San Andreas = Amazing

[bb_matt]

I just loaded up San Andreas - managed to get a copy through a buddy whose dad was on a bizz trip in the UK.

I've been playing for about 30 minutes and I'm gobsmacked at the size of this game - if you think Vice City was big, just the ONE city you start in is about 3 times as big and the detail is far higher.

I've never seen the game on PS2, but from what I've read, the PC version kicks it's ass six-ways sunday in terms of detail.

It's not jaw dropping visuals like Half-Life2 or Doom3 that grab you, because the engine doesn't work that way, it's the attention to detail which makes you wonder how the hell they did it.

If you've got a serious rig - AMD 64 + a 6800 or eqiv, you'll be way impressed.
I cranked up the anti-aliasing to 4xQ on my lowly 6200 (amd 2400+) and it looked absolutely stunning, but was too choppy to play nicely.

Dialogue is taking a bit of getting used to for an old fart like me - all the "down in the hood" stuff, but it's done so well it's like playing a movie + the cut scenes are way better in terms of animation and content quality - it really sets the mood. It's like a Spike Lee Joint :D

Vehicle physics is also more realistic - I was so used to driving around Vice City, it came as a shock that things aren't as easy in San Andreas.
The traffic, for instance, doesn't "obey itself" like in VC - it is far more realistic, so you have to keep your eye on the road at all times.

I was cruising on a highway and pranged into the back of someone and struth g0d, I caused an 8 car pile up ! - the physics was done perfectly.

The main characters animations are so much more realistic and smooth ...

Heck, this could just be the best video game yet made ... but then, as a self-confessed GTA Junkie, I'm biased :D

[rburley]

me jealous, when is it going to b available here?

[bb_matt]

Early July - I couldn't wait for Ster Kinekor to get their fingers out their assess, so took the opportunity while I could - got the DVD version.

To give you an idea of the scale :-

http://www.3r.co.za/bb_matt/myadsl/bb_gtasa-map.jpg

Look down the bottom right hand corner - I've highlighted a little bit in blue.
That's where you start. (to the left of that white circle)
That black blob is a cul-de-sack which is your immediate "hood" - in real world terms, the width of that circle is around 20 metres.

I have no idea how the hell I'm going to remember my way around this place - I know Vice City like the back of my hand, but that, as you can see, is minute in comparison.

[lilgindauk]

I got it about a week ago, its amazing with 8x anti-aliasing!
The graphics are amazing, the dvd itself is 4.5gb and the game is about 4.2gb!
3.8 gb minimal install!
I heard theres a patch for playing on the net.
I have to verify whether that rumour is true.
BB_matt, i've unlocked the first island, san vierro.
Its getting pretty hard!
tell me if you got any chaets plz:)

[bb_matt]

Only just started lilgindauk, spent the last 30 minutes just driving around !
Drove out into the countryside - yeeehaaaw.

Got totally lost :D

[lilgindauk]

i know mate, you can swim to the next island but the 4 stars come up and the feds come after you! nasty!:eek:

[lilgindauk]

Im gonna play, GTA:sa now. I love pimping up the cars with nitro:D
and steeling the bikes, like the sanchez and the Pcj-600. but i love the Cop-car. its nearly in-do-struct-able!:eek:

[Chris]

Why do you want cheats? It would totally ruin the experience. Can't wait to get it when it comes out though!

The sad thing though is that pirates have already got hold of it...I;ve seen my friends have it :( ...sad really. It's so tempting to get it but I have high moral values to stand up for.

[lilgindauk]

Mee-to , the only thing ive downloaded was music and 3 movies.
But cmon, everyone breaks the law at sometime, speeding, littering, swaering, rascism and graffiti.
and many and many and many more!

[slimothy]

yeah the game is amazing, personally i downloaded it 2 days after it came out (June 9th I think), I had it on ps2 for a while but the PC one is much sexier. I was jamming last night and a plane crashed in the road, all very random, also if you get the bmx to the top of buildings or high places you can bunny op off the edge and land on random people to kill em, if its really high you get a murder suicide thing going. I'm currently on the mission where you gotta chase those essays on the train while big smoke does the shooting, but mostly I've been messing arround

as for a net patch, no there is no patch, however rockstar are planning a game in 2007 thats basically GTA multiplayer where millions arround the world can be in different gangs or be cops/feds, its one of those mmorpg thingies.

