Just because we haven’t been talking about it non-stop doesn’t mean that our brains aren’t currently overrun with thoughts about Grand Theft Auto IV. Personally, I’m on a strict regimen of watching that totally bitchin’ GTA4 UK TV commercial every 45 minutes, which has the side-effect of causing Jeff to twitch violently in anticipation. I’ve managed to avoid most coverage of the game, including the deluge of reviews that hit on Sunday, though I couldn’t resist Kotaku’s meta-review of all the different GTA4 reviews that went up. Looking at those scores and review excerpts, it’s hard not to wonder what good a GTA4 review serves at this point other than to let you know “yo, they didn’t screw it up,” but I’ll save that for the podcast.
Speaking of which, Jeff and I wanted to let you know what our immediate plans surrounding the impending release of GTA4 are looking like. We didn’t go to any review events and we didn’t get any early copies, so we’re in the exact same boat as everyone else–which is kind of a nice change of pace, honestly. We’ll be rolling down to the Marin City Best Buy at midnight tonight to pick up our copies, so if you’re in the area and you’re lookin’ to get your GTA on, or you just wanna go get some steaks at the Outback, come give us a shout. Since tomorrow will likely be consumed by our collective displays of Liberty City good citizenry, we’ll be recording our podcast tonight in two parts, providing you with our world views before and after playing GTA4. Needless to say, we expect paradigms to be shifted and worlds to be rocked.
[UPDATE] Hey, wanna help us test something out? Check this out. Not much to watch just yet, but it’s a chat room and some music. Let us know how the performance is, we might put it into play later tonight if it’s any good.
[UPDATE] [UPDATE] The test has ended, and Giant Bomb has settled on Justin.tv for our streaming Internet video needs…for now. We’ll give you guys a shout when tonight’s GTA4 marathon begins in earnest.
64 Comments
Is the Bombcast tonight or tomorrow? That’s awesome you guys are doing it up midnight styles.
It’s almost 12:00AM,April 29th where i live,less than 2 hours ’till i get my hands on a copy
I’ve been avoiding most of the news about the game so that the experience is as first hand as possible!
sadly the game isn’t releasing here till a week or two
reviewing the game now might be a bit tough job, it should be different! I mean everyone knows already its going to be 4 or 5, but what you guys point out.. I just wonder can it be different that what others have said?
well didn’t read those full reviews so can’t say anyways,
This game hit the front page news today in metro. Apparently people have been camping for 19 days waiting to get it. Crazy.
Thumbs up for the LCD Soundsystem mention… great commercial too!
The live cast seems to be working fine.
Seems to be some sort of visualization, perhaps?
I do like the prospect of the Giant Bomb staff not having attended the GTA4 review events that all the other sites seemed to base their reviews on, instead just buying the game and playing it without any shady circumstances. I like that.
Nothing can change the fact that the hype train is moving at inconcievable speeds right now. AND I’M ON IT TOO WHOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO FUCK YES
Awesome, can’t wait for the podcast and impressions
I vastly prefer reading the reviews and impressions of those who are most like myself, in terms of purchasing a retail copy and actually playing it, instead of a review event or some “review code” that all too often seems to not be quite it. I’m also very patient, and I look forward to hearing what the Bomb has to say about the game.
The stream is working but no sound.
If I was in Marin, I would hook you guys up with a big beer in a cowboy boot at Outback. Have fun, gents! We’ll see ya online at 1am.
the ustream thing works well
did stickam crash?
Seems like stickam isn’t working now.
Have Giant Bomb got any plans, or would they consider doing, an epic, Kasavinesque, live video-marathon of a newly-released game sometime in the future? I fondly remember skipping uni one day so that I could stay up all night and watch the first 12 hours of Oblivion. Produced in moderation, those things could rock.
The game is obviously amazing, so don’t rush the review and savor the experience.
The chat room / live feed worked good except for the fact that viewers can only send one message and then they have to re-load the web page to send another message. Kind of fucked up.
^^
I’d have to agree on that. And it doesn’t even work for me anymore. Is it down?
now they are both offline.
it was a great idea.
should be implemented in the future
I think its down
Nice new chat thing, except the stickam chat room seems to be down atm. The flood filter on the chat though sucks - it takes AGES to send another msg!
Wauw… that Stickcam is cool, but it’s not very pleased with huge amounts of traffic it seems :s
And i case you care. What i was trying to say about GTA IV was, that my local Gamestop here in Denmark told me, that they only got 5 copies and that it will probaly be at least another month before they get enough for me to finaly get one. Even though i preordered.
I will never preorder a game again :(, anyway im going to look for it tomorrow in some other store after school. Hopefully it’s somewhere.
And i am over 18, even though people over here dont really care about that.
Man always when im waiting for somthin time seems to go twise as slow
The website kinda seemed crappy. It would be nice-for home-business strippers, I just couldnt really see it functioning very well for the scale I would imagine you guys would need it to be at.
Either way, great article though.
that flood filter is the worst thing ever created.
if they are going to do this again in the future then they have to do it somewhere else because that flood control is annoying
That live thing could be pretty cool. Worked pretty good for me, and I am streaming all the way to Norway.
If that’s a flood filter, and not some weird error, then yeah. It’s bad. But that live stuff could be fun.
I really like the stream. Keep it up!
