Mistakes I made while playing GTA3 so far

[gta3rookie 5]

 

 

As a rookie, I'm talking about mistakes I all made so I hope this helps you not to fall in the same traps if you just got started with GTA3 🤨.

 

Mistake #1:

Not buying the game. Free download, recommended by the website of an otherwise serious German computer magazine, what could possibly go wrong? Well, it turned out to be a German cut no CD crack with less than 100 MB. Version 1.0, no radio stations available. For free is always very expensive at the end...Patch 1.1 couldn't be applied (unknown version error), had to install 450 MB uncut patch for it to run properly...

 

Mistake #2:

Immediately getting started with the main missions, ignoring all possible side missions. Been there, done that, soon realized my mistake when trying to retrieve hidden packages or perform rampages or stunts in Chinatown after having started the Toni Cipriani missions...

 

Mistake #3:

Always drive fast cars, never slow and heavy ones – even though you might learn something valuable to help with firefighter and paramedic side missions by doing so. Similarly, seldom walk or run. Which means when you actually MUST run, you're out of breath pretty quickly – at least before completing paramedic level 12. Also made me miss some of the great details of the game (dialogues, secret locations only available on foot, and so on)...

 

Mistake #4:

Always save on the same slot overwriting the previous save...that, believe me, can cost, after completing the multi storey mayhem, I found myself stuck in an endless slow motion loop, unable to get out of the vehicle and save the game. Had to reload one of the previous saves where most of the rampages and offroad missions were still undone. I suppose this flaw is due to the game version I have (see mistake #1)....

 

Mistake #5:

Ignoring valuable advice from the GTA3 online community. Of course, there is so much information available on this after all 17 years old game, it is difficult to know where to start and whom to trust. So here's my pick of sites which I found helpful for the PC version, sorted out by theme:

 

- Troubleshooting and technical support for GTA III: https://gtaforums.com/forum/43-help-support/

Comprehensive help on all aspects of the game. Search by topic and you'll get your answers fairly quickly...

 

- Glitches: https://gtaforums.com/forum/5-guides-strategies/ obviously

 

- Maps of Liberty City: the official one http://media.rockstargames.com/grandtheftauto3/img/global/maps/gta3map.jpg

and maybe this one as well https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=163901399

 

- Hidden packages location: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dxMTcoYObM

 

- Unique stunt jumps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-3pmMEUW4I

 

- Rampages, tips and tricks here https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/548931-grand-theft-auto-iii/faqs/14630 , primary and secondary locations there https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6asFq5owhI

 

- Special vehicles: https://gtaforums.com/topic/851298-gta-iii-special-vehicle-guide/

Amazing ressource, not only telling where and when those vehicles can be found but also how they can be improved and where to store them...On top of that, not only for PC but also PS2, iOS

 

So, that's about it. Hope GTA3 newbies can learn something from my mistakes. More experienced GTA3 players will learn little if anything but may have a good laugh reading this...

[Sierra88 5]

I remember back in 2002 or 2003 when I got the game on PS2.... It blew me away the second I started the game. A whole new world to explore, back then this concept was extremily innovative and revolutionary in video game history and opened the doors to so many possibilities on playing the game.

Back then I tried finishing the storyline but with cheats. Then I wanted to try new challenges by doing the story without cheats and managed it. Then I tried to complete all story missions without cheats, meaning this time I haven't skipped the Kenji missions since I used to just skip them. Then I tried my ultimate challenge, 100% completion in III, and it wasn't very difficult. Over the years, the more you play the game, the more experience you gain and the better you get in them.

Very useful links that you've shared about GTA3! For a 17 year old game, it's phenomenal and there's always new stuff to try in it, new challenges to approach and master!

[gta3rookie 5]

2 hours ago, Sierra88 said:

Very useful links that you've shared about GTA3! For a 17 year old game, it's phenomenal and there's always new stuff to try in it, new challenges to approach and master!

