If you posted it Monday late night or Tuesday early morning, it's gone.

Could the vampire-hunting game have been "Hunter: The Reckoning"? (from all accounts, a serious love-it-or-hate-it title) That's more zombie-riffic than vampire-oriented, but I imagine you'd remember it if you'd been playing the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" game.

Consider "Deathrow", a futuristic sports game that's sort of a cross between soccer, ultimate frisbee and Rollerball. It's a sleeper that's full of action and is a good multiplayer title, from what I've heard. Apart from that, you know my opinion on the Xbox -- there's not much I'd want to play on it PERIOD, let alone in the multiplayer genre. ;)

I saw fusion frensie at best buy the other day for 15 bucks, I would have picked it up if I had 15 dollars to spare. Excellent game for a crowd of people.

THAT's the one. I guess those were zombies. I think they promised vampires, though. The control config was clumsy, and it's one of those games where you shout "I HIT THE RIGHT BUTTON AT THE RIGHT TIME, DAMMIT" a lot ...

If I had my druthers I'd not be playing an xbox at all, but well, I don't. Her husband bought the thing for her two christmases ago, because of the premature demise of the N64 product line (they were one of those nintendo forever families). I STILL wish he'd been smart enough to go PS2 ... they may still end up with one anyway (fingers crossed) because that way I'll be able to take games up to their house to play.

When we were playing N64 this way, we'd show up with our special little pouches containing our favorite colored controller and games ... all four of us had 64s. (which was actually very cool, because of the obvious game sharing possibilties.

Okay. So, here we go...

I bought <b>Metroid Prime</b> NIB off eBay for $26. I got <b>Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem</b> NIB for $23. Each was $5 shipping, meaning I got them at very decent prices. Prime's controls are a little weird, but I'm getting in to it. Darkness is pretty creepy, very well done and looks like it could soak up a lot of my time.

I also got <b>Animal Crossing</b>. It's stupidly simple and the concept is something else but it's actually fun to play. I have no idea how they came up with this. I think Jenni is going to like it a lot.

And for one of my guilty pleasures, I bought <b>NBA Street</b> the same day. I love basketball games, especially the outrageous type (like NBA Jam). Little did I realize, I already have this for my PS2. <b>Oh.</b>

I finally got another PS2 last night, as well as memory cards and controllers and blah blah blah. I had just started <b>Vice City</b> before the fire, and I'm finally getting back in to it. I have a shitload of PS2 games that need to get played. Not enough time...

I bought my first portable game system last weekend. I picked up a silver Gameboy Advance SP with <b>Metroid Fusion</b>. Lemme tell you, Fusion rules. It is seriously good, though very difficult at times. I finally beat it on Friday and am going through it a second time, aiming for a better completion score.

I got <b>Mario Kart Super Circuit</b> off eBay for $17 and I must say, they did a damn fine job with it. I'll be playing over the link cable with friends, which should be a lot of fun.

I also picked up <b>Chu Chu Rocket!</b>, which vsp mentioned before. Honestly, I saw the Japanese Dreamcast TV ad and just had to have it (kinda). Then I read IGN's review and thought "hey, for $20 at Wal*Mart, what the hell." It is <b>hard</b>. It's super fast paced. I think I'll get playing this with Jenni, but even the single player gets challenging very quickly.

So what's really on my plate? <b>Metroid Prime</b>, <b>Metroid Fusion</b>, <b>Grand Theft Auto: Vice City</b> and that's about it. Everything else comes second. Just need more time...

I've been playing FIFA 2003 Soccer. Excellent emulation, fine graphics, good gameplay. About the only complaint I have is that the difficulty levels are pretty diverse. If I ever do well, the Game Assistant chimes in with "you have obviously mastered Amateur Level, would you like to move up to Semi-pro?" Thus flattered, I say "yes", and proceed to totally get my ass kicked by the computer.

I'm having fun with this one, but man, it can be really frustrating. Anyone else play this puppy? Ever play it online against live competition?

I have FIFA World Cup 2002 and I've had a blast with that. I played a bit of FIFA 2003 when Paul and Jen were over in December; it's definitely different, but good. I will eventually pick up a copy for whatever console it's best on.

World Cup 2002 would get stupidly hard on occasion, such as the one game when Paul and I were playing co-op against England on the "Pro" difficulty. They would make impossible shots and block even the best of ours. It was frustrating. We were used to winning like 4-0 or 8-1 and the like, but here we were lucky to lose 1-2.

I think FIFA 2003 is much like that in regards to actual scoring feasibility. It's not every day that you see an 8-0 blowout, so the increased difficulty makes it more realistic, I think.

Just curious, what system are you playing on? I don't (currently) have broadband so I don't have Xbox Live or the PS2 ethernet adaptor, but once I get re-situated, I'll be willing to play.

I'm PC-based, on Broadband. Will the two things be compatible, or is PS2/etc only same-platform compatible, even with the same games?

