The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent
vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums
here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules
document is now in effect.
GTAIV thread of waiting for 7 days and not starting console wars
Posts
Ugh, please no more forklift missions
"Why the FUCK does this steer with the back wheels. OH GOD DAMMIT."
But forklifts do steer with their back wheels..
Yes, but that was pretty much my frustrated train of thought at the time.
I now realize that the rear-steering wheels would give the vehicle better control in tight spaces. But I wasn't in a tight space, and I didn't need that much pivoting leverage. I was being shot at while loading boxes in some fucking hangar nobody gave a fuck about. I'd be moseying on at about 20 mph, and attempting turn and the damn thing would ruin my shit.
Gametap
IGN
Kotaku
After reading these I though maybe we should start a list of who's getting it on which console. I know we don't want to be playing Cops N' Crooks and Hangman's Noose with pubbies with who aren't using their mic's
That's fine for real life but in a video game where driving is the bulk of the experience I want the least complicated controls possible.
Oh god, those previews... WHY MUST THE 29TH BE SO FAR AWAY AND NOT TOMORROW?!
I'll be getting it on the 360. I would definitely be up for some non-pubbie Cops and Crooks.
Gamertag: JohnnyChopsocky
Steam ID XBL: JohnnyChopsocky PSN:Stud_Beefpile WiiU:JohnnyChopsocky
Good call, we definitely need to distinguish who's getting the game on what console for some multiplayer shens. No bickering about which version is better (Wii, obviously) just tag and console of choice.
Xbox 360
Big Isy
JohnnyChopsocky
PS3
Oh god, I'm so hard!
XBOX360: Blunted Wumpus
Big Isy
JohnnyChopsocky
P3rcyMiracl3s
PS3
Xbox, obs.
Big Isy
JohnnyChopsocky
P3rcyMiracl3s
Pacifist NJ
Blunted Wumpus
PS3
Big Isy
JohnnyChopsocky
P3rcyMiracl3s
Pacifist NJ
Blunted Wumpus
Woot427
PS3
Big Isy
JohnnyChopsocky
P3rcyMiracl3s
Pacifist NJ
Blunted Wumpus
Woot427
Jast39
teknophage
PS3
Big Isy
JohnnyChopsocky
Swift Regicide
PS3
Xbox 360
Big Isy
JohnnyChopsocky
Swift Regicide
P3rcyMiracl3s
Pacifist NJ
Blunted Wumpus
Woot427
Jast39
teknophage
PS3
broon, you should add this to the OP.
fail.
Also, can we just have a big list in the OP like any normal, sane thread, rather than everyone turning half the thread into a bloated, repeating, requoted list?
Xbox360: Recoil42x
edit: I'll try and throw up a PHP/SQL based list on my server tonight instead which can be linked from the OP, in which people can just go and add themselves to the list, if everyone likes that solution.
I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
FYI, Ps2 had 32mb + 4mb VRAM, Xbox had 64mb shared between both GPU and CPU.
I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
Anyways, reading those previews, I'm glad that multi-player can be set to the entire map for EVERY mode. In one earlier preview not long ago, it said that most of the modes are set in smaller zones and not the whole city. These previews, however, say that while you can set a smaller zone to play in exclusively, you can also play on the entire map but with the selected zone being the respawn area.
Or are those more of a visual preview than textual?
Gametap:
During our hands-on test time at Rockstar Games in New York the publisher revealed for the first time four new multiplayer modes (the total number will be more than 15), including team deathmatch, GTA race, cops 'n robbers, and hangman's noose. Among those modes are options for traditional adversarial games (deathmatch or team deathmatch, for example), or co-op games such as cops 'n crooks and hangman's noose, where teamwork is essential.
The cell phone is the key, but equally as important are newly implemented custom options. GTA IV supports up to 16 players (on both PS3 and Xbox 360) online, and each mode offers enormous customizations specific to each mode. In team deathmatch, you can set up an equally balanced eight-on-eight battle or a lopsided two-on-14 fight. You can pick a custom or quick game, and party leaders can tweak options to alter each game significantly: You can change weapon types (all handguns for instance or only snipers), add or subtract police, traffic, pedestrians, or blips (i.e., enemy location).
