[BLOG] GTA 4 PC is FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL

UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA:Redwood City, CA Icrontian
edited November -1 in Community
So I got some Christmas money, decided to buy GTA 4 on the PC with it. I'm not a typical obsessive fan of the series, but the technology implemented (most notably the Euphoria intelligence engine) had me excited in a way that only graphics and interactive technology can get this old geek.

I read that it was a bad port, performance sucked, glitches abound, DRM, ect. I, against my typical better judgement, shrugged it off. My system is powerful, I shouldn't have these problems.

Oh, how wrong I was.

The game took about 2 and a half hours to install. I wish I was exaggerating that, but @WNDUPhenom on Twitter was there the whole time to witness it. It was awful. Then once I finally had it installed, I had to sign up for Rockstar's Social Club, as well as Games for Windows FAIL (though I already had this due to Gears of War). Then once I finally booted up the game, it downloaded an update for LIVE, then restarted the game. Then after I got BACK into the game, it made me accept the LIVE terms of service. OK fine, but there was still a catch. It would minimize the game, LAUNCH a web browser, and make me accept the terms there. Better yet, once the browser launched, the page couldn't be found! Not to mention the page was on the XBOX section of the site, not the games for windows section. So I had to find the ToC myself, THEN accept it, THEN relaunch the game.

Then it let me play.

The game is fun, so I could almost forgive all of that. But the performance issues were very present. I ran the game at 1650X1050 with all settings on medium and averaged 17-20 FPS. Now you've gotta be kidding me, I get better framerates in Crysis on the Very High settings at that same resolution. There is no convincing me that GTA 4 has more intensive graphics techniques implemented than Crysis. My rig, shown on my profile is no slouch. It should eat this game alive.

But I tried to ignore it, and persisted.

Rockstar released a patch the other day, 'fixing' many performance issues. Well, that's what the dev notes said anyways. I downloaded it the other day but hadn't tried playing.

I've had a rough week. It's been long, it's been stressful, and today I had a rare bit of free time before work, and I was a little gloomy, so I thought playing a game might make things better.

Fired up GTA4 and loaded up my game. To my complete surprise, my character would spin in circles nonstop, as if I was mousing up/left infinitely. Outside of that, I had no input at all. Something was inhibiting my commands in game. I restarted the game, restarted my PC, nothing fixed the problem. It seemed as if the game thought I had an XBOX controller attatched, for it was shown in the options.

I don't have said controller. I have an old Logitech USB rumblepad. It's currently in my drawer, most definitely NOT plugged into my PC.

I switched it off, souring my mood even more. Did some research, and found this nugget of joy . Take a look at the section about the look/spin/stuck key issue. Look at their solution. Just look at it. I'll wait.

...

Back? Are you facepalming as bad as I did? Rockstar's serious, literal, honest-to-god temp fix is that the gamers UNINSTALL their directinput drivers for their input devices.

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. OF ALL THE ABSURD THINGS I'VE EVER SEEN. I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS. I BROKE MY CAPS LOCK IN RAGE.

I.. I can't get over how insulting this port is. And the best part of all of this? I don't even have a controller plugged in or installed, so their bogus temp fix doesn't even work for me!

I can't play GTA 4 until they release another patch. How's that spent money treating me? Piss-poor, that's how.

Comments

  • jokerz4funjokerz4fun Michigan Icrontian
    Total crap!!! Activision is the same way, problem after problem with COD4. They wanted me to uninstall my audio drivers so the game would work. WTF is that.
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    I'm 25. I won't stand for someone younger than me referring to themselves as an "old geek". :p

    Thanks for warning me off of this, though. I could see myself trying it out someday when I have money again.
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    Yeah, I'm at gamestop right now. I meant to click my bank shortcut, but I got icrontic instead. Saw the GTA4 thing, read it and now I'm walking out of here with my replacement controller, without GTA4. Thanks for that.
  • revorocksrevorocks England, East Sussex, Hove Member
    Well, I got GTA 4 on ther day it came out.
    My machine isnt much, and at first the game was running at 1 frame every 30 seconds.
    I reastarted it twice then suddenly the game was playable. I only get 19 fps max but its playable.
    this is at 800x600 and med settings.
    Now ive patched it, the game wouldnt even launched. I had to reinstall it, then it worked.
    Now I get a max of 33 fps and min of around 12
    Its playable atlast!
    But yes R* have made a big messup of GTA 4 PC. All of thise Social club and games for windows live crap just makes it a nightmare.
    Such a shame because its such a great game :(

    CONGRATULATIONS R*
  • fatcatfatcat Mizzou Icrontian
    Weird. The only issue I had was I didnt have .NET 3.5 installed.

    You are using the new nvidia 180.84 drivers correct?

    Rockstar does state that to run the game with all the eye candy you need SLI or Crossfire.

    But with a GTX 260 1920x1080 with high settings on I average 35-40fps.
  • fatcatfatcat Mizzou Icrontian
    oh, and one other thing, [H] reviewed the game using a quad and it showed all 4 cores being used about 65%

    good read http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTU5Niw5LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
  • UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA: Redwood City, CA Icrontian
    Fatcat - I did download the drivers after I installed it. It did boost framerates by about 5 FPS more... that's about it. Still, that doesn't help the fact that my controller is locked spinning.

    Not to mention, saying you have to use SLI for all eyecandy is a poor excuse for a lazy port. There is absolutely no convincing me that you need that much juice to play this game.

    You know, this game WILL be good on PC. Eventually. They'll probably patch it enough until it works. And once that happens, it'll be worth the money. BUt in the mean time, we're stuck with a very unpredictable mess.

    Because of all of this, early reports are showing poor sales figures for GTA4 PC.

    And do you know what'll happen next? Rockstar will come out and say it- 'PC gaming is dead.' and they'll probably limit, if not stop selling their games on the platform.

    Honestly, they'd probably be doing us a favor. But Mark my words, it'll happen.

    Just like Cliff did with Gears of War 2. PC is dead! No one wants to play on that platform! We're not releasing our game on the platform because it's worthless! (even though they will eventually. Trust me).

    And you know why he said that? Because they released a shoddy port with bad games for windows support.

    It's the classic story that keeps on going.
  • revorocksrevorocks England, East Sussex, Hove Member
    My 8500 GT gets more fps than my friends 4870 X2!
    The game and drivers just dont work with the together very well yet. A bit like Crysis when it first came out.
  • yea atleast you can play it, i get an error, and yes i looked it up, saying i need windows vista service pack 1, hehe yea i kno i must've missed it because i was surprised it was just that simple, 3 hours later im angry and stuff because of course i get an error when i install the server pack too >.< pretty irritated now i spent money on a game and it wont work W T F?
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