I don't know. One of the great things id software did with Quake 3 was to make it playable cross-platform, not just on computers (Mac/Windows/Linux) but also on the console (Dreamcast).

I'm a PC gamer too, but I generally prefer consoles for everything except the first person shooter (Q3) - though I'm now getting into Tropico and want to play a few other "building" type games such as Civilization III.

I'll check on the compatibility thing. That would certainly be awesome <b>and</b> possible, but I have no idea whether or not they've implemented such functionality. Unfortunately, I can no longer look up game stuff at work (stupid filter argh) so the earliest I'll know is later tonight, and that's assuming I remember to check.

If Cellarites are going to hook up for multiplayer sports gaming, I swear I will buy whatever it takes to join in or even host.

sports in general, or anything in particular? i was thinking of picking up allstar baseball 2004 when it comes out in a month or so.

~james

I like baseball games OK, I had the High Heat series through 2002. But online multiplayer baseball? Do we really want to re-create the thrilling experience of playing right field for nine innings? Only if we have online multiplayer beer taps!

Online BB would be OK for 1 vs 1 or online leagues. I just think it would be really cool to play co-op with others, where I could play wing or something and assist someone in a flying header for the winning goal. I just think that would be really cool. Unless it was online hockey, in which case a flying header would be a bad idea.

I would be absolutely *stoked* to have some normal, honest people to play MPGs with online. I'm a major Q3 Arena fan, but I fucking hate to play with the scum out in the general world. Too many hacks and cheats for an honest player to stand a chance in hell. I own Q3 and MSCFS2, both of which are just great to play against others online, as well as FIFA 2003. All three support head to head or multiplayer (total numbers vary between games, and I'm not sure what the exact quantity is), and it would be massively cool to hook up with some of the Dwellars for some gaming.

I have no idea what is required of server-side support for CFS2 other than the fact that you can set up a server and then send out the IP for someone to hook up direct to a MP game. Same with Q3. FIFA allows IP hookup as well, but I'm not sure if that is only head to head or not. FIFA has a matchup service, but it sucks as far as I can tell. I believe you can make most of these games password protected as well if you are using the IP entry option for hooking up to a server.

So...how much bandwidth do you have to dedicate to this, Tony?:D

nah. pitcher. :)

hockey would be good. i havent played too many hockey games, any suggestions for good ones?

~james

1.544 megabits per second, sir, and a few 'puters just sitting around doing very little. Ping cellar.org to see what kind of ping time you'd get to me.

But we can't play Q3A, because while we may own the game, dave would 0wnz us completely if we played it.

180, 150, 161...well within happy online gaming parameters!

I can hold my own in a *fair* game of Q3A, UT...we play here at work quite a lot. However, sports would be awesome...hell, even MP Online golf would be cool playing against real people.

Let's reach a consensus on a starter game, perhaps, and give us a few days to acquire it, then set up a match series? I would toss out FIFA 2003 only because I have it, but I'm willing to pick up whatever everyone else is cool with. Hockey would be fine, football, golf...pick one, guys!

Unfortunately, I'm as avid a gamer as anyone I know, but both sports games and online games leave me cold, as a general rule. I have the tools (DSL, Athlon 1300, Dreamcast, PS2 that I can get an online adapter for), but can't think of a single online game that I'd be excited to play (whether in opposition or co-op). I played a little Duke Nukem and Quake at an old job after hours with cow orkers, but it became very repetitive quickly.

I did buy PS2 NFL2K3 for $10 last week, but that was more of an impulse buy than anything else.

(I played netrek online back in the day, but that requires 10-16 people to play properly, and my skills have rusted substantially in the decade since then.)

vsp, how bout warcraft iii or nwn?

~james

vsp, that's as strange a blind spot as I've ever seen. I played Duke 3D at work back in the day and it was a total blast.

There's nothing like hitting your boss with a rocket launcher and watching his head and torso fly in different directions.

Playing against real people instead of dumb AI bots really changes things, because eventually you figure out what the bots will do and then they become puzzle targets. People are not predictable like that.

Anyone here got Xbox live?

And yet, they _do_ tend to be predictable like that, at least in my experiences in the multiplayer FPS world. (Read as: up until Quake, after which I had no one to challenge.) Nobody's a _total_ robot, but 95% of the people I've played against have certain behavior patterns and traits that are easily identifiable and that they'll rely on when in a pinch.

Does Bob take chances, or hang back, accumulate armor and weapons, and try harder to stay alive? Does Bill hunt others down aggressively, or sit back and snipe? Who has an idiosyncratic love for the grenade launcher or the axe, even though he knows they're not the most effective weapons? Who camps? Who's got better aim, or who tends to miss a lot? Getting to know most human opponents isn't that much more difficult than getting to know CPU constructions.

