GTA: SA Impressions

[Caine]

confirmed last night.  if you fly over anything but the areas you have already unlocked through the missions, you get shot down.  when tenpenny says "don't leave town", he means it.

sorry, i just reread my first post, and i didn't specify that this was before i had unlocked the other areas.  my bad.

[-Lord Ebonstone-]

confirmed last night.  if you fly over anything but the areas you have already unlocked through the missions, you get shot down.  when tenpenny says "don't leave town", he means it.

sorry, i just reread my first post, and i didn't specify that this was before i had unlocked the other areas.  my bad.

Ahhh, I gotcha.  That's kind of clever on Rockstar's point--it saves alot of hassle when it comes to squashing story bugs, hehe.

[Al]

Are there any helicopters you can get to in Los Santos?

[Scott]

Played more last night and had a blast.  I hooked the PS2 up via my component cables, upped the brightess a bit, and the game looks a lot better.  I can actually decipher the mini-map now.  Looks like the same very good GTA gameplay.

[happydog]

JeffK give GTA: SA 100/100!

[Caine]

re, helicopters.  i haven't seen any on the ground, nor at the airport.  the guy who found that has played more than i have and is into san fierro.  he hasn't seen any that he could get to yet.  he did say that he was getting close to the pilot school portion, so getting access to more of the aircraft should be close.  

for reference, there are 18 flyable aircraft, 9 of which are heli's.

[Jeff]

JeffK give GTA: SA 100/100!

That was freakin' hilarious, but then I'm a Jeff K fan. YMMV

[BigRedCat]

Okay, does anyone else find it worthless to have a gang of Grove Street hoods with you while attempting to take over territory? I've taken over 50% of the map but it was all by myself. Any AI friendlies barely try and help out and they barely hit anything when they do. Key to taking areas: high ground or walls. And don't stop. As soon as I get out of the hospital(in the rare occasion I die) I mug somebody with a knife and start another gang war. Armor and health spawns between waves so soon enough I'm full again.
Again, is there a command I'm missing? I can get folks to follow or stay but that's it.

[JuniorDan]

Question about areas belonging to the you.
spoiler
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I think I got done with the first map because I am way out in the country
after my bro got busted.
But now I have no areas and no gang members all the green is gone and the baller ar all over my hood.
Is this because I did not do the gang war missions of aquireing 12 areas?
Can I get it back?

[olaf]

I am liking it more and more.

Once the turf wars started, the game got a lot more fun for me.  And yeah the other GSF homeys suck badly when it comes to offense.  They are good at soaking up bullets though.

The highlight of the game for me is the audio and dialogue.  Some of the stuff CJ says is hilarious, and I find most of the mission cutscenes and dialogue to be top notch.

olaf

[obb]

juniordan
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SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY
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Turf wars will open up again later.

[JuniorDan]

When I started robbing houses in the hood the doorway lit up like Xmas.
and robbing was fun.
I got smarter and went up in the hill to get the mother load, and it was like hell to find a house I can enter when I finally did it was huge Point a to B took like 2hrs game.
Next day I camped out waithing for 8pm to hit it early and to my luck it was not available to rob.
My question is is available houses a random event or can you only rob a house once?

[jersoc]

Maybe its random in the neighborhood. But you can cheat the system too. Just find 2 houses close by. Rob one and then the other. Go back into the first one the items should have respawned. Have fun

[Semaj]

OK I've gotten WAY too many hours into the game already, I have taken a tour of damn near everything, and I should need only another mission or two to make all the areas open...  I've been a busy boy.

Impressions:
1) If you want a Nintendo, sissyboy, happy go lucky world of lets be friends, why the hell did you purchase this game?  People swear, lots, people die, lots...  Come to terms...

2) Dont judge your death and failed mission totals, it's going to happen, way way more than it ever did before.  The game got a serious raise i the annoyance level... Especially the driving missions... I do believe I failed the same mission 15 times before passing it... and lets not get into how abusrdy annoying the dancing portion of your day is.

3)Once you learn the power of the body armor, life becomes noticably easier.  This of it as a personal shield... You shouldn't sit there and trade bullets with 8 guys at once with it on, but it gives you enough time to drop 3 or 4 with relative speed.  I literally took over 12 or 14 hoods by myself with no real problem once I got the hang of that whole shooting things with body armor on crap.

4) it's WAY to easy to max out your strength... I had it done in no time, course I also drove/rode/peddled around for a long ass time to get my bike/car/cycling levels up enough I dont embarass myself.  But I'm nealry maxxed in my stats, so I've been a busy thug...

