Click to read SDF’s unbiased review of GTAIV
As I’m sure many are well aware, the GTA4 review embargo has been lifted and Sony Defense Force has been working overtime the past few weeks to provide you with the most indepth, unbiased impressions you will find on the internet. While lesser sites like IGN, 1up, and Gametrailers have skirted the issue regarding the galactic divide of the vastly inferior Xbox 360 version of GTA4 relative to the masterpiece showcased on the PS3, Sony Defense Force is proud to provide you with two completely separate reviews for each version. No singular scores will be given blanketly for both titles as has been done on other websites. We will be brutally honest in our critique of what could be regarded as the game of the generation (well…on the PS3 atleast). Without further ado, let’s go straight to our impressions of the Playstation 3 version.
Playstation 3 Version:
Simply put: This is one of the best games you will ever play. You take the controls of Eastern European immigrant Nicola Belić throughout the vast and immersive landscape of Liberty City. Literally fresh off the boat, Niko finds himself in the company of his cousin Roman, who serves as a central character throughout the remainder of the narrative.
Gameplay is summed up as a series of mission objectives that involves traditional gun fighting and car chasing throughout the game’s vast city. Fans of the franchise will instantly recognize the gameplay, which features an added layer of immersive nuances that have been improved over the PS2 title in the form of environmental details, pedestrian reactions, and enhanced physics. The main improvements that directly affect gameplay, however, deal with the game’s newly designed cover system. If you were a fan of the Playstation 3 masterpiece Uncharted, you will be instantly familiar with this system and how engaging it can be. Previous GTA titles had clunky mechanics which proved to be the biggest downfall of the series. Luckily, Rockstar has copied the mechanics that Uncharted revolutionized the gaming world with, and as fans of the series we could not be more pleased.
Graphically and aurally, the game is solid, though leaves much to be desired as it does not take full advantage of the Playstation 3 hardware. The game boasts of absolutely zero pop-in, framerate drops, or aliasing; however, it could be argued that the game runs a little too well. The title feels like it isn’t pushing the Playstation 3 hardware enough in many aspects, which is no doubt the result of the inferior Xbox 360 holding back the system. Because Rockstar developed the title with the Xbox 360 in mind, they had to make sure not to be overly ambitious with their project, and this clearly shows as the game isn’t anywhere near the best looking title on the PS3 (though, it certainly is on the Xbox 360). One particular aspect of the game that we enjoyed is the image quality: anti-aliasing is present with the added bonus of advanced Depth of Field effects. Indeed, SDF unanimously agrees that the Playstation 3 version has a subtle, soft warmth to it that is preferred over the vastly inferior Xbox 360 version.
The sound could have also been improved. The soundtrack is great, yet due to the limitless expanse of the Blu-Ray optical medium, it could have been even larger. Worse is the fact that the title doesn’t boast of 7.1 lossless uncompressed audio that Playstation 3 fans are accustom to. Again, this is unheard of on Xbox 360 games, and it is our belief that Rockstar made compromises in order to fit the game on the vastly inferior Xbox 360 DVD release.
Multiplayer is an absolute blast. The Playstation Network offers dedicated gamespy servers at no additional cost to the PS3 consumer. We had no problem setting up a game in Liberty City’s humongous world with up to 16 people with no lag or downtime whatsoever. It’s simply amazing that we can experience such a superior service with no additional cost. The free multiplayer in Grand Theft Auto 4 (PS3) is so good that I wish I could give Sony some money for their amazing efforts.
Overall, the game is a worthy addition to the series and deserves its place inside your Playstation 3 on release day. Though not perfect, and certainly not taking full advantage of the vastly superior Playstation 3 hardware including the Cell microprocessor, RSX, Blu-Ray, or Standard Hard Drive capabilities, the game does impress and provides for an amazing experience. We spent over 60 hours playing the single player component, and well over 500 hours when you add in the multiplayer. It goes without saying that this game is so superior and definitive on the Playstation 3 that downloadable content isn’t needed whatsoever. It would simply be too much, and may have degraded the overall quality of the disc release.
Presentation: 9.0
Graphics: 8.3
Sound: 7.0
Gameplay: 9.8
Lasting Appeal: 10
Overall (not a weighted average): 9.4
Xbox 360 Version:
We knew the writing was on the wall when we saw the Grand Theft Auto 4 press swag for the Xbox 360 consisting of hundreds of dollars in promotional items, most likely as a bribe in order to inflate review scores of the Xbox 360 version. Very similar to what happened with Halo 3 when it received inflated scores by members of the biased Xbox 360-centric media, it looks like GTA4 may be receiving the same level of attention. Preemptive damage control at its finest right here, folks.
