Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

Well, that's all the cars nicked for Stevie - all 30 of them. One was a little tricky as it was parking in a police station car park - next to a policeman. Managed to escape having shot the cop before stealing the car though.

And then it was on to races for Brucie. Could I find a decent car anywhere though? No . So I turned up in this rubbish Mondeo-alike only to find a starting lineup of Infernuses. So I tried "cheating" by blowing the cars up as we pulled away from the line. Sadly, that abandons the race. As does popping the tyres before the flag goes up. And killing the drivers. Luckily, even in Infernuses, they drive as slow as you - so I beat them in the end without resorting to anything less sportsmanlike. Tch, eh?

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

First up this evening was nicking more cars for Stevie. One of them was a real pain to find - it said it was next to the Liberty Transport Authority building on Rotterdam Hill, but it was actually miles away. I spent a good 45 minutes trying to find it. Anyway, I've nicked 20 cars for him now.

Then I played online for a few games, mainly in Ranked Team Deathmatch. I was disappointed not to get the achievement for killing at least 5 people from other teams, even though I killed 19 (and yes, there were at least five different people that I killed - I managed to rocket-kill 9 of them in one shot!).

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

I'm starting to run out of things to do now, which is a shame. Having said that, I'm not going to milk it for all it's achievement points, because some of them simply aren't fun and will spoil my memory of the game.

I finished off nicking all of the cars Brucie wanted (it turned out my email inbox was full, so wasn't getting emails from him), which took most of today's play. I went on some heli tours - lots of them, in fact, but didn't get the achievement for them all. I don't know how you're supposed to know when you've done them all - I've been in all three helicopters from all six helipads, but nothing.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

Dwayne's special "power" GET! Jacob's special "power" GET! And, thanks to finally getting hold of Brucie and taking him out loads of times, Brucie's "power" GET!

But I still can't nick cars for Brucie, even though his like for me is now 94%.

GTA Glitch Watch
Aside from Brucie's not-sending-me-emails bug, the game stops working every time I try to got for a heli ride with him. I call him up for one, drive to his house, and the game "takes over", I get out the car, and him and two women walk up to me. He says something about "taking the bitches for a spin the chopper" and nothing happens. The game continues to play out - cars go past, Niko shuffles on the spot, people walk by, but nothing else. I can't walk anywhere, no cut scenes, we don't get in the helicopter, and no-one says or does anything. I can't move the camera either - just like the bug earlier in the game when the same thing happened at a burger stand near Firefly Island. Hmm.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

I'm trying to build up relationships with all my in-game friends at the moment. Packie and Jacob in particular, as their like for me are both very low. Spent most of today's play doing that, but also nicked another couple of cars for Stevie. No emails from Brucie though about nicking more cars for him, although he only likes me 35% so that might be it...

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

Yeah so anyway. It's complete but there's still stuff to do! By day, I'm friend-to-all, taking my chums out for meals and drinks and games, and by night I'm nicking cars for Brucie and Stevie. It's an ace double life!

Only Brucie isn't sending me emails with requests for cars any more. I think it's because his like for me is only 35%, but I can't increase it as he never answers the phone! Pff.

What percentage do you have to get your friends at to trigger their special ability anyway?

Grand Theft Auto IV (360): COMPLETED!

At 57 hours game time, and on my third attempt, I completed the final mission and killed Dimitri. Game over! And around 20 minutes of credits too - they even name the office receptionist...

But I wasn't happy with the outcome. Someone dies, and I didn't like it. So I went back to a previous save and chose to kill Dimitri then rather than work with him. The result? Another death. A different death, sure, but one that was a bit easier to take in, even though I still didn't like it. Then the "new" final mission, which was much like the other one to begin with, but with a different chase sequence and a different "boss" - who was much easier to kill once he was on foot.

And then the end again.

I decided to "keep" this ending, and carry on playing from it rather than return to the other one. I then spent ages taking friends out eating, drinking, going to see shows, going to strip clubs and playing darts. It's going to be a long process getting them all up to 100% though - most are still less than 40% even after the wining and dining.

It didn't help that I simply can't do Jacob's package deliveries, and his Like for me drops every time I fail.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

Played mainly online today. Started off with a bit of Free Play, then Deathmatched for a game or to, before finishing off the session with several rounds of Mafiya Work. The latter of which was actually better than I was expecting, but seemed far too random to require much skill - whoever was nearest the target when it appeared tended to "win".

