Grand Theft Auto Grieving Thread - Yep, I've been drinkin' again...

[The handsome tard]

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Some GTA fans on Reddit are speculating that they may have found an Easter egg — Tommy Vercetti’s mansion — in the GTA VI trailer.

The same way there was a Grove Street in GTA 5, there could be an equivalent of the mansion in 6 but I doubt it will have a significance beyond maybe some dialogue that references Vice City but only vaguely given its not the same universe (like when Lamar said that the Grove Street OGs moved on, probably became CEOs or something, referencing CJ and crew becoming pretty rich and famous by the end). Maybe they will say the mansion was once owned by a powerful head of a crime family in the 80's.

I share similar sentiments about GTA IV and V as GTA games. The short of it is that 3D era GTAs were able to tell serious crime stories and subject matter while having their gameplay loops be centered around arcadey exploration of their worlds. I don't want to say that they weren't meant to be taken SERIOUSLY, rather those games were intended as action centric open world games with an arcade intent.

The Ballad of Gay Tony may as well be a different game from GTA IV & TLaD. The mechanics are the same, but the general tone is night and day from IV. More saturation, no film grain, more upbeat characters, outlandish missions and weaponry, you could tell me that this was a mod and I'd believe you. I enjoyed both experiences but for different reasons.

I heard a theory saying that this is because the leads of each story have different views of the world. Niko and Johnny see the world as more gray but Luis is more lighthearted, doesnt carry as much negativity and seems to be a lot more approachable and chill in comparison to the first two, thus he sees the world with more color

 

[The Last Stand]

Niko and Johnny see the world as more gray but Luis is more lighthearted, doesnt carry as much negativity and seems to be a lot more approachable and chill in comparison to the first two, thus he sees the world with more color

Luis is cynical, albeit for good reason given his company. You'd hear this supporting assertion through interactions with his childhood friends, Armando and Henrique. Even with the color, Liberty City is still a dark underworld in reality. The clubs, celebrities, money all hide an underlying seediness within the finer details.

I'd like to make an autistic claim of my own. Luis is lonely. That's why he has one night stands with women. That's why he has ONE chair with a table in his nice apartment. No commitment whatsoever to a companion.

 

[Haftag]

I've said that GTA IV has great writing for GTA standards. I think LCS deserves that acclaim as well.
Honorable mention goes to GTA: Chinatown Wars for the same reasons.

Replace IV with TBOGT, and we'll have my holy trinity of the best, aka least frustrating GTAs.

Which GTA had the best loading screen sequence? I'd say San Andreas because that introduced music and GTA IV because of its artwork.

SA's the most iconic, and the game's impact quite unrivaled, but I like the IV trilogy better, sepcially TLAD.

Just give me the Saints Row one where it's a garage (...) with no limit to how many you can have.

There is a limit.

 

[The Last Stand]

Replace IV with TBOGT, and we'll have my holy trinity of the best, aka least frustrating GTAs.

Speaking of which, I may 100% TBoGT. I've already did the gang wars, base jumps, cage fighting and 100% story mode challenges. Now I just need to do the seagulls, club management, friends activities and random characters.

TBoGT's writing is okay; it just ends so quickly. The Lost and Damned has buildup that relates to the rise and fall of The Lost AND further events from IV.

There is a limit.

64 to be exact.

 

[Psyduck]

TBoGT's writing is okay; it just ends so quickly. The Lost and Damned has buildup that relates to the rise and fall of The Lost AND further events from IV.

I like both episodes and their stories, but Johnny was a better lead than Luis. A case of a protagonist that drives the narrative vs one that's dragged along by the story.

Storywise i enjoyed TBoGT's highlights the most, but TLaD had a better plot overall, if that makes sense. Not gonna squeeze 4 into this cause it's not fair

 

[The Last Stand]

I like both episodes and their stories, but Johnny was a better lead than Luis. A case of a protagonist that drives the narrative vs one that's dragged along by the story.

Even so, Luis and Johnny in their respective titles have more agency compared to Franklin from GTA V. Johnny had wanted to do what's right for the Lost in spite of Billy's drug fueled antics. Luis even orchestrated the ending mission.

Storywise i enjoyed TBoGT's highlights the most, but TLaD had a better plot overall, if that makes sense. Not gonna squeeze 4 into this cause it's not fair

Yusuf carried TBoGT. I love that guy.

