[Dakar the Fourth]

Both performances fall flat. Performing to no-one does not suit these two. It threw off their timing and their delivery.

[::maroma::]

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

Both performances fall flat. Performing to no-one does not suit these two. It threw off their timing and their delivery.

Yeah the laugh tracks were off quite a bit. I found myself laughing at some of Kat's stuff, but Ricky's stuff was just boring. But yeah, I blame it on the lack of a live audience as well.

[jokell82]

I laughed quite a few times with both of the comics. "He already used up his 45 kilograms with his tits!"

[Dakar the Fourth]

I thought the content was fine on both. I imagine I'd be loling if I saw them on TV or live.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Social Club seems to be up to speed all of a sudden. I beat the game last night and it already lists that on the site. So if everyone wants to starts posting their marathon stats in another pointless dick measuring contest, get to it.

[jokell82]

Here's me so far:



Haven't really been trying for any of these, but I thought my swimming would be higher...

[Dakar the Fourth]

The only one I've made more of an effort on is jacking cars. I'm more likely to drop a car for a new one lately, but even that couldn't add more than 1 or 2%.

[sek929]

Nothing impressive.

[Dakar the Fourth]

[::maroma::]

Where do I find these stats? I can't seem to find any sort of link on the Social Club page.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Social Club < GTA IV < Liberty City Marathon (The Gold Medallion)

[jokell82]

Dakar, what is your percent completed at right now? I feel like my stats are pretty low for having 60% done.

[Dakar the Fourth]

91.67%. (I checked before I went to bed last night)

43 Stunt Jumps completed
61 Flying rats killed (Both still with no help)
All side missions completed, all random characters met.

Don't forget I have a penchant for f'ing around and driving.

[::maroma::]

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

Social Club < GTA IV < Liberty City Marathon (The Gold Medallion)

Of course the only one I didn't click on, I thought it was for multi-player.

Here's my stats according to Social Club:


It seems to say my total progress is at 24%. Thats not even close.

[Dakar the Fourth]

You fire a lot of bullets, son.
Also, damn you for stealing more cars than me.

What's your game hours, maroma?

[::maroma::]

ummm.. I'll have to check that tonight to be certain, but the Social Club "Story Gang" page says I completed the game in 03:12:41:19.

I also take a lot of public transports, apparently. Its all cabs though. I think I've taken the train twice.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Okay, sounds like you have about 5 hours more than me in.

I actually took the train for a long ride once or twice. There's really no encouragement to ride one. Not sure if it'd be possible to come up with one.

[::maroma::]

Yeah I finished the game on Saturday, so I've logged a few more hours since then.

Riding the train is nice if you want to put down the controller for a while and check out the city (and go somewhere at the same time).

I actually found myself sitting and watching the screen while I went on the heli-tours. I was way more interested in that stuff than Niko was.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Why wouldn't you watch Heli-tours?

I love at the end of one of them the guy says, "This beats dropping napalm on villages in 'nam."

[sek929]

Do you have to sit through the Heli-tours in order to get the achievement? Or can you skip?

[Dakar the Fourth]

If you can skip, that is lame as hell. They couldn't possibly be longer than 3 or 4 minutes each. As far as I'm concerned an aerial view of the city with some narration is more interesting than half the cut scenes.

[::maroma::]

I was thinking that you'd skip them if you just wanted to get the achievement, but like sek said I'm not sure if thats allowed for the achievement.

Speaking of achievements, I was trying to get the Chain Reaction achievement this weekend. I just can't seem to get 10 cars to explode in 10 seconds. My technique was to get to a busy intersection, cause a big traffic jam in the middle, get about 10 cars in the same area, and get to a safe spot and unload 8 rockets into the pile. I've tried it 3 times and I just can't seem to get the achievement. It sure seems like I blow up 10 cars in 10 seconds, but I could be missing it by a second or so.

[Dakar the Fourth]

I found that one difficult too. There were times i don't understand how I missed. I'd drop 3 grenades running down a double row of cars. I wish it gave a multiplier at the top to tell you how close you were.

Finally I set up a different scenario and somehow got the achievement with one RPG hit.

Speaking of achievements, I suppose I need to do the rolled over 5 times one. Not looking forward to it, given how much trouble I had the first two times I tried.

