tennisboy213: There’s 2 words that make this the best Grand Theft Auto.
Euphoria. Engine.
The physics in this game are impeccable. Driving is an absolute blast and requires a sense of patience and caution to navigate the city quickly. The cars have this balanced yet weighty feeling, with discernible distinctions between each class, that makes dodging traffic and maintaining speed infinitely more engaging than GTAV or games prior. The damage model is also very unforgiving so if you play the ‘mini game’ of sorts like I do, where you try to not get a single scratch on your vehicle, it forces you to practice restraint.
The gunfights also feel like real gunfights! (Or at least how I imagine they’d play out, since I’ve never been in one.) They encourage being deliberate when positioning yourself by brutally punishing you for any careless exposure. Enemies typically stay concealed while blind firing which makes firepower useless when sitting in one spot, but landing a single headshot with a pistol extremely rewarding and satisfying.
Don’t get me wrong, I looove RDR2. But while the guns in that game feel better and the actual act of aiming and shooting is way more refined, for me, the level design and enemies doesn’t elicit any distress by making me feel “trapped”, struggling to figure out the how and where of moving from my current position to a more advantageous one, while still being mindful of approaching enemies closing their gap. In GTA IV it doesn’t matter how big your guns are, how many you have, or how much ammo you have- a well placed shot wins every time and carelessness leads to death.
I’ve put 100+ hours into the game but never beaten it due to lost progress on Steam over the years. Hope to finally finish it up on my OLED deck soon.
Goseki1: Ehhhhh. I agree that Euphoria is fantastic for when you have run folks over and are in shootouts. But the driving physics are probably the worst in the whole series
tennisboy213: That’s the thing. I understand your opinion and a decade ago I felt the same, but recent playthroughs made me realize how much depth it has. On the surface it feels clunky, unresponsive, and irritatingly slow but once you understand how it works, you realize how nuanced it is and simple traversal becomes extremely engaging.
It becomes a delicate dance of lightly tapping A and D to shift and balance the car’s weight (depending on which car it is), pulsating W to accelerate properly without spinning out, and strategically braking when entering and exiting corners.
You should see how I drive in this game! Even on my steam deck, I press the trigger and know when to disengage to let the car’s momentum carry me, as you have more control when turning if you’re not accelerating.
But in the end, however, it strayed too far away from conventional handling and was too experimental for mass market, so I get the decision to go back to how it was for GTA V. For me personally, since 90% of these games are spent driving around, it was a welcome change I appreciated that spiced things up to make it more interesting. I could never beat GTA V because the driving was made significantly more accessible, and I’d rather just play an actual driving focused game like Dirt Rally on my sim rig instead.
ianpv95: This is me, at first I didn't really like the driving, but after I shifted my main racing game genre from arcade to simcade/sim, goddamn GTA IV driving just clicks with me.
Goseki1: They don't feel real at all. They have a great sense of weight and physicality but they weren't realistic at all. I 100% get what they were going for, I just didn't really like it.
slowpokefarm: I totally love the fact that this game actually runs 200% better under proton than windows because of how messed up the dx9 implementation was compared to vulkan translation.
Finished it not so long ago on SD exclusively, it’s marvelous.
chrisoi141: I bought it at the last steam sale just to play through it once. I stopped playing on pc years ago because of its really bad performance. I only have to figure out how to install those mods.
ChefCarl: Did you mod in the old music they lost the licenses for ? :0 I had to do a weird work around because the mod used to do this is an exe file that only runs on windows, so I installed someone else’s modpack that did it for me but I have noticed it’s missing a few tracks
Zargo1z: Just got my steam deck this week and wanted to try a GTA game on it and this one was the one I chose! I enjoyed four quite a lot. I know everyone loves V but it just wasn't for me. I wasn't a fan of the whole three protagonists thing. I liked them better sticking to one character.
broncos4thewin: Exactly the same here. GTA V is a good game in its own right but I didn’t like changing characters, and it’s a bit cartoonish. GTA IV feels darker and more real.
LonelysoulEQ: i tried to play this last week but got spammed by rockstar launcher bullshit after i installed from steam, never had this problem 6 years ago so i gave up, just wanted to play the game.
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Augisaugasis: Gta IV was the first game that i played on my deck when i got it. Blows my damn mind that a few years ago my pc was too weak to run it and now i can play it while out and about. Crazy.
punk_petukh: Not really... It runs great on SD, but it's boring asf... It's also very brown. Not a fan of it tbh, even though I beat it (it took me 5 years of from time to time play sessions)
Daft_Crunked: I agree this game is like a fine wine, tasted good when it was made and tastes even better 16 years later... ESPECIALLY on Deck.
