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

[Personal Jesus]

What would you guys say would be the easiest/hardest GTA to complete? 100%, story, anything.

The easiest for me would be tied between Liberty City Stories and Chinatown Wars. I don't remember a tricky mission that took me more than a couple tries to complete. It does ramp up at the end when Sal is locked up. Roadblocks, tailing and an invisible barrier but nothing like those drone missions from Vice City and SA.

Chinatown Wars, once you get used to the controls and mechanics, wasn't very challenging. I even damn near 100% just from casual play. Those cameras, drug spots, and Lions of Fo are a bitch to get.

The hardest would be III based on controls, San Andreas because of dated designs and the size of the map, and Vice City with the precise side missions and RC car missions.

When counting all games in the series, I would say London 61 is the hardest due to the insane time limits, counting only 3D/HD games the hardest is Vice City Stories which has some of the hardest missions in the series, followed closely by III.

The easiest would be V, which I think you can complete the whole game without finishing a mission with the "skip mission" feature and the missions itself are not really hard due to the better controls.

 

[Cod of War]

What would you guys say would be the easiest/hardest GTA to complete? 100%, story, anything.

The easiest for me would be tied between Liberty City Stories and Chinatown Wars. I don't remember a tricky mission that took me more than a couple tries to complete. It does ramp up at the end when Sal is locked up. Roadblocks, tailing and an invisible barrier but nothing like those drone missions from Vice City and SA.

Chinatown Wars, once you get used to the controls and mechanics, wasn't very challenging. I even damn near 100% just from casual play. Those cameras, drug spots, and Lions of Fo are a bitch to get.

The hardest would be III based on controls, San Andreas because of dated designs and the size of the map, and Vice City with the precise side missions and RC car missions.

I can't say, I used cheats until IV.

I did replay some of San Andreas without cheats and it's not bad difficulty wise though you can get abilities to keep your weapons after being busted/wasted. Biggest problem is getting around the map without abusing the Hydra cheat.

 

[The Last Stand]

counting only 3D/HD games the hardest is Vice City Stories which has some of the hardest missions in the series, followed closely by III.

Vice City Stories had its fair share of bullshit. The hovercraft mission, that escort mission with Umberto's dad, the pool mission and the antennae mission. That last one was the worst; the FBI has pinpoint accuracy and will melt you and your vehicle in seconds.

Another mission involved flying a helicopter with a magnet, picking up crates and then bikers ambush your ally and you have to pick up his car while the bikers shoot and him and he's swerving around the street. Flying is hard enough, trying to catch a moving target with loose controls is too much.

I am replaying San Andreas without cheats and it's not bad difficulty wise

Those Zero missions, especially with the RC Red Baron. And don't even get me started on Wrong Side of the Tracks...

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

Those Zero missions, especially with the RC Red Baron.

I couldn't even get past the first one. It was especially infuriating because, as I recall, unlocking those missions is kind of expensive so I felt like I just wasted my money on a side quest I'd never complete.

 

[The Last Stand]

I couldn't even get past the first one. It was especially infuriating because, as I recall, unlocking those missions is kind of expensive so I felt like I just wasted my money on a side quest I'd never complete.

I thought they counted for the story. I'm used to the letters on the map being main missions. Anyway, they're still annoying. They nerfed the difficulty on the mobile/"remastered" evidently; your fuel doesn't run out as fast.

When people talk about the hardest mission in IV, I have heard Three Leaf Clover, the bank robbery mission was difficult. I disagree. If you know what you're doing, it isn't that challenging. It's actually one of the best setpieces in IV, and even the whole series. (I failed once, but I was being too gung ho.)

I would say a hard mission in IV was The Snow Storm. You're in a cramped, abandoned building against guys with SMGs and AKs. They are above you and around each room. Then, the cops fly in and the building is like a maze since all the rooms look the same. Then, you have to evade the police which shouldn't be hard except you're likely low on health and/or ammo and more cops spawn on the streets now.

 

[Draza]

I thought they counted for the story. I'm used to the letters on the map being main missions. Anyway, they're still annoying. They nerfed the difficulty on the mobile/"remastered" evidently; your fuel doesn't run out as fast.

When people talk about the hardest mission in IV, I have heard Three Leaf Clover, the bank robbery mission was difficult. I disagree. If you know what you're doing, it isn't that challenging. It's actually one of the best setpieces in IV, and even the whole series. (I failed once, but I was being too gung ho.)

I would say a hard mission in IV was The Snow Storm. You're in a cramped, abandoned building against guys with SMGs and AKs. They are above you and around each room. Then, the cops fly in and the building is like a maze since all the rooms look the same. Then, you have to evade the police which shouldn't be hard except you're likely low on health and/or ammo and more cops spawn on the streets now.

I would disagree about Snow Storm since after killing all the enemies (By playing it slow and smart), you can actually escape the police pretty easily to a boat parked near the shore.

