The new San Andreas thread

Finally started to find some more horseshoes in this game but the last 15 snapshots are elluding me.

Do you get any reward for buying all the clothes in each store?

I finally passed that son of a bitching "N.O.E." by taking the western ocean route both ways (duh), and the next few missions were my favorite in the game so far, especially "Stowaway". So I'm done at the airfield and have finished the first LV Woozie mission. Tomorrow I'll try "Explosive Situation" again. I still need to do the Wang Cars and Trucker missions as well.

I finally beat 'the cock' from Los Santos beach although the second mission that goes all the way around the island is a bitch, I just don't have the energy left for the final run down The Strip and everyone overtakes me.

A shame they couldn't have the 'litter' effect in San Andreas.

Yours,

Carl

I have a really, really, really dumb question. It's a question so dumb that none of the GTA:SA sites will answer it because it's apparently so dumb: How do you take snapshots in San Fierro?

Seriously, I walk up to the camera icons and they disappear. No snapshots recorded. I stand where the rotating cameras are and take a picture. No snapshots recorded. I take a picture of the rotating camera itself. No snapshots recorded. I'm about ready to spraypaint the damned fool things.

The icons only appear visible though a camera lense.

(I just asked the question "So the floating cameras are clues that you're near a purple icon?" on the internet. I need to go for a walk outside or something.)

P.S. Those Zero missions don't advance the story at all, so if you get too frustrated with them, just move on. Those missions are crap.

One of the missions explains this, I think.

-- Pleasant Plains

OTM

Hey, I heard that when you beat all of Toreno's missions the flamethrower/minigun/rpg/heatseaking RPG all spawn at his cabin. but, uh, I've checked a few times and have seen nothing??? Is this just a horrible, horrible rumor? :(

Steal a swat tank
Kill four floors worth of Ballas
Kill Big Smoke
Put fires out so you can leave a burning building
Chase Tenpenny all the way around Los Santos
Pull up to his bumper within about 15 seconds (a la the Cesar getting onto the tanker mission)
Re-enactment of the "Just Business" style of mission, except about fifteen times harder.
END

Have you noticed that when you get into Sweet's car to start the mission, no matter when you do it, the song on the radio is always "Today Was A Good Day"?

*maybe spoiler*

seeing Carl punch Zero in the face after the bank heist mission made me grin like a fool. Especially since I gave up on the very first Zero mission after about 60+ attempts.

Chorus:
Motownphilly back again
Doin’ a little east coast swing
Boyz ii men going off
Not too hard, not too soft

It’s long overdue but now
Philly’s slammin’
Boyz ii men, abc, bbd
The east coast family
Never skipped a beat, na
While cooling on south street
Jet black benz, plenty of friends
And all the philly steaks you can eat

Back in school
We used to dream about this everyday
Could it really happen?
Or do dreams fade away, yeah
Then we started singin’
They said it sounded smooth
So we started a group and here we are
Kickin’ it just for you

Chorus

Michael bivins’ rap:
Yo these four new jacks is real
Smooth on the harmony tip
Nate, mike, shawn, and wan
You know the mentality
Keep flippin’ the gift

The spotlight is on us now
Watch us do this
Da da, daaa da da, da da da da da da
Live and direct from philly town
Rap and hype and we can get down
We are ready to roll
So now the world will know that we flow

Back in school we used to dream about this everyday
Could it really happen?
Or do dreams fade away
Then we started singing them
They said it sounded smooth
So we started a group and here we are
Kickin’ it just for you

Chorus

Boyz ii men, boyz ii men, boyz ii men, boyz ii men, boyz ii men, boyz ii men
Then we started singing them
They said it sounded smooth

Michael bivins’ rap:
Now check this out
One day back in philly
Four guys wanted to sing
They came up to me I said
What’s your name? (boyz ii men)
Ya know what I’m sayin’
Than I said alright fellas
Well let me see what you can do
And then wan said
Yo mike, check this out
See if this one moves you

Doom doom doom da da, doom doom doom da da
Da di da di da da, da da, daa daa daa
Doom doom doom da da, doom doom doom da da
Da di da di da da, da da, daa daa daa ohh

Chorus

Boyz ii men, boyz ii men, boyz ii men
Boyz ii men, abc, bbd

(Repeat until head explodes)
THANKS A LOT SAN ANDREAS

And OH! Catalina's new mute boyfriend at the race. hardee har har.

spent this afternoon driving on long motorcycle journeys across the map (not hit the las vegas place yet) and was just gob-smacked at the breadth of mood and atmosphere and ambience the game encompasses...

OTM. I really wish that Los Santos actually looked like LA. They've could've split San Andreas up into 3 amazing games if they wanted to, using the same gameplay but just developing the maps to a higher level of realism.

