Grand Theft Auto Grieving Thread - Yep, I've been drinkin' again...

[The Last Stand]

Best - Sound design. I love how GTA III sounds with the guns, car crashes and NPC lines. The light echo on everything adds to the aforementioned shitty rundown city feel. Portland in particular whenever it's raining and the train passes overhead. It could also be nostalgic bias as it's the first I played but i can still hear all those sounds perfectly in my head even after not playing for a very long time.

Those projects located in Hepburn Heights? They play music if you stand idle nearby. Toni's restaurant, Italian music plays around the vicinity. AND you could hear Toni and his Ma argue. Portland Docks, you can hear machinery and birds chirping in the distance. Its ambience is wonderful.

Random extreme difficulty spikes like how Portland becomes a warzone once the mafia is hostile to you, or when suddenly all mission NPCs get the most powerful assault rifle and have laser accuracy once you start accessing Shoreside Vale.

I forgot about that. You cannot even enjoy the city when you beat it because most everybody wants you dead. That was a horrible design flaw, especially since Saint Marks covers a third of Portland.

 

[Quintex96]

Going to try and not repeat other people here

GTA 3

Best- Atmosphere, it really feels like you are playing a crime thriller from the 90's, the fact that the soundtrack is literally ripped from Scarface is also a plus.

Worst- The clunky aiming system as well as some of the mission objectives, this was their first 3d open world game so it is to be expected but some of the mission objectives are just plain unfun and as such never returned

Vice City

Best- LOVE FIST FURY, WE'LL TAKE ANY PUSSY
The craft of the setting is so well done to the point that the fake band they created for the game fits right in. Even had bullshitters at my school try and claim that love fist were totes a real band that they had seen live

Worst- Imagine setting your game on a tiny ass resort island and not giving you the ability to swim

San Andreas

Best- Easily the most in depth entry in the franchise where it comes to customization and replayability

Worst- The story once you leave Los Santos just fizzles out, which is a shame because the gang stuff is actually really engaging but they had no idea how to tie it to SF and LV so you kind of just meander through those areas doing busy work until you go back to LS. I know there is the CRASH stuff but that also feels arbitrarily tacked on and makes little sense.

IV

Best- In terms of narrative it is the tightest entry, with multiple plotlines you can follow in the story where it comes to the Diaminds, or drugs or the wars in the criminal underworld. The city actually feels alive as opposed to just set dressing.

Worst- HEY COUSIN, LET'S GO BOWLING
I get what they were going for, but the friend system is a glaring black eye on this entry. So intrusive and annoying.

V

Best- Combat is probably at it's best here as well as weapon variety

Worst- I think the phrase "Wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle" describes V perfectly. It does a lot of things but none of them particularly well. Destruction is reigned in from IV, the rpg-lite mechanics from SA are back in a severely neutered form. There is some attempt at a property system ala VC but worst of all is you have this huge detailed map... with nothing to do.

 

[TVB]

But none of you actually ranked Liberty City Stories?

 

[TheArtilleryman]

But none of you actually ranked Liberty City Stories?

I don't even remember the story of LCS, it was just doing shit for Salvatore all game wasn't it?

 

[56 others]

I really do like the characters and how they interact in GTA V

 

[Rigamaroo]

I wish there was more of an incentive to explore the open worlds rather than them just being pretty backdrops for you look at and thats it. I prefer the exploration in RDR2 and the diversity in the random encounters rather than it just being the same money truck over and over again.

 

[jeff7989]

Worst - The way the motherfucking trees take so long to pop in when you're low flying a plane. Often I'll seemingly just explode for no reason, but as the wreck and Cj's charred corpse fall to the ground and "WASTED" appears, only then does the tree materialise, as if to taunt me.

Thankfully it wasn't a problem for more than ten years. Just get memory streaming fix, something like this.
I do remember crashing into invisible trees countless times back in my SA:MP days, played only on freeroam servers, RP is gay.

My favorite part in San Andreas would be K-DST and flight model for planes. Sucks that the game is stuck at 30fps because of physics. Whoever bitches about flight school should git gud, it's piss easy to achieve gold on first try.

Least favorite: AI pathfinding during gang wars, I hated waiting for enemies, because they decided to take some retarded detour.

 

[TheArtilleryman]

My favorite part in San Andreas would be K-DST and flight model for planes. Sucks that the game is stuck at 30fps because of physics. Whoever bitches about flight school should git gud, it's piss easy to achieve gold on first try.

One thing nobody can deny of any GTA since SA is the bomb ass flying controls. Flight school was awesome in both SA and GTAO and the flying becomes so damn satisfying when you get good at it, weaving around buildings and bridges 'n shit in a jet.

Edit: I should specify I meant on controller, keyboard flying in GTA is AIDS.

 

[The Last Stand]

IV

Best- In terms of narrative it is the tightest entry, with multiple plotlines you can follow in the story where it comes to the Diaminds, or drugs or the wars in the criminal underworld. The city actually feels alive as opposed to just set dressing.

