Video Games Thread

[jman]

Completed the bridges last night.. there are two really tricky ones that are low down and really require a plane.. using the quick save was a god-send.. although the long loading times were irritating.. so started on the Knife Flights afterwards.. (which annoyingly don't appear on the in-game map).. done 5 of them and then came up against a real tough one.. so had to call it a day on that.. will go back tonight and use Trevor's drug trafficking plane as its slower than the others... thankfully there are only 15 of these.

Did try online, was quite quirky choosing your mums parents and dads parents to create yourself I thought.. I managed to get to the first race.. then it just sat there "Launching Session" for ages.. so couldn't progress on that.. hopefully they will have that sorted in a few days..

No progress on Kifflom.. to be honest, I couldn't be arsed looking or using Michael, would help if I knew where the LifeInvader offices were.. lol.. will make some progress on that tonight if I finish off the knife flights.. the stunt jumps are the ones I'm least looking forward to completing.

[Late]

I had the same with Online. Got as far as the first race, then was waiting for about 15-20 minutes before I aborted. Annoyingly you have to reboot or go to dash at that point - there's no "cancel" button.
The servers were clearly screwed before I got to the race, though. No textures and terrible pop-up in the lead-up video introduction.

I did get a pop-up message a few hours later telling me that Kenny had broken the world record for the introductory race, so we have a target now when we do eventually manage to get a race


The Life Invader offices are about a block south and two or three blocks west of Michael's house if memory serves.

Found the adrenaline junkies map - ta. Like you say, hard to pinpoint everything on that, and it doesn't show which ones you've done - so I went to the nearest one to my current location. Turns out it was the lighthouse one you mentioned earlier. Give it about 5 or 6 tries then gave up!

[Late]

Apparently Valve registered Half Life 3 as a trademark a few days ago.
That's unconfirmed, and there don't appear to have been any announcements - and of course filing a trademark might just be to protect it for future use.




techradar

[jman]

Found the adrenaline junkies map - ta. Like you say, hard to pinpoint everything on that, and it doesn't show which ones you've done - so I went to the nearest one to my current location. Turns out it was the lighthouse one you mentioned earlier. Give it about 5 or 6 tries then gave up!

lol.. its a bugger isn't it.. and totally put me off trying any others.  You can do it in a taxi apparently, hit the jump right in the middle.. its all about the speed and being able to keep your car straight - definitely auto-save before you try it though.

Best tip for the bridges (if your using that map).. do all the ones that are fairly scattered first, most of these are in the top area.. but some in the south (mainly on the roads) are also far enough off the main area so you remember you've done them...you'll be left with about 15-20 on the 2 main canals and surrounding areas that lead to the docks then.  Then concentrate on getting all the ones on one of the canals.. then do the other canal.. you'll be left with about 6 left to do round the dock area.  You can do all of them in helicopter or plane.. I did most with the Mallard plane and there are 2 in the main area that are much easier with a plane (because you have to get really low to the water).

Also auto-save when your approaching a bridge you need to do.. if your about to crash, quickly press start and re-load.. otherwise you have to wait for the wasted + hospital scene to progress before you can do that..  if you don't auto-save, taking a cab back to the airport and flying all the way back to the bridge to fail again gets old.. really fast.

The knife flights are much more difficult.. some are fairly easy, but the trickier ones are annoyingly hard.. I swear I did the one I'm stuck on perfectly and it didn't pop, so annoying.

[Late]

One of the kids has been great helping me with the collectibles. I give her a printed map and she directs me to putting a marker on the in-game map and ticks them off when they're done. Was very helpful on the ufo and letter parts. So I've today printed locations of bridges and jumps. Will hopefully be able to get through some of those tonight.

I've been totally misreading the knife flights all this time. I thought you got knife fights after doing all the "under the bridge" stuff. Which didn't make much sense, but that's how it goes sometimes. 

Not sure if you know, but you get a tough choice at the end of the Epsilon quest line, btw. Minor spoiler:
At the end you can kill everyone for a cool $2.1mil. Or you can walk away - which apparently unlocks a new set of collectibles. You get the achievement either way, and the collectibles are worth nothing. Tough call! I decided I'm not too bothered about 2 mil at this point of the game, so I let them keep it. If I were near the start of the story (you can do the Epsilon story very early in the game) I might've gone for the cash instead though.

[jman]

Yeah I thought you had to do the under the bridge stuff first too.. but looks like you don't...

Which maps are you using.. I was going to do the same myself with the stunt jumps and knife flights.. but got sidetracked with the logo creator in my lunch break.. lol.. I put a shoddy logo together just playing around with it but for some reason its not letting me upload it... I cba spending hours with it, I know you like to do logos and stuff in COD.. feel free to upload one to the crew if you can.