5) GTA: Vice City got 30 times better once you turned of trails, I'd kill to be able to take it off on this one, because then it would be an improvement in graphics (Not that they have them on, just saying I get a noticable twitch with how not good they look once in a while)

6)The only horrible load times are on dressing... Driving around the city for the most part doesnt actually have load times, you can go from one side of the map to the other and not really see any load times unless you get going incredibly fast, which is rare, damn traffic.

I really fricking like this game... I was a lil hesatant to play it because of the whole 90's gangster mentality... but well, I liked the last 2 a whole f-in lot, so I decided ot give it the benefit of the doubt.  and here is WHY I like it:

There is a plotline and you can follow it.  I hated some of the missions early on, seemed pointless and annoying.  But after a while, peopel start to turn on you, you give up on dating and just start indiscriminately killing and... gotta do it... "Damn it feels good to be a gangsta"  

You do have RPG elements, and building up stats makes sense, and dual wielding micro smg's just makes you feel like you can take on the entire world at once(you almost can).  There is nothing like taking out a swat team with my AK and thinking: Wow, I woder if anyone found this hard... Right now I am debating seeing how long i can survive on 5 stars... if i can get there... 4 stars is easy... 5 is going to require a rocket launcher or something else yummy.

The map is huge, everyone is goign to say it, but, picture vice city, now, imagine thats one part of SA,.. it would be maybe a sixth of this map, if not smaller.  You can drive for hours and hours going places, it's insane, and yet insanely good.  The people change depending on where you go, the styles change and you just laugh at some random things you find.  Exploring is actually quite fun.

The driving missions are just plain silly difficult.  It takes me like 10-1 on the failure to success ratio to get a driving mission down.  Mianly because its so damn easy to spin out/roll your car and once its stuck on its back, you are hosed.  My driving skill is nearing maxed, so it occurs a lot less now, but dont be discouraged if you fail a mission or 3, because I'm god at any killing mission, but ask me to beat 4 other guys in a race and I'm farked.  It's less painful now, because I've come ot accept it as a measure of difficulty.  But there were a few times I almost tossed my controller at my screen, like when I finally finish a tough mission, am on the way home, decide to trade cars (Since the one I have now is pouring black smoke) and my partner gets run over and killed by a semi as we are switching.

I'm actually all into the sotryline now, it has its moments of humor and enough plot twitsts ot shake a stick.  Although I do keep wishing this guy would do what I do with him...Because right now everytime I see that damn cop I go: Sure, kill 457 gangsters, no problem,.. but why not just kill the one damn cop and be done with it?

One of my highlights was stealing a harvester (for grain) and then running people over with it and watching them come out in tiny tiny parts.  It's the little details liek that that make life worth living on so many levels in SA that it's hard to explain here.  For instance, you can play basketball, sure it's not NBA Street, but the first time you dunk, you damn near crap yourself and then do it a bunch more.  Those are the things you come to love, the hidden gems, the little random things you can do.  Well that and the occasonal rampant violence in the name of seeing how many cops you can kill before someone drops you.

I'm very very very glad I bought this game, I just wish it could have come out when school wasnt in session, because I know this game is going to make my grades suffer immensely.  Dont be put off because it's not a walk in the park, all the things that made vice city so good are here, and on steriods to boot.

[BigRedCat]

I just have to say, I loved GTA3 but never made it to the third island because it was too hard. I hated Vice City completely. I barely played that one. I love San Andreas though, the difficulty is really not bad (up to San Fierro missions at least) and the missions are way more fun then the first game(like I said I didn't play VC).

[BigRedCat]

I just had to post a quick experience I just had on a mission in San Fierro(no spoilers, don't worry).

I was told to jump a ramp over a building, only as I accelerated towards the ramp my car got set on fire. I hit triangle during the cutscene of the jump and my character jumped and barely made it over the wall as the car exploded in midair. Holy cow was it exciting!

[Sparhawk]

Well I'm tired of GTA: SA already. Played about 42 hours and I'm done with it. The radio stations are nice and the audio is absolutely slammin', but I have grown tired of the game. I'll pretty much gameshark/actionreplay my way through the rest then trade it in for game credits towards EQ II and Halo 2.

[jztemple]

Well I'm tired of GTA: SA already. Played about 42 hours and I'm done with it. The radio stations are nice and the audio is absolutely slammin', but I have grown tired of the game. I'll pretty much gameshark/actionreplay my way through the rest then trade it in for game credits towards EQ II and Halo 2.

Hey, 42 hours of gameplay? That's what, three and a half Max Payne playthroughs? Two Doom 3 runs? (Sorry, I know that this is PC centric, but GTASA is my first real PS2 game). I've got in about twenty hours and just unlocked San Fierro. Then I spent two hours back in Los Santos and still was finding things I hadn't seen before.