 

[The Last Stand]

I would disagree about Snow Storm since after killing all the enemies (By playing it slow and smart), you can actually escape the police pretty easily to a boat parked near the shore.

Wish I knew that firsthand.

IV wasn't that challenging of a game. The cover system and combat make it manageable.

The easiest would be V, which I think you can complete the whole game without finishing a mission with the "skip mission" feature and the missions itself are not really hard due to the better controls.

Oh right, you COULD do that if you want. Cheesing the whole game by dying three times in a row. I used it once with that Monkey Business mission.

Remember playing GTA without checkpoints? You'd have to get the mission done in one go, with some exceptions. If you died, you'd lose whatever weapons you had and drive back to the mission marker. In Vice City, there would be a taxi that would take you back IRC if you died during a mission. In SA, if you had Michelle as a girlfriend, you'd keep your weapons after being busted. In VCS, you could "buy" your weapons back after being busted or wasted. In IV onwards, your weapons would stay after death.

 

[Nathan Higgers]

I thought they counted for the story. I'm used to the letters on the map being main missions. Anyway, they're still annoying. They nerfed the difficulty on the mobile/"remastered" evidently; your fuel doesn't run out as fast.

When people talk about the hardest mission in IV, I have heard Three Leaf Clover, the bank robbery mission was difficult. I disagree. If you know what you're doing, it isn't that challenging. It's actually one of the best setpieces in IV, and even the whole series. (I failed once, but I was being too gung ho.)

I would say a hard mission in IV was The Snow Storm. You're in a cramped, abandoned building against guys with SMGs and AKs. They are above you and around each room. Then, the cops fly in and the building is like a maze since all the rooms look the same. Then, you have to evade the police which shouldn't be hard except you're likely low on health and/or ammo and more cops spawn on the streets now.

Dude, Snow Storm was alright. I had a bitch of a time going through that fucking "Deconstruction For Beginners" mission. Didn't help that I hated Playboy X's guts too.

Also the final part of the last mission, when you are on the bike chasing the chopper... really fucking frustrating, I think GTA IV had the worst bike control of all GTA games.

All in all, I think the best GTA IV missions were the ones with Packie and Phil Bell.

When counting all games in the series, I would say London 61 is the hardest due to the insane time limits, counting only 3D/HD games the hardest is Vice City Stories which has some of the hardest missions in the series, followed closely by III.

The easiest would be V, which I think you can complete the whole game without finishing a mission with the "skip mission" feature and the missions itself are not really hard due to the better controls.

Toughest GTA for me to this date is GTA III. Fuckin' Claude can't even crouch or bail out of a vehicle on fire.... That being said, I haven't played any games that came before III.

Also I agree that GTA V is the easiest GTA game ever. It bascially lacked any sort of challenge. I still love the game (thanks to Trevor), but none of the missions were particularly difficult, and why would they be? Oh you have low health? Just switch to another character. Oh a driving mission? Just use Franklin's special ability.

Still sad that we didn't get a single player DLC though. GTA Online is cancer.

 

[The Last Stand]

Also the final part of the last mission, when you are on the bike chasing the chopper... really fucking frustrating, I think GTA IV had the worst bike control of all GTA games.

In The Lost and Damned, your ass would be planted on that bike. Collisions that would knock you off in IV, you'd fly right though in TLaD. Much harder to fall off.

Has anybody drove a car in The Lost and Damned? I have.

 

[Vault Boy]

In The Lost and Damned, your ass would be planted on that bike. Collisions that would knock you off in IV, you'd fly right though in TLaD. Much harder to fall off.

Has anybody drove a car in The Lost and Damned? I have.

Only in the missions that required it and had you transport passengers, otherwise I chose my metal steed.

Also had no idea there were boats you can use in Snow Storm, that would've made the mission less frustrating.

 

[The Last Stand]

On the notion of Rockstar's game mechanics:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=MvJPKOLDSos
IMO, using the same mechanics isn't inherently bad when your game is tightly story-driven (i.e. see Naughty Dog games), but it can be frustrating when they end up overly fiddly like in RDRII, where there's tons of overlapping control mapping, or when they manifest themselves as mission design incompatible with the spirit of an open world.

Just finished watching that, and it brought up a good point with the mission design contradicting the open world.

III, as hard and basic it was at the time, gave you some freedom in how you'd tackle missions. For instance, the Chunky Lee Charlie mission where you have to kill him.

You could kill him from afar, chase him or take his car, put a bomb in it and make him get to the car.

In the Curly Bob mission, you could tail him to the docks OR take a taxi, and take him there yourself.

Contrast this with V where some missions are so rigged, you have to play EXACTLY like the game wants you to, or you fail. Almost like you're on rails.

Hell, look at this mission:

You'd think with how cinematic they wanted to be, they'd add an alternative cutscene for your creativity. But no, it plays the same either way.

