GTA IV set the foundation of future big Rockstar projects that would make billions (GTA V RDR2) and even till this day ragdoll physics and AI interaction is some of the best in open world game. It's still hard to believe what Rockstar had achieved in 2008 it's a true miracle in gaming industry.
I view GTA IV as the turning point to Rockstar's modern era. From the storytelling, ragdoll physics, use of RAGE engine, the choice of activities and customization in the world in relation to the story.
I wouldn't say "some of the best" when it comes to the ragdoll physics, I'd say they are still unmatched by any other developer. Everyone else is still using pre-canned animations that transition into lifeless & sometimes boneless ragdolls. Euphoria is insane.
Having the map be smaller but more dense with detail was definetaly the right call. Same reason why I don't mind Leonida not being THAT huge if it means we get more enterable interiors and stuff to do!!!
I get you. That said, i do wish Westchester County (Yonkers, Ossining etc) was included. Or at the very least, Rockstar wouldn't have abbreviated the Bronx. Because of all the locales, the Bronx was rendered the least believable.
It was my plan to have it as a first game too, but i didn't had the money, so i spend first on a cheaper game just to have something to play on my Xbox 360. I still have my 360 and the game.
I think GTA was the game you got with the new console lol. The GameStop guys suggested GTA with the PS3, but my parents got MW1 because we where still a bit young. We managed to convince grandma the next year xD Ofc we where like "Yeah it's mostly a driving game". Didn't think twice to hijack someone at gun point to show them the driving part.
When the game was released it completely changed everything with physics and so much more and the animations from the beta version are actually from Liberty City Stories they probably mixed up the beta with other games and 2D and 3D universe as well to make it more HD
@@jytvreal well yes but Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories we're kind of the exact same engine like Vice City except the features were different and the noises for some guns and vehicles can sound the same
This is true some of the female peds use the manhunt's reporter running animation in retail gta iv as well as the stories sprint animation on some male peds
I remember playing GTA 4 for the first time and walking into a clothing store to find out there is no loading screen, just walking straight through the door. My mind was blown
IV released on my mothers 32 birthday. I was so hyped to get the game when she got off work that I forget it was her day. I’m 32 now. I’m praying Gta VI makes me neglect my wife & kids 🙏🏻
I feel like the real reason they removed airplanes was 9/11. rockstar may be really edgy but it would be really controversial to have a lot of people recording WTC crashes in GTA IV.
My actual name is Nico and I was on the bowling team in high school, I joined the bowling team simply because there was no chess team, and yes I love it when people make the GTA IV bowling memes with me.
When the game was coming out there was an article in a gaming magazine that said nikos hair could actually grow over the course of the game, like in RDR2. Obviously that feature was cut but i dont believe the hairstyle is in only for the benefit of wearing hats, it was probably just handy that they had already created the hairstyle and could use it for hats too @AshPuppy
@@randyandy2809 Gaming magazines say things all the time. They will take a little information about something they hear from the devs in an interview, speculate on what it COULD become without any evidence, and then post it in an article as fact. No dev has ever said that feature was going to happen. As well, the hairstyle for hats is given ID 0, which is literally the base model. It was always and forever going to be a hat model and nothing more.
Rockstar has always been secretive, and it worked. The difference is you have the internet full of entitled little dumbass kids with main character syndrome that think everything needs to be given to them.
it's really crazy that this game is already 16 years old. When you think of it, the change between games from 1992 and 2008 were extremely drastic and over time it wasn't as signifcant since then, especailly when we compare GTA San Andreas with GTA IV and GTA IV with GTA V.
@@cj16423 no, but its san andreas so it'd be easy to mod in, and it might already be on the todolist. its pretty good map wise, entire usa in gta sa quality
GTA IV was revolutionary for it's time. Most of the kids who grew up playing GTAO will never understand the hype. It annoys me that even Rockstar doesn't give GTA IV the love and attention it deserves.
What's with these cliques saying "they will never understand this"? Dude, it's a video game-they don't need to understand anything other than enjoying it.
GTA IV official online is dead. A lot of old DRM locked games becomes unplayable. You had to be there when it came out for most of the experiences which do sucks but is a real thing / problem
GTAIV was the biggest disappointment. The PC release was worse than 2077's console release but only 2077 got majorly fcked while Rockstar just gets a pass every time they deliberately screw the consumer.
Such a comforting yet bittersweet look back at one of my favorite games of all time. Echoing everyone else: I can't believe it's been sixteen years. GTA IV came out at the perfect time for me. I was 14, where it seems nostalgia hits strongest. Seriously what a year to be a 14 year old boy; The Dark Knight, GTA IV, Iron Man, Metal Gear Solid 4, Left 4 Dead, and so many other great movies and games came out. I'm curious what 14 year olds nowadays will look back on as fondly.
@@dudemp4 I would agree in some parts, disagree in others. GTA 5 is also admittedly leagues ahead of alot of other games, imo it's really one of the gold standards for open world modern sandboxes. Only thing that came close to even touching it imo is Watch Dogs 2 in terms of creating a believable and interesting world.
Interesting note about the cars is that basically all of them are based around 90s - 00 models and not 2008. Even the Supercars. Maybe cars were finished years before the game was out.
Basing on both Hollick's and Liotta's experience with Rockstar's tendency of not paying their voice actors well enough, I think Vladimir would probably regret working with them more than not. So I say he dodged a bullet.
I remember the excitement while waiting for GTA IV to install on my brand new laptop back in christmas 2008. It seemed to take forever... Then I jumped into the game after the messy activation and boy that nvidia 8600M nearly shat itself lol... Still, even at such low details and resolution I couldn't believe how realistic everything looked and felt. I was so used on the 3D games physics that I couldn't even control Niko correctly for a few hours lol. Then a few months later I managed to get together some money and bought a used PC with a Phenom x4 9850 and Radeon HD 3870 and enjoyed the game in all it's glory. I also have a hard time realising it's been 16 years and that consoles like PS3 are nearing retro status lol. To me when I think of PS3, 360, Windows Vista or games like GTA IV, they are still new in my brain. Like they are hardcoded like that forever : P
13:25 as someone who followed IGN back in the day it's weird hearing Hilary being referred to as a woman. Much like the getaway driver in Vice City he's very much a guy
Gta co op would be amazing. Like i remember discovering the co op in san andreas and it blew my child mind, it was so cool and having that be like a saints row 2 co op experience would be awesome. Im not gonna say i havent enjoyed gta online because ive had lots of fun with it, but it still doesnt fill the same hole that saints row 2 co op does, i dont wanna do a lot of the stuff again or grind for millions of dollars just to buy maybe 1 car. I remember grinding roof top rumble over and over again on the 360 because it was the only good way to get money, theres no point a to b story that you can win at, you just grind for ever. When you can play the ENTIRE saints row 2 and 3 champaign co op, and it works great. its great fun and i havent seen many games hit that same mark in a long time, i dont get why companies are so focused on MMO. Like i even think co op fallout could be something that does well, like fallout 76 is cool but it suffers the same issues gta online does in comparison to saints row 2. Uou could even say it similar to how Wo Long fallen Dynasty is compared to say the way the dark souls games does co op. Wo long is better because you can almost seamlessly play through the game co op.
Just finished GTA 4‘s Main Story a Month ago for the first time! What a great game. It was the last GTA I had to play to have played every main GTA game. Unfortunately the DLC TLATD won’t work on my PC at a Certain mission so I won’t be able to finish it. Great Video Badger!
Wow, I wish I could play it again for the first time. I would chirp like a bird. You should pick up a PS3 for cheap and play The ballad of gay tony and The lost & the damned!
@@lesterbronson2385 I have a PS3 with GTA 4 but my Controller broke and neither my PS4 nor my PS5 Controller will work with it. 😂 That’s why I bought it for PC for like 5 Bucks or something (which was worth it), i will definitely try playing the DLC’s in the next couple of days. But I think I have to skip TLATD since it won’t work for me :(
Now, 16 years later, I understand why the Naturalmotion software wasn't letting you do real time stuff. I guess they had a license agreement within the Rage engine
I understand the quality of the New York map is very detailed but I feel that the map was what restricted game play. For me, the restrictive map, a tight urban city, was the only thing I thought hurt this game. Everything else, the story, characters & DLC were amazing. But the map felt much more limited than San Andreas & other titles.
I'm still hoping they revisit it one day. While a big part of me wishes they'd move to a new city/region of the states after GTA VI, I'd be very interested in a northeast coast map adaptation with two-three big cities as the focus rather than just LC.
@@LuxTheWizard San Fierro & Las Venturas in the HD universe slipped my mind. I wonder if we'll get those if we get the speculated GTA VI city expansions or we'd have to wait until a future entry. I think they could return in the form of an ambitious west coast GTA that spans both Northern & Southern Cali as well as maybe part of northern Mexico/Beja California.
When this game came out I couldn’t afford it, so I would watch my neighbor play, recently bought and played it for the first time on my own and its amazing!
I used to watch RU-vid videos of GTA IV gameplay when I was but a child with PS2, dreaming of being able to actually play it. Getting to actually play it many years later as a teenager was exactly as exciting as child me thought it would be. Absolute masterpiece of a game.
