GTA4/SR2 - Get it for PC or 360?

[KaaN10]

Hi guys, I'm new here.

I've heard about GTA IV and Saints Row 2 being bad ports so I'm undecided as to whether I should play it on my PC or 360.

PC specs are i5 4670K/GTX 670/Z87 Mobo/8gb RAM.

Thanks.

 

[KaOTiK]

PC without a doubt. The mods, good god man the mods.

GTA4 got a bit better but was still a meh port, SR2 is a lousy port, but man the amount of mods and good ones makes it up for. I believe there is even community patches.

 

[KaaN10]

How bout performance wise? Is PC better than Console for these two games?

Mods are nice but I'd give that up for performance if it's better on consoles.

 

[Dankk]

Would you rather play the games at your desk on your PC, or on the couch in your living room? Would you rather use a mouse and keyboard, or a gamepad?

It's the same game regardless of what platform you buy it on. The PC version will always have slightly prettier graphics, and perhaps mods, but otherwise they're the same. It's entirely up to personal preference. Buy whatever you're more comfortable with.

Also... you're asking a PC forum. We're biased here; of course more people are going to suggest PC.

 

[Qbah]

GTA 4 runs like sh!t on the consoles - even with its low details, low textures and low resolution, it gets really choppy often.

Your PC will destroy that game, all maxed without issues! Night and day difference. Play with a gamepad and connect the PC to your HDTV (if you have one) and you'll get the best of both "worlds".

 

[Dankk]

GTA 4 runs like sh!t on the consoles - even with its low details, low textures and low resolution, it gets really choppy often.

Your PC will destroy that game, all maxed without issues! Night and day difference. Play with a gamepad and connect the PC to your HDTV (if you have one) and you'll get the best of both "worlds".

No it won't. Last time I checked, GTA4 for PC is one of the most atrociously-optimized games ever made. It has crippling performance issues that prevent it from running smoothly with max settings on even the highest-end gaming rigs.

...of course, the console version isn't exactly a visual feast either. If OP gets the PC version, he'll have to turn down a couple of things (mainly shadows) for it to run smoothly, and to his benefit, it will still look better than the console version.

 

[BladeVenom]

Would you rather play the games at your desk on your PC, or on the couch in your living room? Would you rather use a mouse and keyboard, or a gamepad?

The PC can do all that. It's easy to hook a PC to your TV and use a gamepad. On the other hand, you can't use a keyboard with a 360.

 

[blackwhiskers]

PC. performance sucks regardless of platform, but a modern PC like yours, OP, is sure to give you a lot better experience than you could get on consoles. with that rig you can actually mod that thing and get some really nice graphics going on with the thing still being playable.

but yeah, other people already said it, I'm just another voice in the crowd.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Console, because if you have to ask....

 

[Qbah]

No it won't. Last time I checked, GTA4 for PC is one of the most atrociously-optimized games ever made. It has crippling performance issues that prevent it from running smoothly with max settings on even the highest-end gaming rigs.

...of course, the console version isn't exactly a visual feast either. If OP gets the PC version, he'll have to turn down a couple of things (mainly shadows) for it to run smoothly, and to his benefit, it will still look better than the console version.

OK?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gdz2rgs0zQ

In case people miss it, read the description of the video. The OP has a better system than the YT link.

EDIT: Here without any mods, on a i7 3770K non-OC'd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtFwlsQZLPg

Looks perfectly playable and smooth to me.

 

[KaaN10]

Console, because if you have to ask....

What do you mean?

PC is my preference for most games but I had heard some really bad things about these two.

GTA I'll be getting for the PC going by this thread but still not sure about SR2, have heard people say it's the worst port ever lol.

Thanks for the replies btw.

 

[Soundmanred]

PC without a doubt.

 

[ImpulsE69]

BTW, I can't vouch for GTA but SR2 is awesome on PC.

 

[Arkaign]

No it won't. Last time I checked, GTA4 for PC is one of the most atrociously-optimized games ever made. It has crippling performance issues that prevent it from running smoothly with max settings on even the highest-end gaming rigs.

...of course, the console version isn't exactly a visual feast either. If OP gets the PC version, he'll have to turn down a couple of things (mainly shadows) for it to run smoothly, and to his benefit, it will still look better than the console version.

That was an accurate description back in the day when a Core 2 Quad and GTX 280 were 'high end'. That time has passed however. Hell, my little brother's hand-me-down 4Ghz i5 760 and 69502GB run it like butter at 1080p with almost everything maxed. Maybe patches and drivers have really helped it over the years. It's been out for a really really long time now.

