My thoughts on GTA:SA PC version

[Rhomal]

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.

 

On the contrary. An A list actor does not usally becomes a A list actor without ability. Vice city was filled will big names, so you are proposing most of them did a poor job? I would disagree.

 

Your logic is flawed; as if they didnt have the skill, they wouldnt get the big $ they ask for.

 

With that said, I do not think the voice acting was 'bad' in SA but so far aside from jacksons part and the guy who plays his partner, nothing has stood out for me. Aside from those 2, so far I would rate the acting as average.

[Guest Fishboot]

On the contrary. An A list actor does not usally becomes a A list actor without ability. Vice city was filled will big names, so you are proposing most of them did a poor job? I would disagree.

 

Your logic is flawed; as if they didnt have the skill, they wouldnt get the big $ they ask for.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

A relevant link: Billy West interview

His commentary on voice acting begins about halfway through, if you don't care about Futurama.

 

In my opinion most celebrity actors make worthless voice actors; The Disney Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away VOs are terrible, for example, and plagued with medium-level celebrity actors. It's like paying a stand-up comedian to do Noh Theatre - the skills and talents employed are almost totally unrelatd. The only reason for a studio to pay for a celebrity voice is so that they can get someone to do a promotional tour on the late night shows for the free advertising. A celebrity voice over in a video game still has some minor novelty (Wow! Samuel L. Jackson in a video game!) but when that wears off there will be no purpose to it whatsoever. Note the horrendous performance of David Duchovny in Area 51 - they really don't know what they're doing in VO work.

[EnderAndrew]

In my opinion most celebrity actors make worthless voice actors; The Disney Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away VOs are terrible, for example, and plagued with medium-level celebrity actors. It's like paying a stand-up comedian to do Noh Theatre - the skills and talents employed are almost totally unrelatd. The only reason for a studio to pay for a celebrity voice is so that they can get someone to do a promotional tour on the late night shows for the free advertising. A celebrity voice over in a video game still has some minor novelty (Wow! Samuel L. Jackson in a video game!) but when that wears off there will be no purpose to it whatsoever. Note the horrendous performance of David Duchovny in Area 51 - they really don't know what they're doing in VO work.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sadly, I really have to agree with this.

[Child of Flame]

I realized this dropped the 7th last night. I was all ready to go out to the game store and buy it, then I realized I had a stack of games for the Gamecube, one of which I haven't even started due to Memory Card constraints, I have some games for the PC I haven't even completed...and I realized I really don't need this game right now, at least not until it drops in price.

 

I think I grew up.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

I'm sticking to GTAlien

 

Celeb voice actors split into two camps. Those who are beneath it all and just dont try. The voice director either dosnt have the guts or the inclenation to make them work.

 

The other is where the voice director just picks the wrong actor or gives them bad direction. If a voice dosnt fit with someones idea of what a character should sound like the VO has to an uphil struggle to be seen as "good".

 

Also because they tend to use the same pool of talent in the middle range it's very common for your mind to tell you that its "lilo" rather than the character who they are actually supposed to be. Again that can crack your personal immersion bubble.

 

Still if you want to appreciate your VO more, play some eastern european games.

[EnderAndrew]

Except many actors act along one of two lines.

 

The first is akin to stage acting where you get into the scene, you allow the flow to carry you, and you react to the actors around you in said scene.

 

The others get direction from a director and just read their line the same way on every take.

 

Voice acting I imagine is quite different from standard acting. It's harder to keep the lines flowing together when you're recording them seperately.

[Guest Fishboot]

Celeb voice actors split into two camps. Those who are beneath it all and just dont try. The voice director either dosnt have the guts or the inclenation to make them work.

 

The other is where the voice director just picks the wrong actor or gives them bad direction. If a voice dosnt fit with someones idea of what a character should sound like the VO has to an uphil struggle to be seen as "good".

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah, I often wonder how the voice director job works mechanically. For example, in Fallout Tactics, R. Lee Ermey was (on the surface) an inspired choice for the commander of the expansionist and militaristic Brotherhood of Steel faction - but in practice, he was absolutely terrible, stressing completely inapproprate syllables, ruining the rhythm of sentences and generally mangling any tone the game was trying to present. Now, I'm inclined to blame that on a voice director (sorry if this is anyone at Obsidian, I honestly have no idea) that simply didn't prepare Ermey or the script properly, especially since the structure of the game meant the voice actors didn't even have to react to complicated imaginary dialouge trees - they just read chunks of exposition. It really sounded like Ermey had walked up to the mic, read one or two takes of each exposition chunk undirected straight off the page and was never seen again.

