Snakes and Liberty Ladders

I'd read about the Heart of Liberty City beating away inside Happiness Island's Statue and decided I'd go and have a look. So I borrowed a helicopter, carefully flew over to the statue, hovered gently and precisely alongside it, at the perfect height of course, and pressed Y. Now I've finished the GTA story line, twice to see both endings, so it’s not surprising for me to say that Nico and I have got flying these virtual helicopters down to a fine art. So it seems ridiculous that, once Y had been pressed, that Nico would recklessly launch himself out of the helicopter and land in a slightly bloodied heap high up on the side of the statue. So ridiculous that I've just spent the last hour trying to find out if Nico Belic is the off spring of a pair of Eastern European lemmings.

With Nico back on his feet I pointed him towards the entrance labelled "No Hidden Content Beyond This Point" and walked through.

Inside, the inner walls of the statue vanish into the distance over Nico's head and in the gloom a feint red glow hints at the, not so secret, secret.

There was an obstacle though. A set of ladders were leading up to the chamber containing the heart. Surely ladders should pose no problem to a man of Nico's calibre and my gaming talents.

But could I get Nico onto the ladders? No. 20 minutes later and I’d pressed every button so many times that my fingers were bleeding. I'd approached the ladders from every angle possible too. I even walked in and out of the room numerous times and tried to mount the ladders again and again. I could not get Nico to climb them!

So a man that had just spent 5 minutes surviving on a 6 Star Wanted Level, Achievement unlocked thank you very much, couldn’t climb a set of ladders.

It’s not the first time in Liberty City that I couldn’t get Nico to climb ladders. In fact it’s been quite a regular occurrence and it has to be the most irritating aspects of the game. It could be that I’m doing something wrong and my gaming talent may all be in my imagination but after living in Liberty City for far too many hours I suspect it's not just me.

There are many holes to be picked in GTA IV and yet it still stands up as one of the finest games ever.

Naked Gun GTA IV Edition

Frank Drebin: That's the red-light district. I wonder why Savage is hanging around down there.
Ed Hocken: Sex, Frank?
Frank Drebin: Uh, no, not right now, Ed. We've got work to do.

You take a chance getting up in the morning, visiting the GAMEOV3R Forum, crossing the street or sticking your face in a fan

Rent Roman

Word is that the actors who play Niko and Roman Bellic in GTA IV didn't get the best of deals for their work in the game so come on... help the guy out.



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Still here but....

I'm far too busy playing GTA IV to write any blog entries.
I'm far too busy playing GTA IV to write any blog entries.
I'm far too busy playing GTA IV to write any blog entries.
I'm far too busy playing GTA IV to write any blog entries.
I'm far too busy playing GTA IV to write any blog entries.
I'm far too busy playing GTA IV to write any blog entries.
I'm far too busy playing GTA IV to write any blog entries. I'm far too busy playing GTA IV to write any blog entries. I'm far too busy playing GTA IV to write any blog entries. I'm far too busy playing GTA IV to write any blog entries. I'm far too busy playing GTA IV to write any blog entries. I'm far too busy playing GTA IV to write any blog entries. I'm far too busy playing GTA IV to write any blog entries. I'm far too busy playing GTA IV to write any blog entries. I'm far too busy playing GTA IV to write any blog entries. I'm far too busy playing GTA IV to write any blog entries. I'm far too busy playing GTA IV to write any blog entries. I'm far too busy playing GTA IV to write any blog entries. I'm far too busy playing GTA IV to write any blog entries.I'm far too busy playing GTA IV to write any blog entries.

There is some life on the Gameov3r FORUM outside of GTA IV though.

Lasting Impressions?

I finally caved in and got GTA 4 on the 360 even though I've never really taken to the series before. The number of perfect scores meant the curiosity level was just too much to bare.

Now I've only played it for maybe an hour and a half and a fair bit of that has been cut scenes to get you involved in the story, but so far the niggles I've encountered have outweighed the fun.

I'll start with the auto-centreing camera. It's a little annoying and I think it's this that makes Nico feel a bit odd to control. In an enclosed space like the apartment or when you go shopping for clothes it's clumsy. It's hard to put my finger on exactly but something doesn't feel quite right, although maybe in time it's something you adjust to. Why don't you get analogue control either? No matter how much you move the stick Nico walks...slowly, meaning you have to hold 'A' to run.

Secondly the cars seem to have worse handling than a shopping trolley. They have faulty brakes too! Once you do build up some speed they suffer from massive understeer and using the handbrake usually results in you continuing to travel in the same direction... but sideways. Maybe I need to drive them in a more realistic way (slower) but that doesn't seem fun.

