Grand Theft Auto IV -- DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!

[DeadPoolX]

WARNING: This a long rant on GTA4.

I've played every game in the GTA series and I've loved them all. Naturally, I was excited when GTA4 was released on the PC. Maia got it for me for a good deal at $20. I'm about to inform you all WHY you shouldn't purchase this game, even at the low price it's sold at now.

Installation
GTA4 had two DVDs (not too unusual nowadays), but the install process was unbelievably long. It took nearly 90 minutes to fully install, whereas other new games have taken much less time on my machine.

In order to fully install the game, I had to accept Windows Microsoft "Games For Windows" Live network and the Rockstar Social Club. I did that thinking I could ignore them in the future. I later found out that was not the case.

Windows Live and Rockstar Social Club
Apparently the "Games For Windows" label meant enforcing Windows Live (the PC counterpart to Xbox Live) to the point where signing up was necessary. I didn't want to do this so I bypassed it. As far as I knew, Windows Live was only there to share achievements and play online. I didn't care about either.

The Rockstar Social Club was some sort of "meeting place" for gamers who own GTA4. Once again, I didn't care about that so I bypassed it.

Starting up the game
You wouldn't think actually playing a game would be that difficult. I have WinXP Pro and as far as I know, every PC game from 2001 onwards has been compatible with it. Vista and W7 are more likely to have compatibility issues.

I clicked the EXE file and immediately got an error message. GTA4 requires Service Pack 3 in order to play. I haven't installed SP3 because I've heard some very negative things about it.

I wasn't particularly happy about this, so I scoured the Internet for a way to work around this. I found two options: setting the EXE to Win2K compatibility mode or editing the registry.

I tried compatibility mode first. Although it worked for some people, it didn't work for me. I then saved my registry and edited it in order to force Windows into believing I have SP3.

That worked well and the game started up. At the menu, once again WL and RSC was shoved in my face. Both really wanted me to make an account and sign in. I told both NO and continued.

Gameplay
I was disappointed with the character models and environment. Maybe I've been spoiled by Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead, but GTA4 didn't meet my expectations.

The shadows were very poor (they looked almost patch-like) and the vehicle models looked barely better than those in previous GTA games. The lighting was nice, but that's about all.

Character and vehicle control was abysmal. The car swung around as if I were drunk and the main character walked like he had herpes or was in the second stage of syphilis.

Oddly enough, the game drew massive amounts of system resources. I had to actually DROP some settings in order to play. In contrast, Dragon Age is newer, looks much better and requires fewer system resources to play well.

Saved Games
I know the GTA series uses save points. I've never liked that, but my overall enjoyment with the games allowed me to overlook it. GTA4's save system was no exception... except for one little detail.

I was REQUIRED to sign in (or remain signed in, whichever came first) to Windows Live in order to simply save my game. I don't mean autosave, I'm talking about basic run-of-the-mill saving.

At first I thought I needed Windows Live for autosaves to work. So I clicked "NO" thinking I could simply save normally.

No, instead I was greeting by these three messages:
1. "You can't save your progress unless you're signed in. Would you like to sign in now?"
2. "Saving your progress is not possible unless signed in. Sign in now."
3. "Are you sure you don't want to sign in? You can't save without signing in."

That was the last straw. I quit the game, restored my registry to its previous state and uninstalled the game. The Rockstar Social Club has to be uninstalled separately.

Final Thoughts
I spent the entire afternoon trying to make this game work. When I finally did, it required me to sign in and remain signed in to do everything.

I realize some people might say, "So what? It's free, so why not sign up?"

Yeah, it's free, but it should also be MY CHOICE. What if I don't want or care about sharing my achievements or communicating online or playing multiplayer? That obviously wasn't an option.

I'm very disappointed in Rockstar. Sure, they've done some questionable things in the past, but never something as intrusive as this. In fact, I don't think I've EVER seen a game as intrusive like GTA4. Copy protection is one thing, but having to sign up for TWO different networks in order to save my game?! That's insane.

In closing, I strongly suggest no one buy GTA4. It's a waste of money since it doesn't play well, requires a service pack some people may not want and demands that you sign up for various networks in order to play (and save) the damn game.

I sincerely hope this does not become the trend for future PC games. Setups like this could effectively kill PC gaming.

[Maiandra]

I couldn't believe the intrusiveness of this myself (having witnessed this ordeal all afternoon). It should give you the option of signing in and the option of what information to share on your online profile. At the very least, you shouldn't have to sign in twice. I don't understand the "let's force the user to do a bunch of things they may not want to and annoy the hell out of them by questioning their every decision" school of software design. Giving people choice makes them happy. Forcing them doesn't.

All I can say is that seeing this makes me glad that Bioware wasn't that obnoxious in their decisions with Dragon Age. Optional communities are great.

[Collector]

This is exactly the kind of thing that gets you to find cracks for you legitimately purchased games. Draconian copyright measures seem to only hurt the customers and do little to stop pirating. Of course you had issues beyond the forced sign in, but to go through all of that and then to be disappointed by the game itself do not make for repeat customers.

[Rath Darkblade]

I don't care much for the concept of GTA (I find it obnoxious, personally), but I think what Rockstar did is much more so. WTF? Why in the name of sanity do you *have* to download a service pack and sign into two different services just to play a game?

This goes beyond a slight intrusion... forcing a gamer to do things like this just to play a game. This sort of thing gives PC gaming a bad name.

[MusicallyInspired]

I knew there'd be a good reason for me to avoid games with the Games For Windows label on them. So glad.

[Rudy]

Who is Rockstar?

[Tawmis]

I sometimes play Air Guitar and THINK I am a Rockstar.

[DeadPoolX]

I knew there'd be a good reason for me to avoid games with the Games For Windows label on them. So glad.

What's odd is that not all of the "Games for Windows" titles require signing in. Fallout 3 and BioShock, for instance, don't require Windows Live. You can sign up or log-in if you WANT to, but you don't HAVE to do it.

Maybe it's because neither of those two games have an online component whereas GTA4 does? I'm not quite sure.

[The cranky hermit]

There's Games For Windows, and there's Games For Windows Live. The former is fairly benign - just a set of design standards that have gotten increasingly relaxed since their start. Games For Windows Live is where it starts to get annoying.

Also, there's really no reason not to install SP3. Staying up to date with MS updates is pretty much a universally good thing.

[DeadPoolX]

There's Games For Windows, and there's Games For Windows Live. The former is fairly benign - just a set of design standards that have gotten increasingly relaxed since their start. Games For Windows Live is where it starts to get annoying.

Also, there's really no reason not to install SP3. Staying up to date with MS updates is pretty much a universally good thing.

I wrote "Games for Windows Live" in my previous post. Maybe I didn't make that clear enough.

As for SP3, I've read lots of problems have occurred from its installation. Whether or not there's a slim chance of something going wrong, I don't need SP3. I've checked it out and from what I've gathered, SP3 is fairly useless except for a small percent of the population. I have all the necessary updates for SP2, plus other security measures.

Besides... they say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Computers are like that. If everything is running smoothly, don't mess with it. I've run into problems when I've ignored that rule.