My thoughts on GTA:SA PC version

[Rhomal]

I picked up the PC version of GTA:SA and I must say I am having lots of fun. I wanted to get the feedback of others here and see what they had to say about it. I will offer a few random thoughts on it thus far, I am only according to its score tracker 11% compleated thus far.

 

a. It seems the GTA line is going more and more into the realm of RPGs with each title. Now your char has stats (strenght, endurance, hunger, reputation, etc) and skills (cycling, driving, pistol, SMG, etc). I really liked this fact you have skills to build and stats to keep track of.

 

b. I am not fond of the changes made to the taxi missions. Its almost impossible to get to your destionation w/o speeding and thus banging your cab up a bit. Yet in doing so you loose your tip. Thus you really dont make much $ on the cab missions from my experiences. I find the time time I spend in the cab, in the same amount of time I can make several times more doing ambulance or pimp missions.

 

c. I like the main storyline thus far, its about as involving as vice city. My only gripe is the voice acting. A side from samuel l. jackson 85% of the other voice talent I have no idea who they are. On vice city a good 80-90% of the voice acting was some reconizable name. While overall the acting is good, its just a observation I felt the need to point out.

 

d. SA suffers the same issue as vice city mission wise. Some are just too damn difficult! Some of the missions revert to arcade style twitch reflexes to compleate, and if you dont have those reflexes your pretty much screwed and have to keep retrying until you either get lucky or become good enough.

 

e. I like the idea of gang war/claiming turf. I will admit I used the extra health cheat to do this. As you cant recruit any of your gang to help you (which to me makes 0 sense). You have to be a one man army to defend against 3 waves of attackers to take that part of town in question. And the last wave your out numbered about 12 to 1, with them armed with ak-47's and SMG's its not that easy. I did do it a couple times w/o the cheat but its NOT easy. I really think they should allow you to recruit some of your own gang when engaging in a turf war. Even if you use them as canon fodder at least it make sense.

 

f. The eye candy isnt much better then vice city. They REALLY need to do a major FX upgrade for the next one in the series. Its got the nwn1 complex, looking dated out of the box.

 

g. Like vice city the radio stations are great for ambiance and the DJs/commercials/talk radio station make me LOL.

 

My 2 coppers

[Musopticon?]

You can take gang members to war with you.

[Rhomal]

You can take gang members to war with you.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I tried and no matter how many of the other gang we kill it never trigers a gang war. Yet when I go solo, I kill 3 or 4 and a war starts...

 

Bug perhaps?

[Musopticon?]

Perhaps, but may I ask what you're playing it on? Xbox, PC? On my friend's xbox the gang war with your own homies works marvelously.

[Rhomal]

PC, hence the subject of the thread

[Musopticon?]

Ah, I didn't notice. Might be a bug. I doubt they'd put it in as a "feature".

[Petay]

One thing about the taxi missions i have to add is that, judging by the percent completed, that you probably dont have a very high car control level, but when you do its actually sooo much easier, but then again its often about how far away that the destination is that makes it easy really.

A big tip if you do not like the taxi missions at all even if you have full car control, an easy way to get lots of dough if you need it is to do the courier missions on San Fierro.

 

Just thought i'd point that out...... :D

[Petay]

Oh and also, im guessing that all the GTA versions are pretty much the same so its probably a bug that you cant recruit gang members into a war...

[Archmonarch]

d. SA suffers the same issue as vice city mission wise. Some are just too damn difficult! Some of the missions revert to arcade style twitch reflexes to compleate, and if you dont have those reflexes your pretty much screwed and have to keep retrying until you either get lucky or become good enough.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Amen! I rented it a few months ago when it first came out for the PS2. I got through every mission, until I had to steal a stereo system from a DJ at a beach party. Apparently, she wont even let you look at it until you impress her with your dance moves. And so it degenerates into a DDR minigame at which I suck terribly. I dont remember the exact score needed, but I do remember not even being able to reach half that despite two hours of trying. Eventually, I gave up. I never did beat that mission.

[Musopticon?]

Out of interest; how did you fare in the low-riding contest you had to participate before meeting Cesar?

[Archmonarch]

The first time, I didnt exactly understand the controls so I failed. Once I got the rythym down, I beat it easily the second time.

[Musopticon?]

So the dancing really is hard.

[Petay]

Out of interest; how did you fare in the low-riding contest you had to participate before meeting Cesar?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The one thing that is annoying about those kinda missions is that they are compulsory and you have to do them to get any further, I spent many hours bashing my controller about that low-rider contest, it appears i have no hand-eye coordination in that part :">

[Darth Flatus]

I have yet to play the game so i ahevnt expereinced teh dance bit. Does it require actual rhythm or "japanese dance game rhythm"

[Rhomal]

I have yet to play the game so i ahevnt expereinced teh dance bit. Does it require actual rhythm or "japanese dance game rhythm"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Dont know about the console version but for the PC version you have a circle on the bottom middle of the screen. And the 4 direction arrows scroll though the circle. You need to hit the proper arrow direction when said arrow is in the circle. Every time you do you get points added to the score. To pass a mission based on this you usally have to get a certain amount of points.

 

I assume the console works similar using the x, o and other buttons.

[Rhomal]

d. SA suffers the same issue as vice city mission wise. Some are just too damn difficult! Some of the missions revert to arcade style twitch reflexes to compleate, and if you dont have those reflexes your pretty much screwed and have to keep retrying until you either get lucky or become good enough.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Amen! I rented it a few months ago when it first came out for the PS2. I got through every mission, until I had to steal a stereo system from a DJ at a beach party. Apparently, she wont even let you look at it until you impress her with your dance moves. And so it degenerates into a DDR minigame at which I suck terribly. I dont remember the exact score needed, but I do remember not even being able to reach half that despite two hours of trying. Eventually, I gave up. I never did beat that mission.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The mission im stuck on is the dirt bike/train mission with big smoke. I COMPLEATLY suck at motorcycle control.