After that, I was kicked off Live for some reason, so played offline for a bit. I attempted the final mission - going after Dimitri - and failed when he blew up my boat with a rocket. And it takes aaaaages to get back to that point. Grr!

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

So I tooled up and retried the mission, completing it without any problems this time. After which it was time for Roman's wedding - a wedding which I was told was going to take place at 10am. I hung around a safe house, shopped for a new suit, and went for a walk while waiting. But the game never told me where to actually go. Come 1pm, I decided to save my game, and then immediately afterwards got a call from Roman asking where the hell I was. Bizarre! (GTA Glitch Watch?)

Anyway, the wedding happened and then a nasty spoiler. A nasty spoiler which didn't sit well with me and I didn't like at all. So much so, I'm going to go back to an earlier save and kill Dimitri.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

I think I'm almost done! I went back to the main story, and found Darko Brevic - who I decided not to kill. I don't know if that was the right decision or not, but since I've saved everyone I could so far, and Roman was quite insistent I spare him, I thought it best.

And then I attempted what I assume is the final mission. I was given the choice of working with Dimitri, or killing him. I chose to work with him, but as expected, he double-crossed me. And I died trying to finish the mission. Pff.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

Just vigilante missions again today, and completed them all. Which netted me another achievement! Some of them were pretty good too - far better and more varied than the usual stuff from previous games in the series.

I then played online for a while, on Ranked Deathmatch. Picked up another two achievements there as well, even though I didn't do especially well.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

Just Vigilante missions again today. I've finished all the Most Wanted missions in the Bohan/Broker areas, and completed two in Alderney too.

I'm also over 51 hours in now. And I've still not completed it. It's also just about the only game I've played for almost two weeks now too. Yes, it is very good.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

Mainly spent my time on vigilante missions today, getting the achievement for taking down 20 criminals found on the police computer, and then completing all the Algonquin "Most Wanted" missions.

After that I did Gravelli's (or whatever his name is - old bloke in the hospital) next mission - blowing up some vans filled with cocaine. I took an indirect route around some rooftops, which made it much easier than it originally looked. Then I retried Phil's mission getting some drugs from a boatyard. Found that much easier than last time, completing it easily.

Finally, I took Kate out on a date. It didn't go well, as to start with I turned up just one minute late, then se complained about my clothes, my bike riding skillz (she didn't like being on an NRG 900 for some reason) and then when we arrived at the bowling place it wouldn't let us start a game, so we left and I accidentally threw her from the bike when I clipped a kerb. So she went home on her own. Smooth, Niko, really smooth.

GTA Glitch Watch
Glitches in abundance today! Lots and lots of objects popping in after I've hit them, and the tunnel from Alderney to Algonquin was completely black for a good 1/3 of its length before any of it was drawn in.

One of my cars parked outside my East Holland safehouse vanished too - even though it was in the designated parking, and, in fact, had been there for around 20-odd hours play at least.

Then there was the problem with Kate's date. I got to the bowling place but it wouldn't let me play. No idea why - and no, she hadn't requested a particular sort of date (in fact I rang her) and when I'd picked her up it was shown on my map as a "valid" place to do. Very odd.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

Quite a lot of play on this again today. I'm past 48 hours on it now. That's a lot more than any of the other GTA games, despite the fact this has a smaller map than San Andreas. Or does it? It might actually be larger - just being more filled in makes it seem smaller...

Anyway. I broke the $500,000 "barrier" today, mainly by nicking cars for Brucie and Stevie. And not a lot else, actually. Silly me hadn't realised that the box the game comes in includes a map of Liberty City, complete with street names, so I could have saved myself a lot of aimless driving around for Stevie...

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

First off today I did my first Assassin mission, followed by the rest of them in quick succession. They were all pretty easy, and doing all nine netted me an achievement. I then did a couple of missions for Jimmy, and found a guy on the street I'd met in the game previously and did a "side-mission" with him. Or rather, shot him.

Then I stole some cars (and bikes) for Brucie, took Little Jacob and Dwayne out for meals, and then did another mission for Jimmy. And attempted one for Phil but it was too hard.