I have a lot of love for GTA3, and its brief crossover with San Andreas made me want to pick it up again. Pros: no sim bollocks, including being able to shoot/drive as well as you can from the start, better story & characters (no coincidence that most of my favourite parts of San Andreas were returning characters) Cons: I suspect that the lack of climbing and swimming would drive me crazy in five minutes flat. Also, I'm probably glossing over how long the offroad/sniping Columbians missions actually took me, but then I'm not looking forward to finishing the really fiddly San Andreas missions either.

ie. shittily from beginning to end. the auto-aim is garbage and there's no real manual aim to speak of. and the weapon skills in SA can be collectively maxed in like 10 minutes!!! the gameplay is most of what made GTA3 unbearable for me, everything from the poor, poor vehicle physics to the unsophisticated melee action just made everything 100 times harder than it needed to be. "better story and characters" WHAT FRESH HELL. CJ is possibly the most convincing character ever to appear in a game, while GTA3 basically had no protagonist at all. The story is a bit crap, but it's pretty refined stuff next to GTA3 (and most video games ever) and at least manages some clever moments (james woods) and is even genuinely moving on a few occasions. tho I was sort of bummed that they couldn't come up with better lines for ppl like Sam Jackson, what's the point of having him in yr game if you just give him bum expository dialogue??

The story is about equal, and the characters are much better. El Burro, Donald Love, the japanese gangsters. Hell my favourite original character in San Andreas is Ran Fa Li, and he doesn't say anything.

I will concede the rest of your points, pending me playing GTA3 again. Which won't happen, because I sold my copy to make sure that I didn't decide to just play one more time, one more time.

El Burro was more than an accent, he was a man, a man who carved a career out of pure filth! On balance, I'd rather play a new El Burro mission than a new Woozie mission. Except that I just remembered the "pick up all the mags" mission, which drove me crazy.

Catalina's much better in San Andreas, particularly the way her relationship with Carl keeps developing thorugh the game, so to speak.

I so prefer the radio stations in gta3 to that of SA, 'fade away' and 'rising to the top' being my two fave songs of gta history, (Flock of Seagulls 'ran so far away' bringing up a close third)

I like the atmosphere of gta3 too, it's deliciously gritty with a populated city of devilishly naughty citizens. SA feels a lot less chaotic.

Having said that I am currently highly addicted to gang wars and being the 'king of the grove' in San Andreas, what with my expensive Didier Sachs green suit with matching green caper hat. Respect well and truly due.

They should use the "kill 15 pedestrians in two minutes" rampage missions in marriage counseling. After arguing for awhile ("Will you get over here?" "I can't. The heels won't let me run as fast."), we succeeded in completing five levels before getting bored.

I really don't want to acquire 35% of the gang land in Los Santos. I mean, sheesh.

Andrew, which part is it? And why is there a gang territory in Las Venturos?

The last gamg territory is one block of sidewalk. Not road, sidewalk.

I thought I had all the territories now but I will check my percentage covered tonight.

The GTA series does have a really whacked fun : head exploding frustration ratio.

Found myself having great fun bulldozing trees down hills and watching them bob back up-right in the water.

Brilliant game all the same. The combat & shooting seem more smooth and intuitive and some of the dialogue cracks me up. Climbing and swimming are big improvements.
Shame it's taken me about 4 hours to do about 5%.

Don't think much of the threads in the first shop (Binko or summat?). Got some nice tattoos and big muscles to make up for it but my sex appeal is still very low.

Got down to the black on my first pool game then the fucker cleared up 5 balls to win $100 off me, so I beat him to death with a pool cue.

How far do I need to get before the bookie opens?

take a plane - i recommend the AT-400 - and just fly way the fuck out

after maybe two hours (just leave something pressing down the "go" button and have lunch) jump out into the water, and then intentionally drown.

when you re-spawn, boom, the other two cities will have gang territory.

I was enjoying crazy dogfights last night with other jets and helicopters until the 'you are starting to feel hungry...' message appeared. It reminded me of when I was a child playing outside and being called in for tea by me mum. "S'NOT FAIR!"

I mean how can a girl say no to this:

the book explains all the weighted factors that influence the sex-appeal - clothing, haircut, muscles, last vehicle used (which varies according to state of that vehicle). i'm guessing that last thing is the one that is fluctuating given that the others change less rapidly. don't turn up on dates in concrete mixers and you should be ok 8)

respect & sex appeal faq:
http://www.neoseeker.com/resourcelink.html?rlid=89160&rid=82730

I'm still amazed by how vast this game is. The fiancee was playing "Vice City" recently, and it seemed so claymated.

Anyone else have that glitch where the girlfriends just never seem to be at home when you come to visit? Worryingly similar to real life, to be honest.

This is because your clothes make up 50% of your sex appeal but only 4% of your respect.

Everyone should have this bookmarked if they don't already:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/game/36831.html

managed to drive my motorbike up the thin pipe-slope-thingys on the big grey bridge in San Fierro. and then down again. Most impressive.

