Forever , i bet they dont take a loss and they are just preparing for the time when kids stop flocking into Fortnite.

Here is the GTA IV benchmark results on my old ASUS G75VW gaming laptop (using the graphics options that the game suggested, and vsync off):
Statistics
Average FPS: 61.67
Duration: 36.82 sec
CPU Usage: 46%
System memory usage: 29%
Video memory usage: 13%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1920 x 1080 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Shadow Quality: High
Reflection Resolution: High
Water Quality: Very High
Texture Filter Quality: Anisotropic x4
Night Shadows: Off
View Distance: 25
Detail Distance: 31

Hardware
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Service Pack 1
Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M
Video Driver version: 391.35
Audio Adapter: Speakers (VIA HD Audio)
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3610QM CPU @ 2.30GHz

During the gameplay though, without vsync the framerate did seem to dip a little bit under 30 fps at some points. I'd say the game was running at around 24-75 fps depending what was on the screen. I didn't try to change the graphics options to see how much they'd affect it.

With vsync on, it would fluctuate between 60 and 30 fps.

However, it runs considerably better than what I was expecting, considering the age of my PC. For this type of game, I consider it quite playable, so I might actually start playing it now while I'm at it (I played until the First Date; I managed to kill my date (Michelle) in a freak "accidentally drive the car into a 4-feet deep pool in a park while trying to find a way out of the park"-accident, Michelle drowned. :(

In a fast online shooter like Team Fortress 2, constant 60 fps is much more important to me than this kind of "driving/walking simulator" with sluggish controls.

It is interesting though that from what you said, it appears the GTA IV will not run considerably better on more powerful hardware? Or what were your graphics settings, everything at max (draw distance etc.)? Maybe I will also try how GTA V runs on this same old PC.

24-75 fps depending what was on the screen

very wide range but overall performance is 10x better than i expected.
do you have any info cpu and gpu percentages as the game was running. also did you have other programs running at the same time (browser etc).

also can you confirm anything about the game's DRM. is this pretty much like those ubisoft games where you need uplay for seam games situation. also have you tried the game offline?

Even so, it ain't much of a hook. Those who are fine paying for DRM games probably don't need it as an enticement, and ones like you and I are hardly likely to use it. I might for a game I was desperate for ... but hard to see that ever being the case. It took a mistake on my part and the later lure of the Valve Collection going extremely cheap, for me to buy into Steam, and I haven't bought anything from them since (gotten heaps of freebies though). That was a few years ago now, and it is debatable that I would have, if not for a Steam account I was tricked into needing to get many years before that.

Still, if I did finally install the Epic Client and started playing my free games from Epic, and I really enjoyed it enough, my resistance to paying for something that sounded really good, that was quite cheap, would no doubt be psychologically reduced at least, if not philosophically. DRM for me at least, has an extremely cheap or free requirement, plus a large urge for a particular game.

One of those urges was for GTA V ... now no longer a factor. Ha ha ha ha .....

P.S. It's not the first coupon Epic have sent my way, and I have successfully ignored so far, despite the odd desire for a game or three. Not to mention, that I have enough games from GOG and free from elsewhere, to surely see me into my next stage of existence ... if any.

Well, for Epic that is a mission accomplished then. They got you to create an account in their service for free games, and now you are already considering buying more games from them.

I created Epic, UPlay and EA Origin accounts for their free games, and yet to buy any games from their stores. Only freebies so far. Well, not quite: I did buy some super-cheap Humble Bundle a long time ago that, on top of Steam keys, included some extra EA Origin keys. So in that sense one might say I have spent some money on EA Origin games, but I didn't buy the bundle for the Origin keys.
I justify it with that since I didn't spend any money on the game, it is "ok" if it disappears from my gaming archive at some point due to DRM. It is not like I will lose any money at that point.

I just have a high resistance to paying real money for such games.

Just to stress, this test was for GTA IV (4) on Steam, not GTA V on Epic (which this thread is about). I've yet to test GTA V performance, but heck why not, later today.

I don't know what layers of DRM GTA IV (on Steam) has, but it did install the Rockstar client on my PC, and required me to create an account for it, and then it permanently linked my Steam account to my RS account (when I installed the game on another PC too with the same Steam account, RS client already knew who I was and didn't demand me to re-login on the other PC).

No idea, maybe run "regedit" and search the registry editor for any SecuRom entries?

I opened regedit and searched the registry the only way I knew how: CTRL-F, entered "securom", hit enter. Came back negative. No entries found. Knock on wood.

Phew, good thing I haven't installed the gog version of FEAR on my new PC yet. trolololo

Apparently this giveaway is region specific. I get a "not available in your region" error in Australia.

That doesn't stop them from listing it prominently on their store page.

At least GOG has the sense to hide it completely most of the time. (At the last major sale, they had an "up to 90% off" list with no games above 80% discount. The only game meeting the 90% threshold happened to be banned in my country)

It's definitely available in Australia.

Thanks, I'll try again later.

Apparently the latest Epic store 'feature' is randomised error messages.


Update: Apparently I signed up with random details. Country was set to Qatar - changing it worked.

I recently tried GTA 4 on my 8-year old pc with a GTX 760 OC 2gb vram quad-core I5 processor and 8gb RAM and the game ran like shit with lots of stuttering and hitching and frame drops. A few years ago I played GTA 5 on the same PC and it ran much better than 4 so I would say 5 is much better optimized than 4.

For some reason this reminds me of the parade scene in Batman, with a few changes of course.

Epic: "Look at me! I'm giving away a free copy of GTA V! And where is the GOG? They're at home, pushing their beta client!"