Thanks for playing with me KingNeb - I had connectivity issues unfortunately and just gave up :(.

I'm not sure this is the freezing issue or something else all together, but has anyone else had issues with it never loading your game?

It's been happening to me off and on the last two days, and now I've started up the game 5 times now and waited for a good 5-10 minutes a piece for it to load up and it just continuously shows the Loading screen with the mission name.

On the PS3 btw.

Frustrating.

Just started experiencing the same symptoms myself...

PS3 was pretty much stuck on trying to "load" something, and when I tried to "quit" the game, it ended up shutting down my system. Everything was working fine until now, can't figure out what I did - maybe shutting down after having failed a mission (probably during autosave of content?) may have affected my file or something...

Not much luck on my end. However, I just read on the Sony boards someone mentioning signing out of your PSN / disconnecting the PS3 from the internet and restarting the game...

Just gave it a shot myself - once I was signed out I managed to actually get a friggin' game going.

Agreed. I used to live in LIC and it's really fun driving around the places where I used to hang out.

I hope GTA has a game set in Spokane, WA or the Rio Grande Valley of Texas sometime so I can drive around places I know. In Spokane you can battle the skinheads of northern Idaho, and down here they could have missions where you smuggle drugs and illegals across the border.

Ok, it might not happen.....

Good times man :) Dunno what the problem with your connection was. Is your internet acting up? Do you have a router that doesn't like your 360? I had many issues until I got this gaming router for $100.

The multiplayer is pretty sweet overall. The controls are extremely frustrating at times to me. Because it seems like the characters take their sweet time doing things. It's like, "I hit Y 5 seconds ago and you're taking your sweet ass time getting in the car?!?" It's awful.

Also, the cover system takes some getting used to. I try to take cover and the game doesn't use any brains at all. It just ducks you next to the nearest object. I hate when I try and take cover and the game has me take cover in the open (even when I think I go in the right spot). Very frustrating.

It's still a great game, but after playing games like Call of Duty 4 where it feels like I'm in complete control, this is a rough change of pace for me.

Sometimes I just start jamming buttons out of frustration over the lack of control I have. Shrug.

We'll see how much longer I play GTA before I go back to COD.

MY internet connection itself can suck sometimes - so I think that may be it. I had played quite a bit before you joined without issue, I think my Cox connection just got picky.

This was by far the hardest mission yet. Here's what I did:

Out of curiousity, how do I keep from killing somebody when given the choice? Each time, I've just killed them. What do I do, just not hit any buttons? Thanks!

Has anyone been able to drive the Turismo yet? Unbelievable handling on that compared to almost every other vehicle in the game.

I tried this at a buddy's house on Friday. It froze on loading a number of times, and answering a phone call froze the screen for around 15 seconds before the guy started talking and the game continued. Played Free Mode online, which was fun with two other random people that joined. We would all get into a car and go nuts.

Once my friend disconnected from the net, the game worked fine in single player though.

Overall an alright experience, but the freezing and inability to play online after a bit was very annoying.

I haven't driven the Turismo, yet. However, I found another very nice sports car that also had excellent acceleration and handling. Disappointed that I lost it on a mission.

I'm about 15-20% "complete" and the story has become very good, IMHO.

Edit to add: No freezes or other glitches here, either.

I'm really enjoying the story as well, but my little venture into online yesterday has told me I might be playing less SP for awhile ;).

Just finished the mission that unlocked the last island. Time to check it out.

spoiler about the decisions you're able to make on whether to kill a person or not

The MP connectivity issues are annoying. I'm not 100% sure what it is - whether it's this game, my buddies connection, my conenction, or what.

We're fine just the two of us but if a 3rd tries to get in or we go to join a game it will bomb out a LOT.

After failing to connect with you Wade, I tried a random race. MP worked fine in that. In fact, it was a blast. We all used super cars, and one dude nudged me on a corner where there was a ramp that launched me way out into space. That ended up costing me 1st place and I finished in 6th, but it was a blast.

I don't know why we can't connect, but I'm willing to give it a go again. I just wanted to try some other MP type game, to make sure it wasn't my issue.

"No Love Lost" is pissing me off. I know WHAT to do, but the bike handling just isn't there for me right now.

i did No Love Lost probably 10 times. do not try to catch him, just go fast enough to be able to follow him. the instructions are misleading, they make it seem like you need to catch up to him and kill him. you *will* have to kill him, just not while you're riding the bikes.

Re: No Love Lost

You can pick a car instead of the bike and it works too, it's how i passed it.

