Just wondering who plans on buying GTA when it comes out this week, i dont own a console so im SOL.

i ended with gta3:liberty city.
one of the most influential games of all time. even if you dont like its content you gotta' respect that a lot of games today are borrowing its open gameplay and i think the city planning is top-notch.

it was a big enhancement on gta2/ london 1969 which were horrible and basically made you go kill frenzy mode on hare krishnas (very disgusting) -- i dont remember having to do any missions.
i was told that vice city would be offensive (i am haitian-american) so i chose not to give rockstar/ take-two interactive my $50.

san andreas seemed like more of the same (even though it was bigger i think we hit the limit of how far renderware engine could go).

gta4 doesnt seem like the jump from gta2 -> gta3 so there is no innovation that will draw me to it (rage is just an in-house re-implimentation of the renderware engine). im sure there'll be great charecters and story like the gta3 collection but *meh* i'll pass.

bored now, lets find another subject to make games about.......

Can't wait to play it, but I never buy games at launch. I always wait for the price to drop. I am just that cheap . That and the fact that I've spent a lot of money last month with Lasik...

I liked all GTA. I never truly enjoyed Vice City. I found the city too small and a few cars, like the Banshee looked horrible. Some of the missions hard enough to stop being fun. The story was interesting, however and I definitely liked to play with a character that actually speaks (unlike the one in GTAIII. It is also one of the reasons I dislike HL1 and HL2).

But the best one, in my honest opinion, was San Andreas. I played all the 3 versions (PC, Xbox and PS2) and the PC was just amazing (potentially the best, with the right rig). It was big enough to feel like a real city. The country side was a nice addition, except when you actually had to travel back and forth. Too much time consuming. But I really, really enjoyed every bit of San Andreas and it has special place in my heart, together with Mega Man, Street Fighter, Warcraft 2, StarCraft, Diablo, Resident Evil-series, World of Warcraft and Shadow of the Colossus... (and many others I will obviously forget here)

Me too. Not the lasik, just the cheap games. I have a PS2, and plan to keep it for a long time. Even planning to purchase another one before they leave the shelves, since the PS3/40G I bought doesn't support PS/PS2 games.

GameStop in my area has a nice rack of $10 PS2 games that my son and I go through about once a week. Got the 1st 3 Ratchet and Clank games, as well as the 1st 3 Jak and Daxter games, each for $10. Love each of the series, and have definitely gotten much more than $60 in game play out of them.

Well, in a year or so, when it comes out for PC, I will definitely get it.
I liked every part of the series.

Even if I had a playstation - I can't play shooters with a gamepad.

Wow man your the first person ive ever heard say that. Not theres anything wrong with it but i prefer my gaming to come with a controller except of course things like WoW or EVE which have so many controls using a gamepad would be impossible.

Lemme be the second. I come from old school games like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, as well as the older platformers, which used the keyboard number pad. I could smack up on folks with that configuration. These days I still feel good playing HalfLife 2 (keyboard/mouse combo) on my PC.

But it's all just motor memory. The games I have on PS2/PS3 have prepped me for some good FPS with the controller.

Yes, will definitely buy it, once(if) it comes to PC, who would miss? not me

I also prefer keyboard/mouse over controller, except maybe fighting games and some more complex platform games. As soon I had to aim at something, I'd choose the mouse. There are some shooters, usually slower ones as Halo, which fit perfectly with a pad. Still, snipping pretty much blows with an analog controller. And I would never play a fast paced game such as Quake with a controller... especially NOT against somebody using a mouse against me

For those of us old enough to have played games on computers before there were any such thing as a game console, most games are unplayable without a keyboard. I want GTA4 but I too will wait for the PC version.

And not to mention those thumb operated analog sticks modern game console controllers have. I'm afraid I'm too old to really get used to using them in this life.

Absolutely true.

Oh - but that Wii thing you can play golf and tennis with looks quite interesting to me though.

Id like to ammend my last post their after reading what you guys wrote.

I realized i prefer a gamepad for driving, flying, and shooters with auto-aim features (hence GTA) however i also play Battlefield and have tried to play a few SOCOM games on the console and dont like it. I do remember hours of Goldeneye on N64 and yes the aiming would have been better with a mouse.

so
Gamepad:
-Driving
-Vehicles in general that require touch

KB/Mouse:
-FPS
-MMO (WoW and Eve-Online)
-Shooting accurately and when there are just too many choices for the -gamepad to handle

My 5cents about game controls:
I prefer following:
Joystick (analog joystick):
In driving, flying games
Joystick is the best controller for flying, it also works very well in racing games, but it doesn't work well (in racing) on turns where turn angle is really small. I've tried to play FPS with joystick, it isn't possible for me, although joystick/mouse combo (didn't test it - don't have left-handed joystick) could be better than "keyboard+mouse". Joystick will be needed anywhere where preceise control over turning speed is required.

Racing Wheel:
Any racing game that reqires precise controls. (Richard Burns Rally, for example). Racing Wheels beats Joysticks, and (i believe) gamepads, because of analog brake/acceleration controls with the pedals. It really makes driving easier. The advantage of Wheels over joysticks is that it offers more precise control over horisontal turning, and it simulates car controls (and feedback, if wheel has this feature).

Gamepad:
I used one when I had NES/Sega Mega Drive. It is a good control for fighting games, and all those old games from NES, SNES, Sega MegaDrive, etc. I don't think that it will be really suitable for FPS. Of course, some FPS games can be played with gamepad (I've completed Zero Tolerance with it on Sega MegaDrive), but they have to be slow-paced, and they must have vertical auto-aim. I really can't imagine how can I aim with the same speed with game pad, as I can do it with mouse. Of course, my experience with gamepads is a bit dated, I don't have modern one right now. Gamepad works best when you have to control many buttons at once, and you must do it fast.

Keyboard/Mouse:
FPS games, Point-and-click games, strategy, etc. Any game where you need precisely and quickly point to something requires mouse. The disvantage of mouse is that it doesn't wrap around the table (so you'll have sometime to put it in the air), but it perfectly simulates motion of hand, so it is suitable where you have to point at something. Keyboard is good because it has many keys, but the problem is that you can't really control all those keys fast enough without throwing mouse away. And if you'll press more than 3 keys at once, it won't work (your keyboard will beep), so it is nice as long as you don't need to press to many keys at once.