GTA:SA First Impressions & reviews

Placebo

guys, W T F is a popup ?
people popping out of nowhere ? your driving and bang someone drops out of the sky ? wha ? pop up ?

also i have to say graphics dont necessarily have to be good when the game is great but no harm in playing a pixel free game !
il put it this way, when i played NFS:U on ps2, i was very much put off (awful graphics, just put me right off)
Then my friend sent me a screen shot from his pc version(crystal clear), i bought the game(for pc, obviously), its a brilliant game.
Im not playing games for the wrong reason, nor do i think great graphics are a must, but when technology = Mario kart ( 3d) wireless multiplayer in your plam, then i think pixel free might be a +
p.s : i havent played this yet, im gonna buy it soon, i have VC(pixel town) for ps2, judging from that.
And by pixels i mean crappy graphics, unmesshed ****.

viva la SA.
good thread tusky.

Zonko

I like how on the motorway the cars actually go FAST. And the graphics do seem smoother than Vice City. And the physics engine feels more realistic to me as well.

Private Joker

Placebo wrote:

guys, W T F is a popup ?
people popping out of nowhere ? your driving and bang someone drops out of the sky ? wha ? pop up ?

You've hit the nail in the head there, well alomost. A pop up is when part of the graphics disappears only to reappear when you drive a car into it at full speed. I must say it hasn't happened as much as it did on GTA 3 but it seems to be more prevalent than VC. But these are minor misgivings to what is otherwise an excellent game.

Tusky

Private Joker wrote:

You've hit the nail in the head there, well alomost. A pop up is when part of the graphics disappears only to reappear when you drive a car into it at full speed. I must say it hasn't happened as much as it did on GTA 3 but it seems to be more prevalent than VC. But these are minor misgivings to what is otherwise an excellent game.

not exactly...Its when things ni the distance like buildings , cars or people pop up on the screen out of nowhere instead of appearing as a dot on the horizon and getting bigger. The PS2 cant handle that many things on screen and thats why it happens.

humanji

Any one else having a problem with aiming in the game? Every time I hit R1 to target someone, the character flicks around 180 degrees and then shoots in the air! I've to manually shoot everything and it's a pain in the a$$!

Private Joker

Tusky wrote:

not exactly...Its when things ni the distance like buildings , cars or people pop up on the screen out of nowhere instead of appearing as a dot on the horizon and getting bigger. The PS2 cant handle that many things on screen and thats why it happens.

I stand corrected!

ro_chez

jomanji wrote:

Any one else having a problem with aiming in the game? Every time I hit R1 to target someone, the character flicks around 180 degrees and then shoots in the air! I've to manually shoot everything and it's a pain in the a$$!

Yeah, thats starting to wreck my head big time:(

Private Joker

It's one of the misgivings about console games, there ain't no v1.01 patch comin out any time soon. but at least they'll have fixed all those problems by the time it hits the pc.

ionapaul

The PC version is going to RULE

But just think of how hard it is to wait 6 months...

Horsefumbler

Great game. pity its out on the ****ty ps2. the visuals are pretty dire but that can't be helped. I also found it WAY easier to control vice city. All this fiddling around with the targeting thing hoping it will lock to the person you want. aiming manually is a joke takes ages to lock onto your target thats the only reason I'm finding some missions hard at the moment.

Tusky

Anyone in Las Venturas ? How is it ? Im currently in San Fierro about 26 % into the game. On the mission where you gotta swim out to the big ship.

Chong

Youre well on your way tusky Las Venturas is excellent. It gets better wait and see.

monument

monument wrote:

This evening's 'the Last Word' on Today FM is apparently going to talk about some new computer game...

Err… I was sure I heard the presenter include it in the contents at the start of the show – nothing came up – maybe they went over time or it’s possible playing the game all day has made me crazy.

Ok I’m losing my mind here, or I apparently actually heard the presenter said they’ll be talking about it on TODAY’s show – which is on now.

I'm a bit relieved I heard it again today (as I haven’t been playing GTA all day) - so they might have just run out of time last night.

Deadwing

Youd think they could get the aiming right ffs. Its not that hard, other games have done it properly, even manhunt did it better than SA.
Aside from the brutal aiming the games pretty good, nothing beats crusing around in a low rider blaring some cypress hill. I spend most of my days playing pool or in the gym, and this game has the best soundtrack ive ever heard.
Shame about the graphics tho

Frank Spencer

Got SA in Xtravision on Friday and was playing it as much as I could over the weekend. I found that it crashed a couple of times. I even lost all of my progress cos I was too lazy to clear a block on my memory card. But I put up with it.

To my horror last night all I started getting was a disc read error. I nearly cried. I had visions of squabbling with a shop assistant over how I had treated the disc and then not getting a new copy until next week!! :eek:

So tentatively I went into Xtravision last night and explained my story. After a quick look at the disc the assistant said no bother and produced a new copy and sent me on my merry way!!

RESULT!!

Shazbot

where can u play pool and basketball ? all i can find is the arcade games in the 24 - 7 stores.

where are the helicopters on los santos ? its getting annoying driving all the wa through the countryside but i can be fun when u find cool cars in the middle of nowhere , eg monters truck and quads

Frank Spencer

Shazbot wrote:

where can u play pool and basketball ? all i can find is the arcade games in the 24 - 7 stores.

where are the helicopters on los santos ? its getting annoying driving all the wa through the countryside but i can be fun when u find cool cars in the middle of nowhere , eg monters truck and quads

You can play pool in the bar and basket ball in Tanton, where you save the game. Its just beside Sweets house!

