The GTA 4 trailer, Rockstar is really pulling out all the stops... Options

[Cloudy]

Oh, I usually turn the radio off when I'm in a car (especially on missions). Even though the dialogue is louder than the radio I don't like it there distracting me when Niko and someone are trying to have a conversation.

Also, Late Checkout

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Are Isaac's guys supposed to respawn? I killed him, got two stars and was told to make my escape so I ran back downstairs only to get torn to shreds by his goons that I had killed five minutes ago. Unless I'm supposed to be escaping some other way, maybe?

[Tristof]

In regards to wrestling in GTA IV...

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Bernie

wanted to be a professional wrestler. And a sheep herder. OLD SCHOOL!

[Neil Koch]

Late Checkout -

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There's some guards that come out after you kill Issac. They all seemed to be hiding behind stuff in the living room area in the hotel room. Once I got rid of them, I didn't encounter any trouble beisdes a couple of cops who got into the hotel lobby.

IIRC, there's a health pack in the kitchen and a body armor on the roof/patio if your health is running low.

I don't think there's any other way out of the hotel besides the way you came in.

[Tristof]

There's a little...uh, I don't know what you call it. The little platform-elevator type things that are on the sides of some tall buildings? I believe there's one on this hotel that leads into a medium sized little alley area.

Because I don't recall going back into the elevator and escaping through the lobby of the hotel.

[Dirty Janchez]

There's a little...uh, I don't know what you call it. The little platform-elevator type things that are on the sides of some tall buildings? I believe there's one on this hotel that leads into a medium sized little alley area.

Because I don't recall going back into the elevator and escaping through the lobby of the hotel.

I used this method, easy way out especially if you are low on health. I also believe you can evade a two-star wanted level by going.

What happens when you kill all the most wanted criminals? I killed them all on Algonquin, but need to kill the rest of them on the other islands.

[Neil Koch]

I haven't done them yet, but I don't think it does anything special like the old Vigilante missions, it just adds to your percent of the game completed.

[enigmattica7]

And as far as darts goes.. I've never played before. How exactly do darts work? All I know is that you can "only check-out on a double or a bull". What does that mean? A bull = bullseye?

The double section is the thin ring on the outside of a dartboard. So when you start in this game you start at 301, reduce the number as much as possible. If you get down to 50 and score a bullseye, you win. If you've got 4 remaining, then you must hit the double-ring beneath the 2 to win. (with a 40 you have to hit a double 20, 38 you have to hit a double 19, etc.) If you reduce the number too far or go over, your score will revert to what it was before your last set of throws.

Actually if you go over the points you have left then the remainder gets put back on. So say you have 2 left and you go to hit the double one and hit a 19 or whatever is next to one. Well you get 17 put up for you to take out. At least that's what I've noticed.

[J.T.]

Late Checkout -

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There's some guards that come out after you kill Issac. They all seemed to be hiding behind stuff in the living room area in the hotel room. Once I got rid of them, I didn't encounter any trouble beisdes a couple of cops who got into the hotel lobby.

IIRC, there's a health pack in the kitchen and a body armor on the roof/patio if your health is running low.

I don't think there's any other way out of the hotel besides the way you came in.

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You appear to be correct. Late Checkout has a very Saints Row-ish feel to it in that the only answer is to blast your way out of a situation with heavy gunfire. I guess the devs really want you to be best friends with Little Jacob. Being able to pack heavy thanks to discount firearms has saved my ass more than once.

[Cloudy]

I just did it earlier this morning and I did it the way Tristof did.

also, the Infernus. Is it super rare in this game or what? I've only ever seen one

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The one that Bernie gives you for helping him out. Bryce Dawkins' Infernus.

I've got it saved at my Alderney safehouse just in case I never see one again.

[J.T.]

I just did it earlier this morning and I did it the way Tristof did.

also, the Infernus. Is it super rare in this game or what? I've only ever seen one

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The one that Bernie gives you for helping him out. Bryce Dawkins' Infernus.

I've got it saved at my Alderney safehouse just in case I never see one again.

I also saved my Infernus. I assume that they spawn infrequently in the more posh areas of Liberty City.

You probably have to pull the old "drive your car around to get others to spawn" trick so that you can just jump out of your car and just carjack an additional vehicle of the same type, but I'm not sure if the bastards at Rockstar fixed the hitch where cars you have already parked in your garage magically appear back at your safehouse after you abandon them in the street.

I'm pretty rough on my vehicles in the course of a getaway, so I haven't been brave enough to use the Infernus on jobs out of fear that I might wreck it beyond recovery.

I bring it out of the garage to impress the laaaadies and to pick up members of my rougues gallery of companions whenever we go to hang out at the strip club.

[Neil Koch]

I've found the best places to look for the good sports cars are near Bernie's in Middle Park and around the Times Square area. If you park a sports car at a safehouse, go and save your game, and then re-load it, a lot of sports cars will spawn in the area.

Beat the last mission yesterday. It wasn't too bad once I got the hang of driving the Sanchez. Overall, this was one of the easier GTA games. I do wish there was more variety in the missions, and your actions had real consequences, but overall this was a worthy addition to the series. I'll probably make another play through where I do the opposite choices just for shits and giggles.