Not that I'm disagreeing with your choice to stop and use codes to jump ahead, done that a bit myself   . The music isn't really my bag either (by saying "my bag" I've probably explained the why as well  :wink:) and I'm alternating between the talk station, K-DST and having it turned off.

GTASA can be very frustrating at times. I have a secret fear that I'll grind through all the missions till the one before I unlock Las Venturas and get stuck :shock:.

[BigRedCat]

Funny you say that jztemple. The missions right before Las Venturas are pretty hard. They're like a brick wall. I did beat them but it was a struggle. I've never beaten a GTA game before but I'm not stuck yet this time.

[Semaj]

I opened Las Venturas in about 2 days of game playing, not 48 hours... THe missions before arnt nearly as vicious as some of them... I only replayed one or two after failing.  BUt Since i made all my money the old fashoioned way, atthe track on a 12-1 longshot,.. I dotn even bother gambling.

I just cant wait to finish the middle missions so I can start buying stuff in Las Venturas...

[Papageno]

Someone earlier in the thread said something about component video from the PS2 into their TV?  They meant S-Video, right?  I do have component video-in and S-Video-in on my TV (although I don't have an S-Video cable currently).  Is the difference in video quality a large one?  I don't have an HD TV or anything, just a 20-inch Sony WEGA.

[wonderpug]

Going from composite (old school yellow) to S-video (computery looking plug) is a huge difference.  Going from S-video to component (red/green/blue) is better but not as huge a difference.  Going from composite to component will make you kiss your TV.

[Sparhawk]

Well, I really never enjoyed the previous GTA's to be honest. I was amazed that this one kept me as long as it did. I personally just found the game boring after awhile.

[pr0ner]

Is anyone else getting a bug where the game stops recognizing that there's a controller in the port, even though it's still firmly attached?  I've noticed that every time I play for an extended period, this message pops up.  Sometimes it corrects itself, other times I have to unplug and replug the controller to continue playing.

Bad, bad coding if it's not just me.

Mike

[Semaj]

I'm nearing the end of my LAs Venturas missions now... I either need more of a life, or less of one,.. you make the call

[Kevin Grey]

Mike, I haven't seen anything like that nor have I read of it anywhere else.  I'd probably guess its either a problem with the controller or the PS2 itself.

[Jeff]

Someone earlier in the thread said something about component video from the PS2 into their TV?  They meant S-Video, right?  I do have component video-in and S-Video-in on my TV (although I don't have an S-Video cable currently).  Is the difference in video quality a large one?  I don't have an HD TV or anything, just a 20-inch Sony WEGA.

That was me, and wonderpug was right, it made me kiss my TV  Going from composite (the standard cable) to component (red, green, blue) made a *huge* difference in video quality for the PS2.  I found the Sony component video cable at Circuit City for $24.99.

[wonderpug]

Is anyone else getting a bug where the game stops recognizing that there's a controller in the port, even though it's still firmly attached?  I've noticed that every time I play for an extended period, this message pops up.  Sometimes it corrects itself, other times I have to unplug and replug the controller to continue playing.

Bad, bad coding if it's not just me.

Mike

Yup, I just had that issue recently.  It's the only time it's happened for me so far (I'm into Las Venturas missions) and replugging the controller worked for me too.

[Doomboy]

So far the only issue I have had with the game is when garages refuse to recognize me.  That gets annoying when a vehicle I want is inside the garage and it won't open.  Almost as annoying as when I know there is room in a garage, and it won't open for me when I drive up to it.

Oh, and I also lost my favorite tricked out car once, when I left it in a garage, and came back later, all the cars in it were gone...  That annoyed me.

So I guess garages don't like me...

[Kevin Grey]

So far the only issue I have had with the game is when garages refuse to recognize me.  That gets annoying when a vehicle I want is inside the garage and it won't open.  Almost as annoying as when I know there is room in a garage, and it won't open for me when I drive up to it.

Oh, and I also lost my favorite tricked out car once, when I left it in a garage, and came back later, all the cars in it were gone...  That annoyed me.

So I guess garages don't like me...

I've heard about that cars disappearing from garages bug.  Very annoying.

[BigRedCat]

I beat the game. Pretty satisfying ending/last mission. Only one loose end not tied up sufficently for me(I don't buy what the game told me). Other than that, great. 36 hours on the clock and I only did story missions, nothing else(cept Woozy's last missions and tons of time wasted acquiring turf early on).

So I deleted my save file and ordered R&C:UYA from SwapYourGames!

[whiteboyskim]

Well, received this one for Christmas and I've played it for a bit. My ears are burning from the language though. I haven't heard swearing like this since Midnight Run, but at least there it was funny. I can appreciate a need for course language given the setting, but if a family-friendly version of GTA: SA ever came out it'd be a silent movie.

