I had the freezing problem for like 7 missions, always in the same spot too, right in the beginning of the first cut scene, and continued to freeze up thru mission 6 or 7. (It froze intermittently thought out those missions) I noticed that all the buttons were froze and all you could do was flip the power switch off. While expirmeting I found that you could just eject the disc and wait 15 or so seconds and it would bring you back to the xmb. At which point I would just restart the game. I eventually made it thru mission 6. Since that time i have not froze once for about 2.5 hours. Before that and it was every 3
or so mins. Just figured I'd give a head up to anyone experiencing the same thing.

cloudtm2

@ExceptionOE:
Every crash can do this. Never used Windows?

Garo

It could be worst, I suppose. We could all be playing Buggy Saints Row.

+ Watch video

Salen

This is catastrophic...I am left with
no option other than taking my own life.
I shall now go get the razor blades
fill the tub for my final bubble bath,
I'll then light some candles and
a pinch of incense and cry while thinking
of what Rockstar has done to me.

gaiking

Same thing happened to me! I picked the game up this past saturday. After the initial install, it froze during the cut scene. I restarted, same thing. I reinstalled, same thing. I did this maybe 20 times over the weekend. Then my friend came over to help me determine what is up, i used his disc. same thing. I then got another copy last night, again, freezing. I have never had one freeze or anything on my system, now i have it 100% with GTA IV and 0% with every other game. They better fix this sh!t... and quick!

iNime

"hurr durr, expect a news post soon stating that the PS3 is running gta4 in 630p and 360 runs in 720p"

Already happened.

[www.eurogamer.net]

Repsode

No joke, they sent me an email saying for troubleshooting turn off rumble feature.

Foolish

they said later it was for troubleshooting, It lasted alot longer but eventually crashed. They were saying the rumble. Sorry for the late response.

Foolish

Yeah, my copy is on a plan on its way to the Philippines and if I encounter the same issues those poor souls are, I'm gonna freakin' murder someone. Seriously, I need SOMETHING to take my mind of the unbearable wait for MGS4 and honestly, I've been bitten by the GTA hype bug these past few days.

I really hope Rockstar does something for the people already encountering the problems. I can't even begin to imagine how the must feel after camping out all night just to be greeted by a frozen screen. That shit must be absolutely devastating.

Vicious-chan

I'm picking up my copy today at the local Blockbuster as soon as it opens, and felt the Holy terror rising within when I read that headline.

Thankfully, the good people of the comment section have calmed my frazzled nerves.

We shall see...

Chances

Have it for 360, havent run into any problems so far.

hurr durr, expect a news post soon stating that the PS3 is running gta4 in 630p and 360 runs in 720p

Rexter

When the oil barrel hit $120, I said: don't panic. When the price of wheat increased 200%, I said: don't panic. When the mortgage and sub-prime crisis hit, I said: don't panic.

But this. No, this is just too much. I say: enough! It's about time someone stood up! Take arms, brothers and sisters, for the day of reckoning is nigh!

Antiterra

I bought the SE flavor of GTA4. I got just up the hill from the docks before the first freeze. Turned off/on my 360, started again and got another freeze while on the map screen. I was thinking it was my xbox since I've had a few other games lock up the xbox in the last two weeks since getting a refurb back from Microsoft since my orginal xbox dying from the RROD.

Fuzi Lojak

Played it about two hours in 'party mode' early this morning and everything was fine. My friend did have some issues but that was because his Rock Band controller was signed into port One. Once he signed off things worked fine. Party Mode is uber-awesome by the way...

thebetamax

It's false. No problem would have to make you turn the console of [i]at the wall[/i]. Even when a 360 RRODs you can use the button to turn it off. Holding the button down performs a hard shut down which will always work unless your console is utterly fucked beyond belief.

A crash can NOT do this.

ExceptionOE

OH MY GOD!!!! I knew I should have just left for wal-mart without checking the nets, eh, oh well. I've got me a boat ticket to Liberty city, whose joinging me?!
Thank you though honestly for the warning, Kotaku, its nice that a gaming site can update on the spot with warnings. You just moved into my second place bookmark spot! :)
~PEaCE~

Cozwic

@Most Wanted: That's seems pretty unfair. The company used be blamed for that problem not the game. Just because a few discs are not working doesn't mean that the game should have it's reviews "chopped."

TheNinja256

It''s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel just fine.

