c/d s/d: the GRAND THEFT AUTO series

the first two are kinda fun if you only expect it to be as good as certain flash games.

I loved GTA III. Then I was like WOW re: Vice City. THEN I was like WOWOWOWOWOO re: San Andreas. This has all happened within the past 6 months, however, so I might be biased juuuuuuuust a bit.

I would like to know the ways in which the previous versions gobbled the cock.

gta3 had awful controls/camera, and i missed all the refinements of gameplay that andreas brought to the table. san andreas was monstrously challenging at times, but you always sensed the difficulty originated in the challenge before you. there were challenging scenarios in gta3, but most of the game's obscene difficulty was due to it just being very hard to play. putting it next to san andreas makes it seem awfully bland and barren as well, i wasn't particularly stoked about the radio stations or the silent protagonist.

vice city was the easiest in the series. i actually just got 100% on it last week, which is what prompted me to walk down memory lane like this. vc felt very slight next to the other games - for all of gta3's faults, it's a very large game and you get your money's worth. there weren't that many story missionsand as those are usually my favorite parts of these games i was pretty disappointed. the "meat" of the game didn't feel proportionate to all the extra horseshit i went through to get 100%. it was just kind of small and boring with no sense of place or adventure to it. great music tho.

sa literally delighted me from beginning to end. even the hardest tasks, some of which were more difficult than any other game i'd ever played, ultimately were worth it to me because of the elation i felt after finally wrapping them up. it was a perfect fit for my ADD-having ass - i literally just CANNOT WAIT for most games to end bcz i tire of them after a few hours. games that know when they've worn out their welcome are just amazingly rare. but i feel like i could play this same game for years. the repetition that repels me from most games - repetition of action, setting, atmosphere - is completely absent. any time you're tired of one milieu or challenge you can move onto one that's just as fun or interesting. that's what the previous games really lacked, they had the ambition but not exactly the artistry to see it all the way through. and those games were probably necessary to refine it all down to what we have now. it's the most immersive game i've ever played, if not by design then by dint of what it evoked for me. there are a lot of other 'immersive' games that leave me absolutely cold, but this shit is like baby bear's porridge: just right.

I played GTA III on the PC, but bought it as part of the 3-pack w/ VC & SA - I was thinking about going back to it, as I never finished it (& missed a lot of stuff - I didn't even know about the Rampages until I read an FAQ!), but I'm afraid I'll be sorely disappointed.

I'm also a sucker for how everything came around full circle in SA - I said this on the Liberty City Stories thread, but when Toreno told CJ his last mission for him was to go pick up Sweet, now that CJ's gone from disrespected hood rat to a guy rolling in dough in his own mansion, I got a little choked up!

BTW, suggestions on how to defeat that mothertrucking "steal 4 police bikes & drive them onto that stupid truck that's always on the side of the city opposite where you're at, and oh by the way don't mind the 15 cop cars on your ass" mission would be much appreciated. I've tried stashing the mobile bikes in 1 spot, and then driving them onto the truck one @ a time once they're acquired, but that doesn't work.

The bike missions - all I can think of is to anticipate where the truck will be (it moves) rather than to go straight towards the blip. Parking the bikes in the same place will be pointless if the truck is nowhere near that place. I didn't have a problem with it, sorry.

The PS2 games do seem to be dissappointing if you don't play them in the GTA3 - VC - SA order. I started with Vice City and loved it, but could never get into GTA3.

I wonder how well any of the GTA soundtracks sold.

and remember where every pay n spray is and abuse them thoroughly. --- Yes, definitely that, too.

Fugging around with the riot cheat turned on (and definitely not saving anything) helped a lot with stuff like being chased by four-stars of cops and copters. Once you play for awhile where pedestrians are shooting rocket launchers at you, stealing a pig's bike ain't really all that.

I still haven't finished GTA3. I started playing after GTA:SA, so maybe it never stood a chance in comparison. And to hell with swimming, not being able to climb over a two-foot barrier is the thing that pisses me off more about the first two.

I'm playing the Warriors right now. Kinda weird playing a rockstar game where you can't walk up to someone in the street and completely blow their head apart like a melon. I'm digging on the "quaintness" of it all.

this is kinda standard for many games, shitty tho it is, like in FPS

I should probably give it a go during nighttime, instead of noon time.

ahaha. Yeah, if you just compare the changes made there's probably a small percentage of a difference between SA and the other two games. but those changes are SO crucial that they impact the rest of the game profoundly - swimming is a biggie, no more pissing my pants when i try to hop into a boat (which is freakishly hard because of the shitty camera and platformer mechanics) (those were improved too though) and the weapon aiming stuff is BIGBIGBIG as well. being able to independently aim any weapon (allowing you to, say, shoot down a helicopter with a handgun) is tremendous, and the way the new auto-targeting system tracks, its range, and its very intuitive camera set up (ie. if you target something the game makes sure it's in frame, and if you change targets it'll swivel around, looking sort of RE4-ish) is massively helpful. also being able to move while crouched is great. just tons of little things that confounded me playing the other games, that when included suddenly open up a new world (for me) of potential.

also in SA's favor: way funnier than the other two games.

I suppose it's a matter of individual standards and thresholds. I enjoyed all three games immensely, but I agree that the improvements tilt towards favoring SA the most. Still, none of the other games are such that I accuse them of the high crime of choad chomping.

still, what is good in some contexts is not in others; the metaphors don't extend fully. while such acts as the blowing of phallus and the eating of ass can be fully commendable things, you don't necessarily want your $49.99 game to toss that salad.

While you may want Candy SuXXX onscreen to do the rusty trombone, you do not want the gameplay involving Candy SuXXX to.

yet you did this twice!

The pathetic thing is that I know exactly what building you're talking about.

VANISHING PATRIOT #1: I drive the fucking dirty cop to the airport, & drive to his garage to pick up the booty. However, I didn't realize I'd get a CAR along w/ all the kewl weapons; hence, I drove my car down the garage path, thereby blocking the Patriot. So, OK, no prob, I'll just back out and go get the Patriot. So I back out. And run back to the garage. AND THE CAR IS GONE.

VANISHING PATRIOT #2: The one where I park to go shoot folks @ the construction site on drugs, then return to where I parked. AND THE CAR IS GONE.

Exactly what happened to me.

