Rockstar have released the first patch for the recently released PC version of Grand Theft Auto 4. A little later than promised, but it does appear to address many of the mentioned issues.

• A fix to the crash after legal screen that some German customers were reporting.
  
• Numerous improvements to the video editor: Smarter naming of videos, improved rendering quality, better FX during replays
  
• Fix to bowling while using certain sensitive mice
  
• Fix for ATI 1900 shadows
  
• Overall savings to memory
  
• Graphic improvements to particle systems and mirrors
  
• Multiplayer character settings are preserved
  
• Support for DirectInput controllers. Note: The current hack way of supporting these controllers may not work with the improved functionality. So we recommend you remove the hack before upgrading to the patch.

Issues with power management software have also been fixed (slow speed, double speed issues). Even after the patch comes out setting power management software to maximum performance is recommended. We’ve seen cases where power management software does not detect the game is running and puts the CPU in green mode.

Besides the patch we’ve also improved the way the Social Club handles data this should have greatly reduced or eliminated the MMA10 error. If you are still receiving this error after logging in and out of Social Club we would like to know as much info as you can about it.

The patch can be obtained by loading the game and logging into Games for Windows Live. Alternatively, a downloadable version can be found right here in the AusGamers files library.

Wonder if it will be worth playing now...

Gotta say that after this patch and the latest nVidia drivers, my machine (E6600, 4GB RAM, 640MB 8800GTS) is running it nicely on low settings at 1920x1200.

Once it has a decent framerate, the controls and high resolution just make this s*** all over the console versions, so much more fun. Though that does also mean that the missions end a lot sooner for me... what used to be (on the console) a 10 minute car chase is now a 2 second headshot before the enemy even gets into their car...

10 minute car chase is now a 2 second headshot before the enemy even gets into their car...

I did that and wondered if i missed out on some storyline, because the mission before was one where you chased a guy to a building top then chose if he lived or died.

Also blind firing is ridiculously accurate with a smg, you just sit behind cover, put the cursor on enemies and spam and they cant hit you, yet you kill them in a few shots.

I'm loving the game, and didn't have many problems before the patch, but now i lose sound every now and then.
it's certainly not the 'fix all' that everyone wanted, but i'm glad they got the patch out in just over a week

I don't actually own this on PC (360) but someone at work mentioned they got vastly increased performance when they turned off the save replay feature, as it was constantly access his HDD and slowing the system down.

My son is getting huge problems with GTAIV on a Vista x32 PC. He keeps getting an illegal instruction error everytime he attempts to run it. It never ever starts.

He has an AMD 2500XP, 1.5gb DDR2, nVidia 7600GT running in a Abit NF7-S motherboard.

Could this be due to the hardware being incompatible? He has all the latest drivers and service packs. He also has .Net 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5 with all the relevant service packs too. Do I need to upgrade his hardware to be compatible? He doesn't need high end graphics effects or resolutions, he doesn't give a rats about that stuff, he just wants to play the game. The complete opposite to me, I like to have the all visual settings at max. I like pwetty, pwetty.

Any help for the young bugger would be greatly appreciated. He's hounding me to death to try and get it working.

Apparently the game seems to be CPU intensive, so perhaps his CPU is getting heavily taxed and that is having something to do with it.

Try freeing up as much CPU usage as possible then try. Or just get the best CPU for his Mobo.. if you can find one.

Do I need to upgrade his hardware to be compatible

try installing a cut-down version of Vista Basic or XP SP3 on his machine and try again.


this game pwns my 8800gt. dunno how a 7600gt will fair eh

SFB, forget it. You'll never be able to run it on that 5 year old POS.

Athlon XP CPUs lack SSE2 support.

Bugger, I was hoping to not have to upgrade his PC for a while. Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated.

SFB you should check the minimum requirements of the game... in particular CPU/GPU: Athlon X2 64 and nVidia 7900.

The game does run better after the patch, but I'm still getting the fatal error when I try to connect to the social club. It's kind of annoying having to disconnect from the net ( the only thing that works for me ) to actually play this game!

You really have to disconnect? I had the error originally (but not anymore) and just doing 'Skip Login' was enough to stop it.

Yeah, if I try clicking 'Skip Login' I still get the error. So annoying.