I will actually buy the xbox version when I can though, because of co-op mode, it would have been sweet to have that on PC. oh yeah for people buying it in coming weeks, use a joypad, shooting with the mouse is too easy, BAM headshot, BAM headshot

[slimothy]

Why do you want cheats? It would totally ruin the experience. Can't wait to get it when it comes out though!

The sad thing though is that pirates have already got hold of it...I;ve seen my friends have it :( ...sad really. It's so tempting to get it but I have high moral values to stand up for.cheats actuall add to this game because some of the stuff in cheats just arent in the actual game, well not that i've seen, liek the rocket pack, and that is fun

as for piracy, HOODLUM cracked it a cool 16 hours after the first store sold it, its almost useless using securum routines to protect games, they should use variations of SAFEDISC, apparantly in the right situation thats really hard to crack, splinter cell chaos theory has still not been cracked at all

[bb_matt]

Why do you want cheats? It would totally ruin the experience.

On Vice City, I completed the entire game and then tried the cheats.

I'll be doing the same with San Andreas.

I also only consult online guides when I absolutely have to - basically when I reach the point of hitting my head against the keyboard in frustration. With VC I only needed to consult guides twice - one was for the bank job, I forget what the other one was ?

The packaging of San Andreas is as slick as Vice City - if you got Vice City when it was first released, you'll know what I mean, although I think you can still get the packaging with the fold out inner section, poster and map.

Very sexy - looks good next to my GTA:VC packaging.

[lilgindauk]

Same here, except most games i complete, i do it properly, then it make the experience worthwhile. after i did that, i use trainers or cheats.
Who the hell invented them in the fisrt place!

[slimothy]

invented games? i belive it was the cavemen when ug kicked a rock to bleh

[lilgindauk]

No slim, trainers!
Quite a complex program for what its worth

[lilgindauk]

Slim, do you know anygood virtual drives cept alchool and daemon, I swiped TM:sunrise of BT but need a patch or a emulator, thats skips starforce 3!:mad:
i hate that!

[Chris]

Of course some cheats add value to the game - but I was talking about doing it first time.

I certainly use cheats once I;ve finished :D...some of them are funny.

[lilgindauk]

i know, esp the flying cars:D and peds with guns!:eek:

[rburley]

People in south africa want san andreas now! Its simple, if they cant find it on the shelf they will get it of the net so piracy is actually ster kinikors fault for taking so long

[lilgindauk]

True- go to blockbuster or mr-video(cant belive i still member those:))
I bought mines but i still cant belive you can crack a game in 16 hours with securom. You must need a pretty heavy machine with ht.:eek:

[bb_matt]

People in south africa want san andreas now! Its simple, if they cant find it on the shelf they will get it of the net so piracy is actually ster kinikors fault for taking so long

Yep.

There was a time when ALL games arrived up to two months after overseas - then there was a game "drought" when one of the big distributors went bust - can't remember the name of them offhand ?

I'm not sure how long Ster Kinekor have been distributing, but they are really pathetic.

Megarom are the best thing that ever happened to this country in terms of gaming.

I'm hoping they can take over all the PC Games distribution.

All games they release are at most 2 days later than the UK, sometimes they are available on exactly the same day.

[lilgindauk]

true;)GTA:sa came ere 1month ago
i

[Chris]

I know it's going to be released in July but does anyone have a specific date?

[lilgindauk]

have no clue mate, sorry, i would up it to you, but you dont have bt do you?

[bb_matt]

I know it's going to be released in July but does anyone have a specific date?

I was told early July - but no set date - it could be next weekend - seems the most likely time.

Ster Kinekor really dropped the ball on this - they failed to take into account the idea that people like to go online and chat about their progress, how they did certain things - just to share the experience with people from all over the world.

That's a big part of the whole gaming scene.

[lilgindauk]

Ster-kinekor is also a nastymoney devil!

[rburley]

I heard 2nd July

[lilgindauk]

:cool:cool:cool:

[Chris]

Who is with me that there should be a GTA: South Africa :D?

[lilgindauk]

Yes i can def agree with that, i stab you up soweto style! my brother from anuther mutha!