Worst- HEY COUSIN, LET'S GO BOWLING
I get what they were going for, but the friend system is a glaring black eye on this entry. So intrusive and annoying.

GTA IV:

Best - its storytelling. One of the most engaging crime dramas yet. You meet the Alderney Mob, it feels like an interactive homage to The Sopranos. The friends system has faults, sure. But, I love that these characters are able to exist outside of being mission givers. The backstory you can gain from friend activities and mission replays is bar none if you choose to pay attention and piece everything together.

Worst - I'll have to think on that. I didn't mind its driving. Its graphics were good for the time. Soundtrack was fine. Its satire was good. Cover system can be spotty. It's not perfect, but I have to think of something that IV handled poorly.

 

[Green Man]

I never really got all of the complaints about the driving physics in GTA IV either, it felt somewhat more realistic although in reality some of those cars should have had way more traction/grip on the roads, that's my only real complaint about it. Other than that it felt way more 'weighty' and realistic to me and was definitely better than the driving physics in GTA V and leaps and bounds above any previous installment. One can argue that the GTA series was never meant to be a simulator or realistic, which is probably correct and also why they changed the driving physics for GTA V, but it just felt 'right' for GTA IV.

Honestly a lot of shit got downgraded between GTA IV's release and GTA V. GTA V has way fewer interiors accessible outside of missions, it went back to basically just ragdolling peds/enemies when they got killed with little variation whereas in GTA IV characters were way more reactive depending on where they'd been shot, would sometimes hobble around or get back up after being wounded, etc. One big failure in GTA IV though was the lack of any way to spend all of the money you got via missions which they definitely improved in GTA V because there's way more shit to buy there. Other than that I do tend to think GTA IV was superior in most aspects over GTA V and the latter felt like a step back in a lot of ways, although at least airplanes returned.

 

[WULULULULU]

GTA IV:

Best - its storytelling. One of the most engaging crime dramas yet. You meet the Alderney Mob, it feels like an interactive homage to The Sopranos. The friends system has faults, sure. But, I love that these characters are able to exist outside of being mission givers. The backstory you can gain from friend activities and mission replays is bar none if you choose to pay attention and piece everything together.

Worst - I'll have to think on that. I didn't mind its driving. Its graphics were good for the time. Soundtrack was fine. Its satire was good. Cover system can be spotty. It's not perfect, but I have to think of something that IV handled poorly.

You forgot to mention that it's PC port is one of the shittiest ports in all of gaming. You'd have to trudge through several guides that will lock you into 3 versions of the game depending on your choice of mods or whatnot: 1.0.4.0, 1.0.7.0 and 1.0.8.0

 

[William Murderface]

GTAIII
Best: it was the first real open sandbox game and gets points for that. Not to mention being involved with a gritty NYC mafia scene.
Worst: The fact that Claude says nothing at all and spends the entire game as just an errand boy with no real agency of his own. And the limited radio station soundtrack.

VC
Best: The Ambiance. The radio stations, the look, the sheer feel of the game was like being in an episode of Miami Vice. It remains the standard to world immersion.
Worst: How limited it really is in size and options. If it had the outfit and car customization later games like SA did, it would be perfect. And the aforementioned inability to swim.

SA
Best: How CJ feels like a real character who wants more than just being a gang banger and how he has to deal with his brother who doesn't. Not to mention the betrayals by his friends Smoke and Ryder.
Worst: The game feels like it doesn't know what it wants to be and meanders. Is it Boyz N The Hood? Ocean's 11? A UFO movie? It just wanders all over the place like it lacks focus.

Liberty City Stories
Best: We get to go back to LC and see the subtle changes that happened between this game and GTA III
Worst: Some of the controlling when it was ported over to PS2 made it feel clunky and unresponsive at times.

Vice City Stories
Best: The same thing with LCS, just noticing the subtle differences in town between 1984 and 86, not to mention the ambiance of stepping into an episode of Miami Vice
Worst: The same clunky control issues LCS had. Plus the opening cut scene in VC had Victor Vance speaking with some weird Jamaican accent, but in VCS he is an American. It just nags at me.

GTAIV
Best: A larger and more expansive and realistic version of Liberty City and how Niko has to interact with it and his moral choices along the way.
Worst: GTA seems to have lost the tongue-in-cheek satire stance around this time in favor of some kind of realism mirror. At least there feels like there's a lot less of it.

The Lost and the Damned
Best: Mid-mission checkpoints, which saved so much time grinding or getting around compared to previous games.
Worst: Johnny cuts ties with Ashley and the gang...just to end up getting his head kicked in by Trevor a few years later.

Ballad of Gay Tony
Best: I just liked the throwbacks to the other games, like how Johnny and Niko both show up
Worst: I can't think of anything except how small the game is. It's only like 12 hours or so long. As a side game that was to be expected, but it was fun so it seemed to go by so quickly.

