Grand Theft Auto V Talk.

[J.T.]

100% COMPLETE~!

• I really like the Construction Assassination mission.  I felt like equal parts James Bond and Wesley Snipes from Passenger 57.  It sure takes a helluva long time for that stupid Homing Missile Launcher to lock on.  Four seconds is an eternity when people are shooting at you.
• Getting my ass beat in Parachute races in GTA Online prepared me for the escape.   I pulled the rip cord early in my jump to avoid nose diving to my doom via snagging my chute on the side of the construction site and I remembered that hitting both bumpers makes you center your descent.
• Thank God there was no mission time criteria for Gold. I glided through the air for nearly ninety seconds before touching down safely Downtown.
• I didn't optimize the Stock Market stuff, but Michael, Trevor, and Franklin each has over a billion dollars in the bank so fuck it.
• ALL PROPERTIES PURCHASED~!  The perk for buying the golf course is that you don't have to adhere to the dress code?  Fuck that.
• Finally found a way to permanently get rid of the vehicles that Mike, Trevor, and Franklin had at the LSPD impound.  Pay the fine -> Drive to Strawberry -> Affix with Sticky Bomb -> Franklin collects cash for the scrap metal.
• Life goes on for our anti-heroes.  Michael usually spawns at the movie studio during switches but he occasionally shows up at home trying to bond with his family, Trevor is either doing weird shit or showing up at McKenzie so he's still in the smuggling business.  Odd that Trevor rarely shows up at the Unicorn anymore.  Franklin is either chillin' at the house, waxing one of his vehicles, or exiting some strip club.
• Holy Shit, Trevor.  I buy you halfway decent clothes yet nine times out of ten when I switch to you, you are shirtless and wearing those damned dirty sweatpants!  YOU HAVE LIKE FIVE BOWLING SHIRTS, FOUR LEATHER JACKETS, THREE PAIRS OF JEANS, AND NINE PAIRS OF BOOTS~! 
• Aw.  I caught Tracey on the phone talking about her college courses at ULSA and I also walked into Jimmy's room and saw him trying to do jumping jacks.   The De Santa family is on the road to recovery.
• There is police tape across the doors at Lester's old sweatshop and the windows are boarded up.  LSPD must be investigating the arson.
• Floyd and Debra's apartment also remains a crime scene.  How long before someone finally cleans the blood stains off of the windows?
• I found a theater showing Meltdown and made Michael go watch it.  It was okay, but Loneliest Robot in Great Britain remains my favorite in-game movie.  I still like Capelavaro if only for the artistic pretentiousness it parodies.  The trailer for The Simian was pretty bizarre...
• Arms Trafficking missions with the Cuban are only slightly easier with maximum Piloting skill.  It would help if I didn't suck at flying airplanes.  My OCD still kicks in forcing me to dress Trevor in the Lone Wolf leather jacket, the Desert Camo cargo pants / boots, and Aviators before jumping into an airplane.
• I've had these guys goofing off for three game days and The Last One mission still hasn't shown up on my map. Hmm.  Glitch? Time to move on?
• One thing I hated about GTA 4 was the shit weather.  GTA 6 should definitely be someplace sunny like San Andreas.  I vote for Vice City, but could handle San Fierro or Las Venturas.
• I thought about theme music and have come to the conclusions that all of my favorite GTA main themes come from the GTA 4 trilogy.  There is still something about The Soviet Connection intro that makes GTA 4 feel a little more cinematic than this game.
• My eight remaining achievements are all related to the Heist DLC.  No telling when or if I will bother to get that shit done.

[J.T.]

7 hours ago, odessasteps said:

We need you to come up here and get our database working. Been down for over a week now. 

Every time I apply for a job there, I am told I am out of the scope of the hiring authority.  Let 'em fix their own damn portal.

[PetrolCB]

Congrats on 100%.

[Robert C]

2 hours ago, J.T. said:

I really like the Construction Assassination mission.  I felt like equal parts James Bond and Wesley Snipes from Passenger 57.  It sure takes a helluva long time for that stupid Homing Missile Launcher to lock on.  Four seconds is an eternity when people are shooting at you

Four seconds when you're trying to lock onto a fucking Lazer in freemode might as well be a week.

2 hours ago, J.T. said:

One thing I hated about GTA 4 was the shit weather.  GTA 6 should definitely be someplace sunny like San Andreas.  I vote for Vice City, but could handle San Fierro or Las Venturas.

One thing I hated about GTA4 was every single thing.  At least I'm rational enough to know objectively that that game isn't nearly as bad as I think it is.  Thank God Saint's Row 2 came along.

[J.T.]

15 minutes ago, Robert C said:

One thing I hated about GTA4 was every single thing.  At least I'm rational enough to know objectively that that game isn't nearly as bad as I think it is.  Thank God Saint's Row 2 came along.

Melee was a lot slower paced in GTA 4 but the controls were a bit more responsive and Niko looked like a skilled hand-to-hand combatant in a fist fight as he should've since he was a trained infantryman. 

In GTA 5, melee was sped up and the controls were a bit wonky.  There are two missions where MIchael has to win a brawl without taking damage and both Simeon and Rocco fight as if they are fucking boxing champions.  Yeah, Michael is middle aged and overweight, but successfully countering an attack should not be that hard. 

[AxB]

Niko should have looked like a skilled hand to hand guy, Bas Rutten did the mo-cap for Niko's unarmed fighting.

[Neil Koch]

GTA 4's biggest fault IMO is that takes forever to get going.  Waaaay too many BS boring tutorial missions.

I'm coming towards the end of my PS4 playthrough.  Dom can still suck it.  So annoying.

[PetrolCB]

3 hours ago, Robert C said:

Four seconds when you're trying to lock onto a fucking Lazer in freemode might as well be a week.

Pssh, real men use a broken bottle to take down a jet. 

[Robert C]

50 minutes ago, PetrolCB said:

Pssh, real men use a broken bottle to take down a jet. 

I'll try that next time.  I figure it will be just as effective against a decent jet pilot.

[jstout]

I went on this afternoon thinking competition would be down, and I just got spanked. No jets, though.

I ran from some guy who was BMOC into an abusing of epic proportions. I bowed my head 'cause I knew I'd been beat, laid my golden fiddle on the ground at dude's feet and skeedaddled. Death be not proud.

[Robert C]

How the hell did we not use that song to describe some poor dot before now?  Hell, how did we not wind up with melraz serenading some poor white dot with it at 3:30 in the morning?

[The Man Known as Dan]

I have actually kept this quiet because I wanted to save it for a group thing at some point in freemode, but I've tested out a new way to fuck with Rando's in GTA: Online: Singing Crash Test Dummies "MMM MM MMM MMM" but mixing in shit actually happening in the games instead of the lyrics. Been a fucking blast for me, though I need work on it.

[jstout]

By God, I like it. I would've loved that in my headphone days. I love anything oddly random.

I still liked doing my Santa Claus impression during Christmas. "Ho ho ho, I'm gonna kick all your asses! Merry Christmas!"

And sure enough, as soon as I get into a session tonight, there's not one, but two jets. I had to take out my frustrations on some low-level clod who messed with me as I was trying to shoot one of the jets out of the sky.

[J.T.]

Just when you think you are done...

Had Trevor go and pay Ursula a call one last time in celebration of a successful Air Trafficking mission (I finally got an accuracy and a time bonus) and what should spawn up near the Hunting marker the next morning but a Green ?.

I'll send Franklin up there to deal with The Last One... as soon as it stops raining...

Sad.  Once I'm done with that mission, it'll probably be the last time I fire up this game in Story Mode. 

I don't think I've even looked at my copy of GTA4 after shooting that last fucking pigeon.

[J.T.]

The Last One is DONE~! Gold medal!

• I thought better of taking the hunter's dune buggy, thank goodness.  I did not know that one of the medal stips was to walk to the hunting zone.
• You can't help but get the four animal kills the medal stips require.  They animals you encounter in the forest are fucking mountain lions so of course you are going to shoot them.
• Aim assist Is disabled but you should get your 3 hits minimum in if you're using a fairly accurate assault rifle. 
• The guy in the Sasquatch costume is definitely supposed to look like Jimmy Hopkins, the protagonist from Bully.

I don't think I am going to put down Story Mode completely since this game has a lot more Easter Eggs than previous games and for once I am going to go hunt down the side content at some point in time, but I'm definitely moving on to another really old Pile of Shame game very soon.  Trying to decide if it will be Gears of War 3 or Borderlands 2.

I just noticed that Trevor can buy dresses at the discount clothing stores now.  Does this happen when you beat the story and unlock all of the alternate outfits or when you get 100%?

And Awww.... Jimmy De Santa has a ten-speed bike and goes out on rides now.  I am so proud of him and his new path of self improvement!

[jstout]

J.T., you should totally consider a "J.T. Works on His Pile of Shame" thread. I love reading about you sawing through these 3-year-old games.

I got Diablo 3 a week or so ago and was worried the graphics would suck 'cause it was old, but it's fine. Gameplay's WAY too samey - run around, kill things, but oh well.

Probably the wrong place for this assessment, but oh well: XBox One games suck right now.