Vice City shines for me still, it's like GTA3 gone on holiday. The music is fantastic and is the best out of all 3 games, as well as the hilarious talk show stations. I think I prefer the graphics on VC to any of them, especially the beach front at night time. Missions were slightly easier than GTA3 but only just, and the whole purchasing property and working your way up the ladder of the city was genius. There was something genuinly slicker than GTA3 when you first played VC, the improvements were obvious and life felt good.

SA was the easiest of the lot, finished it in less than half the time as the previous two. Sure they improved the control system for shooting when on foot but then this just made those types of missions a doddle, no challenge in them whatsoever. Lots of unused map areas, surely they could've put that space to better use. Awful awful radio stations, I turn it off most of the time. Dreadful pop up of graphics on PS2 and Xbox when in flight or driving fast. Nice idea to include the change of clothes feature, gives the game at least some variety but the eating and other character development feature is totally flawed and pointless, I never go to the gym and my muscle stat is maximum. Physics on SA seems to have taken a dump too, car upside down rolling down a hill? get out and watch it stop dead (??) No rampages? Explosions were way less satisfying, collisions with other vehicles were drab and lacked impact. There some minor HUD annoyances too ie fonts, health bar design rushed, irritating radar blue blips difficult to see, wanted level stars don't flash clearly when you reverse into a cop car out of the pay'n'spray.
On the plus side, it looks great most of the time, the swimming is a god send as is the climbing fences. tons of vehicles to choose from. I've still yet to find a couple of tags and some horseshoes, other than that I've done everything. The side missions had some meat to them, more so than the main game which again was just soooo bloody easy. I enjoy the gang warfare sometimes, though it's a little frustrating when your zones are invaded but you miss the tiny message the comes up (due to being in another battle or something) in the corner of the screen. Cops aren't as brutal as GTA3, meaning longer 'being-on-the-run' shoot outs.

SA is a great game don't get me wrong, I still play it and enjoy myself. But in comparison to the previous two, it just doesn't hold a candle and I just wanted to some things off my chest.

Anyway, all 3 games - CLASSIC
I might even go so far as to say the very first two top-down viewer ones were great, GTA London was just awful though.

a)nobody ever came there to pick a fight with or
b) on the beachfront ones the baddies respawned like 100 yards out from shore and got trapped underwater? I tried many things to kill these underwater baddies, such as dropping lots of package bombs down there and hoping for the best, or even sinking boats atop them, but nothing seemed to work. Ideas?

The only area i had trouble picking fights with was at the corner of the road at the far east beach, where there's a small pipe sticking out of the sand. But I managed to get this one last night funnily enough.

oof, really? the other two took about 35-40 hours each to get 100%. SA took me 180 hours (admittedly, I did leave the console on overnight a lot back then - but still).

you reminded of the other thing that endeared me to SA so much, which was the wardrobe. 90 of those hours were probably spent staring at the wardrobe loading screen as I'd try on millions of different outfit combos :'(. lol i'm so queer :'(

That's something that made me like SA even more though, the things that were completely pointless yet had been created in just as high detail as everywhere else. Like all the factories on LV or the stately home place in LS that has a huge garden, mountain path with ramblers, a pond with people sitting on benches talking, and is all completely pointless apart from having a spray tag on it.

Gang territories from hell = the 3 foot wide stretch of pavement just mentioed, and the Bayside one (no one ever spawned). Due to some creative methods of getting my flying skill up early in the game the first time I played I ended up with some territories in other places. Most of them were easy enough, but the ones in the middle of the countryside never had anyone spawn, and the San Fierro ones where they spawned rarely and the other gangs killed them before I had a chance, were impossible.

I really have no interest in firing up Vice City again, the soundtrack's completely classic but the story's dull, and the city is SO FUCKING FLAT, the little overpass near the shopping mall is the highest point on the map. It feels like one of those 'continuing the brand' games made for Crash or Spyro after the original team has gone on to something interesting.

San Andreas needs no defense.

Okay, might have exaggerated a *little*, I'm talking about the main game not 100% anyway (still haven't one hundred percented SA, damn tags). I don't remember having to retry many of the SA missions at all, whereas GTA3 had me tearing my hair out. I think they just made the on foot shooting parts too easy, I walzed through them.

you're right ste, GTA3's missions were monstrously hard. and it wasn't just like a handful of really tough ones - they ALL were hard. hell, there were a lot of rampages that i needed to repeat. that said, I felt like a lot of the big set-piece missions in SA were pretty tough, some I had to do over quite a few times. i dunno, i just ENJOYED the on-foot shooting more. yes gta3's on foot stuff was challenging, but it's not really a challenge you can overcome... you just work around it. it's like a handicap.

i have to say though, you're right about GTA3 and its gritty atmosphere. vice city has made me really appreciate how much character and grime and bleakness was in that game. it was a very well-realized world, i just didn't enjoy playing in it that much.

such a shame SA never had rampages, apart from the 2 player ones but who the hell plays GTA with two players.

I like the story & characters & humour in VC better, and really, flat it may be, but I love the location. Even though I completed the game, & found all the secret bits, I like to get it running in the computer & have a drive around from time to time, like I'm visiting it. I wish the game had never ended, really.

Also, the submarine up north of the shopping mall, and the big sunken ship by the stilt houses really creeped me out when I found them for some reason. I still get this uneasy feeling when I go out in a boat and sail over the submarine. It feels kind of wrong somehow. Ugh. There's nothing like that in GTA3 that I've found anyway.

I haven't played SA yet. I'm scared to get it b/c of how into Vice City I was, and how much time I spent on it..

"I. WILL. KILL. YOU!!"

"You can't say that! It's against the rules"

etc.

Submarine - take a boat or a helicopter out to the north of the east island. Line up w/the west side of the shopping mall, and sail/fly directly north. You might have to go up & down a few times.

Sunken ship 2 - position yrself directly over the submarine, and sail/fly directly east.

they're just set dressing, but great. The submarine especially - you could explore & play the entire game to 100%, and never even be aware of its existence.

Pash, am in agreement with you all the way about VC - half the time I load it up was just to see how gorgeous it all looked driving around. Come and live at my house, you will be welcomed with open arms where GTA is on the consoles almost 24 hours a day. (although Res Evil 4 did hog the limelight for a brief moment)

One great thing about SA's size is the relaxing boat rides around the coasts, that can just go on forever.

In fact I take it all back, I fucking love all three of these games, each for different reasons.

She's opposite the gym in some bushes, I think.