I absolutely can’t wait until tomorrow. I wish I could go to the midnight launch like I did with Halo 3 and play all day tomorrow, but I have to go to class tomorrow. Stupid college. -_-
It’s nice to know that you didn’t go to any of the events. Looking forward to seeing what you guys have to say about it.
Also, what The Bates’ said could work rather well. The only problem though would be if you believed that it would lead Giant Bomb to be too similar to GameSpot.
Dude I love the stream. I’ll be watching a lot.
We are having slight freezing problems… probably reducing the quality would help this issue…
Well I am going to be playing 2 hours before you guys tonight! YEAH BOY!
But seriously, I am assuming Jeff is going to do the review since he did 3, Vice and Andreas over at Gamespot. But what I am wondering is; Jeff now that you do not work for a site now that makes you have them up now are you going to take your time or still just blast through this one?
Stream thing is pretty ick.. Keeps freezing
Yo ho ho Ryan/Jeff, are you getting both versions of the game?
Also: Kotaku says the sixaxis controls are borked hard, I don’t think this is a surprise, but if you could, let us know about them when you get a chance.
Great idea with the streaming video thing, but it’s in a constant state of buffering/broken videos.
also, that chatroom is a madhouse…
Woah, crazy stream. Too bad the chat room is spammed by a bunch of people with the intelligence of 8 year olds.
Stream keeps freezing for me, even after you guys took it down and put it back up. I get audio just fine, but video locks up after a few minutes
Jeff/Ryan…I’ve been watching a couple of GTAIV streams on the site you’re testing and it seems to run pretty stable. One time there were over 10,000 viewers and over 20 instances of the chat running and it still ran fine. I think it would be a good choice for occasional streaming, although I’m not sure what the maximum number of viewers it can handle before giving up the ghost. You guys may shut down the site completely.
Dude! I was on Justin.tv all weekend watching live streams of GTAIV, and the service seems pretty damn good.
12 AM I’m gonna get the game 3 hours early in Atlanta fools. 3 hours of prostitute banging and then killin for my monah back!
That sucks you guys didn’t get advanced copies. That would be sweet if you did.
You guys really should use Ustream.tv, works a lot better.
OMG a 24/7 caht and broadcast. that it tight! yall keep it coming man. when are yall going to have subscriptions?
Yep. Ustream.tv is a lot better.
Man, this week’s Bombcast sounds resoundingly epic!
I think the epicness of this week’s Bombcast is still up in the air…you guys need to have some bomb-ass drinks to review along with all that GTA talk!
When shall the GTA IV marathon begin?
Steven
Yeah I’m not sure anyone really NEEDs more GTA reviews except if they want to hear from a particular reviewer(s). Game is really good, it is GTA… nuf ced.
God speed guys. Best of luck braving the masses!
Can’t wait for it!
GTA sucks so hard it’s not even funny.
Now that Jack Thompson has got the hardcore sex clips from this game the fireworks will start anew as they should.
I hate thompson but I so hope that he sues the shit out of Rockstar and wins.
The ultimate would be the game pulled and given a XXX rating for a game.
too bad i will be asleep when they do there GTA 4 broadcast
ATTN: Kyle
So…uh…did Sam Houser run over your dog or something?
12 a.m over there means 3 a.m (eastern) over here, i’ll be asleep by then cuzz gotta wake up tomorrow to go pick up the game..oh well, i don’t want to get spoiled anyways.
why can’t they release games on Fridays some of us have school/work.
@Layton
Because it being released on monday/tuesday really affects your ability to play it on weekends, or pick it up at a store, or get it by mail? ….
So is there going to be a podcast tonight AND tomorrow night?
It may just be my personal preference, but I have dealt with JTV for quite a while now (about 6 months). Right now it’s not the most stable site and shows that get a lot of viewers tend to suffer at times…hopefully it will all run smoothly for you guys
…and I was there in the JTV chat today and it was running smoothly for the most part while I was there.
I am falling asleep installing this crap on my PS3 yo!
This crap sucks dude! You guys should do a feature on installing this stuff on the PS3 and how consoles are not really consoles anymore wityh installs, patches and even shipped games which are gimped and not even playable!
Just think of the short loading times to help you through it man!
The release is today and I still haven’t even got my PS3 because of delays from where I bought it.
Those will be some painful weeks for me, hearing everything about the game and still only being able to play Vice City on the PS2…
i remember Jeff’s review of GTA:SA fondly — it has me start playing the game, and subsequently the entire series. there was no turning back since then. i’m looking forward to GB’s review to GTAIV~~
Is there any chance that you will post the GTA 4 online broadcast as video on Giant Bomb ?
Concerning the kotaku meta-review. Kotaku a site I read daily.
As a reader of practically all game journalism on the net, (well alot of it anyway) Knowing most of the reviewers pretty well (not personally) I found it pretty cynical, and for the most part lame as fuck.
Theres no doubt many of the reviewers were talking straight from their experience and candidly, and its pretty weak and easy to pull the piss. Maybe im taking it a little to seriously, but like I said I know and respect alot of these reviewers and its pretty poor form to treat them like theyve been paid off or something for a review or like they are not giving there full opinion. An attack on someones integrity if you will, for the purpose of making oneself look good.
To me you look like cynical assholes.
Kotaku: “Most major sites are accounted for: IGN, 1UP, Eurogamer…even CVG and Game Informer and have their takes on the game up and published (only GameSpot are missing…maybe their allocated reviewer quit?).”
OH SNAP. Burn.