KM91

@robotleawesome: fuck you're

robotleawesome

Been going through the campaign for a couple of hours now, no lockups or crashes, smooth as ice. I'm loving it, GOTY for sure.

DigiMish

I also noticed that as your playing it your face muscles spontaneously pull back into a state of constant grinning.

3 hours in, not a single issue.

robotleawesome

Mine froze during the install to hard disc. But I quit out of it, deleted some movies I'd seen to clear some space, and deleted the GTA install that had got halfway through. Tried again and... all is well, installed no problems and MAN THIS GAME RULES. I have the Special Edition version from the UK, ordered from Gameplay- they always get stuff to me on release date or sometimes before.

Ungruntled

Its an issue affecting both PS3 and 360. Logic would dictate a bad batch of game discs for both systems. Seriously, Luke had it right. Remain calm. It happens. I'd be more surprised it didn't happen with the sheer amount of games being shipped. Wow...

Jechticknight

Who cares if it chrash, or freezes, this is finaly a reason for me to get an 360.

CyaniD

@Foolish:
Yeah sure that's the reason why it happens to the X360 versions too... sigh.

Garo

Personally I think that if a real issue is found here that all the review sites need to chop their score. Being unplayable out of the box for any software reason is truly unaceptable.

ie...if BMW made the most beautiful 10/10 car going you wouldn't give it a 10/10 if it stalled on your customers due to a issue at the factory.

Most Wanted

This site is getting a little like visiting a GTA fansite, what with all the banners and shit around here :)

RogueSquid

@Foolish:
Not sure if I'm missing a joke here, but how can/did they justify that?

mrrobsa

@Foolish: If that's true, forward that email to tips(at)kotaku.com. I'm sure they (and the rest of us) would love to see it.

Insomnia Bob

I've had zero problems thus far (I'm playing on PS3) and I've played the game for at least 4 hours now. I do know one friend who has been experiencing these problems though, I don't think it's wide spread like the Bully bug but it still is annoying for those having issues.

ErinIsADrunk

they just sent me an email saying its the dualshock 3 controller causing the problem.

Foolish

I've been playing this on my launch 360 for days now, I've not had a single crash, lock-up or loading problems.

In fact the only "bug" I had was the other day where I got trapped under a boat dock and couldn't get out. I hadn't saved in ages either, luckily I was able to kill myself with grenades so I didn't lose all the progress I'd made.

photoboy

I havent had any problems and have playe dfor about 6 hours so far.

kenjara

Weird.. mines just fine.

o_o;

AndrewDB

@Mienvard:

it just gets reported more around when new games come out. systems die all the time but when systems die when a hot new games just comes out people link it to the game instead of just linking it to the system failure rate.

harlock_JDS

"...who knows. Not us. We're asking Rockstar. And until we hear back from them, you all should remain calm."

Because they're an authoritative and trustworthy source on issues with their products. HA!

soul4sale

locked up as soon as i got into a car... peeved be i....

Keef

there is no doubt in my mind that my 360 will red ring from this game. Launch console, no problems (Cept for the disc drive being loud enough to wake my baby up when playing rock band!!)
but I hope this is just some bad batch that got out like 1/100th of the game or something.

RazorandBlade

with rockstars manpower expect a patch in the next 24 hours.

deathtastic

Hey everyone that is having problems needs to call Take 2 help line they are on right now America: 1-866-405-5464 or Canada: 1-800-269-5721. Very helpful info and help them out sorting things.

Foolish

No crashes on my 360. Enjoying the game. Well, not at the moment, this mission I'm reloading has so far taken nearly 10 minutes, but that's just my disc drive dying....

penty85

Played from midnight until 6am on the 360 version not one lock up infact everything was amazingly perfect. God I love this game.

Ascully

Playing it on 360. No probleems so far.

Wenzel

Well, my copy of GTA causes my PS3 to "crash" and sort of half ass turn itself off during the intro cutscene. As of yet, I've only made it as far as hitting the accelerator on that buick looking car twice, after 5 attempts. I'm not sure if my console is overheating, or what, but I can say this for certain:
This is Living.

Insomnia Bob

I've gotten the feeling machines tend to die a lot around big game releases, at least that's when the reports seem to flow in. It's as if games that's pushing the console hardware further and further is waging war. Perhaps developers have some sort of scoreboard. "Wohoo! GTA4 caused it's 100th 360 to keel and rrod in just 5 hours! That's a whole day faster than Gears did! Cake for lunch!"