 

Not that Ermey in FOT is really a case of "celebrity voice acting", since he was obviously chosen to rehash his Full Metal Jacket character, not lend a penumbra of celebrity to the game.

[Rhomal]

For those that have played the game on the console or had a lot of playing time on the PC version. I have a question, is it possible to take over the entire territory of another gang. If so do you wipe them out or do they 'magically' reappear trying to retake areas from you?

 

IMO if you take all the territory you should eliminate that gang,

[mkreku]

For those that have played the game on the console or had a lot of playing time on the PC version. I have a question, is it possible to take over the entire territory of another gang. If so do you wipe them out or do they 'magically' reappear trying to retake areas from you?

 

IMO if you take all the territory you should eliminate that gang,

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, it is possible to take out entire gangs. If you 'eliminate' a gang from the map, you will never be attacked by that gang again. Although the gang will continue to exist in the main story and some quests.

 

For the record: I always eliminate all the other gangs from the map (I turn the entire map green, instead of yellow or purple) because that way you'll never have to worry about defending the territories with regular intervals, and you never get shot at while driving through certain territories in, for example, missions.

[Petay]

^^ good idea but without posting any spoilers, theres no point doing it the first time :ph34r: , might as well put up with a little conflict IMO.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

I have to get San Andreas as soon as possible. Times are hard, so I guess I'll have to mug a few old people off the street. Probably steal their dentures and ask for a ransom or something. Just anything to get the game.

[Bokishi]

Sooooooo... anyone found bigfoot yet?

[Petay]

Sooooooo... anyone found bigfoot yet?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes :ph34r: he is me...

 

....or so im told

[maia]

So, still no quicksave in the PC version? This game sounds great, but being a klutz I absolutely hate the "savepoint" system. I have been playing "Mafia" - a great, stylish and underappreciated game, with kick-ass storyline, but it is a love-hate relationship and I am stuck about 2/3ds through. Having to replay the same mission ad nauseam really saps my enjoyment.

[Musopticon?]

Which mission?

[maia]

Which mission?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well, being a klutz I had to replay most of them multiple times, but the one where I lost my will to continue was the stealth mission in prosecutor's house. The most frustrating of all was the Race of course. I guess I probably had to try it for 10 or so hours all told (spread over a couple of weeks) before I could beat it. I guess that it used up most of my patience with the game.

 

 

The thing is, I really enjoy the gameplay and atmosphere of such games (tried Vice City, too)... So, no manual saving in San Andreas for PC?

[BattleCookiee]

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.

Loads of Fun, yes

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.

I won't call it really RPG-like yet... Even a game like Deus Ex seems more RPG than this..., altough SA does have Skills...

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.

The main Money for Taxi Missions are not the individual drives but the 5/10/15/20/25 etc. in a Row bonusses... (500 for 5, 1000 for 10, 1500 for 15 etc.)

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.

I find voice acting good...No "names" needed

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.

HARD??? Vice City? SA is harder than VC, luckily

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.

You can, with enough Respect. Select them (Right Mouse) and press G (note they are useless though, as their Aim sucks bigtime...But for cannon fodder, they are good

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.

LOADS better than VC... And about outdated; note this is a massive interactive always randomniced city. Not some locked off area town (heavily scripted with never-random peds or guards etc. like Half-Life 2

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

Yep. Good old GTA Radio

 

 

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?

Nope. If you go out with your gang note that a gang war ONLY starts if YOU kill 3 enemies in rapid succession. If your gang-member shoots one it doesn't count toward the "3 dead enemies needed for gang-war"

 

 

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.

See my above comment

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.

Why does everybody find that one hard. Did it on my 3rd try (first 2 bugged on me, got crossed over at the mission spot while flying  ) There are LOADS of missions harder than this one...

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.

Agreed

[Musopticon?]

Which mission?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well, being a klutz I had to replay most of them multiple times, but the one where I lost my will to continue was the stealth mission in prosecutor's house. The most frustrating of all was the Race of course. I guess I probably had to try it for 10 or so hours all told (spread over a couple of weeks) before I could beat it. I guess that it used up most of my patience with the game.

