THE BORE

General => Video Game Bored => Topic started by: demi on October 26, 2014, 07:02:37 PM

Title: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: demi on October 26, 2014, 07:02:37 PM
The re-release with achievements. No idea if it looks improved and whatnot.

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Grand-Theft-Auto-San-Andreas/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802545408b8

http://www.xboxachievements.com/game/grand-theft-auto-san-andreas/achievements/
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: Joe Molotov on October 26, 2014, 07:05:49 PM
Quote
Achieve 'sex' with any of the girlfriends

Achieve "sex".  :-*
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: demi on October 26, 2014, 07:06:14 PM
'sex' is a myth
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: Stoney Mason on October 26, 2014, 07:37:23 PM
Saw this thread and was about to buy it.

Then I remembered I own it on the PC already.....and then I remembered I also own it on my phone   :-\
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: demi on October 26, 2014, 07:45:20 PM
You can buy the superior comfy couch version then
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: Himu on October 26, 2014, 07:56:45 PM
3 bucks on App Store now
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: Positive Touch on October 26, 2014, 08:11:31 PM
still mad we never got a San Andreas stories
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: demi on October 26, 2014, 08:21:11 PM
I have no idea why I just bought it
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: demi on October 26, 2014, 08:28:40 PM
So this is just a port of the mobile version it seems. Good thing playing on mobile sucks dick, then
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: toku on October 26, 2014, 08:30:08 PM
The only 3d mainline GTA game I didn't care enough about to finish.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: Joe Molotov on October 26, 2014, 09:44:43 PM
The only 3d mainline GTA that I did care enough about to finish. :lawd
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: Stoney Mason on October 26, 2014, 09:53:49 PM
Quote from: Big Jumbo on October 26, 2014, 08:11:31 PM
still mad we never got a San Andreas stories

I'm more surprised they never brought over GTA Chinatown Wars. That was a legit good one.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: Mr. Nobody on October 26, 2014, 09:59:36 PM
Only GTA I ever finished was 5.

I would get close to completion then just....stop.  :goty2
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: Himu on October 26, 2014, 11:18:59 PM
only gta i had trouble finishing was 4. the last mission was awful. actually, the entire last third was awful. It made it really hard to like, especially as a big gta fan.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: toku on October 27, 2014, 12:16:28 AM
That plane mission in San Andreas just broke me. By time I did get past it, and to the last "zone" (the las vegas ripoff iirc?) I was done with the game.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: Stoney Mason on October 27, 2014, 12:22:27 AM
All the most recent games at least difficulty wise are fine to me. GTA 4, and GTA 5 never made me get stuck on certain missions forever. Not that certain missions don't suck especially GTA 4 with its lack of check-pointing.

GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas all have some really annoying frustrating missions coupled with very gimped controls that would make me stop on them at points until I felt the energy to come back later. Trying to go back and play 3 especially the last time I did was anger inducing. 
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: toku on October 27, 2014, 12:41:36 AM
Quote from: Stoney Mason on October 27, 2014, 12:22:27 AM
All the most recent games at least difficulty wise are fine to me. GTA 4, and GTA 5 never made me get stuck on certain missions forever. Not that certain missions don't suck especially GTA 4 with its lack of check-pointing.

GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas all have some really annoying frustrating missions coupled with very gimped controls that would make me stop on them at points until I felt the energy to come back later. Trying to go back and play 3 especially the last time I did was anger inducing.

I distinctly remember being stuck on the last like 3 or so missions in GTA3 for a year or so. I only beat 3 because I was determined to finish it before I started FFX and DMC.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: chronovore on October 28, 2014, 05:09:02 PM
To NO-ONE’S surprise:
spoiler (click to show/hide)
(http://i.imgur.com/WfkIGpi.png)
[close]

Man, I’m aching to get my mitts on a controller and wreck this game.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: chronovore on October 28, 2014, 05:09:25 PM
Quote from: Big Jumbo on October 26, 2014, 08:11:31 PM
still mad we never got a San Andreas stories
:dap
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: pilonv1 on October 28, 2014, 09:16:42 PM
Quote from: toku on October 27, 2014, 12:16:28 AM
That plane mission in San Andreas just broke me. By time I did get past it, and to the last "zone" (the las vegas ripoff iirc?) I was done with the game.

That was the point I packed it in too. Fucking stupid shit
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: Stoney Mason on October 31, 2014, 10:51:21 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2ABzEjXXSs
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: Himu on October 31, 2014, 02:03:20 PM
Why is everything shiny? Even CJ's hair looks like they got a light shining on it.

Anyways, GOAT GTA. Enjoy the fourth or fifth time, folks.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: chronovore on October 31, 2014, 02:35:05 PM
In fairness, the Rooster Teeth dude says he chose Jheri Curl as the hairstyle. Shiny isn't wrong...
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: Himu on October 31, 2014, 02:41:34 PM
Naw, CJ's hair is shiny as hell in the hallway when they try to ride up on B-dup. He's got an afro then.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: chronovore on January 03, 2015, 10:40:14 AM
At 140 hours, I played GTA:SA on PS2 for longer than any other game I’d played. Since then, I broke that record on Red Dead Redemption, and broke it again on GTA V with GTA Online.

I don’t think I’ll make it to another 140 hours this time. As much as I’m enjoying this run through the game, much of what was fine-tuned in GTA V becomes apparent in contrast with the rudimentary or crude in GTA:SA.

Gunplay really stands out as basic. Many people hate lock-on-and-shoot gameplay, but I don’t mind it; in GTA IV, it was the improvement I enjoyed the most (though I think weapon tuning really fell apart for multiplayer). In San Andreas, I’m having to re-train to use RT for lock-on, and then B for firing, but I haven’t been able to figure out how to cycle through targets in this edition, which I remember as key when bullet-juggling a mob of Vatos or Ballers.

edit: I just figured it out. It’s LB/RB.  :P

Driving is not as fun as I remember, but I’m in early stages, and my Driving and Bike skills are low, so it’s partly CJ’s fault, the n00b. I am finding using a map to get from one place to another more satisfying than the GPS routes later shown. I feel more independent, and the terrain registers faster in my memory when I have compared the map to the territory.

Missions are simple. They’re pretty much straight-up “drive there and shoot that guy,” except it’s now “drive all the way over there, over hill and dale, but sorry if you over-excite another driver who bumps you into the water, because GOOD FUCKING LUCK getting another car out here IF YOU CAN EVEN GET OUT OF THE WATER -- and then kill that guy.”  This is offset by cutscenes featuring the best voice-acting video games have ever enjoyed.

My major annoyances are technical:

I’m overemphasizing the negative though. There’s something nuts and wild about this GTA which was just gone from IV, and has only made a partial appearance in V (through Trevor, mainly). A crooked, fascist, bully group of cops giving you assassination missions? A tone-deaf and incompetent rapper giving missions out of his fast-food job while wearing a demeaning hamburger hat? Brilliant and gaudy Ammu-Nation in Vinewood, willing to sell automatic weapons even if you’ve come in with cops on your heels? Running over survivalists with an industrial tractor which spews out their wood-chipped remains? It’s all gonzo and insane and wonderful.

Who cares if it makes sense in a narrative?
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: a slime appears on January 08, 2015, 10:02:16 PM
Quote from: Stoney Mason on October 26, 2014, 09:53:49 PM
Quote from: Big Jumbo on October 26, 2014, 08:11:31 PM
still mad we never got a San Andreas stories

I'm more surprised they never brought over GTA Chinatown Wars. That was a legit good one.

Best handheld GTA without question.

The iOS port was just updated for all devices and supports external controllers though so not all is lost.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: benjipwns on January 08, 2015, 10:30:03 PM
Quote from: chronovore on January 03, 2015, 10:40:14 AM
Whomever Rockstar got to port this game also didn’t manage to get a reasonable framerate, or even a consistent one. It’s under 30 most of the time, and I’ve got it to drop to under 15 depending on circumstance. I’m guessing that the game is a PC port, and it’s effectively running on Power PC processors from 8 years ago, as well as pushing 1080p resolution instead of 480i resolution.
I heard somewhere that it's a port of the iOS version.

EDIT: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-gta-san-andreas-on-xbox-360-is-a-mobile-port

EDIT2: Oh, demi above says it. He's a better source.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: chronovore on January 09, 2015, 01:13:57 AM
Quote from: benjipwns on January 08, 2015, 10:30:03 PM
Quote from: chronovore on January 03, 2015, 10:40:14 AM
Whomever Rockstar got to port this game also didn’t manage to get a reasonable framerate, or even a consistent one. It’s under 30 most of the time, and I’ve got it to drop to under 15 depending on circumstance. I’m guessing that the game is a PC port, and it’s effectively running on Power PC processors from 8 years ago, as well as pushing 1080p resolution instead of 480i resolution.
I heard somewhere that it's a port of the iOS version.

