Erkki Posted October 20, 2004 Wow. Did you see the new San Andreas trailer. Apparently you can even skydive! I wonder what you can't do in the game? From all the things that have been said about it so far, it looks like my dream come true, but I secretly worry if they haven't tried to bite of more than they can chew. I'm pretty excited, only about a week left till the release... I suppose. They haven't said it has gone gold yet. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Erkki Posted October 20, 2004 SHIT! I just heard that the friend who was supposed to lend me the PS2 has gone to Norway and won't be back for a month... This means I won't be playing San Andreas any time soon... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Marek Posted October 20, 2004 Sorry, but you can't drive cars in San Andreas. They had to take it out to keep a good framerate. Okay, so that's not it... but there has to be a catch somewhere, right? Right?? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ninja Dodo Posted October 20, 2004 Maybe the catch is that some fool will ban it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mee Ronn Posted October 21, 2004 [..] but I secretly worry if they haven't tried to bite of more than they can chew. Ditto. I also fear for feature creep. I don't really mind having the game be frikken huge, I'll just keep playing it. I played GTA:VC with my friends for weeks, hours and hours of gaming after I had already beat the main story. Getting 100% in San Andreas will certainly be a larger chunk of my game time though As long as the 100+ (or so I read) hours of game play are fulfilling and continue to stay fresh I'll love it. I also worry a little about bugs. VC had a lot of bugs, no "show stoppers" but some annoying ones non-the-less. When you deal with a game like GTA:VC, that has so much game engine and content, it gets incredibly hard to be able to keep the bug count low. San Andreas is SO much bigger in both regards that I wonder how buggy it will be. I would love to hear the line count of code for the game! Also, according to Insider Gamer Online the game went gold on 14th. I haven't seen an official word from RockStar to back up the claim but with less than a week to go I certainly hope it's gold now. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SiN Posted October 21, 2004 my worries are similar to Walters ... Heres the thing ... i absolutely love the gta series ... i have every gta game on the pc (gta1,london,gta2,gta3,gta:vc) and i fully intend to get san andreas. but im not all that excited about it. Theres nothing more to do. IMO, rockstar have more-or-less run out of ideas and are forcing the series forward for the money. The fact that ur player can become hungry, fat, thin, etc doesnt really seem like a great feature to me. it seems like the gta concept has nowhere else to go, so they tossed in a few features, and made the game "bigger & better" than before. infact, im kinda worried about the scale. i dont actually want the place to be too big, it'd be a bitch to memorize & navigate. what im hoping will happen is the great minds at rockstar will take a break from the gta series after SA ... work on something new and equally as revolutionary. i really doubt thats gonna happen, but i can always hope ... SiN Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jake Posted October 21, 2004 Manhunt 2: Return of the Man! :pan: :pan: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chris Posted October 21, 2004 including the hardcore multiplayer mode, Xtreme Clawhammer Challenge! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jake Posted October 21, 2004 See, its like WarioWare for the Cube, but instead of messages asking you to stand on one foot or whatever, it requests - nay, demands - that you knife player two in the side. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThePope Posted October 21, 2004 I cant wait for this game. Im skipping my first class to go and buy it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jake Posted October 21, 2004 I cant wait for this game. Im skipping my first class to go and buy it. Ah, the Thumb Way. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Marek Posted October 21, 2004 A small team at Rockstar has been doing design and pre-production on the first next generation GTA since Vice City was released. I'm going to assume that San Andreas is just meant to be the biggest and most fully-featured GTA game Rockstar can come up with right now using their current technology and essentially the same gameplay, and that it's intended to be the climax in the '3D GTA trilogy'. As for what's next ... I hope and expect Rockstar to come up with new ways to make the city come alive. I'd be glad to see tons of procedural stuff happening that makes the city more convincing. But I can't say I'm sure where the series needs to go in terms of gameplay. I liked having real estate in Vice City, but instead of those being story checkpoints it might be possible to make you feel like you actually control real estate in the city. Adding a tiny hint of Tycoon to the formula might be interesting. It might be fun to have some management choices over your restaurant or club, and a bunch of mini-missions inside the building such as chatting with VIP customers. But honestly ... I don't know how the GTA formula can be significantly altered or improved apart from making it incrementally "bigger & better". What would truly increase the interactivity of the game? I mean, there's things on my wishlist, such as better ways to interact with the characters, but I don't think any improvements are going to dramatically change GTA in the way the transition from 2D to 3D did. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Erkki Posted October 21, 2004 My main hope is that "new features" don't primarily amount to more terrain, more ways to get around, and more clothes. I want deeper interaction with the environment. Theres nothing more to do... it seems like the gta concept has nowhere else to go, so they tossed in a few features, and made the game "bigger & better" than before. Are you saying you wish they hadn't done a new GTA at all or that instead of the new features we've heard about they should have done something else? I think it's pretty exciting that they are taking the genre blending even further and adding RPG elements. If people have fun customizing their hero in Fable, why won't they like it in San Andreas? There are possibly even strategy game elements, but the real estate part has not been previewed yet (that I know of) so I don't know about that. But there will definitely be more of various places you can visit, like driving schools, bike schools, martial arts training, robbing houses, a casino you can own etc. etc. More R3 missions (why do they call them R3?). There is most definitely more interaction with the environment, besides the environment itself being larger. But I don't know if it's 'deeper'. I don't know if they even could do 'deeper' with this generation hardware, where all the cars and people are be random things that exist only in the vicinity of the player (except mission-critical ones). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mee Ronn Posted October 21, 2004 They are called R3 missions because you push down the Right analog stick, which is called "R3" (since R1 and R2 are already shoulder buttons), to start them up. That should explain it... unless I'm too tired and missing some sarcasm and that question wasn't real Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chris Posted October 21, 2004 I'm honestly not worried about San Andreas improving upon Rockstar's current formula. In a worst-case scenario and all they do is make it "bigger and better", I will not be disappointed. Vice City-like interactions in an environment that's potentially three times the size sounds pretty appealing to me, especially since we already know for a fact that there will be plenty of new interactions. If nothing else, it will clearly be more of a step forward than GTA3 was to Vice City, and I don't think many people had a problem with that transition. I do agree with Walter that it would be something of a shame if Rockstar has gone overboard with making the game even more egregiously violent and extreme, mainly because I don't want to feel like gratuitous exploitation of violence really does sell games. Despite the so-called "freedom" of the GTA series, you're really only free to just have different ways of committing violent acts. Of course, I've been a big fan of GTA since the first game (and by the "first game" I mean GTA, not GTA3, which seems to be what many people consider the first one...) so I have no problem with its basic gameplay mechanics but I just hope that they don't get too caught up in that aspect and take it to ludicrous extremes. Also, in a completely separate point, I hope the soundtrack is pretty diverse and not as rap/hip-hop centric as the existing promotional materials have indicated. Without making any value judgments, I'm not a big fan of rap, west coast/gansta in particular, and I worry that's going to impair my enjoyment of the game, despite the occasional bizarre instance of Sinatra and Willie Nelson that have popped up in the track list. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Marek Posted October 21, 2004 You don't have to worry. The soundtrack is in fact super eclectic and awesome. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chris Posted October 21, 2004 Yeah, actually right after I posted that I read a press release describing a ludicrous 8-CD GTA:SA soundtrack boxed set containing all the radio stations from the game. I'm newsing it at the moment. EDIT: I guess the 8-CD thing was actually announced a few days ago, but nobody seemed to really emphasize it, instead focusing on the less ostentatious 2-CD version that will be released the same day. No news posting then I guess. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SiN Posted October 21, 2004 Are you saying you wish they hadn't done a new GTA at all or that instead of the new features we've heard about they should have done something else? a bit of both. first, im not too impressed with the features added to SA. changing clothes wasnt a very big deal for me in VC, so changing my hair doesnt really do it for me either. like its been mentioned before, a more interactive/realistic game would be alot better. so either i wanted them to make a far more innovative version of gta, or just given it a break for a year, to work on something else & then come back to it with a fresh look on it & all. instead, they seem to want to milk all the cash out of it they can. I think it's pretty exciting that they are taking the genre blending even further and adding RPG elements. If people have fun customizing their hero in Fable, why won't they like it in San Andreas? because it takes away from the "pick-up-and-play" formula that gta has done very well. having the need to eat & excersize is gonna be a pain in the ass. my friend still plays VC, but all he does is ride the bikes around ... u kno, for fun. with all this maintanence requires, i dont think he'll like SA as much. Of course, I've been a big fan of GTA since the first game (and by the "first game" I mean GTA, not