Just curious - I've gone back to IV and recently bought the Stories disc, so I'm well into it, but I'd love to see them at least adjust the 'realistic' car driving (I'm sorry but there's way too much traffic and fcuking posts to hit as it is, something's gotta give). And the camera is well dodgy in some hills and streets...

Anyway, day one purchase when it eventually gets here, further down the line, or just gave up on it years ago? Personally I'm 'further down the line'

Day 1 purchase for me.

Set it in Vice City or I'm not interested tbh, San Andreas was too big to be fun doing missions, free roaming across the map took soooo long

To be honest, I don't think I've ever finished a GTA game. I'm sure it'll be very good but... I'll pass thanks.

Jon

Have you played IV? That's taken to whole new levels... After messing up a mission you often have to drive for ages just to get to a starting point, never mind the mission itself. I wind up just jumping in a taxi and 'skipping' to the destination even with something minor like health/protection buying

San Andreas was my favourite. I haven't really got on with iv, so I think I'll wait and see with v.

Something I mentioned a long time ago, I found the game itself responded a whole lot better once I changed back to the classic control system (x to accelerate etc)

I found the helicopter controls better in Vice City than San Andreas. SA was a little too large but it was nice having separate cities. Only played IV a tiny little bit but didn't enjoy the driving.

They're one of the few things that have improved slightly in IV

That is what the text message on the phone is for, you get it after you fail and it lets you skip to the start again

The plane flying was better in San Andreas but I think Vice City was in general a better game, the whole fitness/appearance bollocks detracted from the real feel of the game

The 80s music was superior too, San Andreas had some good music but only on a few channels, Vice City was on the whole good

Yeah I know, but the commutes from outside your contacts house or whatever after that are still ridiculous unless you use a taxi, and there's any number of missions that leave you miles away with low health and trying not to get knocked down or arrested, or just cos you got stuck in railings that are made of tougher metal than the lampposts

Comparatively, the music sucks in IV compared to the previous two games

I loved VC. It was awesome. Fun, arcadey type missions, cool cars and awesome music.
SA - loved the whole gangsta/rap thing but hated the stupid fitness crap. But still reasonably enjoyable.
GTA4 - never got into it. It frequently wound me up and instead of being enjoyable, it was a PITA. I wonder how much was down to the fact that it was the first one I played on a console? I hated the "realism" which just made everything murky at times.

The story's keeping me going now, but I'd say it cost them a lot of fans... And I've seen the game world go a funny shade of grey never mind murky, the engine's good with daylight and rain but nothing inbetween. And there's times the cutscenes have that PS2-quality redness around the eyes and painful expression changes

GTA4 is the first one in the series I'm probably going to complete (eventually). A lot of people I know don't like it though for its realism and preferred to play Saints Row.

I was playing it last night, failed a mission in a vehicle I couldn't leave behind, all cos it got stuck on a bit of debris from another vehicle... That's taking the realism too far IMO, especially combined with driving a truck that doesn't get above turtle speed to begin with