[::maroma::]

Well damn, I'll just have to keep blowin stuff up I guess. The 'Rolled Over' one I'll be trying for next as well. I also need to get Packie above 90% liking so I can get the 'Liberty City (5)' achievement.

I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get all of the single player achievements done, but I doubt I'll be getting most of the multi-player ones completed. Some of those sound like they'll require way too much time and effort (and skill).

[Dakar the Fourth]

Interestingly, Roman was in the 70s when I got the LC 5 achievement.

[::maroma::]

Cheater!

[klb5090]

No real changes since last time i posted, also still unable to access 100% club (WTF!?!)

[jokell82]

Originally Posted by ::maroma:: 

I was thinking that you'd skip them if you just wanted to get the achievement, but like sek said I'm not sure if thats allowed for the achievement.

Speaking of achievements, I was trying to get the Chain Reaction achievement this weekend. I just can't seem to get 10 cars to explode in 10 seconds. My technique was to get to a busy intersection, cause a big traffic jam in the middle, get about 10 cars in the same area, and get to a safe spot and unload 8 rockets into the pile. I've tried it 3 times and I just can't seem to get the achievement. It sure seems like I blow up 10 cars in 10 seconds, but I could be missing it by a second or so.

There are two very easy ways to get that achievement. The first is to jack a bus and jack-knife it on a bridge. Let the traffic build up and unleash the mayhem.

The way I got it was to go to the motorcycle dealership in northern Jersey (whatever it's called in the game). Jack a car and use the car to push all of the motorcycles to the back wall. Jack one more car and put it back there with them. One grenade was all it took for me.

[jokell82]

You may also be able to get the achievement doing something like this:
GTAIV SUPER STUNTS video

That last one on the bike is insane!

[Peter]

I can't fathom how he gets up there with a bike.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by klb5090 

No real changes since last time i posted, also still unable to access 100% club (WTF!?!)

Rut-row

[jokell82]

Originally Posted by Peter 

I can't fathom how he gets up there with a bike.

625-555-0100

[Chongo]

Originally Posted by Peter 

I can't fathom how he gets up there with a bike.

takes the stairs?
I drove a hell fury up the stairs to the train station, then drove down the tracks in to the tunnels in my sandbox game. I could have stayed down there all night driving around with the ghetto birds chasing me.

[Dakar the Fourth]

So the Social Club has been updated again, now to include the long missing multiplayer facet. Verdict: Utterly lame. Instead of being interesting, all it is is net access to the leaderboards available from the stats menu in game. Worse yet, there's no way to view just friends, make even less interesting. Viewing just my single player stats online would have been more interesting, doubly so if it let you compare with friends (and even globally, just for the wow factor of the dudes with no lives).

The marathon has seen a brief update ("No winners yet"???)

--

I'll share some stories from last night later.

[::maroma::]

Originally Posted by jokell82 

The way I got it was to go to the motorcycle dealership in northern Jersey (whatever it's called in the game). Jack a car and use the car to push all of the motorcycles to the back wall. Jack one more car and put it back there with them. One grenade was all it took for me.

Thanks for the tip, I used this last night to get the achievement. Its funny how you can plow a truck right into the motorcycle shop right in front of 2 cops and no one flinches. But as soon as you try to take a bike, they get angry. But I used a truck to push them all against the wall and tossed a 'nade. BLAM!

[Dakar the Fourth]

Yeah, I love blowing into the shop through the front doors in my Turismo, locating an RR, then jacking it and blowing back out flinging the front doors open as some fat cop scrambles for his gun.

If I'm in a particularly showy mood, I may add a wheelie.

Edit: Since we're on about chain reactions, I had a nice little sequence last night where I was crowd surfing with the Tursimo when it finally gave out right by the Majestic. As calmly as I could manage with the engine flaming, I backed myself near traffic and got the hell out. It blew, and over the course of the next two minutes, a slow chain reaction caused 12 other cars to detonate. This was hard to watch as I kept having to drive around carnage as I was being chased by cops. Then again, they probably contributed an additional 2-4 cars to the reaction.

Anyway, I was reading some stuff when I was reminded that I have yet to use Packie's special ability. So tonight I may jack a bus, rig it to blow, and plant it right at the intersection of times square around 5 pm, and see if I can get like 30 million cars to blow. I may keep a get away vehicle at the ready.

[::maroma::]

So is there a good place to use Packie's ability that isn't purely for fun? I didn't see any opportunities in the story or any missions to effectively use that. I haven't used it yet either.