EDIT: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-gta-san-andreas-on-xbox-360-is-a-mobile-port

EDIT2: Oh, demi above says it. He's a better source.

I'll trust Eurogamer before demi (sorry, demi!), but it's good to know this.

From TFA: "Curiously, there isn't an equivalent new version of the game available on PlayStation 3. Instead, PS3 owners have to make do with the original PS2 release, which runs on Sony's software emulator and hands in visuals and performance that look like a very close match for the game in its original setting. That probably sounds like a back-handed compliment, but after playing the Xbox 360 remaster for a while, we're actually glad the original game is still available somewhere."

Yeah, that's what I'm feeling. I mean, I am grateful for the Achievements, but the graphics are worse than I remember -- and for once they /are/ worse than the original, in terms of missing shaders, heat and bloom effects which better masked low resolution ground textures and draw distance. I had not noticed that the radio was missing things, but that's sad.

Controls are the weirder miss for me; as much as I don't enjoy button mashing to sprint, for some reason it's enjoyable on a bicycle. The always FULL OUT pedaling on the trigger is really weird for me.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: pilonv1 on January 09, 2015, 02:08:40 AM
I need to find the Steam files for this before they updated it so I can replace my updated version :(
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: chronovore on January 09, 2015, 03:25:03 AM
Quote from: pilonv1 on January 09, 2015, 02:08:40 AM
I need to find the Steam files for this before they updated it so I can replace my updated version :(

Huh? The PC version isn't infected updated with this Android port, is it?
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: benjipwns on January 09, 2015, 03:58:28 AM
There's been a pair of updates to the PC version.

The original removed Hot Coffee, but also limits the mods you can use.

A recent one a couple months ago added 360 controller support (so triggers work) but also cut some songs over licensing and removed resolution options. (Which is odd since they weren't really supported anyway and just stretched everything IIRC.)

There's patches for the latter, but the former you have to basically "roll-back" the game.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: ferrarimanf355 on January 09, 2015, 04:55:34 AM
What songs were removed from the game?
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: mormapope on January 09, 2015, 11:15:04 PM
Quote from: ferrarimanf355 on January 09, 2015, 04:55:34 AM
What songs were removed from the game?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=137853424&postcount=1

Quote
PLAYBACK FM
"Critical Beatdown"

K-DST
"Running Down A Dream"
"Woman To Woman"

Bounce FM
"You Dropped A Bomb On Me"
"Yum Yum"
"Running Away"

Radio Los Santos
"I Don't Give A f*ck"
"Express Yourself"

Radio X
"Killing in the Name of"
"Hellraiser"

K-Jah West
"Ring My Bell"
"Don't Let It Go To Your Head"

Master Sounds 98.3
"Express Yourself"
"Rock Creek Park"
"Grunt"
"Soul Power '74"
"The Payback"

Pretty big chunk  :'(
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: ferrarimanf355 on January 09, 2015, 11:21:31 PM
Yeah, that's not good.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: chronovore on January 12, 2015, 07:06:43 PM
Whatever they did to change the radio code, it’s pretty lame. I had two tracks repeat within 10 minutes of each other. I know GTA:SA had random tracks to some degree, as opposed to the GTA _____ Stories games which have long, single audio files which loop for each station.

I also hit a big bug where graphically everything went to hell: something went weird with the reflection code, and the top and bottom of the screen started reflecting each other arbitrarily, with arbitrary elements becoming translucent, such as entire cars (though the drivers were still opaque), as well as a number of blitted screen sprites started appearing haphazardly all over the screen. It happened mid-mission, so I was lucky to finish it with all the confusing visuals.

Things which are better in SA than V:

...and the rest of my entry was eaten by a forum timeout, so I’ll see about posting it some other time.  :'(
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: mormapope on January 12, 2015, 07:37:13 PM
Here's something awesome about San Andreas. You can enter the Casinos and gamble before CJ enters Grove Street and starts the game proper.

So, its actually possible to get to Los Venturas, evade the four star wanted level, run in a casino, and with enough luck, you could become a millionaire from the get go. Doing side missions like firetruck levels and such can net you $50,000+, so becoming a millionaire is quicker.

But to me this entire process is amazing. Before even doing the first mission its possible to earn millions of dollars legitimately.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: chronovore on January 12, 2015, 07:43:44 PM
Yeah, the helicopters are all locked up, but boats aren’t. I cruised to the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge analog, went into town, and didn’t have a wanted level until I grabbed a car.