When you come down to it, a typical single-player FPS level is a heavily-armed obstacle course. Traverse from Point A to Point B, avoid or demolish the traps in your path, reach the goal/exit and move to the next. A well-crafted level is a thing of beauty. After long periods of challenging the same opponents, I found myself wanting something different, and new single-player levels (or new games, period) were more capable of providing that.

I'm not much for challenging people I don't know (pickup games on the net) -- usually they're either infinitely more skilled than I am, loud and obnoxious and l33t, or both. Then there's the whole online-cheating thing...

This is why, perversely, I prefer single-player mode on most fighting games, and have ever since the days of Street Fighter II. Granted, CPU chars were often absurdly one-dimensional back then, but on today's consoles, their AIs are immensely more complex and subtle opponents. (I'm looking at DC Soul Calibur and PS2 Virtua Fighter 4 as my two favorites -- PARTICULARLY the latter. Its AI-training mode lets you play "coach" and guide a CPU construct against all opposition, while its Kumite mode simulates a Japanese arcade and an endless stream of challengers suited to your skill level, instead of being blown off the machine by guys who've spent $8000 learning the timing of every single move and can dial up 120%-life combos on you at will. Play the game at _your_ pace, without needing a human opponent of similar skill to truly enjoy it.

Believe me, hitting your boss with the Freezethrower _was_ cathartic and fun. (A cow orker put together a Duke level based on the building's floor map, which added to the fun, right down to the beer in the mini-fridge in the boss's simulated office.) It just... got old.

I actually own one of the Warcraft II battle packs... bought it for cheap at BJ's Wholesale a while back... but never got around to installing it. I read through the instruction book and got caught up in other games.

I looked at NWN, but its single-player mode is LITERALLY single-player (you can't build a party, or take direct control of the one NPC you can travel with, according to the review I read).

Morrowind is more my speed -- tons of solo wandering in an extremely open-ended environment. Sort of the anti-Diablo. (Oddly, I enjoy the single-player PS1 Diablo more than the single-player PC version -- the controls are more limited, but they just feel right to me. Net Diablo was never an option for me once the rampant cheating kicked in -- that is, on day one.)

I've avoided MMORPGs as a general rule (Evercrack, Ultima Online and their ilk), and not just for the monthly fee or marriage-destroying tendencies. Basically, they're highly-graphical modern variations of MUDs, which I dabbled in a decade ago but eventually abandoned. The MMORPG experience seems more about the people you play the game with more than the game itself -- which (a) doesn't say much for the game design, (b) makes your gameplay experience dependent on finding cool people to play with, and (c) is just as susceptable to cheaters and 24-hour-a-day obsessives. Then you get the people who start building emotional attachments to others' online personalities... do I even have to go there?

But hey -- I'm weird. I know this.

<a href="www.netrek.org">Netrek</a> was the only online game I ever got into for any length of time; I played three seasons in the Intercollegiate Netrek League, including one remotely for Team UPenn. (And, before anyone asks, I _hate_ Star Trek, but its only impact on the game is aesthetic.)

The game is primitive by modern standards, but that's a good thing; it rewards clever strategies more than supernatural joystick/mouse skills. Teamwork is absolutely vital to success, which helps weed out the yahoos. The message system allowed for both trash-talk, macro abuse of the airwaves and/or ignore features for fending off undesirable chatter. Pickup games could be just as much fun as formal scrimmages. Server-side client authentication keeps cheaters out. Accumulated ranks affect only one aspect of the game (the ability to pilot a starbase), meaning that grizzled vets and raw newbies have nearly equal capabilities. And clients are available for umpteen platforms. About once a year or so, I get back into the habit for a while.

I might actually be willing to pursue the necessary computer upgrades if I could play Global Operations against people who weren't total assholes with cheat software running ...

Well vsp you're not invited to the Cellar LAN party then.

Well, _hmmph_. See if I'd want to belong to any club that'd have me as a member!

I too hate the cheats at Q3A, but in my circle of players, that's not really a problem. Most of the people I play with, I've been face to face with. We definitely should play once I get a decent connect back.

As for games that everyone might enjoy, I'm thinking something like Ghost Recon (Hi Tony!). I can see wolf enjoying that, I've been looking curiously at it for a while now, and I'm guessing the others could get into it. Tony knows more about it, so he should post.

Sports games, I'm really more into the console thing there, and I know we don't all have consoles, so... if someone had something decent there, I could go for it. I might have to buy a gamepad to hook up to the computer, but that's no big deal. I can't imagine playing soccer or basketball (the two types of sports I think translate really well to computer/console games) with just a keyboard.

'spode - here's a lame video I made in 10 minutes to show someone a few shots. It's me playing Q3 against a couple different opponents, and it should give you an idea of my skill level: http://www.msdelta.net/~dave/quake/v...highlights.mpg

I play that map quite a lot myself...pretty impressive performance, Dave (I was particularly impressed with the on-the-bounce rail shot against the target on the extreme opposite bounce - a close second was the rocket shot on the cross-jumping target above the central platform).