 

[No. 7 cat]

One thing is I will never again use the horrible Rockstar launcher. Endless clicking on pictures of traffic lights. Why cannot it save a password? Fucking horrible. I can launch Steam and play any GTA without that crap.

 

[Draza]

Only in the missions that required it and had you transport passengers, otherwise I chose my metal steed.

Also had no idea there were boats you can use in Snow Storm, that would've made the mission less frustrating.

6:05- Player jumps into the water near the speedboat.

 

[heyitsmike]

Contrast this with V where some missions are so rigged, you have to play EXACTLY like the game wants you to, or you fail.

This guy says the same thing about Rockstar and RDR2.

 

[The Last Stand]

All in all, I think the best GTA IV missions were the ones with Packie and Phil Bell.

Packie and his family, the McReary's are very in-depth characters. I recommend doing the friends activities with Packie, or just watching the dialogue when you hang out with Packie.

Packie has three brothers and a sister. All of his brothers are involved in crime in some way, even his cop brother Francis, which created a rip in the family dynamic. If not that, they spent their childhood beating each other up or being abused by their father.

You can't help but feel bad for Packie; I'd say he's the most honest of the four brothers.

 

[Hesa]

What would you guys say would be the easiest/hardest GTA to complete? 100%, story, anything.

The easiest for me would be tied between Liberty City Stories and Chinatown Wars. I don't remember a tricky mission that took me more than a couple tries to complete. It does ramp up at the end when Sal is locked up. Roadblocks, tailing and an invisible barrier but nothing like those drone missions from Vice City and SA.

Chinatown Wars, once you get used to the controls and mechanics, wasn't very challenging. I even damn near 100% just from casual play. Those cameras, drug spots, and Lions of Fo are a bitch to get.

The hardest would be III based on controls, San Andreas because of dated designs and the size of the map, and Vice City with the precise side missions and RC car missions.

Dragon Dance in Chinatown took me ages for some reason and was very annoying as it was a storyline pinch point.

I am still really enjoying San Andreas, perhaps even more so that when I first played it.

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

Apparently Rockstar finally came out and said there's going to be an Online update next month and a new heist in a "new location" later on in the year.

Can't wait to see people get their hopes up for a map expansion when all they mean is that it's not in the casino.

 

[The Last Stand]

I feel sorry for PC players of GTA V and RDR 2.

Their multiplayer infrastructure is beyond exploitable and vulnerable for their users. Anybody with a mod menu can fuck with your game and account with no consequence. Even track your IP and location. Yet they have the nerve to sell you microtransactions.

All the money they make with GTA Online, and they can't invest in better security and servers. Disgusting.

Apparently Rockstar finally came out and said there's going to be an Online update next month and a new heist in a "new location" later on in the year.

And Red Dead Online is getting an update too.

 

[Lumin]

To be honest, Rockstar has admittedly kept their quality to at least a decent standard even after growing as much as they have. I mean, usually when a series takes off these days I give up all hope and expectations moving forward. I'm personally not looking forward to where Elder Scrolls is going, for example, as unfortunate as that is.

GTA V, at least in my opinion, felt pretty hollow. I do think they turned multiplayer into something pretty cool, though I never did play online because my connection was too weak, and I have heard plenty of people call it cancer, but I still think what they were going for is cool, regardless of their execution.

What I really want from future GTA games though is more interactivity in the world. I played the hell out of games like The Godfather because I thought it was a ton of fun going around to the various businesses and extorting them. It felt like you were actually taking over portions of the city, and it was fun interacting with the storefronts and store owners outside of missions in ways that made the people feel like more than just cardboard cutouts and the buildings more than obstacles you want to avoid hitting when driving around.

It makes a massive difference to me when the cities are more than just facades like the backdrop of mountains in the distance that you can't actually travel to. That's what made games like Shenmue and Yakuza so great to me, and let me immerse myself in them much more than GTA V.

 

[The Last Stand]

What I really want from future GTA games though is more interactivity in the world. I played the hell out of games like The Godfather because I thought it was a ton of fun going around to the various businesses and extorting them. It felt like you were actually taking over portions of the city, and it was fun interacting with the storefronts and store owners outside of missions in ways that made the people feel like more than just cardboard cutouts and the buildings more than obstacles you want to avoid hitting when driving around.

That's what I liked about IV that they removed from V: interiors. San Andreas had them too, but you "teleported" inside of them. I get you can't enter every building but it would encourage you to explore the world rather than just go from A to B.

GTA V, at least in my opinion, felt pretty hollow.

Especially given the direction R* is going with GTA Online, there's so much potential lost in GTAV. No doubt I'd be excited for the next GTA, but the direction they're going will impact their decision making going forward.

It felt like you were actually taking over portions of the city,

Saints Row 1-2 had that feeling too with strongholds and the arching gang storylines you could do in any order.