Good times.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: a slime appears on January 13, 2015, 11:05:02 PM
I bought a mint San Andreas Xbox 2nd Edition for $5 this weekend! :hyper
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: chronovore on January 14, 2015, 07:55:05 AM
Cleared Paramedic on my first try. I've still never cleared it in GTA III, since there's no map or right stick camera control. been close a few times, and I can breeze through 12 or 15 levels (VCS) in any other GTA, but not III.

ALSO picked up Kate in San Fierro, the only non insane GF in San Andreas.

The nostalgia in this game; it is keen.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: chronovore on January 14, 2015, 07:44:41 PM
Quote from: Death Ghidorah on January 12, 2015, 07:13:38 PM
SA is the best GTA game, that much is known. I would love to see the rest of that post soon chronovore.

Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: chronovore on January 15, 2015, 07:00:29 AM
Firefighter R3 mission attempt today.

I have a history with this mission, because GTASA on PS2 got me up to level 12 once and spawned the last fire about 200 meters above the ground, due to a bug, and I couldn't finish it without redoing the whole 12 levels.

Today, I started it twice near Grove Street, but the random location generator put level 3 or 4 on the freeway overpass when I only had 40 seconds left on the clock. I quit both those times, and moved over to the Rodeo Drive area and started. Levels 1 through 9 were a cinch, but gradually led back toward Market and those damned overpasses. However, in the end the level 12 targets were all on the surface level!

I hit the first, then the next, but as I had 9:33 of the clock, I was confident that I'd clear it. It spawned the last fire inside the Los Santos Airport. I drove around the outside, drove though the underground passages where passengers arrive and depart. I made another pass around the entire airport. And finally found a gate.

"You must have a higher Flying Skill to be allowed access to the airport."

There's a way in if you're on foot, but getting out of the fire truck ends the mission.

Done in again by system jank.

STILL FUN.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: chronovore on January 15, 2015, 06:31:05 PM
Quote from: a slime appears on January 13, 2015, 11:05:02 PM
I bought a mint San Andreas Xbox 2nd Edition for $5 this weekend! :hyper

Do you mean the game in a package, or is this a console SE of the original Xbox?

I was stoked to find an Xbox edition of the original trilogy on Amazon for $38 a few years back, and it’s nowhere near mint. It can’t even see mint from where it’s sitting.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: benjipwns on January 17, 2015, 02:36:28 AM
I got the Xbox Double Pack of GTA3/Vice City for $4 a few years ago at a local game shop.  :lawd

Didn't have the sleeve to keep it together but had everything else. And discs looked like they had barely been touched.

Other than texture resolutions I considered those the near definitive editions until the unofficial patch came out for the 360 triggers to work in the PC versions. I think they have extra lighting effects and stuff too over the PC versions. Support 720p if I'm not mistaken.

I remember forum screenshot debates over those and the PS2 versions that always came down to the Xbox version having individual fingers on the models instead of the claws.  :lol
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: chronovore on January 17, 2015, 02:59:11 AM
Current GTA San Andreas XBLM Games-on-Demand version, the one I'm playing, has THE CLAWS.  :-\

My struggles with the framerate, controls, and graphic fidelity are marginally ameliorated by the PLING sound of GamerScore unlocking.

I feel like I'm blowing through the game despite only playing it an hour a day, here and there; I figured out that I had taken over all of Los Santos in gang wars before being sent off to San Fierro, so I had to re-do all of that; I remember storing multiple Police Bikes in my Grove Street garage so I could do the Vigilante R3 Missions with backup, because I got through a dozen or so attempts before clearing it -- this time I'll use the attack helicopter after all-Gold-Medals in the Flight School.

I guess I'm just not doing things the hard way, over and over again. :lol
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: chronovore on January 19, 2015, 10:05:17 AM
I’m increasingly convinced that the game is easier than the last time I played it. I remember failing the quarry mission a few times, but cleared it without even taking much damage. I remember sweating the dockside forklift mission with Ryder, and I did fail that once but not a half dozen times like I did on PS2. Everything seems simpler. Maybe I was playing really timidly, because I remember trying to use stealth way back when, and now it’s nothing but dual-wielding SMGs while running, so there’s that.

I’ve gold-medal’d the Flight School, then used the gift Apache from that to clear the 12 levels of Vigilante mission, and finished Paramedic, so I’m 150% on armor and health. I’ll finish Firefighter now that airports are open to me, and then I’ll be fireproof.

