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[Ben-San]

PS2 version. I admit I know nothing about any changes that may have been made in the PC version.

[jough]

As far as gameplay, pretty much nothing.  The PC version has higher-res textures (not that I can take advantage of them on my PC anyway) and real-time dynamic shadows (the volumetric shadows beneath underpasses are really realistic and impressive looking - from afar it looks like a real city photo) but other than getting rid of the 2-player co-op mode (most people don't have two keyboards and mice and sitting around a 15" LCD isn't that much fun) there aren't too many other differences.

I actually like the look of the Xbox version the best - the anti-aliasing is a little better, although it may look that good on a non-laptop computer with a better video card too.

My machine isn't exactly a super gaming system.

Anyway, it's loads of fun but tomorrow I'm full-on with a number of projects and will have to limit my playtime to about an hour a day, which means I'll be playing this thing a little off and on all summer (and truth be told probably until the next GTA game is out - I still have Vice City installed on my machine).

[slink]

Anyway, it's loads of fun but tomorrow I'm full-on with a number of projects and will have to limit my playtime to about an hour a day, which means I'll be playing this thing a little off and on all summer (and truth be told probably until the next GTA game is out - I still have Vice City installed on my machine).

That's how the PC version always ends up for me. It's something that I can play on and off until the next one. Vice City only got uninstalled when I got San Andreas on PS2. I haven't managed to sort out the controller though. I use a DS2 for driving usually, but wasn't able to set it up just right yet, so have been using my driving force pro from GT4 on the PS2 for driving. It does actually mean I crash less often, although it's more hassle to set up...

[arkabee]

Oh, earlier you popped the skull of some anonymous blowjob because you wanted to drive his Corolla into a river, but now you've got a Very Bad Dude dead to rights and suddenly you're Jean-Jacques Rousseau?

that is an amazing sentence.

[miles]

I would have contributed to this thread by now if I still had my XBox.  I sold it several months ago.

So, unlike some of you I'm guessing, I don't have a Super Computer.  I do have that game Mafia and it plays OK, do you think this one will as well?

[jough]

I have a 2Ghz Athlon XP with 1280mb RAM, but a three year old video card (it's a laptop) that only supports DirectX 7 and only has 64mb RAM, and it plays just fine at lower resolution (it actually plays fine at higher resolutions for the most part, unless there is a lot of traffic or pedestrians or car crashes).

So you're probably good to go.  But I'd DL a copy from somewhere first before you buy it.  You know, to make sure, esp. since they don't offer a demo and because you're out $50 if it doesn't play on your PC since you can't return games.

Of course, if you have a PS2 or Xbox you could rent it first - but this is a game that is supposed to take about 80 hours to finish - so it may make renting a problem if you want to get past the first section.

[cellardoor]

I've finished the PS2 version, 100% (ooo! get me!).
All the early stuff is worth it for the...


*spoiler*




Return to Los Santos.
It really does feel like a homecoming.
Easily the most epic game i've encountered in the sense that when I finished the story missions (40 hours plus!) I felt like i'd really been somewhere.
Los Santos felt like home, while Las Venturas was an unfamiliar place.
Cruising around the map would trigger weird sense memories, "ooh, that's where I smashed my jump-jet into a police car", "that's the final piece of turf I took over in that awesome gang war!", etc.

I don't play it much anymore but considering my total gameplay time is now 101 hours (don't laugh!) I think I can say i've had my fill.

Wait for the thunderstorms! Oh man!
And the sunsets in the desert. Awesome!
The scary thing is...the next generation version of GTA will likely be bigger and more detailed.
Enjoy!

[St_Zartan]

Return to Los Santos.
It really does feel like a homecoming.
Los Santos felt like home, while Las Venturas was an unfamiliar place.

First of all, congratulations on that 100%.

And you're right about the way LS feels like "home" compared to the other cities - I have two ideas about this. The cynical one is that the designers lavished the most attention on LS so as to put the best goods up front, or that the LS design team just had a better sense of synergy and urban design that the other two (which is not to say that the other two cities are failures - far from it - but LS does, at the end of the game, feel the most organic).

The other idea is that this was intentionally seeded. There's a lot to do in LS, and you can do it right from the start of the game. It's the first city you get to know, and if you're not just shooting through the story missions as quickly as possible, you get to know it quite well. LV, by comparison, is pretty much story missions and those fuck*ng hossshoes.

Another element that builds the "home" feeling in the player is the acquisition of safehouses - for a good while, your only safehouse in LS is the Johnson house. After a period of time, you will know the best way to haul ass back to the Johnson house from anywhere on the map. Plus, it's a unique interior that actually looks and feels like a home, in a real neighborhood, rather than an unfurnished rental. The player doesn't build up this sort of relationship - dependence and familiarity - with any other location in the game.

I'm playing the PC version now, and seriously considering springing for a PS2-style joypad. Keyboard players - HOW DO YOU DO IT. WHAT IS THE SECRET.

[St_Zartan]

Also:

This was taken out of the final game by Rockstar. I can't imagine why. Leave to our enterprising young Computer Operators (they are the future, after all), though, to discover and enable it. The user comments in this thread are fuck*ng gold. Picking out the best and quoting them here is, frankly, an exercise for someone else.

I don't use the word "tacky" a whole lot - despite being born and raised in southeast Texas - but goddamn is it ever tempting to deploy it here. LOOK AT THEIR BIG STUPID FACES.

