Will GTA V be the next GTA IV?

Grand Theft Auto IV got universal critical acclaim and a 98% Metacritic score. But not too long after, and especially as we look years later, a lot of people were disappointed by it, and a lot of fans outright didn't like it. Of course, now we're free to criticize it as much as we want, but AT THE TIME, it really was a total boss.

Grand Theft Auto V garnered just as much sales and hype as GTA IV. Right now it's top dog, but 4 years later are we going to look and say "Wow 97%, this is overrated". Part of it has to due with the nature of GTA games becoming obsolete due to increased realism in games.

But possible things people will be saying about GTA V years from now:

- The graphics are dated (I'd argue that they are dated even now)

- Story wasn't all that impressive; it was tough for Rockstar to juggle three protagonists

- Los Santos was rather oversized, and a denser city with more interiors could have helped.

- The game is still almost entirely, drive to point A, shoot enemies, drive to point B. (No trip skips)

- Some of the heists had little actual choice or planning, and the heists you could plan had very few and straightforward options (the expensive guy thats good or the cheap guy that sucks).

- The cop-chasing and pedestrian harassing mechanisms really hasn't changed meaningfully

- It made no real revolutionary changes (4 had amazingly realistic graphics for its time and San Andreas had a giant world for it's time). Refinements yes, no fundamental changes. GTA V feels as derivative as it's always been. Three character structure is nice, but doesn't fundamentally change the game.

It's still an amazing game. At least for now, so enjoy it.

Nah

Depends. The reason I didn't like GTA4 was the broken controls and sh*tty level design (+ no checkpoints)

Does GTA5 have those problems?

GTA IV felt like it was a downgrade from San Andreas in all aspects except for graphics. Even before I played the game, I could see that, from all the gameplay videos I watched. Not feeling that with GTA V.

No GTA V was an improvement on GTA IV in every way possibly the best GTA game made.

Completely agreed TC, i'm rather disappointed with gta v.

Some silly things that made San Andreas awesome:

Having a gang

gang fights

Physique customization, muscled, average or fat.

NITROUS!

SA despite what R* says feels bigger, and i'm pretty sure it is lol, way more cities, even though smaller, and way more roads.

Last but not least i hate the fact you can't whistle to taxi cabs, wtf.

I'd say the 3 protagonist structure is their main innovation in V, at least in the way they're boasting it. It works well enough it is probably here to stay for future gta games, while receiving refinements on this aspect just like all their previous innovations get improved with each iteration.

No, GTA 4 wasn't a good game in 2008, and liking it required one to like fundamental bad game design.

For all it's short comings GTA 5 is a fun game. There are better thought out gameplay decisions in GTA 5. It's still up its own Rockstar ass at times, but otherwise it's actually fun to play beyond just dicking around online.

Yes and no. The single player is disappointing, but the online multiplayer surpasses almost all games that came before it on the 360/PS3. GTA IV was consistently in the top 10 most played games 5 years after it's release: a rare feat.

But I think mainly people were impressed with the graphics and realism. For the first time, it felt like the player was in a real live city. We look now and say that's far from realistic, but for it's time, it was nearly as impressive as Soul-Calibur for it's time.

GTA IV bore me to death, at least GTA V has an appealing story. I haven't played GTA V yet so i can't comment on the controls but i believe it's way better than IV.

GTA IV is a great game and it always will be.

GTA V is a masterpiece, but IV is a superior game.

No. GTA IV felt like a sequel to GTA III, a downgrade from San Andreas. I didn't like the main character, i didn't like the soundtrack and the missions lacked variety and felt boring.

GTA V, on the other hand? I love this game. This is the sequel to San Andreas, i loved the characters, i loved the soundtrack, i pretty much loved everything about the story. The writting was good, Trevor and Michael were wonderfully written and extremely memorable.

So no, at least i won't ever say anything negative about GTA V. And 4 years from now, i'll have probably replayed it 5 - 10 times.

Trevor and Michael are the best characters in a GTA game. Agree?

I didn't like GTA IV but i'm loving GTA V its way better than GTA IV in every way.

GTA 4 was and still is a good game.

GTA 5 is an amazing game and both games deserved their 97-98% Metacritic ratings.