Thanks, glad you liked it. Of course, it's probably more for gta3 starters as myself. Still, feel free to click the like button if you see some use in those links

[GTAFanLuca 9]

4 hours ago, gta3rookie said:

Thanks, glad you liked it. Of course, it's probably more for gta3 starters as myself. Still, feel free to click the like button if you see some use in those links

Feel free to ask me if you may need help. Out of all GTAs, I must've spent quite a lot of time with GTA 3, and may be able to help a fellow starter along the path.

[gta3rookie 5]

13 hours ago, GTAFanLuca said:

Feel free to ask me if you may need help. Out of all GTAs, I must've spent quite a lot of time with GTA 3, and may be able to help a fellow starter along the path.

Well, since you mention it, I was wondering if I can have my cake and eat it too? In other words, I've done Luigi's and Marty Chonk's missions so far and Joey's next mission is  'Van Heist'. So from the special vehicles forum section I know that I need a mission fail to get the special securicar. Later on,  I apparently also need a mission fail in 'Salvatore called a Meeting' to get the AP stretch. Will any main mission fails endanger my goal of 100% completion?

Edited October 20, 2018 by gta3rookie

[Sierra88 5]

I'm confident that mission fails won't lock you out of 100% completion. The only way to lock yourself out of 100 % is to skip Kenji missions and the final missions from Luigi and Joey. I heard that cheats can also label 100 % impossible, but I am not sure about it.

[gta3rookie 5]

1 hour ago, Lethal Vaccine said:

 

Nope.  Failing a Mission won't mess up the Save in terms of locking you out of 100%.  They will just get added to the Missions Failed Stat.  Since you're not living under a rock and know where to look if you're serious about Special Vehicles, I am sure you know my Channel on Youtube and where to look for Special Vehicles.  You can see my Bonus Videos, too, where I show the Stats.  If you go for the same 13 I went for in my 1st of 2 100% Save Files, then you SHOULD finish with 78 Missions Attempted and 73 Missions Passed.  You only have to fail in total of 5 times when going for the specific 13 I went for (and a lot of other people go for when doing their 1st Save, since those are the best 13).

 

In general, though, not much exists in III, so having 2 100% Save Files?  Then you got them ALL.  Might as well get them all if you're a GTA III fan and like the game as well as Special Vehicles.

OK, thanks. I think I'm gonna go for my own special vehicles list though, forget about the kuruma, the manana and the trashmaster which I find hard to store. So the AP stretch, AP Cheetah, EC red sports cars (Cheetah, Infernus and Stinger) as well as the BP vehicles (Securicar, Bobcat, Barracks OL and Patriot) are on my list for the first 100% attempt. I wouldn't mind having a DP Borgnine too...Maybe I'll try to get the other ones on a second playthrough 🤔 What happens with failed missions? Do I get a chance to retry them like Turismo? If not, I guess I need to run 2 separate savegames, one where I have the mission fails but the special vehicles to make up for it and one where I can try and pass the missions...Beating a bunch of Cheetahs with a DP Mr Wong lorry, what a wonderfully sick sense of humor

 

Edited October 20, 2018 by gta3rookie

[gta3rookie 5]

7 minutes ago, Lethal Vaccine said:

Yeah, I usually make a plan before I start a Save and figure all the Stats out by the end and also the Special Vehicles of which I will be obtaining and where they all will be stored, etc...

I do too, at least I try. DP Borgnine, right, might not be the best idea. What about a DP mafia sentinel for the Portland garage for when I have to go back to PT after the Leones hate my guts? Would make sense strategically, wouldnt it?

[GTAGuy1995 167]

Interesting read! Reminds me a bit when I played GTA 3 for first couple of times back in 2013. I have played for first time GTA 3 back in 2008 at a friend's house on his PC in mostly freeroaming mode as until that time I've only been familiar with Vice City, which I played but not fully completed, however GTA 3 never attracted me as much as VC for whatever reason. Besides I've finished VC a few times (although with cheats) to 100% in 2009-2010 and then completed it for first time in 2013 to 100% without cheats.

