GTA San Andreas

I finally finished GTA San Andreas after starting it two years ago. I played it a lot initially, ran into some rough spots, picked it up about a year ago and quit again when I couldn't beat that mission where the Dodo has to intercept a business jet. A few months ago I bought a Logitech game pad but couldn't find the game dvd until a last weekend. Then I still couldn't beat the mission, had to up the Dodo thrust level in the config file. There are a lot of forum posts where people ask for help on that level and get a dozen useless 'I didn't think it was that hard' answers with no advice at all.

The rest of the game wasn't that hard and further lightweight cheating of that type wasn't necessary. The gamepad targeting button made gunfights a lot easier (not that they were that hard with a mouse), and helicopter controls much easier.

The riot missions are interesting, though all the fires really slowed down my Nvidia 6150 card. Also, the cops do get attacked a lot by random people on the street but you think they wouldn't up your star level the same as in the rest of the game- there have got to be more important things to worry about than stolen cars when the city is burning down.

I'll probably keep playing to take over all the gang territories, though those little tiny ones are hard because the enemy gangs usually aren't around in sufficient numbers to provoke a fight. I'll also buy up all the properties. There may be some side missions left unfinished, but I won't get hung up finishing the racing games or earning gold medals in the training missions.

If there's another price drop I'll pick up a PS2 over the holidays and get Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories.