GTA Soapbox

[Carbonox]

I hate how they made the weakest of all the Italian mob bosses a final antagonist in one ending. I know Niko might be in a world of trouble for offing a Messina leader or whatever, and that story likely would have no happy long-term ending in sight, but you gotta have some kinda high stakes, mang.

[Americana]

Yeah, well - to be honest, Pegorino was a weird choice. He should have been killed off in a normal mission, just like Ray.

Edited February 20, 2021 by Americana

[String]

I feel gangs in GTA V were a lot more wasted potential tbh, the Marabunta Grande, the Kkangpae were barely even featured in the story, at least in IV we got to see the majority of the gangs in missions even if it would have been fun to work for more but it still is okay in IV imo, we worked for the Russians, the Italians, the Irish and even a Puerto Rican drug baron. 

 

As for Pegorino as an antagonist, yeah I agree he doesn't make a good final boss. Dimitri/Bulgarin would have made a much better choice as final antagonists but then TBoGTs plot gets screwed I guess

[GhettoJesus]

1 hour ago, Wayne Kerr said:

I feel gangs in GTA V were a lot more wasted potential tbh, the Marabunta Grande, the Kkangpae were barely even featured in the story, at least in IV we got to see the majority of the gangs in missions even if it would have been fun to work for more but it still is okay in IV imo, we worked for the Russians, the Italians, the Irish and even a Puerto Rican drug baron. 

 

As for Pegorino as an antagonist, yeah I agree he doesn't make a good final boss. Dimitri/Bulgarin would have made a much better choice as final antagonists but then TBoGTs plot gets screwed I guess

Agreed. I was surprised to find out that there are Salvadoran, North Korean and Armenian gangs and I was just like: "Where the f*ck were they?". Had they explored the hood life more we could have seen some of these gangs but alas they screwed it up.

[Americana]

I mean, gangs in Grand Theft Auto V are 100% wasted potential because they weren't even used.

[String]

I guess GTA III kind of is the most 'focused' of the mainline ones in terms of a crime theme. Claude is almost entirely a hitman partaking mainly in assassination missions but then he does other crazy stuff like drive a van distributing pr0no mags all over the city, so yeah idk lol

[H-G]

8 minutes ago, Wayne Kerr said:

I guess GTA III kind of is the most 'focused' of the mainline ones in terms of a crime theme. Claude is almost entirely a hitman partaking mainly in assassination missions but then he does other crazy stuff like drive a van distributing pr0no mags all over the city, so yeah idk lol

Actually, he has to collect the magazines that are being accidentally scattered all over Portland by a stolen magazine shipment van, thanks to the rear doors being left open by the thief.

[Dr Busta]

I just noticed that CJ crossed paths with his mother's killer twice 

And probably killed him during "ice cold killa" I mean he didn't appear outside of the cutscene but the same happened in the introduction rocktsar used the generic fat balla who looked Similar to him instead so he was probably there but rockstar were lazy to make a gameplay version of his model .

Edited February 21, 2021 by DR:BUSTA

[VCPR]

oh god, why @Chris Liberty don't have english subtitles at his channel, he has some insight but sadly I don't know sh*t in French 

[Carbonox]

Anyone noticed how often in Rockstar games with 3 separate regions that are unlocked one at a time, a big deal is made out of unlocking the second one, but the third almost always gets given to you extremely subtly, off-screen and with next to no warning? Observe:

 

In GTA III, when it's time to leave for Staunton, you explicitly sail there, also getting your first touch of boat gameplay to show off that things will be different now, and Asuka informs you of a newly awarded safehouse on the island. Shoreside Vale is given to you for completing A Drop in the Ocean, a mission that you wouldn't think would unlock that, and you might not even know until you accept a later mission and discover that the destination marker is now suddenly in SSV and the lift bridge is active. I also think D-Ice's pager text only arrives when you actually enter the island in free roam for the first time? Furthermore, the SSV safehouse is given out of nowhere, leaving it pretty much up to you to decide how Claude got it. Assigned by Asuka again? By D-Ice as a deal sweetener? Or it might've been where he lived before the prologue. You decide.

 

Vice City's a bit of the same, but with just 2 main islands and a few minor inbetweeners. You unlock Leaf Links and Starfish Island early on, and they're presented somewhat noticeably when you do so. The mainland just suddenly opens up after Phnom Penh '86, without any distinct foreshadowing. The storm warning's just suddenly over, enjoy.

 

San Andreas... now that has a lot to unpack. Technically you unlock all of San Fierro and the Badlands in one fell swoop, same with Las Venturas and Desert, but there's a bit of separate unlocking going on too since you can only start buying property in the new cities once you've completed the mission strands in their respective countrysides first. However, the same logic applies again - it's a big deal when you get dumped to Badlands from LS, and when you drive to San Fierro with The Truth (for what should be the first time lore-wise). The Desert comes up after Yay Ka-Boom-Boom, with no warning until you check where the new mission marker actually sits. Likewise, you first officially go to Las Venturas kind of abruptly following Flight School.

 

LCS reuses GTA III's map and logic. This time you jump the broken bridge to get to Staunton before driving straight to your brand new safehouse. As for SSV? Unlocked through Love on the Rocks, which has nothing to do with the new island itself. The Cedar Grove safehouse is just as much a perplexing mystery as Wichita Gardens' in III, too.

 

GTA IV, now this I remember quite well. After we get over the fact Bohan is available immediately at the start, despite being separated by water and not playing into the story until ~15 missions in, once it's time for Algonquin, you actually drive there with PBX, with lucrative job opportunities on the horizon. A bit jarring to have that happen on an average mission, maybe, but you could say so was LCS' transition to Staunton. Now what about Alderney? I remember wanting to get the whole map unlocked really bad and asking on a forum when I would get to Alderney, right after I'd robbed the bank (Three Leaf Clover). Imagine the shock when I was informed that was the mission, in fact. Nothing to do with the final island, but sure enough, no more barricades.

 

To go off on a tangent, the original RDR did this too, but with some actual foreshadowing for a change. Going to Mexico was a distinctive moment, with the whole raft thing and the song that plays once you finally reach land. When it's time for West Elizabeth, you do know it's coming 1 mission in advance thanks to the encounter with the agents, but the game doesn't really put a huge magnifying glass over it like with Mexico. One moment you're overthrowing the colonel, the next you see a new mission way over in Blackwater and a new safehouse and the blue train on the map, out of nowhere.

[H-G]

On 2/23/2021 at 10:59 PM, Carbonox said:

Unlocked through Love on the Rocks, which has nothing to do with the new island itself.

Actually, it kinda does. After the mission, Toni gets a call from Salvatore telling him to come to the Pike Creek police precinct (citation needed). As for the "free" safehouse in Cedar Grove, I'd like to imagine Toni bought it.

[H-G]

Excuse the double-post, but-

 

The only thing I've ever disliked about III is that God-awful, "roar"-ish train sound.
It's annoying, way too loud, can be heard from a ridiculous number of miles away and the audio compression only makes it even more worse.

 

To be honest, there has never been even a single moment in the game where I haven't heard the train coming. It's audible in the streets (even if the train's in a tunnel below), in the sea... everywhere.
Thank God R* finally toned this down in LCS by using a lot less annoying train sound.

[String]

For me the train sound is like a signature part of III, haven't played it in a while but now that you say it I can hear that train sound almost vividly! 

[Dr Busta]

Isn't it annoying how people sh*t on MC Eiht these days and blame him for Ryder's weak death even though he has nothing to do with it 

And people keep creating fake stories about what happened and everyone seems to believe it but when you tell them that this never happened and can't happen they say weird sh*t like this

I didn't even mention any interviews lol :''''

[Americana]

40 minutes ago, DR:BUSTA said:

Isn't it annoying how people sh*t on MC Eiht these days and blame him for Ryder's weak death even though he has nothing to do with it 

 

Wait, seriously? There are people who care about that?

[Dr Busta]

4 minutes ago, Americana said:

Wait, seriously? There are people who care about that?

Some people say that Ryder's betrayal is not canon lol

I don't care how weak and lame his death was

The final product is what happened 

Actually when you think it the same can be said about Ray Boccino's death in GTA 4

[E Revere]

1 hour ago, Americana said:

 

Wait, seriously? There are people who care about that?

There are people who believe that Rockstar may have originally planned not to make Ryder an antagonist but did it as a last-minute change. It makes sense when you observe the game data but there's little source for it other than that. It's a popular theory but some people take it as far as to say that Ryder wasn't going to betray Grove in the beta. Yeah. I don't think the pre-planning would've gone that far.

 

In any case I don't see how it has anything to do with MC Eiht.

Edited February 28, 2021 by E Revere

[Dr Busta]

3 hours ago, E Revere said:

There are people who believe that Rockstar may have originally planned not to make Ryder an antagonist but did it as a last-minute change. It makes sense when you observe the game data but there's little source for it other than that. It's a popular theory but some people take it as far as to say that Ryder wasn't going to betray Grove in the beta. Yeah. I don't think the pre-planning would've gone that far.

I think it's very clear that he wasn't supposed to be a traitor in the beginning .