Thirdly I've had one date with a girl called Michelle which to be honest involved a pretty uninspired mini bowling game, and lastly the amount of swearing feels a bit forced. Now I know this is GTA so what did I expect right? Used well, swearing can really add to a script and be funny too (and sometimes it was), but often it left me feeling like it was added for the sake of it with no attention to how effective it would be, and dare I say in a slightly immature way.

I'm fully aware that I need to play this a lot more to form a complete opinion and I'm hoping these very early impressions get completely turned around once I've given the game the amount of time it deserves, but I wondered if anyone else felt any of these things initially?

The GAMEOV3R Forum awaits you...

First Steps

The baying masses of GTA hardcore fans have been playing GTA IV since the early hours of Tuesday morning. Some lucky people got to play it even earlier than that. I'm sure some of the gamers that queued up before midnight have already completed the game's main story line.

Meanwhile, back in the real world of life, families, and jobs, I only got to know Nico Belic last night.

The first thing Nico and I did was go for a drive. His cousin, Roman, had met Nico off the boat at the Liberty City Docks and we were heading to his home. Driving through Liberty City was a great feeling and it took me right back to my first experience of playing GTAIII. I don’t think any other GTA has wowed me as much as III did and in a world where concrete wellies might be more appropriate I felt as though I was putting on a familiar and comfortable pair of moccasins. It was great to be back in the world of GTA.

We got to the safe house and after the cousins had caught up on all the news Roman announced that he had to go to work and he left Nico to his own devices in this new city. Rather than go out and steal a car or mug someone Nico stayed in and watched some of the great TV channels that Rockstar have laid on for the residents of Liberty City. Clearly an attempt to keep them out of trouble!

Stepping out onto the street for the first time Nico wandered over to a hot dog stand accidentally bumping into it, as he was about to order. The stand owner lost the plot and told Nico, in no uncertain terms, that he was causing trouble and to get lost. The first opportunity for Nico to flatten some random person had presented itself and he’d only just gone outside. Poor Nico's first taste of Liberty City was a sour slap in the face and not juicy Chihuahua.

I'd been playing for about half an hour when some of the animation began to slightly irk me. People's limbs appeared a bit too bendy and joints moved in inhuman ways. This is also the first 3D game that I've played that has made me feel slightly disorientated from the camera angles and from the slightly odd leaning that happens when Nico is walking. Perhaps it’s just me getting old. Nico does walk with a bit of a cool swagger, as you might expect, but it could be argued that it’s nothing to do with being cool and more to do with touching cloth. When Nico runs down stairs it looks like he has a full turtles head.

Nico did a few basic orientation missions using Roman's taxi. All pretty straight forward. The game eases you into Liberty City. Nico met a girl called Michelle and the two of them managed two dates, one bowling and one at the cabaret, during the first three and a half hours in Liberty City. Not bad going but he didn't "try his luck" as the game offered. Instead Nico opted to be a gentleman and decided he wanted to get to know Michelle a little better first.

Before the dates with Michelle, but after his clothes had been ridiculed by her and her friend, Nico went shopping at the Russian Clothes Emporium. The height of fashion was waiting and Nico and he bought himself new boots, a pair of jeans, a new top and jacket and a pair of glasses to make him look intelligent. All for less than $50. Bargain!

So what else did Nico do? Erm, well he went for a game of pool with Roman. And lost. He met Vlad a small time Russian gangster, whom Roman owes some money to. He took on a job collecting some dodgy debt. Nothing to taxing though.

So where's all the car jacking? The mugging? The shooting and the fighting? Three and a half hours and there’s none? Well no, not really. Nico and I have tried to be as good as we possibly can be in a bad, bad world. So no mowing down pedestrians unless it's accidental. No car jacking unless it's unavoidable. And absolutely no shooting people unless they are bad guys. Because that makes it all ok.

Doesn't it?

You don't need me to tell you that GTA IV is a game that every gamer has to play. You do need me to tell you that the Gameov3r FORUM is great place to come and talk about GTA IV. Or Sunflowers, or beer, or Heroes, even some other games!

The Etch A Sketchist

I'm sure most people reading this will remember the Etch A Sketch, in fact I think you can still buy them. I haven't used one of these since I was a little kid but I do remember how hard it was to create a decent picture using one, which makes this all the more impressive...



Loads more here

Show us your etchings on the GAMEOVER Forum

In Other News...

I'm approaching todays post with only one thing in mind and that is so you can actually read some gaming news that doesn't mention GTA IV...

Bugger!

Read about all kinds of stuff on the GAMEOVER Forum from 'nodes' to GTA IV!