Mienvard

Telling the internet to stay calm is like telling the sun not to shine, like telling the earth not to orbit, like telling the children not to frolic. Please, think of the children!

FlashIV

Mine hasn't crashed on my 360 whatsoever. No lockups or these framerate issues some reviews have stated (even during hectic situations). So...I'm calm.

Sigma-D

@Repsode: Same here, I ordered the Special Edition from Play as the normal copies had sold out and have ordered it to my work place but it isn't here yet, the most annoying part being that a guy I work with just walked in to Game this morning on his way through town and picked a copy up with no problem......getting angry and tense

Dannon

@TheDoomer: Yeah , I had it a day early (as a lot of people in Germany did) but I managed to progress beyond the opening cutscene in a day and that's where the issue is according to the article.
Also my reference to the "off" switch on the PS3 was there because there should be no need to unplug it in case of a game failure because you have other means to cut the power. The need to unplug it as it's stated in the article therefore points to the 360 in my opinion.

El-Suave

My ps3 version runs just fine. but the guy at the psn@home site said his SE gta froze.. who knows, out of soo many discs there are prolly some busted.

jovus

For PS3 just backup your HDD and format it...that seems to be clearing up the issue.

Most Wanted

What you guys should remember is that the only people posting are the ones with the problem,everyone who is fine couldnt care less as they are playing.so it seems like more of a problem that it actually is cause only the afflicted are posting.

vig0r

@dannon

In the same boat, mate. Pre-ordered from Play.com and their receipt says it was shipped yesterday

No means to increase the priority on their shipping means I might not get it till Friday.

Oh, postman's just been. Nothing there. GRRRRRRRRR!
I guess I know who not to pre-order from in future.

Repsode

Phew, mine has been fine bar ONE problem.

Hitting the Xbox button (silver thingy on pad) crashes the game out.

Bar that all is lovely.

Big_Adam

I like how its filed under rumor. I guess potential angry mob doesn't exist.

Foolish

all is fine with the copy i procured from blockbuster at 12:10am last night for my PS3...

segamanxero

DON'T PANIC! DON'T PANIC!

/lancecorporaljones

Cruithne

Meh. Got it, been playing it, been enjoying it immensely. No problems so far! Internet is over-dramatic. My sympathies to any/all who are experiencing problems. My PS3 version runs just fine.

Knolin

Games that try to push the limits of the hardware tend to encounter these types issues with at least a few people. I am just surprised that these problems are occuring within the FIRST cutscene of the game.

Velops

"Hitchickers Guide to the Galaxy" said it best:

DON'T PANIC! /o\

Shiryu

I'm going to assume it's a bunch of douchebags that got together and wanted to cause an uproar created by the most hyped game of the year. I could be wrong, but Rockstar wouldn't do that to us. . . would they?

enigma89

been playing for 7 hours on 360. no problems. except I can't get past this one Fing mission because some dude pulls out an assault rifle and lights me up instantaneously.

3inst3in

Hold me, I'm scared.

I'm more worried about me not getting my copy delivered today....where the hell is it? It should be here by now!

Dannon

@Salen: Not even RRoD is as bad as the internet makes it sound. But it's true... people are about 100 times more likely to complain than to post saying something just works... if not 1000 times. Somebody should develop an Internet Complaint Analysis Algorithm to calculate how bad a problem really is.

The Whaleman

@El-Suave: Unless you're refering to last week, the way you say you had your copy since Monday makes it seem so long ago....it was less than 24 hours...

Also, just because the PS3 has a switch doesn't mean you completely lose the ability to unplug it. And aren't flipping the switch and unplugging pretty much the same exact thing?

TheDoomer

ahhhh!

poser85

I CAN'T REMAIN CALM!

THE WORLD IS ENDING!

Shocky

No problems here. Been playing for a couple hours on a 60GB PS3...

GoldenGotGame

@RageKage: The internet tends to make most problems sound about 100 times as bad as they usually are, unless it involves the RRoD, in which case its probably spot-on.

I hope they get an update rushed out to fix it, if there is an issue.

Salen

I have my copy since Monday and have had no problems at all.
Also it can't be a PS3 problem because that system has an Off switch so there is no need to unplug anything.

El-Suave

uh-oh, they better fix it before i pick up my copy tomorrow... please?

decodergrizzly

With a game selling as much as GTA, even if the percentage of crashes/lockups is tiny, that's more than enough people to make a loud noise on the internet. It's probably no more unstable than any other game.