Since I last posted, my grandmother passed away. I got married. I hosted my bride's family from outside of the country. There was the honeymoon. Been going back and forth to Memphis for immigration stuff. Bought a dog. Spring has come. We have a new van now.

And the other day, I was sitting in the parking lot of a Mapco, looking at a boarded-up building next door. "Fool's Gold" came on the iPod, and I started thinking about from which corner I'd get C.J. to scale the wall. I stopped playing right as I opened up Vegas. It's about time I get started again, but maybe I'll wait until the weather gets just a little bit warmer.

I was so close to finishing the Caligula's mission last night, but as CJ was scampering across the roof, I made him miss the parachute and fell off the building. Whoops. Had to do the whole thing over again, but I didn't care.

Also finally won the 8-track race in Los Santos. I had failed and failed that thing when I first started playing, and then forgot about it. It was a lot easier to drive there after having won all the road races. I just wish the monster truck had brakes.

On second thought... no I don't!

I can't wait to complete this game 100% when it will give me infinite ammo. The shits so gonna hit the fan when that happens.

I finished the paramedic mission, the stats even say so. However, damned if I can tell a difference in health now.

I'm playing through with help of a big cheaty 100% walkthrough. I finally finished the NRG challenge!

Taxi missions were easy. Paramedic missions were easy in that town that Ken is talking about. Vigilante missions are a fucking bitch for me.

And speaking of that town, I really got fed up with that old stooped woman in the white shirt and cowboy hat who would take ALL FRICKIN' DAY to load herself up into the ambulance. Thanks bye.

anyway i completed them in the tank.

I really like Paramedic missions.

I hope that Catalina is the star of the next one.

anyone know how much improvement there is?

i've never really understood how you could play GTA on a PC: at least, not without a PS2-style controller.

Starting a new game because you’re bored of looking for horseshoes and shell things, then saving it over your 96% completed game by mistake.

Worst part of it is having to do that fucking dancing on the beach mission a thousand times again. I hate dancing in real life, never mind having to do it in a game.

(What's the submarine in VC?)

submarine in "vice city"

What!?

i never saw that.

You get sneak on an aircraft carrier to nick a harrier jump jet in san andreas.

gaaaaaaaaaaaah, that's grim.

i actually make a backup every so often. which is a bit sad considering i've only completed 20% :)

as for cool and weird ... all of it. it's GTA, innit? it's funnier than vice city, and (IMHO) more immersive. i didn't finish vice city before starting this one, and i'm not that bothered about going back.

Andrew, you've done 69 of the unique jumps ?!! thats rather good.

dolphins
turtles
submarine
getting cops to follow you into the water and watching them drow's great. am i sick?

driving cars off cliff's into the water is good as well.

[spoilers]
for hidden stuff like the sub in VC, there's the pit in the desert in Las Venturos with the dead bodies in. the UFO cafe with the mysterious map and photos in the back room. the sign near the large Golden Gate looking bridge which lists game facts about how large the bridge is and how many polygons/textures etc it took to make. the ghost town. probly lots more i haven't even seen yet.

IN "Vice City" I had something like a 3-star wanted level, and I (accidentally) drove the car into the sea. I pressed "F", and Tommy wound up standing on the roof of the car, which floated in the water. Watching hundreds of cops then driving & jumping into the water was almost as funny as when the cop tried to put the tyre spiker under the tank.

My dear wife's favourite trick in gta3 is when that lifter bridge to the third island is open, and there's a cop car in front of you, she likes to drive into the back of it so the cop car drives off the edge into the water.

there's fishes, turtles, jellyfish, a dolphin and a shark in "VC" as well. I like the shark!

I'm going to have to get this, I can see. I'm trying for 100% in "vice City", so I'll get it after I get close to that. 97 hidden packages found so far!!

I've got two cheats saved onto my current game. I downgraded my wanted stars twice I think, early in the game when I was scared to get busted and too far away from a pay n' spray. That shit better not be fucking with me now.

-- Ste (ste.foste...), June 9th, 2005 9:03 PM. (later)

I heard of a Mad Max/Road Warrior mod planned for he PC. If done well, this would shit all over the original game as it is.

You weren't kiddin, spent ages on it last night. Can’t seem to get enough speed, I tried it on a few bikes and a few cars with nitro.
No joy.

Did some gambling on the horses last night, I now have $20004643.

Has anyone got 100% on the gang territories, if so, what’s the secret?
The ballas don’t show themselves when I hang around.

I hated the gang wars at first when they were presented to me in the missions but now I love them to bits.

went on a killing spree last night, my crim rating has gone up to 25038 Soldier.

My favorite one is in San Fierro, up on top of the hill near the Lombard Street entrance. It's where I take Katie on our dates. The other day, I hit it in a police car that was on fire, and the slow-mo alternate angle was fucking awesome.

I'm really jealous of that thirty second replay thing that the PCers are going to get.

