Rockstar working 'around the clock' on PS3 GTA 4 fix Posted by XanTium | 1-5-2008 19:50 EST

From videogamer.com: [QUOTE] Rockstar is working "around the clock" to fix freezing issues with GTA 4, Take-Two customer support has told VideoGamer.com. We were told: "A patch is being worked on around the clock to address the issues. It's bound to be. That's how they address this sort of thing. It is being worked on. We're looking into it. You will hear from us if a patch is released. A patch is usually the way it's been done." We were also given some tips on how to combat the freezing experienced on the PS3 version of the game, including: * Completely remove the game from the system but leave saves behind. * Turn the console off for 15 minutes without any cables plugged in, then turn it on and try again. * Play without access to the Internet. * Turn off the auto save function and the controller vibration setting. [/QUOTE] Full Story: videogamer.com

I have to say the PS3 issues with this game are very dissapointing to me. I was an early adopter of both systems and I'm on my 6th xbox, after 5 repairs. The last xbox I got came with a DVD drive that almost sounds like an airplane taking off, but it hasn't gone RROD on me yet so I've kept it. I was really looking for a good reason to get this game for my 60 gig PS3. In fact, if it was even on par with the 360 version I would have gotten it. But the 630p news and crashing issues influenced me to buy the 360 version today. Dissapointing really.

I rented the 360 version yesterday, and the PS3 version today. I've got a 60GB US PS3, so I'll post if I experience problems.

How did this slip through Rockstar and Sony's QA? Definitely bad PR for Sony, and well deserved if they can manage to bungle this launch.

Also, is it me or do the recommended "workarounds" sound completely random and unrelated, indicating they probably don't do anything?

It's not acceptable on Rockstars behalf because the problem is on both consoles. Similar reports in 360.
Has the 630p been confirmed other than someone who claims to have counted the pixels (good going if the res has already been upscaled to 720p) and the magician who can tell just with one look at the screen.
There should have been no issues on either machine with this game but instead the game is full of problems on both platforms.

Chancer, Chancer, Chancer, we can allway rely on you to put a ps3 fanboi spin on everything.
I'm not sure where your getting your info from, I've not hearded of any major problems on the 360. My self and just about everyone I know has the 360 version. Not a single person has had any problems that stop them from playing the game. On top of that i've not read anything about 360 version experincing lock-up or any other major problems. How could you posibly imply that both versions are bad? This is clearly a problem that sliped thought Sonys QA, if they even bothered with QA.

Personaly I only chose the 360 version coz all my mate have 360s and I wanted to be able to play online with them. Im so glad I didn't trust those early reviews that said the ps3 version is better coz it obviouly aint.

I believe the 'major issues' to which he's referring on the 360 would be textures appearing out of nowhere, as well as randomly disappearing. I noticed quite a bit of it while playing the 360 version yesterday. I only played the PS3 version for 10 mins last night, but the graphics did seem a tad richer (compared against a HDMI 360). I'll be comparing the controls, texture pop-in/out, etc, and I'll try to write a comprehensive comparasion, provided I don't get sidetracked and miss my rental time... perhaps I'll find someone to watch my son tonight to guarantee me some playtime

I have read reports of freezing on the 360 as well as the texture probs.

I heard that as well...here for instance (but several more sites too). It claims that while problems on the 60GB PS3 are more commonly reported, there have still been reports for the Xbox 360. Incidentally, GTAIV has not crashed once while playing on my 60GB system. That may explain why this was not caught by Rockstar before release since it clearly does not affect all of them, and perhaps even only a small (vocal) percentage.

you mean this 630p thing?

and yes, theres been reports of the freezing on both consoles

today was my day off from work, sit down on the couch to play gta4 , and it just freezes at the Black loading screen, called sony , they said alot of people are having this issue, fin sucks im glad im not the only one with this issue , im going to return the game back to walmart tommorow

Not a single freeze on the 360 here up till now, with ±20 hours of gameplay. I do see some texturing errors, but only sporadically, it doesn't really bother me and I don't see why people make such a fuss about it: many games have exactly the same graphical popup, it's not really a bug but just a limitation of the console. Cleaning the disc might help btw, I have the impression I only saw some texture popup when I heard the drive skipping and rereading.

