I think implementing all real laws wouldn't be a coding problem, but are intentionally left out. It would be rather annoying to have to stop on every red light or get your wanted level raised just because you hit a street light when you are already running from the police. Switching, even by accident, to a weapon on the street and already being chased would suck as well. I was already annoyed by myself because I accidentally mistook the run button with the button to fire a gun (the right trigger in a car is acceleration, on foot its to fire a gun while the A button (or X on the PS3) is to run) and I was promptly hunted by the cops for discharging a firearm.
You have to see those things as an exponential curve. If you shot someone on the street, cops saw you and you stole a car, sure stealing that car is a second offense, but doesn't weigh as heavy as killing a person, if you then run from the cops, that's another offense, but barely weighs as much as having killed that person. Sure, after having driven through a few dozen red lights, caused some accidents and drove through some light posts your wanted level might raise by one.
@ Tenhauser, no it's not hard, it's not impossible, I've have driven through red lights in Mafia and got a ticket for doing so, I got tickets for driving over the speed limit, and the game developers were smart with giving you a button to limit your speed to the speed limit, 50 km/h. That way you won't accidentally over the speed limit. Also, Mafia is 3 CD's big, nowhere near a DVD, and you can script all those things, it's being done. Do you follow the Dwarf Fortress Development feed? Races go to war in the world generation now because of differences in religion. Scripted behavior, fitting in a mere text file. The reason why we do not see these things in games is because it takes time to implement them, and thus they do not make money of the game for another few months.
Four's missions are awesome, so are the characters. The physics and combat are cool, but everything surrounding it is the same GTA crap as ever. Bad AI, identical NPCs etc. kind of ruin it for me.
Seriously, if a cop hits my car, why do they immediately try and gun me down?
I am addicted, and have been since GTA III. I love all the small things that have been added. I especially like the slow motion deaths! I look forward to beating GTA IV!
I really love the little details they put in. My favorite so far is the combustion problems of older cars, which sometimes results in a darting flame and a ball of black smoke coming from the exhaustion pipe.
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@ Tenhauser, no it's not hard, it's not impossible, I've have driven through red lights in Mafia and got a ticket for doing so, I got tickets for driving over the speed limit, and the game developers were smart with giving you a button to limit your speed to the speed limit, 50 km/h. That way you won't accidentally over the speed limit. Also, Mafia is 3 CD's big, nowhere near a DVD, and you can script all those things, it's being done. Do you follow the Dwarf Fortress Development feed? Races go to war in the world generation now because of differences in religion. Scripted behavior, fitting in a mere text file. The reason why we do not see these things in games is because it takes time to implement them, and thus they do not make money of the game for another few months.
Seriously, if a cop hits my car, why do they immediately try and gun me down?