MikeCUK28

It probably isn't as bad as the internet makes it sound.

RageKage

How do you expect me to remain calm D:

Ryumeka

Time for Nintendo to sell more Mario Kart Wii units.

Lateralus63

I got the LE for the 360.

When I first put it in I got "This disc should be inserted into an xbox 360" with loads of japanese writing. !?!

Then during the first couple of cutscenes it kicked out with, "disc unreadable." I cleaned it and put it back and it did it again. There seemed to be some smudges on the disc that could only be taken off by windex. I treated it like a baby; those scratches/smudges must have come out of production.

KindaGamey

Just got my copy a couple of hours ago and it seems to work fine on my 60gb euro ps3.
Seems good so far though a little fuzzy on the distant textures but i guess thats just the limitaions of consoles showing up,me being used to looking at pc stuff.Oh well, im still enjoying it.
I laughed at the text mentioning you can meet and date girls and partake in various activities with them, like eating! lol, hot coffee sprung to mind.Poking a little fun at themselves?

UFO

I've had it on the 360 since Sunday and had no problems

brooza

I picked up my copy at midnight last night, played through about an hour and a half and no lock up for me. Hell, I didn't even see the framerates drop. I bought the 360 version.

IndustrialJones

@Salen: The fuck you talkin bout son?

That was the best part!

Witzbold

@Repsode: I don't see how that is possible. There is no scaler chip in the PS3...

GOD

my 360 didn't lock up, but when I saw that black BENZ-clone with the AMG rims, my BRAIN locked up.

this game is amazing.

rainofwalrus

Im going to be mad pissed if my copy is f'd up, sorry off topic, but i plan on buying it (today in the us) does anybody know if sears will have it in stock there when they open? thx

smuckersisgood

Been playing since Friday, no issues. Havent experienced any freezing myself, and havent really gotten any frame rate problems either. I'm glad its working for me, I think I will be playing GTA4 until MGS4 comes out!

iamcool388

Why would a console game crash on some units, and work on others? maybe this game use some feature of the hardware that was broken in some units!.
If thats the problem, I blame Microsoft, and suggest to use the warranty. If a game work in my XP3, sould work in your XP3, or your XP3 is broken.

Tei

Hasn't been a problem for me.

mmr

i think it would be more repsonsible of sites like kotaku if they at least first check if they have issues with their copies of the game before posting something like this. I´ve heard it from several other developers now that some people who download illegal pre retail build copies of games then bitch about the game not working well on the forums which then drives down sales for the game of course.
Personally i was going to go out and buy the game today and now this post got me worried. Thanks for propper investigation before heating up worries.

tomsamson

I haven't had any problems with the game itself, but the keys for my SE lockbox don't work.

SixDemonBag

@kiigan: Yo man... slow down.

Feendawg

@Repsode: me too!

Could have gone to a midnight opening to get mine :(

ive got over 15 pages of items in my order history on play, might reduce that a lot now, they originally said it was posted 23-04-08, but last night it updated to say 28-04-08, that means ill get it Friday...Rubbish

juscallmeweasel

@iNime:

Sign out of PSN before you load the game.

Sollus

No issue here on the 360 version and as far as I know the 8 friends of mine who got it last night on 360 didnt have an issue either

parad0x360

I played the X360 version on a Falcon, and it worked great without any problem. I did 4 o 5 missions then quit (you know... that "work" thing ;)) but didn't have any problem

mendo

When City Link decide to eventually deliver my copy, I may be able to contribute to this thread.

X201

The internet is full of drama queens. If this problem was very wide spread, no doubt reviewers would've run into it and reported it. I just want my copy already!

Albanian_Killa

Oh come now. It's Patch Tuesday! Everyone knows that Crackdown, Halo 2 & 3 and other games had glitches ("gotta getum out da door!" is our motto).

If it's "internets serious", there will be a fix.
If it's a bad disc pressing, cache, other...well...I can wait. Can you?

SigmundTheSeaMonster

Hopefully the problem will be solved by the time when my copy arrives. Or rather, hopefully the problem goes unsolved until my copy arrives. The thought of other people playing the game while I wait makes me feel a certain emotion... an emotion somehow related to the colour green... and also has a V sound in it.