New strategies are created by the addition of enemy blips and the cover system, enabled by pressing the right shoulder button. Enemies show on screen while moving and disappear when stationary. The amount of times I snuck up and shot an enemy dead was matched by the times opponents jumped from hiding to tan my behind. I also was able to tweak the reticule width, gamertag display, weather type, daytime, and control even voice chat options.
"After players earn the cell phone in the single-player game, which takes about five minutes, if they want they can jump online and never even play the single-player again," Geronimo Barrera, vice president of game development, told GameTap. "Online is a serious time sucker. You're going to have to be really careful if you’re married," he added with a smile.
The online game is split into two types, ranked and unranked. Many developers find gamers are wary of playing ranked games because skilled players lay in wait for newbies. But the reward for ranked players is cash. Cash is earned by winning levels, and it earns players more character customization options. More significantly, cash awards are accumulated throughout a persistent career, which is how Rockstar "ranks" your skill level.
While the single-player campaign doesn't support co-op like Gears of War, a good example of cooperative opportunities to earn more cash is found in cops 'n crooks, which enables up to 16 people to play in two distinct teams. If you coordinate with the whole team and get your boss character from point A to point B, your team earns more points than if only a single player (and the boss) got there.
Likewise, the higher difficulty level that's selected (from easy, medium, and hard), the more money each win earns. When you're not playing as the crooks escorting a boss, you're the cops in pursuit. Sometimes co-op play is as simple as charting a map. Players who jump in an escape car but aren’t driving can set on-the-fly way points using the on-screen map. If your GPS buddy is map savvy, he or she will lead you through town using the most direct route, which appears on screen for your team.
GTA Race is ripped straight from previous GTA single-player campaigns. Up to 16 people can play in a no-holds barred lap race to the finish. But like past GTA games, cars are destructible, and drivers can arm themselves with pistols, machine guns, rifles, and more. This means you can drive any car, moped, or forklift you see; heck, even walking across the race line even counts, as long as you're first. As our three-hour session revealed, it’s just as much fun preventing others from crossing the finish line and disrupting their racing lines with Molotov cocktails and grenades as it is to win. (Another mode Rockstar casually mentioned was GT mode, which is a straight weaponless race.) Sticking with tradition, no cars are licensed, but fans can pick from car classes, and in each class, they can pick from familiar favorites such as Infernos, Turismos, Comets, and Supercars, to name a few.
Hangman's noose is part of a collection of co-op, objective-based missions engaging four humans versus a countless AI horde. Each mission starts with a cutscene, is followed by a set of goals, and requires teamwork to achieve success. These ministories aren't part of the single-player game; they're random. Our mission opened up with an unending stream of SWAT police (called "noose" in GTA IV) driving into an airport runway, flanking and surrounding our team. The object was to survive the first few waves of noose attacks, secure a vehicle, prevent Kenny Petrovic from dying, and get to the designated location. Within seconds of jumping into a car, the difficulty level increases, as multiple helicopters swarm the skies. Cop cars congregate setting up road blocks, pedestrian cars get in the way, and, in the medium and hard levels, GTA's trademark orchestrated blend of chaos, skill, and madness ensues.
Rockstar's multiplayer mode debut is a first for the series. The four modes we played show Rockstar North has made the hard transition past its successful trilogy, offering an impressive variety in gameplay types (more than 15 modes total), hundreds of custom options including character creation, and the organic integration of full world online maps including vehicles such as cars, boats, and helicopters.
Kotaku:
Would this be the last GTA, I wondered. The insider was quick to say no, even after I pointed out that I had watched a chunk of the single-player campaign, which impressed me, but didn't seem to include any giant leaps forward for the franchise.
"Did you see multiplayer?"
"No."
"Just wait."
After spending a morning at Rockstar late last month, playing around with Grand Theft Auto IV's single player campaign, the guys walked me to the room next door to check out Grand Theft Auto's first real take on multiplayer.
