Rockstar aware of 'small number of fans' having GTA IV PC issues

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Dec 4th 2008 at 3:55PM }

"We are aware that a small number of fans are having problems running GTA IV on their PC's and we would like to assure them we are working to help solve these as quickly as possible," comes a statement from Rockstar, shortly after several players reported encountering problems running the open-ended crime caper. While the developer works on tracing issues like crashes and missing textures, the game's official support page asks "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."

The support page currently offers information on several known issues and other relevant advice. For instance, are you getting the "Application Failed to Launch" error? Well, the solution is simple! "Make sure you can run GTA IV."

[Via Big Download]

Tags: Grand-Theft-Auto-IV, GTA-IV, GTA-IV-PC, Rockstar, Tech-Support

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

NaeemTHM @ Dec 4th 2008 4:01PM

Niko it's your cousin...want to circle jerk?

Obie @ Dec 4th 2008 4:57PM

Finally! Some beeeg American tee tees!...

*computer crashes*

Zertoss @ Dec 4th 2008 4:59PM

This program has performed an illegal operation and raised your PC's wanted level.

The Dark Wayne @ Dec 4th 2008 7:27PM

damn you obie, you made the joke i always wanted to!

jonbo298 @ Dec 4th 2008 4:02PM

It's always a "small number" has problems. A "small number" has had the RRoD. A "small number" has had GTA IV PC problems. Companies just hate admitting mistakes.

Ethan @ Dec 4th 2008 4:51PM

Yeah, it's fault that matters, not size. I'd be far more receptive to an honest company than one doing damage control.

But there's always going to be issues, and if forum posts informed the world people might not buy it. At least that's where I think companies come from when they respond to complaints like this.

Haggard @ Dec 4th 2008 4:52PM

Apparently it's very incompatible with ATI cards, so basically a small number = between 50% and 30% of players.

Premature ejaculation man @ Dec 4th 2008 11:07PM

Don't forget Castle Crashers only affects people in very specific environments (most)!

Cal @ Dec 5th 2008 2:56AM

At least they acknowledged the problem this time, anyone remember the fiasco with the console versions crashing, as well as a 50+ page thread on the Xbox Forums about it which magically disappeared? I still don't think there's been a fix for that...

Chin-Poh @ Dec 4th 2008 4:04PM

From reports I've hearing, this game is the new "Crysis", very hardware demanding but with its high system requirements, the visuals aren't as good as Crysis, at least with Crysis, your rewarded with excellent visuals for powerful hardware but it seems the PC version is terribly unoptimized.

I hear the game doesn't even support SLI and will need a patch to support it.

NaeemTHM @ Dec 4th 2008 5:02PM

Perhaps it renders the city better? Folks seem to forget that GTA has bad graphics because you're in a fucking city.

Evan @ Dec 4th 2008 5:24PM

@NaeemTHM

Judging by the comments I've read on the tubes, people just don't understand.

BAH!

Zertoss @ Dec 4th 2008 4:06PM

I'm preemptively blaming SecuROM.

United States of Generica @ Dec 4th 2008 4:30PM

I am preemptively blaming "Games for Windows - Live" because it is currently causing me grief in Fallout 3.

rbtroj @ Dec 4th 2008 4:50PM

At least with Fallout 3 for PC you don't have to be logged into live to play single-player.

Ordeith @ Dec 4th 2008 5:17PM

There is the new ad.. ah yes.. that was it.
My list of things I will never even think of buying because of Joystiq just got one item longer.

Never, ever going to get a Pulse Smartpen now.

I think I will leave negative feedback on an Amazon page about it now, just to feel better about having the ad interrupt the site like that.

DWells55 @ Dec 5th 2008 12:07AM

Not a doubt in my mind that it's SecuROM.

Kassu @ Dec 5th 2008 10:23AM

SecuROM has a big part in these issues.
* The crash-to-desktop bug is rampant, a "fatal zlib20 error". No known solution yet.
* Securom must be running at all times while the game is running. Closing it results in the game closing too.
* SecuROM will often crash, resulting in your game not starting at all.
* The reason the menu screen was black for me for so long is because it must download a file every time you start the game, since the menu background is actually an online updating news page.
* The newest Geforce Drivers: version 180.48, are not compatible with GTA IV.
* The Windows Live update supports Vista 32bit only. If you have Windows Vista 64bit, you can not play.
* The game does not support, nor recognise, SLI card set ups of any of the Geforce 8600 or 8800 card series.

Found these on some forums.

brain @ Dec 4th 2008 4:09PM

they should patch out his cousin, the only thing he was good for was decorating the front of my car..

brampf @ Dec 4th 2008 4:23PM

I remember when GTA III launched on the PC. People who pirated the game had no probs, while people who paid were suffering from crashes, the solution was a patch in the form of the no-cd crack that the pirates had been using.

In A World (XBL) @ Dec 4th 2008 4:35PM

The moral of the story (and I'm sure Niko would agree) is that crime really DOES pay!

Shagittarius @ Dec 4th 2008 6:58PM

Excellent work guys!

Joeshie @ Dec 4th 2008 4:44PM

What I don't understand, is how Rockstar could work so hard on adding new content to the PC version but completely skimp out on optimizing the graphics.

I mean, lets face it, GTA4 isn't the best looking game out there and the fact that Rockstar claims that this decent looking game can only be run on "future" hardware just points to the fact that they were completely lazy on trying to optimize it for current hardware.

I had been planning on selling my 360 version and picking up the PC version just for the mods, but I can tell you that I won't now. I won't support a company that can't put together a decent port.

rbtroj @ Dec 4th 2008 5:02PM

I was a bit surprised at the graphic quality on PC as well. I have a pretty high-end system with an 768meg 8800gtx and I was limited to "Medium" texture quality. Seems to be governed by the amount of RAM you have available on your vidcard (my totally inexpert guess).

Danny F. @ Dec 4th 2008 9:06PM

Your 100% correct, this looks really horrible on Rockstar's reputation. I mean the game was done already and they have plenty of experience with porting past projects. What the hell happened here? Twice I tried starting to play only to get errors and when I did get on it was reaaallly slow and choppy.

Either this is a really craptimized or somehow GTAIV became the new "Crysis" benchmarker for supposedly "future" hardware.

My specs are decent: C2D 3.8 OC, 4 gig ram, with GTX 280 1gig vram and still crawling..

Cal @ Dec 5th 2008 2:58AM

This doesn't sound good for me and my 8800GT 512MB =(

#28 @ Dec 23rd 2008 5:54AM

Or me and my 8600 GT. 256 MB??? I feel like the guy in the shower room with the smallest instrument.

Danzaiver @ Dec 4th 2008 4:46PM

Buying games for the PC lately sucks really hard
Most of games have bugs, specially Fallout 3

Haggard @ Dec 4th 2008 4:51PM

Fallout 3 suffers a bit less than Oblivion did, but there's some unforgiveable sudden-crash bugs around the start of the game which annoy.

Misfit Toy @ Dec 4th 2008 4:49PM

I actually find it MORE funny that this is a reused picture.

butaneko @ Dec 4th 2008 4:58PM

That's what you get for skimping on fan costs when you put together your PC

SSRaziel @ Dec 4th 2008 4:59PM

I don't know....sadly, you kind of get used to bugs being rampant in PC games, it's unfortunate but something you have to live through until patches arrive.

AirIntake @ Dec 4th 2008 5:07PM

This is just yet another example of why I left PC gaming. I spent 80% of my time configuring and only 20% of my time doing the actual playing. Now at least I can spend 99% of my time playing the game, and 1% of my time waiting for my 360 to be replaced by Microsoft (again).

Zertoss @ Dec 4th 2008 5:28PM

I, for one, enjoy the configuring and tweaking. Spending so much time poking around my computer finding ways to make games run better gave me the knowledge I needed to blow through college and land the awesome job I have today that lets me sit around and post on Joystiq all day.

AirIntake @ Dec 4th 2008 7:29PM

@Zertoss
Exactly, I landed one of those awesome jobs too, but that now means I don't have the time any more to mess around when I want to be gaming. Also, screens aren't CRTs anymore, so I can no longer punch them like I used to when things weren't working.

EMaster @ Dec 4th 2008 5:22PM

Why is everyone making a big deal of this? Same shit happened when San Andreas came out?? Rockstar sent out a solution to change some settings and it was done.

WorMzy @ Dec 4th 2008 5:33PM

Still haven't managed to download it on Steam. It's at 75% and keeps pausing the download for no apparent reason. :/

I, too, blame secuROM for this issue.

Zertoss @ Dec 4th 2008 5:40PM

I had the same problem with Fallout 3. I don't know what the deal was, but I kept having to stop it and delete all of the local content to get it to start downloading again. Turned out to be an issue with my ISP.

mundox @ Dec 4th 2008 6:50PM

Oh yeah I see another spore in the way, but not because of securom xD

http://www.amazon.com/review/product/B001BNFQKO/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?%5Fencoding=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

I was so happy when I heard GTA IV was coming to pc but damn R* really f* it up this time around, well at least I saved my $50 since I can't even buy the damn thing in steam because rockcrap has their country restrictions up.

jackal @ Dec 5th 2008 2:12AM

By a "small number of fans" they mean everyone (both legitimate buyers and pirates) who has the unfortunately luck of putting GTAIV on his/her machine. The performance of Rockstar's "port" (I use that term very loosely) is absolutely atrocious.

GTA IV can't hold a candle to the visuals offered by Crysis or Far Cry 2 (both of which are sandbox games), but there's absolutely no reason it should run much, much worse than either title (which are much more demanding visually).

People on here say it's the next Crysis. I disagree wholeheartedly. Crysis, despite its horrendous initial optimization, at least delivered fantastic visuals that somewhat justified the stupendously high requirements. GTAIV is, instead, the new Lost Planet PC. It runs like shit on every hardware configuration for no reason outside of being a horrible port.

On a side note, how much is someone willing to bet that when this game financially pulls a Gigli that it'll be blamed on piracy? Because...well, when has any developer actually admitted they've shoved a buggy, half-assed port out the door before it was ready?

meist3r @ Dec 5th 2008 4:15AM

It's remarkable how everybody seems to be taking it out on Rockstar on this one. I can only say: brilliant strategy. They want people to buy more console versions (easier to develop, maintain) so they screw up the windows version and pack it in barbed wire on purpose so they can then bask in the negative reviews and wait for the next PS360 sales spike.

Hats off Rock* you sure are big business players now.