BTW, how do you get the car requests via text messages? Brucie mentioned something about it a long time ago and I haven't seen anything since.

[Cloudy]

Overall, this was one of the easier GTA games.

Yeah. That's my only real complaint with the game - I've had it for just a shade over a week and I'm nearly finished with it. It's a fun game and even after I finish the story I'll probably still play for a while yet, but I really would have liked to seen some more variety in the missions and more missions. I think San Andreas was a little harder than this game - but hey, it's been about three to four years since I played it and I'm sure if I went back and played it, it wouldn't seem so hard.

[echris1015]

BTW, how do you get the car requests via text messages? Brucie mentioned something about it a long time ago and I haven't seen anything since.

Are you talking about Brucie's car requests or the set of 30 requests that come after that?

Brucie's are via e-mail. You reply to his e-mail if you're going to get the car - there's ten of those. I believe after that he puts you in touch with someone else who will send you a text with a picture and location of a car - there's 30 of those. The texts won't come until six game hours after you've delivered the previous car.

[Neil Koch]

I already did Brucie's email car requests, and he said something about someone requesting more cars via text messages, but I don't recall getting any messages. Maybe I'll try looking at the phone to see if there's any messages I missed.

San Andreas was a little harder than this game - but hey, it's been about three to four years since I played it and I'm sure if I went back and played it, it wouldn't seem so hard.

I haven't thought any of the games since III were particularly hard, but I actually played through the first game, where you couldn't replay missions if you didn't complete them. I believe I mentioned this before, but my big complaint with the missions in this game was that there was too much of drive here -> kill people -> drive away. Most of them were still fun, but were lacking the open nature of the missions from previous games, especially III.

[J.T.]

I haven't thought any of the games since III were particularly hard, but I actually played through the first game, where you couldn't replay missions if you didn't complete them. I believe I mentioned this before, but my big complaint with the missions in this game was that there was too much of drive here -> kill people -> drive away. Most of them were still fun, but were lacking the open nature of the missions from previous games, especially III.

Yeah, I think I mentioned in previous text covered by spoilers that there is a lot of Saint's Row-ish style kill missions in this game. Even the various fetch missions have a tendency to turn into full out gun battles.

It doesn't really bum me out that much since I haven't encountered any dumb RC missions and haven't participated in any useless street races. I'm happy beyond words that street racing is a multiplayer activity instead of being linked to story completion.

[J.T.]

And yeah, add me to the choir that is astonished that it has only been two or three weeks and I am dangerously close to beating this game.

[J.T.]

I do wish there was more variety in the missions, and your actions had real consequences, but overall this was a worthy addition to the series. I'll probably make another play through where I do the opposite choices just for shits and giggles

I'm not as far along as you are, but most of my actions have sorta had real consequences. Quite a few missions have been fairly challenging but beatable since I'm really deliberate about taking hiatus on missions to cultivate the in-game friendships.

Or are you talking about the various good guy / bad guy situations like deciding whether or not to kill the guy hanging off of the ledge? If so then yeah, I haven't seen any instant karma as a result of the good or bad things that I've done.

[Neil Koch]

I do wish there was more variety in the missions, and your actions had real consequences, but overall this was a worthy addition to the series. I'll probably make another play through where I do the opposite choices just for shits and giggles

I'm not as far along as you are, but most of my actions have sorta had real consequences. Quite a few missions have been fairly challenging but beatable since I'm really deliberate about taking hiatus on missions to cultivate the in-game friendships.

Or are you talking about the various good guy / bad guy situations like deciding whether or not to kill the guy hanging off of the ledge? If so then yeah, I haven't seen any instant karma as a result of the good or bad things that I've done.

Yeah, I was talking about the parts where you have the option to kill people, or have to make a decision of whom to kill. Yes, there are benefits/consequences like getting more missions or safehouses, but I'd like to see something more far-reaching. It's not just with these types of situations, but the game as a whole. For instance, once you finish a mission, everything in the world resets for the most part - your wanted level (if you have one) even magically goes away.

Scarface touched on this a bit with the gang and police heat meters, but I think GTA would benefit from some sort of perpetual world system. Like if you always go in with guns blazing, you'll have more heat on you, but if you take a more subtle approach you'll be able to move around the city easier. They should also bring back the respect meter (which was used to a certain extent in Mercenaries); I think it'd make the relationships you establish seem like they mean more than getting a couple of perks.

One thing about cultivating the friendships - I'm not sure of how the timing would work, but I think if you get in good with Kiki early in the game, a lot of the missions would be cakewalks since you could just call her to get the cops off your back. The others are nice for shits and giggles, but not really a big deal in the gameplay department IMO (except for maybe Roman's taxi service).

[Mr. Monday Morni...]

I'm terrified of taking my Infernus out. I had Steve's Comet you get when doing Brucie's mission and just left it parked outside the apartment for ages, then one day it just disappeared :(

[Neil Koch]

Yeah, I lost the Comet too, which sucks because it's explosion-proof, so it's perfect for the races.

I never get too attached to any cars in GTA games because apparently they still can't figure out how to create parking spaces/storage that don't randomly eat vehicles.