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

Yous all want to do a lowrider meet?

 

[The Last Stand]

Yous all want to do a lowrider meet?

https://youtube.com/watch?v=YO_IS1awnXs

Much improved vibe from GTA: Vice City. I love me some funk.

 

[bango skank]

I wish they would do an update for IV so it doesn’t look like dogshit on modern TVs. I dug my 360 complete edition out of the closet yesterday and while it runs at 60 fps which is nice it’s borderline unplayable with how blurry the entire picture is.

 

[The Last Stand]

I wish they would do an update for IV so it doesn’t look like dogshit on modern TVs. I dug my 360 complete edition out of the closet yesterday and while it runs at 60 fps which is nice it’s borderline unplayable with how blurry the entire picture is.

Speaking of which, there's a bug with Corner Kids where the wall won't blow up as prompted. Somehow, that is tied with framerate. I guess it's animation triggered. Best way to progress: bump your two allies or run UP to the wall and run back before it explodes.

I don't like how GTA is dependent on frame rate. That's an antiqued way of programming.

 

[bango skank]

Speaking of which, there's a bug with Corner Kids where the wall won't blow up as prompted. Somehow, that is tied with framerate. I guess it's animation triggered. Best way to progress: bump your two allies or run UP to the wall and run back before it explodes.

I don't like how GTA is dependent on frame rate. That's an antiqued way of programming.

Ive read there’s some setting to disable games from running at 60fps on the Series X that’s supposed to help with this but I haven’t gotten far enough in the game for it to be an issue yet.

 

[Ventrue]

I don't like how GTA is dependent on frame rate. That's an antiqued way of programming.

No kidding, in the Max Payne 3 multiplayer if you killed somebody with a pistol it took 7 or 8 shots on PS3 but on PC it took 2 or 3 shots which shows the difference between 30 fps and 60 fps.

 

[XL xQgg?QcQCaTYDMjqoDnYpG]

I wish they would do an update for IV so it doesn’t look like dogshit on modern TVs. I dug my 360 complete edition out of the closet yesterday and while it runs at 60 fps which is nice it’s borderline unplayable with how blurry the entire picture is.

Check graphics settings > Definition
On PC, you have the P key to turn it on or off, makes the picture blurry and enables motion blur

 

[The handsome tard]

Lance's betrayal really works even if you played Vice City Stories first or not.
If you played VCS, this betrayal feels like a natural conclusion of Lance's arc started in VCS. He became an immature incompetent idiot with his brother so it was only a matter of time before he would feel the same with Tommy and, as expected, do something stupid like betrayal...kind of really hoping that freaking SONNY of all people wont simply have Lance eventually killed for being a loose end. Traitors are useful until they are not and Sonny would in no way keep a non italian with backstabbing history among even their low ranks.
If you played VC first, you get to see how Lance didnt end up the way he was because of the drugs or power or anything but because he was always kind of a screw up who just didnt belong in this sort of environment and wanted to believe he was more badass than he actually was. He was always being antagonistic towards people objectively better than him at this line of work (and yet both Vic and Tommy kept giving him chance after chance after chance to get his act together, so it wasnt lack of support for a dark episode, he was always like this).

Either way, Lance is the connecting tissue between both games and it really shows how unreliable people can be dangerous, if their incompetence doesnt get you, the knife aimed at your back will.

Unless you are Tommy Vercetti

I wish they would do an update for IV so it doesn’t look like dogshit on modern TVs. I dug my 360 complete edition out of the closet yesterday and while it runs at 60 fps which is nice it’s borderline unplayable with how blurry the entire picture is.

GTA 4 is one of those games where you NEED to download some shit to make it better to play on modern hardware (also bringing the music songs back because most updates for it these days simply remove music tracks from it because their licenses expired and Rockstar doesnt have money to renew them, obviously)

 

[The Last Stand]

If you played VC first, you get to see how Lance didnt end up the way he was because of the drugs or power or anything but because he was always kind of a screw up who just didnt belong in this sort of environment and wanted to believe he was more badass than he actually was. He was always being antagonistic towards people objectively better than him at this line of work (and yet both Vic and Tommy kept giving him chance after chance after chance to get his act together, so it wasnt lack of support for a dark episode, he was always like this).

One retcon I did not like from VC to VCS was with one of Lance's brothers being gunned down during the deal. With all that Vic went through dealing with Lance and the drug trade, why would he just come back to it? I guess that goes with how well written Vic is. That said, I suppose I can give it a pass since VC was meant to be an expansion pack.