Over the course of several hours I had a chance to check out five multiplayer modes, including a short co-op campaign, out of what is rumored to be the game's more than dozen multiplayer modes.
I was happy to find that Grand Theft Auto has most definitely not jumped the shark.
I was initially disappointed when I discovered that my expectations, no matter how unreasonable, that GTA4 would let you play through the entire campaign with a friend weren't to be met. But that was short lived.
The sheer level of customization in the game, the wild variety of play, and the unsurpassed size of the maps made the lack of a full co-op campaign seem like an afterthought.
To start playing a multiplayer game you bring up Nikko's cell phone in the single player campaign and, using the in-phone menu, select multiplayer. So you can drop into one of these sessions whenever you want.
While you can't play as Nikko, the campaign's main character, you can customize your own character, creating someone by choosing male or female and then selecting among four different heads, four torsos, four legs and several types of glasses and hats.
All but one of the multiplayer modes supports up to 16 players. (The co-op missions only support up to four.) The host has an amazing array of options that they can control. While setting up a game, the host can choose to modify the routine, like respawn times, weapon selections and friendly fire, or the unusual, like the time of day, the weather, how heavy the traffic is or how many people are on the street. You can even control police presence in your matches.
While the game allows you to select parts of the map to play in, choosing specific boroughs, smaller neighborhoods, or areas like the airport, it doesn't prevent players from roaming the entire city during any given match. Instead the respawns and weapon drops only occur in those areas.
While the high level of customization adds a lot to the experience, I was just as wowed by some of the little things built into multiplayer, like the ability for players waiting in a lobby to turn on their radio and listen to GTA's soundtrack.
Deathmatch
My first experience with GTA 4 multiplayer was deathmatch and team deathmatch.
Instead of winning with kill counts, both of these modes look at your cash total to see who won the match. Cash is earned by killing members of the other team and you can get extra cash by darting out to collect the money they drop when they die.
The controls were solid, as I've mentioned before, but what made this deathmatch feel so different was that it felt like it was taking place in a living, breathing world. People were walking around, there were cars to be stolen. You can actually load up a car with your entire team and try to drive-by the other team mates. You could even, if you felt like it, take off to parts unknown, areas on the map nowhere near where the action was taking place.
Deathmatch was fun, and the added twist of an open world and a huge map, definitely upped the value, but it was still deathmatch.
Cops N Crooks
The next mode we played was Cops N Crooks, a variation on your typical deathmatch mode where you have to find and take out the bad guys.
The team playing as cops can see the crooks on their radar, but the the crooks can only see the escape point on the map and don't know where the cops are until it's almost too late. The mode has two derivations: In All for One you need to kill the boss, played by one of the crooks. In One for All everyone has just one life and once the crooks are dead the cops win.
There were some really nice touches to the game that made this stand out from some of the other modes I've played in shooters. For instance as the bad guys, you can give each other waypoints on the live map, allowing one player to drive and another to navigate.
We also played matches were the bad guys split up into two groups, doubling the chance for the boss to get away because we weren't sure which group he was with.
Lots of fun, plenty of potential, especially when you factor in that this all still takes place in GTA's open world.
GTA Race
This was the mode I least wanted to play, but came in as one of my favorites to mess around with. Imagine Mario Kart in a real world, with real cars. Now add machine guns, pistols, rocket launchers, molotov cocktails, in fact every weapons in GTA. Now, let people get out of their cars and do whatever they want to win, or prevent other people from winning. Wow, just wow.
This mode lets the host choose vehicle types before a race, the race course, time limit and number of laps. Sure the game has checkpoints, and you need to hit them, or most of them, to complete a lap, but being the fastest doesn't get close to guaranteeing a win.
In our introduction to the mode, myself and Newsweek's N'gail Croal were burning around the course, which I believe took place near GTA's Central Park, when we came to a stone archway we absolutely had to go through to complete the lap. Problem was, there were cars, lots of cars blocking our way. By the time I had assessed the situation, one of the other players ran up to me and killed me at the wheel.
