gavin19

Title : GTA SA System : PS2 Emus : None Bit surprised that there's no review of this game yet considering the massive hype surrounding it. Anyways.. I'm just going to give my overview here, no screens but inevitably some *spoilers*. OK now.. Basically only one series of games has kept me from selling my PS2, ie GTA. GTA III was a revelation to me at the time, because for years my perfect game needed to have a non-linear, free-to-roam gameplay engine, and GTA was the first to fulfill that ( apart from Elite ). My approach to playing the GTA games is a bit unconventional in that I prefer to beat the game by any means necessary, ie cheating, then have a fully 'unlocked' GTA to do whatever I want with. Em, onto the review.. SA is purportedly 5-6 size of Vice City, which itself was reputedly twice the size of III, so you can imagine the sheer size if you have played either previous installment. Nice big map then, but to my mind there is too much filler. For example, the entire SW quarter of the map could be removed and very litle would be lost, as too could a lot of other areas of sprawling forest and desert. There are too many 'dead' areas for my liking and they seem to have been added just to fill out the map, and I think they could easily trim the map area to 50% or so and actually not affect the gameplay in the slightest. Graphically each installment has been a minor improvement on the last with each game having it's own 'feel'. I thought III was dark and moody, VC was very bright and sunny while SA is smoggy and dim. The same graphical shortcomings are still present in SA, except now to an even worse degree, which I think is down to the fact that they have overstretched the PS2's abilities. A lot of the time smog/haze is used to mask pop-up etc when more time could have been invested trying to remedy the problem itself. 'Late' pop-ups are especially noticeable when using the nitrous boost in the cars as vehicles and objects can literally just appear without notice. As I mentioned, I think that SA is just too much for the PS2. This is evident when gang wars are in progress or similar on-screen action causes sometimes ridiculous amounts of slowdown, even playing on a brand-new slimline PS2. I wouldn't say that the slowdown really ruins the game for me but it was a shock to me that it occured so often and that the game was released without trying to fix it. I can say that instances of slowdown would be at least 10x more frequent compared to VC or III, which is just unacceptable. If I remember right then the main storyline requires you to complete just over 100 missions which sounds a lot, but for some reason the game doesn't really feel that much longer or bigger than VC. It is hard to explain but a lot of mission time, and between mission time, is travelling large distances to make a rendez-vous or whatever, but essentially the time taken to complete the main storyline is little different to VC. This is where I come back to the map again, as people were sort of mislead into thinking that 5-6x map size would equal 5-6x missions which just isn't the case. Having said that there are some novel missions scattered throughout the game includng a couple of Dance-Mat-style ones, if that makes sense? The vehicles have been added to and some totally redesigned for SA. Also there is the addition of 'mod' garages in which you can add paint-jobs, spoilers, nitrous etc. The sheer cost of modifying a car though means that it is hard to enjoy driving it as you spend more time trying to prevent any damage than anything else. Another minor fault is that instead of having one type of garage there are 3 types which only cater for certain models of car, so sometimes you have to drive large distances to reach the right garage for your car, that's if you can get it there in one piece. As an extension to each of the vehicles each has their own school in which you take tests and recieve medals, although only the Flight school is part of the storyline. Depending on your grade, you can unlock rare and otherwise unavailable cars/bikes/boats too. Now for the new gameplay elements which were so keenly awaited. Supposed improvements to gameplay included being able to go to the gym, have a girlfriend, buy/change clothes, get a tattoo, get a haircut, eat at a variety of fast food outlets, swim, and recruit gang members as helpers. All these elements I personally thought would have a genuine impact on the game and improve it in many ways. Sadly this was not to be. Firstly the gym - building your character's muscle up had little/no effect except in ultra-rare hand-to-hand encounters, and the treadmill wasn't needed to build stamina points either as simply running around the streets would do the same thing. Secondly girlfriends - this is just as annoying as real life and has no positive impact whatsoever. Thirdly the whole haircut/tattoo/clothes deal was another supposedly 'cool' addition yet I played the entire game through without any intentions of getting a pink mohawk and dressing up like a tattooed fashion victim. Again I feel they add little/nothing to the game itself. Fourth is eating - another nuisance as you must eat every 3-4 days to avoid energy loss and it simply becomes a chore after the initial novelty. Fifth is swimming which I thought would have made a big difference but due to the nature of SA there is a lot more emphasis on land/air activity and the boating/swimming aspect is minimal, at least as far as I could see during the game. Swimming is still a welcome addition though for those occassions when you do accidently drive into the sea. Lastly gang members - as you build respect during the game you are permitted to recruit 'homies' from your 'hood to help during missions, turf wars etc. Sadly though the AI of these goons means that 90% of the time they are more of a hinderance than a help, still, it is nice to have a drive-by now and again Now comes what for me is the biggest disappointment of all - the music. To my mind there is only one good station, and only one station that really suits the game itself which is the rap station, Radio Los Santos. I can't explain it but for whatever reason the rest of the music stations just don't 'fit' and I find myself stuck listening to the same songs over and over again. Also the general overall quality of the songs, no matter what the genre, is pitiful compared to VC. Even the chat-radio which I loved from III and VC has become unimaginative and bland. I think that very little effort was put into the radio/music in SA and it did spoil the game to some degree for me at least. To conclude I don't think that SA is any worse than VC or III, just that in my opinion it has too many minor niggles to say that it is really any better. High points for me were the range of new vehicles, especially the new motorbikes, jet planes and monster trucks. Also the three different areas were each good enough to have hosted one GTA game, never mind one. The targeting system is slightly improved too and some cool new weapons as well, like the silenced pistol and M4. Also there are some other novelties like parachuting, the casinos and movie references ( esp one T2-inspired mission ) which help keep SA fresh to a small degree. Low points I think I have covered already. Overall.. Graphics - 8.0 Sound - 6.0 Gameplay - 9.0 Lifespan - 9.0 Overall - 9.0

