I' ve explained my criticisms with the previous GTA games numerous times, so for the sake of everyone who' s been around for a while I wasn' t going to get back into it. But for you, John, it boils down to these points:
The controls have been loose, flabby, whatever you want to call the opposite of tight controls. Especially for a game that emphasizes driving so much, the driving controls have generally been pretty loose. It' s something more than just adapting to different vehicles with different weights and handling characteristics. Furthermore, the loose driving controls have been aggravated by terrain that is so low-poly that the cars actually bounce over the rough edges of polygons that are supposed to define curved hills.
The problems with targeting and fighting in general have been discussed at large; it' s obviously not just me who has complained about them. It seems to be a key point that Rockstar has themselves made, that they' ve improved upon the substandard targeting.
The multiple mini-games and RPG elements to me have seemed half-hearted in their implementation. Yeah, you can stop off somewhere and play some half-working game of pool. Or grind for ten minutes to pump up your character at the gym. Or take part in a kind of shallow relationship sim that is constantly nagging you while you' re trying to manage all your gang territories... my point is, what' s the point of a game where you can do 100 different things when 95 of them are kind of half-assed?
The animation has always been rough and glitchy... just walking around people on the street can be annoying. The cut scenes all look like unedited mo-cap.
Those have been my main complaints, and my subsequent complaint is how the gaming press has always creamed themselves over each installment of the games upon release -- and only six months or a year later, when the next installment comes out, do they remark upon the major problems of the previous installment, which are now going to be improved upon. It' s irresponsible journalism in my eyes. The fact that Kikizo' s GTA:SA review gooshes all over it without acknowledging any of the problems at the time just says to me that they got caught up in the hype, and just maybe they are caught up in the hype this time, too.
Now, I' m not all against the GTA series. I' ve always felt that the scriptwriting, particularly the sharp satirical radio stations and commercials, are the best thing about the series. And like I said before, I
hope GTAIV is a great game with solid controls and better animation. It looks like a lot of fun
if they really make a solid game, and not just a sloppy game that is spread too thin.
So, those are my opinions from my perspective. I' m always open to discussing them, but I can' t take it seriously if you think you' re going to order me to leave a topic on your first day on the forum.