The race quickly devolved into a deathmatch until we realized that Croal had nosed his car through the wreckage and was burning through the laps. In another race, this one taking place at an airport complete with moving planes, I didn't bother trying to speed through the course and instead clamored on top of an airport gangway with a rocket launcher and just waited. When people came by I blew up their cars. Meanwhile Rockstar's Jeronimo Barrera was taking great pleasure trying to mow down Croal in what looked like a golf cart.
From what I played of it, GTA Race could easily be a standalone game, something that would occupy a gamer's attention for months.
Hangman's NOOSE
The final mode we played was probably the most impressive. Hangman's NOOSE is Rockstar's answer to a story-driven campaign mode. Instead of allowing players to complete chunks of the single player campaign with a friend, the developers decided to create side missions, featuring ancillary characters, that can be played as a group with a total of four people.
Rockstar declined to say how many of these co-op missions the game will ship with, but I'd think it would come with more than the one and I'd bet that the 360 DLC will be all about this mode.
The mission we played was Hangman's NOOSE. In it you're asked to rescue a crime boss from an army of police who are picking him up on the runway of the airport. The missions started out on the runway and as we shot it out with cops, two more armored SWAT trucks drove up, unloading more and more cops.
The first play through was pretty succinct, we grabbed the armored truck, got the boss in it and tore across the city to our extraction point while the city's entire police force mobilized to stop us.
The second play through didn't go nearly as well.
A Rockstar developer took the wheel of the armored car again, and another rode shotgun. Croal hopped into the back to shoot at pursuing cops. I opted to swipe a helicopter that was on the runway and followed the wagon as it entered the interstate, trying to gun down the stream of cop cars in pursuit.
Then it happened: Croal was shot. The hit didn't kill him, but it did knock him from the truck which continued to speed toward the drop off point. Soon Croal was surrounded by cops on the middle of an interstate. I turned my chopper around and told Croal I was coming for him. Landing the copter in a nearby clearing, I got out to try and find Croal, but he had snatched a car and was already out of the police infested area.
I ran back to my copter only to find its rotors had been snapped off during my crap landing next to a copse of trees. The whole thing ended with me being gunned down by a phalanx of cops as I ran down the interstate toward the distant extraction point, and the whole team losing.
The missions was actually very straight forward, lacking almost completely in narrative and pretty short, but that works in GTA IV. It works because the game, especially in the multiplayer modes, seems to be providing you a way to create your own experiences.
I could replay Hangman's NOOSE a dozen times and not get tired of it, mostly because each time through created a different experience. It's so open ended that they story you play, as with single player, often seems like your own.
I've certainly not played enough of Grand Theft Auto IV to being able to say whether the game will live up to mounting expectations, but I can certainly say that Rockstar hasn't been caught resting. This game, and it's unusual and varied take on multiplayer gaming isn't packed with obvious innovations, but it still manages to innovate where it counts most: In storytelling.
IGN:
Multiplayer is accessed from the single-player game via Niko's cell phone and supports up to 16 players. Oh, and the entire world runs at the same time. That's right -- all the pedestrians, traffic and cops are there. The entire city is open to you and your fifteen friends in apparently every mode.
And that's what it feels like to have your mind blown.
You won't play the story mode in multiplayer. In fact, no one gets to be Niko online. Instead, you'll create a custom character (dude or babe) from about a half-dozen options. While the options we were shown were fairly limited, new clothes and accessories unlock as you rank up. Ranks run from 0-10, with experience earned by collecting cash in multiplayer. Cash is dropped by opponents and can be nabbed by anyone and is also automatically earned for performing certain tasks in the various modes. We didn't get to experience the leveling system, but it appears fairly simple. It's meant to reward you for playing a lot of multiplayer, but leveling up your character isn't the focus as it tends to be in Call of Duty 4 and Rainbow Six Vegas 2.