Totally agree. SA is fun, but VC is way better. I can listen to VCPR over and over again and still laugh at the jokes, but I mostly groan at SA's jokes. VC also has much more of a unified style, from the art to the music to the dialogue. It also has motorcycles. SA is visually kind of a mess in parts, the rpg-ish stuff (losing/gaining weight) is kind of neat but gets silly after a while. The driving physics is a lot more forgiving in it, too, and I think that detracts. Once your motorcycle skill is up high enough you can crash into stuff full speed and not fall, you can unflip cars WAY to easily, etc etc. All stuff that detracts from the experience imo. The shooting is way better in SA but the GTA games were always about driving for me.

Motivate, Demonstrate, then Motivate Again

Think, Hold that thought, Complete

Learn, Start, Doing

har har har.

the more i think about it, the more impressed i am with the middle island from GTA3. it was just an uncannily evocative environment, and all the missions on that island took advantage of the fact. i really didn't see anything like that at all in VC, it was visually attractive but it never felt like anything more than a lego city to me.

Also, wtf is the sports staduim for? there's no way of getting into it, is there, apart from mastering flying the dodo, which I gave up on after 2 nights, fuck that, it's no fun at all. Is there anything in it, dodo masters?

There's that whole thing in GTA3 about the missing mission as well, the story (which is kind of credible, once you untangle it from all the fluff about "carcer city") being that as originally envisaged, there was amission where you had to hijack/steal a plane and fly it into love media's skyscraper. Obviously, I can see why they pulled that bit & clipped the dodo's wings, but it's still annoying that there's a/ a bit missing and b/the dodo is (nearly ) unflyable.

It reminds me of the old spectrum game "dun darach" where if you mapped the city out, there was a missing section in the middle - the red light district, apparently pulled b/c of distribution fears!

I might pick up SA on the way home tonight.

yeah i totally kept getting lost on the third island, it's a nightmare and don't even bother attempting the paramedic mission there.

I just don't like that third island. The two halves that are connected only by the one bridge (or by going underground which always invites disaster) completely suck.

I did have fun messing around on the drawbridge thingy. If you can get someone out of their car on the bridge, when it goes up, the person sinks into the pavement as the bridge rises. Or - if you stand in front of an automobile and wait until the bridge goes up, step out of the way, and sometimes the car will keep driving off the edge and float on back to Staunton Island.

I also drove a Perennial into the subway, parked on the tracks, waited for a train to smash into it, got on the train, and watched the explosion as we pulled away from the station.

I've got 19 more missions to go. Haven't even seen anything close to resembling this dodo thing.

Bill Fiore was cast in the role of Darkel, which made it into the pre release version. But for undisclosed reasons, the producers decided not to include him in the final version, which has become the subject of hot debate for fans. The most popular reasons for his absence include: Darkel was going to be a revolutionary street urchin who vowed to bring down the city's economy. Rumour has it, is that many of his missions were based on terrorism and even included an aeroplane explosion. Thus, due to the games releases proximity to the events of [September 11], he was promptly removed from the final version. The final and most popular reason, stems from the fact that Darkel was originally going to give out Rampage esque missions and even had his voice recoreded for this part. Rockstar games then decided that they would like to go back to the original system of giving out rampages as featured in Grand Theft Auto and Grand Theft Auto 2.

Also, Originally the police cars were going to use the NYPD blue and white paint scheme. A few screenshots of them can be seen in the map/poster that comes with the game (the best one is right under the word "Liberty" in the title "Welcome To Liberty City"). It is believed that the police cars were changed to the standard black and white paint scheme to make them not look like the NYPD cars because of the terrorist attacks on the USA of 11 September 2001.

Vice City's map, for me, was always its main drawback, as it is largely flat with grided streets. Andreas was the perfect mix, with grided cities and winding country roads and freeways.

I prefered the plot of III the best, especially the fact that you don't talk, as it always creeps me out when Ray Liotta chimes in with some catchphrase as I'm crushing some grandma's skull.

Since this thread started I've been playing SA quite a bit, in fact found two more tags at the weekend. Having lots of fun with the handheld gattling gun and the police choppers, not so much fun for the choppers mind.

Still can't finish last mission though.

I HATE YOU WITH THE HEAT OF A THOUSAND SUNS AND IF I COULD I WOULD SHOVE A KOMODO DRAGON UP YOUR ANUS UNTIL ITS HEAD CAME OUT OF YOUR MOUTH AND THEN IT WOULD SLOWLY EAT YOU.

xoxo
(>")>

The races I struggled with were the short NRG bike one on los santos, if you went too fast up the hill the bike did some crazy things and you'd fall off. And the Freeway one, again on LS, because the car is so fucking awful to drive!

never did beat any of the figure 8s

My fondest memories are of GTA3 as it's the one I got most of the way through.

I remember being stuck on a race mission on GTA3 and ended up stealing a fire truck and parking it across the road in front of the other three cars before it started.

My favourite between missions carnage was going up on the roof above the nightclub (Luigi's? The first missions guy) and taking out everything that moved until I ran out of rockets for the helicopters, then jumping off the roof into a swarm of cops and trying to jack a car and make it to the paint and spray.

WELL.

I'M NOT CHANGING MINE >:[

Does anyone else get so frustrated they just switch on cheats (and don't save obviously!) and go mental. It's replaced the rampages I miss so much from GTA2.

Not tried VC or III but never say never etc.

Steve

http://www.youtube.com/w/N.W.A.---100-Miles-N-Runnin%27?v=AYzxhi4EyEc

Ha ha. I got GTA3 running good on the computer and was up 'till 3am playing it, that bit was one of the last missions I did before I went to bed.

I was contemplating trying for 100% on it, but I forgot about that side-mission where you have to drive the "patriot" 4 x 4 around the cliffs next to the beach. Fuck that, life's too short.

I picked up the little hidden package in the disused railway tunnel, weirded out by the four down-and-out guys standing around it. I noticed they were all holding molotov cocktails! WTF.

Stunt driving pleasure of the 1st island is undoubtedly getting one of the mafia cars from the don's clifftop house, driving it full-tilt down the hill, up the little grassy hillock, and seeing how far over the diablo's car park the car will fly.

The rampage where you have to shoot all the triad guys using a machine pistol you find in the back yard of that building up by the bridge that gets blown up in the opening cutscene is INCREDIBLY DIFFICVLT. It took me like 20 goes to do it!

