GTA Chinatown Wars

[James]

Jeez... you drove to every mission? Wow. That's some patience!

Then I am also patient! I don't know, moving around the city is just part of the GTA experience for me (unless I'm getting seriously annoyed).

[toblix]

I thought the cab driving in GTA IV was an awesome feature. For a long time I never skipped the trips, but spend the time looking at the fucking unbelievable amazing city using all the different cameras. For extra fun I told the cabbie to hurry it up, making him run red lights and drive like a dick.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I just wanted to play the missions... It's pretty irritating to have to drive all the way from one part of the city to another just to fail it, and have to try again. Or to accidentally knock a police car and end up on a chase that takes you away from where you were going. Or just get bored and start driving like a maniac, then crash and have no health for the mission.

I didn't skip the taxi rides for quite a while, though. I was pretty astounded crossing over the first bridge to open up, watching all the buildings get bigger and bigger... with zero (noticeable) loading. Damn cool.

[Nachimir]

Apparently if you do 15 taxi missions in a row, taxis become bulletproof. Twice now, the game has locked up somewhere between 10 and 14 done :(

[shammack]

Possibly a stupid question, but anyone know how to hijack the Ammunation vans successfully? Whenever I try, my guy just jiggles the door handle and nothing happens, and they seem to be unfazed by Molotov cocktails.

[Nachimir]

You have to chase and shoot at them a lot, until the driver gets out and starts shooting back.

[James]

Yeah, you just shoot out your window at them until the guy stops and gets out. You might want to stay in your car and kill him from there to stop him killing you, although you have to be careful not to blow up the van.

The drug vans are much harder to steal, though. The occupants are positively vicious.

[Nachimir]

Really? The smaller vans? I always found them really easy to jack, but the contents were always really disappointing compared to the amount of effort it took to actually get them to a safe house. Likewise with the only ammunation van I did. Lots of uzis expended in exchange for duel pistols =

Completed this at the weekend. It was okay, very good fun at points, though I've no urge to go back and get 100%.

[James]

I don't know, those guys always seemed to kill me as soon as they got out. Perhaps I'm just wank at on-foot combat.

[shammack]

Yeah, I've never had a problem with the drug vans. I don't even bother shooting; I just run up and pull them out, then drive away in the van before they can do anything. That's why I didn't expect it to take so much effort to jack the Ammunation vans.

[miffy495]

Yeah, drug vans were nothing for me as well. I just grab one if it happens to pass by as I'm heading back to save after a mission. Free cocaine or heroin usually follows, which has greatly propelled my game's funds.

[James]

See, I came across the Ammu-nation vans a lot earlier in the game, and you can't do that with them, so I presumed it was the same with the drug vans. I never even tried to just jack one.

[ThunderPeel2001]

For anyone looking to buy this (like me), Game are selling it for £20, delivered.

http://www.game.co.uk/DS/Action/~r335915/Grand-Theft-Auto-Chinatown-Wars/

[toblix]

For some weird reason, even though I love GTA IV and play it every week and would kill my family and friends to get my hand on the next DLC, I have absolutely no interest in this game.

I thought I'd let you all know that.

[miffy495]

Aaaand done. Fun game, but unfortunately never really offered a challenge. I have found those two lion statues to unlock the bonus epilogue missions though, so maybe those will be harder. Great game all things considered though. Story got pretty predictable near the end, and the fact that

of all the people who gave you missions throughout the game, only

the cops

survived

was a little weird. Still, dialogue stayed reasonably clever, and the missions remained fun, so I won't complain too much. Damn shame it's not selling better. I'm doing my part at work (couple of people have come back to the store to buy it a day or so later based on my heartfelt recommendation) but one lowly HMV games guy can only do so much.

Toblix, you really should check it out man. Once you get a handle on the top-down controls, it's fantastic. It's GTA you can play anywhere. How the hell are you not interested in that?

[toblix]

It's GTA you can play anywhere. How the hell are you not interested in that?

I don't know!!! Could it be H1N1?

[miffy495]

I don't know!!! Could it be H1N1?

I... don't know what that means?

[David]

Timely reference = humor. Play along, Miffy!

[miffy495]

Oh, right. Swine flu. Excuse me for not caring until after the rate of recovery from the disease in my country is something other than 1:1.

Played the two bonus missions this afternoon. Lots of fun, though still didn't really provide any challenge. Interesting how the campaign never had me at more than 3 stars, but then the first bonus mission has me hijack a tank and cause as much havok as I can. I heartily approve. The ability to go back and replay any mission is a bonus as well. Love that feature. Will be using it often for a couple of those missions. There were some real standout moments in Chinatown Wars. In terms of creativity of mission design, I'd even be tempted to say it outclasses GTAIV. IV was great, but never really threw any weird twists at you. Chinatown Wars takes a lot more risks, and they pay off. Very much enjoyed it, and next time I do a bunch of GTA replays (I replay everything from 3 to present every two-ish years) it will be a welcome addition.