We weren't given a view of the lobby system, but from Rockstar's hints, it sounds like you will just run around going Bananarama in Liberty City until someone launches a game. The good news is that when a game is set up, the host has a myriad of options depending on the mode. This is everything from turning on cops (yes, you can have a wanted level in multiplayer), adjusting the density of traffic, selecting from several weather options (fog and heavy rain being the coolest), time of day, and even what radio station is playing. We counted sixteen options for one mode and the others had similar amounts.
Playing with eight people, we only had one instance of slowdown. And that was when all of us were firing RPGs into a crowd of cops. At that point, the game just sort of threw up it hands and said, "Come on, seriously?" Except for this brief moment of slowdown, our hours enjoying GTA IV online were without incident. And, more importantly, the controls never suffered. You may notice a slight drop in visual fidelity (or perhaps we're nuts), but GTA IV still looks great in multiplayer. The city is as alive and vibrant as in the single-player campaign -- and it's a lot more hectic. That so much can be happening at once without the game breaking in half is an amazing feat. The fact that it's also incredibly fun is just a bonus.
Before we break down each of the four modes played (Team Deathmatch, GTA Race, Cops N Crooks and Hangman's NOOSE), there is one significant gameplay change from single-player mode. When playing MP, your names shows above your head along with a colored dot. However, if you crouch, your name disappears, making you tougher to spot. And if you use cover, both your name and dot disappear. It may sound insignificant, but both bring an unexpected pacing to GTA multiplayer by rewarding you for being strategic in your combat.
Aside from this, the gameplay is basically the same as in single-player. There is no dumbing down of the game. So you will be able to take cover, jack cars, climb up buildings, swim, run over pedestrians and toss Molotov cocktails out the window of your car, just as you can with Niko in the main campaign. No, you won't have a main story component, but if you've trained in single-player, you should be able to do well in multiplayer. Unless you're playing against people at Rockstar. Damn you to hell, Hove Beachin!
Team Deathmatch
Hil's Take: I went into GTA IV believing that the multiplayer would be like a third-person version of Quake -- twitch gameplay, lots of deaths, and just a touch of shallowness to the whole deal. I was wrong. The cover system makes a big difference.
Most folks died three or four times in a 10 minute match. On Happiness Island (Rockstar's version of Liberty Island), the team that can claim ground at the mighty statue's base has a severe advantage. They can place a few snipers along the wall and two people can guard the stairwell that acts as the lone entry point. If the other team is full of fools, they'll run out in the open and lose quickly. Otherwise, they will dash along the surrounding buildings from cover to cover or approach through some heavy bushes. Find the right weapons (and some body armor) and you can make an devastating charge to claim the base of the statue.
In open areas, things do get a bit more hectic. Especially when vehicles get in the mix. My favorite is holding tight to Davey Clay on the back of a motorcycle. You get a clear view of all enemies and you're free to fire while your partner drives. Headshotting a would-be assassin while popping a wheelie: priceless.
As with many of the other modes, there are a lot of options to suit your personal tastes. This includes altering the weapon layout. A game of shotty? Done. All heavy weapons? Bingo. Rockets only? Hell yes. You really can never go wrong with rocket launchers. Especially since you can blindfire with an RPG. Blindfiring an RPG into someone's face as he turns the corner is what professionals call, "givin' him da bid'ness." I quickly discovered that I'm not impervious to my own rocket fire. However, with friendly fire off, I take no damage if an ally shoots a rocket at my feet to launch me in the air and onto a roof. Call it co-op rocket jumps. The only caution is that no one is immune to gravity. Jump over a building (instead of onto it) and the landing could kill you. If only Rockstar would add a bit of aftertouch control so you could guide yourself in the air, then all would be good in the kingdom of Heaven.
Winning Team Deathmatch isn't a matter of scoring the most kills (though that helps). In true GTA fashion, it's about coming away with the most cash. Much of that does come from killing people, but picking up bonus cash left by the dead makes the difference.
Dave's Take: Team Deathmatch in Liberty City requires more strategy than you think. Ducking and taking cover are a huge part of combat because of their tie to a player's visibility. Every deathmatch map has a main point of contention and if you can sneak to a cover point with a view of that area you'll rack up the kills. But since the game is about collecting cash drops, headshots campers are encouraged to leave their post and grab the loot.