Demaar

I am 40% through the game and I've not seen any lock-ups or any technical problems whatsoever.

kiigan

I'm calm =p planned on picking my copy up right after work, then i realized otw just now i forgot to bring my trade ins :(

Zaos

this crash is happening to me. I have a launch 60GB PS3.

Basically, the video locks up, but you can still hear the audio. I was able to skip the opening cinematic, but then it crashed while the guy is talking in the car.

sugarhigh4242

Somehow I sensed this would happen. Every major game release keeps messing up. Brawl with the disc read errors and the internet not working (and still not working). Halo 3 with the scratched discs. CoD4 making Xbox Live dead (not a direct problem the game, but ...). It's ridiculous. I remember when games actually worked when you put them in. Good times.

Sloopydrew

Welcome to the next generation.

megaStryke

my game's fine on the 360

PAULINK

@DigiMish:

Apparently doesn't work according to the people with the problem. Neither does completely reformatting the system.

Vicious-chan

I got a "Reconnect Controller" message with my controller still on, during the opening cutscenes/credits, on 360.

I think the issue was the fact that it defaulted to the 3rd slot because a bunch of Rock Band peripherals were plugged in at the same time, becuase I unplugged them, restarted the 360 to make the controller go to the first player slot, and haven't had a problem since.

actorpull

@DigiMish: eh, for the fellow PS3 owners that is... but like I said since the installation does not exist on the 360, and they're also locking up, it's probably not going to fix it.

DigiMish

Idk if this is going to help (probably now), but for those that are having the freezing issues, delete the GTAIV game data, and let it reinstall again.

Just throwing suggestions out there... allright, time to get back to GTAIV.

DigiMish

Best quote so far is from photoboy:

"luckily I was able to kill myself with grenades"

MikeKelley

My copy is just fine. 4 hours in (more play time than sleep so far). I have the PS3 special edition for the record.

jim_error404

My game lasts about 7min before each freeze. It is a problem. I own a 60GB PS3 that i bought back in jan 07'so its pretty much a launch PS3. Its sucks that i waited in windy ass 30degree Chicago weather for half an hour to get this game and it does not work.

A-10_Thunderbolt

Just got the game for the xbox360.

Game freezes during the first cutscene. Or if cutscene is skipped, game freezes few seconds in the game.

TofuHead

I got the vanilla edish: no problems at all.

cybereality

@Shiryu: It's just culture shock!

Antihippy

Working fine on my Xbox360 Elite.

MrEvil

@3inst3in: There must be a support line where one of those 7 year-old gurus can train you in defeating people wielding assault rifles...

j14rk1n

Played about 2 hrs. last night on 60GB PS3 with DUALSHOCK3 (Sony's caps, not mine) and rumble on.

No problems.

sono

@The Whaleman:

you're right, it's much worse

iby777

@sqwarlock: I just mentioned that above. You didn't need a patch for those games. Just a Q-tip and a bottle of rubbing alcohol. Or your lungs, if you wanna rock old skool.

megaStryke

bought mine at midnight, started playing it at 12:10. Played for 2 and a half hours and never once saw any lockups, glitches, anything other than a flawless game.

Capp

Just bought mine about an hour ago and started playing, no problems for me on 360.

lammy742

@Sloopydrew: Just like all those perfectly fine NES games that never had a problem starting up...right?

EVERY generation has had issues like this, but it's only big news when it's a major release.

sqwarlock

@will: You rarely heard of a game not starting up or locking up at the same point every time during, oh, the NES and SNES generations. If they did, the problem could usually be solved with an alcohol-soaked cotton swap or a little blowing-into-the-cartridge service. You would be MURDERED in broad daylight if you released a game that didn't run.

These days, it's starting to become a regular occurrence. Take Two had the Bully issue just recently, now this? Some people need to be slapped.

megaStryke

I did have a lock up during the mission that has you buying a new piece of clothing. Went to try on a hat, and it hard-locked. When I restarted my 360 the disc showed up as a DVD in the guide menu, and upon trying to play it I was greeted with the "Please insert this disc into an Xbox 360 console." screen.

A quick eject and re-insertion of the disc fixed the problem and I played for the next 1:30 no problem.

sqwarlock

so far the trend for every big game, there is always a kink in the armor. reality is this will not go away anytime soon. if these kind od problems are eradicated by 2009, please lend me that gadget so i can end war and poverty.

zanzibarlegend

I've been running around, killing old women, men, Running over police officers and i shill havn't been locked up. The screen just fades to black and a appear outside a police station. I should have got atlease life for what I did. And with only $25 to my name i couldn't have afforded the bail.