[rburley]

Grand Theft Auto:Hillbrow

[rburley]

I got driv3r today, its quite good.
my 3d card struggling a bit though

[slimothy]

Slim, do you know anygood virtual drives cept alchool and daemon, I swiped TM:sunrise of BT but need a patch or a emulator, thats skips starforce 3!:mad:
i hate that!get star*****er (but without the asterix obviously) it will disable your other drives so you can use any cd daemon app, it doesnt beat protection on star force, just disabled everything star force checks for

[slimothy]

have no clue mate, sorry, i would up it to you, but you dont have bt do you? EVERYONE has bittorrent, its not some cool secret you stumbled apon, anyways scene ftps kill torrents because thats where the stuff is released

[slimothy]

true;)GTA:sa came ere 1month ago
ino it didnt, it was released 9 june in the us and it was in the UK 4 days later

[lilgindauk]

on the web dummy!

[lilgindauk]

well you know what i mean!

[lilgindauk]

get star*****er (but without the asterix obviously) it will disable your other drives so you can use any cd daemon app, it doesnt beat protection on star force, just disabled everything star force checks for
cheers mate will look into it!
last time i did it, there was a memory dump, andthe blue screen came up:eek:
thanks:)

[jackdaniels]

lildork why you use 2 posts when 1 would do, you always do that?
you trying to be a hardcore "myADSL master" are you?
you dont realise people are just puttin you on the ignore list buddy

[slimothy]

lilg it was released on the net by hoodlum june 9th as well, 2 days after american release, so you cant mean the web

[minkeymickey]

hi guys im new to this all u guys seem like real experts and i really need ur help!please help!i got gta sa copy,and i cant find this folder HOODLUM?i installed it but its saying iv got the wrong cd,cus i only got 1 cd and i thought there shud b 2 like in the non-copy of gta vc i had ages ago,but that must be why i need this crack,u see how useless u am at this!!!!!!!!!!!!!please somebody help me i wud appreciate it so much thanx every1 ur all stars xxxxx :p

[minkeymickey]

hiya mate sory to bother u,i bought a copy of gta sa to but im usless at these things and cant find this HOODLUM file?i realy want to get it rockin tho cus i really exited bout it but after installin it it ses i got the wrong cd which is why i presume u need the crack,cus on my gt vc game i had 2 cd's an instal 1 and a play 1,but it was ligit from a shop please help me!!!!!!!!!!!thanx xxxxx

[useless]

*looks for spammer ban button*

[bb_matt]

Still enjoying this game, to the point where I've even bought some clothes, my latest cool garb :-

http://www.3r.co.za/bb_matt/myadsl/bb_cj.jpg

Cool or what ? :D

[slimothy]

Cool or what ? :Dwhat

[Perdition]

I'm sure a kitten dies every time someone tells him that :D

[slimothy]

hah yeah hard to the core grandad

[rburley]

ok back to the topic...
I got GTA:SA today, very impressed. The Book that you get with it is a nice extra.
money well spent!

[bb_matt]

Just "unlocked" the final city and decided to see how long it would take to ride around the outside of the entire map. I tried to stick where possible to the roads/rails closest to the beach.

I took a bike, PJ-600 and expected it would take about 5 minutes. It took 15 minutes !
I crashed 6 times. Give it a try. I'm hoping that there's a race challenge in the game that takes you on a route around the entire map.

Great fun.

[DFantom]

Just "unlocked" the final city and decided to see how long it would take to ride around the outside of the entire map. I tried to stick where possible to the roads/rails closest to the beach.

I took a bike, PJ-600 and expected it would take about 5 minutes. It took 15 minutes !
I crashed 6 times. Give it a try. I'm hoping that there's a race challenge in the game that takes you on a route around the entire map.

Great fun.

I got the last mission to do, haven't been able to finish it yet because it's so long (easy 30min odd mission with a lot of shooting). Done a lot of the races in the game and the longest race I found is a race from San Fierro to Las Venturas.

