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Playing SA for the first time, what to know?


Anywhere USA

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Darth_Cruiser
30 minutes ago, Anywhere USA said:

Pulaski is dead 

 

always hated that piece of sh*t and his annoying voice

did he annoy you too

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

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Anywhere USA

Saint Marks Bistro was neat.

 

Based on the deep layer of snow I assume it’s probably January or February 1993 by this point 

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Anywhere USA

Breaking the Bank at Caligulas was fun. Plain and simple. Definitely preferred it and it’s set up missions over the Bank heist in Vice City.

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Anywhere USA

I will be honest and admit the plot in Las Venturas felt crowded and rushed in many ways.

 

Ok, so the 3 Mob families run the town, the Triads are trying to set up shop, corporations are squeezing them all, and the mob families are all at each others throats. Thanks to the Introduction, we know that Caligulas was a big joint venture initially led by the Sindaccos, though after Johnnys death the Leones take over.

 

Firstly, I never really got the sense the mob ran the town. We never see them in free roam, we barely even see it in missions. We don’t see any Forelli controlled territory, no Leone held turf outside of Caligulas, and the Sindaccos just have a couple of industrial buildings in Whitewood Estate. If this is supposed to be a mob run town, who controls all those cool names casinos with unique locations and awesome designs that we never get to do anything with. The Clowns Pocket, Pirates in Men’s Pants, The Emerald Isle, The Starfish Casino, Casino Floor, The Old Venturas Strip Casinos. What’s the division of land here? Who’s running what? I got the sense from LCS that the Sindaccos were probably the most heavily invested in LV, but that’s it.

 

The corporation issue? The thing that actually ended the mob reign in Vegas IRL(though in our timeline this happened between the late 70s and mid 80s, not in 1992/1993) and is causing issues for everyone? Never addressed in the plot.

 

Also none of this really cleanly ties into the core of CJs storyline. While the San Fierro plot also had some flaws, especially the whole plot with The Da Nang Boys which I never felt went anywhere, the stuff with the Rifa made sense, targeting them cut off a major source of income for Smoke, and they eventually got rid of Ryder. The car shop plot also held up well enough even if it kind of meandered. 
 

What does all the casino plot line and mob drama have to do with CJ’s story? Nothing really. It’s just a giant pause while Toreno does nothing, the story picks back up once he comes back. And I like mob drama that’s silly and exaggerated, I found LCS really good on that front. It just felt undercooked.

 

I’m curious if the design documents fleshed any of this out. I know stuff got cut due to time and space constraints.(Gang Warfare was supposed to be a feature throughout the game instead of showing up and vanishing for most of it.San Fierro would have Rifa, Da Nang, and Triad, they still show up in the final game on the streets just no territory, even Rifa tags you could spray were planned and cut. LV clearly never got as far seeing as no mobsters or triads spawn on the streets). Maybe it mentions more plans as to who controlled the city. Maybe the LCS design document goes more into the gang war this spawned in 1993-1994. I dunno

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GhettoJesus
1 hour ago, Anywhere USA said:

I will be honest and admit the plot in Las Venturas felt crowded and rushed in many ways.

After you finish the Loco Syndicate the story goes completely off the rails, the LV section is really just there because they wanted a casino heist. It's still fun though.

K2yjoYK.png

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3 hours ago, Anywhere USA said:

Breaking the Bank at Caligulas was fun. Plain and simple. Definitely preferred it and it’s set up missions over the Bank heist in Vice City.

The mission was neat, but that parachute jump from one building to another to get the police heli was wierd as hell. For years I was messing it up by opening the parachute as soon as possible and never having the  altitude to land correctly, and then I read that you actually dont need to open the chute at all, in fact the freefall just glides you to the other side, defying the previously established game physics.

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ArmanCan
10 hours ago, Anywhere USA said:

Firstly, I never really got the sense the mob ran the town. We never see them in free roam, we barely even see it in missions.

it was possible to spawn mafia or triads to zones/territories but the developers didn't do that..

10 hours ago, Anywhere USA said:

We don’t see any Forelli controlled territory, no Leone held turf outside of Caligulas, and the Sindaccos just have a couple of industrial buildings in Whitewood Estate.

