So stuff happened while 98%'ing PAL PS2 GTA III v1.40

[psxdriverplayer]

*INSERT PAGER TONE HERE*

 

Mr. PSX here. Playing some PS2 PAL GTA III v1.40 here (SLES-50330) in der quest to 100% 98% it. At least tracking what's done is semi-easy here.

 

- Since I have both v1.40 and v1.60 saves on the same card, I did the not-obvious for some people, I started v1.40 without a Memory Card plugged in. Not completely for a reason you may think about, but since I have one save for each, and both of these try to load the latest save no matter which version it was created with, which then hangs at the "Loading data." screen if versions are not matching. So for the person who said that different version says it's not compatible and new game is started, what did ye do. Mine just hang on that loading thing, forcing me to reset. (Which is not so bad since the data is just being read, but still.) How to avoid Purple Nines disappearing? Either have a starter save and save elsewhere or just start without a Memory Card or a different one. NO NEED TO DELETE SH * TE.

 

- Second of all I want to say that I find it funny while the usual stance is "if not 100% is not done" and this version says otherwise, which should be known by now. There's this certain irony here, these some people really did everything yet no 100%. HA! In places should be a disclaimer though, I'm sure that there's people getting, having and playing this version still. ([SHOUTING] "I am!") Have a disclaimer to spread around, courtesy of me: "DISCLAIMER: PS2 PAL GTA III v1.40 (SLES-50330) lets you gain Percentage up to 98% due to incompetent programming which was fixed in all other, later releases."

And I can use another quote from me favourite movie pieces since I've done v1.60 not so long ago for the second time: "It's been done before" -Rizzo

 

- Then I want to say that what the bloody hell was this "try a mission that can be done again again and it will increase attempt and passed" -theory - I tried that for fun with v1.40, since me having done some replays with v1.60 earlier which only increased attempts there (Multistorey Mayhem). With v1.40, RC Toy car missions didn't even give me an attempt at retry (also same with v1.60), while Turismo increased only an attempt, so if stats say 73 out of 73, they're all done, no 74 out of 73 for yous. In European PAL at least. Unless I picked the wrong missions, but I seriously doubt this sh*t.

 

- German and French censorship is easy to cause and avoid just by dicking around with languages kek, as per usual.

 

- Then, what do people mean when they say "game is buggy as all hell"? I've seen multiple games where people say that, meanwhile with one certain one (not a GTA game) I've been wondering what, since I've struggled to find any real glitches. And what if some "bugs" are INTENTIONAL?! Ever thought aboot that, ja, HMM? (Dodo not flying was intentional all along, peoples, its the bugs that allow it to fly how it does. It was never intended to fly, it's technically a CAR.)

 

Stuff that Mr. PSX encountered (I EDITED THIS SECTION FOR MORE):

- Disc has no # signs on it.

- Checkpoint missiones not having that SFX when ye get one. Interesting. Except for Bling Bling Scramble.

- "Her Lover" is missing the dialogue, subs are still there though. (Or I encountered a thing.)

- Saves from different versions not compatible with each other, obviously.

- Pager pitch may be different, don't take me word on it.

- Attempts are different between these, I currently have one more than passed, dang 8-Ball mang. (v1.60 = 73 attempts if you never fail. v1.40 = 74 attempts, since Bomb Da Base Act II needing cash money scene gives an attempt.)

- Certain hard missions are easy, ever read what the game tells ye?

- Staunton Island off-roads are the easiest. Fight me.

- Screw boats.

- What the hell is King Courtney saying most of the time, subtitles DO NOT MATCH (in any version I've played).

- No madmen on SPANK here.

- Overused puta.

- 98.71% = 100%, FIGHT ME.

- Maria Chambers is credited twice in pedestrian voices section of the credits roll. YES I READ THIS CRAP.

- Widescreen is a top and bottom crop. Also, cutscenes are still letterboxed (both versions) if you tick it on, I recall all later PS2 GTA games removed letterboxing on cutscenes if you tick it on, not sure about VC. So yeah, as with PC versions, don't use any widescreens no matter what, just stick to 4:3, as much as it annoys some people. (Also, what the hell is this "must fill screen" mentality people have anyway, I can watch 2.76:1 on that TV screen seen below just fine. How do you live with anything that's not dead on 16:9 a.k.a. 1.78:1? (16:9 IS NOT 1.85:1 AS SOME ERRONEOUSLY SAY. 1.85:1 IS A BIT WIDER THAN THAT.) Also, if there's widescreen image on a 4:3 frame on a 16:9 screen that leaves black on all sides, that's normal, that's the way it should be, you zoom it, you do it wrong and make it worse than it already is.) Mr. PSX's advice corner: Learn to love that unused area of your screen. There's a reason there's sometimes pitch black. Also, even 16:9 ratio'd PS2 games leave a border 99.99% of time to all sides on your LCD TV screen, due to design (Sly 3 is the only exception to this rule that I've seen). On CRT's, that black area which is left there is "hidden" due to overscan, and why that phenomenon happens is because this stuff is made for CRT displays, just like DVD's are. And that is an unpopular fact right here.

