This will be written from a gamer’s perspective and will focus on the GTA experience. This blog will not discuss sales, and will disregard anything that may or may not be coming in the future. Being so prevalent on the site lately, this writer figured it best to clear the air of misconceptions and sweep the lies under the rug.
Grand Theft Auto IV, releasing April 29, 2008, will continue the wildly successful GTA series and is expected to be one of the best games of the year. It will be released on the two next generation consoles, and being such an anticipated game, controversy over which of the two versions would be better was inevitable. Inspired by a recent Slicegaming article, this blog will further explore that idea and go into much more detail.
When an early "review" from a no-name website pointed out that the Xbox 360 version of GTA will have pop ups and frame rate issues, some were quick to point out that the PS3 version would clearly be superior. This blog will not only disprove that, it will show which version is better, from an open mind.
Four main points will be explored in depth, these are: Xbox Live, Achievements, Downloadable Content, and how History agrees with this writer.
Time and time again Xbox Live has proved its worth over the inferior Playstation Network. Xbox Live is meant for social gaming, and with a big part of GTA being multiplayer, the online play clearly goes to the Xbox 360. This can be applied to just about every multiplatform game, but the popularity of GTA will further exemplify how online multiplayer isn't online multiplayer until you've played Xbox Live. The ease in which to play via invites is a simple, yet important little feature that Live has over PSN. On the PS3, invites are nothing but an announcement. Perhaps the most important online quality is another simple one, the microphone. Again, social play is best over Live, where you know your playing with humans, whereas with PSN silent nicknames seem nothing more than bots.
One of the many overlooked features on the Xbox and over Live is achievements. A points system which rewards players for completing games and fulfilling other requirements, achievements add to one’s gamerscore which can be compared with anyone across the globe. When achievements are done well, they can easily double the time spent playing a game because they become so addicting that you have to earn them. On the other hand achievements aren’t always done well, sometimes they’re too easy and sometimes they’re too hard. But judging from Bully: Scholarship Edition, Rockstar clearly showed they know how important achievements are to a game and one can expect the same from Grand Theft Auto IV. Having never experienced them, achievements don’t mean anything to some people. But like I said, a singleplayer only game can all of a sudden be worth a purchase if you have engaging and challenging achievements.
The third main point centers around – the ever present on N4G – GTA IV Downloadable Content. Upon release, it is expected that both versions will be similar in regards to story, but overall only one version will give gamer’s the full package. Originally expected to be released in the New Year, it has been confirmed that DLC for GTA IV will in fact hit Xbox Live by summers end, much sooner than expected, and more content will come in 2009. Although not much is known now the DLC is expected to be in the form of extra missions and possibly extra achievements. Whether it will cost money or not is yet to be determined, but one should assume it will cost money. Even though pretty much nothing is known about the downloadable content, it is an extra and therefore yet another Xbox 360 advantage. Although there is $50,000,000 riding on this downloadable content, so personally I expect it to kick ass.
And the last main point is will discuss the history of multiplatforms and how they always seem to favour the Xbox 360. Just about all games that come out for both consoles seem to have the PS3 version at a disadvantage. This is because of many, many reasons, but the ones most often heard are: frame rates issues, longer loading times, mandatory installs, and problems playing online. And along with all these problems, the PS3 version always lacks what was talked about in main point one and two. Sure, we don’t know anything yet, but I think it is very safe to say that extras aside, the Xbox 360 version will be better.
Clearly you have now learned why one version of GTA will be better than the other, but now personal matters will be discussed that may or may not reflect the majority, yet important nonetheless.
Rated the best overall controller over at Cnet, the Xbox 360 controller has a simplistic design and is very ergonomically friendly. It works best for shooters, but also excels in games thought impossible to control well on a console. Some say the D-pad is its downfall, having never used the D-pad while playing a game I can’t really comment. It isn’t that the PS3 controller is bad…it just lacks the huge jump made from the Xbox controller to Xbox 360 controller. The Playstation gamepad was great in the late nineties, a good break from the awkward N64 controller. When the PS2 featured the exact same controller it didn’t seem like that big of a deal. But when I got a chance to use the Xbox controller, it was obvious Sony had fallen behind. And now, over a decade later and the PS3 has the exact same controller as it predecessors. To make matters worse, a massive component, rumble, was forgotten about and was only corrected recently. I’ll be very generous on both ends and estimate that there are 12 million incomplete controllers and 1 million next generation controllers out there for the PS3. Considering the vast majority of PS3 owners do not own a controller with rumble, and that new consoles won’t have the rumble controller implemented, I easily give the controller competition to the Xbox 360.
This wasn't meant to be a fanboy rant and honesty was used to its fullest extent. Console allegiances aside, you will find it hard to not agree with most of the above points.
In the future, these main points may someday change, but for now it is undeniable that the Xbox 360 with have that best version of the Grand Theft Auto IV.
We were expecting problems with mod support, but there are a lot of other issues.
This is why you get the GOG version on gog you can select the version of the game to download.
On pc fallout 4 fallout new vegas and skyrim are all broken on steam because they all got the same "next gen" update.
Skyrim dec 2023
https://www.pcgamer.com/sky...
Can not find new vegas but anyone that modded it knows the script extender there was also broken
Not accidental, they want modders to stop modding their older games to force them to mod Shitfield.
There doing the same on starfield with a mods store and blocking mods
There goal is like blizzard and what they did with fallout 76 you make mods they can sell and you become a slave.