Finally, I went to see Mr. Gravelli in the hospital, and did a couple of missions for him - including killing a Korean money counterfeiter - the same guy I helped into the country earlier in the game, it seems. Oh well.

I'm trying to get my cash up to the half-million mark. I'm on $440,000-ish at the moment.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

Mainly missions for Ray (one of which went horribly wrong - for him at least) and then a mission for Ray's friend Phil. After those, I spent ages messing around with jumps near the Acter industrial yards, and took Little Jacob and Roman out drinking and eating.

41 and a half hours in, it says. Blimey.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

Aside from one mission for Bernie (chasing Russians on a boat), today's play was spent almost entirely trying to replicate this.

It took ages to find the swings from the video, and although I found other swings elsewhere, I couldn't make my car to anything on them. Finally found the set shown, and had a merry time glitching cars into oblivion.

I didn't get anything amazing out of it - certainly no huge launches like the video - but I did get some impressive spinning cars and fantastically damaged vehicles.

GTA Glitch Watch? I think that was the point today, wasn't it?

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

Tada! I scanned some covers in :)

As for today's play... I found Bernie, killed some people for him, did a few more jobs for Ray, and spent ages trying to get the achievement for blowing up 10 vehicles in 10 seconds. In the end, my wife's suggestion of blocking up a tunnel and filling it with cars was the winner, as not only was it easy to get the cars piled up, but the police didn't see what I was doing and spoil the party.

GTA Glitch Watch
A few things today. First up was when I was driving a bike down the pedestrian part of (I think) the Broker Bridge. I hit a lamp post and was thrown off the bike. I got back on the bike, but my body was wedged inside a bridge support strut, and I couldn't move. I got off the bike, but the bike then got flung a few metres away as if it had been on elastic.

I was driving a car I'd just nicked around Alderney, and took a staggered junction badly, resulting in me driving head-first into a tree - albeit very slowly (I'd managed to brake almost in time). I reversed away from the tree, round a corner, and bumped into a wall. Then, as I was just pulling away, my car exploded, killing me. I didn't have any police after me, the road was deserted, and aside from a slightly dented front bumper, my car was in perfect condition. Bizarre.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

Didn't complete any more missions this go, but did take Roman, Little Jacob and Carmen all out. I then nicked the helicopter from near my Alderney house and flew under all the bridges to get the associated achievement.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

Played this loads today. Too much to go into everything, though.

Completed another couple of missions for Packie, some for Ray, and some for Gerry and whatever the other Irish brother is. Then I had another choice of two people to kill, and so chose the one I hated the most (who probably deserved it) then went to his funeral. WHich seemed a bit wrong.

Anyway, I then kidnapped some mob daughter, and found some more jumps.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

Oh - I forgot this!

GTA Glitch Watch
Some great ones today. First up was when I was chasing after *spoiler* to kill him. I cornered him in an alley, and when I shot him, he collapsed and his head and top half of his body fell through a wall. He dropped his gun, but it too was "in" the wall (I could see the red glow, but not the gun).

I was driving across the main bridge from Broker to the middle island, when for no reason at all, the car slammed into something that wasn't there and launched me through the windscreen. It was like hitting a low wall, but the was nothing in the way.

I went to buy some guns, and in the gun shop I picked up an assault rifle. Niko held it and swung it round a bit, then it vanished from his hands - but he was still doing the holding-it motions.

On the Three Leaf Clover mission, on one of my many attempts, I came across a completely indestructable policeman in one of the alleys you run down. He wasn't behind cover, but simply refused to take damage. I ended up failing the mission as he killed Packie.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

After making the difficult decision on whether to kill *spoiler* or *spoiler*, I ended up killing both via saving and reloading. My first choice (who was the one you meet earlier in the game than the other) was the one I stuck with. I got a new safehouse for my trouble.

