Amidst reports that
Grand Theft Auto IV is
causing problems for owners of both the 360 and PS3 version, we'd like to poll our community on the subject. Most reports claim that the game freezes, forcing players to restart the game (reports also suggest that models other than the 60GB PS3 are not affected). Thus far, only one X3F blogger (me) has encountered any issues. When attempting to retry a mission, said blogger was greeted with an unending loading screen and forced to shut off the console.
We've set up a network wide poll that will be shared among Joystiq, PS3 Fanboy, and Xbox 360 Fanboy to get an idea of how widespread the problem is. Let us know if you've had any issues and don't forget to detail your problems in the comments.
{ Apr 30th 2008 at 5:30PM } 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Logan T. @ Apr 30th 2008 5:43PM
The only problem I've had so far is random disconnects from Free Mode games (haven't had a chance to test it much on the other game types). In the 3 hours I played last night I must have disconnected 5 times. It's not something that usually happens to me in other games, so I doubt it's network related. However, I'm hoping it is and it clears up soon.
kp @ Apr 30th 2008 5:45PM
been playing for about 7 and a half hours and i've only had it freeze once in singleplayer. i was doing a taxi mission and my car just stopped moving but everything around me kept going, like the rest of the city went about its business. so that's been my only problem. but i havent got into the multiplayer yet.
LuckyEMS @ Apr 30th 2008 8:07PM
LOL!
your car broke down, they dont blow up anymore it just breaks down and refuses to start
kp @ Apr 30th 2008 8:20PM
haha, nah, a few seconds after that i got the "cant read disc message". but later when my first car did break down on me, i thought it was frozen again. but then i heard the engine trying to turn over and thought, wow, thats crazy they added that too.
UNSCleric @ Apr 30th 2008 5:48PM
Every single PS3 owner is having problems because the online is 100% broken. Won't stop them from coming here and pretending to own a 360 and saying they have problems though.
SadisticHam @ Apr 30th 2008 5:50PM
Several issues.
- Missions wouldn't start when i went into them/wouldn't finish and i had to reload.
- Multiplayer is broken in so many ways, i really hope they patch the problems, amount of quitters in cops and robbers is stupid.
Had to restart my console once or twice as well due to freezes, also had some guy asking on Live if others where crashing a lot so i guess he had problems. :P Good game but the multiplayer is a bit arg, i like it just needs patching.
Tony @ Apr 30th 2008 5:54PM
I know it's far less popular, but I wish blogs cared more about Bully's problems... It's also from a Rockstar team and it's nigh unplayable. They barely got any flack at all for that, in the scheme of things. Even after the patch it's terrible.
justinb @ Apr 30th 2008 5:57PM
might help if this was on ps3 fanboy
Ciaran Gallagher @ Apr 30th 2008 5:58PM
I'm having problems BECAUSE of GTA. Tried to play Halo 3 last night but shortly after the midnight launches in the UK, suddenly nothing was working! Couldn't play any Halo!
TORO @ Apr 30th 2008 6:17PM
HAHA I hope ur Halo 3 disc burns! lol jk
AxFactor @ Apr 30th 2008 5:59PM
I put a reserve on it and am picking it up on Saturday so we'll have to see.
AnOffday @ Apr 30th 2008 6:00PM
No problems at all here.
And what exactly is the point of putting the poll here? It's called Xbox 360 fanboy. I doubt many PS3 people will come here.
Richard Mitchell @ Apr 30th 2008 7:08PM
Because many 360 owners, like me, have experienced problems as well.
UNSCleric @ Apr 30th 2008 9:24PM
Who knows. I'm on my 17th hour of actual game playing (and well over 21 hours of the game actually running) and I haven't had a single problem, not even a minor glitch. The game is perfect on the Xbox 360.
James @ May 1st 2008 5:36PM
You might not have noticed, but it's a Weblogs Inc-wide poll. They're linking to it from PS3FB and Joystiq as well.
mcwattersm @ Apr 30th 2008 6:03PM
I've gotten the "Disk cannot be read" error twice.
Guy4 @ Apr 30th 2008 11:33PM
Same here...
SPACEBAR @ May 1st 2008 11:13AM
I got a "PS3 fanboys pretending xbox 360 problems" error
Manvir (El Homer) @ Apr 30th 2008 6:07PM
well i had a bit of a problem wen i first got the game. i put it in and it kept saying disc read error. this is exaclty wat happned wen i got halo3 so i was ready to kill someone. after trying it a couple of times, it finally worked and havnt had a problem since. in total ive play 5 hrs sooo...
ordigas @ Apr 30th 2008 6:12PM
No problem here, because someone had the brilliant idea of delaying it's release in México, so I don't have it yet even though I paid it in full 2 weeks + ago. If I'm lucky I'll have it next Saturday, as is the case for everyone who preorder it in the country.
XPrivateXRyanX @ Apr 30th 2008 6:13PM
The only problems I've had was when starting a new round in Cops N Crooks the loading screen would not end and also the same thing happened when I was trying to start a free mode game in party mode.
TORO @ Apr 30th 2008 6:19PM
Darn, I went to the PS3 fanboy website and voted "Yes, and I use the 60GB PS3"...but it knew I already voted :(
Craig T @ Apr 30th 2008 6:25PM
The only problem is when I try to play online, 3 out of 5 times, i can't get past the black starting game screen. But my other team mates do, and I can talk to them, so my only option is to either wait the time limit out or restart the box.
