Entertainment/Gaming Consoles

[tokenidiot]

that always makes me laugh too. "oh no, he punched someone! quick, run over several pedestrians to get to him!"
as for unlocking the door, i don't exactly recall. i think you DO have to dent the door, but after that, it's yours. not a big deal anyway, as you can get the car fixed for free if you want by just letting it sit in the garage long enough for the garage door to close.

[jeni]

best girl ever? yes.

[jeni]

Jen, I think you need to come home and play GTA3 with me.

david, i think YOU need to come here with dad this weekend and play gta3 with paul and i. YES.

He told me, and I was like "score!"

but... work.

[vsp]

If you have no stars, even occupied cop cars are easy to carjack. Just yank on the PASSENGER-SIDE door. The cop will get out of the driver's side and run around to confront you; while he does, you can open the (now-unlocked) passenger door, slide across and floor it. Do remember to do this only where you can floor it, or the cop will bust you in nothing flat, of course...

You can usually yank one from right in front of your hideout -- they tend to drive by a lot, and you can scoop up the car and immediately double back to the Police Bribe icon in your hideout to get the cop off your tail. (You ARE doing Vigilante missions to earn Police Bribes, right?)

The jump I mentioned along the river near your hideout is your friend, as well. Not only does it give you some cash and look cool, but there's a Police Bribe at the high point of the jump. One of the funniest things I ever did was to do the jump with a cop right on my tail -- as it shifted to slo-mo, I watched my car soar over the bridge, collected the Bribe to get the star off my record, and then watched the cop SLAM INTO THE SIDE OF THE BRIDGE. That'll teach him to chase ME.

[tokenidiot]

Originally posted by vsp
If you have no stars, even occupied cop cars are easy to carjack. Just yank on the PASSENGER-SIDE door

I meant to mention that, I just forgot. Not to be outdone, however, I will now make up outrageous lies which include being able to fly the helicopter as well as ways to turn into some sort of monster.

How do I do vigilante missions?

[tokenidiot]

just push down the right joystick. you can do special missions in the police car, taxi, ambulance, or firetruck. there might be another, but i can't remember it.

I think we're talking about different things? I've been doing taxi and ambulance missions. What are vigilante missions though?

[tokenidiot]

vigilante missions are just the police equivalent of the taxi or ambulance missions. you chase and kill people.

[jeni]

you have to "get criminals off the street" - a certain number of them. get them off the street, a.k.a. kill them.

I tried that. It was pretty tough.

I'm now on to Salvatore's missions. I just brought Amy or Mary or whatever her name is back from the busted party, then I grabbed some health and went and saved my game And that's exactly where I am. I notice he has another mission for me, and I imagine that Tony does too.

I am definitely looking forward to bringing my memory card over there and getting some help on some shit. Maybe Jen could teach me how to find places from anywhere in the city. Still, after having played basically just two days, I think I'm doing pretty good. I passed all the recent missions on just one try so I was pretty tickled about that.

Man, I destroyed those three laundry trucks last night in all different ways. The first one I pretty easily carjacked and then just rammed the shit out it until it blew up. Since I didn't get out of it quick enough, I went and got some health I was on my way to carjacking the second one when I tapped it at a red light accidentally (oops!) and it just took off, evading me for the rest of the game. I eventually knocked it into a building and it caught on fire. I got out of the ambulance (what I was driving at the time) and ran like a mofo. Both of 'em blew up. The last one was also evading me (tapped it at a stop light! DAMMIT!) so I was banging it up pretty good. I eventually got it stuck with like 3 other cars and my car was smoking real bad. I rammed the truck and it caught on fire. So I took off. My car blew up and then the laundry truck did too. Score!

Jen - I found the Banshee. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not. It handles like shit though. LIKE SHIT! So do cop cars. Oh well.

Jeff - So I should get a Yakuza Stinger, take it to Pay-N-Spray to get it fixed up, and then go save with it? That seems like a wise idea. Also, if I leave it in that garage, will it <b>always</b> be there for me? Like say I leave it there, grab a car out front of my save point, go off and do some shit... then when I need it, can I come back and it'll be there?