I have a few annoying problems with the driving, much of which is probably totally my fault. This game provides me with some concrete examples of my miserable hand-eye coordination, like when I consistently press the wrong side of the joypad to steer if the car is upside down in my visual field. But the default view is such that if I make a sharp U-turn, the virtual camera goes deep down to the ground and to the side, and consequently I can't see where the fuck I'm going. While I haven't done any methodical research on the other view options, they don't seem to be any better. Also, does anybody know what exactly happens when your driving skill improves? Does it mean that the controls of any car you drive gets less wonky?

i have yet to play this game.

so pleased i didn't cop out and by a PS2 for this. 12x10 with 6xAA makes even these dodgy textures look nice.

any tips for non-trailersnapping action?

g o s l o o o w l y ... then HAMMER IT on the straights.

Also, does anybody know what exactly happens when your driving skill improves? Does it mean that the controls of any car you drive gets less wonky?

AFAIK you can corner/hit stuff without spinning out of control so badly.

- get in the trailer and hook it up to start the mission.

- get out the trailer and shoot fuck out of the guy's car with the biggest gun you have. (getting out of the cab doesn't end the mission; i don't even think you get a timer.)

- get back in the trailer and nick off, s l o o o w l y.

next i did the liquor store (i think) which involves chasing cowboys on quad bikes. a bit of a bitch, but after a few attempts, i managed to take them all out. however, on the way back to collect the briefcases, my quad bike got severely smashed up. i got off it, ran across the road to collect the last briefcase, got about 10 yards away and all of a sudden: MISSION FAILED flashed up on the screen. i was like 'what the fuck?', and turned round to see Catalina under the wheels of a random station wagon. i nearly cried. i blew the shit out of it and quit.

how frustrating.

try doing it on a sanchez. as long as you drive into the mission marker on the bike, it should still be there when you come out of the store. jump off the quad bike, get on the sanchez ... it makes the whole thing several hundred times easier because you can actually go at a decent speed.

i haven't played this for ages now and really need to get back into it. i got hacked off with the "farewell my love" race (which you're going to come across any time now) and just started messing about and not bothering with missions etc. i need to get back into the game proper.

(i only attempted the first mission, the bmx one, and i failed. oh the shame)

On this site there’s the best cheat in the world, “cars float away”. You just nudge or crash into cars and they float away like there’s no gravity. When the car gets to a certain height, the passengers jump out to their death, brilliant. Also there’s a Vehicle of Death cheat, Any vehicle the player is using becomes invincible and gains the ability to instantly destroy anything it touches.

99 tags
48 snapshots
37 oysters
46 horseshoes

i don't think it's impossible, but it's getting harder to find the last ones. my flatmate found all snapshots and tags with no map either.

did anyone bother with the girlfriend thing? that first girlfriend, gee, i can't even remember her name. couldn't be bothered with that, seemed too intrusive on the game. catalina on the other hand, i think i'd put in the time fot her - she loves the insane stunts i pull. everytime i flip out over a massive hill on a Sanchez she's like "i love you, carl!"
much better than that wet blanket one that wanted to do drive bys and called me up every 10 minutes.

er, yah.

but yeah, fuck Denise!

i'd happily do insane stunts all day without encouragement! icing on cake k thx plz.

haha good luck with that one.

and that's with the map! Grrrrr.

My advice for that kind of stuff is to either do them all with the map or don't use the map - period. There's a tendency, especially with the oysters and horseshoes, where if you can't find one immediately, you think, "Oh, well, come to think of it, maybe I've already picked this one up."

Is there a turn-cars-into-submarines cheat for VC on PC, BTW? I'm sure I read somewhere that there was, but I can't find it in any cheat lists.

I'm trying really hard not to set my heart on getting 100% on everything cos that'll lead to so much frustration.

Even one of the very early missions (rescuing a homie and his gf from some flats near you house) is getting annoying now I've tried it 15-20 time Grrr. Still I can always go do something else.

christ. you've only had it five minutes and you're further than i am. i've had it since ... actually, no, i'm not embarrassing myself like that.

spent about 6 hours one day just doing all the tags followed by another two because one of them wasn't finished. not sure if it qualified as fun. the tags are easier than the other two objects because they remain where they are when you've done them so it's easy to check. HOWEVER, if the spray can runs out whilst you're tagging then you can't assume that the tag is finished. it may even look like it's done but may not register. the only way to be sure is to try and target it with the spray can - you can't focus on finished tags.

(it's also a very quiet activity as you tend to have to do if on foot so don't have access to any of the radio stations)

100 tags, 50 snapshots btw (snapshot map, the official one, i had was inaccurate, and numbers didn't tie up between map and pictures. grrr). haven't got to vegas yet though, haven't played it for months.

but i may abandon my ps2 game now to start afresh on the xbox. It's quite satisfying just to see the fresh unsprayed tags in the city.

and now I'll know better to keep track of my unique jumps!

SF is MUCH more difficult that the first city. damn.