In my experience the price of a pre-modded Saturn is approx 3-5 times that of a standard one. Simply purchase a MK2 model ( with rounded buttons ) then purchase a mod chip, which are still freely available. Mr Cinder's site here, still stocks them I think. As far as 'what do you want a Saturn for?'. The same reason that you want the ps2/xbox/gc or whatever. To play games!!

There is nothing wrong with WinAVI as such, although the new TMPGEnc xpress 3 is a better alternative and much more flexible, although a somewhat slower encoding engine. You can use xpress to output an svcd mpeg to use in VCD Gear to make an svcd, or simply make a DVD compliant mpeg to use with TMPGEnc DVD Author (separate app) to make a DVD (video ts/audio ts), if u have a dvd burner that is. Realistically there is too much to explain as regards encoding (frame rates, resolution, bitrates etc), so here are the sites i use, and highly recommend - Afterdawn - extensive list of guides + good forums Digital digest forums - the 'best' avi/mpeg/svcd/dvd forums Doom9 - more good guides, but leans toward intermediate/advanced users Nicky's guides - neat resource for more advanced stuff (audio synching etc) Videohelp - pretty much an all-in-one site with good forums, product reviews/updates, multiple guides and more Good luck! Edit - I have always burned with Nero 6 w/o any probs. Remember, shut down all non-essential apps when burning so as not to disturb the burn process, and try burning at lower speeds if u encounter skipping/stuttering with the discs. Also try to use good quality discs, preferably with a Ritek G04 dye ( for DVD that is ).

Using daemon tools just point it to the disc and mount it as an image. Then in DJ go to 'create CD/DVD image' and point it to the daemon drive. In the right-hand box u can name the outputted.cdi file or just use the default 'Image1.cdi', doesn't matter.Don't alter any other settings and just click 'start'. It'll only take 1-2 mins to complete. Restart DJ and go to New and 'burn cd/dvd image'. Put the blank cd-r in and reduce burn speed to 8-16x using the slider. Then click on the 'Advanced' tab at the top and change the Mode to 'Mode 1/DVD', and tick the 'RAW Write' and 'Overburn CD' boxes. Leave everything else as is. Btw the 'Add postgap to 3rd party images' is ticked by default, don't untick it or else... Then click 'start'. Takes 10-20 mins depending on specs. All above was using Daemon + DJ 4.1 pro on XP Home.

I'm 99% sure it's nothing to do with boot issues as 95% of DC games are self-booting anyway, including the Megaman, if it is the Supernova one, as I just burned it to check and it does boot by itself. If u want to be sure just grab a game that is specifically labelled (SB) to confirm it. I think theres a v small Mr driller on Supernova atm that Im sure is SB. Anyway hardly use Chankast as i have a dc but seems most non-playing games issues stem from an incorrect/corrupt bios file. Ensure that u have the correct one and also the latest Chankast too ( i know its obvious but some people... ). Here follows my honest opinion - buy a cheap second hand dc and just forget about chankast. Save yourself the hassle, plus quite a few games need the DC controller to get the most from them. If u like I could send u a small SB game to verify things.

Well, well what a coincidence, since I just finished d/ling it tonight from bit torrent. Seems u don't look hard enough

This is cheating a bit but since it was a 'game' then I'd choose Super Mario All Stars Failing that then the equally awesome Super Mario World will do Others - Rastan, Rygar, Karnov Actually if Super Mario 64 is ok, then its my final fav

I have now built up 140 DC games in a little over 3 weeks. Note - Not one requested game Used - IRC and Bit torrent, thats all I have similar problem in that I don't know just what to play first Of the 90 or so that I have burned off here are the 'best' ones - Action - Headhunter, Soldier of Fortune, Gauntlet Legends, Virtual ON 2, Sonic Adventure 1/2 RPG - Shenmue 1/2, Elemental Gimmick Gear, Grandia II, Phantasy Star Online 1/2 Fighting - Guilty Gear X, SF3 Third Strike/SFA 3, Soul Calibur, Vampire Chronicle, KOF 99 Evolution, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Capcom vs SNK 2 Racing - Sega Rally 2, Test Drive Lemans/V-Rally, Metropolis Street Racer, Tokyo Extreme Racer 2 Sports - ALL Sega 2K2 series, NBA, NFL, Tennis and World Series Shooters - Ikaruga, Psyvariar 2, Border Down, Zerogunner 2, Bangai-O Other - Starlancer (space sim)