GTA5 betters everything great about GTA4 which is what you expect from a sequel

Well, I was disappointed in it. I love it, but it was disappointing. I don't even know if I would rank it over GTA4 and its expansions.

Still gonna go through it again to see if that'll change.

I'm currently playing GTA IV since I didn't like it in the past; however, I've grown attached to it's rather awkward control scheme and it's nonsensical car handling. That being said, I think GTA V is it's own experience and nothing more. It doesn't need GTA IV's score or it's plot to be great. GTA V has something that not many of the games in the series have: character. Los Santos is filled with several characters that I honestly can't dislike (except for the therapist, goddamn is he useless) and the three main protagonists are memorable. The game world feels more lush and engrossing in GTA V, rather than the bland grays and browns of GTA IV.

Will GTA V be the next GTA IV? No, it doesn't need to be. With the direction it's been given, it'll be remembered for fixing all the problems GTA IV had (though, in my opinion, I think they made shooting in vehicles WORSE in GTA V) and for being a game with so many activities, it's hard to be bored of it.

What were you disappointed about?

The heists. The underwater world. Characters(besides main ones), missions in general. Also the fact that the game doesn't utilize any of the assets it gives you.

Army base. Tanks. Jets. Prison, etc. It also takes away any kind of fun you could've had in free roam mode.
Juggernaut suit isn't unlocked. Would've been nice to have it in your wardrobe as extra protection when you went to go on rampages. The James Bond car is purchasable, yet it doesn't come with the machineguns and spikes, making it totally redundant.

Not to mention the world isn't as good as people make it out to be. Lack of interior is disappointing. You see Cluckin' Bell trucks driving around. Burger shot places everywhere, yet none of those are enterable. Also, there are hotdog stands and you can't use them. It goes on and on.

How can you not love Lazlow? Or Michael's kid? Or the wife? Oh man, or that french yoga instructor.. Hell, the missions felt good, varied and fun as hell to me. What ending did you pick by the way?

Can't imagine one better than C. That ending and song felt as good as sex.

Oh well, can't really add much since i only played the main campaign to completion at a collegue, haven't touched much of the world because, well, i don't have to game to mess around with as much as i would want to. :)

Btw., adding imagines in this forum is fucked up. I just found that out.

I suppose they were good. But I was talking more about mission related characters. In previous GTA games you worked for all kinds of colorful individuals. I miss those. You're working for pretty much the same 2-3 dudes the entire game, and none of those clicked with me.

I didn't find the missions to be that varied. They have so much in common with GTA4, as in, drive somewhere and engage in a shootout. That's fine with me, but people really need tone it down as how crazy or more in-line they are with SA, because they're not. TBOGT offered the craziest missions of them all. Freaks and Strangers is awesome though. No denying that.

Yeah, I went with that ending. Definitely.

Adding images has become quite weird. No simple [img] brackets no more :(

@drekula2: It may end up that way. GTA V was certainly an improvement over GTA IV, and has built on everything Rockstar has done up until this point. Still, it has its flaws, making it fall short of being a masterpiece as many have called it, at least in my opinion. You pointed out some of its flaws in your post, and they were all good points. It is a great game, certainly one worth playing, but due to its popularity and all of the hype I can understand why some fans have blinders on to the game's faults. GTA V still hasn't taken that next revolutionary step forward, like GTA III did for the series. Maybe GTA VI will do that on the next gen consoles. I would like to see more interiors (especially if you can buy a business, you should be able to go inside) and more choice for missions (it was a good point- hire the person with the better ability but give up more of the loot, or keep more of the take and hire someone with inferior abilities did seem to be your only choices. A greater range would've made this more interesting.). Wouldn't mind if they borrowed a bit from Quantic Dream and had no "Game Over" or "Mission Failed" screens. Rather than that, if something goes wrong, keep the story going, or give an option for players to retry if they wished or just proceed. That would make things a bit more interesting. I know I would've liked the choice as to whether to save Michael's family or not- I really couldn't stand them. But it would make for a neat dynamic if one of the crew would fall, and watch the story unfold as the others deal with that. Just a thought.

We should just cut the bullsh!t and address All Of Rockstar Games' work this entire generation. Assuming people can stop killing hookers long enough to have a meaningfull discusion, on system wars no less.