If you're having issues with the Catalina break up thing why don't you just load up GTA3 and play that until the end, then you'll see how much of a bitch she is PLUS you get to skin her skanky ass.

GTA3 was bugged to death on my PC.

*weeps softly*

here's the angle you want to make sure smoke gets all the vagos btw

http://img18.exs.cx/img18/6608/trainpasss2.jpg

[/pedantgeek]

i remember being in 5th year of junior school and the teacher got one out, it was amazing.

Umm eww ick wow.

And I wonder why they switched Grove Street's color from orange to green. Didn't want to piss off Catholics in Northern Ireland?

Yesterdays was short: i was awoken in the morning by my house mate knocking at the front door as he'd forgotten his keys, but i fell back to sleep and then i dreamt that it was Sweet knocking at the door and my mission was to let him in.

Last nights was much more involved and was a full blown 5 star wanted level being chased by feds all across the mutherfookin countryside into a scrapyard. I remember looking up into the sun and watching the trees strobe in the light and thinking how great the graphics were.

ahh.

i don't plan to do much else this weekend.

"man, i need some TITTAYS to squeeze!"

hahaha this part is still great.

Carl Johnson: [after seing a truck that is chasing them crash] Ah, they hit a bus!

Smoke: Ha ha ha! I'll never dis public transportation again!

--

Ammu-Nation Clerk: If you need to ice your wife or stop a truck, I got what you need.

---

Aerial Police (Cop 1): Shoot him!
Aerial Police (Cop 2): ALL RIGHT I'M TRYING!

---

[during commercial for pest control service]
Pest Commando #1: We've got the situation in the kitchen contained, sir, but I found this!
[baby cries]
Pest Commando #2: Jesus! What the hell is this?
Woman: That's my daughter!
Pest Commando #2: Looks more like Viet Cong to me!
[gun shot]

---

Aerial Police (Cop 1): Stop! Police!
Aerial Police (Cop 2): I think he knows that by now!

------------

Helicopter Co-Pilot: Hey, I can see my house from here!
Helicopter Pilot: Will you shut the fuck up?

----

DJ Philip 'PM' Michaels: Hey, to my choreographer who's helping me get ready for my inevitable tour, it's gonna be a sunny day! Let's practice outside. And hopefully, those kids won't throw rocks like the last time.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0402224/quotes

On the other hand, I beat Supply Lines on my third try.

helicop 1: I WILL KILL YOU!!
helicop 2: You can't say that! It's against the rules!

when you re-spawn, boom, the other two cities will have gang territory.

am i the only one who's amazed that this WORKS?!

I've got to San Fierro and like many I didn't spend any real time on the gang war bit before I was whisked away, much to my annoyance. In fact I went a bit too headlong doing mission after mission to try and open up the other areas and now I've got San Fierro open I'm a bit disappointed really. There's a hole heap of things I wanted to do in Los Santos - which I suppose is set up to make you want to keep on playing after you finish the main storyline. San Fierro seems far less polished than Los Santos and a lot smaller than I hoped, although I've only just got there.

I'm very impressed with the way the being-stole-away bit makes you feel cheated - the emotional manipulation of this game is probably the best I've seen from anything I've played. Those two cheap sell-out mudderfokas. I went back to the much-changed Los Santos and spent a good 2 hours driving round killing every Baller I could find out of anger even though it served no purpose. Oh well at least now I've got better clothes from Fierro's shops.

I must say that I imagine some bits of it are utter hell on a PS2. The Russian mission and House Party for a start. Basically any FPS bits. It's telling when you go into the Firing Range and win the shootouts 20-1-1. The RPG bits haven't really been a problem - I've never really had to eat, I did 3 sessions in the gym near the start and am still on 75%-ish on muscle and stamina. I do run a lot though.

Currently at 25%ish with very little extraneous stuff done. Sporting Kid n' Play hair, denim jacket, rocking blue khaki's with a crease, grey boots, a yellow watch and dog-tags. I'd get a hat but the haircut is too good. Even made my own custom radio station with appropriate Hip-hop (and Groove is in the Heart). God I'm really into this :)

or the black t-shirt wearing muthafuckas, a quick creep up behind them and one shot to the head. a very nice little $2000 earner

I mean, shit, even AXL is funny.

Also, how does one improve one's gambling skill? Playing the slots and video poker machines? Or anything more specific? I wanna play big money roulette!

i never realised the donkey kong thing, i think i was always avoiding the barrels by hiding in the sidings.

"park a car near the wall, climb onto the wall, walk along, drop down, get in the jet, fly to and high above the mountain, parachute down. Enjoy the view!"

i recall quite enjoying that hijacking mission, but I opened my chute as soon as CJ jumped out of the plane which, yes, resulted in like a ten minute freefall.

i never realised the donkey kong thing, i think i was always avoiding the barrels by hiding in the sidings.

