And they wonder why people download stuff.
Step 1: Find a torrent and download it
Step 2: Install
Step 3: Apply crack
Step 4: Play

Yeah, in principle you could ask yourself if you're gonna want to fucking REWARD Rockstar for their retarded PC DRM by buying the Xbox version of the game. I mean, the money goes their way either way.

What irks me the most is that Rockstar had 6 frakking months to get the thing ported to pc, and yet it seems to be a hackjob of epic proportions. Apart from the technical failings (crashes, DRM) the game still features the console save system, controls etc.

Is it really SO hard to tweak this? In 6 months? With people who, judging by the Xbox version, clearly aren't completely incompetent? ? No, it just screams "neglicence". And people complain about the pc platform 'dying'. It's not dying, it's being murdered by the joint efforts of MS and developers.


More on GTA IV for PC

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/12 ... #more-5834


[quote]

GTAgate: How Was It For You?

That Spore kerfuffle earlier in the year sure seems like spilt milk compared to Rockstar’s GTA IV balls-up. The multiple DRM systems have proven to be the least of the troubled port’s problems - seems Kieron was lucky to even get into the thing, never mind that half his graphics were AWOL.

Everyone’s having their own miseries with it, it seems. So, below the cut: a quickie poll to see how many of you lot are having problems with the game. That’s along with more ranting from me, and a list of the many fun Fatal Errors players are running into. I’m a victim of RMN40, which apparently means I need to install XP SP3. Problem is I’m running Vista. Nice!


Eventually I established via forum-trawling that manually installing a .NET update might fix it. Why .NET is vital to the game running I don’t know. Another 20 minutes of downloading, installing and screaming later, I was past the mysterious fatal error, and amazingly this managed to be the first ever Games For Windows Live game that accepted the Live login I have for my Xbox. Hooray! Achievements, or something. Then it started repeatedly telling me that it needed to restart due to some account change, but would just just carry on regardless when I pressed enter. Huh.

Finally, after a tortously long loading wait, I get to watch the intro. It looks great and runs smoothly. Then, at last, I’m in car, ready to drive. Except it’s now only running at 1fps. As a final indignity, it crashes to desktop 10 seconds later. And there I rest. I suspect I’m now beyond caring.

It’s interesting that none of us who reviewed it (my write-up’s in the latest PC Format, where I’m significantly less forgiving of the multiple login doormen than others were) didn’t hit these tech problems in the code we were sent just a couple of a weeks back. The performance was unacceptably sluggish unless I dropped everything way-low, but there was none of these bewildering impasses. We were on a different clutch of activation etc servers and, I think, had a different version of Securom, but the Fatal Errors seem unrelated to that. So did bugfixing after the review code introduce new problems?

What an ‘orrible turn of events, at any rate. So much so that Valve are reportedly offering refunds for folk who bought the thing off Steam and can’t get it to run. Rockstar themselves say they’re working on a fix, but are reliably distant about it:

“We are aware that a small number of fans are having problems running GTA IV on their PC’s (sic) and we would like to assure them we are working to help solve these as quickly as possible.

We would ask anyone that is encountering difficulties to contact their local technical support helpline for advice and recommendations. These telephone numbers can be found in the game’s manual.

There is also a regularly updated technical support page available on the Rockstar Games website http://www.rockstargames.com/support/ where there are many useful faqs and information on how to resolve some common problems being encountered.â€

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6239776.ht ... op;title;1

People have way too much time on their hand. Apparently some like to uncover non-existing conspiracies.

wow...some people must lead pretty boring lives.

Finished it. Meh, 10 points was definitely over rated. A lot of attention went to details and stuff but overall i think it is good that i got the game cheaply on steam.