 

[Clinkster]

7+ year old console specs are better than your new PC build.

 

[futurefields]

That was an accurate description back in the day when a Core 2 Quad and GTX 280 were 'high end'. That time has passed however. Hell, my little brother's hand-me-down 4Ghz i5 760 and 69502GB run it like butter at 1080p with almost everything maxed. Maybe patches and drivers have really helped it over the years. It's been out for a really really long time now.

nah, it still stutters when you turn a corner for the first time on cold boot. the game gets a lot smoother after you've been driving around for 20 mins.

 

[Markbnj]

No it won't. Last time I checked, GTA4 for PC is one of the most atrociously-optimized games ever made. It has crippling performance issues that prevent it from running smoothly with max settings on even the highest-end gaming rigs.

I pretty much have to agree with this, but wouldn't call the issues "crippling" for the most part. I've been playing it recently, i5-2500k / GTX660. Most of the game is smooth as silk, but then from time to time it will stutter and bog down. The problem usually resolves itself, but once or twice I have had to restart.

 

[CPA]

Why SR2 and not SR3?

 

[Soundmanred]

Why SR2 and not SR3?

I wondered this as well. SR3 is great.

 

[Dankk]

OK?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gdz2rgs0zQ

In case people miss it, read the description of the video. The OP has a better system than the YT link.

EDIT: Here without any mods, on a i7 3770K non-OC'd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtFwlsQZLPg

Looks perfectly playable and smooth to me.

I think you and I have different ideas of what "smooth" is. I watched your gameplay video without any mods, and your framerate dipped into the 30's.

I fired up the game just a moment ago to see how it runs maxed-out at 1080p on my 7870. I averaged around 30 frames per second (that's without recording). Is it playable? Sure. Is it perfectly smooth? Not at all. Subpar framerate combined with irregular dips and stutters doesn't make for smooth gameplay in my eyes.

Of course, both your CPU and GPU are better than mine, so I'm not surprised it runs better. However, saying that OP can "destroy the game" at max settings is a gross over-exaggeration.

That was an accurate description back in the day when a Core 2 Quad and GTX 280 were 'high end'. That time has passed however. Hell, my little brother's hand-me-down 4Ghz i5 760 and 69502GB run it like butter at 1080p with almost everything maxed. Maybe patches and drivers have really helped it over the years. It's been out for a really really long time now.

I pretty much have to agree with this, but wouldn't call the issues "crippling" for the most part. I've been playing it recently, i5-2500k / GTX660. Most of the game is smooth as silk, but then from time to time it will stutter and bog down. The problem usually resolves itself, but once or twice I have had to restart.

Sure. GTA4 is a relatively old game at this point, and hardware improvements come onto market quickly. But I don't know anyone who can argue against the fact that GTA4 is a technical disaster where optimization is concerned - regardless of when you play it, or how good your computer is.

When you take a 2008 video game, install it on a 2013 gaming computer, and the framerate still struggles to even meet the refresh rate of your cheap 60hz 1080p monitor, something seems wrong to me.

 

[Barfo]

Yeah, I fired it up not so long ago after my last upgrade, thinking I'd finally be able to max it out or at least play on high settings without any lag...nope. What a piece of shit.

 

[Qbah]

Those are not my YT videos. You can max the game out on PC at 1080p and still get 3-4x the framerate a console gets with drastically lower IQ and resolution. If that's not destroying it, I don't know what is. That was the question OP asked.

Me? I'm perfectly happy with 30 min and ~60 average, even if the game might stutter a few times. I find expecting a game to be locked at 60 fps at all times to be unrealistic in most cases - I wonder how did you play any of the Crysis or Metro games? You lowered the details considerably to get the 60 fps lock?

 

[alangrift]

PC. But I think you can get GT3 on tablets too.

 

[Barfo]

I find expecting a game to be locked at 60 fps at all times to be unrealistic in most cases.

Not for a 5 year old console port.

 

[SPBHM]

SR2 is one of the worst console ports I ever played...
I had to use something called cheat engine to make the game run at regular speed, because by default the game will work extremely fast (like 1s takes less time than it should, things that happen when you overclock a console and the game engine time is based on the fixed hardware speed or something), and had a considerable amount of stuttering...

I would go for the Xbox 360 for SR2 and GTA 4 for the PC.