There's so much in these missions that most people miss. For example, I've heard that if you FALL OUT OF THE PLANE during this mission, it cuts to a scene of CJ landing on the roof of a car and glass breaking all over the place.

I never fell out of the plane, so I missed out on this cool little montage.

i managed to board a plane while fleeing in tierra robado (i was there prematurely, earning a 4 star wanted rating), and flew about nicely in a propeller driven hydro-plane. it reached extraordinary altitude before i was shot down by surface to air missiles over random military base. i can't find that plane again despite my Prisoner like attempts at reaching the proper inlet.

I am completely hooked by now.

also, Deconstruction was fuckin' funny.

Then Flight School. Let me just explain something for the PS2 users - recreating holding the analog stick just a bit in one direction on keys would mean tapping the keyboard at an audible frequency. So instead you've got to veer and then correct which is pretty much like tossing a coin in the air until it lands on its side in terms of a challenge.

Now this is bad, but the fact you've got to do it to get any further and it takes you miles away from anything else that's interesting to do is extremely off-putting.

And just when I'd got my custom radio station perfected. Drive-by's to the strains of "Leather on my shoes" by Chris De Burgh could actually maintain my interest in the game if there was anywhere to do them.

can't you get PS controllers for your PC?

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000ALFCI.01-AIGI2YLZJE0LN._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

makes the game FAR easier, and only $20.

now i have a working controller for Psychonauts, LEgo Star Wars, etc

right, i'm off to try these zero missions now. hmm.

grove.

Mission #1: DON'T STOP FIRING. DO NOT LIFT YOUR FINGER FROM THE FIRE BUTTON.
Mission #2: The trick is to move the alter the plane's direction as little as possible.
Mission #3: After the first barrel is removed and the first plank placed, more-or-less concentrate on bombing the tanks.

seriously, something like 20 goes so far. i get to about eight seconds left and the last transmitter gets bombed. i am close to smashing up not just the playstation but everything in the house.

still, at least this shows i've recovered from my tonsillitis, i guess.

1) Get a car. Drive it to the Airport. There's a wall around back that's brick and just taller than the car. Drive the car up to it.

2) Jump on the car, then on the wall. You grab the top easily and go over. From here, there's a Cessna right in front of you and there's also a Lear Jet not far away.

3) Fly for awhile. Its something like an hour. Don't go into the airspace of the other cities though. If you want, you can get some tape, point the plane due south, tape the gas down, and go get dinner or whatever. After about a half hour or so, turn the plane around, repeat. You'll open up all those secret gang territories in San Fierro and Las Venturas while getting the mileage up enough that you'll probably be able to get your pilot's license. You'll then be able to enter Los Santos (and all the other airports as you gain access to those cities) through the security gate.

there's so much throwaway detail in the game, too. think of the hours programming bits of terrain you'll never walk over. and there are a LOT of cars. the 1st two games, each car more or less "represented" its class, except for the sports cars (a van, a family car, a station wagon, etc). but in SA i kept thinking i was jacking a familiar car and it was some slightly different thing (the alpha? the flash?)

speaking of representation: i think SA gets the balance of representation vs the place itself right in the city layouts. liberty city's downtown was only 4 x 3 blocks or something, but that stood in for a much larger downtown, same with all the other bits. everyone complained about vice city, "it's smaller!" well no it wasn't, there were more streets and a bigger game area, but 1 equaled 1 (kinda) (plus it was flat). none of the cities in SA are "real size" but it's big enough that the representation isn't as annoyingly apparent as in liberty.

i fucking hate this game :)

seriously: what am i doing wrong? i'm aiming in front of the planes (i'm getting a "doing well, don't get cocky" every single time i start); i'm concentrating on the ones furthest away ... it seems like no matter how much transmitter energy i have left come 30 seconds or so, bombs just start going off everywhere and i end up dead.

after my 11th attempt i muted the sound.

after my - what, 30th? - go, i somehow, just managed to beat it. wow. i can now do the first minute and a half with my eyes shut; after that it just becomes free-for-all madness.

christ, hang on, i haven't saved. i've just left it on pause. erk.

vice city used to do it a bit too, IIRC.

Despite my earlier aversions to flying I went back to Supply Lines and did it first try. The RC Helicopter mission afterwards is really, really good fun.

Basically I'm on a spree of going back and doing a lot of the side-stuff as I'm already fearing the end of the game (2 missions into LV). The Illegal Racing in San Fierro is very, very funballs.

You're definitely over with most of the missions, but you still have quite a few of them to go. Some of them are quite complicated.

I was walking round somewhere and got it to go into this mode, the second player was a priest I think, but now I can't remember where to go!

if you've got denise as a girlfriend, there'll be one outside her house.

there's a rampage icon in pershing sq, IIRC.

what now?

good one!

tho the go kart ones do not.

Finally can anyone quickly tell me how to open the fecking parachute?

parachute opening=circle

Select parachute, hit circle button.