Actually practicing the latter until I can do it would definitely cross the line between "fun" and "annoying". The first clip, of "claude" jumping the ruined bridge right at the very beginning is amazing! Sneaky fucker!

Sunken ship 1, Vice City: (the one near the docks/stilt houses)

http://www.sixdegreesnetwork.co.uk/vicecitysunkenfreighter.jpg

http://hoodoo.isten.hu/vc/images/news/2003.5/Submarine_Medium.jpg

Fuckin' impressive, eh?

Someone must have used a mod to get this image, in the game you can see it deep below the water, but the location in the pic is sort-of correct.

http://vice-city.13rus.ru/mods/submarine.jpg

http://vice-city.13rus.ru/mods/beach_park.jpg

WRONG!! WRONG!!

http://s9.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=30FDL4UQGH4FC38RBBDCN7SB9H
http://s28.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=04SLQM0PWOCHX26TK7MB2HD158

http://s28.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=04SLQM0PWOCHX26TK7MB2HD158

http://hoodoo.isten.hu/vc/images/news/2003.5/Submarine_Medium.jpg

does anyone know the location of the mod that removes all the water? That sounds like lotsa phun.

http://graphics4.racingteam.com/pictures/Patriotic/We_Never_Forget_Attack_Eagle_CR_600.jpg

Carl Johnson: Any last requests?
Officer Eddie Pulaski: Yeah... can I fuck your sister?

I was up 'till 2am last night, a 6hr stretch. Muh Wuhmmun was not too impressed.

First impressions:

bad - it's a bit grim, at least until og loc (very funny) turns up - everyone calling each other "nigga" & "motherfucker", the scene with the fucked up crack addict, the crack house and so on, it's a bit heavy, subject matter wise.

Ryder is very very annoying.

good - the location, holy fuck, most of the 6hrs was spent just driving around the freeways & country roads. It's awesome, and frighteningly convincing in places. Driving through some of the little villages at night was even a bit eerie!

The DJ on the country station is very funny. Totally sick.

being able to swim = r0x0r. If someone did a conversion on "Vice City" with all the additionals from San Andreas, inc. swimming, it would be great.

So far I have spotted these "real world" things - the observatory from the cover of the byrds "untitled", a chevrolet corvair monza, a vw minibus with a peace sign on the front (!) I dragged the hippie out from behind the wheel and beat him up - the watts towers. The storm drain place, is that the location from the custom car race in "Grease"?

I have a lowrider with a flame paint job in the garage in the johnson house.

my lowrider 'slamvan' with blue flame paint and chrome bars just looked simply amazing. you could even see the nitro cannisters in the back.

i've decided i'm going back to the PS2 version of this game, the colours are so much better, night-time especially. Plus the carnage that happens randomly on the expressways is just hilariously good fun.

all it means is i have to re-do the paramedic mission.

I have SA running on the downstairs computer, and like an idiot I installed GTA3 on the music computer! So I've got both games running concurrently, ha I'm such a saddo.

On the subj of GTA3 though, I should mentione that 1/I love that fatamarse track and 2/WELCOME TO THE GANGSTA WORLD OF AGALLAH.

do we know of any news/rumours of a new one being made for the PS3?

Also funny, the ad for eres running shoes - "yesterday, I earned a DOLLAR" "I get to play with knives" etc.

Or Tokyo, that would be decent.

Yeah, Tokyo or all of Japan would be fun, except that I think the culture might be a little more homogenous than the other cities that lent themselves so well to GTA games. What do I remember about there already being a really good GTA-stlye game about crime in Tokyo for the PS2 that isn't being imported?

There are a few bridges where you can stand underneath them, and the traffic above you swerves and wrecks as if you were standing on the road in front of them. Sometimes the carnage will drop below and you can watch cars fall and explode in front of you.

I wouldn't be interested in a sci-fi GTA. Part of the fun is that it seems all so real. There have been one or two times where the wife and I have driven through a town, feeling like we were about to spot the stooped, shirtless bald guy or a farm girl in overalls.

how can you be finished with it, you now have infinite ammo. When I accomplish this I will be tear assing my way around the map.

I trashed the flame-painted low rider, argh.

the low rider races - the cars all handle like shit! I jacked a "slamvan" thinking it would handle better and it's actually worse.

that bit where you have to follow the train w the gangsters on the roof on yer motorbike. Fuck!

What I like best is the locations, they're amazing, a real step up from III and VC, also the clothes/haircut thing is lots more fun than I expected.

what I like least is the level of the violence, which seems a lot less cartoony than before. The mission where you have to rip off madd dogg's book of rhymes, and you have CJ creeping round the mansion sticking knives in the guards was a bit much to stomach, tbh.

The storm drains are amazing as well.

& YES to the pimp car, tho I ran the first LR race just fine w/ the car I found. Also, if you need quick cash, the pimp side-missions are the way to go.

also, isn't that a market consideration, too? Aren't there big rules in the UK about being able to do violence to children in a video game, which is why they had to alter Fallout 2 to pull out the kids(since you could cap 'em, make them steal your primed explosives, etc)?

How do you get into the pimp side missions?

Oh, picked up the purple dildo from the police station showers as wll, har har. Jill was like "what's that he's got in his hand?" "it's a purple double headed dildo" "you don't actually use it in the game do you" "no, well, you can beat people up with it" (long silence) "that's really sick".

how can you be finished with it, you now have infinite ammo. When I accomplish this I will be tear assing my way around the map.

No cheating at all! I forgot about the infinite ammo thing, though. Ah, I can finally use the spaz shotgun I've been keeping but never used because I only had 20-something shells.

Does anyone know about that thing where you can shoot the other cyclists in the Chilliad Challenge? I heard about it but never worked when I tried it. Has anyone managed it?

It does work, but the method can be a little tempermental. First, you have to do it after everyone else has crossed the finish line, which makes having the sniper rifle important. But I think the key thing is not to fall off the course too often. If you do (like I did), then once you get to the finish, some riders aren't there -- once I saw a guy cross the finish line, then leave like he was scared of me, which he should've been obviously. Thus: go slow, be patient, don't fall off the trails, shoot 'em dead. (Watch out for the cop who often appears though -- and keep an eye on the timer to get back onto your bike!)

You can also use the dildo "on" your girlfriends!

There's a nice phat car parked on the side of the gas station down the road from the train tracks. Jump in and start pimpin'.

