If you've recently purchased GTA IV, the latest game from Rockstar Games, then I'm sure you're experiencing the same problem as thousands of other gamers who blew off their hard earned cash on what was probably the most anticipated sequel of the franchise. For lack of a better word, the Pc version of this game is well... sh#t! An expensive piece of sh*t. While there are numerous reasons why this game sucks, i will limit the discussion to the ones that really grind my gears: 1.) the FPS 2.) the In game crashes 3.) the DRM mechanism 4.) the Lack of support. 5.) the future proofing gimmick.
FPS refers to frames per second. The higher the FPS the smoother the animation of the game. FPS matters in games like first person shooters where smooth movement and quick reaction spell the difference between landing a headshot or getting plugged up the nether regions by an MP5 spray. This is the reason why gamers make companies like Nvidia or ATI richer by investing in high end video cards (a component that increases a PC's graphic capabilities) specifically to make their gaming experience much better. I would consider 25-30 fps as "playable" but in my gaming rig which is an 8800 gt in SLI format, i only get 15-20 fps., where as in Crysis (another graphically demanding game) i could get around 80-90. This means that when I pan the camera, the game stutters like i'm watching some 80's stop motion animation flick. Even players with more expensive video cards like the GTX 280 (P23,000) have the same problem.
Second, the game crashes after playing it for around 2 hours. I have about 4 gigs of ram in my rig which runs on windows vista so this shouldn't have been a problem. However, research on the forum reveals that the game suffers from memory leaks which can cause system crashes. I had to reinstall windows because the game froze and somehow ruined my other installations (vista problem)
Third, in order to curb piracy, Rockstar requires you to log in to their website in order to play the game. Also you have to have games for windows live running in the background. That's two processes that you have to have running in your system while GTA IV runs too! For those who don't have an internet connection, there is an offline mode but you can't save the game! So unless you plan to spend 80 hours straight just playing the game, this feature is utterly useless especially for students like me (ahem) who need "time" to "study for law school." As of this writing I have seen pirated copies of the game being sold so I don't see how these features make the game harder to pirate. If anything, it makes the game harder to enjoy for gamers who buy the original product.
Fourth, despite the numerous complaints, Rockstar games has, up to date, released only one patch. And this patch they released made the game even more buggier! There have been reports on loss of in game sound and well as non stop camera spinning when using a controller.FPS refers to frames per second. The higher the FPS the smoother the animation of the game. FPS matters in games like first person shooters where smooth movement and quick reaction spell the difference between landing a headshot or getting plugged up the nether regions by an MP5 spray. This is the reason why gamers make companies like Nvidia or ATI richer by investing in high end video cards (a component that increases a PC's graphic capabilities) specifically to make their gaming experience much better. I would consider 25-30 fps as "playable" but in my gaming rig which is an 8800 gt in SLI format, i only get 15-20 fps., where as in Crysis (another graphically demanding game) i could get around 80-90. This means that when I pan the camera, the game stutters like i'm watching some 80's stop motion animation flick. Even players with more expensive video cards like the GTX 280 (P23,000) have the same problem.
Second, the game crashes after playing it for around 2 hours. I have about 4 gigs of ram in my rig which runs on windows vista so this shouldn't have been a problem. However, research on the forum reveals that the game suffers from memory leaks which can cause system crashes. I had to reinstall windows because the game froze and somehow ruined my other installations (vista problem)
Third, in order to curb piracy, Rockstar requires you to log in to their website in order to play the game. Also you have to have games for windows live running in the background. That's two processes that you have to have running in your system while GTA IV runs too! For those who don't have an internet connection, there is an offline mode but you can't save the game! So unless you plan to spend 80 hours straight just playing the game, this feature is utterly useless especially for students like me (ahem) who need "time" to "study for law school." As of this writing I have seen pirated copies of the game being sold so I don't see how these features make the game harder to pirate. If anything, it makes the game harder to enjoy for gamers who buy the original product.
Fifth, the game automatically adjusts your graphic settings for you and does not allow you to change them manually. For some players, like me, we don't mind giving up settings like high quality texture rendering or screen resolution if it will increase our FPS. But GTA IV won't let you do this and you are stuck with the setting the game chooses for you. Even for gamers with P100,000 rigs are unable to run the game at full settings (don't even get me started at anti-aliasing). Rockstar says that it's because there isn't any hardware available now that can handle the full graphical requirements. What's the point of releasing a game that doesn't allow you to enjoy all of the features? I'm not going to wait for 3 years for technology to catch up and invest another sh*t load of money to upgrade my hardware just to play a game that by then, would have already been 3 years old!
In closing, this could have been one of the best games to ever come out on the PC for 2008 but well, rockstars will be rockstars...
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