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

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?

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