I failed it about 14 times because I kept crashing the bike (or I would barely nudge something and I'd lose control and then I'd go flying -- some sweet crashes btw) and it wasn't until I figured that I could grab a car that I could finally beat it.

i messed up a lot cuz i was trying to drive a motorcycle at a high speed (which is damn near difficult as it is) AND shoot him with my uzi at the same time, which, as noted above, is not required.

Yeah I finally went the car route and had no issues.

Oddly enough the first time I tried with a car he actually wrecked and got stuck in a group of traffic and only made it a block away before I got to him.

Which reminds me I do miss the days were they didn't "reset" the game when you started a mission. I loved when a mission was getting frustrating coming up with crazy ways to rig it before triggering. I can understand why they changed it, but I think finding those exploits was a pretty damn enjoyable part of the game.

I used to love just spawning a bunch of tanks and just setting up a giant roadblock, that was always bad ass.

I was pretty pissed when I figured this out. It was one of the really early missions where you had to chase someone by car, i forget who or why, but you go in a store and he runs out the back, you follow, have to break the window of a car and hotwire it and then chase. I was struggling w/ driving and failed it a few times, so I drive seemingly halfway around the city to figure out how to get to the back of the building, park my car behind the getaway car, break the windows of both parked cars, hotwire them both so they're ready to go, put one facing out of the parking lot, put the other in front of the getaway car, run out onto the street, steal another car to get back around to the front of the store, start the mission... and get out back and the damn thing had reset. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.


I still haven't tried online yet but I am really loving single player. I've very recently opened up the 3rd island and done the first mission over there, and I'm still only ~30% through completion. I can't remember if that 30% includes lots of side tasks (do shooting pigeons increase the game completion % or only main storyline missions?), but it seems like I should be a bit closer to the end than I am.

How do you pickup the hookers int he game? I've tried honking at them when Im close, but no luck?

I *think* the overall completion percentage includes stunt jumps, pigeons, etc and not just the main quests.

You just get up close, honk and then press a shoulder button to get them in the car, on 360 it's LB. Make sure it's actually a hooker though, there are some scantily clad women walking around LC who are'nt hookers, just skanks.

That sounds familiar from past games. I don't really enjoy scouring the city for those kinds of things on my own but my OCD-like desire to get 100% will lead me to print out a walkthrough with all the locations and try to get it all at some point.

Trying to find all of the jumps is one of my favorite parts. I'm a bit disappointed that there are apparently only 50 in this game (it tells you that you have found 1 of 50 once you find your first one.)

One that I picked up was definitely a streetwalker. I think Eliot Spitzer would've kicked her out of the car.

Hmm...the garage locations...anyone know how to use them? I drove to them, and it seemed like it should have opened up a garage door or at least have a little arrow, but nothing happened. What should I be looking for?

I thought about trying a car, but I had to go work a ballgame. I'll give that a try tonight.


Yeah, it was the 'driving at high speed' part that was getting me. Trying to stay close enough not to get the 'he got away' message, I was running into lampposts and stuff. Problem is, I don't think there are any cars REAL close to Firefly Island, so I'm wondering if I can even jack one before he gets too much of a lead on me for me to close it.

Are you talking about the old garage type locations to save your car? If so, this game just uses a reserved parking space instead.

As an aside, Brucie is great comic relief.

THAT'S BECAUSE HE'S ALPHA, MAN!

Well, I do know about the reserved parking spaces outside of the safehouse, but there is an icon on my map called "garage".

My car never seems to stay in the reserved parking spot. I must not be parking it in quite the right spot.

....and thank you for that. ;)


Think of it this way, if the ho doesn't get in, just be the pimp and
slap that ho. ;)

"Pimps up, ho's down!"

I know for the first 3 hideouts, there are big yellow squares painted on the street with room for 2 cars.

Has anyone picked up the shotgun inside the Triangle Strip Club, and gone on a rampage inside?

Blew the security guys head off, and took out the bouncers, and a few of the ho's inside.
Made it back to my safe house with a 3 star wanted level, after also taking a few cops out in the process.

I'm dangerous I tell 'ya, say something wrong, and it's off with 'ya head! :D

Brucie is just like "The Todd" from Scrubs. Makes me laugh a lot :)

Perfect analogy. He has made me laugh more than any other character. I just had a very interesting chase. I escaped running through a huge park (central park?) from a 3 star cop chase. I think I had created enough chaos that I wasn't the only criminal they were after as I had multiple other criminals shooting at me and the cops :)

A question about a hard jump to do in the southeastern section of the 1st island:

This game is like crack... I'm just now getting into the multiplayer so we will see how that goes. Money well spent.

Sucks that I cant go solo on multiplayer

Holy crap yes. 45% complete now. What a great game.

I've been playing for like a week now on and off and am only 20% through. This game is ridiculously deep. I've just started some pigeon killing of late too.

Huh?

There are several solo modes.

Had a great little surprise when it came to the comedian at the comedy club I wasn't aware of going in...even made the wife stop what she was doing and watch.

That was one of my favorite things in the game so far.

Oh? It seems when I try to, it says I need to be hooked up to xbox live

Michelle sure gets pissy if you have a major crash with her on a motorcycle. My cousin took flying off a cliff and drowning in the ocean much better. :)

No kidding. I have a nasty cold - the upside is that I will be playing this when I'm not in bed today.

I'm having a hell of a time finding those damn pigeons. Are you going around with the specific purpose of finding one, or just happen to see them while you're doing other stuff?

I've never seen one.

I tried to jack the tanker that is docked in the harbor, but alas couldn't find a way to the control room. :(

I'm having a hard time finding them as well. I've only found 2 so far, and it was by accident.

Edit: I've gone looking for them at "likely" places, and I haven't found any where I'd expect them to be.

I haven't paid any attention to the damn pigeons - guess I should start.

Regarding pigeon locations:

I've only gotten 5 of them.

There is actually an in game map of where they are....

Outside of the fuzzy feeling of completion, is there any reason to bother looking for the pigeons? Seems like it may just be a pointless way to extend gametime...

Past versions also gave you access to a fun weapon or other item when you collected enough packages. I think there will probably be bonuses for killing pigeons, but they aren't essential.

the pigeons thing seems more like something to do after completing the game. i wouldn't necessarily take time out of completing the storyline to go hunting down pigeons for what would probably be a different weapon. i just started using the cop car to hunt down the wanted criminals. that's fun, you're like a bounty hunter. i want to steal a cop car and park it in front of my safehouse so that i always have a cop car to use. the last one i had was put through as much hell as the car in the Blue Brothers movie, as i was going to locate this one guy it went on fire and blew up.

Pigeon rewards

This is what I did. Sadly, you must be in a cop car to hunt them down.

Secrets

Easy Money: Go to an ATM, then cause a traffic jam to the area. Wait for someone to take money from the ATM, then kill him or her. Block any nearby roads so the ambulance cannot get to the murdered victim. Take the money they dropped on the ground. Run a short distance and then go back. The money should have respawned on the ground. You can repeat this as many times as desired. You can also kill more people taking their money from the ATM to increase the amount of money that respawns.


Repairing Engine: If the vehicle you are driving breaks down and the engine will not start, call 911, and your engine should start again.

I just use the car I take from Faustin's place. Usually a high powered sports car.

Got my 360 back from being repaired today. I woke up a couple of hours ago and the DHL guy had just pulled into the driveway. Packed up the 'rented' one and tested out mine. Works great.

So now I have slapped my GTA IV skins on the 360 and have started the whole game over since my save was on the 'rented' hard drive and I don't have a memory card to transfer it over. The lovely wife even said, now you can play all day to catch back up to where you were, I'll go get pizza and everything (not sure if that last part was a joke or not, but I will find out later I guess). Nice to start the game knowing my way around a little. :D

Maybe someone can give me a pointer or two, somewhat GTA related but more XBox Live...

When I got my 360 in August for NCAA, I got a year of XBL Gold with it. When I set up the system, I set up a standard profile for myself which is basically just my name (like here). I then tried to set up XBL a couple days later, entered my profile name, and it said it was already in use (by me) so I had to create another, which I did. I then played some NCAA online under that name for a week or so, at which point I moved in with some friends and all my head to head games were with them. Haven't even logged on to XBL since.

Fast forward to now...I'd like to give GTA's multiplayer a shot. Problem is I've always used that original profile name (my name) as the basic profile when playing games. So my "Logan" profile is what is automatically loaded for GTA. When I go to the cell phone and click multiplayer, I can't get in because that profile isn't set up for XBL. I then have to restart the 360 (with the tray open so it will go to the setup screen) and choose my XBL profile.

Honestly, I can get past this pain in the ass if I have to, but since one of the cool things about the game is being able to join a multiplayer game in the middle of a single-player mission once a friend jumps on, it would be cool to do this. Is there any way for me to switch my account to the other user name? Maybe if I go through Microsoft? Thanks for any help, especially when a simple question took 3 paragraphs to explain.

I haven't tried to do this in GTA, but you should be able to switch profiles by hitting the xbox guide button (big X right in the center of the controller) and then hitting the appropriate buttons (there should be a legend on the bottom of the screen that comes up).

That's a great point...totally forgot about that. I wonder if it will then reload a new game (since there's nothing on that profile). I'll give it a shot, thanks.

I have a couple of questions about multiplayer on the 360.