Pretty good shooting, Dave. I'd still like to give you a run, but it couldn't be on my machine at home...it is too laggy, even on a hot connection. I would expect to get my ass waxed either way, though, based on the vid.

Well... on that map in particular, I am (not to toot my own horn) one of the top five players in the world. Yes, we have had tournaments for <b>just that map</b> and I've traditionally done very well on it. It comes from having played it for an average of, I'd guess, three hours a day for the past three and a half years. I'm not as good on other maps as far as movement and map knowledge, but my aim is about the same all around.

That rocket shot is one of the hardest to hit in the game, in my opinion. It's one of my favorite shots, except for the time I put 3 grenades into a guy in the air on pro-q3dm6 (the middle bouncepad - one as he came up, one as he was in the air above and in front of me, and the final killing shot as he fell to the ground below. I have the demo, I'll make a movie of it some time).

If you want, we can play on a server that's very close to you. I am stupidly ping dependant (I had really fast DSL and usually would ping sub-30 to most east-coast servers, meaning that I had big trouble playing with a ping greater than, oh, say, 40), so it would probably be more fair, what with both of our shitty pings. :)

I could muster a decent ping, but not *that* decent. I seem to be able to get the low 100's pretty consistently from home, and comparable from work, though.

My machine at home is just a bit on the slow side to really run Q3A as well as it needs to be run to be a hot player. Still and all, I couldn't keep up with you based on what I see in that vid. Those were some *awesome* shots, and if you make them with any regularity, you'd eat my lunch and hand me back the empty bag.

I think the most telling factor about your skill level is the fact that you have such videos featuring your greatest hits at all.. :)

A'ight, this is really stupid but... I make videos because there is a dorky crowd of fanboys around the Space CTF/trickjumping scene, and since I'm a visible character on both of those fronts, I have requests to make videos and whatnot. So I record *every* game that I play, and every once in a while I'll show someone the demo. What usually happens is that I get stuck in a 1v1 against someone on Space CTF and I have five or six spectators talking like idiots in messagemode1. "nice!" and stuff, but it's distracting. So anyway, some people don't want to watch a whole demo but just want to see some good shots. That video was for that purpose.

I do hit the shots with regularity, which is one of the things that puts me near the top on Space CTF. The first two shots - a rail coming up the jump and then an air rocket in the same area - were from the same game, recorded maybe two minutes apart. The continuous demo of the 2 rocket/rail combos (across the middle and then from up high) was obviously continuous, and I cut out a bit at the end where I air rocketed him twice in a row when he bounced up at me as I was grabbing his flag. My new specialty is machine gunning people all over the damn place, which is what you see in the last one - I had tracked him all the way from the mega up to the rail, so much so that, as you can see, he didn't have the air to get to the rail, and I had killed him before he landed anyway. The victim was cypH, another very well known player in the Space CTF community.

What it really all comes down to is practice. I've played Quake probably an average of four hours every day for the last three and a half years, and Space was <b>all</b> I played for the first year - and about eight hours a day, since I was unemployed and out of school.

You might be interested in some demos if you like seeing cool stuff. Here are a few trickjumps that are relatively difficult. :)

http://www.metastudios.com/quake/demos/walk.dm_67
http://www.metastudios.com/quake/demos/torpedo.dm_67
http://www.metastudios.com/quake/demos/drj2rail.dm_67

Ghost Recon I could host easily, and it plays OK on a P2-500 class machine with 3D on the level of geforce 2s. (I think it uses the Half-Life engine?)

Ghost Recon is a military first-person shooter. It's more realism-oriented than other FPS type games, in that if you get shot once you will usually die. Most of the time you don't hear the shot that killed you, although you may get the warning of hearing rounds chunk into the dirt or cement near your location. There are no "Medi-PAKs" or other arcade-like devices. It's all about angles, strategy, weapon choice. Half of the strategy is learning how not to die, which includes learning how to move around and use cover without being seen. If you charge into the action, as you do in other FPSes, you will be shot.

The "plot" is that you are a member of an elite special forces/navy seal type squad, doing things like stopping guerillas from blowing up refineries in northeast Africa.

Pros: it's a good game for newbs and non-newbs, because even though the new player may die faster, they are still useful, and will still enjoy it.

The game has transitioned into its mid-life, which means that the original game and its two "mission packs" are now combined into one single box.

Cons: Playing against each other does require a minimum number of players in order to be fun, because 3 on 3 on a large map means you spend too much time searching for the enemy. Co-op mode would be the rule for us.

While I do not look upon this with any disapproval, I will never again wonder whether my own gaming habits have reached frightening proportions.

EVER. ;)

I haven't played it at all since the fire, and I was down to about 90 minutes a night or so. I tell you, part of it is liberating. I am no longer tied to the computer. And I am over the addiction. But part of it sucks, 'cause DAMMIT IT'S FUN!