Can't comment on the PS3 version, but if it's really true that it locks up this often, it's definitely a R* QA mistake. I would be pretty pissed off if I bought the game for PS3 and it hardlocked all the time.

I can personally attest to their being problems with the 360 version as well. My first copy was freezing every 5 minutes, took it back to the store and haven't had a problem since. This is a R* problem not Sony, even if all the lock ups were occuring on PS3's (which they are not) it's a problem with the game not the hardware.

some links for you to read that point out the problem is on both consoles
Kotaku
Joystiq

I had this issue last night where it would stay at the loading screen. It continued several times after restarting, and this may just be a coincidence, but it actually loaded after I cancelled something I was downloading.

If Sony/Rockstar would have come out quickly to to shut that rumor down it might have influenced my decision. However, looking at the side by side comparisons I thought the PS3 version looked a little blurry. Rockstar/Sony really did drop the ball on this though, considering all the extra time they pushed this game back, they should have caught these issues in QA. Haven't run into any issues on my 360 version yet, great game otherwise.

If Sony/Rockstar would have come out quickly to to shut that rumor down it might have influenced my decision. However, looking at the side by side comparisons I thought the PS3 version looked a little blurry. Rockstar/Sony really did drop the ball on this though, considering all the extra time they pushed this game back, they should have caught these issues in QA. Haven't run into any issues on my 360 version yet, great game otherwise.

If Sony/Rockstar would have come out quickly to to shut that rumor down it might have influenced my decision. However, looking at the side by side comparisons I thought the PS3 version looked a little blurry. Rockstar/Sony really did drop the ball on this though, considering all the extra time they pushed this game back, they should have caught these issues in QA. Haven't run into any issues on my 360 version yet, great game otherwise.

They? those are rockstars issues, not sonys

Do you have both versions then?
Could you give a detailed viewpoint of playing both?
I have the PS3 version but can't at present track down a 360 version. I need to know if I am wasting my time buying both.

Comparison video:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/33470.html

Cheers mate but I have looked at the game comparisons but there are too many different factors that make it impossible to judge. i was hoping for someone with both and hands on experience. Not that it is urgent there is no stock on either console expected until 11th may in the area I am in.

i fixed my issue with the freezing at the black loading screen, when i disable the network everything works fine, but when i turn on the network the game just freezes at the loading screen i hope they fix this issue soon with a patch

Hey (first post for me on this forum),

I've got the lockups too on my brand new, 40GB PS3. So I don't think it is related to the console, but defenetly to the PSN connection.
When I logout from PSN right before playing, it plays fine for hours, no lockups.

Off course, then you don't get multiplayer... but it is reported to work when you connect to PSN when you are in the game. Haven't tried that yet, but I will as soon as I come home and let you guys know!

Cheers,

Indeed, logging in IG works fine for me!

Cheers,

Apocalyps

Sorry for the dup post guys, posted from my cell and it looks like it took 3 times. I don't have both versions, nor could I see any good reason to own both. I was hoping to get the PS3 version, but like I said I was persuaded not to with the video comparisons/ apparent rumors on 630p(Which Sony/Rockstar were very slow to respond on, if they even responded at all).

Although the issues are solely Rockstars fault, both Sony and Microsoft do have a QA process with all games. They would not want an unpolished game that crashes their system in their lineup, that has repercussions.

I have a hard time understanding fanboy mentality, and I'm not in anyway trying to say the XBOX is a superior system, it's not. My point is that Sony needs to get their shit together. I truly wanted to get this game on the PS3, but I'm not willing to sacrifice playability, or visuals in the process. If developers are having a hard time making games for the PS3, damnit, give them a better SDK! PS3 games should be on par with 360 games and it shouldn't take them 6 extra months to make it that way.

The PS3 is an inferior peice of hardware as far as it's application to gaming. PS3 games looking as good as 360 versions is very slim. For each one that is equivelent you'll get 10 inferior games.

There are a number of factors -

- PS3 has ceiling of 256meg of texture ram, 360 can allocate upto 512 due to unified memory - of course game logic and sound will take a slice of that, but nowhere near as much as GFX can.

