GTA:SA First Impressions & reviews

Ave

thafitz wrote:

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.

I already said I finished it(75+hours using it).

While the stick is better for foot movement, it sucks majorly for driving, it's accuracy is terrible.

weemcd

hmm i just got the game and have only given it a few hours play. tbh im not that impressed as it seems very samey to the other games. im sure as i progress my opinion will change also one thing that bugs me is a song that was left out of the soundtrack, that i feel would be a perfect radio x candidate : the offspring l.a.p.d (the very name even suggests it would be perfect for the game) lyrics here: http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/L-A-P-D-lyrics-Offspring/8097EC8CCB394D174825689E000B4802

the song is basically about corrupt cops, racism from police officers and police brutatlity. imo it is perfect for the game, anyone else heard the song? i suppose technically it may be 1 year too young for a game set in 1992, but it's a small point to ignore.

Tusky

weemcd wrote:

hmm i just got the game and have only given it a few hours play. tbh im not that impressed as it seems very samey to the other games. im sure as i progress my opinion will change also one thing that bugs me is a song that was left out of the soundtrack, that i feel would be a perfect radio x candidate : the offspring l.a.p.d (the very name even suggests it would be perfect for the game) lyrics here: http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/L-A-P-D-lyrics-Offspring/8097EC8CCB394D174825689E000B4802

the song is basically about corrupt cops, racism from police officers and police brutatlity. imo it is perfect for the game, anyone else heard the song? i suppose technically it may be 1 year too young for a game set in 1992, but it's a small point to ignore.

Thank god they left "the offspring" off the soundtrack
they wouldnt suit the game at all...

One song that really should have been on it though is "Sabotage" by "The Beastie Boys.

vibe666

damn, that's a long thread.

anyway, apologies if I missed an earlier post that already mentions this, but I just hopped on a train, drove it right the way into the mountains at breakneck speed and then derailed it off a cliff into a lake. then I swam with the fishes, dolphins and a jellyfish, before hopping on a tractor and farming it into the nearest hick town and stealing a decent car.

I love this game.

damn tho, gonna be pushed with work to get it finished before the 16th when HL2 comes out, and what little i have of a life in the real world ends.

wish I got paid for sick days and holidays.

Placebo

i played it, 'popups' or drawdistance is awful, specially when youre driving along the sea port in a long road and all these people appear out of nowhere.
as for the game it plays exactly like the old ones, so theres no new feel to it.
good game nonetheless but nothing new or special.

Tusky

Placebo wrote:

i played it, 'popups' or drawdistance is awful, specially when youre driving along the sea port in a long road and all these people appear out of nowhere.
as for the game it plays exactly like the old ones, so theres no new feel to it.
good game nonetheless but nothing new or special.

Theres an endless amount of new things. Did you just play it for a few minutes and post up your review ? :rolleyes:

vibe666

I have to agree with PLacebo. played it for 4 or 5 hours now, and it doesn't feel new. it could easily have been an add-on (admittedly a huge add-on) for vice city.

I like a few new touches, although the targetting system still needs work, and there's lots more veriety, but aside from the physics being tweaked a bit, and being able to jump over fences, I can't see a huge improvement over the last game, like there was with vice city over gta3. I know the ps2 is getting a bit long in the tooth, but i still think they could have done better.

and the pop-ups are getting on my tits too, especially when you're hammering down a road and all of a sudden it forgets to draw objects in (or can't keep up). maybe it's because my ps2 itself is long in the tooth and the laser is getting a bit knackered and can't keep up like the newer models, but I'd have been inclined to forgo the extra viewing ditance when you're stood still in favour of being able to see what you're standing on.

Tellox

Missions are very very very irritating at times... NO CJ, AIM AT MAN SHOOTING YOU, NOT OLD WOMAN ACROSS THE STREET

Joypads and aiming have NEVER worked. Cant wait for the PC version, though.

delly

My first couple of hours playing the game where pretty average, but as soon as the hood territory missions started, i really got into it. I have just finished the green sabre mission so i'm out in the sticks. The pop up problem for me is fine, purely because i've played GTA:VC on my PC with the lowest specs, so i've been used to a lot worse.

On another note, and without starting another GTA:SA thread, anybody know what the song is when your doing the dance contest on the beach?

weemcd

delly wrote:

My first couple of hours playing the game where pretty average, but as soon as the hood territory missions started, i really got into it

aye im exactly the same, im really starting to enjoy the game now, tho im not finished the territory yet, hopfeully will have it finished by tonight.

delly

It took me about 12 hours of play before I got into San Fierro. I know other people are moaning about finishing it too quickly, but i'm not racing thru' missions, i'm just taking my time explorering etc.

