How I Spent Over 700 Hours Playing Grand Theft Auto IV

Grand Theft Auto is no doubt one of the most popular video game franchises ever created. It has almost everything a gamer could ever ask for. Cars, guns, violence, crime, and women. It’s an open world for gamers to let loose and forget about all the troubles of the real world.

[BigKev45]

And I didn't

[bluwulf]

This is sad, there is no way that GTA4 was worth 700 hours. Wait, let me double check and make sure hes not talking about San Andreas...Wow.. well.. I don't understand it. But at least he did it and has a decent writeup.

I stopped playing it right after that last bank mission. The game offered absolutely no variety when not doing missions. Money was useless, you could have a kabillion dollars with nothing to do in it outside of play darts with your cousin. I felt the most robbed this gen with the hype & delivery of GTA4.

Different strokes for Different folks. I was expecing San andreas x1000 since we have new hardware. Saints Row offered more of the GTA experience I was looking for, shouldn't be missed if you also feel burned by the series.

[bluwulf]

** Ah, heavily modified PC version, with actual stuff to do. Makes more sense. The way the game was supposed to be. I can dig it.

[phinch]

Disagree with me all you want, but i blame the 360 for the lack of content in GTA4 if they have made it to optimize the ps3, it would have been massive

[Dsnyder]

Saints Row was a shit game. I dont know why the GTA haters still fool themselves into thinking otherwise. Bad story, bad gameplay, glitches, HORRIBLE driving physics, that game cant even compare to GTA. It just makes money doing what GTA was doing LAST generation. GTA is miles ahead or any "competition" this generation.

[bluwulf]

Dsnyder,

Please. GTA clown/n00blets like yourself immediately own yourselves when you start talking about DRIVING physics of all damn things about GTA.

Let me guess, you must have started gaming this gen or something. GTA used to be a top down game, it received major controversy because of what you were able to pull off in the game.The variety of things, Driving hardly mattered then, and it sure as hell doesn't matter now. It was fun, not the difficulty of braking, turning, and throttling. Driving was never a problem in any single GTA game since it wasn't a driving simulator, or even an arcade driving game. Driving was just to get around to killing people. It worked, and it was balanced with the rest of the game.

Define "BAD GAMEPLAY" Because compared to San Andreas, Saints Row offers more variety in gameplay, than GTA4. List examples, because I remember being able to beat anyone to death with anything, rob homes, etc. I doubt you've ever even played Saints Row..

"It just makes money doing what GTA was doing LAST generation."

Is what I will agree with. With things like Owning businesses to make money, Insurance fraud, pistol whipping people to make them open safes, in-game-games like zombie killing, full player customization, vehicle more weapon variety, multiplayer w/co-op, WORKING multiplayer, Planes, UFO's, etc. The story is better and isn't just the same Help mob, now GASP you've been double crossed! Its subjective of course, but GTA4's story is typical.

Saints Row is the spirutual successor to the GTA franchise, offering tons of things to kill/destroy in a sandbox world.

All the GTA noobs can say, who have no concept of the series.. is that it offers Better driving, and graphics. It does not offer better features, weapons, online, customization, or gameplay.Thats all GTA is, and GTA4 didn't deliver a single thing that any of the previous titles were noted for.

Driving. Guys like you ruin gaming. I'm sure you have no problem with Resident evil being a third person shooter now instead of survival horror..

This guy spends 700 hours after downloading custom content & DLC.. which wasn't there at release of the game. Unlike Saints row & San Andreas.

[Kreyg]

@Bulwulf

"This guy spends 700 hours after downloading custom content & DLC"

The gametypes talked about were ones myself and my community created. They are a blast to play.

[bluwulf]

Did u guys just create rules and stuff? or were these mods? Sounds fun.

[Kreyg]

@Bluwulf

We made them all up. These were just things I thought of while I was playing games with the community. Everything in that post is made by us!

No mods, downloads, or any of that. We just stretched what we had and used a little imagination

[Redempteur]

@bluwulf

you don't read .and afterwards you didn't play much GTA back then .

i'll explain why you're mistaken :

"All the GTA noobs can say, who have no concept of the series.. is that it offers Better driving, and graphics. It does not offer better features, weapons, online, customization, or gameplay.Thats all GTA is, and GTA4 didn't deliver a single thing that any of the previous titles were noted for. "

First , as i said before in my post on the page i play GTA since the first .

