Current Events > I'm playing GTA 3 for the first time... without cheats. Spoilers

(+) Yeah! (+)

This game is overflowing with nostalgic moments. Red light district, Luigi's, getting the banshee, driving a mafia sentinel... God the memories.

I hate playing that game without cheats. The driving is okay but the shooting is awful and the difficulty balance is fucking all over the place.
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Push it to the limit!
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without.... cheats....? What are you, a madman???
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Before GTA San Andreas I'd never bothered playing the GTA games without cheats. I always liked screwing around in 3 and vice city even during missions, just to see how out of the box I could complete a mission.

I'm the opposite, I don't play any of the games with cheats because it makes it too easy
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Yaridovich posted...

I hate playing that game without cheats. The driving is okay but the shooting is awful and the difficulty balance is fucking all over the place.

You're telling me. It's amazing how much each installment added, culminating in San Andreas adding almost everything, most appreciated being the ability to swim (remember the old days when water was the scariest enemy in video games lol)

i hated how in the old GTA games you lost all your guns if you died, because it was kind of a drag to have to rebuy them for missions and it was a bummer if you just wanted to fuck around and go on a killing spree/run from the cops. so the cheats fix that part for me
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I remember how shitty it got in the end when nearly every gang will shoot you on site. You couldn't even drive through certain areas without being blown away.
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DuranOfForcena posted...

it was fun back in the day to load up a game, put in some cheats and go on a massacre, and then reload at the end. that's all cheats have been good for in my mind. i couldn't imagine wanting to have cheats on as the default way to play a game like this (or any other game for that matter), or someone thinking that the supposed "difficulty" of the game demands it. it wasn't a difficult game at all.

honestly i thought the majority of the PS2 GTA games difficulty came from the shitty shooting controls. They were really bad, even for PS2 standards IMO.
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For me, doing rampages with cheats gets boring kinda fast. I liked starting with nothing and getting better weapons as I go
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DuranOfForcena posted...

Romulox28 posted...

honestly i thought the majority of the PS2 GTA games difficulty came from the shitty shooting controls. They were really bad, even for PS2 standards IMO.

they had auto-aim......

it was hard to target people individually and switch quickly from one person to the other
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DuranOfForcena posted...

Romulox28 posted...

it was hard to target people individually and switch quickly from one person to the other

i dunno, i don't remember it being much of an issue.

Then you don't remember well. GTA3 had some of the worst shooting mechanics of any game ever during its era.
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I didn't get a PS2 until Vice City so I missed the phenomenon that was GTA 3. I tried to go back to play it after VC, but it was just boring to me. I feel like I missed out on a gaming milestone

Oddly enough though I did enjoy watching my friend play his copy
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My God you guys... This game is a real blast from the past. There's no map! There's no map on the start menu! GTA 3 only had that small mini-map blip at the bottom. I don't need a GPS system like in GTA 4, but it's amazing how we were able to explore the cities of GTA 3 with only that small radar at the bottom.

The nostalgia is rushing through my veins as I remember how we used to use landmarks in-game to be able to determine our location and where to go. I did look online for at least a location to body armor in Portland, since you can't even buy it yet. The docks, Chinatown, Salvatore's mansion... all these places that we used to know like the back of our hand. The memories.

The aiming mechanics weren't bad if you had a decent amount of space between you and your enemies. But if multiple targets ambush you the auto aim doesn't like to cooperate. San Andreas mostly fixed this.
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GTA 3 uses a pager. A pager. The shocking realization that most people won't even know what that device is... or what payphones were for...

It's been 15 years since last I beat this game. There's so much to appreciate here, in this game that was unlike any other.

The shooting mechanics lol. Yes there's auto aim but it's so shoddy. And there's no free aim except with the m16.

Played it the other day and I still love it as much as I did back in 2001.

It can be a pain, but I like how certain gangs try to kill you. It makes some of the neighborhoods feel dangerous. It is "The most dangerous city in the world" after all.
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I only had trouble with the last mission. I must have tried like 20 times to beat it before I gave up and used cheats.
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My mother's my sister!
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Get in the back

AHHHH
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Lonestar2000 posted...

I only had trouble with the last mission. I must have tried like 20 times to beat it before I gave up and used cheats.