 

Then in 2013 I got GTA 3 and played it on my own and immediately enjoyed it, however I did get annoyed by some limitations like not being able to jump out of the car (as I was still used to VC features at that time), not having a map, the combat being really clunky and most of the gangs hating you. Although in first few "failed" playthroughs I did manage to do most side stuff from Portland without too much trouble, I just couldn't complete Paramedic no matter what, so later when I reached Staunton I tried there and keep failing it thanks to cartel blowing up my ambulance, so I knew I was screwed. Happened twice (in second failed playthrough I even admit cheating at paramedic with health cheat to repair my ambulance when it was on fire but for whatever reason it caused the mission to fail even though I still had time left on clock) so third time I started the game (late 2013-early 2014) I tried my best to complete Paramedic the FIRST thing I do at beginning of game. After 3 tries, I finally did it and was able to enjoy the game and could reach 100% since most other tasks weren't a problem for me (only thing I hated besides Paramedic were the off-road missions).

 

In mid 2015 I came back again and 100%'ed both GTA 3 and VC (both with much better stats than before) and had a much better time and less failures during missions (I still always reloaded save upon any failure) and this year I've also 100%'ed GTA 3, VC and SA on my Android tablet (and GTA LCS on my new Android phone) and despite the touch controls, I could still complete them fine.

 

Now back to topic, I will suggest a few tips (some also mentioned on first post) to make the game easier for the future playthroughs:

 

1) Always make sure to save the game on MULTIPLE save slots: In case something goes wrong on a slot, you can reload the previous save to lose less progress.

2) Do the side stuff early in game as you progress through islands. Although I'm not a fan of starter saves who go beyond and do EVERYTHING POSSIBLE before the first mission (such as collecting ALL PACKAGES, etc) using exploits to go to later islands early, I still do traditional starter saves which involve doing everything possible as soon as the island unlocks. For example in terms of packages, you can get 31 in Portland at beginning of game, 37 when you unlock Staunton Island and the rest 32 when you unlock Shoreside Vale. I find that doing that in GTA 3 is a must since you also don't have to deal with gangs later (although in Staunton and Shoreside you still have to deal with cartel, so be careful!)

3) Make sure to do missions in order. This is a must since you can get locked out of 100% if you miss some. This never happened to me thankfully but I see a lot of people missing out Kenji's missions because they don't do his missions when are available.

4) Make sure to have full health and armor before each mission. This doesn't really matter early in game since you should be relatively fine even with just 100 health but I just go for both 100 health and 100 armor since armor can also be found on Portland along with package locations and it's nice to have in any case. But later in game when missions get more intense (especially during some harder rampages), armor is a MUST have in order to survive! But more often that not the armor will survive in most missions, so you only need to find a new one in case you were hit and want back 100 armor. I would recommend preparing just in case.

5) Drive fast cars such as Cheetah and Banshee, especially in timed missions. I have read a lot of complaints over various forums regarding missions like Payday for Ray and Grand Theft Auto. I never had trouble with these but a lot of people probably choose a crappy vehicle (such as Manana or Perennial) before starting mission (in this case I'm talking about Payday for Ray) and they wonder why they can't complete the mission. My recommendation is to choose a fast car and also have it in good condition since cars in GTA 3 get blown up easily from slightest touch. Plus when you go fast, you can inevitably crash into a vehicle that switches lane and if your car is close to catching fire, you can say goodbye to the car. So once again make sure the vehicle is in mint/near mint condition when starting the mission, don't start with a vehicle that is smoking black!

6) Memorize the islands' layout. The thing that sets GTA 3 difficulty apart from the rest GTA games is all of the above along the fact that you don't have a way to view the map in game (though in the mobile version you can view the map) and learning the layout can greatly help especially during timed missions when you need to go somewhere, preferably on another island.

