[Quagmire]

I just got a copy(rented not bought) of GTA: San Andreas. Lucky me that I have the game pass from blockbuster so I don't have to return it.($20 each month) So I went to blockbuster and they were not even starting to unload the game from the boxes. I had the first copy they sent out.

So after a couple hours playing it without doing the missions yet and playing for fun, it is the best game yet IMO on the PS2. I can hijack a freight train, cop motorcycles, and much more. When you go really fast the backround starts to blurr and see everything going past you. So far I can see that they got rid of the shooting off the head feature. The cops are 100% tougher on you then in Vice City. But, the cops still drive like drunks. As I get further into the game I will give you updates on new features and update you on the shooting head off feature is gone or not.

[onlyafterdark]

Sweet deal. I want to play it too but no one in my house has a PS2. Oh well, Ill wait for the port.

[murbot]

Nevermind the head shooting... can you still bang hookers in your car? Have they improved this feature in any way? Do the buttons do anything during the sex act?

DO A REAL UPDATE NEXT TIME.

[Quagmire]

Originally Posted by murbot Nevermind the head shooting... can you still bang hookers in your car? Have they improved this feature in any way? Do the buttons do anything during the sex act? DO A REAL UPDATE NEXT TIME.

Not yet but, I assure you that will be in the next update.

[Quagmire]

Here is an update. The being banged feature is the same thing as Vice City. Nothing new there. The shoot the head off feature has been killed. If you try to cheat to the other part of the game before doing the missions that will get you there(like Vice City you could use dodo car and floating car to get to the second island) you now get 4 stars automactically and no cheat can get rid of them.

[Quagmire]

Last update for the day. I started playing the missions. So far all easy ones. I hope they get harder or this might be the easiest GTA ever. Going into the missions you are a prick and have no muscle and have no respect. As you get deeper they demand you to get ripped and get new threads. You can decide if you want him fat or buff. I have my guy ripped. You will find out how to become fat/buff when you play the missions.

[onlyafterdark]

Thats cool. More customization throughout the game is always good to hear. Are there multiple paths to take in the missions yet?

[usurp]

can't wait till it comes out on the xbox...

[Mac+]

[old_school]Is there any talk of a port of GTA:Vice City to OS X?[/old_schoool]

[Akumulator]

Are there any hills? The one thing I missed in Vice City from GTA3 were the crazy hills. I used to love to flip cars and firetrucks over buildings.

[thuh Freak]

Originally Posted by Akumulator Are there any hills? The one thing I missed in Vice City from GTA3 were the crazy hills. I used to love to flip cars and firetrucks over buildings.

yes. there are hills and dips. there are even HALF PIPES. and you can ride bikes. tricks aren't quite tony-hawk level on the bike, but they are pretty cool.

gta:sa is the best thing since sex on a stick.

there are many aspects of the player ("Carl Johnson" i think. CJ to many) which improve/unimprove/change over the game. driving ability, bike ability, motocycle ability (all three make u more stable and allow you to control better, as you improve. crashing acts as a unimprovement), muscle, stamina, "respect", sex appeal, fat and a bunch more. fixing your driving/biking ability just means driving or biking for a while, and/or doing (and landing) tricks. o yea, and riding a motorcycle isn't stupidly difficult anymore. you can ride at high speeds, and have a more than reasonable chance at not-crashing (even on baseline motorcycle-ability). getting muscle means going to the gym and doing certain exercises. you can SWIM in this game. thats how i went to a couple of the other islands (i think undertaker mentioned, but the roads are blocked off again). the 4-stars you gain make it a short trip though. you maintain your fat by eating right, and exercising. clothes are all customizable (ie, you dont buy an outfit altogether, but hats/dorags/eyepatche{s}, shirts, sweatshirt, pants, kicks, watch, ..., individually). you can get tatts.

this game rocks. i highly recommend: running (not walking) toward your nearest ps2 game-dealership, stealing the game, thieving a ps2 (note: this step onyl required if u dont have a ps2), and sprinting to the nearest television so you can play this game with immediancy and urgency. it will own you.

one complaint i have is the map. its too awesome. when blips show up (like in other gta's, indicating which direction you have to go), they blend in with the buildings and food service areas so locating where you have to go can be kinda difficult.

me and my roommate played it from 9pm-5am straight (i shit you not) and went through a lot of missions. this game rools.

i'm still curious as to the TWO-PLAYER aspect of the game. the box clearly states 1-2 players. haven't encountered what to do yet with the second controller (probably a menu item i missed at the beginning).

oh, and another thing, fighting is better in this one. you fight more fluidly and don't break out of fight-mode as quickly/easily as you did in gta:vc.

note: in case i didn't mention it earlier, gta:sa is awesome.