[Late]

I think you have to do at least some of the under the bridge, possibly all. My confusion was between fight and flight. I thought you unlocked some bruisers with flick-knives after you flew under a certain number of bridges.


The two maps I printed today, for jumps, and for bridges came from here.
The maps are massive images (8192x8192 pixels) so if you're to follow suit and print them make sure you set your printer to shrink them to 1 or 2 pages. On the down side, it can be a bit tricky to see them when you shrink everthing all down, and those that are close together can overlap each other.

[jman]

Finally got 100% completion on GTA5.. did 25 of the stunt jumps last night, finished off the knife flights (the one I was stuck on (10).. apparently I had already done.. I must of spent an hour trying to get that to pop.. when I'd already done it  ),  also finshed off Kifflom - which was just a very annoying mission.. I ended up with a tractor.. so obviously didn't do something right on that last mission. 

Just 25 stunt jumps to complete to get that achievement (I did the lighthouse one first time of asking last night).. but still some of them are quite tough if your not using a walkthrough.. think they would be easier with a motorbike.  And then just 70 missions to get gold on and the single player is done.. although I think I'll venture online once the stunt jumps are finished.. probably wont be till next week now.

I've had some really embarrassing fails recently though lol... when hunting the spaceship parts.. I killed myself twice accidently.. the first time, I landed my heli on a wonky surface, ran round the back of it and killed myself by running into the back rotor lol.. so slightly wary this could happen, I stopped running round the back and always ran round the front, except again I parked the heli on a wonky surface and it tipped forward as I was running round the front and the top blades killed me this time.. I stopped parking on wonky surfaces after this lol.

But last night took the biscuit.. paid 650k for a cheetah to use for stunt jumps.. bright pink.. had it for about 30 seconds before I smashed it into a car.. however that smash catapulted my car towards the train tracks and yes.. just at that very moment a train hit the side of my car.. smashing it along the tracks and eventually flipping it into the air.. it didn't explode.. surprisingly enough, but it was totally fucked afterwards lol

[Late]

I'm sick of paying for cars and souping them up only for them to disappear. Own fault for not storing them, I guess, but what's the point of a flash car in GTA if not to drive it. And if I drive it I inevitably either trash it or park it at the start of a mini-mission/race or something, only for it to be gone when I get back.
Doesn't happen with planes, boats, helicopters, etc. Buy those, crash them, go back to your hangar/dock/helipad and they're parked up good as new. Should be the same with cars!   (Unless they actually are stored somewhere, and I've just not sussed something. Maybe I've got dozens of cars in a big warehouse somewhere.)

I had a go at "under the bridge" last night. Annoyingly I've got about 45 of them, and there were three that I marked as "too hard - come back later". (2 of those were near the damn, and my helicopter just couldn't get through the gap. I think I might need to knife a plane through them.)
Fuck knows where the other two are. If I want to get all 50 I think I'll need to start the map again, and do all fifty bridges again, and I don't think I can't be arsed with that. Problem is, if you fly under a bridge and nothing pops up you have no idea if it's because you lightly brushed a rotor or wing against a surface or if it's because you've already done that bridge. Frustrating.

You finished the Scientology mission the same way as me, Kieron. At the end you could have killed everyone and grabbed the two mil, but it doesn't really tell you that - just sorta hints at it. Because you delivered the cash like a good boy you'll have received a text saying thanks. That text also says something about praising their god "where the earth touches the 9th paradigm" or something like that. It's a cryptic clue saying to go to the top of Mount Chilead - for the first of ten collectibles. I think they call them the "Epsilon Tracts". I got that one, at which point I got a new clue by text message. They're way too cryptic for me to bother with now, so I'll either leave them or look at a guide. Probably leave them since they give you no reward, and following a guide to get an achievement is annoying enough on the collectibles that actually have a reward at the end.

[jman]

Have you done the two bridges that are really low by the docks..(29) and (30) on the map.. they are green and white bridges.. they are by far the lowest bridges on the map.. at first I ignored them thinking that you couldn't possibly fit a plane/chopper under them.. but you can.. the 4 to the right of them are all tightly packed aswell, could of missed a few of them.. if you were crossing them off as you went along, you've probably miscounted in the south area somewhere where there are lots together.. be a bugger to start all that again...perhaps watch the walkthrough video, might jog your memory if you've missed them off completely.

Problem is, if you fly under a bridge and nothing pops up you have no idea if it's because you lightly brushed a rotor or wing against a surface or if it's because you've already done that bridge. Frustrating.

Yep, which is why I wasted loads of time on a knife flight I'd already done lol.. being extra vigilant with the stunt jumps.. although they are a bit different, because I don't think it goes into slow-mo if you've already done the jump.


