Grand Theft Auto IV On PC Is A Little Broken

And here we were, getting all excited over Grand Theft Auto IV on PC. Seems that Rockstar's big release - like, sadly, so many other high-profile PC games for the year - has launched broken.

Problems range from dire performance issues to numerous error codes to a lack of SLI support, with scores of unhappy users flooding forums with their "broken things" laundry lists and Steam even going so far as to start offering refunds for unhappy downloaders.

The main bone of contention seems to be with the game's graphics settings. Even powerful PCs are being forced to run the game at low settings (and even then, there are numerous texture errors), Rockstar responding with "higher settings are provided for future generations of PCs with higher specifications than are currently widely available."

So suck on it.

General error and installation error codes are also being widely reported, with Rockstar having to publish a "handy" guide just so people know where their copies are going wrong.

As for what happens next, Rockstar have issued a brief statement on the problems, saying "we are working to help solve these [issues] as quickly as possible".

To get a taste of PC gamer frustration, you can visit the forums below.

Steam GTAIV Forum
GTAforums.com
GTAgaming.com

Yeah... Rockstar never was too good at actually making there games.

People give them a break though because GTA 3 was so huge.

As such it's hard they're even trying anymore since their bug ladden games still rate in the 90s.

Valve offer refunds on Steam? R* royally screwed up if Valve is willing to take refunds. DAMN

This is why I only buy console titles on release...

My friend has the game, and he can barely run it at medium on his high-end PC. It's unbelievable how they can't manage to code things right. :/

Same thing like when San Andreas came out first...!

One of the threads at the Steam forums reads:

"Game runs like poo"

...lol

The Gamer's Bill of Rights
We the Gamers of the world, in order to ensure a more enjoyable experience, establish equality between players and publishers, and promote the general welfare of our industry hereby call for the following:

1. Gamers shall have the right to return games that don't work with their computers for a full refund.
2. Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.
3. Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game's release.
4. Gamers shall have the right to demand that download managers and updaters not force themselves to run or be forced to load in order to play a game.
5. Gamers shall have the right to expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will adequately play on that computer.
6. Gamers shall have the right to expect that games won't install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful software without their express consent.
7. Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time.
8. Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers.
9. Gamers shall have the right to demand that a single-player game not force them to be connected to the Internet every time they wish to play.
10. Gamers shall have the right that games which are installed to the hard drive shall not require a CD/DVD to remain in the drive to play

Don't 2 and 3 conflict? If the game is in its finished state, then what else is there to add in an update?

Not that I disagree with the list, it would be great if all publishers/developers adhear to it.

Right. I just bought this game on steam. I played it a bit on Xbox 360, and it was fun. I loved the previous games too. So. Here's my experience.

I bought the game on steam, no problem there. Pressed install game in the games menu, but nothing happened. The game refused to begin downloading...

WTF! I thought. I heard the game has some bugs, but this is just insane! After a little fiddling around I found that the download started if I 'verified the validity of the cache'. I guess that's fancy speak for checking the haschfile. Anyway. Download worked.

Naturally, it was freaking HUGE! 15 gig. Took around 8 hours to download for me (I WANT MY 100mbit BACK!), though it loaded pretty slow and I was doing other things on the net as well. It's now very late, and I really should go to bed...

Anyway, starting to boot the game up it starts doing install thingies... Dunno what really. I get the steam version because I don't want install-thingies. GAH! Next up, Sign up to Rockstar Games Social Club.

Eh. No. I don't want to sign up to Rockstar Games Social Club. I just want to play some GTA!

Tried to skip signing up, and it worked. Didn't say so anywhere though, you just had to guess that closing that window would work. Phew.

Now what the...! I now have a Rockstar icon in my system tray! WHY!? More sensless stuff draining power on my machine. I don't like that.

At last, there's the play button. I press it... and 'you first have to authenticate your software'. ARGH! I bought it through steam to get away from authentications and other shit. Well, at least I got through that part ok. Did not want to do it online though. If I do it online I feel like I will die a little bit.

Finally, it's booting up the game. Or wait. It stopped. Great. Getting into game bug. Lovely. ****!

Rebooting the game. IT WORKS! Doesn't load forever. Loading screens kinda cool. Playing with minimum settings, hoping to get at least a somewhat decent FPS...

Game starts. Green weird screen. Not working? Oh. There it goes, around 10-fps indoors... hopefully it'll be better soon... no, still low fps with only 1 character on screen. Weird.

Then there's that weird clipping thing going on. It clips everything at around 10 meters away from the camera. Not really hot. Definatly not playable.

Skipping cutscene, fiddling with graphic settings. Hopefully increasing clipping distance will work. Eh. No?

This is fucked up. I cannot even see the road 2m before the car. I think I'm going to quit playing now.

This is where I realised I had just spent 50 bucks plus taxes on a game that does not work, installs spyware and is not optimised for PC anyway.

Next time, I'll just pirate GTA first, to see if it works. And buy later. If it works.


ARGH!

tl;dr
*Sorry for the rambling post, but I'm tired and angry. They shouldn't be allowed to release crap like this if it's not finished!*

@Katilian

Finished state does not mean perfect. It really depends on what you would consider "finished", but some people release games in a state that not even themselves consider finished and just fix the big glitches with patches.

Even people with high standards like Nintendo do not release their games perfectly glitch free.

BTW: The gamers bill of rights is a standard Stardock is trying to get accepted by the industry.  If you really like them, consider buying Stardock's games.  They adhere to it.