Oh, yeah - it's not work-safe. I have never gotten to use that phrase before. LOOK OUT FARK HERE I COME

[CortJstr]

Also:

This was taken out of the final game by Rockstar. I can't imagine why. Leave to our enterprising young Computer Operators (they are the future, after all), though, to discover and enable it. The user comments in this thread are fuck*ng gold. Picking out the best and quoting them here is, frankly, an exercise for someone else.

I don't use the word "tacky" a whole lot - despite being born and raised in southeast Texas - but goddamn is it ever tempting to deploy it here. LOOK AT THEIR BIG STUPID FACES.

Oh, yeah - it's not work-safe. I have never gotten to use that phrase before. LOOK OUT FARK HERE I COME

You curiosity-piquing bastard!

[jough]

I finally got through getting all 100 of the graffiti tags done, and the easy availability of weapons at "home" was worth it, as was the big boost in respect.

I got to know the city fairly well by going EVERYWHERE to tag things, and maxed out my cycling skill (but sadly not my motorcycling skill) through it, increased my max health considerably (I hardly even bother finding armor anymore unless I happen to be going past one of the spawn points).  

In the meantime, I end up getting the Broadway blown up when I'm at 9 out of 10 pimping missions, even if I stop at a Pay and Spray every couple missions to replenish the car's "health."

I haven't done a new mission in a few days.  The mini-missions are keeping my hour or two a day of gaming to full busyness.

I must say that I love the city and a lot of the new features, but eating is just as annyone as I thought it would be, and the missions I'm finding are far far less fun than the Vice City missions were.  I'm doing the "Robbing Uncle Sam" mission now and loading those damn crates while hopping off every five seconds to stop Ryder from getting killed is frustrating enough every time only to find that the damn van gets tipped over while I'm STARING AT THE fuck*ng RED MARKER nearly every damn time.

I haven't used any cheats yet, but if there was a "set the current vehicle upright" cheat I would be using it.  Talk about frustration.  I don't play games to be FURIOUS.

[V-Adore]

Wow, those are some terrible graphics. I am reminded of the Morridin "naked patch" that made me glad that Morridin characters are usually thoroughly clothed.

[jough]

Well, I generally assume we're out of spoiler territory when talking about the "plot" of a video game, but this particular game has more story than most, with a BIG surprise that I'm a little annoyed about.

SPOILERS BELOW























Okay, so after finishing Sweet's missions I'm now LOCKED OUT of Los Santos.  It would have been nice to know that going in, not that I'm not glad to play with the new territory (the mountain is AWESOME) but shit, I was in the middle of burglary missions, and just getting started taking over territories and making time with Denice.  Did I go through the missions too quickly?  It doesn't seem like it, after 25 hours of game play over the past ten days or so (I'm still only about 18% completed, although I think I "finished" Vice City's storyline after being only about 50% finished, so whatever).

Anyway, I would have liked a little warning before being thrown completely naked into a new environment after having bought properties, completed menial tasks to unlock new weapons, etc.

I know that there's a "return to Los Santos" section of the game, but still, just a little "Warning: You will not be able to return to Los Santos after this mission" would have been nice.

I also hope that at some point you get to kill OG Loc, Ryder, and Big Smoke.  Fuckers.

[St_Zartan]

I know that they're all STAY OUT OF MALIBU, LEBOWSKI, but (on the PS2 version, anyway) I accidentally wandered back into Los Santos and - nothing happened. I was expecting the standard "you're off the path" set of wanted stars, but if I remember right, you should be fine to get right back in there and do whatever you want, except turf wars.

Angel Pine is an excellent place to do the ambulance missions, though, since it's such a small town. Pity about the constant stream of trucks.

[jough]

Well, I was able to sneak into San Fierro by going over the beach and I didn't get any wanted stars either.

Roads to Los Santos are blocked off, although I was able to get a plane and fly back to the old hood.  It wouldn't let me do ANY missions though, nor enter CJ's house to reclaim weapons.

No big deal.  Angel Pines is RICH with hidden weapons and ammo, especially for being such a small area.

And I found that a few of the early missions (mentioned earlier in the thread) were much harder than some of the later Los Santos missions, most of which I was able to complete in the first pass.

I think it's because after miserable defeat and getting stuck on say, the Drive-By or OG Loc mission (the first one with the bike) for so long I just spent time wandering the city, doing side missions, and building up my stats.  I had maxed out the motorbike level-up and reached hitman status on the AK-47 and SMG before re-trying the OG Loc mission, and was able to beat it on the first try again after leaving it be for awhile.

So building up your character is essential.  I'm glad I spent the four hours or so tagging the place up - not just for the gift weapons, but also because I was improving my stats and learning the layout of the city pretty well in the process (the graffiti is pretty much EVERYWHERE which means you have to visit every area of the city).

Great game, though.  I do find the driving missions to be frustrating, especially when you fail because some cars just ram into you.  The "I'm doing everything right but the game made me fail" thing is just hell of frustrating.  I swear I almost broke my computer in rage a few times.

Oh, also, the "dancing" or low-rider hopping missions are IMPOSSIBLE with a keyboard, because the game requires SW, NW, NE, SE movements, but does NOT accept pressing "up" and "left" simultaneously to achieve it.  You NEED a game pad to finish those (I borrowed one from someone).

Sounds like a bug, but at least they should list an eight-directional game pad as a REQUIREMENT.