So I'm at the point where I think I'm about to kill Diaz. In the next few missions, anyway. Right now I've gotta go in the speedboat to pick up something from a yacht, but I quit that and did some exploring.

In my exploring, I bought a place with a garage for $14,000 up in the northern tip of the second island. I'm sure you know it. Now, little did I know, that comes with a helicopter. I really only wanted it for the garages ('cause I didn't have one), but that helicopter is cool. I started flying around, looking at stuff. Guess what I found? The PSG-1 on top of a building! So I'm pretty happy, and I'm thinking that the PSG-1 alone is worth the price of the building - the garages and helicopter are just icing on the cake.

But Matt is giving me shit, saying I shouldn't have bought it so early because it gives me less money to spend later on and produces no cash for me. What do you think? Bad buy or not? I thought it was a damn good idea, but he has a point. I'm not even to the point where I can buy the other stuff yet, though, so...

Money in the GTA universe is relatively easy to come by. It was easier in GTA3 than in Vice, but $14K is still a drop in the bucket. Rob some stores, do some Vigilante/Pizza/Ambulance/Fire Truck missions, plow over parking meters. You'll make it back in short order.

The condo in question is invaluable for several reasons:

1) It's the only hideout with a garage that you'll get for a looooooooong time on the western island. The only other readily-accessible hideout nearby is the Skumhole Shack, which is cheap but is just a hole-in-the-wall with no features.

2) Lotsa garages for vehicle storage, including one big enough to hold a tank.

3) Hey, free helicopter!

4) Until you finish a certain advanced mission, you can't buy ANYTHING that'll produce money for you.

I know I can't buy 'em yet - I've been all over both islands and have stopped at probably every building to check everything out. I'm sure I'll know my opportunity when it presents itself.

I think his point was that if I saved the money, I could have spent it later on to buy something else, but now it's gone and I have to re-earn it. But still, I think it was a good idea. Big damn garages, helicopter (and therefore PSG-1)... I'm glad you don't think it was awful too. Means I'm on the right track. :)

Some of the properties have sticker-shock issues... but you also get a higher return from those than from the cheaper ones. (Sunshine Autos is probably the best buy of the bunch; it requires some legwork to activate it fully, but when you're done it'll churn out $9000 a day for you.)

You've got a pile of missions to go before you're in property-buying mode. Play for now -- the money'll be there when you need it later.

Alright, so I've been putting serious mission-beating play into the game. I've used the helicopter on serveral "weapon gathering" missions, where I picked up the PSG-1, the rocket launcher, and the badass revolver that kills with one shot.

I did the assassin mission "Autocide" and worked on the main missions. The last of which I completed was "Shakedown", so now I'm ready to buy property. At this point, I took a look at IGN's guide to get an idea of the yield on these places. I think I'm going to get PrintWorks first, because it's only $70,000 and generates $8,000/day. But you mentioned the autos place, and I thought I would ask - are you sure it does $9,000/day? And is it a beeeotch to unlock? I read that PrintWorks was relatively easy and that Sunshine was more complicated. As always, your expertise is appreciated. I just want to make a good first buy. I know Sunshine offers more in the way of the building itself (Pay-n-Spray, big garage, etc), but what do you think I'd be better off with first?

Man, taking Diaz's mansion was way easier than I thought it would be. Once he said "this place is going to be swarming with assholes", I knew that was my cue to snipe. I took out all but 1 or 2 of the guys outside (the leftover were back behind the place), and then the few guys inside were easy work with my Uzi. Diaz bit the dust after what seemed like just a few seconds with the Uzi as well. I beat that shit on my first try, so I guess it wasn't really that difficult a mission. But the payoff was nice. :)

(I keep asking you because I try not to use guides. It feels cheap. Somehow, asking you for guidance feels less cheap. :) )

After thinking about it another minute, I think I will do Sunshine autos, 'cause a) I'm sure that you are sure, and b) fuck it, how hard can it be?

But still, your thoughts are always appreciated.

Sunshine Autos requires more legwork, but has no "missions" to complete, so to speak. Instead, you'll be filling up its garage with specific vehicles (just like GTA3's Import/Export garages).

Each time you collect a batch of six vehicles, the dealership's return rate goes up. I think it starts at $1500 after the first batch, but it's definitely $9000 after you finish the last (4th) batch. Completing batches also unlocks unique vehicles in the dealership lobby -- the Deluxo (an okay sports car, though it tends to fishtail more than I'd care for), the Sabre Turbo (okay), the Sandking (lots of fun) and the Hotring Racer (best car in the game, IMHO).

Print Works isn't that bad (two missions, if I recall correctly), though the second one can be a real bastard.

Can I get all the cars at the point I'm at in the game? If so, I'll definitely <b>definitely</b> do that one first. If not, I might just do PrintWorks.

