I wasn’t sure if I wanted to take a break with a different game or not (besides Disgaea 3 that is), but tonight I decided to just charge ahead and started up Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Already I can see the differences, besides the setting of course: there’s a full overview map with things like the gun store and pay-n-spray labeled, there are all sorts of new types of cars and bikes, the protagonist talks this time, and there are buildings that I can buy (eventually).

The plot kicked off with a botched drug deal, so I now have to recover my reputation and get the stolen drugs and money back. For now though, I figured I’d do some of the side stuff first. The ambulance mission is allegedly a lot easier this time around since it doesn’t roll as easily and you can get people clustered on the beach where they’re easier to reach. After a good half-dozen attempts, I gave up for the night though, hitting level 5 (of 12) at best. I still roll the ambulance too often, especially on the beach where the bumps in the terrain aren’t as obvious. I’ll try again some other time, taking things a bit more slowly.

And I still haven’t even picked up a weapon yet…

I finished off that GTA3 mission I was stuck on, and it was easier with the tank, but it still took a number of tries as I kept getting hit with bad luck. The first time I almost made it all the way back to the drop-off point, except I slowed down for one tight corner and a police officer out of nowhere ran up and busted me. The second time, I hit a bump on the airport tarmac that was difficult to see in the dark and flipped the tank over. I got it on the third try though, after taking it a bit more carefully.

Then it was on to the final mission. I “failed” the first attempt, since my bulletproof Patriot got blown up and I wanted to keep it, so I restarted it and beat it on the second try. It was just a slog through a whole bunch of Colombians guarding the dam area, and the sniper rifle and rocket launcher let me pick them off without too much danger.

So that’s one GTA down, and just three more to go. Technically there’s still more to do in GTA3, but as I said I’m not going for 100% completion, and there are others to play. I might even have to skip one just to fit them all in, though I’m not sure which one I’d cut yet…

It was back to missions in GTA3 today, and I started working on the ones based on the third island (though most of them actually start on the second). I finished off Donald Love’s missions, after which he mysteriously disappeared, and went back to Asuka’s again. Hers should be the last bits of the storyline, though I still have some optional gang jobs to complete, if I want.

I found the import garage on the third island, and managed to round up all of the cars for it fairly quickly since most of them were fairly common ones. I also happened to run across the rare ice cream truck I needed for the first import mission, and hurried it and the plane back to Portland to finish that one off as well. It was a bit odd “driving” the plane through the city streets…

And for now I’m a bit stuck on the second-last storyline mission, where I have to blow up a plane as it’s landing at the airport. I know what to do and can set it up with no problems, but I always seem to hit a bit of bad luck with something, either missing the plane, getting blown up on the boat, inadvertently raising the wanted level a bit too far and getting run over by the army, falling into the water as I’m trying to get out of the boat, failing to find a good car to hijack to return to the end point… It’s just a matter of trying, but I ran out of time tonight. Maybe I’ll try it with the tank instead, if I can get it over there quickly enough.

I didn’t do many more missions in GTA3 today, but it was a worthwhile session nonetheless. I got the rest of the hidden packages, giving me nearly all of the weapons at my hideout (except the flamethrower). I helped the crooked cop escape to the airport, which got me a bulletproof Hummer-like truck as a reward. And I found a ‘toy van’ mission, where you send out little RC cars to blow up gang cars, though it was more just for fun than any actual reward.

But best of all, I finally got my hands on a tank. I followed the suggestions in a guide and stirred up trouble in a parking garage near a pay-n-spray, so I could ditch the police as soon as the tanks showed up, and could then hijack one at my leisure. It took a good half-dozen tries though, just due to various little spots of bad luck. I then repeated it but stayed at five stars to get an FBI car, turned both of them in at the crane at the docks, and that completed the emergency vehicles mission. I can now go over there and pick up a tank whenever I want.

I’m sure I’ll find uses for them…

Getting back to GTA3, I finished off most of the quests on Staunton Island. Only most because there’s one that’s fairly tough, so I’ll take another crack at it later. I wasn’t sent fleeing this time, at least.

Most of the missions weren’t all that notable except for the final one that unlocked the next island, where I had to pick up packages dropped by a plane. Picking them up got me a five-star rating, and I was bumped around like a ping pong ball by FBI cars while trying to get to the spray-n-pay. In one amusing moment, I was slowing down to turn in to where the spray-n-pay is, only to have two FBI cars come flying out of the alleyway and right over me.

Now that the next island is unlocked I can go get the rest of the hidden packages next, but that’ll be another day.

And back in GTA3, I tried to work on more of the vigilante missions back on the original island. Unfortunately that was complicated by the fact that I’d left the Mafia and Triads rather pissed off at me, so I was being shot at constantly in large areas of the city. A regular police car wouldn’t survive, so I had to go fetch the Enforcer truck back on Staunton island, and even then it kept getting blown up suddenly from presumably too much damage.

I got enough vigilante kills for one more bribe at the safehouse and then gave up on it for the night.

I did a handful of more missions in GTA3 tonight, finally getting to the titular one and stealing some cars as a mission goal, not just for my own transportation. I also opened up a new weapons shop on the north end where I can now buy a rocket launcher, and did the vigilante mission to get a couple police bribe stars near my hideout. The vigilante mission is a piece of cake once you know a certain cheat-ish trick…

I should be getting close to the halfway point, according to the stats page.

I figured I’d try the GTA3 ambulance missions, since the rewards are useful (health and adrenaline pickups at the hideout, and infinite running stamina). However, after numerous attempts, screw that. The ambulance tips over way too easily, the entrance to the hospital to drop people off is really narrow, and gang members would pull me out of the ambulance, instantly ending the mission.

So, I wound up starting on the missions for the Yakuza on the new island instead, and opened up a bunch of other mission-givers. I’m sure something’s going to drive me away to the next part of the city, though…

I did more missions in GTA3, resulting in a gang war with the Triads, and finally got introduced to the big boss of the Portland area. He had a bunch of missions as well, but they ended with getting betrayed by him, and I fled to the next area on Staunton Island.

So, it was time to hunt the hidden packages again, and now I have shotgun, body armour, and molotov pickups outside my hideout. The body armour one will be particularly handy, since I know where a couple other ones are, but they’re annoying to get to.

There’s also a new side mission to steal certain car models and park them at the docks, and I already collected most of them, mainly because I kept seeing them as I was driving away from the drop-off spot. There are some that are much rarer though, or won’t show up until later. Overall, I’m at 27% completion now.

I did a handful of more missions in GTA3 tonight, and in one particularly amusing one, I grabbed three other guys and we did a bank heist and get away from the police in a run-down SUV with the hood constantly flapping up. It took several tries to complete that mission though, since the cars can’t take much damage and the police are constantly ramming you and spinning you out while you’re trying to get to the pay-n-spray.

Another amusing-but-frustrating mission was when I had to drive around and collect stolen pornography in a trail that snaked pretty much all over the city. At a few points it wasn’t clear which way to turn though, so if you acted too quickly and got it wrong (I forgot about the look-left and look-right keys) you pretty much had to start over as you’d lose too much time.

I’ve exhausted the missions given out by three of the guys now (Luigi, Joey, and the porn star over the phone), so there’s just this ‘T’ marker left right now. Hopefully the next part of the city will open up soon. (I’m 1/5th of the way through all of the missions, though only 11% complete, according to the stats.)