GOD

@Sollus: Tried that and no dice...did you have the same issue? I'll give it another whirl though. Anyone else have any advice. This is the only game that has freezed for me and I have tried many different discs.

iNime

This is total BS, I played for two and a half hours after I picked it at midnight and had ZERO ISSUES!!!

matrixcaptain84

@sugarhigh4242: same exact thing happened to me bro, ur not alone.

A-10_Thunderbolt

I got the PS3 version yesterday and I've had no problems so far.

heretrix

My bet is on a bad batch of discs. Anyone from the UK having this problem?

@megaStryke:
Welcome to consoles that might as well be PC's more like :p

will

omg,it really sucks to have GTAIV in ur disk tray and not being able to play it becuse it will certianly crash within 10mins of playing time!!!!!

A-10_Thunderbolt

That's just Rockstar for you. I'll push my prediction further and say we'll see at least five more big bugs before the month is up!

Sorry, but they're like Molyneux - brilliant ideas, not so great at putting them to practice.

fuchikoma

@RageKage: everything is as bad as the internet makes it sound!!
Didn't you get the memo?

bunch.of.wackos

so how is it that the people that got it ahead either illegally or legit didn't complain or make any comments about this? I think the internet is full of it.

y2julio

@sqwarlock:

No. I never had a 2600, NES, Genesis, SNES, N64, Dreamcast, GameCube or Xbox that would not play. I've had it happen on the 360 and the Wii. I didn't own my PS3 long enough to experience the problem but it sounds like it's happening now with GTA4.

Sloopydrew

Damn it, I hate you all. ALL. I'm stuck at work all day til I get to go home and play the GTA I picked up early this morning.

*sigh*

Games releasing on tuesday is freaking lame.

Koztah

@matrixcaptain84:

it's not BS. I know a bunch of people that have the problem. All of them with fairly old, 60GB PS3's. I don't know anyone with a 40GB that has this problem.

Vicious-chan

Just bought...amazing...no lock up...mind breaking apart...must get back to gta...

smuckersisgood

Wonder how many of those are running "Legit" copies ;)

Zantagor

*reads article*

Hmm. I thought the sky seemed a little lower today.

TRT-X

@Witzbold: Well, I can't argue with the fact that it did make a great musical.

Salen

i got mine last night and experienced no such problems with it. the opening cutscene came and went and then i started playing, played for about an hour or two. i cant say that im not paranoid now that it might blow up in my face

sweenyJ

I played through the fist 3 missions and some online death matches and it was all fine. (360 Elite)

Mr.SithNinja

@slyzxx786: No load times within the city, while you're driving around. There's always going to be load times for cinematics and mission interludes.

splines

I've got a terrible framerate drop for like 3 seconds when I was going at full speed in Roman's car but that's it.

slomo788

The Internet threw a hissy fit when one guy had this X360 stolen.

Pinhead

I've had occasional lock-ups but nothing deal-breaking. Haven't had to reset my 360 or anything.

splines

I'm going to throw this out there for the PS3 owners. This *sounds* like it is mostly happening to older 60GB models. Here is my experience:

When Folklore came out, there were reports of it crashing (like you are describing with GTA) when certain graphical effects were applied. The same situation would cause it to crash every time. I experienced this myself and got my PS3 serviced (it had a few weeks left on warranty). The replacement unit has been fine but I believe there was a legitimate hardware failure based on a somewhat flakey part.
Specifically, I believe the GPU begins to fail on the older PS3s. In particular, if you run a LOT of folding@home then the GPU wears out faster. If you have the crashing problem, try it on a newer PS3 (in store floor model or a friends). I bet it will be fine. If that is case CHECK YOUR WARRANTY AND GET IT REPLACED. I think a crack or flaw develops in the GPU and it needs to be replaced. If you are past warranty, pony up the $50-75 plus shipping for a third party repair. It will only get worse and no software patch will help you. That's my 2 cents.

jim_error404

I had a problem when I first started it. Dont know if it was my tv or the 360 or the game. When the opening credits started there was like a red and blue fuzz outlining Niko and the buildings. I tunred the 360 off turned my tv off then restarted and it worked fine.

mindfreak101

i thought there were litterly no load times i had quite a few load times that was total bs.

slyzxx786

no problems on my copy......

