GTAIV didn't work. :(

Tried installing Grand Theft Auto IV on my computer late last week...there were so many things to install and so many accounts I needed to create just to play the game!

I needed an account with the Rockstar Social Club, so had to register online. I then needed a Windows Live ID but thankfully, that was linked with my hotmail account, so there was no issue there. Was reading the manual and found out that because the Xbox360 was a Microsoft console, quite a lot of PC games (GTAIV at the very least) could actually be played with an Xbox360 controller!

Hmm...I've always been against the Xbox360, but that makes it a VERY attractive console to get now, not that I really play that many PC games nowadays. But there ARE some games that are only available on Xbox360 like Fable II, plus the Xbox360 games are cheaper than PS3 games! PS3 does have blu-ray but it is so expensive still and the new PS3 consoles do not support old Playstation and PS2 games, something I absolutely hate.

The one thing that is really in the Xbox360's favour is how cheap it is nowadays. Provided one isn't going for the expensive pack with the higher storage space, the Xbox360 is even CHEAPER than a Nintendo Wii nowadays! Dang it...I want one now, but I won't/can't get one!

Anyway, after the installation of GTAIV was complete, I tried the game out. First off, there are so many controls and I had to remap everything because whenever I play PC games, I use the mouse in my left hand...this is especially for first person shooters (Unreal, Quake II etc) and real time strategy games (Starcraft, etc). It took me a really long time to remap the controls. Once I was done with that, I started the game.

Or at least, I tried to. The graphics just were not coming up well at all and the game was extremely laggy...just what one wants, very laggy graphics that were glorified pixels! I went back to the main menu to change the graphic settings, but nothing was working...the graphics were just getting worse, or the game was getting laggier.

I checked the specs on the back of the GTAIV box and to my horror, the minimum required graphics card was so much more advanced than the one we had! Now, I'm sure I checked the video requirements before pre-ordering the game and our graphics card were adequate! So now I was stuck with a game that I couldn't play, and EB Games' refund policy (and probably those of most other places) did not allow refunds for PC games, presumably because there were so many types of software out there that allowed people to copy PC games!

Nevertheless, I didn't want to be stuck with a game I couldn't play, so I brought back the game to EB Games at Forest Hill on Monday evening. I explained the situation to Elizabeth, since she was the salesperson who called me when the game arrived in store and she was also the same person who put through the transaction when I went to pick it up.

I was happy for a trade-in or even an exchange for a lesser game, but to my delight and surprise, Liz said that while it wasn't customary policy, she knew me from having served me on previous occasions and gave me the full refund, logging in the GTAIV game as defective merchandise! Wow, what great customer service, I was certain I was going to be stuck with a game it couldn't use! She didn't have to do that at all since the onus was on me to make sure that my PC system requirements matched that of the game!

I'm sure I'll be going back to the Forest Hill EB games in the future to purchase my games!