Mafia Families are not defined seperately in the game files.. they have three gang members and special/cutscene characters..

10 hours ago, Anywhere USA said:

What does all the casino plot line and mob drama have to do with CJ’s story?

it is a tradition of GTA.. a goddamn HEIST.. and CJ is a greedy motherf*cker also.. 😃

Edited by ArmanCan
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Anywhere USA
Posted (edited)
11 hours ago, GhettoJesus said:

After you finish the Loco Syndicate the story goes completely off the rails, the LV section is really just there because they wanted a casino heist. It's still fun though.

Yeah I got the feeling half of it was just there for the Casino Heist and the other half(the mandatory half) was there for references to the past two games that didn’t fit ahywhere else. Oh look it’s Kent Paul, oh look it’s Ken Rosenberg, oh look it’s Salvatore Leone, oh look it’s Maria, oh look it’s the Forellis! Could have been written way better, basically nothing happens in the overall plot except for the two CRASH missions(which don’t even really make sense as Toreno is already keeping Sweet safe), and Madd Dogg which comes out of nowhere.

 

LV definitely would have benefited from more missions or a spin-off game. There could have been so much more done with it. I’m curious what the design documents of both SA and LCS(which seemingly takes place in the aftermath of the mob war CJ started, that’s probably the same war that Toni had to flee because of) say, too bad they’ll never get released 

Edited by Anywhere USA
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Angel Piner
On 8/20/2023 at 3:59 AM, GhettoJesus said:

After you finish the Loco Syndicate the story goes completely off the rails, the LV section is really just there because they wanted a casino heist. It's still fun though.

LV missions were some of the best in the entire game! A little over-the-top at times, but great regardless.

On 8/20/2023 at 2:57 PM, Anywhere USA said:

LV definitely would have benefited from more missions

It had the same amount of missions as San Fierro did. I thought it was a good amount of missions per city overall. I never felt like any mission strand drug out for too long, either.

Edited by Angel Piner
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Anywhere USA

Home in the Hills was fun.

 

Vertical Bird is tricky.

 

Also while I’m not sure I think Mafia Mooks may be spawning in Bayside

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gtaonefan
40 minutes ago, Anywhere USA said:

Also while I’m not sure I think Mafia Mooks may be spawning in Bayside

It's the Territory Glitch. In Saint Mark's Bistro, when you fly far enough off the map to the ocean, it slightly messes up the gang territory data and adds a new territory to Bayside.

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Anywhere USA

I got the Vagos in Bayside Marina as a proper territory. While they don’t show up on the map, Mafia Mooks are in Bayside proper.

 

On Los Desperados, why do Cesar and co refuse to get in cars or follow 

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Anywhere USA

80% done. Will finish when I return from family.

 

Tips for capturing beach territory where the f*ckers spawn in the water for some reason?

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Anywhere USA

Also, got to say, for how much screen time he has(more than Sweet or Kendl), Wu Zi kind of has a lousy sendoff. After being introduced mysteriously and naturally in the badlands race missions, and then being your main employer in not one, but two of the 3 cities, along with being super likeable and sh*t, he gets nothing. He last shows up in the opening cutscene of A Home in the Hills(final word is IRS). We don’t even know what happened, though presumably he set up the gang of Triads to aid in the raid on the mansion(who, even if you keep them all alive, stop following you halfway through the mission and disappear). We never hear from Wu Zi or the triads again. I would have liked him to pop up once or twice. Maybe as part of the crew at the TV in Riot, or maybe checking in on one of Mad Dogs missions since he was originally being looked at to preform at the casino. I don’t know , just feels like a bad send off. I notice because Cesar had a good conclusion. He’s planning to marry Kendl, he’s finally on decent terms with Sweet, and you’re returning an old favor and helping him take back his good 

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Sorry if I bombed all of you guys with likes and realistic steaks, it's just been really fun to read this thread after so many years having played this game for the first time. It truly is one of the best experiences in gaming ever, and you guys sure as hell know a lot of stuff about the game! I've finished it more times than I can remember, modded it to hell on PC and even on mobile, but I never realized a lot of the stuff that's been posted in this thread. Really makes me want to give it another go, would be great to play the PS2 version considering it's probably the best way of play it and cause it also has the added bonus of 2-player mode but I don't have a PS2 and don't really know how to emulate it properly on PC. 