[Robert C]

I'm gonna be sad now that JT's updates look to be done.  Been enjoying those.  

40 days till I start my sabbatical.  I might not get back online till then, though work ought to calm down some end of next week.  I really want to get a couple of the new cars, but it's gonna take me forever to get any money.  Whatever I earn, I always just end up burning through in freemode anyway.

And I realized I actually have a pile of shame now, for the first time in years.  Bought a few games during the XBOX sale a while back, and haven't played any of em.  The very few times I've actually played anything, it's always been my infinite Fallout 4 playthrough.  

 

[jstout]

I bought the new compact after getting blown away in a race by the new compacts (they're just so much faster than the old fastest car in the class), then it occurred to me that I never race anymore, so why do I give a shit about having the fastest car in the class?

I've been considering racing with my old racing crew just to see some of the tracks those maniacs have created with the new track creator - I noticed they're already duplicating European race tracks. I always finish last and usually get lapped, so it's not good for the old morale.

Robert, got any game recommendations? I need to bite the bullet and hook up an old external hard drive to the One so I can buy more games from the Xbox store if I want to. There just seems to be nothing out there but various permutations on the first-person shooter.

 

[Robert C]

Hell, I dunno.  I don't think I bought anything you don't already own (I got SR4, Diablo, RDR).  Last real FPS I played was probably Goldeneye, so I avoid those like the plague.

There's always Mass Effect.  That's about all I can think of.

And I really don't need any cars.  I'm not ever gonna do another race unless it's with crew somehow.  I'm just stupid and want em anyway.  Don't care about the supers, but I want some of the rally cars/offroaders.

[RIPPA]

Stout - do you play the Assassin's Creed series? I am like 4 games behind on it myself but I know that Black Flag (which you could have gotten as a Game With Gold awhile ago) and the newest one (Syndicate) are thought of fairly highly

Also - I seem to remember you liking Witcher 3. Find a cheap copy of Witcher 2 - it is backwards compatible. (That is what I am doing now until I find something else to loathe)

As I creepily stalk your XBOX profile to see what you haven't played - there is the entire Borderlands series. I can assure you that whenever 3 comes out a lot of this clan will play that.

Both new Tomb Raider games

Sleeping Dogs

X-Com: Enemy Unknown is backwards compatible (and was free a couple of months ago). You can play that and maybe it will con Dan into finishing the playthrough he was doing.

 

[jstout]

I have a bad habit of not grabbing the free games when they come out because I don't have a ton of hard drive space and I haven't hooked up an external drive yet. I did get the Tomb Raider game that was free - I need to play that more.

I need to do some more reading on Dragon Age: Inquisition. I remember everyone really liking that one, I think. I know Dan did.

I played one Assassin's Creed game but hit some kind of wacky parkour challenge I couldn't get through and said "hell with this." I forget which one it was - I know it was for the 360.

I played Borderlands 2 for the 360 but didn't care for the first-person shooter thing. I've kinda warmed up to them since, but it's what keeps me away from a lot of games.

I didn't care for it during a "free play" period, but I'll probably grab WWE 2K16 when it's a game with Gold here in just a bit. If I can figure out something to kill some time until the next Fallout 4 DLC comes out, I'm golden. Witcher 2 is an idea, probably can get it cheap. I really dug Witcher 3.

Gotta look into Sleeping Dogs. Thanks for the suggestions.

[J.T.]

Thanks guys!  I'm on graveyard shift supporting [redacted] so it will be a bit before I start gaming regular again.  When I do get back, I am leaning towards getting back into Borderlands 2.   I don't want to clutter the board, so I will start posting in the Borderlands thread rather than create my own new JT PLAYS THE CLASSICS! thread.

[odessasteps]

the great thing about overnights is that there will always be people playi G multi-player of something.

I joined someones posse in RDR the other night at 0300 and went to town on the goons threatening Rock Rid... i mean Armadillo.

[jstout]

I cannot get into the RDR single-player - all I seem to be able to do is chase bounties or play poker - but maybe online is working better.

I hate chasing bounties because I always kill them. Always. I don't mean to, but I do. The townsfolk are gonna start fearing me soon.

Anyway, I still get into GTA online, getting on to sell a car, check my daily objectives, stupid shit like that. It's kind of amazing at this point.

[Robert C]

I'm keeping crazy hours right now for work since I'm covering for a bunch of folks who are out, and I'm always having to be in meetings with folks in Xian and Penang, and even weird-ass places like California.  Been thinking I ought to just leave the xbox on and jump on every hour or so to sell a car before going back to work.  That way I might actually have a little money when I can finally play again.  So if anybody sends me an invite and I don't respond, I'm probably not even in the room with the thing.