Entertainment/Gaming Consoles

[vsp]

If you're talking about a police car for Ray's first mission, there is a way to beat it that involves no car-chasing whatsoever.

Once you throw the grenade or Molotov into the hapless victim's window, he's going to come out of the garage as fast as he can and dart down the alley, right?

So BLOCK THE GARAGE DOOR with a fire truck. Throw a grenade through the window to rouse the target, then grenade the fire truck into oblivion. It'll blow up, and between that and the other grenades you're hurling, the target will be toasted without even leaving the garage, much less getting out on the street for chasing and such.

You'll want to do Ray's second mission ASAP, by the way -- completing it unlocks a store with some rather choice weaponry, one of which in particular makes Asuka's last mission a hundred times easier...

Word up G. Good tips. I guess you learn this from playing through the game 3 times Just as I can now do "Payday for Ray" every time, usually with ~30 seconds left. Wahoo.

It took me a few tries, but I got up there to get the bazooka without paying for it. Free weapon is good I now have all 11 weapons. Wahoo!

I'll keep going back and killing bums for Molotovs Any other easy ways to pick up weapons/ammo without spending my cash?

Hahahahaha. For <b>Two Faced Tanner</b>, I tried it once and after I tapped him had 4 stars immediately. I was like "this is fuckin' nuts", so I loaded my save game, drove over to the area, got out, readied the bazooka, stood in the circle... he comes running out, drives off and BAM! Goooood stuff.

I love this game

[ Edit - awww, that was Asuka's last mission. Man, I liked doing jobs for her. They were always good fun Oh well. Thanks for the tip about the bazooka, though I didn't realize that's the one you were talking about ]

[tokenidiot]

Asuka comes back after you finish some other critical missions.
By the end of the game, you will hate her. Fucking coffee mission bullshit.

Tell Jen to call me. I got too into the game to call her back.

I have like almost half a million right now and I haven't done any el Burro missions or taxi or shit like that. Word!

[jeni]

hmm.

[vsp]

Originally posted by dhamsaic
Tell Jen to call me. I got too into the game to call her back.

I have like almost half a million right now and I haven't done any el Burro missions or taxi or shit like that. Word!

Oh dear.

Well, if that's the case, getting 100% completion will be a tad more difficult than if you'd finished El Burro earlier.

By now, you've probably been back to Portland, and noticed the less-than-happy reception you get whenever you get near Saint Mark's. It just so happens that two of El Burro's missions (Turismo and Big & Veiny) are essentially _races_ that pass through Mafia territory -- once against opponents, one against the clock. They're hard enough to finish without hoods trying to blow up your car with shotguns; with them, they are possible, but... well, good luck.

The Mafia are by far the nastiest gang in the game -- the Columbians and Yardies may have Uzis, but they pale by far to the Mafia shotguns for destructive power. Mafia gunmen don't have a strong sense of self-preservation, and will merrily blow up vehicles (as in, yours) at point-blank range.

Any other easy ways to pick up weapons/ammo without spending my cash?

Hidden packages. For every ten you find (there are 33 in Portland, 36 in Staunton, 31 in Shoreside), you get a regenerating weapon pickup at each of your hideouts. The first ones that are of real use are at 30 (Grenades) and 50 (Armor), but it's well worth picking up a walkthrough to make sure you reach 80 (Sniper rifle) by the end of the game. Getting all 100 (Rocket launcher) is just icing on the cake.

Once I got the Armor pickup at the base, I bought around a hundred shells for the sniper rifle from the Ammu-Nation in Staunton, then fifteen rockets or so from Phil's when they became available. That's really all you need for quite a while for the missions -- what you need to wreak havoc around town may be another matter.

BTW, if you haven't been to Shoreside yet, try to snag an FBI car before you do and take it to the Emergency Vehicles crane. It's much easier to obtain one when the maximum star rating is 5 than when it's 6. Getting up to six stars has its own hazards and benefits, of course; the good part is that you can then steal a tank, the bad part is that you have to deal with its occupants and their friends to do so...

Ah, well... I don't plan on "one hundred percenting" the game yet. I wanted to finish all the normal missions without a saved fail. As in, keeping my weapons the entire way through. After that, my goal will be to 100% the game. Which will be damn tough, I'm sure.

How can I buy ammo and not the weapons? If I have the weapons, can I buy just shells and rockets and whatnot?

[vsp]

Ah, weapons == shells, so to speak. I refer to it that way because buying/finding the same weapon twice doesn't change anything but the ammo count.

Without spoiling too much... it is impossible to keep your original weapons the ENTIRE way through the game, even if you completely avoid being killed or busted.

The missions are actually one of the easier parts of 100% completion. For my money, the toughest parts are finishing the Ambulance missions (it's about forty minutes to finish level 12, and you have to do it in one continuous run in the same Ambulance -- no repairs possible) and the Rampages. Some of the Rampages will simply make your brain hurt.

This is more directed at vsp.

I'm looking to get a Saturn so I can play... well, Dead or Alive, which is an import only. I don't have it yet, but I'll get it. My queston to you is this: what do I have to do to play a Japanese game on a US Saturn?

[vsp]

Not much.