Yep. There are a few oddballs (a Baggage Handler, a Mr. Whoopee, a golf cart, etc.) in the lists, but nothing that needs to be unlocked. The first list or two are actually the hardest, as many of the cars are common types (Idaho, Esperanto, Sabre, Virgo, Washington) but seem to disappear right when you're looking for them. The Admiral in particular was a bastard to find.

I had the hardest damn time with the Virgo, but I finally got it. I had all of the sports cars in garages, so that list went by in about 3 minutes. The specials weren't hard either, so now I've got that generating $9,000 each day.

I also have Mr. Whoopee unlocked and done (obviously), as well as Kaufman Cabs, Pole Position and PrintWorks. Or rather, the missions are all complete on those and they're generating money.

I also own the movie studio, and I am on the fourth (and presumably last) mission there, G-spotlight. It's not particularly difficult, but it sure is annoying. I'll probably get it tonight.

Martha's Mug Shot was frustrating until I calmed down and did it the smart way. I tried grenades, but I blew myself up, so I used the sniper rifle. Got forward and ducked just enough so that the tops of their heads were visible, then fired. Once I got the six guys like that, the heli was right out back and I was good to go. So that one is only difficult if you don't approach it right.

I jumped right to the big race at Sunshine and as I was pulling up, I thought "wait a second..." - got out of my car, pulled out the rocket launcher... well, let's just say that with the Spray-n-Go at the dealership, that $40,000 purse is quite easy to come by. :)

Cabmageddon was also funny, because it was so easy. I drove around in a circle for a minute, then stood by the concrete pillars and put a rocket into the big boss cab. It took all of about 80 seconds total, and now Kaufman is done.

As you can see, I've been busy on properties. Sonny is getting pissy with me on the phone, so I'm guessing there's a big damn showdown, probably the end of the game.

I still have to do Love Fist, and I've only done the first Cuban mission (dumb race, but I beat it first try with boatloads of time to spare, no pun intended). I haven't touched Auntie Poulet yet.

Oh yeah, and I went ahead and bought all of the non-asset properties. So I have like, what, 15 save spots? Something ridiculous.

I think that's about it. Somewhere along the line I lost my katana, but it's all good.

I have SOOO got to get back to playing this.

So, I beat it last night.

I now own all properties (bought the Malibu right after beating it, so you <b>don't</b> need to own it like everyone said), and all of them are complete except the Malibu. I see Phil's place there, which must mean that it's opened up some time, and since it wasn't when the game was beaten, I'm guessing it's during/after the Malibu missions.

Other than that, I have at least one more Assassin mission to do - the one in the airport. I don't know if there are any more, but I wouldn't be surprised to see one or two, since I've had this one forever and I've read or heard that they run "throughout the entire game". I dunno.

I won't ruin it for wolf, but... "Keep your friends close" was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. Once I figured out what to do (i.e., where to stand to engage him), it took me two tries - and one of those was blowing myself up with the rocket launcher. I probably played it about ten times, so figure eight spectacular failures, one that was rather funny but annoying and then the finale.

No one told me about the pizza missions! I had to grab a pizza bike for Sunshine and it had a mission - I noted it and then ended it to deliver the vehicle. Well, when you do 10, I thought I was gonna get a little cash bonus. No! Man, that's awesome.

So what do I have left to do? Complete all missions (Assassin, Malibu, must be something with Phil's place - anything else?), rampages, hidden packages, store hold-ups and unique stunt jumps. I think that's it.

Oh yeah, and make a lot of money. :)

Oh yeah - did you find it easier (at least the final mission) than GTA3? I had a HELL of a time on the final mission in GTA3, but this one, I was kind of surprised I beat it so quick. I mean really, probably a half hour of actual play time on the final mission and I was done. Maybe 45 minutes. Granted, that's better than it being frustratingly difficult (like GTA3's final was to me), but still.

I don't feel ripped off, because I've got so much more to do and I've had a lot of fun doing what I've done so far, but still... it just seemed <b>easier</b> this time around. Maybe I'm just that much better. :)

See, maybe I'm just strange, but I didn't have much of a problem with The Exchange in GTA3. (Method: Run out of Catalina's mansion like my ass was on fire, get in a waiting Stinger, drive to the hideout and collect my weapon/armor powerups, drive to the dam, snipe everything that moves, collect rocket launcher, blast chopper, roll credits.)

Keep Your Friends Close took me a while, partly because I didn't realize that the armor + health at the bottom of the staircase regenerated. Choosing the proper "finishing" weapon helped; Sonny goes down much quicker when you have him Say Hello To Your Little Mini-Gun Friend.

There are five Assassin missions, the last of which is around and on top of the Cherry Poppers ice-cream factory. Phil has a couple of fun missions, which open up once you've finished the Malibu. When you get to the screeching horror of a mission that is The Driver, let us know so that we can provide the appropriate sympathy.