I didn't struggle with that, probably becuse I had collected 100 packages and could make a quick detour to the Shoreside Vale safehouse to rearm myself and then make short work of the guards on the dam with a sniper rifle. The missions I struggled with the most were the three off-road side missions.
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I liked how the final mission gave you a limited amount of supplies (provided you didn't run to the warehouse) to get past a challenging gauntlet.
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Imagine needing cheats to beat a GTA game lol
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YourDrunkFather posted...

Imagine needing cheats to beat a GTA game lol

To be fair, the last mission in GTA III was pretty insane from what I remember. It has been so long, though.
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Thompson posted...

Lonestar2000 posted...

I only had trouble with the last mission. I must have tried like 20 times to beat it before I gave up and used cheats.

I didn't struggle with that, probably becuse I had collected 100 packages and could make a quick detour to the Shoreside Vale safehouse to rearm myself and then make short work of the guards on the dam with a sniper rifle. The missions I struggled with the most were the three off-road side missions.

Fricking kudos for you if you were able to get all hidden packages in GTA 3, when the game didn't even have a map at the start menu and some packages were at the rooftops of buildings.

Amenadeel posted...

Thompson posted...

Lonestar2000 posted...

I only had trouble with the last mission. I must have tried like 20 times to beat it before I gave up and used cheats.

I didn't struggle with that, probably becuse I had collected 100 packages and could make a quick detour to the Shoreside Vale safehouse to rearm myself and then make short work of the guards on the dam with a sniper rifle. The missions I struggled with the most were the three off-road side missions.

Fricking kudos for you if you were able to get all hidden packages in GTA 3, when the game didn't even have a map at the start menu and some packages were at the rooftops of buildings.

To be honest, I printed out a map so that I'd have an easier time locating those buggers. You'd have to be insane to scour the city fom top to bottom like some kind of an obsessive cartographer.
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That is still an accomplishment, even if you had a screenshot of each package, in perseverance if nothing else. I didn't bother with the collectibles until San Andreas where swimming and climbing walls were a big help. In 3 you couldn't even get past a slightly elevated platform without taking a running leap lol.

Tanoomba posted...

My mother's my sister!

yep, i been drinking again.

usually made funnier because they'd fall over sometimes.
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That son of a bitch Salvatore. That son of a bitch.

I remember the first time I got all 100 packages. The last one was out in the open under a plane. I was so hyped.
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And then bam, you died because a plane crashes right into you ;)

nice swimming skills you got there.
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GTA3 has difficulty spikes but it really isn't that bad without cheats. Especially for the time it released.

Hell the hardest missions are driving ones. Fuck that mission where you have to blow up the food stands :)
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I think the big planes in 3 just go through you.
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I have San Andreas on my Android phone and I modified it so that the maximum skilled M4 acts like the one shot one kill 3000 round per min M16 from gta 3 lol.
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GTA 3 was revolutionary. It was basically the gold standard when it came out. It paved the way for so many other games.

I'll never forget the loading theme song, either. Classy and elegant as ****

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzH7h465MMM
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Darmik posted...

GTA3 has difficulty spikes but it really isn't that bad without cheats. Especially for the time it released.

Hell the hardest missions are driving ones. Fuck that mission where you have to blow up the food stands :)

Scouting the locations of the stands makes it much easier to plan an eficient route. Also, due to the infernal shotgun-toting mafia in Portland, the bullet proof Patriot is invaluable.
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Amenadeel posted...

My God you guys... This game is a real blast from the past. There's no map! There's no map on the start menu! GTA 3 only had that small mini-map blip at the bottom. I don't need a GPS system like in GTA 4, but it's amazing how we were able to explore the cities of GTA 3 with only that small radar at the bottom.

The nostalgia is rushing through my veins as I remember how we used to use landmarks in-game to be able to determine our location and where to go. I did look online for at least a location to body armor in Portland, since you can't even buy it yet. The docks, Chinatown, Salvatore's mansion... all these places that we used to know like the back of our hand. The memories.

I bought it on steam last year and started a play through. 15 years later I knew Portland like the back of my hand, same with staunton. I found a subsequent play through vice city wasn't as easy, and I can barely grasp the whole San Andreas map. All three brought back some pretty powerful nostalgia though.
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I platted it back in December of 2015. It was great to revisit.

You're gonna have a hell of a time with a certain offroad challenge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzXTozdHHP0

Emphasis on the entire hell part.
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I remember how it was easier to fly with a Tank than the Dodo (with cheats)
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I vividly remember getting in cars, putting the camera to where it directly faces the player, and just driving until my car exploded - jumping out and seeing how much damage the car dealt. Rinse and repeat for like a year.
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