I started a new play through last week of GTA 4 after like 10 years and it really feels and plays nicely on the deck. It also doesn't drain the battery as fast as a modern Triple AAA title would.
Usually ~25% per hour I've found with 70% brightness on a Deck LCD
Goseki1: It runs absolutely amazingly though is, unsurprisingly, a battery hog. You also need to either fiddle with settings or change the FPS settings right for the final QTE as it's all fucky otherwise.
First time I played I doubled the resolution to fix the missing Antialiasing, but this way the framerate drops to 30fps and sometimes below. With FusionFix you have Antialiasing option in the games graphic settings.
4309qwerty: Was more speaking in respective to gta 4 specifically. Even on modern PC hardware, without the community fixes, the game runs pretty bad. Like someone has stated above, the community fixes can be applied to the steam deck as well which is great to hesr
TheFinalAcct: Having that information at your fingertips would negate the need to post the question here. I understand that this sub’s users have a strong stance against users going out of their way to find information themselves…
livevicarious: Game can run amazingly with FSR enabled. I get well above 60fps but most games including this one I lock FPS to 45 giving me near 4 hours of battery life.. Crazy we have this game running on a handheld.
AlwaysTheKop: Keep settings on default and it runs at a steady 60fps, VERY occasioanl dip into like 56fps sometimes at night time. I'm playing it right now, runs better than my dedicated PC back in the day.
78 replies
tennisboy213: There’s 2 words that make this the best Grand Theft Auto.
Euphoria. Engine.
The physics in this game are impeccable. Driving is an absolute blast and requires a sense of patience and caution to navigate the city quickly. The cars have this balanced yet weighty feeling, with discernible distinctions between each class, that makes dodging traffic and maintaining speed infinitely more engaging than GTAV or games prior. The damage model is also very unforgiving so if you play the ‘mini game’ of sorts like I do, where you try to not get a single scratch on your vehicle, it forces you to practice restraint.
The gunfights also feel like real gunfights! (Or at least how I imagine they’d play out, since I’ve never been in one.) They encourage being deliberate when positioning yourself by brutally punishing you for any careless exposure. Enemies typically stay concealed while blind firing which makes firepower useless when sitting in one spot, but landing a single headshot with a pistol extremely rewarding and satisfying.
Don’t get me wrong, I looove RDR2. But while the guns in that game feel better and the actual act of aiming and shooting is way more refined, for me, the level design and enemies doesn’t elicit any distress by making me feel “trapped”, struggling to figure out the how and where of moving from my current position to a more advantageous one, while still being mindful of approaching enemies closing their gap. In GTA IV it doesn’t matter how big your guns are, how many you have, or how much ammo you have- a well placed shot wins every time and carelessness leads to death.
I’ve put 100+ hours into the game but never beaten it due to lost progress on Steam over the years. Hope to finally finish it up on my OLED deck soon.
Goseki1: Ehhhhh. I agree that Euphoria is fantastic for when you have run folks over and are in shootouts. But the driving physics are probably the worst in the whole series
tennisboy213: That’s the thing. I understand your opinion and a decade ago I felt the same, but recent playthroughs made me realize how much depth it has. On the surface it feels clunky, unresponsive, and irritatingly slow but once you understand how it works, you realize how nuanced it is and simple traversal becomes extremely engaging.
It becomes a delicate dance of lightly tapping A and D to shift and balance the car’s weight (depending on which car it is), pulsating W to accelerate properly without spinning out, and strategically braking when entering and exiting corners.
You should see how I drive in this game! Even on my steam deck, I press the trigger and know when to disengage to let the car’s momentum carry me, as you have more control when turning if you’re not accelerating.
But in the end, however, it strayed too far away from conventional handling and was too experimental for mass market, so I get the decision to go back to how it was for GTA V. For me personally, since 90% of these games are spent driving around, it was a welcome change I appreciated that spiced things up to make it more interesting. I could never beat GTA V because the driving was made significantly more accessible, and I’d rather just play an actual driving focused game like Dirt Rally on my sim rig instead.
ianpv95: This is me, at first I didn't really like the driving, but after I shifted my main racing game genre from arcade to simcade/sim, goddamn GTA IV driving just clicks with me.
io124: Are you kidding ?