A tip for the territory fights is to park your car beside a building and to jump up on a roof then pick your 3 ballas off. When the fight starts you'll be in the best position holmes, GROVE STREET FOR LIFE!

Panda

I'm a decent way into the game, 12 hours played i think....
Things i am enjoying about SA.

1: swimming
2: bmxing
3: basejumping
4: sheer size of the map
5: two player mode
6: pimping

and on the flipside.

1:The popups. it rarely happened in vice city and now its happening all the time. the street in front of me turned to blue whilst playing yesterday and i thought i was driving off a cliff. (weird sensation that)

2:aiming, the lock on is sad. truely sad. way prefer the d-pad.

3:the driving habits of the other drivers, i seem to be crashing into everything and theres regular pileups on the freeways aswell... maybe its just me...

some spoilers, nothing major...

there are tractors, and ride-on lawnmowers for those who were curious. massey 500 i'm sure...
the hidden packages have been replaced by the spraying of tags, and collection of oysters AND horseshoes?
taxi missions are still a handy way for makin money.
theres more im sure...

mobile04

the game in my veiw is over rated

i read in italy they tried to ban it just due to the advertising campaign
as too the violence and nature of the adds . belive it or not


but if it was a low key add campaign and i just think its over hyped .....
bet ya its on the 2 for 50 shelf january............

but im not slaming the game
its got good stuff on it . and smooth to play and get around.

new metal gear solid game out next week in usa

cant wait
i got mine ordered from toys r us in the good auld us of a
40 euro inc post .....

Ciaran500

What you think was wrong with the game?


Will you please start typing right I had to read your post about 5 times to make sense of it.

Captain Trips

Panda wrote:

1:The popups. it rarely happened in vice city and now its happening all the time. the street in front of me turned to blue whilst playing yesterday and i thought i was driving off a cliff. (weird sensation that)

I think it is more prevalent, especially when you go "fast" and the motion blur comes on. Also, more tall buildings in VC and in SA there are broad open expanses, plus there are none of the loading screens (well, not nearly as many as in VC or GTA3 when crossing every bridge).

3:the driving habits of the other drivers, i seem to be crashing into everything and theres regular pileups on the freeways aswell... maybe its just me...

It's like that to mimic driving in LA....:). e.g., you clip a car's wing and a guy might get out and pull a gun (?just like in real life?)

some spoilers, nothing major...

there are tractors, and ride-on lawnmowers for those who were curious. massey 500 i'm sure...
the hidden packages have been replaced by the spraying of tags, and collection of oysters AND horseshoes?
taxi missions are still a handy way for makin money.
theres more im sure...

[/QUOTE]

Ciaran500

Captain Trips wrote:

It's like that to mimic driving in LA....:). e.g., you clip a car's wing and a guy might get out and pull a gun (?just like in real life?)

I think he means the way drivers seem to swerve inforont of you on hiways. It annoys the hell out of me to, especially when I try a race. :mad:

Shazbot

yea very annoying when people keep swerving on the roads , especially taxis. good thing i prefare bikes and can easly go through traffic

steviec

vibe666 wrote:

I like a few new touches, although the targetting system still needs work, and there's lots more veriety, but aside from the physics being tweaked a bit, and being able to jump over fences, I can't see a huge improvement over the last game, like there was with vice city over gta3.

Funny, I was disappointed with Vice City, it was just the same game in a different city. This one has so much more, the main character is a million times more agile, when it comes to climbing and also his abilities in a gunfight, not to mention stealth. There's swimming too but that's a bit of a throwaway feature. Then there's the pure size of the game. More isn't always better but it's just done so well, it really does feel like an entire state, and the amount of time I've spent just exploring and always finding new things and neat touches. The missions are a lot more varied and interesting with many many different types of gameplay, and then there's so many minigames and things to do, and the game just never fails to surprise you with something new just when you thought you'd seen everything.

I've finally cleared the story after 77 and a half hours play, was a brilliant finale to a great game in my opinion. Only at 70% complete so still plenty more to do too.

Smellyirishman

Ye,some of the things people complain about and my answers:

a:about the graphics, they may not have been improved on much, but as has been mentioned, the loading times have been taken out when travelling across the state. Have you any idea what a HUGE addition that is! Remember going over the bridge only to realise you had to go back less than 30seconds later!

b:Aiming, Its a good damb breeze! If you cant aim in this game, you havent been playing games too long! IT AIMS FOR YOU!! Could it be any easier?!!

Tips for aiming: Since a lot of people complain about this, ill write about how I choose to aim.

Step1: Know when your going to need to shoot, and when you do hold R1(into auto target mode)

Step2: Walk slowly around the corners(or roll) if your inside, then when your around the corner, while still holding R1 press either R2 or L2 depending on which side the bad guy you want is, then proceed to blast!!

Alternate Step2: For outdoor, just crouch down, and walk, then using the manual aim, turn to where you need and again hit R2 or L2 in respect to your target, simple

I like a crouch and walk to corner, then roll out and hit R2/L2 approach, this also gives me ample time to roll back around the corner to avoid bullet fire


I think most people have trouble aiming cause they run head on into 8 bad guys and just mash R1 so CJ spins every which way to try and deal with the chaos the player has left him in.

Really enjoying this game, whole lotta fun, cant wait to get to the end of the story to get to the "true GTA". Gotta get it finished before tuesday!(next tuesday obviously)

{edit} I think im about 5x-60% done in about 30hrs

went back to grove street last night, and loved just being able to buy any house near instead of having to trek down to momma`s house

Oh, and about the highways, I love how the cars drive recklessly out on the highways its brilliant! once out in cop free land even the civilians let thier hair down! It can be annoying if your right beside a guy and he pulls out infront of you, but it happens rarely if your alert(especially if your on a bike! 100% bike 5|<|11Z here )

Ciaran500: never thought I would see you defend a PS2 game, finally you have come to your senses

lol, just realised how long I rattled on for, well, got nothing better to do in college, except post on boards before my programming exam

lyonsy

Can someone help me out here:

I'm stuck on the first OG Loc mission where he tells you to go to the beach party and get a sound system it says that you're ment to go and talk to the DJ, but when i go up to the red circle the DJ just says "hey baby wanna dance?" and you get an option to anwser positively or negatively, if you do either the DJ just says something and nothing else happens, am i missing something? or is there a bug in my game?

delly

lyonsy wrote:

Can someone help me out here:

I'm stuck on the first OG Loc mission where he tells you to go to the beach party and get a sound system it says that you're ment to go and talk to the DJ, but when i go up to the red circle the DJ just says "hey baby wanna dance?" and you get an option to anwser positively or negatively, if you do either the DJ just says something and nothing else happens, am i missing something? or is there a bug in my game?

You have to shoot the girl DJ and the van is yours.







Seriously tho' just reply positively and you'll start the dance contest. and if you know the name of the song let me know.

delly

Something else i've enjoyed doing is getting a really fast car and putting the foot down in the storm drains. You get up to some speed without crashing and at the end you roll into the sea. I might try and see if the cops will chase me and i'll jump out of the last second, which is something else i don't remember being able to do in VC, you usually had to come to a complete stop to get out of your car.

Captain Trips

lyonsy wrote:

Can someone help me out here:

I'm stuck on the first OG Loc mission where he tells you to go to the beach party and get a sound system it says that you're ment to go and talk to the DJ, but when i go up to the red circle the DJ just says "hey baby wanna dance?" and you get an option to anwser positively or negatively, if you do either the DJ just says something and nothing else happens, am i missing something? or is there a bug in my game?

All you do is ask her three times and then the dance comp starts. Obviously I don't have the anger of asking once and then shooting everyone like some others here

Smellyirishman

Yep, keep being nice, dance, get in car, drive off, get chased, park in garage, move on

You could jump out of your car in VC while it was moving, same way as you do in SA

delly

Smellyirishman wrote:

You could jump out of your car in VC while it was moving, same way as you do in SA

I stand corrected

projectmayhem

anyone see area69 yet? it's crazy. i got in and had a look around (with 5-star rating automatically added). there's an iraq-style tank, big helicopter and then i was shot dead by 2 helicopters. tried again, got the helicopter and an air force jet shot me out of the sky. same happens when you go near the two aircraft carriers in san fierro.

great game

Shazbot

yea i found that area while trying to take a shortcut to the abondened air field.

you cant even fly over it or you will get 5 stars and get shot down by jets , very annoying

phenom

lyonsy wrote:

Can someone help me out here:

I'm stuck on the first OG Loc mission where he tells you to go to the beach party and get a sound system it says that you're ment to go and talk to the DJ, but when i go up to the red circle the DJ just says "hey baby wanna dance?" and you get an option to anwser positively or negatively, if you do either the DJ just says something and nothing else happens, am i missing something? or is there a bug in my game?

As far as i know you have to reply afew times positively.

Smellyirishman

Lol, wait till you do the mission in area 69 and see what you find

steviec

Smellyirishman wrote:

Lol, wait till you do the mission in area 69 and see what you find

Oh yes that was a lot of fun...

Have to say I haven't been in area 69 other than that mission and haven't seen the tanks or anything so there's something to try...