The rules we set for deathmatch were rather tame considering the options available. We duked it out on Happiness Island under the Statue of Liberty and there weren't any vehicles or police to get in the way.
I imagine there will be two groups of deathmatch fans, gamers who play to demonstrate their skill and gamers that get their rocks off blind firing a rocket launcher from a bus. We tried both and though it was difficult to stay alive for more than five seconds there just isn't any denying the fun of an all rockets skirmish.
Cops N Crooks
Hil's Take: They say to save the best for last, but I've always thought that was a dumb suggestion. Rather than make you wait, let's chat about the best mode played when we visited Rockstar. Cops N Crooks puts players on two very different teams. One team spawns as crooks, with one of its members randomly selected to be the crime boss (or VIP). The other team spawns as cops in squad cars. The crooks need to help the boss get to a randomly selected escape points so he can flee the city. Most of these are along the water for a boat escape, though some have you extricated from a roof via helicopter. The cops win by either killing the boss or destroying the escape vehicle.
There are a few twists that make this the most interesting version of VIP I've ever played. The cops can see the crooks on their radar (with the boss getting a unique icon), but they don't know where the escape vehicle is located. Remember, all of Liberty City is open, so it's not going to be easy to immediately guess where the crooks might be headed. While the cops spawn in cars, the crooks start on foot and must find transportation. This gives the cops an early advantage, unless TeamXbox's Andy Eddy is driving. Even my grandmother can escape a pursuing Officer Eddy.
The crooks only see the cops on radar when they are about to apply a cavity search. So you just never know what the cops are up to. But, you can see your extraction point. The boss has a single life, but the other crooks respawn. This allows for a lot of possibilities for strategy. Do you stick together and go in force? Do you put the boss on a motorcycle and then try and cause roadblocks for the coppers? Or do youk do what we did and constantly crash your car and accidentally shoot one another?
The cops also have some strategy to consider. While you do respawn, it is often well outside the action. Do you take note of the direction the crooks are headed and make a guess where the extraction point is located? That could pay off. Do you go in as few cars as possible or do you split up? Clearly, learning the city by playing the single-player is going to be a big help in dominating multiplayer.
Cops N Crooks is a brilliant recreation of a caper movie... after the caper's gone horribly wrong. Not only are extraction point locations random, so are the spawn points for both teams. Sometimes the crooks spawn on the street sans car and 30 seconds later police sirens can be heard. Hey, crooks get a lot of bad breaks.
While all of the multiplayer modes I played were good, C&C was far superior to the others. It's my new favorite type of entertainment.
Dave's Take: Normally deathmatch is the meat and potatoes of any online shooter but from what we've seen Cops N Crooks is the premiere reason to take GTA online. On the surface the setup is deceptively simple. The Cops start with a vehicle, the Crooks do not. The Crooks have to get to an extraction point marked on their map, the Cops only know the location of the people they're chasing. Kill the crime boss, and it's game over. Depending on the randomly assigned location of each team and the extraction point, the game can feel weighted in favor of a single team, but the single most important factor about this match type is teamwork. The more you talk, coordinate, and cooperate the better you'll do and it makes for a thrilling experience.
While playing as the crooks it was integral to have one person in charge of setting a waypoint on the map, one person skilled at driving, and at least one person running distraction. You must communicate, you must work together. Unlike deathmatch, the work of a single player can tip the scales but it can't carry the team. I was impressed when the finely crafted rules of this game imposed order on the chaos of Liberty City. In one instance the Cops set up a well-placed road block that anticipated our movement through a bottleneck not far from our spawn point. Their preparation and our lack of foresight ended the match quickly. We'd lost, but we'd also learned that trying to bomb through an obstacle without a plan was bad idea. While other modes have an ever-present element of anarchy, Cops N Crooks was serious business. More importantly even when my team was getting completely stomped, I was still having fun. This is the mode that I can tell will eat up hours of my time and I cannot wait to revisit with larger teams.