1) Is there a site that would tell me how many people are currently playing a particular mode?

2) Can I join a game in progress? Freemode seems to be the only mode that doesn't have me in a lobby waiting for people to join.

I swear to fucking god that this game is affecting me mentally. I told a family at El Taco Tote: "You keep fucking eyeballing me, I will FUCK YOU UP."

Longer story, mostly dealing with them being idiots, but you get the jist of it.

You think you have it bad? I know HA and other NYC people can attest to this...it is impossible to walk/drive around the city right now and not have the urge to carjack people or run over pedestrians. I realized it when I was in a cab Saturday night and saw a cop car slowly crawling down the FDR approach at GTA-cop-speed.

So true.

:confused: Kinda confused. I don't really know what you're trying to do. You definitely need to have and be connected to XBL to play with other people online. But there are a lot of modes (if not all?) that allow you to go on if your playing alone (meaning you don't need to be with a buddy.)

Patch 1.01 is available. Supposed to fix freezing problems on both consoles.

Edit: Fix is for PS3 only. No 360 fix is available yet.

any other changes?

Actually, it appears that this fix only addresses the PS3 issue. No patch is available for 360 version yet...........

I spent 3 hours last night with the sole purpose of trying to find a great place to snipe people. I found a pinch on the highway and if you only take one shot you could wait a few minutes for the ambulance to leave with your gun pointed at the next victim!!!

I will say this is my first shooter type game and I am having way too much fun. I thought about running an old woman off the road today on my to work today.

I dont have it connected to xbl. When I go to select multiplayer, I'm not allowed into it at all. Obviously I wouldn't be playing online with anyone else, but it would be nice to play in a free stand alone game

Oh no my friend. You need to get a helicopter and all the sniper rounds you can. You then land on a building with no access from the ground and go nuts. Grenades help too.

Posted this in the other thread, but it belongs in here as well. GTA IV has sold over 6 million copies in the first week for over 500 million dollars:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6190520...stnews;title;0


Also, the PS3 patch apparently "reduces server loads and prevents Gamespy's servers from being overloaded" which is being blamed for the freezing problems in the game:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6190539...stnews;title;3

Damn you now I have to say my line about Maximum Football again!

Here it goes...

The largest ever? Clearly they left out Maximum Football to be able to claim that.

Just isn't funny the second time............

Or the first.

Ahhh okay I gotcha. I'm with ya there...right now I save and then go on rampages and revert back, but it would be nice to have a free mode to just go crazy by yourself.

It was, but then it got ruined. Trust me, it was.

And if you believe that you will believe this, it was an original joke as well.

WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOo. YOU WON. Well, I won. Single player story completed. This is by far my favorite GTA ever.

The storyline may not be oscar worthy, but there are some decisions later in the game where I get asked to make a decision and I pause the game and actually think about what I want to do and reason out my decision based on the game story and my thoughts about each character. That's an excellent level of immersion to reach in a game like this.

Stat spoilers, not any specific mission/storyline spoilers:

Thanks that was a blast!!! The clean head shot is a thing of beauty!

I just finished "Three Leaf Clover" today. What a bitch of a mission, but how much fun was that? lol

Cheers!

This mission is absolutely killing me. I can get to the train station and that's it. Jeez!

Loved that mission. Just finished the story about an hour ago. 67% completed.

Also, I ran into a pretty significant glitch. The spoiler only reveals an event that one of the characters goes though (not a death or a shocking moment).

I was really worried about something like that, I was super anal about it in my game.

Somebody in this thread made a post (that I can't find via search) about the cell phone being impossible to read because it was so dark. Was there a fix to that issue? Mrs. Leafs is having the exact same problem, even with all the display options turned up as bright as they can go.

You can change the text to a bigger size, not sure if that will help or not.

Is there a site out there that will tell you what the alternative to the options you made are? For instance in the missions where you have to choose who to kill, I'm wondering what would have happened if I killed the other guy.

Just google the options and you will be sure to find the results for each choice. That or the board for GTA IV at gamefaqs.com will probably have what you are looking for.

I know the answer to a few of them if you want to PM me the ones you're on or curious about and don't want to see any other decision spoilers by accident.

Has anyone tried the multiplayer mode "Deathmatch"?

From what I've seen, this is some funny stuff.

The ragdoll physics, to the phrases to let you know how your player was
"eliminated".

I'm on the Xbox site as "Todd51071"

Just starting to explore the second island at the moment. Keep getting sidetracked from the storyline due to the fun of random acts of violence and carnage.

If anyone is ever up for causing carnage as an FOFC crew in free for all, feel free to look me up. Gamertag is "Uafasach420"