GTA IV

Please note this isn’t a how-to guide on completing the races, that’s well documented over on http://www.gamefaqs.com

One thing I think most of us can agree on is Brucie’s races in GTA IV are incredibly easy. To the point where I, an average racer at best, can quite happily lap the other cars on some of the courses.

I’m not suggesting GTA IV should have included a full race simulation, but a little more challenge would have been great. As such I’ve taken to finding ways to make the races more competitive. These are my basic theories.

The main way I’ve been trying to balance the races is coming up with a personal handicapping system. There are two ways these works.

The obvious one is to take a different class of vehicle to your competitors. So if they show up in Sentinels and Sultans, go get yourself a Perennial or Bobcat. If they show up in Comets and Super GTS, something like a PMP600 will be good fun.

My new favourite one is turning up to races on a Faggio. Acceleration is ok, but top speed is dire and uphill you may as well get off and push. However round corners they don’t stand a chance.

They turned up with three station wagons (no problem) and two comets (hmm)

Not quite as easy a victory as it looks, one comet overtook me down the final straight but plowed into a telegraph pole.

The other way of handicapping yourself is to simply drive further. This works well on courses like the Road to Bohan where you have natural detours. As you fly south through bohan heading towards the bridge, take the left fork and drive around by your safehouse then west back to the course. Combined with a slower car and the opponents straight-line speed across the top of Middle Park you’ll have some close finishes. Unless they screw up the north turn past middle park and go straight on that is. I’ve had a queue of cars stuck on the pavement there.

This one is surprisingly good fun. At the end of the race, any cars within range won’t disappear, they’ll just drive off at high speed taking random routes away from the player. The challenge is to catch them, box them in and jack their cars.

Not knowing where they’re going makes it much more difficult than the races themselves and gives you a genuine challenge. Especially if you don’t shoot them!

The added bonus is a lot of the races will be against very flash cars so you could end up with a nice collection in your parking lots.

Always a good one. They show up with virtually indestructible cars in perfect condition. You show up with a trashed car with smoke pouring out of it. Your acceleration and performance is hampered, and you know one hard knock and you’ll be running around trying to find another vehicle. Adds a nice sense of danger.

Equally turn up to race with a quarter health whilst riding a motorbike. Focuses the mind!

Great fun if you show up with something solid like a Bobcat. I’ve never managed to destroy an opponent so I guess they’re damned near invulnerable, but that doesn’t mean you can’t launch them with a well timed punt. Just keep an eye on your own vehicle or you could be aflame.

Be selective with your races. Dukes Boulevard is great fun since they really gun it through the final section. If they didn't go headlong in to the petrol station and then again to the bridge support, they'd probably stand a chance of winning even races.

But as you can probably tell, I’ve finished all the missions, done all the side diversions and am now trying to eke the last bits of entertainment out of GTA IV.

Considering how many GTA IV fans are also race fans I’m surprised Rockstar didn’t include some much harder races, but with a little work you can keep them entertaining.