Sony is patching it? I thought it was supposed to work the other way around...

Good, literaly 9 out of the first 10 times I loaded this game on my PS3 it froze. Luckily, it hasn't done it since but just to make sure...

This should fix all GTAIV issues on the new 40/80GB PS3s, single player or multi player. However, old 60GBs and 20GBs will require a firmware upgrade as the old emulation chip is conflicting with the game, or so I've heard.

@Zero_: Maybe it's a hardware/driver problem on the PS3?

@Zero_: As far as I know, Sony has to certify it, which takes ages, for all we know, the patch is prob already done and dusted at R*'s end.

And I like how the whole lock-up thing had become stuff of legend, each gamer has their tale of how they fixed their GTA. Emulation chip, PSN, mission x, multiplayer, etc

@TheJeanGenie:

I was unable to actually load the game at all....Until I unplugged my CAT5 cable from the back of my PS3, loaded up just fine afterwards.. Even after I plugged it back in.

Once I shut down the internet connection, the freezing stopped. Even now that I've turned it back on, it doesn't freeze anymore. I'm not convinced that the problem isn't going to return though.

Yeah,my 360 single player still does crazy stuff.The mp seems fine.Hope,they will do something soon.

the only time my 60gb ps3 froze was when I tried to look at one of the categories in the internet stats from the start menu. other than that i haven't had any freezes/lock-ups or any problems of the sort. i've been able to play multiplayer without any problems. i figure if it's an emulation chip problem like some think then shouldn't it effect my ps3 as well as all the other 60gb ps3s out there?

My game occasionaly freezes on loading, causing me to reload it.
I haven't even tried online mode yet, i'm having so much fun with single player.
Ordinarily I'd be handing out pitchforks and burning torches at this point, leading an assault on castle Rockstar, but you know what?
Just as you're willing to frgive a woamn for being a total bitch, if she's the types of woman who gives great blowjobs at the drop of a hat, I'm willing to forgive them for this.

Mine did the won't load with a network cable, unplug and plug back in and bingo, haven't had a problem since. And i mean that, no lockups or ANYTHING since that 1 minute cat5 unpluggery. Either people are really unlucky, or, as per usual, things are getting blown out of proportion.

My 40GB PS3 was stuck on the loading screen forever on the Puerto Rican Connection until I disabled my internet connection. After I beat that mission and saved, it hasn't done it again.

Seems like every game needs patching of some sort these days (and I don't mean extra content-wise.) It's as if they're trying to make consoles the new PC.

Wait...you can already run Linux on the PS3...

The issue I've experienced is a pure networking issue. When you start the game, if you're logged into PSN, then the game gets stuck at the chapter title loading screen. If you then quit, which reboots the system, and log out of PSN, then start the game again, it has no problems.

This is vastly different than the 360 lock-ups that freeze during gameplay.

The multiplayer issues on 360 can be frustrating (people randomly dropping out and then being unable to rejoin) so hopefully they announce a patch for the 360 MP as well.

I've only had it freeze once (during hidden loading I think, I was zooming across one of the bridges). Enough to have me scared though..

I wonder if this is only to address the freezing people had(I only froze a couple times at loading screens, deleted my 3GB data and reinstalled it, worked fine), or if they'll be addressing the horrid framerate and constant lag in multiplayer as well.

Yeah... This sucks; I suffer from what is being called a 'Type 2' freeze, which is where the game freezes just mere minutes into the game. None of the proposed fixes so far will help. BTW, I have a US Launch 20GB model PS3.

60gb ps3...

at least for me, it seems the multiplayer makes my game freeze. that is, whenever i just have psn network on and i'm loading or sometimes randomly doing something in single player mode, it would freeze. i tried various fixes (disabling stuff, reinstalling) but turning off the ps3 internet connection worked and it hasn't frozen since.

i'm hoping this multiplayer patch includes a fix for that.

as for multiplayer itself, it seems to be working great so far. only some lag from time to time.

though a patch that would really be sweet is a video recording feature that can be transferred out from the ps3. so many times i wanted to save/replay some online/single-player moments.

This is great to hear. Last night I swear I tried over 20 multiplayer games, and only two seemed to work. Finally got to play Cops N' Crooks though, which ultimately is my favorite mode, hands down.

What seems to work for me to evade that connection error is to be the host of the game. Which is a pain in the ass because the game randomly assigns you, and you have to hope that you become a host and not just a player.