Glitch W @ Apr 30th 2008 6:28PM
is there a way to so no problem with either (have used both)
Jonman @ Apr 30th 2008 6:31PM
I had the singleplayer freeze on my during a loading screen. That was after about 4 hours of play, and fortunately, just as I was finishing up. Not tried multiplayer yet. I'm on a launch Elite.
bxbigpipi @ Apr 30th 2008 6:40PM
i have the 40 gig ps3 and the game freezes on me too. also i cant access the online games. i hope they correct this problem soon!!
mike @ May 5th 2008 4:46PM
I had the exact same problem of it getting stuck when loading and needing to reboot. Happened about three times in...oh, about a three hour span.
Not on the hour or anything, I didn't time it.
Other than that, it's just gameplay flaws like clipping, pop up, a lock on system that randomly chooses to ever lock on and people on the street getting stuck and walking into walls and stuff.
My favorite moment was when me and a friend were in free mode and we watched a police car flying across the air up high.
It looked like the game must have glitched in a way that it put a police car skin where it should have been an airplane.
Weird, but entertaining.
Despite the problems, good game.
stinger503 @ Apr 30th 2008 7:16PM
No problems for me after 18 hours of play. :)
Mr_Madnote @ Apr 30th 2008 8:22PM
I too had a never ending load screen twice on a Vlad mission - i think the second one. I tried it twice with the same issue, then went a did a little jacob mission and came back to it - no problem. Thats the only hiccup ive encountered on the 360 version.
c4v3man @ Apr 30th 2008 7:54PM
Go "I just felt compelled to click something"!!! We've almost got them all beat!
mike @ Apr 30th 2008 8:26PM
I have had problems with the Multiplayer on the Xbox 360, it won't let me play at all besides a non-ranked match. I also have had it freeze a few times on the loading screen. I wonder if we'll encounter any of the glitch save spots like the PS2 games had.
YoRone22 @ Apr 30th 2008 8:28PM
I got a Disk Read Error twice. Thank God for auto save though!
AA @ Apr 30th 2008 8:32PM
I got the same issue as Richard...
can't remember the mission, but it was about the 10th one I did - failed, tried to retry and was stuck loading for a good while...
although I didn't have to turn my system off, a quick visit to the dash and a relaunch of the game worked just fine
Zach S @ Apr 30th 2008 8:42PM
I've only had one freeze and it was coming out of the multiplayer tutorial. Other than that, I haven't had any problems so I checked "No problems." My 360 does stuff like that every once in awhile, so I'm not gonna hold it against it- if it kept happening though, that would be annoying...
Davis @ Apr 30th 2008 9:06PM
My intro frozed a couple of times but after the third time it worked fine. Haven't seen any other problems.
Lee @ Apr 30th 2008 10:07PM
I've only had one problem so far, and it was the never ending load screen after restarting a mission mentioned in the original post.
Hasn't happened again, though.
jj @ May 1st 2008 9:49AM
Freezes after playing for 2-3 minutes everytime.
Tony @ May 1st 2008 12:32AM
I actually had one problem (Xbox 360)... Basically, it seemed at one point like it was loading forever. It had to have been well over a minute and a half. I happened to go into the dashboard while I was waiting and the game eventually did load the next area and I continued playing.
I've never had the problem since.
Kamal @ May 1st 2008 1:28AM
The annoying problem I am encountering is that sometimes the character voice volume level is TOO low! I searched for it online and found other are having a similar problem. Changing the audio to stereo (from surround sound) did not help. Anyone help this Niko? :)
D @ May 1st 2008 4:34AM
What's happening? It's freezing? I left that game on for 12 hours yesterday, nothing happened. I played for about 8 of those hours (dispersed through the 12 hours). Only thing I noticed was that when I jumped in a car with someone who had a crazy slow connection, it lagged up my connection too.
Aside from that I've had no glitch problems.
Rob @ May 1st 2008 5:05AM
My game has only crashed once while it was loading the "Concrete Jungle" mission (Luckily it autosaves :p). Other than that it has been pretty much perfect. Even online, I seem to be getting a lag free experience despite the fact that it's only a couple of days old.
ThomasJay @ May 1st 2008 4:43AM
I've only had it freeze up once on my 360 while I was trying on some glasses in the first clothing shop. Certainly not enough for me to complain about, yet.
matty @ May 1st 2008 4:57AM
12hrs of single player, 4 or 5hrs of multiplayer, not a single problem. no freezing, no disconnects, not a single hiccup.
im happy to be a part of this group and i hope it stays this way
*knocks on wood*
Kane @ May 1st 2008 7:28AM
I have had the game freeze on me while in a mini-game
Brucie B @ May 1st 2008 8:08AM
Can't go Online, Keeps Disconnecting me...
Yet I'm fine when I go onto COD4....
FIX LIVE!
borandi @ May 1st 2008 8:11AM
Just once on the 360, the never ending loading screen. Good thing I'd just saved.
Enzemo @ May 1st 2008 8:17AM
Now believe it or not. But when I was playing GTA IV last night my 360 got the RROD.
It turned itself off and when I turned it back on it was fine. And yes, it was the 3 lights.
This has never happened with any other game.
Also when I play online on GTA my headset usually doesn't work ¬¬
Game has frozen numorous times also, such as when trying to load a mission and when trying on a hat in the Russian store :P
I do hope a patch will be released, post haste.
mbasi @ May 2nd 2008 10:43AM
Same here.
Played for about 60 mins, then the screen freezed.
Restart. RROD. Thank you.
Never ever MS again.
mal @ May 1st 2008 8:25AM
So how do you even play multiplayer games? I've only played the game a few hours so far and haven't seen any multiplayer options. Do I have to unlock it or something?
Brucie B @ May 1st 2008 8:55AM
It's on your phone, Pull it up, Hit A, Scroll down To Multiplayer.