Then I spent the best part of three hours attempting the same mission over and over and over and over again. "Three Leaf Clover". You have to rob a bank with Packie, then eascape, make it into the underground, come back above ground, nick a car, and make it back to Packie's house. Without Packie or his brother dying. Or you dying, obviously. And you have a five-star rating almost the entire time. It took loads of attempts to even get as far as the underground station, let alone the (more difficult) car journey home. As I posted on a forum:

...it took me six attempts to even get as far as having a car - got a police car, which blew up. Next go there were *no* cars for me to nick, so had to run home and got shot. Next go, got a van which was rammed into the river on the bridge. Next go, got another police car but was shot dead before I could pull away. Then got another van, made it over the bridge, but got my tyres shot out and drove into a wall, causing the van to stall, the police to carch up, and Packie to die. Then I got a normal sort of car, but neither Derrick or Packie would get in, and so one of them died. *Then* I got another van and *again* ended up in the river because a police car drove under me launching me off the bridge. Derrick wouldn't get out of the van so drowned.

Frustrating, not least because there are absolutely no checkpoints, so you have to do the long, relatively easy, bits over and over just to get to the hard bit and die.

Thankfully, I finally managed it, through sheer fluke. Again, as I posted elsewhere:

I came back outside, and tried to get in the car placed by the exit, but got mown down by a police car. Killed the police and nicked their car, and made it to the first corner. Got stinger'd just past it, then made it to the next corner, and for some reason I lost all my stars. The police cars chasing me just drove on past! So I nicked a car hat didn't have burst tyres and very carefully drove the boys home.

Hurrah!

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

After doing another mission for Packie, and then one for Ray, I was out of missions. Except one: the Dwayne one I can't do. Or at least, I couldn't do before, but on my first attempt today I managed it easily. The police didn't turn up in the club, which really helped. Hurrah!

I then celebrated by smashing up lots of cars, and then went looking for nice cars to park outside my safehouse.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

I really should get round to scanning more boxes in...

Anyway. Played a bit of this this evening, and I'm running out of open mission and am going to have to return to the kill-the-club-owners one for Dwayne soon, which I'm not looking forward to as it was hard.

I did, however, complete another mission for Francis. Then he went nuts at me because I spared the life of the guy I was supposed to kill. Tch.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

Epic mission today - chase a helicopter, nick it when it lands, then fly it off somewhere. Then, a little later, use it again with Jacob in the passenger seat armed with a rocket launcher, and chase another helicopter and take it down. Amazing!

Also took Carmen on a date. Sadly, the helicopter I pulled up to her house in vanished when she came out the house (GTA Glitch Watch!) so I had to nick a car. Took her to a club (while Kanye West's "Flash Lights" played on the radio) then drove her home drunk.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

Completed a couple of missions for the Paper Company man, then went and stole a a helicopter and flew over to the island I've not unlocked yet. That gave me an instant 6-star rating, which I held onto for ages gaining me the "One Man Army" achievement.

Then I went on a date with Carmen, and after that tried to see how many cars I could blow up in one go. None, it seems. Bah.

This Week's Roundup (360/Wii)

Another busy week (it was my birthday!) so I've got a bit of catching up to do.

Wii Fit (Wii)
Haven't played this much since Tuesday, but did fit in a couple of sessions in the week. Mainly just played step and ski jump, though.

Link's Crossbow Training (Wii)
Excellent! I got this for my birthday, which was pretty amazing in itself since it's impossible to buy pretty much everywhere. It's pretty simplistic (it is basically "just" a lightgun game) but is brilliantly well done and the "Wii Zapper", despite being a bit of a faff to assemble, works really well. I've completed it already, but that's not really the point, so I'm not going to consider it finished just yet. I think you have to get a piece of Triforce on every level? Anyway, I have at least a Silver on every level bar one, with a couple of Golds and a Platinum too.

Sega Superstars Tennis (Wii)
In two-player mode. It's pretty good fun, actually, although NiGHTS is rubbish (as I found out having picked him and then losing without scoring a single point). I need to unlock more minigames too, as none of the ones currently available are particularly good.

Race Driver GRID Demo (360)
Played this today. First impressions are: it's very quick, the damage models are amazing, and it looks fantastic. But it's too hard. I do like the rewind facility though.

Some Dragonball Z Thing Demo (360)
It looks great. But I'm not into Dragonball Z and I had no idea what I was doing. Not that it seemed to matter, as the demo is really easy and I completed both two levels with no problems at all simply by mashing buttons.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)
And this is what I've played most this week. I'm now around 23 or 24 hours in, and the mission I've most recently completed is the one where you save Roman from the Russians. Again. I've spent a while taking Roman and Little Jacob out, completed a couple more missions (and my first race) for Brucie, and completed the first task for the paper company. Oh, and a job for Packie and another for the policeman guy who Niko seemed to know well but it was the first time I'd come across him. Very odd. I still have an outstanding mission for Dwayne but it's too hard.

