Elysian Shadows

While the singleplayer meets the standard set by other GTA games -- excellent, in short -- the multiplayer is the most fun I've had playing an online game, period. Usually, you know, online games are challenging and are fun in that respect, but this was just fun fun. So far I've only played the free mode with a friend (w/ friendly fire off) and there were a good few "awesome" moments, and quite a few laugh-out-loud moments.

For example, my friend and I were on a rooftop (that we jumped from a bridge to get to, so the cops couldn't come up behind us), and we both had 4 stars. I fell off the roof by accident, and hijacked a minivan to get away from the bullets being shot at me. I went a block or so, made a fast u-turn, and drove back, attempting to run over police officers.

Then my vehicle caught on fire. I was driving at a good clip, so I jumped out before it exploded on me.

The problem is, when I jumped out, there was a cop car in the oncoming lane, headed towards my friend's war zone. He hit me in midair as I jumped from a fast moving vehicle. My wounded self rolled over the top of his vehicle and continued somersaulting down the hill, where I died from my injuries :( [ :) ] That was just cool.

Later, we decided to snipe from a rooftop. We had some problems finding another rooftop that was accessible from the ground, though, so we went to the airport to hijack a helicopter. We flew around and decided to land on one of the really tall buildings. So I went to land the helicopter on the roof.

But I misjudged it and landed only the tail of the helicopter on the roof. The tail promptly snapped off of the helicopter and my friend and I, with me in the cockpit (and my friend in passenger side door, like on military helicopters) went spiraling down for a good 10 seconds or so, alive... until the forward section we were in hit the ground and exploded on impact. It was hilarious!

Then there was a moment that was good for a chuckle, as it was rather ironic. I hijacked a SWAT van and started driving it around (this is after I died from my minivan incident, my friend was still on the same rooftop), running over cop cars and the like. They would try to box me in, and my SWAT van would just push them out of the way. Some I drove over top of, and they got crushed. Some others I broadsided and flipped. I did this for a few minutes, then I hit a highway sign brace... thing... and flipped on my side. A police officer was nearby and started unloading shotgun rounds into the ceiling of my van. I was stuck on my side on a hill, revving the engine, trying to get my tires under me so I could flip back over, and he was just standing there, unloading shotgun rounds into my rooftop. This went on for a good minute or so until another cop car ran into me and turned me at the right angle so that I could turn my tires so that they could lift me up. I drove around, crushing a few more cop cars, and hit a railing for some steps up to a building. After trying to get off of the railing for a minute or two, it appeared that after all of that trouble, my SWAT van run had ended by getting a rail stuck in my van's engine. The police couldn't stop me, but a stairway railing could. So I got out voluntarily with 5 or six police officers clustered around my driver's side door and died instantly from being shot -- probably in the head, but the world may never know.

In short, fun times. Anyone else have any stories they want to share? (Anyone else play yet?) :)

[And that's what I've been doing instead of coding anything, ho ho ho XD]

GTA 4 is the best one yet. The gameplay has been greatly improved as well as so many other things. The graphics are b-e-a-utiful. What you playin online on? PS3 or 360? if u got 360, add me, my name is "mac addict 2011"

Bastards. Stop having fun on a game that I haven't gotten to buy yet!!

Well, buy it! Or get someone else to buy it for you, like I did ;)

I never really liked GTA...
I'm more excited about Iron Man :D

WTF is Iron Man's allure? Am I the only one completely uninterested in that movie? Seriously, have you seen the previews?

I loved Iron Man as a kid, so I've been looking forward to it
I think the game'll be fun, too.

JS Lemming wrote:WTF is Iron Man's allure? Am I the only one completely uninterested in that movie? Seriously, have you seen the previews?

1) Robert Downey Jr. is an amazing actor.
2) It's not Fantastic Four-ish
3) Iron Man is amazing.

What else do you need to know?

Though saying any game made from any movie is better than ANY GTA is quite wrong.

Man I can't wait to get a 360

kilgariff wrote:I think the game'll be fun, too.

I played the 360 demo. Pretty boring. You have a big beam weapon and another weapon that shoots out of your hand, and as far as I could tell, that was it. So you hover in place, fire at things from the air that dont hurt you like, at all, and then move forward a little and hover in the air and fire at the next one.

Blah.

I hope nobody throws too much of a fuss over me posting in a week-old thread.

But I thought I might actually steer back on topic with this post.

Anyway, I don't have GTAIV or the means to obtain it, (no 360 or money) but my cousin does, and I spent a few late nights in front of his TV playing the game. My first thought was that it seemed to have been completely overhauled--the graphics, gameplay, driving--they all seem so different. Not bad, just different. Once I actually got into the game and started playing, I realized that these changes I noticed were, for the most part, improvements.

Everything is so new and refreshing, in GTAIV. The series is known at least somewhat for the huge range of things you can do (driving, running from cops, street races, side missions, etc). While these were all very fun when put together in the previous games, none of them felt very solid on their own. There was alot of stuff to do but none of it was done very well, is what I'm trying to say. This has all changed with the release of GTAIV. Everything is done so well, and you really feel like you're getting a complete package.

In particular, the drive-by's are so much more fun and easy in this game. Instead of just a window-side view and a trigger, you get full control of the aiming with the right analogue stick, so that you can shoot in any direction around your vehicle. This really adds a new element to police chases, intensifying the overall experience. You can shoot an oncoming cop car's tires out, put a bullet through his head, whatever feels right for you. This also comes in handy when taking down pedestrians during a rampage.

The physics are also a very nice addition to the game. Mowing down innocent bystanders is all the more fun, since they now will behave much more like real people would do in that kind of situation, flailing around or getting stuck on the hood. One of my favorite things to do is to close the door on people's hands as they try to reclaim their vehicles, then speed off, dragging them around beside the car until they rip free and tumble off.

The actual police chases are better now as well. Instead of running blindly from the police until the stars start to dwindle, you now have a marked area on your radar that you must escape from. Cops show up on the radar as well, and the area is repeatedly reset to your current position if they continue to maintain visual contact with you. Because of this, it's become wise to duck behind corners and into alleys to throw them off your tracks, (which is now possible, since the police are no longer all-knowing. They actually have a limited field of vision now) and then make a mad dash for the outside of the "cop field" area on your radar, making sure not to run into any cops.

These all sound very nice in text, and they are incorporated well into the game. It's one that you won't get bored of quickly, and is worth whatever absurd amount of money they're charging for it. Buy now, don't regret. You won't.

The ending is well done. Fulfilling like the conclusion of a good anime.