GTA3, which seems to be what many people consider the first one...) always bothered me ... its like nobody bothered to take notice until it went all 3d. I don't know if they even could do 'deeper' with this generation hardware, where all the cars and people are be random things that exist only in the vicinity of the player (except mission-critical ones). i wish they'd do something about that ... i mean, if they can optimize the crap out of the system to make the worlds bigger, surely they can do the same to give the world a better "memory" of itself. this was one of the main things that bothered me about the 2d->3d transition. SiN Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Erkki Posted October 21, 2004 so either i wanted them to make a far more innovative version of gta, or just given it a break for a year, to work on something else & then come back to it with a fresh look on it & all. instead, they seem to want to milk all the cash out of it they can. I don't think they're milking the cash cow. If they'd do that, they would have released two games about the same as Vice City by now. I think it is fairly innovative -- it sounds like it will be the largest singleplayer action game there ever has been. And I don't only mean largest that the world is big, but by all kinds of stuff you can do. There are a lot more things besides the eating and clothes and hairstyles etc. I can't even remember all of the things they are adding, although I've read a lot of the previews. It sounds to me that you dismissing all the new things they are doing because you don't like a few of the new features (like the eating, customizing the player character and the world size). because it takes away from the "pick-up-and-play" formula that gta has done very well. having the need to eat & excersize is gonna be a pain in the ass. my friend still plays VC, but all he does is ride the bikes around ... u kno, for fun. with all this maintanence requires, i dont think he'll like SA as much. That I might agree with, but I'll try it first before I comment. It might not be very annoying if they balance it right. i mean, if they can optimize the crap out of the system to make the worlds bigger, surely they can do the same to give the world a better "memory" of itself. this was one of the main things that bothered me about the 2d->3d transition. Well, it was the same in 2D, cars didn't exist off screen. You could notice it sometimes, but not as often as in the 3D games. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Erkki Posted October 22, 2004 Hehe... I just read that they are using Dual Layer (DVD-9) DVD-s for the game. So it should be about 8.5 GB. I wonder though, do the older PS2 DVD drives support those? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jake Posted October 22, 2004 Would Sony approve a GTA game that didn't work on all PS2's? Does this question even need to be asked? (I'll prepare a just in case here, but the notion of GTA:SA not working on all able-bodied PS2's seems a little far fetched) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mee Ronn Posted October 22, 2004 I'm honestly not worried about San Andreas improving upon Rockstar's current formula. In a worst-case scenario and all they do is make it "bigger and better", I will not be disappointed. Vice City-like interactions in an environment that's potentially three times the size sounds pretty appealing to me, especially since we already know for a fact that there will be plenty of new interactions. If nothing else, it will clearly be more of a step forward than GTA3 was to Vice City, and I don't think many people had a problem with that transition. The only reason I'm worried about the size of San Andreas is that it, in theory, it could get in the way of the enjoyment. Say, and this is totally an example to explain myself and not at all factual, that you are forced to run into a gym every 30 mins to keep "buff". That is going to hamper gameplay. I have faith in Rockstar that that won't be the case with San Andreas, but it certainly has happened to games in the past. Like I mentioned before, I would also not be disappointed by a huge sized GTA game -- as long as it isn't plagued by feature creep. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BigJKO Posted October 22, 2004 Well, it was the same in 2D, cars didn't exist off screen. You could notice it sometimes, but not as often as in the 3D games. I distinctly remember the cars not disappearing until after a set amount of time off-screen, and that time was ample. Whereas in the 3D incarnations the cars disappear almost instantaneously after going off-screen (or into the fog, another thing I really hate about the 3D versions) Why I remember this is because I remember I used to make a lot of big piles of cars, only to blow them up and see a very big explosion. I had to walk a bit to get more cars, and the other cars didn't disappear in the process, although if I remember correctly, if you walked far enough and took your time, they did indeed disappear. Useless post of the Year. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Erkki Posted October 23, 2004 Why I remember this is because I remember I used to make a lot of big piles of cars, only to blow them up and see a very big explosion. I had to walk a bit to get more cars, and the other cars didn't disappear in the process, although if I remember correctly, if you walked far enough and took your time, they did indeed disappear. Yeah, that was cool. And also the best way to get money. If you made the pile big enough you could win instantly I think. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites