Jim - Every gripe you had with the game is exactly the same as what I found annoying. As a whole, though, it's incredible. I found myself, later in the game when the entire state opened up, just leisurely tooling around the countryside on the dirt bike listening to K-Rose and enjoying the solitude. I'd find that I'd burned off a half an hour (of real time) and not seen the same place twice. For a game whose reputation and storyline are driven by violence, its the mellow parts that struck me the most.
- Jim Jim Davis wrote: >Well - I finished the story missions. I could still do a lot, but I >probably won't. > >I finished the story, got most of the export cars, got mostly gold in most >of the schools, did all but two of the "asset property" missions, dated all >but one of the girls (but never got 100% with any of them), got "hitman" in >all weapons, bought all of the safe houses, did the pimping missions, maxed >my driving and motorcycle skills, got all 100 gang tags, got all 50 >horseshoes, did all of Zero's RC missions, and got 100% of the available >neighborhoods in the turf wars. > >With all of that my "percent complete on the game" isn't even 80%. > >I could still do all of the races, get gold in all of the schools, do the >dry-dock motorcycle challenge, finish the rest of the export board, get all >my dating scores up to 100%, finish the delivery missions to get the other >asset properties, get the rest of the stunt jumps, get the rest of the >oysters, get the rest of the photo ops, do the freight train missions, >complete the ambulance/firetruck/police/taxi car missions and do all of the >stadium events. > >Forgetting all of that I could still (just for fun and profit) do the >low-rider challenge, perform burglaries, do the shooting range challenges, >play one of four video games, play pool, play basketball, gamble on any of >six or so games, go dancing, primp with barbers, tattoos or new clothes, >trick out cars at the mod garages or grab a friend and play any of around 10 >two player missions. > >Lacking all of that I could still just mug pedestrians, jack cars, and have >harrowing police chases. > >What continuously strikes me about the game is how truly and honestly crappy >it is in every detail but how stunning it is when considered as a whole. >Any particular aspect of the game really sucks. It looks bad, it has awful >physics and there are cheap deaths galore. The camera is unhelpful to say >the least and the game's interface really sucks. > >This last bit was most annoying throughout. The map in the game was next to >useless. Many important places weren't represented (police stations, >hospitals, Off-track-betting parlors, etc) and the map was so lo res it just >didn't help you find things. Also this game was very three-dimensional but >the map didn't help there at all - you'd be driving across what looks like a >plain only find a 100' cliff. > >The interface for changing clothes is murder... it takes far, far too long >and too many selections to change a suit of clothes. The time it took to >eat and navigate the menu was also annoying. > >The play area was so damn big but there were few concessions for this. In >GTA3 for example "gift" weapons (weapons earned for collecting) spawned at >all your safe houses. In San Andreas they spawn only at one (I would have >been happy with them just appearing at the three primary locations). > >There's only one place to get or do a lot of things. When you find a car >suitable for export you've really no choice but to drive it from wherever >you are to the Easter Basin Docks - which could easily be a drive of 25 >minutes. There's only once place to get the jet pack and it disappears when >you're done with it (you can't store it in a garage like other vehicles). > >The asset properties were a good idea: but you have to visit each property >EVERY (game) DAY to reap the most rewards. Asset properties also don't show >up on the map - which means you have to remember where they are - it can >easily take an hour to visit all of your properties. > >The game has tons of cheap, cheap, cheap deaths (or mission failures). >Nothing is to terribly hard, but I had several moments where poor design >almost made me leave the game. > >For example the "Turf Wars" were okay, but the waves of enemies would often >get lost and end up many blocks from the "war zone". If you went to get >them you risked losing the battle for leaving the zone for too long. (And >let's not mention the annoyance of not being able to start a turf war >because some of the "neighborhoods" were so damn hard small or hard to see >on the map). > >I lost several driving missions because it started to rain in the mission (a >normal, but random event) and rain causes most cars to slide around like >drunken figure skaters. > >I was very often shot to death because the auto-aim would select the >completely harmless pedestrian behind the cop shooting me in the face. > >The weapon classes were utterly annoying. You could only carry one of any >weapon: so you might spend some time collecting ammunition for a certain >pistol. However then a mission would come along which forced a different >kind of pistol on you and all that work was lost. You couldn't swap a >weapon to see what it was and pick back up the previous weapon - it's an all >or nothing choice. > >These classes were also rather restrictive: you could carry either grenades, >Molotov cocktails or satchel charges but not all of them - even tho' they >have completely different functions and uses. > >All told I really loved the game... but it's hard to say why since every >time I think about any particular thing I realize I hated that. ;^) > >Jim Davis > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Find out how CFTicket can increase your company's customer support efficiency by 100% http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=49 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:161929 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