 

- Then, this somehow happened while in that mission where ye escape to Staunton Island:

You can probably see that I got to that island and picked that Hidden Package 32 out of 100, then somehow in the process of me reversing the boat over there and later leaving forwards both Asuka and Maria got out of the boat and got stuck over there. Had to retry the mission. Also as ye can see, I'm doing this legit as usual, that's me PS2 output on me CRT TV. Screw emulators and such, especially if ye can do it clean, legit.

 

- Naturally I've also had a few instances where I've had to use bad language like "*bloop* *bleep* *bleep*", hoping there's not much of that later on. Having earlier done experience certainly helps.

 

Now you can shut down your smart phone if you have any and hunt me down with a standard paper map and a compass to guide yous. I'm a member of C.R.A.S.P. (Citizens Raging Against Smart Phones), haven't I ever told you?

 

Mr. PSX moves it out of here

Edited June 8, 2021 by psxdriverplayer
Stuff and moar stuff

[psxdriverplayer]

*INSERT PAGER TONE HERE*

 

Mr. PSX here again, officially stating that he has done 100% 98.71% in PS2 PAL v1.40 of GTA III. COOKIES and GONGLATURATIONS [sic], please. I have a video with proof that all is done, so I'm not missing anythings.

In 2021-06-08, I figured that yeah, indeed 98% it is, and did final mission but not the Firefighter in SSV. Then I didn't save. I wanted the final mission to be the last. The next day however, I did that Firefighter crap. Then the final mission again. SSV Firefighter sucked, but eventually after some tries I did them 20 in a row. Mr. PSX's advice corner for Shoreside Vale Firefighter 20-in-a-fricken-row: Be fast and hope stuff appears near you and in places you can get fast to build time reserve for those times you have to make a trek and also hope that there's not much of those. Eventually it might happen. I've done it twice now, with v1.40 and v1.60.

Am I a something-up'd madman yet?

 

VIDEO PROOF:

 

Still need to work to get that Criminal Rating over 5000, so...

Mr. PSX moves it out of here again

 

WELCOME TO LIBERTY CITY - WHERE YOUR 100% IS ALL MY 100%

[GTACollectorIII]

Intrestingand nice CRT 

 

[psxdriverplayer]

55 minutes ago, GTACollectorIII said:

nice CRT

HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT'S A CRT?!  But seriously. That's me second TV overall for personal use throughout me life (26 yrs), a DAEWOO CRT, model 20C9NT, a thing I've had like around 20 years or so. Still going strong for all me old stuff display needs. Including but not limited to GTA on PS2. Camera lens doesn't do justice to the beautiful image these output, one needs to see it with actual eyes in front of the CRT itself.

I dunno how people can stand anything SD or lower on their LCD screens. I've seen things at places, anything other than the native resolution of the display just sucks. Sometimes at stores I see these big ass whatever'' TV's that are huge, and the content? SD "quality"* channel.

 

* = I used quotation marks there because SD can be great looking as well, it's usually compressed to oblivion, hence the illusion that it sucks major arse.

[stef_92]

On 6/19/2021 at 12:14 AM, psxdriverplayer said:

HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT'S A CRT?!  But seriously. That's me second TV overall for personal use throughout me life (26 yrs), a DAEWOO CRT, model 20C9NT, a thing I've had like around 20 years or so. Still going strong for all me old stuff display needs. Including but not limited to GTA on PS2. Camera lens doesn't do justice to the beautiful image these output, one needs to see it with actual eyes in front of the CRT itself.

I dunno how people can stand anything SD or lower on their LCD screens. I've seen things at places, anything other than the native resolution of the display just sucks. Sometimes at stores I see these big ass whatever'' TV's that are huge, and the content? SD "quality"* channel.

 

* = I used quotation marks there because SD can be great looking as well, it's usually compressed to oblivion, hence the illusion that it sucks major arse.

Yes, old console games have fixed (usually very low) resolutions which can make them look very bad on modern high-res displays. You can use some HDMI upscalers for this but the actually good ones start from 300 $. I'm not sure how does the game look on the PS4 release but I think that currently the best way to have an acceptable HD quality of the game is by playing it on Xbox or PC with the Xbox Version HD mod