Second GTA was NEVER about customisation ( NEVER )... Sure it worked in SA , but that was NEVER the focus of the game .Most of all when it worked that was never a high point .
ON GTA4 they focused on the story . if you've seen it you'll see that the story of GTA And add-ons is very good (IMO ) At least everything is solved. There are some tough decisions ( that doesn't always affect the story but let you handle the game the way you want .. and the voice acting is WAY more improved . The productions value were off the roof and it showed ! EVEN without the PC mods the city is quite alive and the attention ot detail is exceptionnal .
besides a coherent storyline is at least more logical ( if you look at GTA1 , GTA LONDON , GTA 3 , GTA VC ) than the mess of story that GTA SA was .. it was crazy , didn't make much sense it was like the bad dream of someone wishing for carnage.

Third Online in GTA 4 is vastly improved .. there more than 15 game types and this article proved that you can get more if you have enough imagination.

Fourth : there are less weapons because there was no need for more .

Is this GTA or call of duty ? Are you playing as an human or the terminator ? in GTA 4 you have 4 explosives types , 5 shotguns , 6 rifles ,4 pistols , knifes, snipers , ect ect . damn it ..i don't have the weapon that were present before. in GTA SA. Is it a game killer ? OF COURSE NOT , most of them weren't even present in GTA3 or the others ..

Fifth , for the first time we have a somewhat realist gravity ( even better for online or driving ) but you guys are complaining .. for what exactly ??? ..the only real flaw is that using an helicopter and shooting is a PAIN.

you keep talking about those GTA "noobs" BUT you 're obviously one of them when you don't even realise how GTA was before SA to make things in perspective.. this is Hilarous..

Shame on rockstar for using high production values to deliver a realistic city with lot of easter eggs and improved multiplayer !!
Shame on rockstar for the hours of content ( shows , spectacles, fake internet , hidden missions or races )

Shame on rockstar because i don't have my ridiculous weapons from SA or my jetpack .. /s

you can praise sain row all you want , it will not change the damn fact that GTA4 is better looking , has a better community and has stronger legs on the long run thanks to the amount of work that was done on the city itself.

DEAL WITH IT

[nveenio]

That's 700 hours of missed sexual encounters...

[NeutralGamer]

"How I Spent Over 700 Hours Playing Grand Theft Auto IV"

By killing off your social life?

[antz1104]

Sorry, gave up on this game when it started giving me the mandatory tutorial on in-game internet.

[saladthieves]

700 Hours??? WTF...people have that much free time?

[Commander_TK]

The majority of gamers have a lot of time. Likely, I have other things to do than sit in front of the tv 24/7.

[saladthieves]

That's what I mean. I don't have time to sit down and put in 700 hours in a game. I have shit to do

[Kreyg]

WEIRD, you say you have "shit to do" yet you've racked up quite an impressive amount of comments on N4G in the last 135 days. I guess "Shit to do" means "troll N4G."

Also, 700 hours over the course of 3 years? That breaks down to about an hour a day. Don't act like you're some sort of elitist.

[jidery]

You gotta understand, Kreyg has his own show where he plays this for thousands of viewers.

[red2tango]

Waste of time LOL

[Ryudo]

What's the definition of a waste of time, is enjoying yourself wasting your time?

Is working really hard all your life only to die and leave your wealth for your family to enjoy time better spent?

Is living life the way you seem fit a waste of time? Who decides who wasted there time and who didn't, who decides if someones enjoying there life or for someone who isn't?

As I can't really answer any of them questions myself, I have only one question is telling someone else they wasted there time a more productive thing to do with your own time?

[Anderson8]

shit just got deep

[red2tango]

I'd rather do productive things than spend 700 hours on a video game. That is the definition of not living your life. If you're trying to be philosophical as a lame excuse to undermine that someone is spending 700 hours on a lame ass game instead of doing something useful and benefiting society.

[Fowack]

"Benefit Society"...

getting all philosophical on us.

This guy probably dosn't kill people, probably pays his taxes and chances are he hasn't violated and children in the past few years.

I think hes made a fair contribution to our "SOCIETY" just by not being a dick head.

The rest of the time playing GTA IV for 70000 hours dosn't hurt me, so i can't see how it would hurt you

[aGameDeveloper]

If any amount of time on a video game (700 is less than 1 hour per day over the 34 months since GTA was released), then spending time reading about and discussing games on N4G is even more of a waste of time. Red2tango has made 740 comments and submitted 12 articles to this site in 687 days, which I suspect works out to at least 700 hours of HIS life wasted, not "living his life".

