GTA V: What do you think of it?

[Cerebus]

So, I know Archem has it. Not sure about anyone else. But I was curious as to what you think about the game.

Personally, I'm actually quite disappointed. I expected much more from it than what it has to offer.

One of the main things that really bothers me is that so far (I'm at around 52% of the game completed) about 90% of the missions have no reward whatsoever. There are a few buildings you can buy around town, including one that costs $150,000,000. Not quite sure how I'll be able to buy that with missions that don't pay. And anyway, feels like they're not worth it. I've only bought a few ones and I'm not even close to being repaid what I spent for. One of them offers me $500 per jobs I do, with the building costing $150,000. It's kinda dumb. I know there's the stock market, but it's such a gamble, and the gains are so little in most cases...

The things they added also seem so limited. For example, the barber shop only offer like 4 haircuts and beards for each character. The "many" activities you can do around seem to be mainly Golf, Tennis and Darts, with no rewards, mind you. Unless completing the whole golf court gives you one, but I would be surprised if it did. Other activities are pretty much sort of missions, like races and stuff. Nothing really new here. At least, they seem to pay up a bit. But then there is the marathon... whoever came up with that idea deserves to get tortured until death ensues. 30 minutes of mashing the X/A button while making sure you don't fall or anything. And I'm not joking about the time. 28 minutes might be more accurate, though. And all that for what? Nothing. No reward. I'm never doing that bullshit "activity" again. Mashing X for half an hour isn't exactly what I call fun.

There are also a few bugs. For example, I've once lost all e-mails from a specific person about a specific job. Fortunately,  said person sent me a friendly reminder, which "fixed" it. Nothing really major aside from that so far, but it's still noteworthy.

Levelling up seemed interesting. They had it in San Andreas, so they brought it up again. But I can't really see much difference with some of the skills. And others take just way too much time for the little benefit they give you. Lung Capacity (which, obviously, decides how long you can remain underwater) apparently requires you to remain underwater for one minute to gain 1%. I'm not sure I feel like doing this for each character.

And that's one thing. Having 3 characters is actually annoying. That's many things you need to do 3 times. Increasing skills is one example. Having money and stuff separated is also quite annoying. Dressing them how you like only to have them put lame arse clothes when you switch back on them is another annoyance. A slight one, but still one. I do like the characters, but I really hope the next one goes back to having only one.

I'm also quite disappointed by the map. Sure, it's huge. It's really big. But 2/3 of it is just mountains and dirt. And there are very few buildings you can enter. No more hospital, restaurants, etc. can be entered.

Then there's the online...
The character creation is just garbage. I expected something closer to Skyrim or the likes, even if more limited. Like choose your eyes, nose, etc. But nope. You get this crap "Choose your grandparents, then your parents, and you'll look like them". Sure, it's quite creative. But it's garbage. And to make things worse, changing their life style (which affects their stats) also change their appearance. But that's not all. You made a character you somewhat don't dislike, you ranked up a bit, gained some money, etc. You play the next day. *Boom* Your character's deleted. So I'll wait until everything is fixed before attempting online again.

Don't get me wrong, though, I do like the game, and there's many good things about it. The weapon wheel, car mods, weapon mods (although the colours are very limited), planes, etc. But I somehow expected much more from it.

Now... keep in mind, this is my very own opinion, with around 52% of the game complete. Good, but disappointing. Definitely not 10/10.

So, what's your opinion on it?

[Archem]

I love the **** out of it. You don't get paid for a lot of missions in the story (semi-spoiler: the game eventually makes up for it), yeah, but the missions and the story itself are pretty amazing. The distractions around the city are cool, but like with any distractions, they're ultimately pointless. You can do them if you enjoy them, but that's about it. Stocks and real estate are very long-term returners that take a while to be worthwhile, but whatever. Some missions tip you off very plainly about how stocks are going to shift, and that's your best way to profit off of them. The RPG stuff is back, and I love it. I also love that the game doesn't cripple you for having low stats like it did with San Andreas (though I wish the differences were a little bit more noticeable). The world is huge (and packed to the brim with detail), the sight lines are unreal (those draw distances are impressive), the three-character system is pretty cool (though slightly annoying at times), and the ridiculousness of the past is most definitely there. I had more than a few moments where I thought something happening onscreen would be more at-home in Saints Row. The game also handles quite well, unlike GTA IV which had wildly fluctuating frame rates.

The only thing that really got me down was the radio. It has some good tracks sprinkled around, but they're too separated to keep the radio interesting, and there really aren't too many truly amazing songs to carry the weaker "filler" songs through the game. I find myself channel surfing not because I want to hear all the good stuff on the radio, but because I'm genuinely looking for something decent to listen to. The talk radio is a little weaker this time, as are the commercials. TV shows are longer, but there are far fewer shows and channels. The animated shows are of much higher quality than in the past, too. They seem to have gone for a "quality over quantity" approach this time.

The driving is also a million times better than the previous game, with tight, responsive vehicles that actually came equipped with a braking system. I can drive like a pro, and every car has its own feel to it. The vehicle mod shops (which have outright replaced Pay-N-Sprays) are located sparsely throughout the city and outlying areas) can modify most vehicles to a very detailed extent. They even have options for bulletproof tires and vehicle armor.