I'm limiting myself to only playing this every other night so as to not annoy Jill too much.

Gaze upon my heinous double standards as well - when I had CJ stabbing the guard to death in Madd Dogg's mansion I was all like "ban this sick filth" for a moment, as above, but when I had CJ hijack Madd Dogg's manager's car & drive it off the pier - "we're taking the scenic route motherfucker" - I thought it was the funniest thing in the game so far. God knows why.

Mount Chilliad and the "back o beyond" = WOW.

Best so far is the scene w/the hardass chix0r from GTA3 - that scene where you turn up & she's holding a knife to the guy's throat, and in fact all her dialogue is really, really funny.

Weird long-running problem I'm getting with SA is that the people - pedestrians, characters, anyone except CJ, in fact - keep going semi-invisible, like to can only see their outline, or 1/2 the vectors or whatever. Kind of difficult to snipe @ baddies, plus it detracts from the atmosphere somewhat. Any ideas?

I note:
name of airline - Juank Air
name of car showroom - Wang Cars
name of fancy hotel - vank hoff

the coders' dedication to peurile jokes and only-just-double entendres is admirable.

Mainly though, I noticed a really freaky thing last night - I was having CJ walk through the streets of SF, when I needed to go for a pee, so I just left him standing on a street corner while I went off. When I came back, the POV on the computer screen was languidly wandering back and forth, occasionally pausing on some interesting thing that was happening - a cop chasing somebody, someone getting out of a car, and suchlike. From time to time it would zoom in on something particularly interesting. Pretty much what you'd be looking at if you were standing waiting on a street corner. A woman in a skimpy top walked past, and the POV zoomed in on her breasts! I was like WHOA what the FUCK!!??

When out at night in the "back o' beyond" area I've seen a, I dunno a foo fighter(?)/ufo type thing zoom past really quickly, followed shortly thereafter by a WW2 fighter plane. That's pretty weird.

See also: the name of every single horse when you go betting.

I was once horsing around on top of Mt. Chilliad, trying to climb it just by walking up it. I was on the other side of the mountain, the side that faces the highway when I was aiming for a clearing. FROM OUT OF NOWHERE, the biplane/cropduster comes crashing toward me, skidding across the clearing and bursting into flames. I got knocked back halfway down the mountain myself, but it was definitely moments like that in the game that endeared it to me so much.

I liked this bit. Made the game more immersive or even realistic, as CJ would just kinda stand there and lapse into his "idle" stage. Either by boredly looking around, or singing Rod Stewart before catching himself.

While jumping off that huge ramp in the desert the other day I jumped off the bike before hitting the water and CJ screamed "WHAT THE FUCK!" Awesome.

Started playing drunk on Saturday, random killings = uber classic!

I aslo noticed, when it was in idle/ogle/perve mode last night, that the female pedestrians' breasts jiggle up and down as they walk. Such dedication.

michelle the driving school girl likes her fat men yes, i never got very far with her as she also likes a stylish man.

i've killed millie, been dumped by Denise, about to be dumped by barbara and katie, and haven't even had a sniff from helen or michelle.

its worth keeping katie and barbara though, just don't bother answering the phone when they ring.

I'm so good, I don't even know anyone's names (aside from Millie, my ride-or-die ladyfriend). I have a helluva time showing Dildo Girl a good time, though - fuck a RATM soundtrack. Also, aside from showing the San Fierro Chick a good time by driving like a jackass, I dunno what else she wants.

yeah, to state the point again, I like how all the girlfriends CJ can get tend to enable his worst tendencies. Esp. the hispanic psychotic chick: "PEEEEEEEEEEEG"!

has anyone noticed how wildy the Vortex hovercraft can explode? It's a challenge just to stay alive if you end up upside down in one of these and have to get out quickly before the thing violently erupts and sends you hurtling to your death 100 yards down the road. Fun though.

GTA:SA "Tampa"

IRL Corvair Monza

Tampa

Parked Locations:

Spawn Locations:

*Bayside Marina Parking Lot, Las Venturas
*Parking Lot west of the jefferson hotel in jefferson/glenpark, Los Santos

the stop on the road trick is best for when you revisit the complete Zero missions and then its just a bonus timed mission with random appearing couriers.

i just laughed my ass off playing it at lunch time. i was causing chaos on the freeways again and was in bulk when i saw a car biff out and drive off at full speed with some guy still stood on his roof in a ready to fight stance.

-- \(^o^)/ (adelangston@hotmail.com), December 9th, 2004 10:15 AM. (Adrian Langston)

but its not as good a game as SA, especially in that saving a game does not kill yr cop rating.

OTOH, parachuting out of that black ops C-5 was quite something.

The desert scenery up around verdant meadows is the best bit of the game so far for me.

I remember when you could fly helicopters in Vice City, it was amazing to see how small the location actually was, and how cleverly it was laid out, to make it seem bigger than it actually was. Not the case in San Andreas though, eh? I got up in a Lear Jet lookalike, and Wow, the size of the place. I tried to fly the learjet under the garver bridge, and of course crashed it into the sea.

yes! i enjoyed causing much hysteria on ground level, achieving a five star rating, and then sneaking into the chopper on top of that skyscraper and taking off and landing it back at the vercetti mansion, just kind of guessing my way along...

Tried last mission this weekend and fucked up at the same place again. I have put this game on hold indefinitely.

I can't seem to get into the GTA games when I don't have plot to get through. Everyone else seems to dig driving around and collecting horseshoes and killing grandmothers for fun but it doesn't hold my interest for very long.

::shudders with rage::

Best one was bailing out of the little helicopter whilst above the clouds over the triad casino, watching the heli dropping down & vanishing through the clouds was actually strangely unnerving. It's amazing just how into this little world you get.

I found all these all over the place. They're fun but unfortunately there's no invinvibility, that would r00l!!!11!

I used to go up to that hotel place where the Russian mission takes place in Los Santos, and get into sniping mode while the riots were goin' on. Littering the streets with exploded helicopters while watching out for hookers with bazookas could go on forever.

It was so engrossing that when I would turn off the game, I'd actually feel a sense of relief that it was all, in fact, "just a game". That I could turn the game back on, and everything would be back to normal.

my tag was actually already done. my housemate decided he'd had enough of me whining about not finding it and he printed off a tag-map to check all mine. he couldn't find any I hadn't done.

so i went around and targeted with the spray can all my tags, luckily after only about the seventh one it bleeped and gave me the "all tags sprayed" message.

so i'd been searching for MONTHS for nothing, ah well at least a lot of people got killed along the way.

