Grand Theft Auto 4

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

i've killed Niko a couple of times, I forget that this time if u crash, you will fly out of the car too lol

Yeah I've done that - you can have some seriously nasty car accidents, especially if the guy's body hits a post or a wall when he flies out of the car.

I heard that there was some controversy over the fact that your character can (in theory) drink and drive. It probably has the most accurate simulation of drunkeness that I've seen in a game.

LOL - controversy over drinking and driving, but stealing cars is ok? (Not to mention killing cops?)

This was from Mothers Against Drink Drivers. With these things its always one thing that gets fixated on over everything else. Last time it was the sex. This time its the drunk driving...

Its weird though - just as in real life, you don't have to do any of that stuff. The content is in the game - but you don't really get anything for doing it.

It is pretty funny that you can push some random stranger over in the street and the guy will come chasing after you. Its always surprising - I got beat up by one guy I assaulted and had to pull my gun - only for him to beat me at the draw. With a shotgun.

Edited May 7, 2008 by Number 6

[Alex & Rachel 78]

Alex has been enjoying this game - on the 360 I bought him for his birthday last year! I actually own two games for his 360 (Mass Effect + Assassin's Creed) but won't get to play them for another seven months. *sigh* It's really not worth me buying any games/consoles/upgrading my PC when I'm due to move later this year so I just have to be content with hearing from him how awesome the games are.

So I'm jealous! Of course, by the time I get to play it it'll be old news and no one will want to talk about it with me. I have loved the previous GTA games and this sounds so much more impressive.

Oh well...I still have San Andreas for my PC and Liberty City Stories for my PSP. I'll just sidle over here and play those instead.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Alex has been enjoying this game - on the 360 I bought him for his birthday last year! I actually own two games for his 360 (Mass Effect + Assassin's Creed) but won't get to play them for another seven months. *sigh* It's really not worth me buying any games/consoles/upgrading my PC when I'm due to move later this year so I just have to be content with hearing from him how awesome the games are.

So I'm jealous! Of course, by the time I get to play it it'll be old news and no one will want to talk about it with me. I have loved the previous GTA games and this sounds so much more impressive.

Oh well...I still have San Andreas for my PC and Liberty City Stories for my PSP. I'll just sidle over here and play those instead.

GTA4 is better than all of the other GTA games by quite a long way - although the play area in San Andreas is larger, and I think you get a bigger range of vehicles. There's no flyable planes in GTA4, and I think you get fewer weapons. The detail is a lot better though - and the amazing game physics.

I want to play Mass Effect - pretty much anything Bioware has done has been great. Fallout 3 is the next big one for me - due out in September. I have fond memories of the old Windows 98 Fallout games. Lots of fun and very funny.

[Alex & Rachel 78]

Yes! I am so looking forward to the lack of flyable planes...I had to get someone to complete the flying missions in San Andreas for me, although I could cope with the driving okay! It was extremely frustrating.

Mass Effect is a good game - worth playing, although it's not Bioware's best. It's gorgeous looking and has an epic ending; it's just the side quests that get a little repetitive. But, as you say, pretty much everything they've churned out has been fantastic. Baldur's Gate 2 is still probably my favourite game of all time.

I need to play the first two Fallout games; I have them both, I've just never played them. Alex is a huge fan.

[mawilson 2,133]

I almost bought a PS3 when the price dropped at the end of last year - but ended up getting the Xbox 360 instead. The overheating problem got fixed so it doesn't have that embarrassing 30% return rate anymore.

Not enough games out for the PS3 yet - so the only reason I'd have bought it would be for the Blu-Ray player, but as we don't have a hi-def TV yet, I'm not really all that bothered about it at this point.

I think I'm ready to buy a PS3.

We have a really good HDTV (43" 1080i - bought in Dec 2006), but still no Bluray

or HD-DVD player to go with it -- we've been basically waiting for the war to end.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Yes! I am so looking forward to the lack of flyable planes...I had to get someone to complete the flying missions in San Andreas for me, although I could cope with the driving okay! It was extremely frustrating.

Mass Effect is a good game - worth playing, although it's not Bioware's best. It's gorgeous looking and has an epic ending; it's just the side quests that get a little repetitive. But, as you say, pretty much everything they've churned out has been fantastic. Baldur's Gate 2 is still probably my favourite game of all time.

I need to play the first two Fallout games; I have them both, I've just never played them. Alex is a huge fan.