Still having fun, but I think I’m going to be 1000/1000 GamerScore on this in less than 40 hours total.  :-\
spoiler (click to show/hide)
:hyper
[close]
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: a slime appears on January 20, 2015, 09:03:27 AM
Pretty sure with all your open world gaming marathons you're probably a pro at those games by now, lol.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: chronovore on January 20, 2015, 09:09:51 AM
Quote from: a slime appears on January 20, 2015, 09:03:27 AM
Pretty sure with all your open world gaming marathons you're probably a pro at those games by now, lol.

Thanks...? Yeah, I’m definitely more skilled at OWGs than I was, but even at the initial play through on PS2, I’d played the hell out of GTA III and Vice City, so I knew what I was getting into.

But I’ve definitely got my niche, fer shure.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: a slime appears on January 21, 2015, 08:38:43 AM
I was being honest!

I've noticed that you've been focusing on open world games lately so I wasn't surprised that you're just better at them.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: chronovore on January 21, 2015, 07:01:08 PM
Quote from: a slime appears on January 21, 2015, 08:38:43 AM
I was being honest!

I've noticed that you've been focusing on open world games lately so I wasn't surprised that you're just better at them.
　 :-*

OWGs have been my thing ever since GTA III sucked me in. I'd have been into Elder Scrolls if I'd found out about its format, but I've yet to indulge in any of them. I think what gets me going is knowing the terrain, figuring out how to use it to get where I want.

It's one of the reasons Assassins Creed doesn't do much for me: the cities are laid out generically, with each area being largely similar to any other in terms of advantage. Additionally, AC's focus on rooftop perspective means I never get a good feeling for where I am within a city.

In Saints Row and GTA, I always know where I am.

Except in SRIII, as the retro-fitting used liberally through Steelport ended up making each area more homogenized. I asked the art director about it at GDC, and he agreed that it had been an unintended side effect.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: pilonv1 on January 21, 2015, 07:19:06 PM
Quote from: chronovore on January 21, 2015, 07:01:08 PM
Except in SRIII, as the retro-fitting used liberally through Steelport ended up making each area more homogenized. I asked the art director about it at GDC, and he agreed that it had been an unintended side effect.

Glad they're aware of it, it was probably the most annoying thing about 3. I really liked Stillwater and as you said I always knew where I was and where I needed to go.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: chronovore on January 24, 2015, 02:35:10 AM
I may yet go over 40 hours on this game; I’ve unlocked the Import/Export Docks, and now I’m having a good ol’ time looking for cars. I probably put in 3 hours today, and another couple hours earlier this week, and I’m on the last 6 cars of the last set of them.

I usually try remembering where I’ve seen them previously for 10 minutes or so, and if I can’t find them I resort to a guide.

When I played it on PS2, I just kept an eye out for them and would even abandon a Story Mission if I saw a car that I needed. At the time, I’d played so much that I knew all the cars just by their appearance. Now I can’t tell a Sentinel from an Elegy from a Sunset. Thank goodness for YouTube.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: chronovore on January 24, 2015, 10:08:30 PM
OK, completed the three lists of cars for Import/Export Docks this morning, and I’m at 30 hours exactly. I’ve got about 4 Story Missions into Las Venturas, so I think I’ll probably be done with the game in less than 40 hours total. I played 300% more on PS2, but I was going about things the hard way then.

I’ll tell you, though: the broken radio stuff is bumming me out more than I would have predicted. The radio has always been a huge part of the GTA experience for me, from GTA III’s classical station playing the first time I ever found a Unique Jump. It’s key to my experience, and San Andreas having the radio buggedly repeat the same song or DJ sequence less than 5 minutes after it previously played, having songs cut out or skip, having the station rewind 10 seconds when I am just checking the Map... it’s lame.

Also, the delay between pressing Start Button and having the damned Start Menu appear...? What’s up with that? it’s annoying as hell. Between that and the Start > Back key combo replacing Start > A Button which was standard from GTA IV onward, I keep futzing getting to the map and instead ending up back where I was. Oddly, it messes with my immersion big time.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: mormapope on January 24, 2015, 10:10:02 PM
Do cars spawn differently in the 360 version? Never did the car hunting in the PS2 version due to the task itself being daunting.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: chronovore on January 25, 2015, 08:21:20 PM
Quote from: mormapope on January 24, 2015, 10:10:02 PM
Do cars spawn differently in the 360 version? Never did the car hunting in the PS2 version due to the task itself being daunting.
I don't think so. The online guides in Wikia and so on refer to locations without specifying a version of San Andreas, so it seems like the spawn locations are untouched. In the cases where I've used them, they've been 100% correct, though they are occasionally vaguely worded, e.g. the Freeway near The Hippy Shopper in San Fierro fails to note that there are two Hippy Shoppers in the Queens area alone.
Title: Re: San Andreas 360 only $3.75
Post by: chronovore on January 30, 2015, 09:36:45 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/9wzlCl6.png)