Talking about respawning vehicles though.. I was in the sub with Michael and swapped character as I beached the sub.. when I went back to Michael he was coming out of a pub or something.. and parked on the kerb was the submarine lol.. it is quite stupid that you pay for your cars and you can't get them back if they disappear.. that 650k was pretty much wasted as I cant get the cheetah back now... I've learnt that if you leave a vehicle and wander off... your vehicle will still be there if you go back.. unless you've got in another vehicle in the meantime and your previous vehicle is out of sight.. then it disappears. Also if you autosave in a damaged vehicle and reload your game.. your vehicle gets repaired for free.

[Late]

Have you done the two bridges that are really low by the docks..(29) and (30) on the map.. they are green and white bridges.. they are by far the lowest bridges on the map.. at first I ignored them thinking that you couldn't possibly fit a plane/chopper under them..

Yeah, I did one of those two, and marked the other to come back to later. Just couldn't get my helicopter under it, so figured a stunt plane or crop duster would be a better option.
The other two, by the dam (marked 12 & 13) I swear I couldn't get the heli through, but I see he did in the vid - I guess my chopper is too big. (Fnarr.)
I'd done about 8 bridges before I started on these 50, so each time I went under a bridge without the message flashing up, and I was certain I did it cleanly, I assumed it was one of the 8 I'd already cleared. I guess I made that assumption ten times.

it is quite stupid that you pay for your cars and you can't get them back if they disappear.. that 650k was pretty much wasted as I cant get the cheetah back now... I've learnt that if you leave a vehicle and wander off... your vehicle will still be there if you go back.. unless you've got in another vehicle in the meantime and your previous vehicle is out of sight.. then it disappears. Also if you autosave in a damaged vehicle and reload your game.. your vehicle gets repaired for free.

I know there's an impound garage in the city, and I've recovered a few vehicles there, but they're always something shite I don't remember ever owning.

being extra vigilant with the stunt jumps.. although they are a bit different, because I don't think it goes into slow-mo if you've already done the jump.

I think it does, but I could be wrong. There's one near Michael's house that I've used as a shortcut a fair few times, always forgetting it takes longer because it goes into slow-mo, and it always slows down. I'm pretty sure I completed it the first time I did it - but like I say, I might be wrong. Might be worth you revisiting one you know you've done, to test the theory.

I know there's a very annoying one near the airport that I did a week or so back, that has you hanging in the air for what seems like over a bloody minute each attempt. (One of the curved advert things, requires you to land on the roof of a parking lot).

and parked on the kerb was the submarine lol

Lol. Haven't seen the sub on land, but I did come across a shark lying in the middle of the road up in the Vinewood Hills, at one point.
Frustratingly it was night, and I was in the middle of a side-mission at the time (getting some bird away from paparazzi) so I couldn't stop and get the pictures I wanted, but I did manage to rush one (bad) photo of it.

[jman]

lol at the shark.. weird.

You can control the slow-mo on the stunt jumps with your right thumbstick btw.. pushing up on it makes it go normal speed.  If it does go slow mo on every jump regardless of if you have completed it already.. at least you get a message saying pass or fail!

[Late]

D'oh! Wish I'd known about that before. That airport one was so bad I actually went out for a ciggie whilst waiting for it to land, a couple of times.

Just got my weekly summary from Raptr, showing how much xbox gaming I've done this week, and it's quite embarassing.
It's actually a 5 day report, not a weekly report, as I didn't turn the console on on Thurs or Fri last week due to a migraine.

9/26 to 10/3 - 69h 35m (all playing GTA V)

That's an average of 14 hours a day for five days. Three of those days I was at work (10 hours including commuting).

[Late]

Got GTA Online to work, after a fashion...


As soon as I try to play it puts me in the first race and says waiting for other players. Waited about 20 mins then rebooted. Did that several times, each time waiting 20 mins. On the 4th attempt I nodded off after about 15 minutes. Woke up 2 hours later to find I'd been booted out of the race for being idle, and the map and all missions are now available to me.

So if you're unable to get that first race started but are keen to get into GTAO my advice is put the game on and walk away from the console for a few hours!

I was knackered when I woke up, so did one little fetch mission whilst half-awake then turned it off. Will give it a proper look tonight.

Finished the "under the bridge" collectibles last night. I had one more than I thought, so once I got the 3 I'd found too difficult at first I ended up on 49. Got the map and re-did them all until I got the one I'd missed. Started on the stunt jumps but only did about 3 of them before I got bored.

[Late]

Xbox Live:
All silver users are upgraded to Gold for free, for this weekend only. (4/10-6/10.)
So if you don't currently have a gold sub and have been wanting to check out online play on COD, FIFA, GTA, Battlefield 4 Beta, or whatever, (or maybe grab some multiplayer achievements if you're that way inclined) this weekend is your ideal opportunity.

xbox.com