Grand Theft Auto IV

I can't help but be amused by all the negative reviews of the PC version of GTAIV. So much complaining about SecuROM, Games for windows Live, and the Rockstar club thing. I own both the XBOX and PC versions, and I think the PC version is better. So you ask "How is this possible?" Let me explain:XBOX 360 Release - The Xbox 360 hardware performance specs haven't changed in 4 years and GTAIV makes this fact quite obvious. Some outdoor scenes slow down to around 10 FPS. Everyone knows that below 20-30 FPS, a game will begin to become unplayable. These slow downs can very frustrating during a car chase or a shootout. The 360 also has the graphics settings turned way down, likely due to the performance issues. It runs at 720P on an HDTV with anti aliasing turned off. Once you get up to a 46-50 inch TV, jaggies start to become annoying. It's not all bad with the 360 version. The game loads fairly quickly, even though you are forced to watch the entire intro sequence.PC Version - I'm running Windows 7 ultimate 64 bit on an i7 920 Quad core with 6 GB of DDR3 and a 295 GTX dual GPU video card. I run all of my PC games on a 52" 1080P HDTV. Even unpatched, the PC version runs very well on this rig. I have all the graphics settings cranked up to max and I get 60 fps through most of the game play. This makes car chases with other criminals and running from the police much easier to do. I went ahead and patched the game using the latest release and I haven't had any problems. I don't have any issues with the "Games for Windows Live" app that runs with the game, but the Rockstar club thing is sort of annoying. I'm not sure why it's there and I think it just adds to the load time of the game. The user is force to watch two sets of cut screens before starting game play. It's not so bad that the game deserves a single star when rating it. One major downfall of the PC port is that it's difficult to control with the mouse and keyboard. There are just too many buttons you need to be able to push and the keyboard can be a little clumsy. I happen to have the windows receiver for the xbox controller, so I fired that up and was able to use my 360 controller no problem. It seems to work better in most cases. Oh, and finally there's the secuROM thorn in everyone's side. Personally, I've never had problem with any game that has it built into it. This leads me to believe that all the claims that state it cripples computers and brings an end to world are completely blown out of proportion. The only part I hate it limited activations, but most publishers have ways to revoke the registration so you don't run out of activations (which is what GTAIV uses).As for the actual gameplay, GTAIV is a pretty decent game. Once you get past the cut screens, it's the same game on the PC and XBOX. It's my first GTA game, so it's all new to me. The story line is cool and the size of the Liberty City world is quite large. I do have three minor nits:- Shootouts can be difficult due to the way the autoaiming and take cover functions work. I would prefer just some old school 1st/3rd person shooter controls.- There's no auto aiming available while driving in a car. The only way to shoot from the car is to first start firing and then aim with the camera joystick.- There's no way to save the game mid-mission. This can lead to having to repeat the entire mission if you fail them before completion.

I would not recommend the PC version to anyone. I played it on PS3 and Xbox and they worked great.As for the PC version it was a nightmare. I tried it on two high end gaming Windows 7 PC computers. I tried running it on Windows 7 32 bit and Windows 7 64 bit. I feel cheated out of my money. I tried multiple uninstalls and reinstalls. I tried running in Windows XP compatibility mode with service pack 2 and also service pack 3. I tried installing patches , made no difference. I tried trouble shooting compatibility mode and it suggests Windows XP Service Pack 2 .The two computers run BF3 , MW3 and other new releases with ease. Never again will I buy any Rock star video game.I went on forums and tried everything tried and suggested. Maybe I just got unlucky. I should of listened to all the bad reviews on this PC version.The game worked for a short time,but the picture quality was terrible and the game would just crash. No worth the time or money. If you get it to work great.

Rockstar has released patches that fix pretty much all the problems 1 star reviewers had. This game is EXTREMELY CPU heavy, don't expect to run this game on a dual core. What absolutely makes this game a must buy is the massive modding community. A recently released graphics enhancing mod called "IcEnhancer" makes this game near photo realistic(Youtube it)! After playing this game with near photo realistic graphics, I cannot touch my PS3 anymore...or look at any console graphics for that matter.The only problem I had with this game was the installation, I don't get why I had to create 2 accounts I was never going to use.I also have this game for PS3, and the PC version is far superior to the PS3 and Xbox GTA4 version because:*It is extremely hard to play with controller. Analogue sticks are a disgrace to gaming, controller controls are so bad, the game automatically LOCKS ONTO A TARGET when you aim. You might think this is easier compared to no aim assist on PC, but it is very hard and sometimes impossible(enemies ducking behind a car or wall,etc) to cycle through enemies with the auto lock, thus making it frustrating and easy to die. Moving is also clunky on console, GTA 4 has a weighted feel, like Killzone. It is hard to describe, but it feels like you're lagging when you're moving the camera of trying to move Niko with analogue sticks. Sixaxis controls on PS3 is also a gimmick. You can only fly helicopters, reload a weapon, and drive a motorcycle with sixaxis, and it is near impossible to fly/drive with it.*The console version runs at 20-30 FPS and frequently drops to 10fps when you blow things up or look far away(no fps drop when cars explode in PC version surprisingly for me)*The console version is very ugly and not full HD. GTA4 vanilla is very bland and ugly, even on max settings on PC(the only way to make it look good is through modding), so the console version is extremely ugly. There are jaggies everywhere, blurry shadows, blurry textures, texture/item pop in, low traffic, no night shadows, extremely low view distance, and more...*no modding support on PS3/Xbox. Modding massively expands the replay value and overall enjoy of games. Do you want to be a cop like in real life? There's a mod for that: LCPD first response. There's basically a mod for anything because the community is so huge. You can even replace the stupid real world look alike cars in GTA4 with real Ferrari's and stuff.MODDING IS NOT HACKING!!!*Minimum requirements in my opinion for smooth gameplay are:Quad core(CPU heavy game)4gb+ of ram(it hogs ram like crazy)video card with over 1gb of vram(you need 2gb of vram to max out the game, it's stupid)7200rpm hdd(you want the game to load as fast as you can because waiting 2-5minutes to boot up the game is no fun)Here are the list of mods I use:Icenhancer 1.3ultimate textures v2road textures by dkt70real traffic spawnand over 40 individual car mods and counting