I 1000/1000’d this today, with my last Achievement being The Los Santos Slayer (Kill 4000 people). and it was a chore to get through the final 1300 victims, even doing the Brown Thunder Vigilante R3 Missions. That, and Serial Offender (Get Busted 50 times) were two bullshit Achievements. Horrible. I think I finished my PS2 run of San Andreas without realizing I could be Busted.

Other Achievement-related observations: 100 GS for getting maximum Sex Appeal, which has little-or-no game significance, but exporting all three boards’ worth of cars at the docks is 20 GS. WTF ??? Calling “Cross the final base with a girlfriend” Home Run instead of Hot Coffee is missing a good chance to flip the bird to the world. Hell, Ballad of Gay Tony featured onscreen sex in one cutscene, I’m guessing that was their intent. There’s a 10 GS for failing a mission; IMHO joke Achievements for failure should be 0 GS.

The controls are slightly off. Bicycle pedaling is always equivalent to being “fully mashed” though it’s on the Right Trigger instead of A Button. There could have been a good argument for making the on-foot controls mirror more recent GTA games, with Left Trigger Aim, Right Trigger Fire, and target cycling via left-analog tapping. An alternate control scheme would have been appreciated. Start Button summoning the menu has a 1+ second delay, sometimes 2. The variation in timing frequently made me think I’d not pressed it, so I pressed it again, resulting in the menu flashing quickly and then returning to gameplay, occasionally with radio skipping.

I want to complain about the radio again. It’s REALLY noticeable. Repeating sections of audio data, sometimes only 3 or 5 minutes after they last played, songs cutting off halfway through playback, and rewinding/replaying data after just visiting the Start Menu are all much more annoying than just having less songs due to licensing issues.

Lastly, I recall that GTA San Andreas, as with GTA III and Vice City on PS2, would load the most recent Save Data, so players could boot the game and just let the whole thing load while they made a sandwich. That was neat. For MS/Sony player account reasons, the opening menu is needed, but the default for Resume selects the Auto Save Data, not the most recent Save Data, which is ridiculous. Additionally, no timestamp information is displayed with the Save Data, also causing confusion.

That’s basically ALL the bad, and while there’s a good deal of it, it doesn’t outweigh the positives:

The story here, of CJ coming back to pick up the broken pieces of his family life, fighting against his impulses to just leave again, trying his best to help make right the things that he has screwed up, these are all very powerful. His brother is a self-victimizing, judgmental rage machine, who is crumbling under the weight of eldest sibling responsibilities. CJ’s sister a a strong and independent woman who has little time for anyone else’s bullshit. Each of the characters, bosses included, have distinct personalities and goals, though that-era’s madhouse GTA feeling is never compromised. No wonder we were all so disappointed in GTA IV. taking itself so goddamned seriously

I loved getting things for completing stuff. 150% Health and Armor is great. Becoming fireproof was awesome. Finishing Burglary Missions ($10K+) gives unlimited stamina, which I think I didn’t know previously. As I progressed through Story Missions, the advantages were clearly making my life a good deal easier. It felt like I’d invested, and it had paid off.

Story Missions had a little more variety than I remembered: Burning down marijuana fields before the DEA arrives. Stealing a farming combine and sending white supremacists through its thresher. Highjacking a flight, and clearing the cabin in a one-off instance of cover firing, a first for the series. Several “stealth” missions where breaking in requires grace and getting back out requires force. Catalina’s missions let you choose from several choices, and I think opens up a mini-game for trucking.

Hitting pedestrians and having them go rigid and comically flying offscreen is humorous and inoffensive. I like it much more than blood-spurting flesh bags rag dolling over my hood, which just makes me feel bad. Barreling around in a Fire Truck and smashing into other cars, where the whole thing is cute physics toy is fun. GTA V has that as well, but the physics have been tweaked to make things more egalitarian.

Anyway, thanks for reading if you stuck with me this far. I really love this game, and wish this had been a more faithful and detail-oriented port to celebrate the 10th Anniversary.