The driving physic feel real when other gta game the car feel like rc car.
Goseki1: They don't feel real at all. They have a great sense of weight and physicality but they weren't realistic at all. I 100% get what they were going for, I just didn't really like it.
slowpokefarm: I totally love the fact that this game actually runs 200% better under proton than windows because of how messed up the dx9 implementation was compared to vulkan translation.
Finished it not so long ago on SD exclusively, it’s marvelous.
chrisoi141: I bought it at the last steam sale just to play through it once. I stopped playing on pc years ago because of its really bad performance. I only have to figure out how to install those mods.
ElPhantasm: Replaying it now and it’s amazing. Liking it way more than 5 🤷♂️
Gnostic_Scholar: Much better when portable. Good time gaming OP have a fun.
WIPLBH: A far, far better game than GTAV.
AsinoCheVola: I want to play a gta on my SD, you recommend IV or V? And why? Thx
DEDE1973: It’s not on Steam right? Which version you’re playing ?
ezbyEVL: I'm more impressed about that phisical pc disk than anything
Gta IV is peak, yes.
Ok_Grand5413: I just can't part with my PC discs, I still have a few on the shelf
KRONGOR: Same dude. I haven’t played any of them in well over a decade but they’re nice memories of my childhood
flakoloco1: I play it on my sd oled, finished the lost and the ballad a long time ago but nevet the main story. It runs ✨️
Ok_Grand5413: Funny, i also did play the DLCs first. about one year I played the main story
I was suckered into playing Cyberpunk on ps4 just recently, the narrative had changed and apparently it’s all patched up now.
My first reaction was - it’s about a good now as GTA was on release.
Then I remembered I played it on my Xbox360.
ChefCarl: Did you mod in the old music they lost the licenses for ? :0 I had to do a weird work around because the mod used to do this is an exe file that only runs on windows, so I installed someone else’s modpack that did it for me but I have noticed it’s missing a few tracks
PeejPrime: Funnily, downloaded and started playing this just yesterday as well. Great game, even aside form the god awful car handling mechanics.
Ok_Grand5413: I enjoyed the driving a lot actually but i have no comparison.
ianpv95: Yooo I just started GTA IV few days ago as well. Best GTA for me IMO.
Secret-Chart767: I finally beat the game on SD last year!
Zargo1z: Just got my steam deck this week and wanted to try a GTA game on it and this one was the one I chose! I enjoyed four quite a lot. I know everyone loves V but it just wasn't for me. I wasn't a fan of the whole three protagonists thing. I liked them better sticking to one character.
broncos4thewin: Exactly the same here. GTA V is a good game in its own right but I didn’t like changing characters, and it’s a bit cartoonish. GTA IV feels darker and more real.
abmalik710: Haven’t played the game in like more than 10 years but I could still hear the loading screen music ringing in my ears!
MakerKJS: I just beat it yesterday on my deck.
TheShrewdShogun: I’ve been disappointed that there was no katana or decent hand to hand melee for 15 years.
I forgive you Rockstar games.
Milkyage: Hey cousin, let's go bowling!
LonelysoulEQ: i tried to play this last week but got spammed by rockstar launcher bullshit after i installed from steam, never had this problem 6 years ago so i gave up, just wanted to play the game.
Hapless_Buffoon: is it on a store anywhere?
4 seems to have fallen through the remake cracks over the years. ive wanted to replay it for a while
Mattchilla: I still have that copy! One of the few boxed PC games I owned
mad-suker: lost and damned for ever
thunderlips187: Hey Let’s go Bowling!!
Ok_Grand5413: I'm not great at life, but I bowl like an angel!
KRONGOR: COUSIN!
Traditional_Yak_394: Online gameplay was insane
[deleted]: [removed]
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Thank you!
SteamDeck-ModTeam: Obligatory: Your post has been removed because it is considered too low-effort. Please post content that other users will find engaging and interesting, and be sure to include some text about what you found interesting about your submission or what you think others may be interested to know about it.
Thank you!
Conscious-Fennel-573: Yeap i played it for first time because of SD ! And it is amazing !
Augisaugasis: Gta IV was the first game that i played on my deck when i got it. Blows my damn mind that a few years ago my pc was too weak to run it and now i can play it while out and about. Crazy.
punk_petukh: Not really... It runs great on SD, but it's boring asf... It's also very brown. Not a fan of it tbh, even though I beat it (it took me 5 years of from time to time play sessions)
MentalVermicelli9253: I tried playing this game again, after loving it at release. It did not hold up well at all personally
Daft_Crunked: I agree this game is like a fine wine, tasted good when it was made and tastes even better 16 years later... ESPECIALLY on Deck.