Can't help you with the rest!

Ave

Well where to start....
HORRIBLE ****ING CONTROLS
HORRIBLE

Changing movement from d-pad to stick is the worst decision ever.

Aiming is as bad(or worse) as ever, dont know how many times I've died because it kept targetting people miles away instead of the enemy standing beside me killing me.

Also, many missions nigh on impossible using the sticks for aiming.

Quite a few times I've had to drive/fly 10 minutes just to restart a mission, PITA

TheGreatOne

Ave wrote:

Well where to start....
HORRIBLE ****ING CONTROLS
HORRIBLE

Changing movement from d-pad to stick is the worst decision ever.

Aiming is as bad(or worse) as ever, dont know how many times I've died because it kept targetting people miles away instead of the enemy standing beside me killing me.

Also, many missions nigh on impossible using the sticks for aiming.

Quite a few times I've had to drive/fly 10 minutes just to restart a mission, PITA

Ya just gotta get used to it, I way prefer using the stick now, at first i didnt like it but its definitly growing on me.

And the aiming thing all u guys are going on about isn't bad at all, if it locked on to every single bad guy, and no civilians, no matter where he was in relation to which direction you were facing it wouldnt be very realistic, like if he was right behind you, how could you see him?

The fact that it only locks on to people in your line of sight and sometimes locks on to cilivians sometimes makes it more realistic IMO. Just imagine a real gunfight in south central or wherever between the Crips and the Bloods, anything with a pulse would be getting shot at.

Ave

TheGreatOne wrote:

Ya just gotta get used to it, I way prefer using the stick now, at first i didnt like it but its definitly growing on me.

I'm finished the game and still hate it.

Just went back to VC and can see just how much better the D-Pad is.

And the aiming thing all u guys are going on about isn't bad at all, if it locked on to every single bad guy, and no civilians, no matter where he was in relation to which direction you were facing it wouldnt be very realistic, like if he was right behind you, how could you see him?

That's not my complaint, it's that I turn around to face the guy right beside me, press R1, and it swings me 180 and re-targets the guy miles away.

The fact that it only locks on to people in your line of sight and sometimes locks on to cilivians sometimes makes it more realistic IMO.

The problem is it doesnt act like this.

TheGreatOne

Ave wrote:

I'm finished the game and still hate it.

Just went back to VC and can see just how much better the D-Pad is.

That's not my complaint, it's that I turn around to face the guy right beside me, press R1, and it swings me 180 and re-targets the guy miles away.

The problem is it doesnt act like this.

Does for me, dont have any trouble with it, find it way easier than VC

BKtje

Ive very few problems with targetting. I just make sure im looking in the right direction first.

Swifty

I think people are talking about the bug where when you're facing at a bunch of enemies and you press R1 to attempt to lock onto them but for some strange reason CJ will turn around completely and just aim at nothing and the white cross-hair just appears. It was mentioned in EG's review. It's happened to me a few times, not too often so it's bareable. It's a little bad that they didn't sort it out though.

Manual aiming is awful, I hate the PS2 analogue.. I'm on a mission atm where I have to shoot down a couple of toy planes in the air and its very frustrating. I think the mission quality deteriorates as the game goes on. Maybe I'm wrong they might pick up in Las Venturas.

nesthead

this game is incredible!! yesterday i broke into the airport and stole a small jet plane and decided to fly to Las Venturas. (good flying system btw).

as soon as i fly over i hit the automatic 4 stars. i expect a crummy police helicopter to come chasing but...... you'l just have to see it for yourselves.

it was too incredible a gaming moment to type here... id just ruin it for you

Zico

It’s far too easy for a GTA veteran. Not enough has changed to challenge more than annoy eg. d-stick controls and aggressive traffic. Although there are a few nice additions like swimming, parachuting and various skill improvements. I’m trying not to blitz through the game so I don’t miss all the stuff I’ll need for a 100% completion. There wasn’t a lot they could do with the graphics on the current platform. I really hope that for the next generation of GTA releases they can make the same kind of seismic leap as they made from GTA2 to GTA3.

Dr. Loon

Got the game yesterday and played for about an hour. I really like it so far, but I haven't done alot.
I played Vice City on PC only, and I'm looking forward to seeing this how it should be - on a PC with sweet graphics. I find them very blurry on the PS2.

thafitz

Ave wrote:

Just went back to VC and can see just how much better the D-Pad is.

i cant believe that anybody actually prefers the d pad. i used the analog stick in gta3 and in VC and i find that you have way more control over your movement. at least now you can move around with the analog and use the d pad for other things. i reckon if you actually took the time to get used to the stick you would see that its better.

BKtje

i broke into the airport and stole a small jet plane and decided to fly to Las Venturas

Man i broke in (hopped over the fence after jumping on the hut) but all the planes were locked. This what you did or is there something else that i gotta do?

I also prefer the d-pad, the analog sticks just dont seem right

Miguel_Sanchez

I've only really started playing it seriously now. Did that burgalry mission a while back and can't remember how to go and do them myself. It's really simple I'm sure but I was probably drunk when it was spelled out for me.
So - tell me.

Shazbot

yea im curious as to how to do the burgerlries at night too. do u need a certain type of van and certain houses ?