On Friday night I played online for the first time. First up was a game of Deathmatch with random people, and I'm just pleased I didn't come last. After that, it was Turf War which I didn't really like very much. Then, someone on my friends list invited me to a co-op game and we went and completed the three co-op missions together, which was pretty good.

GTA Glitch Watch
This morning, as I left my room in the flat in South Bohan, I managed to run up the flight of stairs before the stairs had been drawn-in. Very odd.

Also, every time I load the game, the door leading out of the flat flashes white briefly. Also very odd.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

Gah. I'm stuck.

I spent ages trying the mission for Dwayne where you have to go to the strip club and kill the managers. I just can't do it. Even with full health, body armour, and a pile of weapons, I still get mown down. There's nowhere to stand where you're not vulnerable - even if you find cover someone will come up behind you. Or the police will turn up.

So I gave up on that and nicked a car for Brucie instead. Hurrah!

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

A couple more missions for Playboy X today, and he gave me a new Whiz phone. Woo! Now I can have exciting themes and stuff for it. And it has a camera! Shame I can't keep the photos I take with it.

I then met Dwayne, and completed a mission for him. And I drove round the island in the middle of the map a lot, and then took Little Jacob to see Ricky Gervais in a comedy club. He told a lot of jokes about fat Americans. Ace!

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

Quite a bit more play today. In no particular order, I had an encounter with Dimitri, have a new safehouse in Bohan, met and helped Elizabeta, met Playboy X and had a gunfight with a load of cops with him, and have now unlocked the next island.

Completed my first "vigilante" mission too, using the computer onboard a police car I, er, borrowed. And basically just spent ages doing nothing much bar explore and cause trouble. No glitches today either.

Oh, and I tried to play online, but couldn't find anyone to play - and the one game I joined was just finishing so I was kicked out.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

Lots (and lots) of play on this today. It's one of those games where I can't really explain too much about what I'm doing in case I spoil anything, as far as the main storyline goes anyway. I did a few missions for Mikhail, completing his bit of the story, a couple of jobs for Little Jacob (whose accent is bloody amazing), and a couple of jobs for Brucie.

Also dated Michelle a couple more times and, er, "made it" with her, drove round rather a lot doing nothing in particular (I came across an alleyway with a police car parked up in it, and the policeman up a fire escape, so I killed him and was chased for ages). I went to the airport, but was disappointed to find that 1) you couldn't nick a plane, and 2) you got a 4-star wanted level just being there. I did manage to shake off the police though, gaining me an achievement.

Then I tried to get a car up onto the roller coaster at the fairground, but couldn't find a way onto the tracks and ended up driving into a pond at the miniature golf course by accident. Tch.

GTA Glitch Watch:

1) Cutting a corner in a car dropped me into a front yard where they'd been digging up the pavement, and my car got stuck in a wall, then flipped upside down (even though I was stationary), the car fell through the floor, everything went black (bar the car), and then the car flipped up into the air, span a lot, and then landed right-side-up back in the wall. I had to get out.

2) I parked a car very close to a wall (next to the Russian clothing shop) with the driver side door hard up against the wall. Rather than do what he normally does in this situation and shuffle over to the passenger side to get out, he opened the door through the wall and ended up in the shop, where I instantly got a 1-star wanted level for no reason, and the police piled in and killed me.

3) At the burger shop place near the fairground, I bought a burger, Niko turned to face the camera, and then... nothing. He didn't get given a burger, he didn't eat anything, I couldn't move, use my phone, use my weapons, change the camera or anything. A bystander started walking on the spot, and I could do nothing bar reload a saved game.

4) I jacked a car, and the owner ran after me and grabbed the door handle. I drove along for a bit dragging them, and eventually they let go. I then realised I was going the wrong way, u-turned, and saw them in the road with no legs. I ran them over, and they got pushed through the road (presumably to drop out underneath).

5) On one of the missions, the camera got stuck in a wall giving me a view through the back of Niko's head, showing his eyeballs from the inside. Eurgh.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

OK, final mission involving Vlad completed! Also dated Michelle again, and did the first mission for Little Jacob too.