I can't explain it either, but I too am having way more fun in this than I did in Vice City. Maybe it's the layout of the city or the feel of the roads, but everything just feels more refined than the previous two installments. And my God is this game huge. I'm no where near unlocking the second portion and everywhere I've been feels like it's the size of the entire first game.

I also like the stats part of it - this brings something new to the table and you can genuinely feel CJ's abilities improving as you bust your tail in the gym or front with a nine.

I also love the side missions like nightly burgleries or spray painting over rival gang tags. I'm sure once the game opens up more, there will be even more stuff to do and I can't wait.

I do have a serious problem with the map being as frickin' tiny as it is, and the signals of where to go are really tough to make out. MY way around that is to go to the full map and place a marker just north of where I'm supposed to go. The map marker I can see with crystal clarity, so that helps a lot.

[Papageno]

A little tip--- I found that using an S-Video cable greatly improved the visibility of the minimap.  I'm guessing that a component one would help even more.

For all I know, though, you've got the full-on home theatre system from hell, so ignore me as applicable.

[whiteboyskim]

Not at all, man, I just have an older TV (about 7 years) so it doesn't have an S-Video out on it. That's been an issue I've had for a long time now, so the next TV I get will indeed have one.

[jztemple]

I quit playing this in early December due to other obligations. I had unlocked Las Venturas and did a couple of missions there, but I was getting burned out on it and missed my PC games as well.

Over the xmas break I threw GTASA into the PS2 intending just to muck around a bit and show it off to a relative who doesn't game but had heard about GTASA in the media. After five minutes of jacking cars and outrunning cops I swear he was ready to go out and buy his very first gaming system  . Hope his wife isn't too pissed off at me.  :lol:

The next day the DVD was still in the drive, the memory card and the controller plugged in, so I thought "oh what the heck, I'll give it a bit more time". Three days later I've put in about twenty more gameplay hours, did some more LV missions, jacked a few more Import/Export cars, completed another set of courier missions, toured LV with the jet pack, practised flying the pseudo-Lear Jet, practiced swiping cars using the tow truck, romanced another couple of girlfriends, and so on...

Curse You, Rockstar!  :lol:  I never did complete all my xmas break chores...  

[TheMissingLink]

I've always wanted to give San Andreas a shot and waited dilligently, KNOWING I'd end up finding a deal...and I DID.  I grabbed The Trilogy for $30 at Fry's today and put an hour into SA (gonna go up and put some more time into it) and I guess I'm somewhat pleased.

Man, those character models are absolute shit.  Playing RE4 then this makes SA feel like last-gen  Although, the game's overall graphics are an improvement, I'd say.  

And I'm actually sort of digging the story.  The voice-acting is top notch (Andy Dick on the radio, AWESOME) and the characters during the cinematics actually move really realistically as to what they're saying...that sort of surprised me.

I'm not much of a GTA fan at all (got about 1/3rd through GTA3 and VC), so while I'm not really LOVING it, it's got me to go back tonight and keep playing it.

As to why I *really* resurrected this thread; all of a sudden, during the middle of my game, I got really horrible pop-in glitches.  Like, things would disappear right in front of me and the textures on stuff would be horrible.  I'd even drive into invisible fences because they hadn't popped-in yet...anyone experience that sort of thing?

[WinoMcCougarstein]

The story grew old for me after hearing "nigger" a million times.  I couldnt stand it after a while.

[whiteboyskim]

TML - that was one of the major problems everyone had with the PS2 version. I can't vouch for other consoles, but on my PS2 that was the first thing I noticed. I'd jack a car, gun it down a street then slam on my breaks and be surrounded by the color orange. Then the city would pop-in around me. It's a bad sign when you can actually outrun the textures in a game.

The voice acting was uniformly awesome with James Woods and Peter Fonda stealing the show, IMO. But the gameplay was exactly the same as the previous versions, and it actually was worse during the flight missions (required by the way) late in the game.

[Darren8r]

As to why I *really* resurrected this thread; all of a sudden, during the middle of my game, I got really horrible pop-in glitches.  Like, things would disappear right in front of me and the textures on stuff would be horrible.  I'd even drive into invisible fences because they hadn't popped-in yet...anyone experience that sort of thing?

Played threw the entire game to get 100% and never had any of those problems with things popping up infront of me or other "pop-in glitches". Things would load as I walked or drove or flew, or boated or whatever, but it wasnt as bad as what I picture in my head when I read your post.

I did have a few controller problems, it would say it wasnt connected even though it was, I would get stuck in walls sometimes, but thats probably my fault for trying to do stupid stuff.

[TheMissingLink]

Yeah, it was really really bad once...but it has only happened once.  Hopefully it won't happen again.