Hangman's NOOSE
Hil's Take: Niko's story is going to remain just for Niko. To satisfy fans' desire for cooperative play, Rockstar added some Niko-free co-op modes in multiplayer. These four-player missions are sort of halfway between the feel of a campaign mission and multiplayer madness. There's a little bit of story -- cutscenes introducing the mission and putting it to a close -- and few random elements. You have a start point and the same definitive endpoint each time you play. The change comes with upping the difficulty and altering the options to stiffen the challenge.
In Hangman's NOOSE, you and your 1-3 other cohorts must take down the cops guarding a crime boss, Kenny, who's on a grounded plane at the airport. On the harder difficulties, it can get pretty crazy as the cops attempt to flank your party. They'll keep coming until one of you parks a vehicle in front of Kenny's plane. The options are to swipe an armored van or an attack chopper. Either makes for a fun escape.
The heli is a hot ride and makes for an easier escape. One person pilots with Kenny riding shotgun. Two others can hop in the sides and fire from the edge of the chopper. You'll see plenty of combat choppers giving chase, along with cops on the ground trying to keep you from getting to the extraction point at a baseball field. And everyone must make it to the baseball field to win the mission. If one dies, he respawns away from his pals and will almost certainly have a tougher task to get past the cops.
It's tougher to get through in the armored van, but far more fun. One crook drives, Kenny rides shotgun again and two others can ride in the back. Kick open the doors and you can fire outside. Your task is to try and shoot out the tires on other police cars, which sends them spinning off into other cars. Or put a few shots through the windshield and ace the driver. The more of a mess you can make on the road, the harder it will be for the cops to halt your escape.
Dave's Take: More of a set piece than a mode, The Hang Man's Noose is the closest thing we've seen to the single player GTA storyline being played by multiple people. The protect-and-extract mission gets right to the point with an all-out gun battle on an air strip. On the hardest difficulty setting the game throws an impressive number of NPCs at you.
In a few of the videos on our site you can see quick examples of how enemies move in GTA but it takes hands-on time to appreciate how the SWAT Team flanks, advances, and dives for cover. And when you have more than one police chopper and a sea of squad behind your getaway vehicle team tactics are required. The best part about the large scale fight was how it exemplified how much action can take place on the screen at once in multiplayer without any technical snags. Hang Man's NOOSE is just one story-line related multiplayer mission, I hope to play many more.
GTA Race
Hil's Take: You can't have Grand Theft Auto without the Auto. So it's only natural to have a racing mode as part of the multiplayer component. But doing standard races would be boring as hell considering GTA's scope. Instead, Rockstar made a mode worthy of the open-world aspects of the series. Sure, there are some racing standards -- checkpoints, a finish line, cars -- but this mode is much more than what I expected.
Let's say you choose a car to start the race and realize it's not nearly as good as your buddy's? Just hop out of your car and jack his. Or better yet, get in the backseat and steal a ride. Take any car or run on foot. Get through the checkpoints anyway you want. Or ignore checkpoints altogether and just cause havoc for others. Set up a roadblock, wait for your opponents to wreck, then hit them with an RPG.
You can pick up weapons and fire from inside or outside your car. But you can only hold one weapon at a time. Personally, I like using 'nades. For one, it's a whole lot of fun dropping them out the window to blow up cars behind you. It's perhaps even more fun, though, to stand in the street and cook a grenade. Wait for a couple of cars to near and sacrifice yourself for the good or blowing up your enemies. It's pretty tough to tell someone is clutching a grenade, so this tactic is amazingly effective.
If cars aren't your thing, you can try a helicopter race. This is tough. I wasn't ready for the realism of GTA choppers. The first instinct is to control them like a toy, but that just won't do. It takes a few minutes to get the hang of manipulating the chopper, getting it to respond properly and maximize speed. Many of the race paths take you weaving through the city and there is a very narrow window for checkpoints, so your flying must be precise. If you select an attack chopper, you can fire at others. Helicopters are not built for dogfights, so it's really tough to take out your opponents. The better way is to get above someone else and tap their blades with the feet of your chopper. Do this near some buildings and you should be able to take them down.
