Grand Theft Auto IV -- It might feature crime and prostitutes.

I had a spending spree about 2 missions from the end and blew loads on an RPG and a dozen rockets. Regretted it soon afterwards though, when I got another big mission pay out and ended up only 30k below the "half million" achievement.

The mission which was making me swear lots above (sorry!) ended up being really easy the one time it worked. Through no real change of approach on my part...it just felt like I finally got lucky (or stopped getting unlucky). Last mission didn't feel too tricky at all to me though, did it on my second attempt, and only failed on my first because i'd been too lazy to pick up body armour before I started it. I guess that's one of the major issues GTA games have always had though, isn't it? YMMV. Wildly. And usually just as a result of random environmental differences.

Anyway, finished now! Might take a week off before I get stuck into mulitplayer (or start thinking about 100%).

Found one of the endgame decisions pretty annoying, cos I chose a certain option for a certain reason, then everyone in game (including Niko!) kept going on about how I'd chosen that option for a completely different reason! ie...

(SPOILERS)

I decided not to kill Dimitri, cos I didn't feel particularly vengeful after letting Darko live...but then the game assumed I'd decided not to kill him jsut because I wanted loads of money! Grr.

(/SPOILER)

Oh, and if Xbox exclusive downloadable content ends up just being more outfits, I'll be disappointed.

My spoiler response to JimD is below... in italics. Which are easy for the brain to skip over if it chooses.

JimD, flip it around-- if you didn't want the money, you had a third option-- don't do either. If you do neither, Dimitri stays alive, and shit never goes down with Kate. But, you don't beat the game. If you want to see the ending, the flipside of that is no matter what, it's a tragedy. The only way to escape the bad ending is to get no ending at all-- and the game completely llows you to continue playing without beating it.

Interesting, huh?

Ha! You're right, that's kinda great really. :)

yeah that's pretty cool, i like that.

I must have seen the loading screen goodness knows how many times by now, but I never noticed this until it was pointed out to me.

http://www.multiplayernetwork.net/files/filesystem/images/LollipopSeries_591_1203624622.jpg

There's something a bit wrong with lollipop woman's fingers.

yes, there's a lot wrong with that.

i got bored with this quickly.

still the best GTA i've ever played though.

ooo... 5 fingers! gross!

I finally opened my copy last night. Instead of being run over by the jet taxiing on the runway, I got stuck to the landing gear and dragged around aimlessly for 15 minutes, or so, with cops and helicopters shooting at me the whole time.

Why did you only finally open it last night, out of curiosity?

The end of the last mission was kinda weird. SPOILERSSSSSSS I killed Dmitri in some bushes, and couldn't even see him apart from the fact that my gun was locked onto him. I was like "that's it?"

I found out today that if you shoot or crash into the fuel pumps at gas stations they explode. Great fun in a cop shoot out.

pretty much anything that looks like it was designed to hold something combustible explodes, and frequently in different and exciting ways. the developers should be praised for understanding what is important in a game like this, on this point anyhow.

Is it just me, or was this the easiest final mission in the history of GTA? (Can't vouch for GTA 1 or 2, or Liberty City Stories). It was a complete cakewalk.

Did nobody else struggle with the timing of the boat and Jacob's helicopter? That shit took me about twenty attempts, rest was easy tho yes.

and i thought VC Stories was the easiest one so far

and i thought that gta3 had the best final mission, altho i can't even remember liberty city stories last mission

Yeah, I loved the GTA3 final mission. And Vice City's final mission was immensely appropriate for that particular story.

Also, every single vehicle chase/race in GTA4 is easier than the very first race in GTA3.

Did nobody else struggle with the timing of the boat and Jacob's helicopter?

Both times, I just accelerated toward the helicopter and the cinematic began.

Vice City was quite special, it almost had 3 big endings - the taking over of Diaz mansion which enabled the property second half, the bank robbery which for most probly was the final property mission, and then the final mission which resembled Scarface's last stand. Awesome.

(nb i haf not played more than a couple hours of this at a friends)

i'm most disappointed by the lack of vehicle trick-out stuff in this! i know how pointless it was in SA, but i still liked it. wasn't there a rumor way back that maybe IV would have performance mods, like you could soup up the cars and not just give them better rims? or was that just a wish.

i'd not heard of that.

and yes races in gta4 seem highly poor, no challenge at all.

polyphonic: yes! I also had a "shot him in a bush, suddenly I'm a winnner" moment.

Ste: Sorry, no, didn't have any trouble grabbing the chopper...

I went back and played a couple missions in GTA3 last night. The cars are about twice as fast.

WOAH!!!!

achievement unlocked: let sleeping rockstars lie

http://img.skitch.com/20080531-pdd22qcqyijx6227s82hqhbeei.jpg

badass

GANGSTA

wow, nice

I got that today too! Must be a lot of them around this weekend.

Which one did you shoot czn? Mine was jimmy2646 (or something, don't remember the actual digits).

Nice!

I'm off a Rockstar hunting.

I got it! That was quick.

Kingwolf02 in the tram deathmatch

team*

you lucky bastards

it's a viral achievement folks

Oh huh, if you take revenge instead of taking the deal, the ending is way more fun.

i made my million, it's a quiet personal achievement

xp to jeff, yeah i figured it was viral when i got it after playing just one single game, a 10 min deathmatch in algonquin with no radar blips, in which i saw only two other players, one who killed me and one whom i killed.

what does it mean, a viral achievement ?

nevermind i found out, that kinda sucks

maybe, but the other way would have sucked too, having an achievement only achievable through sheer dumb luck.

Zombie outfits all round then!

http://forums.gametrailers.com/showthread.php?t=416510

Seems they changed their minds about it this week, it's only just become viral.

well it sucks in the fact that what they've named the achievement is actually nothing of the sort, and therefore seems largely a waste of time.

contains spoiler ...

and just a little bug, if you ever want to take advantage of it, I found last night, whilst taking random cars to Stevie's garage.

Supposedly you get full wack for a tip top condition car. I found out that if you just ever so slightly give your car a little dent (just a really slow collision into something will do), you get almost $500 more on top of the max payment.

what they've named the achievement is actually nothing of the sort

Well, they've renamed that too, apparently. It was "kill a rockstar employee", now it's just "kill a rockstar".

Since they changed that achievement multiplayer has been working perfectly for me, I used to get disconnected from about 4 out of 5 matches before, so they seem to have sorted that out at the same time, which is fantastic.

No ladyzombie outfit though :(.

Have been playing a lot of free mode on multiplayer recently. Of course you can just tool around the city in single player but it's somehow more fun when there's other real life people there, even if they're just strangers. Of course you get more than a fair share of twats just trying to turn it into deathmatch; but I've had some good times, just driving round, picking people up, heading into the museum to fuck shit up, getting police stars and teaming up to fight off the cops...

I played multiplayer for the first time on my own xbox live account today. The very first person I shot gave me the rockstar achievement.