 

Also in regards to mission failures: no, you won't get locked out of 100% for simply failing a mission. You can go ahead and try to collect special vehicles if you like, I personally only liked collecting a couple of them since they can be fun collecting. But I wouldn't recommend going for that if it's your first time playing GTA 3 or first time 100%'ing the game, I find this challenge only for people who are already familiar with the game. I myself have collected a couple of special vehicles in GTA 3 (about 5 of them, mostly the EC Kuruma from Give Me Liberty, the BP Barracks OL and BP Patriot, the EC FBI Car and the EC Securicar)

 

And in regards to cheats preventing 100% completion: This is a FALSE rumor. I have completed 3 times VC to 100% back in 2009-2010 (and once in 2008 but not to 100%) and I have used cheats to beat VC (mostly No Wanted Level cheat) back then and it didn't prevent me finishing game to 100%. The same can apply to GTA 3, SA and other GTA games. HOWEVER some of the cheats CAN prevent you to finish the game such as Peds hate each other or Peds hate you type of cheats, because they are irreversible and they can conflict with mission script and you can't progress through the game anymore. This has never happened to me since I don't use cheats anymore and if I DO use cheats, I use after a 100% completed game. But if you have used basic cheats like health, armor and no wanted level cheats, you should be fine but I strongly recommend you to play the game as intended to be played and only use cheats for fun after 100%.

 

This is all for now! Hope this post helped!

Edited October 20, 2018 by GTAGuy1995

[gta3rookie 5]

6 minutes ago, GTAGuy1995 said:

This is all for now! Hope this post helped!

Thanks, very helpful for anyone getting started with gta 3...Good advice, thanks again!

[Sierra88 5]

Okay so the majority of cheat codes do not prevent 100% competion? Interesting. I still wouldn't want to ever use them again even when playing video games which shouldn't be taken seriously. From life experiences I can suggest to never attempt to cheat. It will backfire one day and you will regret it later in life for not doing it correctly. You might pass a final exam in college by cheating, but this knowledge which you haven't mastered would be required later for a job. Before when I first started playing I used cheats, but I never learnt anything about the game until I stopped using cheat codes and tried to find new challenges that would keep me hyped and occupied. Now I can do 100 % in GTA3 without failing missions or dying at all. If I still continued to use cheat codes then I would never learn anything new and wouldn't get better and or more skilled.

[gta3rookie 5]

2 minutes ago, Lethal Vaccine said:

 

Well, DP anything in III doesn't help you against Leones!

 

They will be still destroy your Vehicle with the Shotguns.  I usually have the BP/DP Patriot stored in Portland by the end of the game since it's my 13th one to get and 13 are max to store in III in the same Save.

 

I don't use Special Vehicles for any purpose but the sole reason of collecting them and learning about each and every game in terms of this.  I don't "need them for Missions" and such... 

Ah right, was just a thought, so it would need to be a bulletproof vehicle to make sense, thanks, I keep learning on from yr advice. I do appreciate...

[GTAGuy1995 167]

1 hour ago, gta3rookie said:

Thanks, very helpful for anyone getting started with gta 3...Good advice, thanks again!

You're welcome.

48 minutes ago, Sierra88 said:

Okay so the majority of cheat codes do not prevent 100% competion? Interesting. I still wouldn't want to ever use them again even when playing video games which shouldn't be taken seriously. From life experiences I can suggest to never attempt to cheat. It will backfire one day and you will regret it later in life for not doing it correctly. You might pass a final exam in college by cheating, but this knowledge which you haven't mastered would be required later for a job. Before when I first started playing I used cheats, but I never learnt anything about the game until I stopped using cheat codes and tried to find new challenges that would keep me hyped and occupied. Now I can do 100 % in GTA3 without failing missions or dying at all. If I still continued to use cheat codes then I would never learn anything new and wouldn't get better and or more skilled.