Are there any gas tanker trucks that drive around the city? I'd love to tack a bomb on to one of those and set it to blow in the park when its particularly busy.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Yeah, I promised myself to keep an eye out for a key mission to use Packie's ability, but I forgot. Nothing comes up in retrospect, though.

My friend is unsure if detonating the bomb accrues stars, as it didn't in the mission, and it's not like the act is conspicuous.

[jokell82]

Originally Posted by ::maroma:: 

So is there a good place to use Packie's ability that isn't purely for fun? I didn't see any opportunities in the story or any missions to effectively use that. I haven't used it yet either.

Are there any gas tanker trucks that drive around the city? I'd love to tack a bomb on to one of those and set it to blow in the park when its particularly busy.

There is one mission where you have access to the enemies' cars before it really starts, and you can rig one of them up to blow. I'd have to look up which mission it is, though (maybe the museum mission).

[Dakar the Fourth]

I wonder if you could have used it for the Pest Control mission.

[::maroma::]

Why do I not remember the famed museum mission? Is it something for Dwayne? Maybe I was just in a daze from playing too much (a state I've often been in while playing this game for hours on end).

[Dakar the Fourth]

You're weird. That's the only mission I really remember Rockstar referring to in interviews. It was also worth an Achievement, apparently.

[jokell82]

Originally Posted by ::maroma:: 

Why do I not remember the famed museum mission? Is it something for Dwayne? Maybe I was just in a daze from playing too much (a state I've often been in while playing this game for hours on end).

No, it was for one of the Italian mobsters. You go to fence some diamonds in a museum and you get ambushed. Was supposed to be very hard but I breezed through it.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Yeah, using Packie's bomb doesn't not earn you any stars, which may be the most evil thing rockstar has added to the game.

My first try was pathetic. Larger vehicles don't equal larger explosions, sadly. So the bus I blew sucked. However, near the end of the night, I had a record-setting 17 car chain reaction. Great fun. (Somehow one person that seemed to be in the middle survived).

The explosions also give me new found love for the damage modeling. Check out a car that's been a near a blast and survived. The part of the frame that was in the blast zone will crumple inward, leaving shapes that imply a spherical blast. very cool.

---

Forgot to regale you people with my sadistic run with the Flatbed. Every now and again I enjoy driving down the sidewalks in my Turismo, causing people to cartwheel and collapse in my wake. I'm sure the fatality rate tends to pretty low (unless I hit a nice clean stretch), but more often that not the car will begin to destabilize and I'll have to slow down.

Enter: The Flatbed. Incredibly heavy, and it's hood could be likened to a wall. The thing should be called the Human Plow. People don't cartwheel off the Flatbed. They just turn into clouds of red dust. The thing's fatality rate has to be way higher, and it's far less likely to get destabilized as it steamrolls through the throngs on the sidewalks. And it's durability is unrivaled. I spent half an hour tooling around the other night before I decided to save it at a safehouse. (Also fun: Plow into a cyclist at speed)

I also jacked a Firetruck last night, which seems to have way, way more acceleration than a vehicle it's size should. It's also a pretty deadly ride, but alas, it's durability is not any more noteworthy than your average car.

---

Have I mentioned how hard the vigilante missions can get? I keep seeking out gang activity, but now what I'm finding is 5-7 peeps. Doesn't sound too bad, until you realize 1 or 2 will have no weapon and charge you as others shoot at you. And then there's the grenade guy, who you won't know is there until after the first explosion. Also, don't do these in Algonquin, as the cops show up pretty quick, as opposed to Alderney, where they don't seem to care as much.

---

Small surprise: I jacked a car last night in an attempt to escape the cops. I unwittingly got a passenger (nothing new). When I finally lost the cops, I came to a stop and suddenly flew out of the car. I expected the dude to drive away, but instead he got out and started kicking my ass. I defend myself, and of course, the cops show up and want to take me down because I'm beating his ass...

---

Oh, and I suck and can't get the rolled over achievement. I'll try again tonight, but I hate going to the airport and getting 4 stars.
And I got arrested for the first time last night.

[::maroma::]

Oh, is the museum mission the one where that dude drops the diamonds in a passing garbage truck? I remember that one now. I noticed on a radio news broadcast later on after that mission that said something about a homeless dude finding a bag of diamonds in the dump and becoming uber rich.