- PS3 GPU is not as accomplished as the 360's and cannot push as much geometry and effects per frame.

- PS3 CPU can crunch serious numbers - however the massive crunching only applies to streaming data like video decompression. The application of the SPU's to games logic is a second rate solution and most games rely on it's single PowerPC core vs 360's 3 x PowerPC. The 3 PowerPc cores can outshine the combination of PS3's single core and it's 7 supporting spu's in gaming related programs any day of the week.

Exclusive games on PS3 have a potential to look great, but then so do exclusive games on any platform as specific optimisations are refined to the Nth degree, it's a totally moot point.

Don't beleive the Sony hype machine, the PS3 is not as capable as the 360. Anything that says to the contrary is downright fubar.

I have an extensive background in developing software systems - take it as you will.

And before you say it - I'm not a fanboy, I have both consoles cause thats the way I roll !

Since when is calculating 3D environments (read 3D engine) NOT crunching lots of numbers? I wonder...

Pretty much just like most of the stuff you wrote.
Check back on some of the posts from certain trusted devs that post on here. I am more likely to listen to them than believe the pro 360 hype you just laid out

Processors are designed for purpose and have specific instruction sets built to task. A 3gig CPU wouldnt stand a chance rendering a 3d scene compared to an 800mhz GPU, but it would kill it in processing a spreadsheet. The PS3's SPU's have more similarities to a Digital Signal Processor and are designed in dealing with streaming data, e.g. decompressing a bluray video. Game logic, scene creation, sound effects, collision, essentially all the building blocks of a gaming architecture are not conducive to a digital signal processor. Game code has branching conditional logic and is nothing like a streaming set of data.




These trusted dev's must be right. Afterall the PS3 2 years down the tracks is now obviously producing these hypothetical miracles? Indulge me and post a url to a reputable assesment of the PS3's architectural gaming advantages over the 360.

Even dev's like Kojima were taken in by Sony's hype only to hit the wall hard when the reality set in.

Even I was excited by Sony's spin 3 years ago at E3, how our standards have lowered.

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?s=&...t&p=4259905

Check the thread and Post #24 (m_hael) and check out his sig.

Search for all his posts. He only talks about what he knows, and that is consoles. He doesn't post very often but when he does, we should all be grateful for what he adds.

The dude talks about Backface culling, sending optimised data to the GPU. If I'm not wrong, game engines worth their salt are already using these kinds of optimisation techniques on ALL platforms.

So he's talking about a universal system wide approach as an assist to the GPU? Wonder if Sony will release this as part of their SDK. Whats the hold up? - or is this just more hypothetical vapourware selling the untapped potential of the PS3? Beleive me I have no vested interest apart from getting the best games to play, Sony's win is my win - but I'm not prepared to sell myself on delusion.

At one stage the PS3 was not going to even have a GPU. 2 cell processors were going to run the whole system including the rendering. At the last minute Sony relised that the specs on paper had no bearing on reality as the CELL was nowhere near specialised enough to even compare with the lowest end GPU's of years gone by. In a flurry they ran to market to fit a GPU, and ended up with a last generation, second rate bargain bin peice of kit from Nividia - for shame Sony !


PS3's most expensive games are around the corner KZ2, MGS4 and these should be using the Cell SPUS in a highly optimised fashion. We'll see if the technical results are leaps and bound over what we already see today - I wouldn't cont on it unfortunately. And please don't confuse fantastic art direction with technical prowess. Money well spent on art direction can make the lamest of technologies look great, and my bet is thats where a majority of the funds will end up in these games.

^ You asked for a single example, and I showed you one. He has posted in many threads on the subject. I am not doing your work for you.

You can use whatever flawed logic you like, that doesn't change the facts. You cannot use 512MB of RAM for video on the 360, that leaves none for OS or the system. Who cares if they almost used a cell for the GPU? They didn't. They used a great video card. It may be 1 generation older than the 360, but the PS3 makes up for it with the way data is handled. Etc.

I personally do not think the games you mentioned will be leaps and bounds over what we already see today, graphically. But, they will be better and shine in other regards such as NPC intelligence, etc. Neither system is good enough for solid 720p games IMO.