There doesn't need to be a single player patch. The game merely needs to handle network timeouts better and the multiplayer servers need to be beefed up. Problems solved.

Weird... I'm on a 60GB and haven't experienced any lockups over about 6~ hours of play. Guess I'm lucky.

@Tyber_Zann: Oh and I never get freezing. Only got it once when the game tried to load and just sat there - had to disconnect my internet for it to work and then reconnected.

I hope this patch fixes that 'one or more players has lost the connection' bullshit that nobody seems to care about.

Even in singleplayer the game communicates with PSN, R* game servers, etc. for things like leaderboards, etc. It obviously does this at specific times (particularly during initial loding) and it obviously has the world's most braindead error handler dealing with the consequences when it doesn't all work out as planned. I know a bunch of people with PS3's and the problem is completely 100% universal -- seems anyone who hasn't seen the issue has simply been very lucky.

If you are one of these lucky people, I would recommend hedging your bets and simply signing out of PSN while you are playing single player -- if you don't you continue to run the risk of the game crapping on you at the most inopportune time possible. Maybe you like to live on the edge though.

As a 360 owner, I am thoroughly disappointed that MS/Rockstar have yet to issue a statement about multiplayer problems on the Xbox. I've had the game since midnight launch and I have yet to play a game of multiplayer. I can play other 360 online games, but not GTA IV and all of my wireless settings are as they should be. I know we may be in the minority, but there are many threads on Xbox.com in regards to this issue.

I don't mind waiting for a patch, but at least just release a statement so I know someone is working on it or cares, as far as the 360 goes.

@HamThePharoah: Not sure what "emulation chip" you mean. The 60GB doesn't use emulation at all.

Regardless, I don't see how any difference in the hardware would affect the behavior of a game when a server it's trying to ping is down. That's what's going on here.

FWIW, I haven't had any problems the last few days. The servers obviously haven't been getting hit quit as much as they were the first couple days, so the game's getting a response and continuing on its merry way.

Turned off internet connection on my PS3, and the lock ups stopped completely.

sign off PSN when you start off = fixed

@DoubleV: correct. worked for me as well. what I think is interesting is how the problem actually got worse. sign off psn before I start the game - no issues. Which means no muti-player either, dammut.

@Smadubaku: Actually, signing off of PSN before starting the game shouldn't affect multiplayer at all. I was able to pop my phone up and start multiplayer just fine even though I was originally signed off when I started the game up.

What about a freakin' GTA IV SP Xbox 360 patch? Rockstar REALLY fucked up this time. I would have thought they'd learned their lesson after all the Xbox 360 Bully freezing.

I want a single player patch!

Seems to be a very, very random bug that R* didn't encounter in testing. So many random solutions just don't add up to a patchable bug, might take a while.

it's live, I just downloaded the update... took all of 30 seconds.

so I guess we'll see.

Mine froze once then I signed out of PSN and single player worked fine! 2 days later I logged on to multiplay and everything was fine. I spent 4 hours last night killing mofo's with no problems. Woohoo! I feel sorry for the ppl still having issues. When my game first locked up, I nearly cried. I hope this patch fixes everything without doing away with cool Hot Coffee mini game that sh** is funny!

just downloaded this patch, game booted up while connected to psn so we'll see if this is a fix or not.

OK so I downloaded the 1.01 18MB patch, started the game and then started my mission again. 5 mins into playing and BOOOOM - frozen again. 1.01 does NOT fix freezing issues. It may be a multiplayer fix only as this article suggests but other places are talking about fixing the random freezing issues. I have a 60 GB console and it is still freezing no matter what I do. Ive done all 300+ steps ppl mention. This is f***ing bull***t. Multiplayer was working before the patch for me and is still working... who cares about online play when the single player game is screwed ?

I can wait. GTA bugs drive me nuts. I've got to try this game just because it's so huge people are going to assume you know it, but every one I've tried before (3 and on) has been such a glitchfest that if I had a grain of sand for every bug... I'd have been buried alive by now.

Since when do they patch games on the PS3?

I thought the PS3s motto was that of insomniacs, which is make the user fix the bugs, and if they can't, ignore the issues.

Srew the small problems, FIX THE BIG ONE. The one that keeps us from playing at ALL!!!!.

I hate all this waiting with no real progress updates.