Merwenn

I finally got back around to playing Bully over the weekend to get my R* fix, the patch for that certainly worked. Fun game, that. If there is an issue, I'm confident those guys will be all over it.

My only issue with the game was that I somehow managed to win the one random deathmatch game I stumbled into last night. WTF?

tk.

No problems here on my first run 360.

SAKY

I had a scare last night. Popped it in at about 12:15 PM, and I got that annoying white screen that says to please insert a Xbox 360 game disc. Popped it out, retried same thing, popped it out again, ran a soft cloth over the disk and then it worked. Freaked me out, a brand new game should not be giving me that stupid message. It better work when I get home from work.

msdoran

My PS3 version works fine! :)

Woodwater

lol, *deep voice* Bad day, for epic game...

Ah well, there'll be GTA5 for sure, no?

redrabbit

There's nothing like a good crisis to bring 360 and PS3 fanboys together...it's almost sweet really.

pedantic_dandy

No problems here. I feel for Rockstar's customer support.

Xul

Well, sure enough my 360 locks-up on the opening scene where it pans out to show the ship at sea. Screen just freezes and the Xbox only responds to the power button. I tired the cache clear with no luck.

My 360 red ring'd a few weeks ago when I was trying to play Burnout: Paradise. When I got it back from being 'repaired', the first game I tried was Burnout which proceeded to lockup with a frozen screen, much like GTAIV is now doing. I tried COD4 , both on and off line, and Oblivion with no problems. So both EA and MS said to have a friend try the game in his 360 to see if he had the same issue. He has the disk now and I'm waiting to hear if he had any issues with it. Anyway, any other 360 owners happen to have issues with Burnout: Paradise and now seeing issues with GTAIV?

The crashes seem to similar to be a coincidence.

KoalaKenny

I think it's mostly gamers who take poor care of their consoles. Keeping a scratched disc in the trey for months. Having consoles on the floor, modding systems.

Orionsaint

I just brought a brand new 360 Arcade to replace my red ringed console with GTA4, pop it in to finally play, and wouldn't luck have it - I'm getting this exact problem.

I hate this so much. Why can't people make things well anymore??? I don't even know what to do, it's probably sold out at the local Gamestop by now anyway. So mad.

Megalowho

40GB PS3 (two months old) - Game froze during play. System unresponsive.

navvywavvy

Happened to me, screen went black in the first cutscene and stayed black.

deepee

Been playing on a 8 month old Elite and no problems. As a matter of fact, Bully gave me no problems as well.

JohnnyD57333

This definitely isn't just the 60 GB version...my 40 GB did the same damn thing. Got a new copy, and while it doesn't freeze during cutscenes anymore, now it loads random stuff while running around the city, causing the game to freeze for a second

Ourobolus

Closed in about 7 hours today on a launch 360.. not one single problem!
God this game is good!
My thoughts go out to the gamers who have a problem.

KEELr

GTA4 is running fine....

On my LAUNCH 360

Elrando

For the PS3, I think only the 60 GB version is locking up. Luckily there's no more of those anymore.

djHEAT

@KoalaKenny:

I just got a refurb'ed replacement from Microsoft for my Elite which died of the RROD. Ghost Recon 2 would randomly freeze up as did my daughter's Cars disc but nothing like GTA4 is. Even after going through troubleshooting steps (clearing cash, game saves, turning off rumble feature, etc) with a replacement disc I'm still having freeze ups at random places within the game, mostly before the first save point as well as a few minutes into multiplayer.

I'd probably trade in my xbox and all the games if it wasn't for the fact that the PS3 is having similar issue.

Fuzi Lojak

I'm glad to come here and not find out my PS3 is defective. I was a little annoyed during the very first cutscene when it skipped a little, but moreso when I had lots of cops ramming into me and I'm speeding around/switching radio channels and it slightly paused. It was as if the HD couldn't buffer the game in time and it was enough to notice. I figured I couldn't have a defective HD since I've played 1.5GB demos without a hitch, so it has to be the game. I was so annoyed I was thinking of switching it for the 360 version. Please keep us updated with this, it's important.

kylo4

I was fortunate enough to not have this problem so far :)

Ezekiel06

Ive played for awhile now on my 360 with absolutely no problems.

lestat730

Yes, my copy is locking up after about 5 hours use. I try to go multiplayer and it locks up when I try and access games. I restored my system and now it is frozen at a blank screen showing "starting new game". ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!

ElementOP