Found a Burger Shot full of bikers, and accidentally pushed one of them (who looked like a pirate). He stood up, was twice as tall as me, and then a huge fight kicked off. I managed to escape, barely, by stealing one of their bikes.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

No graphical issues today, and I'm getting used to the camera, but it did hang on the loading screen at one point and I had to quit to the Xbox dashboard and reload the game. That was annoying.

I dated Michelle again, played pool with Roman (and lost, even though neither of us potted the black at all), played Qubed (the arcade game, which is hard), and completed a couple of missions for Vlad.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

Lolz! Not really!

But see this post.

Anyway, I'm not far in, having played for two hours. Run a few missions for Roman, dated Michelle once, and spooked a Korean for Vlad.

Grand Theft Auto IV (360)

It's crap.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2): COMPLETED!

By selecting the best weapon prior to mounting the on-foot attack of the Martinez Building after the chopper assault, I found it much easier this time around. The Spaz shotgun is most excellent when many baddies are in close range as it takes them all out at once.

After that, I had to shoot down another helicopter, and finally there was a three-way showdown on the roof - the remaining Mendez brother, Martinez, and me. And it was easy, they died, and I won. Hurrahs!

After the credits, I spent a while taking over businesses, but that got dull in the end. I've got about 85% of them or something though now.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

I'm pretty certain I'm on the last mission now. All the other storylines in the game are getting wrapped up - Phil Collins had his gig (during which I had to run round the lighting rigging and stop people cutting through it - shame), Reni went from he/she to just she and flew back to Europe, Gonzales has left Vice City (and I had to protect him on the way to the airport), and one of the Mendez brothers is dead. And so is someone on "my side" (but I won't say who as it's a spoiler).

So Diaz suggested I go and nick a Hunter (i.e. Apache) helicopter from the army base, so I did. And then I used that to blow up lots of people in "The Martinez Building" (gosh - I wonder who might be there?) but then died on the next bit because the stupid controls prevented me from selecting the right weapon. The fact the mission is called "The Last Stand" kind of implies I'm at the end, yes?

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

Done loads today, including: protected Phil Collins (no, really) from gangs, built up more of my empire, found out Lance and Louise have been nicking all the drugs, killed a load of people who wanted to blow up Phil Collins (again, but it's understandable), taken part in more stunt driving (on a jetski) for Reni at the studio, played golf (sort of), collected all the remaining required cars for the impound, chased Lance's helicopter in a hovercraft, saved Louise from Martinez (the army bloke), and all sorts of other things.

It's growing on me now, but I still keep thinking - "It's not as good as San Andreas".

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

Eventually, I managed to take down the antennae. It wasn't all that difficult once I'd figured out where the stairs to the roof of each police station were, so I could park my car as close as possible.

However, I then spent the best part of an hour finishing that mission, as I had a 5 Star rating upon escaping from the last station, and to complete the mission I had to drop that down to zero. Whilst being chased by another helicopter which seemed to cause my helicopter to veer all over the place.

I knew where one (and only one!) police bribe pickup was (near the very first safehouse you get), but couldn't remember where any others were. Flying around didn't really help too much either, as low down you get shot at by the police, and high up you can't see any pickups. And I didn't want to land as then the chasing helicopter would shoot me down. Luckily, I remembered there was a bribe outside the golf course, and managed to pick that up, and then remembered there was another near the airport. I snatched that just in time too - my helicopter blew up almost as soon as I landed it and the drop to just two stars and a pipe to hide in meant the police chopper flew off.

Finally, I ran back to my safe house and changed clothes to drop to no stars. Hurrah!

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

I now seem to be working for Gonzales, as well as still doing some missions with Lance to try to recover where all the drugs we had have gone. It would appear that they've mostly gone up his nose. Anyway.

Also expanded the "empire" a bit, and now I'm stuck trying to blow up antennae on the tops of police stations. With a rocket launcher.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

Much of today's play on this was spent on expanding my empire a bit, to earn a bit more money each day. Sadly, this wasn't easy. In order to take over businesses, you have to destroy the vehicle outside them. But, since you can't manually aim any of your weapons, this means you can only do it by smacking them with something like a baseball bat or golf club (which takes aaaaages), unless you happen to have some (wildly inaccurate) grenades.