[DMBand0026]

Originally Posted by Mac+ [old_school]Is there any talk of a port of GTA:Vice City to OS X?[/old_schoool]

<drools>

<cries because it's not gonna happen>

[Quagmire]

UPDATE: I figured how to get in the airport and hijack a prop plane. You take a vehicle and take it to the gate entrance where a message will say something like you need more pilot skills you can go to the pilot school. But, where is it? So you park it next to the gate and jump on the vehicle and climb the fence. Then you hijack the plane. I saved the best for last. So I took the plane to the banned area, got the 4 stars and then I heard this beeping. I thought it was saying I was wanted. But, when I viewed back, here was these 2 missiles coming towards me. I was able to move over enough that 1 of the 2 missiles hit my right wing flap and was not the deadly blow. Then at the same time I was trying to regain control(which I did) this fighter jet, maybe the F-35 or F-18 flew behind me. Good news is when you get in to the army base there might be a fighter jet waiting for you. So after I regained control I started flying again with the use of the left flap and the elevators on the back wing. My doom was not by a second round of missiles but, me trying to see more missiles behind me and I crashed and blew up.

[thuh Freak]

cool. i forgot about the airport. the roommate and i have just been doing missions. did this cool one yesterday called like 'gang war' or something. you have to provoke, then fight in, and win, a turf war against one of the other gangs. not too hard, but whats really cool is when u win, Los Santos is broken up into territories, and colored on the map according to which gang owns the territory. then u can go to other turfs and start wars and take over. and at the same time, another gang can suddenly start a gang war against one of ur existing territories.

one thing thats pretty cool is that you get a girlfriend in this game. i went to her house, picked her up and headed toward the burger king dealie. the bitch was like, "i want to do a drive by." so she grabs a gun and starts shooting some fuckers. it was cool. and once u have the gf, u can do 2player.

gta: sa rokx.

[BarracksSi]

Wow...

I only played it for 20 minutes at Best Buy (down own a PS2!), and I was pretty impressed. I already knew the maps were huge, but jeez, you can even steal an airplane?

I may finally buy a PS2 for this (well, and for GT4, also).

[autodata]

I am having such a hard time debating whether to go out and get a ps2, memory card, second controller and this game. It's comes out to ~$250 ($150+$50+$20+$15+tax) and that just seems like an awful lot of money for one game. On the other hand, I love the GTAs. Part of the problem is that I absolutely FAILED last winter by buying an xbox, which I officially hate (and metroid prime is what halo wishes it was). I already had a ps2 previously, which I got rid of 2 years ago because I was playing it too much. Now I'm on the verge of buying it again just to play this game, but if I do I will have spent $250 just to play one game and will have all three consoles (I have the gamecube, too) sitting next to one another.

Had I not been so curious about the xbox last year I would have gotten a ps2 and would literally be playing GTASA rather than writing this stupid post.

Somebody please tell me it will be OK to spend $250 on this game.

[Xaqtly]

Get a PSTwo, the new tiny small one. And yes, spend the money. There are dozens of EXCELLENT PS2 games, and a massive library to choose from. I agree with you about the Xbox, it just doesn't have enough going for it - and I own one too. The PS2 is a better purchase. And of course it's worth it for GTA:SA, and GT4.

[Akumulator]

Go for it autodata.... it's one hell of a game.

[autodata]

OK, I'm convinced. I'll go grab it on wednesday.

And once I get it I'll post back here about how happy I am with the decision. You know, to help anyone else having a similar struggle.