So long as I keep my Mulholland home I'm happy. Something v v satisfying about firing a AK towards the city skyline...

Great things to do #492: The crane magnet (san fierro docks)

i found great joy in playing with the magnet crane yesterday. I was being chased by a cop car, i was on the NRG bike, and i unwittingly past underneath the magnet (which was low). How I laughed as the cop car became stuck to the magnet and swung high into the air.

so i decided to try it myself. got a really fast car, fitted nitros, positioned magnet low down (car height) and just at the end of the dock. Took long long run up and drove stupidly fast under the magnet and wow I swung up so high!

The magnet doesn't appear to stick to a bike if you are riding it.

Word of warning though if you've positioned the magnet too high and the car never touches the ground again you won't be able to get out of the car. but i managed to wriggle my way off by turning left and right a lot.

heheheh. i keep meaning to. i've barely progressed from where i was last time i posted on this thread. last time i played was about a month and a half ago: i was doing the driving school missions. mrs fiendish is away with work this week, so i really should put some time in on SA.

The hardest one was the stunt plane, it's so sensitive.

Sucha great game, so much to do. Bought the Brady guide much to my shame. So much pointless crap to do, so little time...

xpost

Are you at least writing down where you find them, so that when you crack and get a guide, you'll be able to tell which ones you've done?

It's the driving school that pains me.

xxxpost (yes! that stupid fcking "burn and lap" is sooo goddam hard)

Circle the airstrip and land, very unforgiving, made me v angry.

I tend to just try and blitz them, but at the moment I'm making do with just coming across them on my travels. And it's slow going.

when you crack and get a guide

Never!

I haven’t enough patience to get 100% unaided.

I hate Burn and Lap. Total nightmare!

I'm playing GTA3 for the first time now. I'll walk through an alley and see a package sitting there and think, "Nuh-uh. Not without a map."

Call me a puss, but those "49 out of 50" stats burn me alive inside.

all gold in the air school gets you the hunter, which makes the cop mission vvvveeeeerrry easy

Pleasant - I know what you mean. In Vice there were plenty of moments where 'apparently' I hadn't saved my game after finding a couple of hidden packages (but i suspected a consiracy). I remember picking up the same package 3 times at one point. In the end I had to revisit every single spot again writing them down to get the final 100. Best to do them all in one shot.
Also I thought it was more essential in finding the packages in Liberty and Vice to get the free weapons, to pass the game missions. San Andreas game missions are far too easy.

Yesterday tried finding tags for the first time. Jesus wept but there are so many and they are so hard to find even with Brady Guide.

To all those doing it without help, I salute you!

I miss Catalina. She thought I was cool. The nurse one is a nightmare when it comes to Fun. I gave up in the end!

All the later things take so long. God I love and hate this game in equal measure at the moment! Bloody races...

Y'all, do your vigilantes in the tank! Forget about that harrier. The tank! THE TANK!

on my first visit to the game i finished this level seriously spawnly, i barely knew that there were other planes after me as they just crashed straight away into other buildings
but when i played again on xbox i chose to take the dogfight high in air above the Gant bridge, probly much to the delight of the San Fierro citizens.

Ah too late (xpost)! Show off Ste, one too many times watchin Battle of Britain that boy...

Know when you have to catch like seven or eight criminals, and they're all in a convoy? KA-BAM - KA-BAM - KA-BAM - KA-BAM!

Stealing the tank and getting away with it was so much fun.

"Faster, Carl, FASTER!"

It's terrible, my sister is finishing her thesis at my desk the past day or so so I can hardly stop her and kick her off! Or could I... I mean, 100% is so much more important than her Phd, isn't it?

get a fast car or bike, go to the no fly zone, drive through the fence (there is a weak spot in the fence somewhere, it's easy to notice), go to the hangers, get into one of the tanks, drive to your nearest safe house with LARGE garage, park up & save game.

and stop those tears soldier.

Can you store a tank in that hangar? That would make life peachy for the vigilante missions. How does one keep the stars down? Please don't say finding the bribes, I'm terrible at catching Perps how the hell am I meant to get to them!

keeping your stars down just involves you staying low for a bit, i find that being in a chopper though does not lower your stars no matter how long you fly for.

i have 2 fbi cars, 2 tanks and harrier. that's the max amount.

How does one keep the stars down?

just save the game and the wanted stars go. if you mean during game play, then find the bribes

Staying low fine, not much use during vigilante with time limit. Good advice though and shall be heeded.

I just stole them, dragging an FBI agent out of his car and having the rest them in it is cool. As for the ladies, I just shot them when they came out of the house, waste of time taking them out, they don’t appreciate it and it doesn’t get you anywhere.

As for the tank, it’s a shame I can’t e-mail you one.

Not even gmail can help me now I fear. I'll just have to do it the old fashioned way: Grand Larceny.

Playing a character called Carl when you’re called Carl is weird, especially the " learn to fly Carl" bits.