But as soon as the San Fierro arc started and the revenging story  started they knew that they couldn't bring smoke back for a lot of reasons mainly because of how he was supposed to be a cowardly villian and he can't get killed half way through the story that's why Ryder's name  starts getting mentioned alongside of Smoke's in this arc 

And then but that's my speculation when og loc was added since there's a chance that he was added very late during the development (people who say that put base it on his beta name stuff in the game files) then it would make sense for Ryder to show his first betrayal hint during the mission "house party" 

Anyways  people say that Ryder had no reason to betray the Grove but here are some reasons

_his personality and attitude

_him being jealeous from CJ

_his PCP addiction 

And a lot of other minor things combined together gives him a reason to betray grove

What doesn't make sense about his betrayal is how Smoke told him during the introduction about his plans but he clearly didn't know about it during some Missions  (like Drive thru) but this can be explained as he's an addict 

and how he helped grove to get better guns 

To fix this whole thing I think the introduction scene with smoke should be retconed before "House Party" and after "robbing uncle sam"

Edited February 28, 2021 by DR:BUSTA

[H-G]

2 hours ago, DR:BUSTA said:

To fix this whole I think the introduction scene with smoke should be retconed before "House Party" and after "robbing uncle sam"

Unfortunately, that's actually impossible because The Introduction movie was made to explicitly take place before the game's storyline, not during (or after, LOL) the storyline.

[Dr Busta]

23 minutes ago, Staunton Assassin said:

Unfortunately, that's actually impossible because The Introduction movie was made to explicitly take place before the game's storyline, not during (or after, LOL) the storyline.

Well ........

If there's a way to  fix it's that way .

[H-G]

1 minute ago, DR:BUSTA said:

Well ........

If there's a way to  fix it's that way .

That's understandable, too, I guess...

[Dr Busta]

I always feel that GTA VCS theme never fit the game

It's a great theme song but it just doesn't capture the theme of the game itself

[String]

Speaking of theme songs, for me Ogden nut gone flake, the song used in the first trailer of GTA V, feels more like V's theme than V's actual theme. 

[H-G]

1 hour ago, DR:BUSTA said:

I always feel that GTA VCS theme never fit the game

It's a great theme song but it just doesn't capture the theme of the game itself

Here's a fun fact about VCS' theme song: The last few seconds of the song sound a lot like the first few seconds of TBoGT's theme song, and Vic and Luis are both Dominican.

[Americana]

Grand Theft Auto V's theme song is so lame! "Welcome to Los Santos, tududu". The f*ck?

[Target13]

I am trying to 100% Vice City after years again and what surprised me is how easy the game actually is. I remember spending hours as a kid trying to complete the hardest missions in the game (especially the RC helicopter and plane missions) but I'm now able to finish them in minutes. Vice City is still my favorite entry in the series, nothing can beat the vibes it gives off.

[H-G]

19 hours ago, Americana said:

Grand Theft Auto V's theme song is so lame! "Welcome to Los Santos, tududu". The f*ck?

Yeah, the saxophone in the beginning sounds like someone's snoring into it.

 

By the way, I always wanted to say one thing to you: Why do you mention the whole name of every game? It's feels slightly hard-ish to read through all that "Grand Theft Auto (insert number here)". Look at how other people mention them such as III, VC, SA, LCS, VCS etc.

[Americana]

It looks nice.

[Harwood Butch3r]

*Stands up on the soap box*
 

I never understood why it took until GTA IV to finally have rideable taxis when the basic mechanic was already in place with “trip skip”. In San Andreas especially I would’ve appreciated this for those times where you needed to go to the other side of the map particularly failing a mission. Those long drives back got really annoying I tell you.

 

I suppose it’s not all bad as GTA IV gets credited for introducing IMO what is the most helpful feature/mechanic in the series, but it baffles me why it wasn’t introduced in the 3D era.

 

And even though I like GTA V’s clothing selection I’ve never liked how it’s impossible to wear certain clothing combinations and that the game decides what clothes they should be wearing when you switch around. Switching to Trevor proves to be troublesome at times when he’s wearing underwear or a dress and then you  have to go to the nearest safe house or clothing store to find something decent. It’s annoying and almost makes clothing in GTA V seem pointless.

 

Atleast in GTA IV even with its smaller amount of clothes I can be reassured the game won’t  change Niko into something that may make him look like an idiot and I can wear jeans with a suit top and tie.

 

/rant

 

 

Edited March 4, 2021 by Algonquin Assassin

[GhettoJesus]

2 hours ago, Algonquin Assassin said:

I never understood why it took until GTA IV to finally have rideable taxis when the basic mechanic was already in place with “trip skip”. In San Andreas especially I would’ve appreciated this for those times where you needed to go to the other side of the map particularly failing a mission. Those long drives back got really annoying I tell you.

I would argue that there weren't enough space on the disk to implement this feature. The mechanics are there but then you have to code the ability to hail for cabs, selecting your destination and then apply an automatic trip skip over the process. I know next to nothing about programing but there were lots of compromises to fit the game on a disk.

 

You got me thinking though, did Rockstar plan to put this in the game? Lots of features were cut like safecracking and house decoration so I wonder if there are a few lines in the code that hint at the ability to fast travel with taxis.