GTA Soapbox

[universetwisters]

21 minutes ago, wise_man said:

I think they don't want the players to get addicted with the in-game gambling feature, hence they dumb it down it lol. 

Too f*cking late I’m about to bet the deed to my house on two kids playing Rock Paper Scissors

[DubiousThiny]

15 hours ago, Max Payne said:

Some of the stats in San Andreas are really there for the f*ck of it. Stamina, don’t take my word for granted but isn’t this stat basically useless once 10K is stolen in burglary missions? I did steal about 15K at one go after the first mission in the game. I am not bitching that it’s too easy to complete and make Carl never get tired. My point is the Stamina stat becoming completely irrelevant.

 

There is also what, Max Health? Completely useless stat after the paramedic mission is done.

 

Not a huge deal but really, why even have those stats?

When I first visited GTAForums I was surprised that a lot of people hated or at least disliked the RPG mechanics. After I replayed San Andreas recently I began to understand the disliking. They're a unless gameplay gimmick that should've been cut completely. 

 

14 hours ago, Pistol Bobcat said:

And Luck, from Horseshoes? Yeah I don't play the gambling games much but I seriously doubt this stat makes any difference.

10 hours ago, universetwisters said:

I remember reading in the Bradygames guide that collecting the horseshoes does increase luck but, in the final, they barely do anything.

^^^^ this

 

As a kid I thought that these made CJ more luckier in certain circumstances (i.e. dodging gunshots more often, more money dropped from peds, higher chances of successful dates etc) but then after realizing that they didn't do any jack sh*t I was extremely disappointed. Talk about getting blueballed! 

[wise_man]

26 minutes ago, DubiousThiny said:

When I first visited GTAForums I was surprised that a lot of people hated or at least disliked the RPG mechanics. After I replayed San Andreas recently I began to understand the disliking. They're a unless gameplay gimmick that should've been cut completely. 

Being able to make your character thin or fat, skinny or muscular, is fun for me. It's an interesting feature. But Rockstar should've dumbed it down and made it impactful like in RDR2. They need to make story missions less dependant on your physical appearance, because having missions locked out because your weight takes away the freedom.

[Max Payne]

30 minutes ago, wise_man said:

Being able to make your character thin or fat, skinny or muscular, is fun for me.

On paper sounds interesting but in SA, this is implemented terribly due to losing muscle being impossible if you have any fat at all.

 

Regarding some of the stats I was talking about, I don’t exactly dislike em but why are they even there? Or maybe the Stamina stat at least stops popping at the left side of the screen after 10K is made through burglary? Does it?

[GhettoJesus]

15 hours ago, Max Payne said:

On paper sounds interesting but in SA, this is implemented terribly due to losing muscle being impossible if you have any fat at all.

If I recall right then cardio makes you lose muscle in SA. It's not impossible it's just that you lose more fat than muscle by doing cardio, so you will see that stat decreasing more frequently.

[Carbonox]

In my recent "completionist" playthrough of SA that had been sitting dormant for way too long, I discovered that the only "linear" stats that you really need to grind for in your free time (without advancing towards any other goals in the meantime) are stamina and flying skill. The former goes up so extremely slowly doing regular exercise that the only way to reasonably get up to max is to use gym equipment, and the latter is also slow to advance, to the point where all golds in the flight school and all mandatory flying content only gets you so far. Thus, it's best to circumnavigate the map quite a few times in a Hydra, as it appears to be based on distance covered, and nothing else.

 

Also, burglary does give you infinite run energy, but you still get tired cycling or swimming unless you max out the bar.

 

EDIT: Well actually, gambling skill is a 3rd. I always forget it exists.

Edited September 17 by Carbonox

[Max Payne]

39 minutes ago, Carbonox said:

you still get tired cycling or swimming unless you max out the bar.

I guess it’s not completely useless, I take what I said back.

Flying skill make a notable difference?

[Carbonox]

2 minutes ago, Max Payne said:

Flying skill make a notable difference?

I never noticed any. Even at 0, there's really no such turbulence as in GTA V to be concerned about.

[String]

10 years ago today fellas

a landmark occasion

Johnny Klebitz got his brains splattered in the sands of Southern SA

[wise_man]

23 minutes ago, String said:

Johnny Klebitz got his brains splattered in the sands of Southern SA

Lost but not forgotten 

[H-G]

Anyone else feel that a good majority of male characters in the HD-era GTA universe are simply made to be sh*tty little simps just to forcefully progress the plot ahead?

 

Like, remove Mallorie from GTA IV and Niko never meets "Michelle"\Karen, Vlad never dies, Niko never gets involved with Mikhail and Dimitri, Ray Bulgarin never finds Niko, and Niko and Roman never get burned out of Hove Beach.

 

Or, remove Ashley from TLAD and GTA V and Ray Boccino never becomes an enemy of The Lost MC, Jim Fitzgerald never dies and most importantly, Johnny Klebitz himself never dies(!).

 

And the best of all: Remove Amanda from V and Micheal never pulls the house off the hill, never owes money to Madrazo and never does the heist that blows his cover to Trevor.

[universetwisters]

6 hours ago, H-G said:

Anyone else feel that a good majority of male characters in the HD-era GTA universe are simply made to be sh*tty little simps just to forcefully progress the plot ahead?

 

I don't think you know what a simp is

[Pistol Bobcat]

22 hours ago, String said:

10 years ago today fellas

a landmark occasion

Johnny Klebitz got his brains splattered in the sands of Southern SA

 

Oh how I miss a simpler time when this was the worst character assassination (in the literal sense too).

 

Before Hollywood turned against the many franchises that made them popular back in the day and decided "hey, lets bring back every franchise that already had an ending, except this time the beloved hero who's an icon to people everywhere is now a bumbling old loser who just wants to die".

 

What they did to Johnny could at least somewhat be explained by the fact he got the crappiest ending of the IV trio (at least Niko gets to live in a Penthouse while Johnny never moves out of Alderney)

Edited Monday at 12:14 PM by Pistol Bobcat

[String]

22 minutes ago, Pistol Bobcat said:

What they did to Johnny could at least somewhat be explained by the fact he got the crappiest ending of the IV trio (at least Niko gets to live in a Penthouse while Johnny never moves out of Alderney)

I liked Johnny's ending in TLaD more than Nike's. Niko is in a better spot financial wise but his ending felt like an empty, bitter man who wrought destruction and had his personal life destroyed in the end. Johnny lost his clubhouse and his gang was ripped from the inside, but somehow in the end of TLaD I felt like he was free, he was in control of both his life and his crew again, and there was a sense that all the bullsh*t was finally behind the Lost. 

 

Johnny's ultimate ending was sad in the sense that the bullsh*t caught up to him after all, man got caught in drugs and the end of Trevor's boot. But I don't mind his ending so much. Johnny not being able to ride off into the sunset and ultimately screwing up sucked from a fan pov (and many arguments about it being poor writing too) but I appreciated it in a way.

 

In a similar vein, when Niko is chasing Dimitri in the abandoned casino and Niko tells Dimitri that they shall finish this here, one of Dimitris dialogue while running away is You will fall too! Someone will take you down. A kind of headcanon of mine I guess is that this does happen to Niko eventually. He caused too much chaos in the LC underworld that I think someone will get back at him some time. 

 

Playing TLaD I find Johnny bit of a sweetheart and rather likeable. He's got a very elder brotherly charm to him, lol

[DubiousThiny]

4 hours ago, Pistol Bobcat said:

What they did to Johnny could at least somewhat be explained by the fact he got the crappiest ending of the IV trio

When I first played GTA V and recently TLaD I originally founded Johnny's death to be a cheap character kill off moment. I've red a lot of threads and messages online about how Johnny K could've been handled better in V. Maybe turn him into a supporting character that helped Trevor with the Angels of Death. Maybe turn him into a antagonist to Trevor and make his presence and TLMC an actual threat in Blaine County. Maybe at least make his death in a more respectable manner. You know, the usual fanon stuff.

 

But after I thought about it for a long time I finally came to the conclusion that Johnny's death was the best thing Rockstar could've done with him after the events of IV. Just like what D T said, and I quote: 

Quote

The dude had just lost his best friends, got stranded in a rundown sh*thole without working water, and all he had left was Ashley. When your whole life has gone to sh*t and the only person keeping you going is offering you an escape it's a hard offer to refuse. In a way, sending Johnny off like that was the most respectful thing Rockstar could've done with him. Instead of leaving his character in eternal stasis they used him to explore the idea of what happens to a hero after his story has ended.

 

Instead of cheap mentions or references to Johnny here and there, Rockstar used him to show that not every protagonist gets a happy ending in their story. Johnny doesn't ride off into the sunset with his methhead junkie ex-girlfriend with a cheesy 1960s Rock song playing in the background, he gets addicted to meth by her, got cucked multiple times by a mommy-issued Canadian and tried to stand up to himself, only to get stomped in the head to death.

 

If you think about it with that mindset, Johnny's death starts to feel more impactful and depressing that way.

 

Unintentionally or not, Rockstar North did a pretty good job of showing what happens when a protagonist's life starts to go downhill.

Edited Monday at 04:09 PM by DubiousThiny

[String]

Whatever your views on Johnny K and his fate, no denying it's one of the most memorable moments in the series, if not the most. lol

[Midnight Dutch]

On 9/14/2023 at 1:59 PM, Krooked_ said:

I don't mind the conversations as much as the fact that sometimes the longer ones are during a short drive so I have to stop right before the mission marker and let them finish. It kinda ruins the pacing at times.

I also do not mind the conversations in story mode, as they usually provide insight into the characters, their motives, and their mindset.. I can listen to music later.

 

My real issue is the forsaken mindless, endless drabble during missions/heists in GTAO.. (looking at you, Lester).. especially the ones that apparently take place over some sort of ear piece or Bluetooth headset.. jeez;  that stuff I could do without.  

[Darth_Cruiser]

4 minutes ago, Midnight Dutch said:

I also do not mind the conversations in story mode, as they usually provide insight into the characters, their motives, and their mindset.. I can listen to music later.