On the subject of modifying things, you can also buy a ton of weapons (some standard, some ridiculous) and modify them with weapon attachments. You can even modify your parachute and its smoke trail. It's pretty cool how much you can do with guns considering how they've never had the option before. Character modifying is pretty limited because they wanted the characters to stay pretty true to their personalities or something. I don't mind too much, especially since they live their lives and change their clothes and stuff like that when you aren't playing as them.

Gunplay is better, though it's still oddly clunky. Cover is faster and feels like a better mechanic than before. Aiming feels pretty bad (as usual), but the aim assist options help out a ton. Michael and Trevor's combat abilities (slow-motion and nigh-invincibility, respectively) really help alleviate the problem, as does the game's new 50% health regeneration system, but it seems to still be a big weak spot for Rockstar. Speaking of the characters, Trevor is by far my favorite. Whereas Michael is very much suited for the role of a mid-life crisis criminal, and Franklin is kind of a blank canvas with a street gang background, Trevor is 100% insane GTA side-character. He feels like the kind of madman who you expect to be taking jobs from, not controlling, and it feels great. He's the first character in the series who seems likely to actually commit all the heinous acts you're tasked with throughout the games, and his batshit-insane approach to everything is such a change of pace. Barring a couple of moments where I felt he went too far, I couldn't help but love his character, and I think that he completely stole the show.

ONLINE

I have been pretty addicted to the online. I've been playing it on invite-only with some friends very regularly, and I quite enjoy that it's the closest to a GTA MMO that we'll ever see. It's very content-packed, and it removes most of the limitations that the single player game has. Missions don't pay particularly well (at first), but they're fun to play with friends. Holding up convenience stores is also a great way to make some change while feeling like a team of rotten crooks. There are so many little things that they didn't have to include, like ways to share the loot from a job, or ways to share your weapons and ammo. It's really a great thing (though the auto-aim and magnetized melee attacks can't tell the difference between friends and NPCs), and it has such high potential for insanity. I took a picture to share my dazzling success!



Link

I saved up for that apartment for a few days, but it's definitely worth it. It comes with a sweet 10-car showroom garage. I have two cars.

The game isn't without problems, though, and most of them are server/glitch-related. It's sometimes hard to connect. Some people have had problems with the game not saving progress (and sometimes characters). I personally spent three days worth of saved up money on my first apartment (a cheap shithole) only for the game to forget about it and keep my money the next day (and it kept my car on top of that!). They have fixed most of the problems with patches by now, and the servers have really calmed down, but some of my friends are still having issues.

[Prpl_Mage]

So what about that Saints Row IV huh?

[Cerebus]

I think Trevor is everyone's favourite character. It's hard not to like him. Fairly sure Rockstar wanted him to be our favourite. He's also the one with the most interesting "switched-back-to" sequence. Probably the most at all as well.

I kinda wish money was easier to make in this one. I know some missions do tell you where to invest, but to make profits, you need to invest a lot. It's funny how GTA IV would pay off a lot, but had nothing to spend your money on, whereas this one doesn't pay, but has a lots of things to spend on.
Have you done the triathlon, yet? It's honestly the worst thing I've seen in this game. I'm never doing that again. Even if doing so would pay off 150 millions, I'd skip it. But no worries, like about 90% of the stuff around, it doesn't pay.

But yeah, despite all this I do like the game. I just expected more, since from what I've seen, they announced that there would be so much to do. And I'm still surprised they actually took off some things, like bowling and pool. And restaurants. However, I'm quite glad they took off the stupid "Hey, let's go bowl!" "Nah, sorry, I'm currently being chased by half of the town's policemen." "Well, **** you." *Roman likes you less*. And that heists are limited to mission is very disappointing as well.

Are you playing on Xbox 360? A guy at work told me he also had no issue with his character being deleted, and he plays on 360. I'm on PS3 and they got deleted 4 times so far, and my brother's (who plays on my PS3) about 3 times. I've seen lots of comments online about this, although they wouldn't specify which console they played on.
It's also annoying how whenever something doesn't work (connection timed out, etc.) and even when you get kicked (apparently, you can kick people for no reason) you are brought back to Single Player on Michael instead of the Online menu. Oh, and I also got labelled as a "Bad sport" when I got kicked for no reason, because I apparently quit a mission, despite not being in a mission. I don't mind, though, since my character got deleted anyway!

About Saints Row IV, I've only seen a few videos and I'm not interested. I don't mind when things are unrealistic, but they seem to take it too far in this one. Now, maybe if I played it, I'd love it, but I just don't feel interested enough to try it.

[Archem]

Yes, I'm on Xbox. I hear that the PS3 has far more and worse problems, so I suppose I'm lucky all my friends have Xboxes. That's what ultimately affected my decision about which platform to buy the game for.

I would like to get SR4, but it wasn't in the budget, so I had to pass. Unemployment makes you set up priorities when it comes to things like video games, and I ultimately decided on GTA. SR4 looks to be a big expansion on SR3 anyway, so I felt that I could wait on it. It looks like fun, but it doesn't look like a big enough change to warrant me rushing into it. I'm waiting on a version bundled with the DLC to go on sale on Steam.