 

[The handsome tard]

One retcon I did not like from VC to VCS was with one of Lance's brothers being gunned down during the deal. With all that Vic went through dealing with Lance and the drug trade, why would he just come back to it? I guess that goes with how well written Vic is. That said, I suppose I can give it a pass since VC was meant to be an expansion pack.

We dont know what happened in the in between years. Maybe Lance convinced him. Maybe money got tight. Maybe you can leave the game but the game wont leave you. Given how Vic looks somewhat different from his VCS self, I can only assume he slacked off and gained a bit of weight so when he returned to the game, he was rusty and not ready at all for an ambush (tho like I said already in this thread, it was kind of poor luck on Vic and good luck on Tommy.)

Thats sadly goes to show the problem with developing doomed characters with unceremonious deaths, no matter how well you write them, they are destined to meet their end in a very anti-climatic manner.

 

[The Last Stand]

Thats sadly goes to show the problem with developing doomed characters with unceremonious deaths, no matter how well you write them, they are destined to meet their end in a very anti-climatic manner.

It was more climatic than how MWIII handled THEIR established characters.

Somebody must've gone down to where their empire buildings are now just random buildings in VC. I suppose the easier thing to do is to blame Lance for mucking things up again.

I actually prefer Lance in VCS over Lance in VC. I don't like the fork tongued, prone to emotion Lance. Well, I prefer the characterization from VCS purely on comic relief and Vic TRYING to discipline him.

 

[The handsome tard]

It was more climatic than how MWIII handled THEIR established characters.

Somebody must've gone down to where their empire buildings are now just random buildings in VC. I suppose the easier thing to do is to blame Lance for mucking things up again.

I actually prefer Lance in VCS over Lance in VC. I don't like the fork tongued, prone to emotion Lance. Well, I prefer the characterization from VCS purely on comic relief and Vic TRYING to discipline him.

Vic grounded Lance and even then, Lance was just almost always either not helping or making things worse. At best, Lance helped by just not getting in the way. Once Vic bit the dust, Lance lost that person that could at least make Lance behave a little bit. And hell, Lance did hold some resentment over Vic "holding him back" according to calls between him and Tommy.

All of it implies that Lance was projecting a lot of Vic onto Tommy and he hated that. He was filled with insecurities that all began to show their ugly head once Tommy expected Lance to carry his weight around in the criminal empire they were building. And I must say again, all thing considered and given Tommy's short fused nature, he was very patient with Lance, even asking him to take some days off to clear his head when he started to throw a tantrum on the phone. Really goes to show how Tommy really had faith Lance was a good second in command that was simply going through a bad phase.

 

[The Last Stand]

And I must say again, all thing considered and given Tommy's short fused nature, he was very patient with Lance, even asking him to take some days off to clear his head when he started to throw a tantrum on the phone. Really goes to show how Tommy really had faith Lance was a good second in command that was simply going through a bad phase.

Any other mob boss would've demoted or clipped Lance after that bar encounter.

Still, you can't help but love the guy in VCS because of his comic relief and cheesy one-liners.

 

[The handsome tard]

Any other mob boss would've demoted or clipped Lance after that bar encounter.

Tommy was a good boss all things considered, all he required from members was loyalty and general efficiency. Very old school mob rules, ruthless enough so that your enemies fear you and your allies respect you...and think twice before planning something behind your back. He really was the first Rockstar protagonist to not be a pushed around wherever other characters led the plot like Claude Speed (even if I love Claude, he was just following orders to a T, and nothing else, minus the revenge part), he still took orders when it made sense for him to do so to achieve his own personal goal but Diaz, Tommy takes the initiate far more frequently (the cutscenes usually introduced a problem, Tommy and crew discuss it, he usually is the one to come up with a solution or take the initiative towards it and off he goes).

I would say C.J was a downgrade as he is mostly following orders again but I think it works on the basis that he is usually being forced to either by Tenpenny or by wanting to prove himself to his family, gang or possible ally. It does help he is a more human lead with a more entertaining side than Tommy.

Still, you can't help but love the guy in VCS because of his comic relief and cheesy one-liners.

Indeed.

"This is the Lance Vance Dance!"

That was the first dance from Lance Vance. Enjoy it while it lasts.