Popularity.

Once it reaches a point where everyone has the game then the praise will turn negative and it will be cool to hate it.

Just like every other game.

Grand Theft Auto IV (and BoGT) are fine games, and Niko and Luis are better protagonists than Mike, Trevor and Franklin.

With that said, GTAV is a stronger game through and through. And despite some warts and some in-game features (like hunting and deep sea diving) being underwhelming, it's the most complete GTA game to date.

GTA 5 was an amazing game I feel sorry for anyone "dissapointed"by it. It scores were justified.

Indeed, the world is big and it looks like there's a ton of stuff you can do...but it's dissapointing how little you can actually do.

I think R* is holding a LOT back for their DLC.

lol no. GTA IV was always crap in regards to game design and mechanics. People sorta knew that abck then but they were just so happy to have a next gen GTA to play.

GTA V while not perfect improved on all the things IV did wrong. So it won't end up the same. People might not like certain things after a while about it but it won't get butchered like IV

I should clarify that I love GTA V and it's better than GTA IV in almost every way (except the story and political themes it tackles on).

GTA IV definitely had FAR more flaws than than GTA V. Colorless graphics which were prone to age. Most missions follow a repetitive structure, and there are only a few actually creative missions. The driving controls were needlessly and unrealistically slow. Lack of checkpoints padded the length. And the money system was horrible.

GTA V doesn't screw up on this level. But when GTA 6 comes out, we will look at GTA 5 and say, "wow, that looks dated".

People were always complaining about GTA IV. It's just that the ones complaining are always the loudest and so it makes it seem like there is nothing but complaining.

In fact a lot of people really liked GTA IV and it was at the time the best sandbox imo.

I really liked GTA V too... and then I finished it. Boy, this has to be the worst ending of a Rockstar game ever. Such a shame to see them coming from a great ending with RDR to something I found was the worst part about the entire game.

True, I missed those too. Where were the Seths and Yusuf Amirs ? The craziest character was Trevor, but that was pretty much it. And he wasn't a side character, he was a main one.

I liked the Heist missions and the setup to them, it made them feel really grand. The strangers and freaks and random encounters were pretty cool too. They were in GTA IV and RDR as well, there just were a lot more of them in GTA V, which is a good thing.

I don't think GTA Online will keep me interested for long, because you always be doing the same as singleplayer: drive & shoot.

GTA 4 is a 4/10 game

GTA 5 is a 5/5 game.

Which one? there are three different endings.

It's not really a spoiler but just to be sure:

Just the way it ended in general. I felt so many things were left unresolved and the story we went through with all the characters didn't go anywhere. Did Franklin become a better criminal from rolling with Trevor and Michael ? Did Michael change his live to become a better husband and father ? Will he leave his criminal past behind to focus on a career in the movie business ? What happens to Trever Enterprises ? The war he had with the Chinese mafia didn't go anywhere, neither did the battle against the Lost. And that is just some of the things I can think of, many more side stories went absolutely nowhere. Many questions remain.

This is a spoiler though, so don't view if you haven't finished:

I killed trevor btw, but I don't think going with another option would've changed how I feel about the ending. I got one less character and no resolution, yay !

This is where you're wrong, because:

Agree with others, GTA V was a return to form for the franchise. I mean riding a BMX down from Mount Chiliad is fun as hell and the kind of simple sandboxy stuff GTA IV lacked. Sure the missions were a bit scripted and the shootouts were not Max Payne 3 quality as I had hoped (worked best for rampage). It was a massive leap forward compared to 4 in every way imo.

with gta v they combined the best of iv (setting, tone, grittiness) and the best of san andreas / bogt (complete over the top, gangsta craziness). a month later and the game is still making me smile.

with iv, the story stagnated around 2/3 of the way in - just like red dead - but v just hasn't slowed down, for me anyway. great to see such care and attention given to the sp... hopefully this will raise the standard for the rest of the industry

GTA 4 gets hate b/c it deserves it. I don't think GTA5 will get as much (i haven't played it yet) but i don't believe it could be a downgrade from 4. (Not saying 4 is so bad that it's impossible for a game to be worse)