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

The explosions also give me new found love for the damage modeling. Check out a car that's been a near a blast and survived. The part of the frame that was in the blast zone will crumple inward, leaving shapes that imply a spherical blast. very cool.

Speaking of really good damage, I slammed into a taxi before I decided to jack it. After I started to drive it I noticed that I had dented the wheel well so badly that it was actually rubbing against the front tire, causing me to have a hell of a time steering and the wheel was in a constant skid. Very cool that it gets that detailed.

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

Have I mentioned how hard the vigilante missions can get? I keep seeking out gang activity, but now what I'm finding is 5-7 peeps. Doesn't sound too bad, until you realize 1 or 2 will have no weapon and charge you as others shoot at you. And then there's the grenade guy, who you won't know is there until after the first explosion. Also, don't do these in Algonquin, as the cops show up pretty quick, as opposed to Alderney, where they don't seem to care as much.

I died a lot on some of those missions. Sometimes you'll get guys in 2 separate cars that you have to chase down. Problem is, if you manage to stop one of them and take the time to get out of your car to kill them, the other car gets away. I'm glad I got through all those already.

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

Small surprise: I jacked a car last night in an attempt to escape the cops. I unwittingly got a passenger (nothing new). When I finally lost the cops, I came to a stop and suddenly flew out of the car. I expected the dude to drive away, but instead he got out and started kicking my ass. I defend myself, and of course, the cops show up and want to take me down because I'm beating his ass...

Haha! Sometimes I get some people who get really pissed and chase me down pretty far. I also noticed that the cops will jack people's cars if the cops lose their vehicle somehow. I was getting chased once and noticed this brown sedan slamming into me and chasing me down. I look inside and see a cop driving. Too funny.

----

I managed to get Walk Free and One Man Army achievements last night by taking over Happiness Island. I went there to take out the 5 pigeons that are on that island, but decided to stay there and wreak havoc. After racking up 4 stars I decided to try to get 6 stars. It took FORVEVER to get 6, even killing everyone I saw and taking down 4 choppers. But its too easy, since nothing but choppers can get to that island. And they only send 1 at a time. Finally got 6 stars and decided to get in a boat. Bad idea. As soon as I jump in the water, 5 police boats show up and 2 choppers fly overhead. I manage to get in the boat and speed away. I spend the next 10 minutes circling the entire city (all 3 islands) and finally lose the cops.

I wish I had a full stock of rockets for my rocket launcher on the island. Would've made it much quicker to get 6 stars since I was basically shooting down the coppers with my carbine and sniper rifles.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by ::maroma:: 

Oh, is the museum mission the one where that dude drops the diamonds in a passing garbage truck? I remember that one now. I noticed on a radio news broadcast later on after that mission that said something about a homeless dude finding a bag of diamonds in the dump and becoming uber rich.

I turned off the radio volume a while ago when I got sick of turning it off manually. Maybe I'll turn it back on and see what they say about me now.

Originally Posted by ::maroma:: 

Speaking of really good damage, I slammed into a taxi before I decided to jack it. After I started to drive it I noticed that I had dented the wheel well so badly that it was actually rubbing against the front tire, causing me to have a hell of a time steering and the wheel was in a constant skid. Very cool that it gets that detailed.

I remember an instance where I jammed the right front tire so it wouldn't spin, so it just drug across the ground while my right rear had popped. That's right, the entire right side of my car was worthless.

Originally Posted by ::maroma:: 

I died a lot on some of those missions. Sometimes you'll get guys in 2 separate cars that you have to chase down. Problem is, if you manage to stop one of them and take the time to get out of your car to kill them, the other car gets away. I'm glad I got through all those already.

Well, I'm not talking most wanted here. I'm talking the nobodies. "Gang activity" is just a bunch of dudes in a back alley armed to the teeth.

[::maroma::]

Ah I see. Those are a bitch too. Have you tried calling for police backup before you engage the gangs?

[Dakar the Fourth]

Not worth the trouble, the cops are too slow and inaccurate, and I can't fight back without getting in trouble.

It's missing the point, anyway, I only do these for the fun of being in a shoot-out.

[::maroma::]

Have you completed the achievements for those? I haven't done any of those since I finished the achievements. But I do enjoy the ones where the perp is on foot, and all you need to do is run him down. Easy money.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Yeah, a while ago. I'm somewhere in the 30s for vigilante missions completed.