GTAV
Best: The Stranger encounters and the side missions like finding the parts for the UFO guy and getting the souped up sandrail as a reward.
Worst: How much of the game map is just wasted space. The Air Force base, the mountains, the secret lab, stuff where a single mission takes place and then is just there or areas like the prison where nothing happens at all except you get a massive wanted level just for going over it.

 

[The Last Stand]

You forgot to mention that it's PC port is one of the shittiest ports in all of gaming. You'd have to trudge through several guides that will lock you into 3 versions of the game depending on your choice of mods or whatnot: 1.0.4.0, 1.0.7.0 and 1.0.8.0

I can't speak on the PC port. I've never experienced it firsthand. I did find something I dislike about IV.

Best - its storytelling. One of the most engaging crime dramas yet. You meet the Alderney Mob, it feels like an interactive homage to The Sopranos. The friends system has faults, sure. But, I love that these characters are able to exist outside of being mission givers. The backstory you can gain from friend activities and mission replays is bar none if you choose to pay attention and piece everything together.

Worst: its 100% completion reward. Previous GTAs would give you tangible rewards for completing side activities (complete police activity, get increased armor; complete ambulance, get increased health or infinite sprint) What do you get for shooting flying birds in GTA IV? Nothing. Just an achievement and an acknowledge. Flying birds are IV's hidden packages. At least when you'd collect hidden packages, you'd get weapons stocked in your safehouses. IV does not do that. TBoGT fixed that.

 

[Cringestorian X]

The worst part of GTA III is the shotguns that the Leone mafia uses. It makes the entire Saint Marks area unusable after you kill Salvatore.

I never really got all of the complaints about the driving physics in GTA IV either, it felt somewhat more realistic although in reality some of those cars should have had way more traction/grip on the roads, that's my only real complaint about it.

I like the driving in IV because it has a learning curve to it. I understand though why most people don't like it since it can get a bit frustrating initially.

My main complaint with IV is the fact that there is nothing to spend your money on other than clothes, food, and guns. I understand that it is part of the story that money is not the most important thing and whatnot, but still it's kinda annoying after finishing the main story and you have all this money yet nothing to spend on.

 

[William Murderface]

Thinking about it, it almost feels like III was more a "proof of concept" than a real game. I mean, yes, we had a game with a story and all the side stuff we like such as radio stations and hidden packages and cheeky wall advertising. I just mean to make a 3D sandbox game where between missions a player could wander around while the game developers could figure stuff out like draw distances and weapon strengths and pedestrian dialog and how to keep a player from getting to locked areas and dealing with altitude as well as traditional 2D areas and so on. What we got in VC was the completed product.

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

Thinking about it, it almost feels like III was more a "proof of concept" than a real game. I mean, yes, we had a game with a story and all the side stuff we like such as radio stations and hidden packages and cheeky wall advertising. I just mean to make a 3D sandbox game where between missions a player could wander around while the game developers could figure stuff out like draw distances and weapon strengths and pedestrian dialog and how to keep a player from getting to locked areas and dealing with altitude as well as traditional 2D areas and so on. What we got in VC was the completed product.

Vice City was envisioned as an expansion originally, so the idea that it is the "completed product" is appropriate.

 

[The Last Stand]

Thinking about it, it almost feels like III was more a "proof of concept" than a real game. I mean, yes, we had a game with a story and all the side stuff we like such as radio stations and hidden packages and cheeky wall advertising. I just mean to make a 3D sandbox game where between missions a player could wander around while the game developers could figure stuff out like draw distances and weapon strengths and pedestrian dialog and how to keep a player from getting to locked areas and dealing with altitude as well as traditional 2D areas and so on. What we got in VC was the completed product.

In a sense, you're correct. You could see they went back into their previous backlog (Body Harvest and Space Station Silicon Valley) for inspiration on how to construct a 3D open world. Nothing to the scope of what GTA III brought to the table was done with synergy at the time. Storytelling, freedom, exploration, maturity. There's a design book of GTA 3's development of how it should be in a 3D environment.

 

[TheArtilleryman]

I'm going to play GTA: SA on PC for the first time and I'm looking for fun mods to run with it. I found this video showing off many interesting ones, I'll probably try most of them but I'm open to more suggestions if anyone has any.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

Here's a video comparing the driving physics between GTA IV and GTA V, along with also highlighting the mod I mentioned earlier, Drive V:

So which physics do you prefer? Personally. GTA IV's were far better, and GTA V's physics only look worse and more unnatural when compared directly against IV as this video does. I think I'll echo what this video, and the video I posted earlier, declare, which is that GTA VI will do best finding a middle ground between what IV did and what V did. In fact, I think Drive V is perfect in that regard, and Rockstar should have looked to that mod for guidance on how to proceed.

 

[The Last Stand]

I've always wondered why island restrictions existed for GTA up until IV's episodes and V. (I think it's still in Chinatown Wars as well.)

I believe since the maps aren't that massive, this allowed natural progression for the player to finish the story and learn the map. Even so, each section would have to be loaded in.