 

My real issue is the forsaken mindless, endless drabble during missions/heists in GTAO.. (looking at you, Lester).. especially the ones that apparently take place over some sort of ear piece or Bluetooth headset.. jeez;  that stuff I could do without.  

 

Yeah the drives to the mission points are way too long in Online. So you get a ton of filler dialogue. Very annoying, not sure why they made the distance to mission points so long.

[Carbonox]

1 hour ago, Midnight Dutch said:

I also do not mind the conversations in story mode, as they usually provide insight into the characters, their motives, and their mindset.. I can listen to music later.

 

My real issue is the forsaken mindless, endless drabble during missions/heists in GTAO.. (looking at you, Lester).. especially the ones that apparently take place over some sort of ear piece or Bluetooth headset.. jeez;  that stuff I could do without.  

At least those you can tune out while driving to the spot, but the unskippable cutscenes with all the filler dialogue in the world? Not even once.

[H-G]

I was so pissed that there's no clean version for the deal scene music in Vice City (all are either bad or hand-made compositions) so I went to the extreme and did one on my own:

 

[wise_man]

7 hours ago, Midnight Dutch said:

Bluetooth headset.. jeez;  that stuff I could do without.  

Ah yes, the bluetooth headset.

 

Don't like it either. Talking face-to-face feels whole better. It does match the thrilling heist theme, but they overused it.

[universetwisters]

Any notion of prison breaks within GTA piss me off if I'm in the mood for realism

Unless you're being broken out of jail so you can go to Mexico or Bulgaria, what the f*ck are you doing going back to your house, that's literally the first place the cops will look (lookin at yall, Cam and Gerald)

[Max Payne]

Shoreside Vale’s design and atmosphere are so brilliant. I played III and LCS loads of times before but playing GTA III again in its open world around 2 weeks ago or so, how amazing this island is just never caught my attention like this before.

[🖕]

14 minutes ago, Max Payne said:

Shoreside Vale’s design and atmosphere are so brilliant. I played III and LCS loads of times before but playing GTA III again in its open world around 2 weeks ago or so, how amazing this island is just never caught my attention like this before.

Agree

 

I just wish we were able to get to that damn telescope

[JetNormalGuy]

I completed GTA V 100% for the third time with Gold Medal on every mission and 100% accuracy with every character just in time with the game's 10th anniversary and it reminded me me of how much I don't like Final Scores in main missions, skipping cutscenes and driving like a maniac and missing the actual juicy parts of these missions is just annoying, I just end up playing the same missions twice just to get gold medal. They should just get rid of it at this point, this ain't GTA 3 where all you do is drive somewhere to shoot someone or steal a car, they bother with all the dialogues and scripted setpieces and events and little small bonuses for curious players and the music to make the mission feel as awesome as possible just so that they tell you that you should zap through everything and hurry the f*ck up next time. stupid.

 

Other than that, GTA V is still 10/10 to this day.

[Pistol Bobcat]

54 minutes ago, JetNormalGuy said:

I completed GTA V 100% for the third time with Gold Medal on every mission and 100% accuracy with every character just in time with the game's 10th anniversary and it reminded me me of how much I don't like Final Scores in main missions, skipping cutscenes and driving like a maniac and missing the actual juicy parts of these missions is just annoying, I just end up playing the same missions twice just to get gold medal. They should just get rid of it at this point, this ain't GTA 3 where all you do is drive somewhere to shoot someone or steal a car, they bother with all the dialogues and scripted setpieces and events and little small bonuses for curious players and the music to make the mission feel as awesome as possible just so that they tell you that you should zap through everything and hurry the f*ck up next time. stupid.

 

Other than that, GTA V is still 10/10 to this day.

 

I agree, that was something I always kinda disliked about TBOGT mainly where the end results score is a little more in your face. They should've just these made bonus objectives something to go for after finishing the final mission.

 

In TBOGT you could take your time to do a mission efficiently then a big colourful scoreboard comes up to say you're sh*te.

Edited Tuesday at 01:05 PM by Pistol Bobcat

[wise_man]

1 hour ago, Pistol Bobcat said:

They should've just these made bonus objectives something to go for after finishing the final mission.

So like a new game+?

 

It's a better idea, though. You can restart from beginning via game menu, all unlocked weapons and items are available, but missions are more difficult and have extra objectives.

[Krooked_]

6 hours ago, Max Payne said:

Shoreside Vale’s design and atmosphere are so brilliant. I played III and LCS loads of times before but playing GTA III again in its open world around 2 weeks ago or so, how amazing this island is just never caught my attention like this before.

The verticality really makes it stand out from Staunton Island and Portland. I love driving up to the hills in Cedar Grove, park my car and take in LC's skyline. It looks gorgeous with Project2DFX.

[Max Payne]

I’m probably the only one who never gave a sh*t about scores and %100 completion. I never fully completed a GTA and never will. I don’t find anything interesting about running around the map like a bitch to collect some UFO piece or whatever.

[Carbonox]

Found this pretty good 1 hour exerpt on GTA 3's vibe, I honestly love it when these more mundane parts of the game are given some attention for a change.