Fallout 2 is much better than Fallout 1. If you've not played it - its a treat. Much, much better than the Baldur's Gate games - outside of Planescape Torment it was the best game Bioware/Black Isle put out.

[pedroh 21]

and rockband!! rockband is a must with every 360

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I think I'm ready to buy a PS3.

We have a really good HDTV (43" 1080i - bought in Dec 2006), but still no Bluray

or HD-DVD player to go with it -- we've been basically waiting for the war to end.

Yeah its probably worth it - other than the PS3 standalone blu-ray players are apparently not worth buying right as their firmware is already out of date, at least with the PS3 you can get updates via wifi. We don't have a HD TV yet - though I still wouldn't have gotten a PS3 yet as there's not really any really good, exclusive games out for it.

If only they hadn't have scrapped the PS2 backwards compatibilty in the cutdown 40gb version I would probably have gone for it instead of the Xbox. $500 for the 80gb machine is way more than I'm prepared to pay just to play games.

In any case I'd rather melt a $300 Xbox playing games, than a $1200 PC.

Edited May 7, 2008 by Number 6

[Alex & Rachel 78]

Fallout 2 is much better than Fallout 1. If you've not played it - its a treat. Much, much better than the Baldur's Gate games - outside of Planescape Torment it was the best game Bioware/Black Isle put out.

You've convinced me; I'll have to see about installing Fallout 1/2 this weekend. Housemate's away so I'm all alone anyway.

Ever played Troika's VtM: Bloodlines? Fantastic atmosphere and some very amusing writing.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Fallout 2 is much better than Fallout 1. If you've not played it - its a treat. Much, much better than the Baldur's Gate games - outside of Planescape Torment it was the best game Bioware/Black Isle put out.

You've convinced me; I'll have to see about installing Fallout 1/2 this weekend. Housemate's away so I'm all alone anyway.

Ever played Troika's VtM: Bloodlines? Fantastic atmosphere and some very amusing writing.

Yeah I played through that - Troika was basically formed by some of the old Black Isle staff.

[JainaProudmoore 0]

I think I'm ready to buy a PS3.

We have a really good HDTV (43" 1080i - bought in Dec 2006), but still no Bluray

or HD-DVD player to go with it -- we've been basically waiting for the war to end.

Pretty much the same as us...although I blame my doddery old dad, he bought me a blu-ray disc because it "was better" than a DVD....of course, a great excuse for hubby to run out and buy a PS3 As for GTA a very popular game in our home, I live in a male dominated household, I prefer Rock Legend, esp after a glass or two.

But, I'm a WoW person myself, go figure

[Kazan' Tiger 1]

I will eventually buy it. I never got into San Andreas, but III and Vice City were great.

[Alex & Rachel 78]

and rockband!! rockband is a must with every 360

But only if you regularly have friends over, I think. Other than that, yes! It's great fun. The one time I played it, there was a guy doing the vocals who kept failing the song. Eventually he decided to try it in a falsetto voice - and guess what, he aced it! It was highly amusing and amazingly well done.

[DeadPoolX 9]

I'd like to play GTAIV, but I have neither an Xbox 360 nor a PS3. I was going to purchase a PS3, but then I found out Sony had removed backwards compatibility from the console. That made me rethink my decision, since I have a lot of PS1 and PS2 games I'd still like to have access to in the future. If the price of the PS3 drops substantially, I might go ahead and get it anyway (it's a good deal simply for the Blu-Ray player, especially now that HD-DVD is dead), but until that happens, I'll probably stick with the current consoles I have and my PC.

Speaking of PC gaming... some of you might want to be careful when purchasing some of the newly released games. Many of them are requiring the use of Pixel Shader 3.0, which is only available in current, high-end video cards. So if you have a lower-end card or you're computer is a few years old, you may only have some version of Pixel Shader 2.0 (or less). There a number of games that'll work with both the older and newer pixel shaders, but many developers have decided to forgo any use of the older technology and force users to upgrade or leave the box on the shelf. Make sure to check the system requirements on the box and on a gaming review site (such as GameSpot) before buying a new game.

As a side-note, I've played GTA:VC in front of my wife before and she couldn't understand my bloodthirsty desire to run over pedestrians, kill hookers (to get my money back) and cause mass destruction all over the place. She thought using the hookers to gain back health and then killing them to grab back my cash was particularly distasteful.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

We have a really good HDTV (43" 1080i - bought in Dec 2006), but still no Bluray

or HD-DVD player to go with it -- we've been basically waiting for the war to end.

Toshiba quit the format war months ago...HD-DVD is dead in the water.