A lot of players are filling up GTA IV servers but very few appear to know what the hell they're doing, something this guide will attempt to rectify. Using these tactics and understanding how to play well with others will find you making more money in ranked matches, as well as racking up kills and dominating the game with your uncanny abilities.
This guide is focused on general strategies that can be used on most of the available game types. I'll be posting a game-mode specific guide in the coming days, followed by a helpful hosting guide that should make multiplayer games more enjoyable for all involved.
With game reviewers still mopping up their collective ejaculate, you'd think GTA IV was the greatest game of all time. The amount of hyperbole showered on Rockstar's game was unparalleled, with nearly every critic unleashing a string of adjectives that cast GTA IV as the second coming of video gaming Christ. Once the initial euphoria of the graphics wears off, you soon realize that GTA IV doesn't evolve its inherent gameplay beyond that which has come before, and in a lot of respects, significantly less.
With a Metacritic score of 99%, one might think it impossible to find any faults with a game that has been equated with everything from Citizen Kane to The Godfather. Wrong.
Commence flame-war! 8Bit Joystick has posted a feature titled 12 Reasons Why Grand Theft Auto IV is Better on Xbox 360 than PS3, something sure to get loyal PS3 owners all worked up.
Some of the reasons include a higher native resolution, more available RAM, faster disc access and multiplayer that actually works.
Dr. Boa at Destructoid has written an interesting editorial about the idea of a one-console future, something urged by David Jaffe and Dennis Dyack. While they have an argument from the perspective of game developers, this ridiculous idea has zero benefit for gamers. For proof, you need only look as far as the battle between PS3 and Xbox 360. Love it or hate it, the Xbox 360 has forced the PS3 to get better. Competition breeds evolution, and that benefits everyone. Why David Jaffe can't get his mind around this fundamental concept is beyond me. Thankfully, it's also beyond Dr. Boa.
Jaffe and Dyack are crazy if they think that it will make gaming life better. So why would I waste five minutes of your time seemingly giving the thumbs-up to a one-console future? Because while I painted what an ugly future it would be if we had 200 consoles, having one would be even worse.
Glenn Beck continues to ride the GTA IV media train in his never-ending, yet futile quest for ratings, evidenced by this latest clip of him calling game bloggers losers. And yes, he continues to attack GTA IV, which makes the case that self-righteous, misinformed windbags on television are losers.
If nothing else, Grand Theft Auto IV is a great media gateway for organizations to get free television time to spout their respective outrage towards the contents of the game. We've already had Mothers Against Drunk Driving issue a statement and some immigrant organization is bent out of shape, but I've come up with a list of 10 groups that have been suspiciously silent.
1. DMV
The Department of Motor Vehicles should condemn GTA IV for its horrible portrayal of licensed drivers. Apparently, the Liberty City branch of the DMV will give a license to anyone, evidenced by the total lack of Student Driver vehicles on city streets. In Liberty City, if you can afford the fee, you get a license. Simple as that.
If you're one of the millions of gamers who will be picking up Grand Theft Auto IV this week, don't forget to sign up for Rockstar's Social Club. There you can link your Xbox Live Gamertag or Playstation Network ID to your Rockstar account and track a myriad of stats. There are also special competitions sponsored by Rockstar that act something like dynamic Xbox Live achievements. The first large competition is for entry into what has been dubbed The 100% Club. Qualifying Social Club members that attain 100% completion within 7 days of the release of GTA4 (that's today) will receive a limited edition "key to the city".
Even if you have no intention of playing a marathon session of Grand Theft Auto IV for The 100% Club, the Social Club is a fun diversion and just another way to prove your gaming superiority to your friends, besides GTA4's built-in multiplayer modes. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to Liberty City.
One final note: If you're looking for some more players to tool around Liberty City with, be sure to click my profile link and add myself and any other InfoAddict members you come across. Profiles can hold a Gamertag, PSN ID, Wii system number, and Steam ID, so if you haven't done that yet, what are you waiting for?!
It's GTA IV launch day, which means if you're reading this then either your Xbox 360 red-ringed, your local Gamestop is out-of-stock, or UPS hasn't arrived at your door yet. It's also a day for organizations to get their 15-minutes of media exposure, condemning GTA IV for all of the perceived evils it represents.
C|Net has a good roundup of the haters, most of which are attacking without having played the game. The name alone is enough to incur their wrath.
None of this, of course, matters to critics like Yee or the Parents Television Council, both of which cited the oft-reported history of violence in GTA as reason behind their statements.
"We've seen a number of clips of the game," said Yee spokesperson Adam Keigwin. "From the clips alone, and based on GTA and Rockstar's history, (Yee) thought it very appropriate to issue a statement urging parents not to purchase the game for their children."
Similarly, Gavin McKiernan, the national grassroots director for the Parents Television Council, said that despite not having seen the game yet, "You can't necessarily wait until the cat's out of the bag...There's a huge (GTA) marketing and release push, and I'm sure this game will sell lots and lots of copies, so you can't wait."
MMOCrunch has written an interesting feature that explores Microsoft's aborted attempts to bring MMOs to market, citing three canceled games in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes (luckily for them, good call), Mythica and Marvel Universe Online.