Yeah, if I'm not mistaken most of the cheat codes can be entered and will not affect 100% completion, I didn't try all results because I also stopped using cheats when playing GTA games normally. But from my experience from late 2000s when I played VC and trying to complete it (instead of just having fun in freeroam), using those basic cheats and others like car spawning, explode all cars and cars driving on water cheat, shouldn't affect 100% completion. This is something I've also wanted to say a while ago, there was a topic where some people were saying whether cheats affect 100% completion or not but in general only some of them do, while basic cheats like health and armor cheats are harmless. But yeah I don't recommend saving over using cheats and like you said cheats kinda spoil the game if you start by cheating, in my experience from VC it was the ONLY GTA game I played as kid (first time I played it back in 2005-2006) and always used cheats and mostly played for fun but later in 2009-2010 I wanted to see if I can complete the game to 100% and I did but first times I still used cheats, I wish I didn't know about cheats at that time so I can experience the game properly first time.

 

Also in regards to college, I speak from my experience but I never cheated at any exam in college and passed all of them in first try (except two in first year which I passed on second try). And in general, especially the later years of college, I have gotten good grades too (mostly 9 and 10) and it was satisfying, so you are right, it's something my parents have also said in regards to people who have cheated at exams to pass (some of which also included some of my classmates that cheated to pass, at least at some of exams) they have mostly cheated themselves and they wouldn't know what to do at a job. That's why I listened and studied and the efforts have shown.

Edited October 20, 2018 by GTAGuy1995

[gta3rookie 5]

say no to cheats....

[Tao Cheng 499]

1. Doing side missions like hidden packages after the Leones decide to get hostile with you.

2. Relying on the sirens in Ambulance only for Mr. GET IN THE BACK AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH taxi drivers to run over one of the patients in level 11. I hated taxi drivers in every car game and in real life (at least the ones the drive like aggressive assholes) ever since.

Edited October 21, 2018 by Tao Cheng

[Reyiz Kovan 79]

Mine is goin to mafia territory without the bulletproff patriot after killing salvatore

[Evil empire 1,559]

I didn't complete the paramedic job at the beginning of the game, didn't collect all the packages before some gangs become hostile for example, but since I'm on PC I could fix it thanks to some tools.

[gta3rookie 5]

On 10/28/2018 at 4:52 PM, Evil empire said:

I didn't complete the paramedic job at the beginning of the game, didn't collect all the packages before some gangs become hostile for example, but since I'm on PC I could fix it thanks to some tools.

However completing all side missions plus packages, rampages and jump stunts early in the game gives you a definite advantage - a much better knowledge of the map. Which does help a lot in some of the latter missions. Just brought Ray to the airport using the subway tracks with a car, way faster than the tunnel and less dangerous than the lift bridge

Edited October 30, 2018 by gta3rookie

[gta3rookie 5]

Mistakes I made - Part 2

 

Mistake#6:

Forget to turn off that bloody siren on emergency vehicles, makes those NPC drivers crazier than usual, which is NOT something to look forward to...

 

Mistake#7:

Looking for an FBI car and overdoing it with shooting down the copters, leading to six stars and a tank entering the Staunton Island safehouse with no friendly intentions whatsoever. Luckily, I had just enough time to eat those six bribes there and survive with 12 health...

 

Mistake#8:

Get hostile with the yardies and diablos and THEN try to get that little extra 25 health points in their turf, leading to unhappy events like a diablo running away with both your car and the hooker in it 😮

[Evil empire 1,559]

On 10/30/2018 at 5:22 PM, gta3rookie said:

However completing all side missions plus packages, rampages and jump stunts early in the game gives you a definite advantage - a much better knowledge of the map. Which does help a lot in some of the latter missions. Just brought Ray to the airport using the subway tracks with a car, way faster than the tunnel and less dangerous than the lift bridge

You're right, having no complete map was very annoying at the beginning.