Niko Bellic apparently isn't stopping with conquering with Liberty City, he's now extended his dominion as Grand Theft Auto IV took the top slot on the weekly Xbox Live activity charts, dethroning longtime king Call of Duty 4. The rest of the top five was rounded out by Halo 3, Guitar Hero III and that old stalwart, Gears of War.
To anyone who's grown accustomed to their friends list just being a solid column of "GTA IV" this shouldn't come as much of a surprise. But we'll be interested to see if the game's multiplayer can help it hang on in the charts even after fans start finishing Niko's story en masse.
Reader Comments (37)
Posted: May 6th 2008 2:38PM karmaghost said
GTA IV on Live is wrought with lag; there's just too much going on and it just can't handle it. I love the game to death, but there's just so many technical issues and game mechanic difficulties to make it much fun for me. I've all but given up on it.
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Posted: May 6th 2008 2:39PM Vegeta has a ps3 said
Really? matches run pretty smooth throughout the whole time. Only time it lags is when a player enters the game.
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Posted: May 6th 2008 2:54PM (Unverified) said
Agreed on the posters above. I've been playing GTA just about everynight since release online and it's been very smooth. Only a few hits here and there but they are rare.
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Posted: May 7th 2008 2:32PM (Unverified) said
Get new internets homie, mine is like everyone elses, runs perfect 95.6% of the time.
Thats the exact number btw
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Thats the exact number btw
Posted: May 6th 2008 3:28PM (Unverified) said
eh? it runs smooth as hell on live, remember it's peer to peer, so it's either you or your fellow players having a crap connection. I've had one tiny moment of lag when my wife started downloading something on the laptop.
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Posted: May 6th 2008 3:54PM karmaghost said
Well, I'm both glad and sad to hear other people aren't sharing in my problems. Every other Live game I play doesn't seem to have these issues and my internet connection and NAT settings are excellent. When I mean "lag," specifically I mean when I hit a person or vehicle in GTA, often times it will initially look like I've sent them flying, only to have them appear right next to me as if I hadn't done anything. This is the kind of thing I'm talking about.
Also, when I mention mechanics and gameplay, I'm referring to things like, if you're in the middle of an incredibly intense firefight and you want to jump into a car, you SPRINT towards the driver's side, hit Y and your character nonchalantly walks over to the door, casually sits down, closes the door and starts the engine as if bullets aren't pummeling his face.
I haven't given up all hope yet; I'm still giving it a go, but there's a whole list of issues I have with GTA multiplayer and I'm not going to list them all here. I'm glad you guys are enjoying it, at least.
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Also, when I mention mechanics and gameplay, I'm referring to things like, if you're in the middle of an incredibly intense firefight and you want to jump into a car, you SPRINT towards the driver's side, hit Y and your character nonchalantly walks over to the door, casually sits down, closes the door and starts the engine as if bullets aren't pummeling his face.
I haven't given up all hope yet; I'm still giving it a go, but there's a whole list of issues I have with GTA multiplayer and I'm not going to list them all here. I'm glad you guys are enjoying it, at least.
Posted: May 6th 2008 4:32PM kagai said
Actually, there are numerous threads on Xbox.com in regards to multiplayer problems with GTA IV. My particular problem is that I continually get dumped back to single player with a disconnected from server error or, I get into a game and get booted out, or I get into a game and everyone else gets booted out. I have yet to play a single game of multiplayer.
I can play other online games just fine, but not GTA IV. We are a minority, but it is happening and it does suck. Hopefully, Rockstar/MS will either release a patch or fix whatever server end problem some users are having.
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I can play other online games just fine, but not GTA IV. We are a minority, but it is happening and it does suck. Hopefully, Rockstar/MS will either release a patch or fix whatever server end problem some users are having.
Posted: May 6th 2008 2:40PM (Unverified) said
Well this isn't really suprising, i'm the only gamer I know not playing the game. I got the RRoD last week
Damm you Microsoft!!
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Damm you Microsoft!!