Have you any oysters or Horseshoes still to go?

only a couple of oysters to go i think.

I think I'll still be searching for these when I'm 80

I now have a fleet of brightly-coloured Corvairs, all with nitrous injection at my disposal "unsafe at any speed" haha.

oh the amount of times i landed the fucking thing on the pier!

There is indeed a mission for the mafia heist on LV, have you obtained the key card from Millie yet though? just shoot her in the face, and then you can rob her house for it.

my 'brightly coloured' cars always lose their paintjobs after I've reloaded my game.

NRG 500 fo life y'all! They are my babies. Once you go bike you never go... um... back?

but they just get trashed too soon and I end up just keeping them in my garage.

Mind you, doing laps around San Fierro airport is quite fun in a race circuit type way.

so rat a tat tat ::MAKES GANG SIGNS::

and some flame decals whenever I get a lowrider near accessories. CHildish but FUN

LAME PUSSY NRG
AWESOMENESS BF-400

NRG for concrete, Sanchez for countryside.

I'd forgotten the sanchez. Fun but not as AWESOME AND FAST AS THE NRG!

Favourite car: the tank. I wonder if you can bring it out on dates. Think of the jokes about big cannons that could be made. A real way of filling those awkward moments...

Dud: getting stats back to max. So much time. Not to mention tags etc. Much easier now that I know what I'm about though.

Or! If getting to just one place is made easy by going to the airport and using a plane!

The NRG is KING for unique stunt jumps! Especially the one at the montgomery intersection, which rocks.

^^^^ Keeping it real, not like you fake-ass motherfukcers ;)

I love where I work sometimes!

http://www.rockstargames.com/grandtheftauto4/

now get ready for NO MORE INFORMATION FOR ONE YEAR

I'm sure it won't solely be online but I'd be worried that it's smaller to almost force people online to have more game.

Okay, I'm excited now. Finally something to live the next 16 months for!

I can't wait to see what the new one looks like. I still occasionally play SA as a stress reliever!

reliever??? inducer too, right?

so i guess if this thing is coming out oct 2007 it'll be for ps3, not ps2?

whats left? DC, jersey, chicago?

This would need to be true for me to even consider buying it. I'm all GTA'd out, I couldn't cope with another enormous one.

I strongly doubt this would ever happen, mostly because most Americans are vaguely xenophobic, and don't want to buy a game that plays entirely in a British accent. Note the lack of success of a relatively fun game like The Getaway. I think it could work if the UK was one of the maps, but I don't think they'll make the game without a good deal of the gameplay occuring in American cities.

"Stress reliever" only because I don't do the things that are hard and just spend my time shooting shit up. (xxxxxxxxxxpost)

the end of Driver 2's Rio De Janeiro montage is pretty cinematically amazing (for PS1 standards)

New Orleans would be good. Set in the seventies would rock. Online? Fuck that shit. IN MY DREAMS a much larger version of Vice City, set in the '90's, familiar, but different to the version in the older game. BETTER STILL Vice City and Liberty City in the present day, & you fly between them or something (really, I just want VC and LC with all the extra trimmings & stuff from SA)

recently I noticed for the first time the graves beside Catalina's shack out in the countryside. Catalina is my favourite from the game, I have decided.

This guy wearing a light grey hoody hangs around outside the metro station near where I work. He looks just like one of the 2 types of crack dealer who hangs around ganton Every time I see him I briefly get the urge to shoot him in the head w/a tec-9 and take all his money! God.

Taking it easy on the GTA at the moment, cos I'm going through arx fatalis again. god, the 2nd level down of the crypt is fucking scary.

omg the 70s would RULE. great clothes, great talk, great music, GREAT HAIR.

NO THAT WOULD SUCK

If you look across from many places on the east island to the west island you can clearly see the ghost tower on the skyline - a largish skyscraper with a big thick aerial sticking up from the top of it. Drive across a bridge, or take a boat towards the west island, and after you get to the crossover point where it briefly displays the "welcome to vice city" then the tower vanishes. I presume there are 2 files, one for each island, with the other island just as background images. The blue and yellow "welcome to Vice City" screens are presumably to cover the files getting swapped over? I guess the background image file for the first island didn't get updated when they changed the 2nd island map. Weirdest of all was taking a helicopter up and flying between the 2 islands - position the helicopter correctly, and you can see the tower, as well as the original map layout, blurred in the distance. As you approach the shore of the 2nd island, everything starts to pull into focus a little more, the palm trees next to the dual carriagewar appear, then you hit the load screen, and suddenly the tower, and a big lump of land just vanishes.

I got a really odd and strong feeling of dislocation doing this, and I went back and did it several times. I guess some of these game locations must exist as real places somewhere in your mind, and to see something just change like that does your head in in some way. Weird shit, eh.

http://www.affekong.de/html/vicecity/files/screens/ghosttower01.jpg

(does it work on ps2?)

One funny part of the walkthrough was in the list of hidden packages I can get right now on the east island. I saw on the map that there was one near the parking deck with the corkscrew ramp. I got a motorcycle up there, ramped off across the street, landed on the building on the other side ... got the package. I look at the list and it says something like "(42.) Don't worry about this one. It's too hard to get right now."

HA. SHOWED YOU, GAMER!

Gah.

this doesn't help you though. thats a real bummer. :(

But don't be fooled by the number; all the reviews talk mostly about how frustrating the problems with it are, but then say "but it's still GTA and it's still amazing so thumbs up."

And it's not coming out on PS2, sorry! However, you can swim in it, which is a Vice City dream come true.

i'm hoping it will be out for ps2 yes, i'm sure it will eventually.

Am enjoying it, but it seems glitchy - have had problems with enemies getting absorbed by buildings (and surviving, and therefore becoming very difficult indeed to shoot), and defending your businesses when they are under attack from rival gangs is extreme glitchy, with gang members either driving away to the other side of Vice City before returning to attack the business - but you aren't allowed to chase after them, you just have to stand there and wait for them to return. and when they do, further multiple gang members will just start materialising in the foreground.

the rest of the game is pretty good, some missions are compellingly tricky, the soundtrack is aces - but these glitches give the game a rushed, cheap feel.

i'm tempted to get a PSP and VCS, due to my love affair with Vice City originally.