Moderately complicated method: With a minimum of soldering, you can install a switch in your system that'll toggle it between Japanese and US modes. If you're at all handy with a soldering iron, it's a snap. (I wasn't, and accidently melted off one of the jumper points -- my Saturn is now stuck in Japanese mode, using the cartridge solution that follows to play US games. But oh well.) I should have the specs on the modification somewhere if you're interested -- it's a six-wire solution, if I'm not mistaken.

Less complicated method: You can still send your Saturn to National Console Support (ncsx.com) and pay them $35 or so to install the switch for you. Shipping is extra, of course.

Less expensive method: If you don't mind having your cartridge slot taken up, you can use a converter cart like the ST-Key or the Pro Action Replay. (The former is a simple country-code-neutralizer that I have used for years; the latter adds some extra functionality, think Game Shark.) I went with the switch because I wanted a memory cart in the slot, and you can't switch carts in mid-session. It was the difference between 16 edit slots and 96 edit slots in SAT Fire Pro Wrestling S: 6 Man Scramble (the finest game ever for the system, IMHO). You can find the ST-Key online for about ten bucks.

Less complicated and expensive, but possibly not as good method: Buy Dead or Alive for the PlayStation.

DOA for PSX is running about $40 which is all good and everything, but it's hard to get and I'm not at all confident that it has the bouncing boobs, which is about 50% of the reason I want the game. The other is the nostalgia factor.

My dad is an electrical engineer. So soldering is no problem.

Hook me up with the instructions if you don't mind. I still want to get a Saturn, though admittedly, it's mainly to play Dead or Alive (I think I already said that earlier).

How much are memory carts for the Saturn? I hardly remember any of this shit, mainly because I never had one. Oh well.

[vsp]

Where are you looking for DoA? Amazon has it for $20, I'm sure my local EB Gameworld has it preowned for much less than $40, and I believe the PSX version does indeed have the boingy-boingy. Next time I'm in the area I'll check price and availability. (Where can you find the import Saturn version for less than that, besides?)

Try www.icedragon.com/mod/saturncon.html for a pretty good Saturn modification guide. www.ncsx.com/satmod.html has a similar guide, as does www.gamesx.com/importmod/saturncon.htm.

Saturn memory cartridges are high, if you can find them. The official Sega memory backup cart is 8MB, if I recall correctly, and was priced accordingly; figure $35-40 as a minimum even now. There are also RAM carts (used only with certain import games, mostly Capcom fighters), and hybrid cards like the Action Replay series (which combine country-code negation, Game Shark-ish code entry, RAM in some cases, and "passive" saves (meaning you can't save directly to it, but can only swap files to and from it in the Saturn's memory manager)).

The switch-mod and the genuine backup cart are the ideal solutions, but an Action Replay or ST-Key is a decent short-term solution. (The Saturn does have some built-in save-game memory space, so you can go without an expensive card.) Stay far away from the Interact Memory Card Plus -- like most Interact products, it's a steaming turd.

Originally posted by vsp
(Where can you find the import Saturn version for less than that, besides?)

I can't, but I am one hundred percent sure that the "boingy boingy" is fully intact in the import Saturn version.

Amazon doesn't actually have Dead or Alive in stock. Go check again. I don't need to, because I already did earlier this morning. If they did, it would have been overnighted to me a long time ago I need to check out FuncoLand or something. I'm not sure of any around me though. If you find it for a decent price <b>with case and booklet</b>, pick it up for me and I'll send you a check to cover cost + shipping + your time. By decent price I guess I mean about $26 or less. That's for the PSX version.

Totally unrelated - I can't help but love my Dreamcast. Am I wrong in thinking that it's a better console than the PS2? Obviously it's not up-to-par hardware-wise, but I just love that goofy little white box. Especially now that everything for it is dirt fucking cheap. I guess I'm partially just really sad to see Sega exit the console business. I had more fun on Genesis, Saturn and Dreamcast than I did on all the Nintendo consoles. Man. Nostalgia.

If you have any Dreamcast games that you're looking to get rid of, let me know. I might be interested in acquiring them for a reasonable (read: mutually satisfying) price.

<b>Current Game Library</b>

<b>Xbox</b>
Dead or Alive 3
SSX Tricky
Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
Project Gotham Racing
Rallisport Challenge
Halo

<b>PlayStation 2</b>
Grand Theft Auto 3
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec
Virtua Fighter 4

<b>Dreamcast</b>
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
Soul Calibur
NBA 2K1
NFL 2K1
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
Q*bert
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike
Street Fighter 3 Alpha
Virtua Tennis
Sonic Shuffle
Sonic Adventure
Crazy Taxi

<b>Nintendo 64</b>
1080º Snowboarding
Mario Kart 64
Star Wars Pod Racer

I think that's it. I may have forgotten some for Dreamcast: if so, I'll edit them in later. I picked up some Dreamcast games last night, as well as Virtua Fighter 4. I got Gran Turismo 3 when I was in California last week - $20 at Fry's. I'm currently looking for the following titles:

Devil May Cry (PlayStation 2)
Twisted Metal Black (PlayStation 2)
Dead or Alive 2 (Dreamcast)
Shenmue (Dreamcast)

I'm interested in, and will probably buy:

State of Emergency (PlayStation 2)
Spiderman: The Movie (Xbox)
Worms Armageddon (Dreamcast)
Worms World Party (Dreamcast)

If only money grew on trees...