Dave's Take: Every aspect of GTA IV's multiplayer is influenced by an element of chaos and racing is no different. The host sets a few ground rules like vehicle type, location, time limit and laps, but once the starter pistol sounds it's anyone's guess what will happen next. The check point system presents players with hovering icons and map markers to guide them through the course but there are no invisible walls to hold you back from the rest of the city.
How do you define winning? Are you going to be the fastest or do you prefer the Mad Max approach to transportation? The combat portion of racing relies on two game mechanics that have been significantly retooled. Since the right trigger becomes the gas pedal pulling the trigger to shoot from a vehicle is mapped to the left shoulder. This allows competent players to maintain control of their machine and aim at the same time. A well-placed shot at someone's tire can make all the difference because while the cars handle better than in previous installments damage will significantly hamper their functionality.
If car combat isn't your forte you can always ignore the vehicles entirely, pick up a weapon, and run over to a check point and wait for an unsuspecting victim. During our race experience skirmishes regularly broke out on the race course. With enough players GTA Race is the real running riot. It's this unpredictability is what makes racing so attractive. And I've only really delved into a standard match using cars.
[/quote]
I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
Hook a brother up.
Haven't bothered with a gold account in a hell of a long time, but the way this is shaping up I have no choice.
Not to shit on your opinion, but I found Saints Row MP extremely lacking. What did you like about it?
It was laggy as fuck...
http://xbox360.gamespy.com/xbox-360/grand-theft-auto-4/865122p1.html
- "Just like many elements of the new Liberty City, multiplayer can be pulled up with Niko's cell phone. Regardless of platform, your buddy lists will pop up in your cell phone's menu, although PS3 apparently won't allow you to accept new friend requests or check PSN messages in-game. Outside of GTA4, the only game that we've seen try to keep players immersed on this level is Burnout Paradise."
- "When the game host sets up a match, his/her options can adjust for weapon types, weather, time of day, permission to auto-aim, cops and pedestrians, or most importantly, decide how much of Liberty City to utilize. If you host, you can allow for anything from a block of a borough to the entire expanse of the game's terrain."
Team Deathmatch:- "We kicked off with Team Deathmatch on Happiness Island, Liberty City's Ellis Island. It's a little more... capitalist... than standard TDM rules. You can rack up as many kills as you'd like, but the most important element is corpse looting. Every time you get a kill, your team earns money, but the biggest income increases come from raiding money from your deceased opponents. It's akin to the dead pedestrian money drops in single-player, but in TDM they're worth a lot more."
- "Rockstar North has implemented another big tactic to spice up the mode: Your avatar is invisible when crouched. In that sense, the benefit of running around the map comes at the cost of player visibility. It also allows for some big changes to gameplay, if, say, the host picks a big map with only sniper rifles."
Cops and Crooks:- "Criminal teams have a designated VIP, dubbed a crime boss. As long as the boss is alive, the game is on. Even if other teammates are killed, they can continue to respawn near the boss. Ultimately, the criminals are trying to get to an extraction point, which is represented with a blue square on the radar. The catch, however, is that they can't see any police presence on their radars. Cops, on the other hand, can see the crooks, but don't have any sense of where the extraction point is."
Race:I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
Do not engage the Watermelons.
To dick around offline...or immediately jump into Cops n' Crooks?
It's just not fair that we have to make this choice.
I'll be debating this right up until the point I pop the disc into my 360 for the first time. You gotta play the first few missions or so to get the phone, but after that I dunno what I'ma do. I'll most likely go the conventional route and dick around off line to learn the streets a bit.
Deathmatch:
Cops & Crooks:
I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
You have to play single player first, according to the Gametap preview.
I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
Good to hear they make you play through a bit of the story at first.
All of them.
I did not consider the implications of sixteen players, 16, XVI, [Strike]////[/Strike] [Strike]////[/Strike] [Strike]////[/Strike] /, in one game.