BTW, another thing I hate about the xbox is how hard it is to do the GTA3/VC cheats with those controllers. It's horrid, especially when you need to do them quickly.

[Akumulator]

I wouldn't know about the cheats... I've never tried any of them. Also, what the fuck's with the video game salesmen pushing the strategy guide? It's like they think I'm retarded or something. I say no and after several attempts they say.... "Ok, I'll see you in a couple days when you get stuck and need the guide". I've turned down crack dealers easier then the game sellers.

[Gargoyle]

Autodata, stick the other consoles on eBay before the rest of the world realises they are crap too. You'll soon have your $250.

I was gonna by Tiger Woods, so I could waste a few hours on the couch with a bit more of a relaxed game - but I think you have convinced me that I NEED this game.

[alcimedes]

Originally Posted by Akumulator I wouldn't know about the cheats... I've never tried any of them. Also, what the fuck's with the video game salesmen pushing the strategy guide? It's like they think I'm retarded or something. I say no and after several attempts they say.... "Ok, I'll see you in a couple days when you get stuck and need the guide". I've turned down crack dealers easier then the game sellers.

that's because drug dealers have a product that sells itself. strategy guides in the age of the internet, however, do not.

[autodata]

Originally Posted by Akumulator Also, what the fuck's with the video game salesmen pushing the strategy guide? It's like they think I'm retarded or something. I say no and after several attempts they say.... "Ok, I'll see you in a couple days when you get stuck and need the guide". I've turned down crack dealers easier then the game sellers.

The first one of those I tried was for metroid prime. A coworker had it at his desk around the time I started playing. In metroid it was almost necessary for me because the maps were so vast and intricate, the gameplay so dynamic and objects hidden so well that it was difficult to figure out where everything was.

But a strategy guide for GTA? That's a little weird. The great thing about the game in the first place is that you have the freedom to explore and experiment in a relatively realistic cartoon world.

Oh, and the $250 not about the money, it's about that much money to play one game. If I do it, I can no longer complain about how much movies cost.

[InactionMan]

My life is ruined, I jokingly told my girlfriend I wanted to get this game so she got me a PS2 and GTA for my birthday. Dear God, my life is over.

[thuh Freak]

my friend and i buckled down and played some missions. we have opened the frisco-like city (san fiero i think; the one on the western side of the map). thus far, its really awesome (as one can expect from the best game evar made).

san andreas is pwnij.

[Xaqtly]

You know what the real problem is? Everybody is releasing their hot games right around now, and I don't have time to play them all. GT4 is coming, Sly 2 just came out a bit ago, GTA:SA is out now, Ratchet and Clank 3 comes out yesterday or today, Jak 3 is coming out real soon, Metroid Prime 2 and Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater are all coming out... why all in the same time period? I don't have that kind of time, to be able to play all these good games.

[thuh Freak]

Originally Posted by Xaqtly You know what the real problem is? Everybody is releasing their hot games right around now, and I don't have time to play them all. GT4 is coming, Sly 2 just came out a bit ago, GTA:SA is out now, Ratchet and Clank 3 comes out yesterday or today, Jak 3 is coming out real soon, Metroid Prime 2 and Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater are all coming out... why all in the same time period? I don't have that kind of time, to be able to play all these good games.

theres a really simple solution. buy gta:sa and you'll never need to buy another game again.

[autodata]

Played it all weekend and it's great. I have yet to unlock another city (although the only mission I still have available is the lowrider race), but there so much to do as it is. I spent a bunch of money making a nice lowrider and have even gotten CJ into basically a daily routine: fight for some turf, fuck Denise, go home. It's like a double life.

[Quagmire]

Originally Posted by autodata Played it all weekend and it's great. I have yet to unlock another city (although the only mission I still have available is the lowrider race), but there so much to do as it is. I spent a bunch of money making a nice lowrider and have even gotten CJ into basically a daily routine: fight for some turf, fuck Denise, go home. It's like a double life.

You have a long way to go. I haven't unlocked the 2nd city yet. You have to do some missions for that fat guy you saw at the beginning and then some mission for this person named OG Log. I am working on him now. Hopefully this is the last person before a new city.

[InactionMan]

I killed Denise with a giant dildo.