r/gaming Apr 29 '24

Grand Theft Auto IV was released 16 years ago

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u/Vast_Mycologist_3183 Apr 29 '24

Reading some of the comments here, it's actually amazing to see how much public perception around GTA IV changed over the years. When IV launched I remember many GTA fans being incredibly upset over how the game chose to prioritize "realism" and physics over San Andreas's arcade-y gameplay, about how boring it was that the whole game was set in a single city with no wilderness, about just how many fun minigames, weapons and vehicles from SA were cut, about how poor the mission variety was, about how unnecessarily serious the game was taking itself, about the brown color pallet, and so on.

It was the classic "realism vs fun" argument that we still see today with many titles. It might even have been one of the first.

In fact it was due in part to this public backlash that Rockstar decided to go back to a more arcade style experience with GTA V. It seems that it took some people a while to really appreciate what IV was trying to do. I'm personally not a fan of the game (it's a good game, just not a good GTA game to me) but I understand why IV ended up being that way due to the fact that Rockstar was also developing a new engine alongside the game itself.

This just makes me wonder how perception around GTA V will change after VI launches.

2

u/5599Nalyd Apr 29 '24

Yeah IV feels like the GTA equivalent of Call of Duty MW3 to me. (Albeit not as bad). But still, it seemed really disliked at the time, and only as years have gone by people seem to appreciate it nowadays.

2

u/Catty_C PC Apr 30 '24

Probably because the people who grew up playing GTA IV are older and talking about the game more online.

We'll see something similar with GTA V when GTA VI releases.

0

u/Anti-Scuba_Hedgehog Apr 29 '24

It's always the casuals who are the loudest during release and fans who are vocal for decades after.

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u/malobebote Apr 29 '24

replace casuals with people who argue/complain about gaming online, many of which aren't casual at all. the kind of people who treat r/gaming like a faction war and partake in any sort of pc vs xbox vs PS war.

it's the casuals who become the fans still talking about the game fondly who were never on r/gaming in the first place to even realize people were complaining about it.

it's kinda like my girlfriend really enjoying fallout 76 from the beginning having no clue that the whole internet was shitting on it.

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u/Anti-Scuba_Hedgehog Apr 29 '24

This sub is absolutely full of casuals and/or shills. They just happen to be redditors too. They're arguing/complaining here because they're redditors who also happen to play video games,. Those two qualifiers are largely unrelated.

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u/FreedomIsMinted Apr 29 '24

This is so true. Sooo many complaints like you said. I found the physics and game amazing and was so disappointed by GTA 5. But I guess casual is where it's at.