How about GTA3?

VC is graphically better on PC, to a small degree. But it's superb on PS2 anyway (runs better than San Andreas anyway). But again there's no swimming or climbing walls. The neon lighted graphics and music more than makes up for this, imho.

What got me the day before yesterday was when I was cruising around for hidden packages how empty or inaccessible the majority of the landscape was. Pretty crap imo!

Oh god that's it, now I'm off to Amazon to buy a PSP and Vice City Stories.

wierd as well, i put a camera tripod in my amazon basket this morning, hesitated on clicking the submit button for some reason. Just checked it now and it's since gone down in price by almost twenty quid! that was lucky.

I'll keep at it with a hangover on Sunday (only way to do these things). I got in a boat the last time I played and was gutted how badly they steered :(

It had machine guns though so that was fairly rad. Pity there was nothing to use them on though :(((

I tried the swimming pool glitch, and the one where you go into the little apartment w/the bloodstained bathroom walls, and jump up on top of the bedside table, and cound't get them to work, the wk chariot (wk chariot, haha) one worked great, though. Fly the helicopter up to the front door, go vertically upwards into the little overhead awning thing, forward through the slot into the hotel itself (you can see the stairwell from that mission where you have to photograph congressman shrub, then drop down under the map. So weird.

I don't think I would agree with this. LCS bored me also, but GTA3 is my favorite of the 3.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b379/Vietgrove/ayrtrip06b011.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b379/Vietgrove/ayrtrip06b004.jpg

The objects are not solid, and neither is the seabed, you can drop down through the seabed, and if you go down far enough the helicopter reappears in the carpark attached to the north point mall.

I've come to a slight halt in VCStories though, only because of the hardware. I have large hands and struggle playing any of the hand helds.

I've gone and cheated at finding one of the horseshoes in San Andreas. I'm so ashamed. Especially as it's somewhere where I've stood many times causing motorway accidents and watching the carnage. If I'd turned around I'd have found it.

If I start it all again from scratch can my pride be saved?

I've still got to 100% Liberty City Stories, on PS2 this time so controller is not a problem.

Et tu, Ste? :(

If I start it all again from scratch can my pride be saved?

No but you were great for waiting so long! Which one was it in the end? Was it the very last one?

I don't like playing GTA:SA on the puter, but I've seen a controller in Game that's a near-exact copy of the PS2 controller, so maybe I'll buy it. But I'm not really that committed to playing on the computer just so's I can play Garth Vader on the radio and do the Hot Coffee thang.

I got the PS2 controller for PC and it was the best purchase ever! You can configure the buttons and there's auto-aim! BUY IT! The best part is for the sharp shooting you can switch to mouse which makes life easier x 10000000

It was at the south end of the strip, carry on across the freeway up the small grass verge and its just there at the back of a small house.

so how far are you in VC ?

Nah, I've demolished a building, done a few missions for Diaz (incl. that fantastic helicopter one) and a couple of the phone calls. I'm finding the driving a bit harder in this one but switching to first person in the car works well.

I had to turn the radio off, the random thing was a real pain.

lol i'm gobsmacked that you've turned the radio off, I found it far better than the San Andreas one.

i've lost count how many times i've replayed vice city, a blimmin lot. and GTA3, i remember once i loaded that sucker up on a saturday afternoon and finished it sunday evening.

god, wait till you have to do 'driver', there's a knack to it but if you don't know what it is the mission is a bloody nightmare.

i think my favourite missions were,
voodoo woman, the remote control planes dropping bombs
phil, right at the end of the game. stealing back the guns from the Walton vans and then having all those motorbike thugs chase you.
Sir, Yes sir. stealing the tank. so many ways to do this one.
the taxi one where you have to fight several over cabs and then finally the zebra striped one.
the sanchez mission in the stadium, the kickstart type one.
shooting all the shop windows in the mall
killing the jury people (telephone mission)
chasing the dude in the golf caddy
messin with the man, having to cause all that destruction
rescuing lance from the scrapyard
dropping the flyers from the seaplane

fuckit i loved them all!

Indeed!

Spoiler city above! Had to stop reading after first line. Soon I will be able to read them all, soon!

Once you stay in aim mode and keep your finger on the aim button the adrenalin pill NEVER wears off. a small bug thats pleasant to abuse, on ps2 anyway.

I know I didn't collect mine until after, but still, it's a habit picked up from the previous games where you got rewards for every 'ten' or so items found.

Besides I like the exploring part anyway, I just felt that I'd explored enough of Las Venturos and was actually beginning to think that a bug had eaten my last couple of horseshoes. thats why i cheated.

I use 'em because a) I likes getting shiny weapons b) I wouldn't have the patience to explore everywhere.

For the first time I think I'll do a gather before the missions and give myself the abovementioned edge! I'll see though, it would be a real pity to turn the game into a chore...

I bought a python last night. I love it. Also MP5, glad to have that bad boy back!

if i recall you purchase assets after you've reclaimed the mansion on Starfish island and completed the 3 missions after that which lie around the mansion property.

How much do the assets bring in? Which is the best order to go for them in?

What if you drive over those stars that are hidden all over the place? I bet if you get down to three or two stars it'll let you spray your car.

The bikini girls were a fucking nightmare though.

shooting the mall windows? hmm, i remember doing it sometimes on a bike but once you get handy with using most of the guns its not that difficult. the shotgun is probably best if you decide to do it on foot.

You jack Madd Dogg's rhymes on behaldf of your no-talent friend, but then you befriend Y U Madd Dogg and take over his crib?? I DON'T UNDERSTAND SUCH A WORLD YET I PLAY IT COMPULSIVELY.

It's weird starting GTA3 after just beating SA. Actually I've only just started - I think I just finished the 5th mission tonight - the first one where you have to wack a couple of guys and it was tough (the first four were extremeely easy tho). Kind of fighting the controls and the differences playing a (somewhat) less refined game.

For one thing - it's weird how quickly your cars break down and blow up (compared to SA). Also targeting who you want to shoot, so far, is a lot more difficult, because it's even a challenge to get the camera turned on 'em - and meanwhile they shoot you a few times and you're a goner. I'm hoping you build up your health as the game progresses? Or can at least buy some body armor or something???

The cops also seem a lot more agressive. It seems a lot easier to get them after you and a lot harder to escape. I already got stuck between my car and a wall with the cops on the other side and no way for me to get untrapped (had to reload).

