Grand Theft Auto IV

[Feba]

Re: Grand Theft Auto IV

The mayor's office also noted that since he took office car theft has halved and the murder rate is down by 28 per cent.

I'd heard about this, didn't realize he was exploiting the situation to glamorize himself though.

Love the obvious media bias though. I don't remember any situations in GTA where you were forced to kill police officers, not that I remember them that well, but really, half of that report is bullshit anyway so it's not worth commenting on.

I don't remember this sort of complaining over True Crime: Streets of LA- which is about as much of a GTA clone as they come.

anyway, new york isn't what i'd call safe. I mean, maybe compared to Baghdad, but safest city in america?

I've seen videos of people stealing bikes in broad daylight in NY, without anyone even stopping them... except a delivery guy who was telling them how to break the locks quicker.

I have friends in new york that've been mugged at least 3 times by now. just walking around town. ≥_≤

[Manatra]

Re: Grand Theft Auto IV

People nitpicking about the game's graphics need to understand that when you make a game with such a large scope such as GTA or even an MMORPG, there are things that have to fall to the wayside to keep things running smoothly.
One of those things is graphics. If you want better graphics, you have to give up the larger size and scope of the game for something smaller, that or stick it with load times to keep those big environments detailed.

You're correct up to this point.

Repeated character model and cut-and-paste environments are another way to keep things less taxing on any system's memory. There's a reason parts of Halvung look just like Ifrits Cauldron and why Zilart ruins look so similar, you'd have to make more data to make something totally unique in look, which would make for longer downloads.
Every house you robbed in GTA: San Andreas had the exact same interior. Kinda weird, but when you have an overworld so vast and detailed, you can't have all interiors individualized as well.

Right idea, but wrong. The reason environments are "cut and paste" and repeated is because developing art assets such as textures, models, animations, etc. is expensive and time consuming for the developer.

If you want a pretty game, there's plenty of them out there, but they're smaller as a result. Look at FFX vs FFXII. FFX was painfully linear and there was no overworld due to all the high detail of the characters and environments, FFXII was huge in comparison but textures were low-res, even on the character models.
Can't have it both ways - big and pretty, something's gotta give.

On the contrary, the average polygon count for geometry in FFXII was something like halved in order to make way for higher quality textures and larger environments, and if you look at the textures and compare them to FFX, they are high quality. Also, there isn't an overworld in recent Final Fantasies because the power of the PS2 allows the developers to do away with it. The overworld map was a way for old NES/SNES/PSX games to overcome technical limitations while creating the illusion of a larger world.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Grand Theft Auto IV

Right idea, but wrong. The reason environments are "cut and paste" and repeated is because developing art assets such as textures, models, animations, etc. is expensive and time consuming for the developer.

If that were totally true, SE and big third parties wouldn't have to cut back much at all. The detail of graphics also play a role.

On the contrary, the average polygon count for geometry in FFXII was something like halved in order to make way for higher quality textures and larger environments, and if you look at the textures and compare them to FFX, they are high quality. Also, there isn't an overworld in recent Final Fantasies because the power of the PS2 allows the developers to do away with it. The overworld map was a way for old NES/SNES/PSX games to overcome technical limitations while creating the illusion of a larger world.

"The power of the PS2" allowed them to do away with overworlds? That doesn't explain FFXI, FFXII and DQVIII very well, because they have overworlds, in full proportionate 3D at that.

Overworlds were done for a sense of scope, they were done away with in FFX and FFX-2 because the on-rails maps were highly detailed and PS2 was very difficult to code for at the time. FFXII has so many maps and they're all interconnected that you can't not see it as an overworld.

[Caspian]

Re: Grand Theft Auto IV

Actually, Feba, New York is supposed to be the safest big city in America. That many people and you will always have those kinds of things happen, but its supposed to have gotten much safer in the last ten years or so.
He may not be Russian persay, but definately Eastern European as was mentioned in the press release that was posted.
I'd be willing to bet the Russian Mob plays a role somewhere in the game. I still think the game looks pretty impressive and will definately play it when it comes out later this year.

Halo in Disneyland...awesome. Space Mountain is now a breeding ground for Covenant. Have to figure out which costumed cartoon characters are innocent employees and which are disguised aliens. And Epcot is actually the last Halo. (I know Epcot is in disneyworld, just play along.)

[Manatra]

Re: Grand Theft Auto IV

If that were totally true, SE and big third parties wouldn't have to cut back much at all. The detail of graphics also play a role.

As I said. The reason environments are "cut and paste" and repeated is because developing art assets is an expensive and time consuming process for the developer. The cut and paste nature of many environments in todays games has nothing to do with how detailed a given seen is, but is due to the fact that developers don't have the resources to develop new art assets.

"The power of the PS2" allowed them to do away with overworlds? That doesn't explain FFXI, FFXII and DQVIII very well, because they have overworlds, in full proportionate 3D at that.
Overworlds were done for a sense of scope, they were done away with in FFX and FFX-2 because the on-rails maps were highly detailed and PS2 was very difficult to code for at the time. FFXII has so many maps and they're all interconnected that you can't not see it as an overworld.

I'm not going to debate over semantics, you know what I meant.

[Lambeaus]

Re: Grand Theft Auto IV

Anyone else think a Disneyland themed HALO map would be badass?

We were talking about that at my forum. Everyone would buy it!

[Evilisgood]

Re: Grand Theft Auto IV

Hell yeah maybe we shuld suggest to Bungie to put that in the upcoming Halo 3 Beta!!!

[Feba]

Re: Grand Theft Auto IV

Actually, Feba, New York is supposed to be the safest [i]big city[i] in America. That many people and you will always have those kinds of things happen, but its supposed to have gotten much safer in the last ten years or so.

That all depends on how you define big city. Are we talking about BosWash, or just New York? How big is 'big'? Detroit? Orlando? Indianapolis? Miami?

I live in a "city", but i'm almost certain you've never heard of it, even though it has a population over 200,000. It's part of the 21st largest metropolitan area in america (which is what most people mean when they say "X City"), how big is 'big'?

[Caspian]

Re: Grand Theft Auto IV

That all depends on how you define big city. Are we talking about BosWash, or just New York? How big is 'big'? Detroit? Orlando? Indianapolis? Miami?
I live in a "city", but i'm almost certain you've never heard of it, even though it has a population over 200,000. It's part of the 21st largest metropolitan area in america (which is what most people mean when they say "X City"), how big is 'big'?

A reasonable question, but they didn't mention the qualifiers when I heard the statistics.

I would guess 1m+, but I'm totally pulling that number outta my ass.

[Feba]

Re: Grand Theft Auto IV

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._by_population

Going off 1m+, and only in actual cities, I'd guess that everything from #4 down is safer than New York.