 

 

The thing is, I really enjoy the gameplay and atmosphere of such games (tried Vice City, too)... So, no manual saving in San Andreas for PC?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

That mission? Well the stealth aspect took some learn9ing but after you realise that the goons are freakin' blind and deaf to anythin happening behind them, besides shooting that is, it's a piece of cake. Just don't screw it up with the house keeper(the black lady) and it'll fine. After acquiring the papers; that's where the real fun starts, especially when you can steal the best car in the game from the front yard.

The racing mission however, was too hard. I didn't nuy the game to end up getting stuck on car drivin forever; so I just downloaded a save game from the net and skipped it. Big deal. " Wait till you get to the harbor mission. Now, that's ultimate annoyance.

[Daaave]

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

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

An easy way to beat this mission is to speed straight past the train, then before you get to the car you go over a bridge, climb up onto the railing things then when the train goes past jump onto it shoot the gang members yourself then jump ofand go back to Big Smoke.

[Kor Qel Droma]

I am loving this game!! I didn't find the dance/lowrider competitions that hard. Have any of you found any glitches in the game yet? I had one yesterday where I stole a convertabile, and as I was driving I noticed my character was bobbing up in down. Hydraulics you ask? No sir. I panned to a side view and found my characters feet walking as he was driving, ala the Flinstones. Otherwise I think this is the most fun I've had gaming since Lego Star Wars...

[mkreku]

Have any of you found any glitches in the game yet?

Yeah, I've had a few. Sometimes when you're driving around a car spawns in front of you, and when it does, it can point in any direction. It will quickly rotate until it points in the direction of its movement, but for a few seconds it looks really ridiculous.

 

I've also seen some cars half buried in the street, with their nose pointing down.

 

Once I ran over a motorcyclist to be able to steal his motorcycle. Just as I pressed ENTER to mount the bike, the original owner of the motorcycle decided the same thing, so I ended up in the driver's seat with an old, ugly man sitting behind me, pressing his.. AAIIEEH. I prefer not to think about it. Anyhow, when I finally got off the bike, the guy was still sitting behind me and as I moved away he suddenly drove off, still sitting in the passenger seat, not even touching the steering handles. It looked REALLY odd.

 

One of the best things about GTA: San Andreas is how almost nothing is scripted and if you just drive around, weird things can happen around you. I was out mountainbiking peacefully on the highest mountain in the game one day, when I suddenly heard a loud BOOM in the near vicinity. I looked around me to see where it came from, but I couldn't see anything. Then all of a sudden this aeroplane comes crashing down the mountainside, pulling me and my bike with it in the fall and over a HUGE cliff. The drop was like.. 300 meter and I immediately died when I 'landed'. It turned out that one of the planes that fly around in the sky all the time had crashed into the mountainside above me and then tumbled down until it hit me. It looked really neat, although I was quite pissed.

[Petay]

Have any of you found any glitches in the game yet?

Once I ran over a motorcyclist to be able to steal his motorcycle. Just as I pressed ENTER to mount the bike, the original owner of the motorcycle decided the same thing, so I ended up in the driver's seat with an old, ugly man sitting behind me, pressing his.. AAIIEEH. I prefer not to think about it. Anyhow, when I finally got off the bike, the guy was still sitting behind me and as I moved away he suddenly drove off, still sitting in the passenger seat, not even touching the steering handles. It looked REALLY odd.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yea the same thing has happened to me with the motorcyle before, but also i have had it the other way round too, i had knocked some random woman off a motorbike, got out and just pressed triangle to get on the bike but she got on before me, leaving me in the passenger seat!! (w00t) She just carried on driving for a while before i got bored.

 

The same thing with the planes happens on playstation. The AI are actually really bad drivers with planes and always seem to fly about 2 meters off ground level on the mountain before crashing, tis fun though jusmping off that mountain on a bike.....can get some serious insane stunt bonuses. :D

[Kor Qel Droma]

I would like to add that I wish life was more like this game: have numerous girlfriends, be massive and in shape without any effort, have any car you want, property out the yin yang. Could it be any more fun?...

[Darth Flatus]

... i guess so, but that would include the save point and floating icons to heal you.

[Kor Qel Droma]

I forgot to add not breaking your neck after pulling of an amazing jump over a building on my pedal bike...