Why GTA IV is Possibly the Worst Release of 2008
When you can’t play, and you don’t pray, you pirate.
In my past I stole cars, beat up people, blew things up, and if I had to, I even killed. But that was in the previous GTA games, in this one it is me who feels a tad suicidal.
I bought GTA IV and was so excited to bring it home. Unfortunately, I tried playing it, but I had crashes, bugs, glitches of various sorts and couldn’t really enjoy it. From my computer overheating and freezing when attempting to max out the visuals on the game, to actually buying a new ATI 4870 GPU with 1 GB of GDDR5 memory (the newest type of memory with a new design to help with heat dissipation), to no disk in drive messages I finally got fed up and started searching the net for answers. And answers I did find.
I managed to track down various patches and cracks that didn’t seem to work as they came. But while patching the game I lost track of what I had already done to it and inadvertently applied a patch over top of another patch that was already in place. To my surprise, both of them put together made the game work. Amazing.
Okay, so since I paid for the game and had limited success in making it playable should I keep it after downloading a patch from the net that made it work? In my opinion: no. The next day I returned the game to the place of purchase. But I didn’t stop there. I still wanted to play the game and after attempting to do it legit I downloaded a copy of the game from the net and applied the said patches with the same results. Now it’s time to bend the rules a bit. Rockstar, either lay off on some of that copy protection or hire some of these crackers. Your customers will thank you for it in the end.
You’ve probably seen these all over the net, but here are MY five reasons why GTA IV should never have been released (yet):
5: Buggy
Yes, I know that Rockstar wants to make it in time for the Giftmas Christmas season and sell as many copies as they can, but when it’s virtually unplayable how many of those copies may be coming back after the holidays? Even the new (version 1.0.1.0) patch doesn’t fix all problems while introducing new ones with mixed results (and yes, the patch above works with that version too–for now).
4: SecuROM
In order to keep people from pirating the game, so much copy protection had been thrown into the mix that perhaps that may be a part of the reason why the game is so unreliable. And who is it deterring from pirating the game? Not the pirates. Heck, not even the honest people as I used to be one of those and said ‘to hell with it, Rockstar’. If you’re going to treat me like a criminal, it’s only fair I start acting like one.
3: Ridiculous System Requirements
The System Requirements can be viewed by clicking on this link, as posted on Wikipedia. Playing with the minimum specs is like trying to play the Atari 2600 while shouting “Woo-Hoo, It Works!”
So where do I fit into these? I have Vista 64-bit SP1, a 2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU (Intel, of course), 4 GB of RAM, Gigabytes and Gigabytes of HD space, a compliant sound card and, as mentioned above, ATI 4870 GPU with 1 GB of GDDR5 video card. I haven’t measured the frame rate, but based on the slightly choppy scrolling I’m guessing it’s between 20 and 25 fps. I even tried defragging my drive to no noticeable improvement.
Rockstar, if you’re going to make and release a game that you want people to play and actually enjoy don’t make it for the hardware of the future. It’s not what people have now. All but the most hardcore gamers won’t have the latest hardware, and most users will probably fall somewhere between the minimum specs and recommended specs or slightly better. But definitely not on the bleeding edge of technology. Very few people can afford to spend $600 on a video card and get a $1000 CPU to go with it plus all the other components to make the first two work. Has anyone at Rockstar taken a break from developing porting the game to check the status of the economy lately? I know you want your game to look amazing, but if people can’t take advantage of it now, they probably won’t care in the future, when the game is old and something newer and shinier has hit the store shelves. You know the old saying: “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”.
2: Overpromises and Nearly Delivers
This game is hyped. It’s been longly anticipated and short of people lining up for hours to get their hands on this game our expectations have been raised. Occasionally you buy a game and it sucks. Simply put, it’s a horrible game, but then you may have never heard much about it, or the storyline turned to be a prescription for insomnia. With the GTA series Rockstar created the bar on how games are made and then with each release raised it a little. But with this most recent release I think Rockstar dropped the bar and what’s going to make this game so bad is not the game itself, but people’s expectations of the game. Those expectations are going to be shattered to bits and pieces.
1: Windows Live, Rockstar Games Social Club, and whatever other crap I must install just to play this game!
I want to play GTA IV. I don’t care about going online. I expect to have an EXE (or a shortcut to that executable) which I double-click and the game plays just like previous GTA games. If you, Rockstar, want to launch a social community online that’s great, but don’t force people to participate just so that they can play the game. Okay, so I’m not forced to participate per se, but I have to install the latest version of Windows Live, and the RGSC (which attempts to run every time Windows does—what’s up with that, Rockstar?). Without those components you will either not be able to play the game, save the game, or both. Oh, and as far as the online aspect goes, because my game is now cracked don’t expect to see me going online to play. Not that I was ever planning on doing that, but at least you could have made money on my purchase of the game. Tsk, tsk. Now look what you’ve done.
Am I Proud of What I’ve Done?
Yes and no. Call me hypocritical. I don’t care. I’m proud that I’ve managed to make the game work using dishonest means (hey, it shows that I can track down stuff online), even though I may not agree with piracy. I also don’t agree with being treated like a criminal.
If the game didn’t have copy protection it’s still almost guaranteed that people would buy it and copy it. But include a few large and colourful maps, a nice manual, a glossy hint/cheat book in the box and that’s the tangible stuff that will have people spending their hard earned cash at almost any price. People may copy the game, but it’s the other stuff that they are willing to pay good money for, myself included. Hey, I’d love to have some of that exclusive stuff that can only be obtained by purchasing the game. Trying to sell bits and bytes? You’ll soon realize that it doesn’t really work. Bits and bytes can easily be copied and usually are. They also don’t convey a sense of value. Think of buying songs online and actually getting a CD with those same songs–doesn’t it feel better holding what you have just paid for? Gamers appreciate value. Pirates don’t care, and no matter how much protection you put on your release it will only frustrate the honest users, and as for pirates? Again, they don’t care. They weren’t going to buy your game anyway.
No comments yet
Leave a reply