That's either the assassin mission that's last then or a Malibu mission, eh? Since you said Phil's were fun :)

I used shotgun on said badguy and it didn't take long at all. I didn't even need the armor to regenerate, though it was nice that it did.

I never had hidden packages in GTA3, so I guess that's why it was harder for me. I don't have 'em here in GTA:VC either (well, okay, 12 of them I do have), but since they left my weapons, I guess it wasn't too bad. I had like 80 rockets, 1300 uzi rounds, etc. I <b>had</b> some 80 PSG-1 rounds, stupid sniping Auntie Poulet mission.

The Driver is a Malibu mission, and easily the hardest mission in the game. It makes Death Row seem like Romper Room. The other Malibu missions are entertaining, particularly the last one (The Job), but the Driver... brrrr.

Quick preview: you're auditioning a getaway-car driver, and he'll only join you if you beat him in a street race. (Why you'd NEED said driver if you're a better driver than he is... er... let's move on.) You don't get to pick your vehicle or your opponent's, though they're reasonably evenly matched. Doesn't sound too tough, does it? Heh.

I'm guessing you don't get a chance to blow him up? Either that, or he's in a bulletproof Cheetah or something... Or it fails the mission? 'cause that would be my first course of action. :)

Easily the hardest in the game, eh? Well fuck.

Just out of curiosity, how did you rate Martha's Mug Shot? I found that one to be annoying, but not particularly difficult now (I did it again at a friend's house).

I'd probably rate the hardest mission for me so far as "Death Row".

Yep, no blowing-up permitted. It'd be hard for him to work for you once he's dead. :) (His car IS bulletproof, as it happens.)

Martha's wasn't too bad, once I worked out where to take the pictures from. Then again, I've been known to cause five-star alerts and run from the FBI just for yuks. Uzi'ed the agents on the way down the stairs, went to my waiting car and VROOM! Off to the races.

Death Row is far from easy, though there are ways of making it easier. My method started the same way that most everyone else's does -- drive like a mad bastard to get there on time. When I got within visual range of the barricaded entrance, I bailed out, letting my rolling car take out Guard #1, then sniped the others at the entrance. Switched to the submachine gun, with judicious use of the auto-target system; if I heard a noise, target -> shoot a few rounds -> keep walking. This got me to Lance with a minimum of damage and a clear path to the entrance. At that point, instead of taking the Sentinel or the (sometimes there) Trashmaster... the Cheetah I'd bailed out of was still there, having been spared major bullet damage by my technique. Lance and I got in, I whipped by the Comet pursuers, and they had no chance of catching me...

My method started with flying the chopper over there, landing, and then rocketing the first batch. I used auto-target too, but I got chewed up pretty good on the way to Lance.

No matter, it's done now, and when I finally got it, I got out of there with hardly any damage. But I must have tried it 20 times before getting it finally.

Once, I don't think the Trashmaster was there and I took the Sentinel... HA. :)

Oh yeah, my method for Martha's Mugshot was much the same as yours, except completely different. :) They pretty well showed me where to take the shots from, so what I did was what I already described here. But then I had a chopper waiting out back, and it was quick work to get back to the movie studio and end it.

But before that, the agents were making quick work of me with their uzis. It sucked something fierce.

Argh. What was it, No Escape? That was easy. And "The Shootist" was absurdly easy - I got a 74 when I had to get 60, and I didn't really try the last round (I had like 62 going in to it). Then I got to the Driver, and almost beat it the second time (my first time on any mission, unless it's really easy, is to scope it out and make a plan - that was the case here). I was like "w0rd, I'm gonna be able to tell jeff that I beat it in like 3 tries." Wrong.

So here we are an hour after I get back from dinner (and thus resumed playing), and I finally beat that fucking asshole Hillary. No no, I beat him twice. But the first one didn't count.

See, on like my twentieth try, I actually got through the last checkpoint. Yeah. Right through the goddamn middle of the fucking red orb. And I just kept on going. And then, 2 seconds later, it goes "Mission Failed - you didn't win the race!" I have never come so close to destroying a game CD. I don't know if it was a bug or if they fuck with you like that, but I was goddamn pissed.

Countless other times I would be so far ahead of him as to be assured a victory, and right on the last big turn (after the bridge), he passes me - after having been nowhere in sight for the last 30 seconds (I check rearview very often). Huh? Does this game like to fucking cheat or what?

On two occasions, I ran that mother fucker off the road into an impossible position. One was where he ramped off over the stairs near Cortez's place and, again, was not behind me for the remainder of the race - until he passed me just after the bridge. BULLSHIT.

Then there was this classic: I was getting on to the bridge, I had gotten lucky and he took a detour up the first bridge after hitting a car, so I was WAY ahead - plus, I happened to have a <b>perfect run</b>, i.e., my car was in perfect condition - and on the bridge, what do I run in to but THREE FUCKING COP CARS. Of course, while I'm reversing and getting the fuck out, he flies past me and finishes. I have never seen a game cheat so fucking bad.

