MMO – highly engaging and fun … until you’ve seen and done everything.
I’m sick of the GTA series. You’ve played one of them you’ve played them all. They are way over hyped. I haven’t touched this one. I thought about buying it one time. Then I remember how quick I get bored with the others. Thats one hype machine I wont get fooled into.
I think the reason for that is that the media just assumes…considering the previous success of the GTA series…that it will be the best game, and it runs with that.
Unfortunately that is hardly ever the case.
If only we had an unbiased world where opinions weren’t based on previously conceived notions, only then would we have honest, 100% accurate reviews and critiques.
[quote comment=”2847″]Mitch, I agree with almost everything you said, but one thing:
I never once saw Rockstar proclaim to be best game ever or anything. The media did that. Rockstar simply advertised the game and the media got carried away.[/quote]
That’s true, Rockstar didn’t really pull a Cliff Blizinski in that respect. I usually type my responses at work because my home PC had a hard drive error, so I generally have to shorten my thoughts, and they sometimes come out skewed.
I still stand by what I said in that Rockstar didn’t attempt to curb the hype. It got really out of hand leading up to the launch; if I was heading up the Rockstar PR team, I probably would have tried to reign it in a bit. I think a GTA IV that launched with more realistic expectations would have done better in the long run. As it stands now, GTA is kind of like the new Star Wars movies. You tricked yourself into loving it, but when you watched it four months later on DVD, you wanted to punch Hayden Christensen in the face.
Maybe that’s just me.
Don’t worry, I have to shorten things due to work too, I get ya.