On skyrim they have "trusted" mod devs now basically a badge that lets your mod on the store you get a crumb of the sale when someone buys it.
lol to the disagrees, the last Skyrim update broke mods too. They've been trying to kill mods to monetize them in creation club for years, it's not a stretch that they purposely put out patches just to break free mods.
The disagrees are from people who have common sense. They aren't trying to kill mods. Most mods for any game will break with a new update because they rely on files/code that have been changed. This isn't new. Even with Bethesda this would happen way before the creation club. Mod support is literally one of the things that got Bethesda to where they are, and they're one of the only devs that releases comprehensive mod tools for each of their games.
Over 14 GBs and doesn't change much at all? What? Taking up that much drive space for a pathetic 'remastering' is shameful.
Par for Bethesda.
LOL people are actually expecting massive improvements or something? From Bethesda?? the same people who released Skyrim multiple times and the all look like shit? THAT Bethesda? are people for real?
As of right now, there are no monopolies in the games industry, and for the sake of the medium as a whole, they never should either.
And yet the biggest tech companies in America are essentially that. They buy up all the small comps only to kill them off and steal what they have, and if they can't buy em they bleed them to death.
Eventually they’ll realize the value is with the employee not the company. Buying an IP means nothing if the people who contributed are let go. They’ll get it one day.
tech is different because they buy threats and then kill them. Twitter bought Vine and did nothing with it. Despite people seemingly liking it. Could've had tiktok a decade before bytedance. go figure.
They buy IPs not talent. That's why these buyouts never work and the IPs die. Right now it's too expensive to develop games - but I expect that to shift maybe as AI tools can make it easier. The best games have been indie games for awhile as big developers fuck their ips to death with "games as a service" -
A voice actor from The Coalition's third-person shooter series, Gears of War, has hinted at a new game announcement coming in June.
Hopefully Microsoft will go back to the original story line and get away from that woke nonsense from the last Gears game Gears of Woke! But were talking about Microsoft so all the betting money is on more of the same woke nonsense.
I'm pretty sure most people will disagree with you on the achievements thing as it's more like a bragging right then anything else. On Xbox live your right but the counter argument to that would be how many people are going to playing death matches(or whatever the online component will be)online, as opposed to enjoying the main game. On the DLC front it does have more content than the PS3 but the counter argument to that can be you don't know what the DLC is going to be yet so you can't make that judgment. It will most likely be some extra episodes or a new area of the city, but you have to pay for that. And on the controller front the counter argument can be that everyone played GTA on the PS with the Dualshock controller so it will feel natural to them, regardless of whether it's not "ergonomically sound". That being said I want to approve this to see how it'll get received cause you do make some good points but they will be overshadowed by fanboyism, which i'm sure you already know.
TOTAL FLAMEBAIT YOU CANADIAN FANBOY!!! =P
My eyes are bleeding...hehe
Although i agree with your points, because of MY preferences, they are not really facts. Sorry bud, had to say it. Your saying the same thing everyone says in terms of the 'better' multiplats. The things you state doesnt make GTA better for the xbox, it only makes it a slightly diffrent experience from the PS3. Controller preference and things of that nature are preferences. Just cause i like the xbox controller doesnt mean everyone else does.
One thing you have done, is that you have already made up your mind into which one is better, without even playing them. Bad thing to do.
You also say things that you dont know for sure. What if DLC is just a shirt and a tie, or extra missions, would you still care then. Would you still say it's superior because of it? And how do you know that this isnt gonna be better for the ps3 (in terms of tech). What if what that dude said in his 'review' was true, what if the ps3 version played better and had a little more features.
Alls im trying to say is, play the game before you judge.
This title is misleading, as no one (aside from a few previewers) have even touched the game yet. Even if you really think your version is going to be better, shouldn't you at least play it first before making this post?
I think you made a grammatical error. "This will be written from a gamer’s perspective". I think you meant to say "fanboy's" perspective.
On the controller argument - Seriously, are you not willing to accept that a controller is a PREFERENCE? Please answer that question for me, please tell me that controller choice is NOT based on opinion, and tell ME that the 360 controller is better. It has to be better right? You told me so, so that must make it true.
On the achievements argument - Ok, you got me there, I love achievements for my 360, but what you might not have known, is that the ps3 version will be incorporated into home, and will have a room dedicated to it. Sure thats not a whole lot, but I would consider it enough to the extent of "extra content".
Previous Multi-Platform argument - That is a dead horse my friend, that you can no longer beat. Burnout Paradise had better graphics on the ps3, only very very very very very slightly though, and pretty much all multi-platform games within the last 2 or 3 months have been equal to its 360 counterpart, so that point is invalid, and can no longer be used.
Xbox Live argument - Yes, xbox live is a much much more social network than psn, and yes, there are basically no people that have headsets, or use them with the ps3. There are more people on xbox live than there are on psn, and I definately prefer xbox lives social features over psn's, in fact, its probably the best online experience Ive ever had (Gears of War with my REAL friends), but if you don't care who you are playing with, or don't give 2 sh*ts about talking to them, then ps3s network takes the cake on that one. Why? Because its FREE. One shouldn't have to pay for basic online features, but that's another argument.
You make some good points, but every one of them can be countered (controller argument, achievements), or reasoned with (i.e. "extra content). I am glad that you did not point out something as stupid as "custom soundtracks" which does not belong in this discussion at all, since it does not pertain to the actual game itself, but the console.