And because I was having such a hard time shooting the two guys in the 5th mission before they did me in, I finally beat the mission by just ramming them with my car, quickly hoping out and running around the corner as the car exploded killing them both. Car bomb deluxe!

I 'm hoping as I get used to the differences between the games, this one will start to feel more natural, but right now it's definitely a fight.

yes III was notorious for having tough cops, those hour long seiges that you could perform in Vice and SA are almost impossible in III.

Most of the Namlook stuff I've heard is kind of a snooze, and the black hole that is Bill Laswell lurks behind these records. But Schulze is something of a wayward genius even if quality control isn't his strong suit. Besides, the idea behind this series intrigues me: epic analog texture-fests, composed on giant modulars by two generations of synth-heads.

I regret to say, however that what I've heard thus far (I, II and IV) tends far too much toward the ambient and not enough towards Moog-i-ness.

What say ILM of this eleven volume series with the cute Pink Floyd puns ("Obscured by Klaus" being my favorite)?

Faust Arp?

Bill Laswell! It's me, your cousin, Roman!

??

i'm going to talk about mafia II here because we don't have a mafia thread. it's a GTA-alike so why not.

i've been playing this (courtesy jjj) and after a few hours, my judgment is that it's a halfway decently made game and i totally hate it.

someone needs to write a big thinkpiece essay on how to make drama work inside an interactive environment. because i can't understand any of the gameplay or narrative choices in this game. everything that the game does well, it does stupidly. like, everything that is a slight improvement over the GTA template is given to you in the most pointless and un-fun way possible.

i really like all the actionable interior detail: lightswitches, doors, windows, faucets -- but, it's mostly pointless, and when it isn't pointless it's tedious. you have to open doors and climb three flights of stairs to save your game? every time?

the city is beautiful and feels very real and period -- but you don't do anything in it? you aren't free at all, you are always 'on' a mission, so when you wander around you always feel like you're playing hooky. there might be 'side' missions or moments of freedom but i haven't gotten there yet if so. there's no reason for the city to be there.

all the cars are really cool (though fake; i wonder what rockstar had to do to use real 40s cars in LA noire?) -- but why the fuck do you have to drive so much? just, to run these dumb errands? and when you finish a mission, yup, a nice ten minute drive home. i ran out of gas once? "realism", thanks assholes.

the writing, characters, motivations, plotlines, missions, and voice acting is all completely shitty. none of it makes any sense, or matters, or is enjoyable. say no to cutscenes in 2011.

so yeah, bad game.

sadface

man idk i finished mafia II and i never finished the last gta so - also its closest recent competition would be the godfather games (awful) and la noire (which i really couldnt hate more than i do) so in comparison, its a win.

The best non-GTA GTA game is still Bully.

i might soldier through anyway! i do with most games. i got to a mission last night that was a little more interesting (a stealth thing through a meat locker)

but of course it ended with some really dumb make-work -- drive to bar, watch cutscene, drive to clothing store, drive back to bar, watch end cutscene. 2k czech i hate you.

non-rockstar sandbox games i've really liked are far cry 2 and just cause 2

haha tbf i did mostly get carried through because i thought the script/characters were pretty good and i loved the soundtrack and the feel of the game - its def not using the open world much (although its fucking gorgeous). part of the reason i finished it is that it really is pretty on rails, and half the problem i have wrt gta stuff is that i can make it through like half a mission and then get frustrated and try to like jump off an embankment and get jacked up and restart or whatever. but at the same time lots of the stuff that maybe should have bothered me more here were pretty much game destroying aspects when it comes to la noire

xpost did you ever try the saboteur

I quit playing Saboteur pretty quickly. I didn't like how it handled.

xp no, what's it like?

it's got a fairly low metacritic score and the publications i sort-of trust (1up, game informer) didn't like it much

back to mafia: do you ever use the ww2 military weapons again at all? it was a neat thing opening the game as a soldier in sicily, seems like a waste to not have that equipment show up again

i dont remember whther the ww2 stuff comes back or not

saboteur def scratches the just cause 2 itch, and while its definitely not a triple A game it was way way underrated, to the point where i was kind of confused when i finally got it. id be curious to see what the neg reviews are saying because i dont see any real reason to complain that much? idk

saboteur is rad b/c it's Paris! with building climbing! & nazis!

I see Bully is on Wii. Is that the closest game I can get to GTA:SA on Wii?

yeah pretty much - i never played it on wii but i cant imagine they motion controlled it to death or anything

saboteur is rad b/c it's Paris! with building climbing! & nazis!

I grant you that the setting was awesome, and I thought the voice performances were good.

But the climbing paled in comparison to Just Cause 2 or Assassin's Creed 2, or Lara Croft, or etc., and the combat was sort of terrible? And the driving was awful, I thought. Paris feels very empty and sterile, even if it looks amazing.

Paris is like the one city in the world that I know super-well so playing it in was terrific for me, whereas I've spent like 48 hours in NYC & so GTAs there leave me cold. I agree that the climbing is worse than in AC.

I wish I had like even a slight bit of aptitude at these types of games

agree that the climbing is worse than in AC.

worse how? like, clunky and bad gameplay? or just less crazy and slow?

i ask cos the climbing in AC is both dead simple (hold A = do everything) and kung-fu movie nuts

it's simple to do: just jump onto the building & push up & mash a button when you reach a ledge to hop onto it, but it feels less fluid than AC. also Paris has relatively few places much higher than the rest of the city so you rarely get that "whoosh" feeling like you do in AC atop a minaret, except on the Eiffel Tower, which is kinda too high for that.

worse how? like, clunky and bad gameplay? or just less crazy and slow?

Slow, tedious, clunky, boring, poorly animated, etc.

It lacks the fluidity of motion of something like, say, Prince of Persia. And since it's a major part of the game, it's kind of a drag.

saboteur: lol this game. i will play any gta clone it seems, cos this is Not That Great and i am into it.

perfect summation is the horribly vo'd vamp sex interest, the only posh englishwoman from the 40s named... skylar

ha! that sounds dreadful!

I remember enjoying this game for the $5 I got it for from an Amazon sale. Worth a try, at least.

strangest quirk i've noticed in it: the enemies are called "nazis," "krauts," and i think "jerries" but not "Germans," ever. i know there are laws in .de about presence of swastikas etc in media, is this a choice related to those restrictions? or sensitivities, or something?

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2usGMRlIFG