Benie's General Blog

Ok. So it’s Day 6 since I got GTA4. So far I finally unlocked all islands, thanks in part to an “ingame” trainer I found on a site that has god mode and all of that good, helpful shit. Less frustration, right?

Wrong. This trainer cannot save it’s damn settings, and is a bitch to call up. I’m having to constantly fight to get the thing open.
Also, driving around is getting boring. I’m starting to go as fast as I can more often, especially on a bike and on those bridges and tunnels. Everytime I see a straight road with no cars infront of me, I slam on the gas pedal.
I’m starting to use boats and helicopters now to get around. And occasionally using the trainer to just teleport to where the mission is.

I’m also trying to go after these “flying rats”, or pigeons. Don’t know if they’re something from the previous GTA titles. But if you kill all 200 of them, you’ll get a Police Helicopter.
Bad thing is, these pigeons are in hard to reach areas of the map. There’s also six of them perched way up ontop of the Statue of Happiness(Statue of Liberty IRL). I tried spawning a police helicopter and fly up there. First time I tried landing on her head, didn’t work. Then I tried using the chopper’s guns to shoot the pigeons. All I did was scare the people down below shitless. Choppers are hard to keep steady.

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But anyway. This is what is annoying me so far about this game.

First, this thing where it claims you can store your stolen (or spawned) cars by your safehouses. I find this a waste of time, actually. Because I’m often using the car to go to a place, where in some missions I have to get in another car and take it somewhere. And when I go back to where I think I left my car, on foot, it’s gone and I’m stuck with no car…
Why even have safehouses? They’re worthless to me.

I’m also in dire need of a “STFU!! Stop calling me to go somewhere!!” mod. Just something that will stop the “Hey man! Wanna play some pool?” when I’m busy going to a mission waypoint.
I’m always fucking busy with these people that can pay big. I don’t got time for friends. But I also want me time. I enjoy solitude.

For the missions. Most of them, I’m not really getting into the story as I need to. When I first started, I was. But now it’s just.. go to place, do mission, get money, call guy to confirm mission is done, repeat. Why am I the hitman for every single one of these missions? A hired gun. It just gets repetitive and old.

And I’m clueless to how the story is going. Infact I think I fucked up by being allowed to choose these missions, and not following any order as they are done. But this is what happens when you play non-linear games I guess. The story also is based of your choices. If you killed or spared this person or that person.

And another NPC annoyance. Kate. Packie’s sister or something. He doesn’t want me really getting to know her, yet she keeps wanting a date with me. Jailbait anyone? She’s pretty but the guy will kill me if I ever had sex with her.

Anyway, that’s pretty much what’s on my mind right now.

The Grand Theft Auto series is something I’ve never gotten into. Due to because of the gameplay. Stealing cars, sex, drugs and shit. Just not my type of game.

However, a few days ago, Garion got me into this game, convincing me that I don’t have to do the things the game is designed to do.
After finally finding the official site, I asked questions, got answers, but I still wasn’t sold. Garion once again answered my more important questions, and I bought it.

So far, it was worth the $50. First of all, it seems the game is based in the year 2008. The game is based in and around New York City, dividing the city sections into islands.

But due to the corruption in politics, and terrorism, the mayor of Liberty City, the name of the game world, has raised the terror threat level and closed down all bridges leading into the center of Manhattan.

As you advance through the game, the other islands will begin to be unlocked for you, giving you a less linear way of getting around, and more fun. Just how do you know, you may ask? Listen to the news!
Seriously, listen to the ingame news. Use a computer in one of the internet cafes to see the news, or listen to it on the radio in your car.
Eventually you’ll hear news that bridges have been reluctantly re-opened. This also gives you access to the subway routes on the other islands.

Well. That covers the unlocked areas. Lets talk about the pros and cons.

First, the pros;
+ Combat. The combat in the game is pretty good. You can duck behind cover and attempt to kill the guy without him killing you.
+ Realistic car damage, physics, and handling.
+ Jaw-dropping views of the city.
+ You can leave you car anywhere you want and visit the parks.
+ Radio Stations, plus a custom music station (Independence FM) that you can put your own mp3’s in. It even has it’s own commercials.
+ Police arrest NPC’s.
+ Subways.
+ Speedboats.
+ Variety of weapons.
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And now, the Cons;
– You can drive everywhere, only if you advance through the game by doing missions. This is due to “terrorist threats”.
– The buddy system sucks. They won’t stop calling you, and there’s no way to say “I want to have some me time” except turning off your phone. Even then you still get text messages.
Plus, if you decide to pick up a friend to go somewhere, they expect you to be there within an hour, not fucking care you like obeying traffic laws. And no way to say “It’ll be awhile. I’m stuck in traffic.” What’s worse is if you accept while being on one side of the map, and the person’s on the other side of the map.
– Aggressive, but dumb AI drivers. They will attempt to pass you while waiting at a red light. Some will even get out of their car and yell at you, or pull you out and start a fight.
– Just loading the damn game. It HATES dual monitor users, and has a hard time saving your settings.
– Some buildings can only be entered when unlocked by doing missions.
– Body armor is hard to find, and is required for survival as you advance in the game.
– If you fail to complete a mission, you have to start from the beginning of it if you choose to redo it. This gets very annoying on long missions. Especially those that involve having to chase down a person in heavy traffic.

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But, I guess I should be grateful for two things.
1. It hasn’t locked up on me.
2. It runs beautifully on mainly high graphics.

I was browsing FP as I always do, and I come across a picture from this locked thread in General Discussion that was supposed to be posted in Fast Threads, about “if you could own a spaceship, what would you own?”.

As I skimmed down the page, I came across this picture of a ship infront of a planet, and this text about a “3-D Space Simulator”, and a site.
I checked out this thing. The site is called celestiamotherlode.net.
Inside is a link to this free Space Simulator.

This space simulator is alot like Spore’s Space Stage. Because that you can go to any star in our galaxy… even stars in other galaxies, except the Spore part.
The fact, planets revolve and go around their suns in real-time. And the fact you can fly past planets in your “spaceship”.
Sadly, you cannot go through the atmosphere of a planet and see it up close and personal like you can in Spore.

But you can zoom out all the way to see where you are in our galaxy, and you’ll be overwhelmed that you’re not in the center of the galaxy. You’re only a tiny spec if anything out there.

Thing is, by moving out of your/any galaxy, it shows no stars beyond it. Just… a black nothingness.
Why? It’s only what we humans know about our galaxy. I guess anyway.

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It just makes you think “what if”. What if there was a planet of dragons, called Drakkin? I’d probably shit my pants if I ever found it.