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

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.