[tokenidiot]

Jeni says the Banshee handles like shit cause you're not used to it. Once you are, you'll see that it's basically the best car in the game. The Stinger's okay, but not as fast or durable as the Banshee.
By the way, yeah, the garages save any car in them. Even if, for example, you leave a car in one garage and then save in another part of the city, the car will still be there any time you return.

[vsp]

Originally posted by tokenidiot
Jeni says the Banshee handles like shit cause you're not used to it. Once you are, you'll see that it's basically the best car in the game. The Stinger's okay, but not as fast or durable as the Banshee.
By the way, yeah, the garages save any car in them. Even if, for example, you leave a car in one garage and then save in another part of the city, the car will still be there any time you return.

Bah. The Banshee has a higher top speed than the Stinger, but the Stinger has THE best handling in the game, bar none. Driving styles will vary, but when it comes to handbrake turns, I have a much easier time with the Stinger than with anything else -- the Banshee has a tendency to fishtail, though it's about average in that regard. (The Stallion is just plain miserable for precision driving. Try a handbrake turn with a Stallion and you're suddenly doing doughnuts.)

The Stinger is slightly slower in speed and acceleration than the Banshee, but it's pretty close on both counts, and both of them blow the doors of any non-sports-car vehicle in the game. Of course, CPU-controlled cop cars can always reach a speed of (your vehicle + n) if they're so inclined.)

The reason I highly recommend the Stinger (Yakuza or not) for Turismo is because you're rarely going to be at top speed on that course -- there are lots of turns on congested city streets, with three maniacs driving up your tailpipe. With a Stinger, I can tap the handbrake and have it facing exactly where I want it to with a minimum of effort; with a Banshee, I have a tendency to overshoot or overcorrect. Durability is about the same, really (pretty low for all sports cars). If you can handle the Banshee, more power to you, but the Stingers are MUCH more approachable for novice and expert alike (unless you're a Gran Turismo addict).

As for other vehicles, I have a soft spot for Patriots, after suffering through Patriot Playground and Gripped! and learning how well they can climb steep inclines.

As for Vigilante missions, here's a free tip/glitch; get the target vehicle in your sights, then hit Start to pause the game. When you resume with Start, if you're within a certain distance of the target, he'll GET OUT OF HIS CAR and be easy pickings. Squash, lather, rinse, repeat...

[vsp]

I have a new addiction, with a second new addiction sitting in the on-deck circle.

The on-deck addiction is Freedom Force (for PC). The reviews have been great, the documentation is promising, and I just haven't had time to install it yet because I know I won't do anything else for a while. (I do that a lot with games.)

The current addition is Virtua Fighter 4 (for PS2). I've owned VF2 (Saturn) and VF3tb (Dreamcast) in the past, so I'm no stranger to the gameplay, but this one is far superior in several areas:

* Two new characters, each of which is very interesting in design. The sumo (Taka-arashi) from VF3 is gone, which is also a plus.

* Kumite mode is fascinating. It's like being in a Japanese arcade -- you create a ring-name for your favorite character, then face off against a nearly endless stream of opponents with varying skill levels, earning rankings and special (costume) items along the way. Absolute fun, and a perfect way to measure your skill level with your character du jour.

* But AI mode is even better. In this mode, you create a CPU-controlled sparring partner who's a tabula rasa; he or she has no moves, no strategies and no skills. You train the AI by sparring against it (teaching it new moves and techniques), showing it replays and critiquing performance (hitting O to reinforce good moves/trends, X to scold bad techniques and strategies), and acting as his/her coach during live fights (again, O/X to promote or rebuke accordingly). You don't have to be a master to train a master (though it helps, of course). This is a wonderful new dimension for fighting games, and one I'd love to see repeated elsewhere -- even if I am beating my head on the wall occasionally, trying to get my Lion AI to break out of some bad habits.

Best... fighter... ever.