And you know, it occurred to me at dinner, this fucking asshole HAS to get killed, because there's no way GTA would have someone else driving after a mission that's sure to have a shitload of stars. NO FUCKING WAY. So it was probably all for naught. I bet you'll tell me I'm right. I'm pretty good at predicting this game overall I think and I feel more strongly about this than anything else. I bet my fucking paycheck I drive that shit. Goddammit.

(hee hee hee)

One post. ELEVEN variations of the word "fuck." Yep, that's what Hilary will do to you, and what he did to me...

I've beaten him three times -- once on my own game, once on my friend Rick's game and once on my wife's save when she started playing it. In some cultures, I believe this would qualify me to have my name chanted by crowds on religious feast days.

Hilary meets an appropriately pathetic end. There is that much justice in the world.

The guy that designed that mission's a fucking asshole. Anyone that knows that fucking asshole's a fucking asshole.

The race itself is hardly difficult, and I've driven a Sentinel enough to be very comfortable with it (i.e., only hitting shit when he was pushing me into it, or when cops appeared out of the blue right in front of me on a damn bridge where I couldn't detour). The cars aren't equal, but that's okay. I could deal with that.

The problem for me was how the game obviously has a bit of logic that goes "if the player is about to win, make him lose somehow". It doesn't help that the Sabre Turbo's acceleration is a trillion times better than the Sentinel's.

What an asshole mission. Definitely the low point of the game, and if I thought that there was anything else like that in the game, I would probably stop playing it.

The cars aren't EQUAL equal... but, with the benefit of hindsight, you're not at as big of a disadvantage as I first thought. Hilary's Sabre Turbo has somewhat better acceleration, but a lower top speed, which helps balance it. Think about the beginning of the race -- you can keep pace with Hilary (within a car length or so) all the way to the first sharp turn, easily, unless you hit something before then. It's not a case where he peels out and essentially gets a quarter-mile head start while you're still shifting into third gear, and you have to make up that difference.

What Hilary has, and you don't, is the benefit of CPU steering. You have to think about how to handle each turn, to remember the course, to deal with unexpected traffic and flying cop cars -- he doesn't. He just goes, and takes a decent line on every turn automatically, and you have to manually do the same to win. (Hilary does drive a bit erratically when you're close -- maybe you make him nervous -- and sometimes he'll make unforced errors.)

And, as you've noted, the game cheats to high hell. There are set traps that trigger when you approach and leave Hilary alone (a sharp right turn that has two cop cars slamming together comes to mind, as does the ambush after the last bridge). The cops seem to go after whoever's in second place more strenuously -- which is generally you. If Hilary gets too far ahead, he's gone; the cops and traffic no longer harass him, as they do you when you're the one with a huge lead. Hilary can always close the gap, but that's nothing new with driving games in general; hell, that's why I could never get into Mario Kart, because you could lap everyone twice and still end up with a photo finish.

The street races at Sunshine Autos are a lot more entertaining, if that's a comfort.

The cops slamming together become stupidly obvious to me after the second run and I managed to avoid it from there on out. The only time they really got me, as a matter of fact, was that one time on the bridge, when there was three (THREE! I only ever see two! Not three!) cars on the fuckin' bridge. And of course, he somehow scoots around it, though they're blocking the whole damn thing. I couldn't believe it. I was stunned.

At least that shit is done now, though.

The top speed was another thing; it was like VC was fucking with me. The Sentinel <b>would not</b> reach its top speed if I continually held down the gas. I had to let up and then press again, and it would shoot off. Otherwise, I'd be crusing along at the equivalent of 50mph and that motherfucker would just shoot right past me. Took me probably 5 races to figure that out. I've never had that problem in a Sentinel before, and I didn't have it again after I drove last night. I dunno what was up, maybe my controller got sweat in it. But that was aggravating as hell too.

Well, The Job was pretty cool. Took me about five tries. I had heard other people complaining about it but I didn't find it very difficult at all. The hardest thing for me was getting Cam in the car. I just capped him before we ran out and all of a sudden it was much easier. :) Seems like Phil wants it more than Cam.

So then I went and beat Phil's missions. So I have all of the property asset missions done. I think I'm just on to the assassin missions now. As far as I know, that's all I have left. I still haven't done Check In At The Check Out or whatever it's called. I ran it once as my trial mission, and it basically looked like a) remember to pick up my weapons and b) skillful driving. Do you find it difficult?

I just added it up, and it looks like my properties are making some $53,000 a day. Nice! If I run one of those races every game day, I can pocket $83,000. I'm not over a million yet, but I'm getting close.

I've had a lot of fun with Vice City, and once I 100% it, I will probably play through it again. The only mission I see myself really dreading it... well, I don't have to say it. You know it.

Man, can 2:30 just hurry up and get here so I can go home and play Vice City?