I started a new play through last week of GTA 4 after like 10 years and it really feels and plays nicely on the deck. It also doesn't drain the battery as fast as a modern Triple AAA title would.
Usually ~25% per hour I've found with 70% brightness on a Deck LCD
livevicarious: If you tweak the game you can get 45fps solid with mostly high details, lowered TDP and FSR and 4 hours playtime.
sycron17: For a second i read GTA V, my brain went out the window. But damn V is still so popular after so long how?
Ok_Grand5413: I don't know, always hear that kids love the multi player? Still haven't played it yet.
sycron17: Same here more or less, tried but it’s just stale to me and boring. IV was really the last one i could engage a bit
Tenbob73: I concur, currently going through it on SD. Still great!
4309qwerty: May I know how the game runs on the SD? I vaguely remember the game running like shit on PC due to the terrible optimization.
WildTangler: Proton does wonders for this game, frame-time is a lot tighter
io124: In 2008.
regretchoice: I just got my deck last week and bought GTA 4, runs at 60fps for me with absolutely no dips, right out of the box
Goseki1: It runs absolutely amazingly though is, unsurprisingly, a battery hog. You also need to either fiddle with settings or change the FPS settings right for the final QTE as it's all fucky otherwise.
PeejPrime: Plays well, played well last time I ran it on pc as well, about 4 years ago. Also played fine in 2015(ISH) when I played it as well.
Ok_Grand5413: It runs really well! played with 40fps locked, but installed a few small mods do address some issues. most important: FusionFix (https://github.com/ThirteenAG/GTAIV.EFLC.FusionFix) and Various Fixes (https://github.com/valentyn-l/GTAIV.EFLC.Various.Fixes)
First time I played I doubled the resolution to fix the missing Antialiasing, but this way the framerate drops to 30fps and sometimes below. With FusionFix you have Antialiasing option in the games graphic settings.
mangaurs: Strange, i played last year and it stayed at 60 max settjngs no other tweaking
Ok_Grand5413: yes it's 60 fps if you don't change anything but I really did not like all the jagged edges
imjavierbruh: wym by jagged edges? u talking about the pixelation you can sort of see? to me it adds taste🤣
it reminds me of the xbox 360 but 60fps, runs amazing and battery life is like at 4 hours
HoagieThief: Weird I’m getting 90 fps on it
MrAcerbic: Same here. I’m at a solid 60fps. Make sure you update the stream ini file as well otherwise your’e capping your RAM
Ok_Grand5413: yes I also did this
MrAcerbic: Try any visual mods I find that they just crash at launch. I’m thinking I need to do the patch downgrade?
avensvvvvv: What do I need to do, and what's the value to use for the Steam Deck?
4309qwerty: Ah yes, so this is with the fixes installed. Thanks for the info! Might dive back into it myself now.
TheFinalAcct: You can check SD game performance based on user reports here: https://www.protondb.com/
It may also include a list of tweaks used to achieve optimal performance.
4309qwerty: Was more speaking in respective to gta 4 specifically. Even on modern PC hardware, without the community fixes, the game runs pretty bad. Like someone has stated above, the community fixes can be applied to the steam deck as well which is great to hesr
TheFinalAcct: Having that information at your fingertips would negate the need to post the question here. I understand that this sub’s users have a strong stance against users going out of their way to find information themselves…
WIPLBH: 60ish, very good overall. Get some weird 'doubling' artifact in cutscenes but gameplay is perfect.
krystof_kage: Honestly it ran better on my Steam Deck than my PC. And looks great, especially if you remember the console version.
livevicarious: Game can run amazingly with FSR enabled. I get well above 60fps but most games including this one I lock FPS to 45 giving me near 4 hours of battery life.. Crazy we have this game running on a handheld.
AlwaysTheKop: Keep settings on default and it runs at a steady 60fps, VERY occasioanl dip into like 56fps sometimes at night time. I'm playing it right now, runs better than my dedicated PC back in the day.
kev0r: whats the name of the plugin that lets you see the estimated playtime? looks neat!
coreykill99: I too would love to know this.
OldRasputin_: HLTB for Deck, can be found in the Decky Loader Store.
coreykill99: thanks!