Something that caught my attention was the things you guys said about the LV chapter of the game. It's kind of anti-climatic considering your main goal is to get Sweet out of jail, and then all of a sudden you're caught in this casino and mob war where you have to do all kinds of crazy sh*t before actually getting back to accomplishing said goal. I agree with what OP said about LCS being a bit better in this sense, the whole whacky mafia stuff was done in a more engaging way and felt more consistent in terms of story.

 

It surely felt like they could have done more work in terms of developing LV and it's territories like they did with San Fierro, maybe even make gang members react to CJ after certain events like they do during the story too! Would give LV a lot more life and sense of danger.

 

Also I wonder why the hell Toreno didn't find out about the whole Area 69 incident, maybe he allowed it? Probably has beef with the military?

 

It's crazy how most R* games always have lots of unfinished assets and scraps of unfinished story chapters found somewhere after release, really shows how big the scope is with most of them.

Edited by diperro
I wrote asses instead of assets lmao
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Angel Piner
On 8/25/2023 at 1:36 AM, diperro said:

all of a sudden you're caught in this casino and mob war where you have to do all kinds of crazy sh*t before actually getting back to accomplishing said goal

It's not the most cohesive at times, but that's one of the things I love about San Andreas. It's over-the-top but never short of absolute fun.

I also agree with it being fun to read threads like these. I'm currently playing through the game for the millionth time, but it's still great to read theories and how others approached the game.

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GhettoJesus
On 8/25/2023 at 7:36 AM, diperro said:

Also I wonder why the hell Toreno didn't find out about the whole Area 69 incident, maybe he allowed it? Probably has beef with the military?

That's actually a pretty good question in hindsight. And what about the green goo incident? More importantly, what did the Truth do with the jetpack and the green goo? I guess America's and the CIA's (I assume he is with the CIA since he talks about foreign affairs a lot) success is the most important thing for Toreno. The military losing a jetpack and the green goo might not matter much for him and for the country.

Edited by GhettoJesus

K2yjoYK.png

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Anywhere USA

Unlocked the final mission after capturing enough turf.

 

Tomorrow. End of the Line. Maybe some races too 

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MelonDoge30

END OF THE LINE

 

Where many cried...

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Anywhere USA
7 hours ago, MelonDoge30 said:

END OF THE LINE

 

Where many cried...

Same things make us laugh, make us cry.

 

Also I stole the SWAT Tank and failed the mission the first time, wanted one of those 

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8 hours ago, Anywhere USA said:

Also I stole the SWAT Tank and failed the mission the first time, wanted one of those 

I feel most of us had that intrusive thought when dealing with that mission :shillkek:

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ArmanCan
19 hours ago, Anywhere USA said:

Same things make us laugh, make us cry.

 

Also I stole the SWAT Tank and failed the mission the first time, wanted one of those 

Now convert this into an Allproof..

You could also obtain Allproof White Feltzer..

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Anywhere USA

Well.

 

It was fun. Granted Big Smoke went down fast with a minigun, but still. Cool battle.

 

The second half of the mission was honestly kind of underwhelming in comparison tho

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3 hours ago, Anywhere USA said:

Any tricks to stop Denise from dumping me

Kill her trust me it will be better

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Anywhere USA
40 minutes ago, Jenci said:

Kill her trust me it will be better

Going for 110% so no

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  • 2 weeks later...
Anywhere USA

Got distracted finishing 100%ing Manhunt. Back to this. Going for 110% like always(except for criminal rating which is ludicrous and I believe nerfed in definitive).

 

Denise(who I think I used up the good will with while I was doing all those stunt jumps), wants to dump me, but the heart icon is still there. I’ve heard more than enough anecdotal reports of cheesing up your relationship status to not be deterred. If anyone has any tips, specific spots to drive or things to do that will raise it enough to stop her from dumping me, tell me.

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Anywhere USA

Girlfriends going smoothly, all the snapshots done, Video game highscores

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Anywhere USA

Me and a buddy beat the first two rampages, all 9 levels each. Plus mucked about in free mode and did the 2-player pool game

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