A little correction about Mashkov, he wasn't aware what it was like you said, he didn't understand what it was thus not taking it seriously. He also had no regrets, he was mostly surprised and glad the game reached a lot of sales.
Wktt radio station basically being the fans just calling and saying the wildest things they could think of instead of hiring actors to do the job was an insane and awesome idea. That's why I freaking love Rockstar; they do the most unhinged and absurd things just to entertain us, and they don't care about the opinions of their critics.
I don't think I'll ever get tired of your GTA IV videos, idk what it is about them but they're just so interesting, anyways, I wonder what GTA IV would've been like, had they went for the larger map design. Also, I actually kinda want co-op for GTA VI now.. I feel like it could actually work really well and be really fun, although at the end of the day I doubt it would happen unfortunately, cause of GTAO and maybe other reasons.
I just realized. Only New Yorkers that grew up with this game have a real connection to it. Me growing up in the early 2000's while this game happens to be developed makes me feel our time is special. I still have this game installed on my XBSX and still play online to this day.
I live in Pennsylvania and my best friend had lived in NYC a couple years before. When I let him play it, he'd point out the places he's actually walked around and stuff. I thought it was pretty cool to get that perspective lol
It'll be very cool in like 20 years when GTA VIII comes out like 30 when IX comes out and we revisit Liberty City but it's the entire map completed like how they initially wanted to back in the day
at 1:53 when you said it was the first rockstar game with ragdoll physics i just wanna say i believe it was max payne 2 but u might say that is made by remedy
well going by the cycle gta 7 will be nyc with the original 3 cities idea it will be fun in 20 years when they finally release it. the limitations on console hardware is what was a main factor in limiting the map size since
Mashkov never said he regreted not accepting the offer. In fact in that exact interview you were referring to where he told about R* approaching him, the host asked if he regrated not accepting the offer granted how much money the game made at the end he literally said "I don't, also you need to understand that these money they gained from sales would have nothing to do with me anyway" and considering the story with the voice actor of Nico only getting $100.000 for the role he was spot on with that statement. Also he rejected it because the whole approach was very "shady" as he said in that interview and almost sounded like a scam. It was not only because of secrecy, but also because the communication was very poorly organized.
How they could've abandoned Euphoria in GTA 5 is insane to me. I say this all the time, but 5 is such a let down. Fun fact about the planes: take any car's handling line, swap CAR with PLANE. There's still some of the actual handling left over, but man it's rusty. They take off the MILLISECOND you tap the accelerator. They stop in like one second as soon as you're on the floor. There's no rudder, just pitch and roll. A lot of x360 ISO mods back in the day would slap a private jet or airliner model over a car with this handling and call it a day.
IV is a true masterpiece. I still play it every day, but cause its pretty boring by default, I've installed some gang war script mods and I just play it every day after work like some counter strike type game. For me, IV is the best GTA cause it not only features realistic physics and non-precalculated car damage, but also the Euphoria which makes killing peds really enjoyable like some kind of ASMR
The multiplayer part is interesting - while I don't think it would work to build the entire game around it, i think it would actually be possible to have a splitscreen mode by combining it with character hangouts, with (potentially exclusive) missions and encounters designed around it. That way you and a friend could have experiences where maybe what's happening doesn't matter as much but could still be in character and play into the actual activities they've already made for single player. There's probably no place for something like that these days. Online Multiplayer has changed things so much.
This game has almost RDR2 level of animations (minus the variety of course, i.e. the amount of content, but not quality). I just don't understand how they delivered it in 2008. I remember playing it as a kid on my low end pc at 15 fps on lowest settings and it was just a miracle of how good it was. I'm replaying it right now on my 7950X3D and 4080 on highest graphics settings with fusion fixes and it's just an awesome game even by today's standards.
10:43 A common misconception people have about game engines is that it's a software that developers make and then make the games afterwards, this probably comes from developers being so secretive about their tech and that the only thing everyone can see is Unreal, Unity, etc. These public/commercial engines are an exception, they are actually really weird compared to proprietary engines. A game engine is not something you get familiar with because it's part of the game, they are developed and grow with the game. Also, they are just code, when people talk about game engines they are usually thinking about the level editor, which sometimes is something completely separate from the engine itself. If something a game designer, an artist or whatever wants is not possible to do, you just add it to the engine like you would do with a gameplay feature into the game specific code. That's one of the main points of studios having their own game engine. But I do think your point half correct, Rockstar was probably more concerned in making the game work. Because at that point, the base of what we now know as RAGE was not even done, as I said game engines are developed together with the game. So compared from going from GTA Vice City to San Andreas they had a lot more work to do. Also, fun fact. In the GTA V's source code, there's code from GTA III, so you could say RAGE's development started way before GTA IV lol.