Anyway. I did further the story a bit by taking photos of the army bloke and making out he was working with the police, in order to persude some drugs barons that I'm not the reason the drugs went missing. Or something. To be honest, the story is crap.

What isn't crap, though, is the fact that I found a helicopter! Hurrah!

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

Gay bikers killed! I'm still not sure why they tried to kill me, but anyway. Then Forbes tried to escape, so I ran him down, then nicked a load more drugs and escaped to... the other island! Hurrah!

Lance, however, has spent all our money (again) on swish apartments. But then, he is an idiot. I'd kill him, but Tommy Vercetti will do that for me in Vice City a few years later.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

The story in this game really isn't anywhere near as good as other GTA games. Everything you do seems to be for some tenuous reason. Vic isn't into drugs, doesn't want to deal in drugs, and yet almost every mission has him stealing drugs or lining up a drugs heist or something else to do with drugs. And if it isn't drugs, it's guns. All to earn money (which Lance seems to be spending faster than you can get it) on your other brother's hospital care.

Today's missions included kidnapping Forbes (who, it turns out, was a cop) and locking him in a flat tied to a chair. And then I infiltrated a gay bar full of bikers who decided to kill me. Because everyone knows that gay bikers instantly want to kill people who just happen to have entered their bar by mistake. I died a few times on that bit and gave up for the day.

I hope I get to the other island soon.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

You know, with "trails" turned off in the graphics options, suddenly everything is a lot better looking. But sadly, still awful.

Problems I had today:

In one mission, you have to use a fire engine to put out a fire. Controls for the fire engine's water cannon are circle to fire, and the right stick to aim. So you need two right thumbs.

Near the first safehouse you get access to (just south of it, in fact) there's a motorbike. If you get on it, a "collect shiny things" (or something) mini-game starts. But won't actually start the clock until you collect the first shiny thing. However, having gotten on the bike, you can no longer start any other missions, even if you get off again. I found this out having driven miles away, and the only way I could "cancel" the mini-game was to destroy the bike, which was easier said than done. I pushed it into the sea using a taxi in the end.

Louise asked me to take over Marty's business (after Marty became a bit dead), and for a mission I had to go and pick up two goons. Who really were goons, as they did nothing. I couldn't recruit them, speak to them, or anything. They just stood there. So I ran them down and got Mission Failed.

The mission where you pick up Lance from the airport and then escape from the cholos, then get caught in an alley and have to shoot them? Bloody hell. The driving bit was fine (aside from the crap analogue sticks providing no accuracy on the targetting), but the alleyway was almost impossible due to the crap targetting and the way it kept locking on to already dead people instead of those people in my face, kicking my shins. It didn't help that the next bit (get a car and escape the police to get to a hotel) was bloody hard too as the police kept blowing up my car mere inches from the hotel front door.

Aside from all them, though, it was "great".

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)

Or rather, Vice City Stories of Blur and Brown. The game looks horrific. I mean, Canis Canem Edit didn't look great, but this? Awful. It's like someone took the original Vice City and smeared it with dirty hands. I suppose that's what you get for porting a PSP game back to the PS2. Anyway.

So I'm Vic Vance, Lance Vance's (from the original) brother, and this seems to be set a while before the original. I'm a corporal in the army, or rather, was, until my crack-head sergeant send me on drugs and gun running errands and I got the blame.

I then fell in with a few hicks who sent me off blowing up cholo vans and nicking cars and stuff, and then I won a quad-bike race. Oh, and then I did my usual trick of finding the airport and spending ages doing stoppies and wheelies, and jumping over things.

So far, so GTA. Complete with even worse controls than I recall. Despite being the same game engine as Canis Canem Edit, and being the same sort of game, they've switched the target button from L1 to R1, shoot from R1 to a face button, and taken away the ability to crouch. And the graphics... I'm not usually bothered by graphics, but when they're a step behind previous games in the series, and they're bad to the point where they're affecting gameplay, I do have a right to moan a bit. I've hit a bug already too - all of the vehicles vanished. Every single one, even the moped I'd stashed in my garage - gone. All the people vanished too. Thankfully, starting a mission restored them all.

I'll give it a bit longer, but I think San Andreas and Saints Row may have spoilt it for me already.