That would freak the best of us out. Thankfully my name (Kevin) is odd enough, it seems that whenever it's used it's always some fat or weird kid. I was the latter but never the former. Until recently that is.

Want to go home now but have to go for drinks. Blasted social life, why must you mock me!

Found all the oysters (even survived getting the two in Easter Basin) in under an hour. How I hear you say? There's a Seasparrow helicopter to the north near that beach you had to drop something off at for Toreno. It's near Verdant Meadows. It's tough as hell and meant ease of access to everywhere. At Easter Basin just stay next to the walls. Going into Sub Pen stick close to left wall and then on way out dive and curve around hugging the wall to under the Aircraft Carrier. The hard part is swimming ashore but there's a police bribe on the tracks behind Xoomer oil. Or you can high speed chase it which is how I managed it.

Took all the photos. I hate the camera and all the running around.

I'm 1 car (the Euros) off completing import/export. I was driving around the camel's toe for what felt like an age with no joy. Any help to offer lads?

Completed pimping. I can now say hit you upside the head to flatmates without fear.

Reached level 23 in vigilante in the tank. Ste, it was as good as can be hoped for. So many dead, so many... I don't think I'll ever see as lovely a sight again as all those FBI ranchers crashing out. Even shot down a couple of helicopters.

Only 89 tags and the races to go. Will this game ever end?!

Can't help you with the Euros, still waiting for a Comet to appear.

and I found an actual cave, it has a police bribe in it!

I like how you can take down choppers with the tank this time, tho it still doesn't beat wasting them with the mini-gun and a healthy amount of ammo.

Are you still determined not to use a guide? How about a FAQ? It's only kind of like a guide, more a mature and wiser friend...

haha you cannot lure me over to the dark side kevin, I will never use an FAQ. To be fair me and my house mate both play the game a lot and (before he started cheating) we would sort of watch each other play and therefore in that way I've already been playing with a helpful friend coz I've witnessed him picking up hidden items in places i've never been. But now he's peeked at maps I cannot bring myself to look him in the eye. the filthy rat.

Does my having helped you with the Comet count as a FAQ/Guide? It's a slippery slope Ste, be careful there's nothing worse than a self-hating gamer ;)

I've forgotten where you said already anyway ;)

Not to worry, if you do get stuck I will hint and not give answer. That is the best I can offer.

Now more importantly how far are you in the missions? I've managed to get past fish in a barrel (a few more past but I can't remember names and spoilers are t3h suck).

which one was fish in a barrel ?

I only found the missions with in the 4 Dragon's basement last night, I thought the symbol was for the gambling tables. A bit of a relief because repeating return to Los Santos and the Madd Dogg mission in his old house is a fecking killer. Bad enough it takes forever to get through but then you have to chase him down? Fuck that ;)

The last mission I completed for Caligula was the san marco's bistro one.

Anyone had any experience with that multiplayer mod on PC?

ah, i thought this was going to be on the games board. nonetheless

Three years after the fact, still nothing makes me laugh more than "Yo, this is MC Shithead"

anyway, i bought the game on Pc today and will try the multiplayer option this weekend. I'll let you know what it's like, if anyone cares.

early tests show that the multitheft client is nothing but a load of modded maps with gta graphics. I couldn't even leave my car.

but i could be wrong and i'll play more tonight.

i reckon this isn't quite what people think it is though.

San Andreas was pretty unplayable on the PC as it was.

i can't believe the control pad defaults, what were they thinking ?!

SA:MP sounds better than Multitheft

Actually Multitheft was more fun, even though it lacked any free-roam on foot action because it was all car based. The deathmatches are a great blast!

SA:MP was more free roam but to be honest the RPG style was a bit crap and I didn't get it at all. Might be fun with yer mates though.

Jim Patton, a producer at Bushleague.tv, is breaking the world's record for videogame playing right at this moment, live on the internet. He's been playing Grand Theft Auto IV since yesterday at 5PM.

what bullshit. some dude in a korean internet cafe has been playing StarCraft since 1998.

having completed GTAIV and its DLC last year - the first modern-era games i ever completed, iirc - and having owned GTA:SA as dlc since it came out on xbox 360 originals, am finally getting back into this. when i had it originally, for ps2, i didn't get too far - certainly never made it to las venturas, anyway. i aim to finish it this time around.

weirdly, it doesn't seem to have aged too madly, though i do wish for some of GTAIV's polish at times. and yes, the wardrobe sequences are bone-achingly slow.

it's the best gta game.

it's the big narrative swerves that impress me most - like when sweet gets arrested and you get exiled to the boondocks for a while. as much as i prefer the gtaiv engine, none of its stories really took such left-turns - there's an eccentricity, a weirdness, to san andreas that's compelling and funny, and which eluded GTAIV and its dlc (though gay tony was fantastic). i'd like to see some of that weird pulpy flavour back in GTAV.

Replaying this. Looking forward to that mission where you have to immolate a field of weed