[Baley]

GTA:SA Sex mod :D

[Musopticon?]

Old hat. Very prudent of CJ to keep his clothes on while banging.

[Petay]

I have yet to play the game so i ahevnt expereinced teh dance bit. Does it require actual rhythm or "japanese dance game rhythm"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Dont know about the console version but for the PC version you have a circle on the bottom middle of the screen. And the 4 direction arrows scroll though the circle. You need to hit the proper arrow direction when said arrow is in the circle. Every time you do you get points added to the score. To pass a mission based on this you usally have to get a certain amount of points.

 

I assume the console works similar using the x, o and other buttons.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

yea your right it does just require hitting x, o, triangle and that at the right time, but it needs at least a little rhythm I reckon..

[Archmonarch]

The mission im stuck on is the dirt bike/train mission with big smoke. I COMPLEATLY suck at motorcycle control.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I did all the missions for one person before moving onto the next. I think Big Smoke was the second person for which I did missions. I had some trouble with that mission, more from having to shoot the enemies within the time limit than controlling the bike. The guy at the fast food restaurant (from which you receive the dancing mission) I attempted last.

[Rhomal]

The mission im stuck on is the dirt bike/train mission with big smoke. I COMPLEATLY suck at motorcycle control.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I did all the missions for one person before moving onto the next. I think Big Smoke was the second person for which I did missions. I had some trouble with that mission, more from having to shoot the enemies within the time limit than controlling the bike. The guy at the fast food restaurant (from which you receive the dancing mission) I attempted last.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Did you just drive or did you shot and drive? How did you beat it? I spent $20. on the guide book and for this mission its useless, just tells me the obvious.

[Petay]

All you have to do for that mission is drive the bike on the train track, but closer to the wall of the tunnel and the other side of the track than the train, and let Big Smoke do all the shooting. You cant shoot them anyway because they are too high up..

[mkreku]

I love the PC version of GTA: San Andreas! The viewing distance is much further out than it was on the PS2-version, which actually makes the graphics seem better. But it is also true that this game does look dated right out of the box.

 

I've completed 75% of the game as I'm writing this, and just you wait until you end up in a mission called "Supply Lines" before ever whining about a mission being difficult! I never managed to beat it at all on the PS2 and it took me probably 3-4 hours before I finally completed it on the PC! It's insanely difficult.

 

I both love that the game is so much bigger than previous parts in the series, but it's also somewhat of a curse. In Vice City I used to just drive around and collect hidden packages and find Unique Jumps. Those are still in the game (as grafitti/photos/horseshoes/clams) but finding them all now seems to be impossible. Also, in Vice City you were rewarded for every 10 you found. That's gone in San Andreas, so unless you do find them all (which I doubt you will) you get absolutely nothing for it.

[Rhomal]

I love the PC version of GTA: San Andreas! The viewing distance is much further out than it was on the PS2-version, which actually makes the graphics seem better. But it is also true that this game does look dated right out of the box.

 

I've completed 75% of the game as I'm writing this, and just you wait until you end up in a mission called "Supply Lines" before ever whining about a mission being difficult! I never managed to beat it at all on the PS2 and it took me probably 3-4 hours before I finally completed it on the PC! It's insanely difficult.

 

I both love that the game is so much bigger than previous parts in the series, but it's also somewhat of a curse. In Vice City I used to just drive around and collect hidden packages and find Unique Jumps. Those are still in the game (as grafitti/photos/horseshoes/clams) but finding them all now seems to be impossible. Also, in Vice City you were rewarded for every 10 you found. That's gone in San Andreas, so unless you do find them all (which I doubt you will) you get absolutely nothing for it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The guide book has a map of all the locations of such but your right, even with the guide book its a chore. I cant image trying to find them all w/o help.

 

I also agree it should reward you for every 10 or so found like in vice city. With only 20 clams or such thats not to bad, but 100 grafitti tags? Theres really no motivation for me to find such when everything it gives you (3 or 4 various guns in your house) can be found for free in various parts of the map with a lot less time invested.

[Oerwinde]

c. I like the main storyline thus far, its about as involving as vice city. My only gripe is the voice acting. A side from samuel l. jackson 85% of the other voice talent I have no idea who they are. On vice city a good 80-90% of the voice acting was some reconizable name. While overall the acting is good, its just a observation I felt the need to point out.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Recognizable names do not equal good voice acting. Good voice actors equal good voice acting, names are not required. This is something that really bothers me now adays in movies and games. Studios try to pump their animated films or games with big name talent, which costs big bucks, instead of professional voice actors, which comparitively costs peanuts, because people like you are attracted to the names rather than the performances. This is becoming a problem with the live action Transformers movie because the TF fans want the people who played Megatron and Optimus in the cartoon to voice their characters, while the studio wants big name actors to draw the apathetic, which would result in a lower quality product at a higher price. Pixar I've found has struck a good balance. They get one or two names to draw people, usually well known washed up actors that fit the character, in supporting roles(Toy Story was the exception) then fill out the rest with professionals.

 

Anyway, now that thats over with, I loved the game. I think Rockstar were trying their hardest to see exactly how much they could stuff into the game, and put graphics on the sidelines to achieve that truckload of content, which was a good choice IMO. I'm really looking forward to GTA4. It will be interesting to see what they pull off with the PS3's hardware.