It is an absolute understatement to say that this game is nearly unplayable on Microsoft’s system for various reasons, chief among them are the graphics. Simply put, the game looks and plays atrociously. While cruising around Liberty City, you will witness windows, tress, and even buildings themselves appear and disappear as you rotate the camera around your vehicle. In one instance, SDF ran directly into a tree that appeared out of nowhere a mere few feet in front of our car. How this passed the QA stages at Microsoft is beyond me, perhaps Microsoft felt that their viral marketing and “EXXXXCLUSIVE DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT!!!” would be enough to sway the hordes of braindead xbox fans despite the terrible shortcomings of the 360 version.
Not only does the terrible texture/geometry pop-in affect the gameplay dramatically (thanks to the inferior Xbox 360 hardware that doesn’t have a standard hard drive), but the framerate drops are so significant that we cannot even manage to run the game without it turning into a slideshow. Compare this to the vastly superior (definitive) Playstation 3 version, which has nonexistant framerate issues, and it’s easy to see how the title falters for the vastly inferior Xbox 360 version.
Our play session with the Xbox 360 version was very brief, unfortunately, and it wasn’t because the game was so unplayable due to the graphical shortcomings. We tried to play as much as we could inspite of these drawbacks, but something much worse happened — Our Xbox 360 promptly died in a burning rage of RROD fury after only a mere two hours of gameplay. Yep. This is the seventh time SDF will have to send in our Xbox 360 to Microsoft for repairs. Additionally, we had just received our new Xbox 360 right in time for GTA4. It’s amazing that GTA4 — a title that relies heavily on all components of the Xbox 360 due to streaming — managed to kill our Xbox 360 in record time (post in our comments section if you have had a system that has died sooner — we’re interested in hearing). We at SDF expect Grand Theft Auto 4 to cost Microsoft an additional $1 billion dollars in damages due to the increased RROD activity. Perhaps Microsoft should have thought twice before they allowed Rockstar to develop on their shoddy hardware.

Moving onto the multiplayer play. Again, we had limited playtime with it, but we tried out a few matches before we were promptly kicked out of the vastly inferior Xbox Live service. Just as CoD4 killed Xbox Live last December/January, we expect massive outages for the service upon release of GTA4. We already experienced it during our playtest when we witnessed numerous players transporting all over the maps while losing control of their character. Xbox Live gimps the online play significantly from the Playstation 3 service because it relies on p2p matchmaking. It’s unfortunate that Microsoft’s customers have to pay for the gaming equivalent of Napster — a service long forgotten by other superior methods of connectivity. Once again, Playstation 3 sets the trend for the superior online service with its Playstation Network which never has any downtime and provides for a seamless online experience.
To say that the vastly inferior Xbox 360 version is vastly inferior seems to be a bit redundant but is certainly worth emphasizing: this title should not be played in any shape or form on the Xbox 360. Grand Theft Auto 4 is worth the $460 dollars it costs for a Playstation 3 — do the right thing and purchase a Playstation 3 if you want to play the title at all. If you are a current Xbox 360 owner and want to preserve your hardware for as long as possible, avoid the 360 version at all costs. Not only will you be getting the vastly superior version on the Playstation 3 that will at least render the title playable, but you will also not have to worry about your Playstation 3 dying in the middle of your 500+ hours of playtime.
Presentation: 4.0
Graphics: 1.5
Sound: 6.0
Gameplay: 2.0
Lasting Appeal: 0 (Your Xbox 360 will die within hours)
Overall (not a weighted average): 3.5 — It’s just not quite GTA4.0….more like GTA3.5
And for those of you hard of reading here’s a quick summary of our points and final scores:










@erik
the same can be said about ps3………..
@Spooky
I don’t get your point.
@ everyone
Just go play the fucking game.
Definitive unbiased review! Funny.
Anyways, check the gametrailers video comparison of the game. They look identical, infact, the 360 looks better in parts!
Also, the 360 version of GTA IV out sold the PS3 version. 360 accounted for 55% of sales!
Stick that in your pipe you queers!
@ sm0ke: I can’t! My 360 RRODed and my PS3 is locked up!
