Rockstar Games just confirmed that they have released a patch for the Playstation 3 version of GTA IV which was causing issues with online play.
Rockstar Games has released a GTA IV patch for Playstation 3 today that prevents Gamespy’s servers from being overloaded and therefore reduces the impact on those servers that were causing the game to stutter and lock up. We continue to monitor the performance of the game both on and offline and will provide further updates as necessary. We want to assure everyone that, together with our hardware partners, we continue to strive to give our fans the best possible interactive entertainment experiences possible. This update will ensure that everyone will experience Grand Theft Auto IV the way it was intended. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.
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I was playing the single player earlier before the patch was released but I haven't downloaded it yet. Except for the one day I haven't had any problems with online play other than it doesn't remember your rank and always puts you back down at 0. Well, at least for me that's what happens. Yes, I do save after I quit multiplayer. I assume since I haven't seen the option to save in multiplayer that you have to do so once you leave so I always go to my house to save afterwords.
If you've been playing the game and choose to go into multiplayer your progress in the story mode is lost unless you saved it earlier. I think when you go to the multiplayer menu it actually says something like that.
Oh, I normally save in the house then go into muliplayer mode and then after quitting mp mode I save in the house again.
Just curious, but what exactly can a patch to the software do to improve the quality of the online play and reduce the stress on the servers?
Just curious, but what exactly can a patch to the software do to improve the quality of the online play and reduce the stress on the servers?
I have a feeling that line is a bit far-fetched. My guess is that the patch allows the servers and the PSN to cooperate with one another. It seems like the multiplayer issues were that the PSN might have been trying to overwrite something the gamespy servers were doing or vice versa. Hopefully more info will come out about this whole thing.
I got so pissed off trying to play online tonight. I was messing around in single player and showing my friend all the crazy things you can do and then I went online. I decided to play in a deathmatch but no matter how many people joined the room the one who opened it wouldn't start the damn thing so I left and decided to try the Cops N Crooks. We finally get enough people and start but during the loading almost everyone quits so we're sent back to the lobby. Switched back over to deathmatch and the same thing happened 3 or 4 times that the person in charge wouldn't start the room. Once we have 15 people and they all clicked on ready and they still wouldn't start! I got frustrated so I went offline.
Yeah, reports are saying that the patch actually made things worse.
edit
Actually I shouldn't say reports, I should say angry forum members.
I have no issue with multiplayer, I can play it anytime, but I guess it's been that since I had issues the first day I tried
I haven't tried it since then. I could get on but just couldn't get a match started. I'll probably play a bit after I get off work today.