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Grand Theft Auto IV

Grand Theft Auto IV

General Information
Genre Original developer Originally released Current developer Remade in MP amount of players Characterization
Sandbox, Action Rockstar North 2008 Rockstar North 2009 (PC port) No MP available Sequel
Specific Information
Category Specifics Sources / Comments
Purchase Copy purchase SubscriptionFree to play$19.99 as of 2018
Cut ContentGraphicCharacterGameplay Expansions OtherMany vendors still sell the game without the EFLC expansions, over a decade since the game's original release.
CensorshipLanguage Violence NudityAustralian version is extensively censored, with almost all blood removed.
DRMuPlaySteamDenuvoOrigin Other DRM-FreeAh, SecuROM. The game is installed over two discs, and only tells you at the very end, as part of this cursed form of DRM (>implying DRM is ever good), that you need to "check the release date", which since 2014 will always fail for some unknown reason. In order to get this to work you need to set your computer calendar to 2013 or earlier. No, I'm not joking.
In-game purchasesCosmeticsBoostersItemsCharactersMapsOtherNone, as GTA IV came out prior to this period.
Paid DLCCosmeticsBoostersSoundtrackItemsCharactersMaps Expansions Episodes from Liberty City, see cut content.
Free DLCCosmeticsBoostersSoundtrackItemsCharactersMapsExpansions
Modding support Banned NoneLimitedFullIV was the first PC release of Grand Theft Auto since GTA 2 in 1999 that did not support third-party modding out of the box, and the first in the entire series that was specifically designed to disallow it.
False advertising No YesUnless you include the fact this isn't the fourth game in the series (it's between the 8th and the 11th, depending on whether or not you include the two London expansions for GTA 2 and GTA Advance), or minor inconsequential stuff such as fingerless gloves.
Demo availability No YesNo demos were ever released.
Bugs at launchNoneInsubstantialModerate Heavy Several gamebreaking bugs, later fixed by patches.
MultiplayerLocalOfficial server P2P LAN User servers UnofficialNot available anymore.
Moderation (online)NoneInsubstantial Moderate HeavyThough this is now pointless, see below.
Comparison to originals / fanmade mods
Category Included in GTA IV Included in originals / fanmade mods Sources / Comments
Higher Resolutions Yes No Goes up to 1080p. Good luck getting higher than 800 x 600 if you have more than 2GB of video memory on your own though, thanks to the retarded hardware detector.
Online Multiplayer No Yes MP support ended in 2014, several months before the release of GTA Online on the PC.
Updated Textures No Yes No real need, but here's the kicker: Because the game was ported so shittily, certain texture/reflection related things eat up huge chunks of the available memory if you have them set to max; they scale up depending on your hardware.
Bug Fixes No Yes Took until November 2016 for Rockstar to issue a patch which fixed several game-breaking bugs.
Offline Multiplayer No Yes Was never included, but can be modded in.
Offline Saving No Yes The game will not allow you to save your games to your computer, unless you download third-party patches.

Gamer's Opinion

It's quite frankly amazing the game runs at all. It makes SA's port look like a masterpiece in comparison. To put things in perspective, the default control scheme doesn't even allow you to fly the helicopters; those functions are unbound.

First thing the setup asks you to do when you insert the first disc is to install R* Games Social Club. Not the game, not DirectX, not even .NET components. The game aggressively pushes the user into creating an account, however, this is entirely optional.

What isn't optional is the next thing the game asks you to create an account for; Games For Windows Live. A service which has been abandoned by Microsoft since 2014, and it's the only means as to which one can save their game via a vanilla copy of the game.

Now, there was this addon called XLiveless that came out about a year after the game launched, and disables all GFY (my personal abbreviation for GFWL) components, as well as saving games to your Documents folder LIKE IT SHOULD HAVE FUCKING BEEN TO BEGIN WITH.

But here's a small catch; if you don't change the file location that the game shortcut links to, you get drunk camera mode which was specifically designed to target PIRATES and not LEGIT PAYING CUSTOMERS.

Oh and, one last thing regarding the SecuROM:
If for whatever reason your hard drive is in the throes of dying, in need of replacement or infected/corrupted somehow, there's one thing you absolutely have to do before you can do anything else, and that's revoke your license to the copy of the game in question, in this case GTA IV.

Otherwise SecuROM ensures you will never be able to install it ever again.

Your hard drive dies randomly?
Congrats on your $20 paperweight.
Cuz you ain't ever getting that disc to work again.