@ kermi
So read a book
What’s a book? Oh, you mean that thing that comes with games that tells you how to play?
@erik – Keep diggin’ yourself that hole, you’ll soon be sleeping with all those E.T. copies.
hurst21uk – Of course the 360 version is going to outsell the PS3 version, you’d have to be an idiot to think otherwise. What matters is the attachment rate.
OK, come on people, we all know that SDF isn’t unbiased but that is not the really the point here is it? You know that any review they do will be way one-sided toward the PS3 but the 360 does have a few more flaws than the PS3, I mean the failure rate alone is something to shake a stick at. They are just fanboys that will blow up all the flaws of the 360 to make the PS3 look better, but a lot of the time they are not just pulling shit out of their asses, but just making it completely one sided. You have to take everything SDF says with a grain of salt and do your OWN research. You look at it as BS, but really you have to look at the core information, which is usually true. Like the above pics where it shows the PS3, then the 360 version(which is just the PS3 pic blurred), but, it’s there to show a point, not be total fact, you should know this is you use logic.
Not trying to be a fanboy, though I only own a PS3, but even you 360 owners know the PS3 is “technically” better than the 360 but can produce games that look the same and play the same as well. The 360 does have some strong points over the PS3, especially one being the library and developer base.
To bad I don’t have the green for GTAIV at the moment but will have it soon. I just can’t wait to see if the 360 gets a BD drive, because then that will be the tell sign whether it can produce 1080p content at 60fps, only time will tell.
So next time you want to flame someone, think of it this way, he is a gamer and I am a gamer, we are both gamers, why try to justify that my console is better than his, we are both playing the same game just different hardware. This also applies to PC games and gamers, people latch to either ATI or NVIDIA, NVIDIA man myself, but in reality some games play better on ATI cards than NVIDIA and Vise Versa. Just like the PS3 has a NVIDIA card and the 360 has a ATI card.
Can’t we all just get along and play games instead of wasting time flaming each other? When you flame someone or something, you are just showing how ignorant you are.
@Stickmeup
“@erik – Keep diggin’ yourself that hole, you’ll soon be sleeping with all those E.T. copies.”
Cool. At least its not with a bunch of damn copies of Zak and Wiki.
@telzon
There will always be fanboys (the scourge of the gaming industry). Noone does any research any more and therefore they don’t know what there talking about half the time.
I got GTA4 on the 360 and theres pop up (not game affecting) but not as bad as this site points out. Get it asap.
@ Telzon
You’re a wise man.
@telzon
I agree with you. If all the fanboys would concentrate more on playing games and not feel the need to explain why there plastic box is better than the others plastic box.
The way I always figured it was I (or anybody) don’t have to justify my reason why I bought “Console A” over Console B” to anybody. As long as I’m happy with my purchase then thats what matters in the end.
@ColdYellow – Plastic box? No sir, my new PS3 will be GUN Metal…
Just kidding. I’m not getting one, and I know it’s not metal.
Say No 2 War.
Let’s just gang up on the Wii
@ColdYellow – Dude I just got done messing around with the cheats in GTA4.
Landing a chopper in the path of a moving train is ridiculously fun. The different weather effects were looking a lil’ weird on my HD-TV, especially at sundown and sunrise, but with the weather cheat, I can just have it sunny the whole time.
Simply awesome.
I can’t wait to get a decent go on GTA4 and jump off a fucking building!
euphoria has the BEST physics EVER!
@ Stickemup
Dont know where your getting your stats, but reputable news sources have reported the following in relation to console sales:
xbox360 – 18.46 million units sold
playshit3 – 12.03 million units sold
So fuck your shit. You have no idea what your talking about.
@ stickemup
xbox360 – 18.46 million units sold
playshit3 – 12.03 million units sold
OFFICIAL NUMBERS.
You fucking fail.
The ps3 will never sell more than the xbox360, and will probably get pulled by sony because of the massive amount of fail it has already caused.
@ stickemup
xbox360 – 18.46 million units sold
playshit3 – 12.03 million units sold
OFFICIAL NUMBERS.
You fucking fail.
The ps3 will never sell more than the xbox360, and will probably get pulled by sony because of the massive amount of fail it has already caused!
@lolwut
you posted like 4 times. look it takes SDF a while to get your comment in as they are a little slow. as for the PS3 never outselling the 360 thats is and will always be speculation. unless you have a delorean with time travel capabilities you don’t know a damn thing about what is gonna happen. Did you expect the wii to outsell your beloved 360?
@erik
my point is very simple. you stated that do i classify RE4 as a mini game, the answer is no, of course not. but remember that game is now 3 years old and has appeared on 2 systems prior. No one buys a secondary console to play multiplatform games! so when you state that resident evil 4 (which is a excellent game) is something the wii has that is a killer app, i can only laugh at you, much like all the other people on this site have been doing. seriously erik, think before you type. you are a mountain of hypocrisy.
so has anyone had to do the 12 step ps3 program? and i did play the ps3 not big inprovment on graphics but it was rockband so it was the samw as the 360
@LOLWUT – You have any idea what an attachment rate is right? I didn’t say the PS3 has sold more consoles. Don’t you think we all know the 360 has more units out?
Why do you think I said the 360 version is going to sell more GTA4 copies? If the PS3 had more consoles out, it would have sold more than the 360 as well.
What I was talking about was the amount of people that are going to buy a PS3 to play GTA4 compared to the 360.
I don’t know if you noticed, but the 360 was out a WHOLE year before the PS3, and unlike the PS3, it has already released it’s big guns.
And all this has happened with the PS3 being more expensive. Now imagine how those numbers are going to look when the PS3′s big guns come out.
The PS3 is already outselling the 360 all over Europe, and let’s not even talk about Japan. You couldn’t give away 360s there.
I wonder what the typical income is in Japan and those European countries? It would have to be pretty good if the PS3 is actually selling.
@erik
its better than it is here in the states right now for sure. unemployment in my area is at a all time high. at least i still got some work.
@LULWUT
12.03 million ain’t nothing to sneeze at. If you honestly think sony will bow out of the console race you’re sorely mistaken. The console is gaining momentum as we speak so it wouldn’t be a big surprise if it actually either catches up or surpasses the 360 in the years to come.
Also according to the numbers you posted and the remark then technically both MS and Sony should pull themselves out of the market when compared to Nintendo.
Got GTA4 and its Amazing love it BUY it who cares for what system
We have plastic boxes full of computer parts plugged into our TVs, and we can play games on them. That’s all that matters.
@Stickemup
“The PS3 is already outselling the 360 all over Europe, and let’s not even talk about Japan. You couldn’t give away 360s there.”
nuh-uh. Sales of the 360 were far greater in the month of april than that of the PS3 in europe. Something about a price-drop.
Also, the 360 is still the best selling console here in the UK… Which if I remember, is part of europe (unfortunately)
All these people mention the “big guns” for the PS3… there’s the same number coming out for 360 as well…
Hah, review embargo, like Rockstar was withholding reviews of GTA4 or something…
Hey look! SDF has photoshop! They pixelized the PS3 version to show how it really looks!
Here’s a math lesson, SDF.
You state that neither of your averages are weighted, but in fact, they are. I’ll explain.
Assuming that your average was not weighted, you would have simply added all your scores together.
9 + 8.3 + 7 + 9.8 + 10 = 44.1
Seeing as there are 5 values, 44.1 / 5 is 8.82.
Hm… guess your average isn’t so unweighted after all. Maybe they just averaged the top three numbers for a score of 9.6, or maybe SDF doesn’t know what an average is.
You’d think that this was just a means of inflating the score, but look; they did the same thing with the X360′s review. Again, simple math.
4 + 1.5 + 6 + 2 + 0 = 13.5
Even though long-term implications is given a 0, it still counts as a value, so 13.5 / 5 = 2.7.
Wow, SDF wasn’t trying to inflate the score, they’re just stupid. Here’s how I know.
If 0 hadn’t been counted as a value, then 13.5 would have been divided by 4, giving us 3.375, much closer to the final 3.5, which was merely used as a pun.
It’s also funny how gameplay and sound were taken down so drastically when sound is never a problem for a next-gen console and the game is the SAME on both systems. I’d love to argue with SDF about how their alleged “popping” on the 360 actually effects gameplay that drastically.
This is not an “Unbiased” review. There are SOOOO many inaccuracies in this review that it is laughable. You guys should be shot for this up hauling review. I hope you at least feel better about yourselves since you obviously have to compensate for your shortcomings.
@fuckthislanguage
“up hauling review” ???
WOW…the irony in this article is enormouse!!!
the ps3 version is so much better they shouldnt even be compared
Now this is G O O D!
this is how news should be made.