Announced back in 2002 Mythica was Microsoft’s first attempt at making an MMORPG. It was actually quite a neat sounding game at that. Based on the legends and lore of Norse mythology your character would actually be a “demi god” that was able to wipe out multiple enemies at once. Something that still hasn’t been done today. Unfortunately, just over a year in development, Microsoft was sued by Mythic Entertainment due to the name, Mythica, being to close to Mythics own name. Worries that the consumer would get confused were the primary reasons for the lawsuit. Then on May 25th of 2004, Microsoft officially canceled the title citing a competitive MMORPG environment as the main cause, although rumours still swirl today that the lawsuit was what actually cause Microsoft to call the game quits.
I was really looking forward to Marvel Universe Online, but I guess I'll content myself with Cryptic's in-development Champions, based on a pen-and-paper RPG I loved in the 80s.
It seems inevitable that high profile video games will get leaked. It's happened with every AAA console title in the last few years, and Grand Theft Auto IV is no exception. Whether obtained through a shady retailer or downloaded from the web (sadly GTA4 has already found its way onto pirate networks) gamers across the globe are getting their hands on one of the biggest releases of the year a week early. For those that won't stoop to less-than-legal levels to play the game or aren't willing to fellate a GameStop manager, the next few days will be a painful wait.
To help pass the time though, some lucky souls that do have Grand Theft Auto IV are giving the rest of us the next best thing: tons of video footage of the game. Rockstar Games have been quick to shut down clips that they find on YouTube and other large video outlets, but so far DailyMotion hasn't pulled anything. One nice fellow over at NeoGAF has been kind enough to keep an updated post of links to GTA4 vids, most of them coming from DailyMotion. Keep in mind that there may be spoilers in these videos, so if you want a clean slate when you pick up GTA4 you'd best steer clear.
Hit the jump for a ton more videos, and of course be prepared to play GTA4 on April 29!
Well, I can finally stop screaming, "Lag!" into my Xbox 360 headset every time I die, as two scientists in Sweden have released new research that explains the impact of in-game lighting on your psychology.
From the Abstract:
Game players perform best and fastest in a computer game world lit with a warm (reddish) as compared to a cool (bluish) lighting. Red Lighting in a Computer Game also induced the highest levels of pleasantness in game users. It was probably the level of pleasantness induced by the warm lighting that enhanced the players' better performance in that digital game world.
These results are important for game designers and developers of online communities and visual worlds. Nevertheless maybe in the future also for indoor lighting and even depression considering the effects on mood. Wouldn't it be nice when suffering from depression and being treated with computer games three times a day?
In experimental psychology there is some evidence that indoor lighting can have an effect on mood. The influence of indoor lighting on psychological mechanisms is complex.This study was designed to investigate the impact of warm (reddish) and cool (bluish) simulated illumination in digital game worlds on game users' affect and play performance.
The recently released map pack for the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty 4 has shattered revenue records for Xbox Live, serving up 1-million sales in 9 days for a grand total of $10-million...for 4 freaking maps.
Remember when you played shooters on the PC and simply downloaded maps for free? Yeah, those days are over.
"Infinity Ward is extremely grateful for support from our loyal Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare community around the world," said Robert Bowling, community relations manager at Infinity Ward. "From the beginning, we were committed to do our best and that continues now with the Variety Map Pack. We can't wait to get back online with everyone."
So I received the Xbox 360 Wireless Guitar for Rock Band last Thursday, which served to calm the ever-growing hostility brewing in my household about who gets to play with what instrument. Unfortunately, the lowered tensions soon gave way to horror as the wireless Stratocaster failed to properly rock on its very first song. Initially, the guitar was hit-and-miss when it came to activating Overdrive but this soon gave way to total Overdrive failure.
A few weeks ago I posted an article called 30 Things That Suck About Call of Duty 4, which proved quite popular. Well, I have #31, which arrives courtesy of Infinity Ward.
As any CoD4 player worth his or her weight in bullets knows, the exceptional map-pack was released last week to much acclaim. With it came several new playlists that allowed owners of the pack to play the new maps exclusively without bothering with the old maps. That was great and welcome. Unfortunately, now that the Double-XP event has ended, Infinity Ward has decided to remove the new playlists, adding the new maps to the original playlist rotation.
This means that if you want to play the new maps then you're going to have to get lucky and hope it loads up on your next round. This is a lame decision on IW's part. It's bad enough that there's no map filters in CoD4, but to take away a map-pack playlist is head-scratchingly dumb.
I don't see what is so difficult about adding a playlist that has every map available in the rotation while maintaining a second playlist for people who just want to play the new maps. What's the harm? Having a choice is a good thing. Having no choice is dictatorial and defies logic.
Speculation, theories, accusations and paranoia are in the early stages of running rampant across the Internet, as some PS3 owners are claiming they are receiving error code 80010514, which some believe is related to a failure of the Blu-Ray drive.
As we're all aware, Microsoft suffered a PR disaster with the Red Ring of Death disabling an enormous amount of Xbox 360s, so much so that MS had to extend the warranty to stem the growing tide of hostility. I've personally gone through 3 Xbox 360s over the past year-and-a-half.
Sony has made no comment on the matter and some threads related to the issue have been closed, which is perfect fuel for stoking the fires of speculation. These things have a way of getting out of control unless quickly extinguished, so Sony would be doing themselves a favor by addressing the issue, even it there is no cause for concern.