Some things to do that I would recommend
* Find the tallest building in each town, there is normally a door you can enter and you can go base jumping
* Hijacking trains (btw the derailment speed, which you can see when you do a train mission is around 55)
* Each city has a gym. Each gym there is a trainer who will help you improve your fighting skills
* There is an advanced driving school (which you must of done, if you gotten to Las Venturas), but there is also an advanced motorbike school (in Las Venturas), and a advanced boat school (in the little town in the top right of the map).

[bb_matt]

I'm busy with the most irritating thing I've yet attempted - the Flight School missions.

The plane was easy enough, the apache mission is horrible.

It's evident that there's bugs in the game, or possibly it's my controller setup, because I've tried 50 times to get through it and every time the apache goes out of control for absolutely no reason.

It's taking the fun out of the game, because until I complete it, I can't proceed.

Damn.

EDIT: Switching mouse control OFF sorted out the problem - it was driving me mad ! - got through it easily after that.

EDIT: And then I hit the next mission to fly a plane below the radar - fun for the first 25 times, irritating after that.

[bb_matt]

This is how I feel right now :-

http://img227.imageshack.us/my.php?image=everfelt2ws.gif

Yep, GTA:SA has finally bought me down to that, or at least mentally.

It's the section called n.o.e where you have to fly a plane to a dropoff point and back.
The catch is, you need to fly it below a certain height to avoid radar and that height is loooow.

So anyway, after trying 20 times to get through the canyons and past the airport, I decided screw this, I'll fly out to sea and skirt my way around to the destination. The first time I tried, I dropped into the sea by accident, but could see I could get there !

The second time I got all the way to the destination, flew through the marker and in my excitement at finally getting there, crashed into a mountain, just as I realised I now had to fly all the way back again.

The third time I got all the way there, flew through the marker and all the way back - and then crashed on the landing strip.

It wouldn't be so bad if it only took 1 minute to fly there, but it takes about 5 and then 5 back again.

F@ck, I hate this game ! :D

[rburley]

I am on the mission that you have to follow the train and big smoke shoots the 4 dudes on top. gettin fed up!

[bb_matt]

Ahhh - that one - ok, the tip here is to always stay on the left of the train and try to stay to the left of the tracks as much as possible, so that Smoke can get a good shot.

BTW, that's waaaaay back in the game, but it is one of the more frustrating levels.

Here's what I mean :-

1|--|2
||--||
||--||
||--||
||--||Bike
||--||
||--||
||--||

The train runs along track 1, you hang out to the left of track 2 as much as possible, if you hang right alongside the edge, smoke has a much better shot, if your too close, his bullets hit the train, too far and you'll wipe out.

It's also a good idea to get ahead of the train just before the car gets hit and until the first train goes by, then go back to the left side of the tracks. When smoke says go up the embankment, do it - you can get a good shot from there, but the train will overtake you. Just after the bridge, ramp back onto the tracks and keep firing - you've got one more bend to try to shoot the final dudes.

Another tip related to the game, don't bother trying to take over gang territory early on, I did and it turned out to be a waste of time.

[rburley]

thanks will try now

[rburley]

lol, I did it first time i tried

[bb_matt]

:D - exact same thing happened with me when I tried it !
That is the only bit I've read a walkthrough guide for, as I was still getting used to the game.

I've just got through a few very irritating levels, but fortunately, they are few and far between.

When you do eventually get to the "Flight School" levels, make sure that mouse steering is off for vehicles ! You've a long way to go before that tho.

[slimothy]

those missions you do in san burito or whatever its called with the nerd kid were crap, and the last one in the advanced driving course where you have to flip the car was a bit crap.

I think its time we built the stats from the game and see who has the biggest kill count.

[DFantom]

EDIT: And then I hit the next mission to fly a plane below the radar - fun for the first 25 times, irritating after that.
Yip, basically did the same as you. Even flying into the mountain the first time I actually got there. Just wait there is one mission even worse than that, also involves flying (the cessna pos plane). But there is some great missions as well.


I am on the mission that you have to follow the train and big smoke shoots the 4 dudes on top. gettin fed up!
Damn that mission sucked sooo badly it hurt

[DFantom]

Something else interesting i found,when you have gang members with you or are on a date. Whip out the camera and what the people move into position and wave when you take the photo. Or hand the camera to them (walk up to them, press tab) and they will take your picture. Just a really nice little touch.

[rburley]

gta:sa has good AI