[outwar6010]

god forbid he discovers oblivion

[sp1deynut]

...yeah, I was thinking I should write an article on how my wife and I spent well over 500 hours on Oblivion. :D

BTW, for the countless kiddies who obviously didn't bother reading ANY of this article, it's basically pointing out how the sandbox online multiplayer allows for a ton of experimentation with custom games...unlike pretty much any other game you could play. Yes, 700 hours sounds like a lot...but think about all of the idiots that spend waaaaay more than that on COD games every year. I'm betting this guy wouldn't touch a COD game either.

Some of the best times I've had this gen, were spent goofing off in online free mode in GTA IV...especially after I found out about the "demonic swingsets" :D

[outwar6010]

lolz i dont know if its just that im soo eager in a new game that i marathon play and do everything asap but i have never spent more than around 90(in mass effect series probably more over multiple characters to) i think oblivion in oblivion i made an uber build and finished the game with messing around in around 50 hours and then i spent the rest of the time trying to completely wipe out towns and cities and then got bored

[Kreyg]

A winner is you!

[Redempteur]

it's too bad the swingsets are a bug and not a properly devellopped feature , otherwise i would have spent way more time with them .

PRO TIP : NEVER TRY the swingsets with a bike ...

[andrew171994]

that guys getting laid tonight

[Kreyg]

Nope, I am not

[Flashwave_UK]

Lol quality^^^^

[lovestospoodge]

"I remember at the time my girlfriend and I were having issues and decided to take a “break,” so I was in the clear of any distractions that might keep me from achieving my goal — it was fucking great. "

this...

[outwar6010]

looool you took a break just to play gta4

[Too_many_games]

wow...you could not have picked a more useless game ...

[AnonUser5555]

That article should go into an addiction textbook.

[BLACKBOIJONES]

Wow..I did this to my GTA4 after the first few hours

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[TheNocturnus]

GTA: Confetti! LOL

[thebudgetgamer]

i've put dozens of hours playing free mode with friends just messing about.

[Sarobi]

I Could understand some one logging that much time on the PC version, console version..eh no

[never_waste_a_bullet]

San Andreas I could see a lot of hours but GTA IV is not worth it.

[trevonn95]

easily the biggest dissapointment this gen :(

[Enzo]

That's nothing Quadrupled that with SOCOM II - along with thousands of other nerds :D

[KongRudi]

I got 769.3 hrs in a singleplayergame called 'X3 Terran Conflict' on Steam, beeing sold for 19,99$, so that's pretty awesome value. :)
Computer crashed tough this weekend, so when I manage to fix it, I will have to start over.. :)

[Redempteur]

i spent 143 hours in GT4 . ( this is including LOST and TONY add-ons )

No regrets .. ( played only 1 hour online , didn't like it )

Those who said that there is nothing to do just haven't looked.

BTW i played GTA 1, GTA 3 BEFORE going into 4 ... ( san andreas a little but couldn't get into it )

[BrianC6234]

I guess everyone has different tastes. San Andreas was my favorite game of the series.

[mightyboot]

I guess the online may be fun to play with friends and stuff.

[BrianC6234]

I just can't get into GTA IV. I played GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas each for months and hardly touched other games. GTA IV though changed too much of what I liked about the games.

[ugabugaz]

I played like 100 hours at MOST, and I'm being generous.
As far as San Andreas goes, well, Let's just say that with multiplayer mods and all I've played for like...60-100 days maybe?
Keep in mind this is spread over six years or so, but it is still alot.

[thedarkvault]

I had one of my biggest GTA4 disappointments yesterday actually, I can't believe how they screwed up and fragmented their online community. I've had the game since launch and have downloaded both DLCs since then. I convinced my friend who loved all the previous games but never had GTA4 to get the box set with all 3. We found out we can only play regular GTA4 or Gay Tony multiplayer together, The Lost and the Damned version in the box set is different from the DLC version so they aren't compatible for online play. Googling the issue shows a couple forum posts dating a year ago so you know they won't patch this.

GTA4 has fragmented their online into 4 groups
-GTA4 standard
-GTA4 Ballad of Gay Tony
-GTA4 Lost and Damned DLC
-GTA4 Lost and Damned Disc

I have hopes for GTA5, they know they need the extras like san andreas had, hopefully they don't separate the online like they did in GTA4, and importantly to make the series continue to stay relevant they need to add in real co-op.

[MoeThirteen]

Wow, debbie downer brigade out in full force.

I love GTA 4 and I could probably play it 700 hours myself.

This was super well done with pics, videos, and ingenuity. Bravo!

[turgore]

getting through the campaign was a chore and after it was done, there was nothing left to do. huge letdown.