[Razor]

Difference of Opinion thread:
Cerebus: I'm disappointed.
Archem: I love it!

[Archem]

Basically. I'm still on the fence about whether or not this game will replace San Andreas as my favorite GTA. They have so much in common that it's no surprise that I'm loving it. It's technically better, but only time will tell if I enjoy it more. So far, it's very close.

[Cerebus]

To be honest, aside from graphics and perhaps some game mechanics, I feel like San Andreas had more to offer.

[Prpl_Mage]

I preferred San Andreas over GTA IV even when the new one got released, haven't tried this new one yet though. But it feels like San Andreas is hard to beat. It's been some time since I played it though, so maybe I'm just putting it on a pedestal or something.

And the thing I like about Saints row is the freedom and the simple fact that I'm the king of the worlds. I can fly and run up the sides of buildings, telekinesis and all that stuff, also a lot of parodies (as in GTA) related to gamer stuff, like Metal gear solid.

[Archem]

I love the Saints Row series. SR2 is the best by a mile, though. Sure, it was still somewhat rooted in reality (compared to 3 and 4), but it was still ridiculous enough to make GTA look tame. It was very much a next-gen San Andreas, though not quite as content-packed. SR3 was fun, but every improvement and added feature cut something from the game. Some things were big (depth of character customization, side missions, three story lines), some were small (fun motorcycle physics oddities, control schemes), but all those things add up. SR3 was a great overhaul, but it felt like a half-assed attempt to strike while the iron was hot, and SR4 looks too similar in too many ways to be worth getting at this time.

GTA feels like Rockstar put time, effort, and their very souls into the final product. Everything is dripping with detail and neat little extras. Saints Row was a sandbox, GTA is a world. The difference is all in how the game responds to your interactions, and GTA simply always has a response for the things you do. Did you know gas tanks on cars can leak? Your car will stall out when the tank empties, and the car can no longer explode. Did you know you can light a line of gasoline with a sports car's backfire? You can even have your dog play fetch - with a hand grenade. Every action has a response, and it's ridiculous. Saints Row is fun, but it doesn't respond to your actions all the time, and sometimes the responses aren't appropriate. It feels more artificial, and though that isn't a bad thing, it detracts from the experience somewhat.

Also, while Saints Row has GTA (and almost every other game) beat when it comes to co-op, it can't compete when it comes to multiplayer with more than two players. Being able to share the fun and your experiences with more than one friend is a crucial advantage.

[Cerebus]

Yeah, I have to agree about interaction responses being better in GTA. Despite my disappointment with many thing in GTA V, I still love the game and many of the things they included.
One of my favourite thing is Square-circle. Or X-B for Xbox 360. Seriously, try it if you haven't. Best thing in-game. Well, okay, no, that's a lie... but it's great. There's still some neat stuff you can do around, like landing a zeppelin on top of another zeppelin and taking self-pictures, or hijacking a jet fighter from Fort Zancudo.
I must say, though, I'm quite (once again) disappointed about the Airport. I mean, I can understand the logic behind being unable to just come in and steal an airplane, but I kinda wish I could take that massive airplane without police cars somehow blocking my way and causing it to explode. I don't know much about plane, but I'm quite confident a police car would just get squished under the landing gear. I'm also quite sure airplanes aren't THAT fragile.

I've played and beat Saints Row 3, and while I did have lots of fun, I still enjoy GTA more. Archem pretty much covered some of the reasons. But also, there is a limit of how unrealistic a game can be for me to still enjoy it, and Saints Row 4 seem to go past that limit. I'll definitely try it if I can get my hands on it for free (friend, etc.) but it's not on my "must play" list.

Now I hope they fix that deleting crap in GTA Online, I kinda want to try it without the fear of coming back the next day with no progress saved...

[Archem]

One of my favourite thing is Square-circle. Or X-B for Xbox 360. Seriously, try it if you haven't. Best thing in-game. Well, okay, no, that's a lie... but it's great

Sadly, you can't do that in multiplayer. On the other hand, you can run and climb up walls without fears of slamming face-first into the wall.

Fragile planes are a problem in almost any open-world game, and I don't know why nobody can just make them solid.

[SaiKar]

I don't know much about plane, but I'm quite confident a police car would just get squished under the landing gear. I'm also quite sure airplanes aren't THAT fragile.

No. Airplane tires are TINY. They're designed to withstand incredible force for extremely short times and that's about it. The landing gear would snap off at the slightest serious resistance.

And yes, planes really are that fragile. Next to no safety factors there.

[Cerebus]

Ah, I see. I suppose that would explain why they can actually stop me from moving forward on the ground.
And by fragile, I mean the whole plane will blow up if a police car stops in front of your wheels, or if your wings appear to slightly touch something.
Perhaps the plane wouldn't be in flying condition if anything like that happens, but it definitely wouldn't entirely blow up. And in a game where you can crash a car on a wall at 150mph and then go back home safely with said vehicle, I expected planes to be able to withstand a little more damage than they currently do.