Played it to death in its time, but a bit twitchy now - even the Steam version. It was literally a time soak taking up months, if you tried all the side missions and collectibles. Of course plenty of frustration with some of the missions - I recall the bouncing car ones causing me huge isues, the ones with a timer like chasing the motorcycle couriers around San Fierro or that ridiculous one where you had to chase down the Lear Jet in a Cessna. I had to doctor the Cessna parameters and speed it up to get that one done. There was no way to get past missions you were stuck on, unlike GTA V where the game held your hand a bit. And of course GTA SA was far better than the dreary GTA IV with Nico etc.
For me, still today, the best video game ever, played on every platform, including smartphone. Simply unattainable. Maybe GTA 6 will be better? Beware of too high expectations.
I'm stuck currently whit mission " high stakes low rider" personally don't like racing missions, so i play principally for fun whit cheats
It’s a great game, a child’s stressful nightmare (probably many adults aswell) with many missions however I imagine it’s broke many controllers among other things in temper rages. I never found the RC missions particularly difficult despite hearing they are high ranked as such, and a method I found pretty much lets me complete wrong side of the tracks mission in one go, they’re are other easier and hard missions too, San Fierro is probably the hardest zone for missions. 3 cities is definitely better than one and K-DST radio is very nice. I completed (main missions) the 360 version maybe twice or 3 times and the definitive once one tip: go and get armour before starting every mission.
Yep, i've done the first race mission and others before swap over to "Angel Pine" and now i'm stuck whit the third race mission that start at the "Panopticon" tried multiple times but no luck because of that damn car that is almost uncontrollable, so it became stressful for me as well now
race missions I think end about this point, so they stop being a problem after this point I think practice is probably the only way to do them, learning how to better control the vehicle and overtaking drivers is the best way to do them, you might be able to ram some of the drivers but I ain’t too sure, it’s been a while since I did that mission, pretty sure it’s one that’s more difficult on older versions of the game.
Wrong side of the tracks is probably the first of the frustrating missions. The secret is to go against what seems obvious and actually get close up alongside the train, so Big Smoke can unalive the ganstas on the roof. If you hang back even in line of sight, he just misses. Timing is very tight and if you get to the section where the bike has to divert off up the embankment and there are still targets on the train, you probably fail at that point. And I agree re the armour. There is a piece under the bridge over the flood channel near CJ’s house. Under the other bridge is an Uzi. One of the gardens on the block always has a 9mm pistol spawn. One of the first things you should try and do is pass the firefighter side mission as that makes you invulnerable to fire damage and you can use Molotov cocktails with impunity.
Option 1 (0:15 seconds in) in the video has always been my technique on how to tackle the mission “wrong side of the tracks” playing it by running alongside the train never worked for me, option 1 isn’t totally easy but it’s a great opportunity that even if it doesn’t totally work, when you catch back up to the train to keep going it will be easier as option 1 is pretty quick at working your way through the 3 enemies, plus considering the technique is right at the start of the mission means any failure is pretty easy to catch back up to.
That was always the frustrating thing. GTA V introduced the mechanic where if you failed a section two or three times, the game held your hand and fast forwarded past that stage. But SA was relentless. Also didn’t help that very few of the missions had checkpoints. That’s why Freefall got so frustrating and I ended up buffing the Dodo to go faster. Otherwise you started back outside the casino. Had to run in, grab the mission. Back out again, Jack a car or motorcycle to get to the airport. Board the Dodo, take off… rinse and repeat!
I played this game so much when I was younger, when I had my PS2. Some of the missions were fun, some annoying, but I honestly had the most fun just cruising around the map on a motorcycle listening to the radio. There's just something relaxing about cruising up the coast with America's "Horse With No Name" playing in the background.
The best part of the game is actually the first chapter in Los Santos. Apart from not being able to visit across the water to San Fierro and Las Venturas, you are busy building up CJ, hitting the gym, running, driving vehicles etc. all without too much pressure to move forward. Once you move on it does kind of compel you to push forward with the main story and less time chilling around.
I still remember when this game was first released. What a time it was. Truly a masterpiece for its time. I really hated the missions with Catalina. She was a right pain in the neck…. I spent hours and hours and hours trying to find this supposed Bigfoot that was rumoured to be living in the countryside part of the map. I was so convinced he was real. Good times.
Well I reinstalled this earlier on and had quite a blast! Just done the first mission where you have to ride home on the cycle and dodge the Ballas, then went off to do the convenience store deliveries. It does look old even at its native (I assume upscaled) 4K resolution but it's like greeting an old friend you haven't seen for years.. Don't know how far I'll get with all the train and driving sim stuff I play but it's a powerful blast of nostalgia.
Of course thinking I would never play this again I had donated the Brady Guide (who remembers actual printed game guides?!) to the charity shop and used the Gamefaqs walkthrough printout for scrap paper, all 200 pages of it! The guide was essential for spotting where the graffiti tags and other collectibles were even if some of the locations they noted were a bit off target. Guess I will have to ferret around for a map on line. Doing the tags was great for levelling up CJ’s skills early game, walking, cycling, driving even a bit of swimming.
I remember when I lost all the cheats I'd written down. I was not very happy, to say the least. The pain from trying to remember off by heart was insufferable.
I believe I still have muscle memory for cheats I haven’t used in years on GTA SA and V, put them in that many times before for a bit of fun
One thing I discovered last night, game does not like if you Alt-Tab too much. Found a great graffiti tag location map and guide on Reddit. Had that open under the game. Great at first but after several spins, locked up and unable to get the game to reappear. Fortunately I had been back to CJ’s house and saved the first nine I’d done, so only lost the two done on my subsequent outing.
I've been trying to do that for a few years, but every time something stops me. Don't know what, though.