Posted: May 6th 2008 7:20PM TheMainProtagonist said
Sure it did. You probably don't even have a 360.
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Posted: May 6th 2008 2:40PM HighFiveJesus said
Looking forward to see Hank Hill's face put into that picture some how by a fellow commenter.
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Posted: May 6th 2008 2:43PM In A World said
This game is World of Warcraft with guns. Is it any surprise it took the top spot on XBL?
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Posted: May 6th 2008 2:45PM Vegeta has a ps3 said
.........
Wait so I can driveby a group of orcs in GTAIV?
FUCKING SWEET!!!
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Wait so I can driveby a group of orcs in GTAIV?
FUCKING SWEET!!!
Posted: May 6th 2008 3:04PM (Unverified) said
Hey arrrgh, that was awesome. I agree in the fullest
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Posted: May 6th 2008 2:50PM (Unverified) said
Online is OK, dont think it will really last more than a month or 2. COD4 will be back up there no doubt. My friends list is always split between GTAIV, COD4 and sometimes sprinkled with some Gears :P
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Posted: May 6th 2008 3:41PM (Unverified) said
LOL, yeah you and my buddy Joe78 play Gears. Hes so close to his Seriously achievement that he can taste it. Hope it doesnt glitch on him haha! I try to get on there every once in a while but Im freaken rusty =) Also, it just amazes me how even with Gears supposedly lag, glitching, host advantage people still play it to this day. Its because its awesome and way diff than any other MP game out there. Theres nothing sweeter than you being last man standing on your team and taking out 3 or 2 of the other team ending it with a headshot or curbstomp for the win. You get back in the lobby talking smack =) That game just gets your adrenaline pumping haha!
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Posted: May 6th 2008 3:04PM DericLee said
The game runs fine for me online, the only problem I have is that it's just not that good online.
The shooting is lacklustre at best, the driving is, well, the driving and additional game play elements really don't lend to a tight, balanced, online experiance.
I applaude them for all the options and freedom and such, but ultimately when it comes to multi-player I find myself(along with my friends) going back to COD4 again and again.
GTA IV Single play game is the tits though.
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The shooting is lacklustre at best, the driving is, well, the driving and additional game play elements really don't lend to a tight, balanced, online experiance.
I applaude them for all the options and freedom and such, but ultimately when it comes to multi-player I find myself(along with my friends) going back to COD4 again and again.
GTA IV Single play game is the tits though.
Posted: May 6th 2008 3:07PM Drago Dracini said
Well, it does deserve a spot in the top 3 for sure. But It's the sort of game you play with friends more than in ranked games.
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Posted: May 6th 2008 3:19PM Vcize said
This list includes any game played while signed into XBL, so playing single player while signed into Live counts towards these rankings as well.
I highly doubt more people are playing GTAIV multiplayer than CoD4 or Halo 3 multiplayers at this point, but there are certainly way more people playing total (single and multiplayer), which I doubt surprises anyone.
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I highly doubt more people are playing GTAIV multiplayer than CoD4 or Halo 3 multiplayers at this point, but there are certainly way more people playing total (single and multiplayer), which I doubt surprises anyone.
Posted: May 6th 2008 5:16PM erubi said
This is correct and was talked about by Major Nelson on his podcast. Many sites keep making this mistake when creating posts about the top xbl games. PLEASE STOP SAYING WHETHER OR NOT GTA'S MULTIPLAYER CAN KEEP IT ON TOP. IT'S NOT BASED ON MULTIPLAYER, IT'S BASED ON HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE PLAYING WHILE LOGGED INTO LIVE, SINGLE OR MULTI.
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Posted: May 6th 2008 3:29PM (Unverified) said
Is this indicative of people playing the XBL aspect of GTA4, or just people logged onto XBL but still playing the SP mode? Because last night we had three buddies online who stopped playing GTA4 SP mode to join us in COD4 online.
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Posted: May 7th 2008 12:43PM SoCoolCurt said
ive yet to go online, my internet sucks.
story is great though so im not really disappointed.
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story is great though so im not really disappointed.
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