The ROM request section should be removed altogether. There is absolutely no need for it. As has been said repeatedly there are many ways to get these games such as IRC, bit torrent, Direct Connect etc so why should people with 100+ posts have this luxury? As Agozer said, the majority of premium members have never requested a ROM anyway so what's the point in having a premium member-only request section?? I don't understand why simply having 100 posts should entitle someone to request a rom whenever the site is clearly trying to steer away from linking to roms?? IMO the rom request section only ever helped those who were just too fkin lazy to type a few words into google/bitoogle or whatever. I'm not boasting in any way but I have got thousands of roms and have NEVER asked for or requested 1 single game. The roms are out there it should be easy to find most of them. One prime example lately is MvC2 which is FREELY available on almost every p2p source I can think of yet it is has been requested multiple times. Thats simply lazy

That much is pretty apparent, but since these changes are gonna be implimented anyway then it doesn't matter. But I agree that in trying to make this site more acceptable to the more diehard side of the emu community, just for the sake of some affiliates, then we may lose our identity altogether and just become another emufanatics clone. Then again, maybe it'll be the best thing to do for the future of the site. It's too hard to say until the deed is done. Only time will tell.

Concerning rules 1 and 5 I think it is completely wrong to say it's ok for 'premium' members to have their own private part of the forum to request roms, while 'n00bs' can't. That just feeds into the egos of people who think that they have earned some special priveleges just because they have posted 100+ times. If it is illegal to request roms then it should be just that, no exceptions should be made whatsoever. As u said, 'Don't forget the PM'. I'm sure that there are some people who have made very positive contributions to these forums in many ways, yet because they do not feel the need to reply to every single post then they don't have the same rights?! Obviously I can see the need to prevent one time posters joining simply to get a rom, but that won't matter anyway once the rom requesting ends. As for rule 6, thats gonna rule out the vast majority of rom sites as most of them host at least some roms. This rule is basically saying 'don't' link to sites that host roms because we don't condone that anymore. Therefore then the 'PM me for a link' should also be banned as it is just the same thing only it's a link to someone who will be giving u the link, or as u said, 'providing it'. It's just indirectly linking, just as bad as a direct link. In general tho I think all the changes are a positive step and hope it all goes smoothly. However if one of the major reasons for these changes is to at least appear to be a 'proper' emulation site like the ones you mentioned then it has to be done right. No requesting (including 'Anyone have e0923345.rom for xxx' as mine is missing'), no links, no PM-to-links (at least openly) or similar. The basic premise seems to be, as with the sites u want to affiliate with, that it's ok to use emulators, ok to play roms u never even owned, AND we'll even help u with an problems u may have getting those illegal roms to work, it's just that we can't tell u where to get all the stuff, because it's 'wrong'. The contradictions are unreal. Good luck!

Flash fxp is supposed to be the 'best' ftp app for windows. Only ftp searches I ever used were all on search-22 as it houses a lot of diff search engines..

e-bay ign Digital Video Forums neocream doom9 afterdawn dc forums.net emuasylum

Mine

Simply ask Mr -beep-. He usually keeps a copy lying around Then u may need to ask Mrs Azureus' permission to 'borrow' it from him

Yeah, we r well used to borders but I swear these are abnormally big, makes me think it may be some other hardware issue. Not sure. Anyway, I used my 100th CD-r of a 100 spindle (in a week) on that FF7 disc so I have to wait until tomorrow to get some more

Yes indeed, thanks. Patches galore!!

I'd be more worried why u want to go back to 2k in the first place. Especially with SP2 about. But as Gryph said, there wouldn't be any forseeable problems, except maybe some driver incompatibilities, but thats easily fixable.

Hell Fisherman's Friends aren't even long-lasting, they are damn near permanent Oh, and if u like to keep ur voicebox intact they should be avoided.

Basically I got given a psx with gameshark and demo disk so I can play backups. So I started to d/l a few psx games I never played first time around, like the Final Fantasy series. Anyway I was unsure how to burn the isos so I just used alcohol, selected the Playstation preset and burnt FF7 disc 1. Surprisingly it worked One minor niggle though is the massive borders top and bottom of the screen. I'm used to borders being a PAL gamer but these are hideous. They seem to be like 3 inches top and bottom. I had similar probs with some NTSC/JAP games on the Dreamcast that detected the PAL console and booted into 50Hz instead of full screen 60Hz. Luckily these were patchable and now they run at 60Hz. What I wanna know is if this is the same problem with the psx FF7, as it is the NTSC version, and if it is, can these ISOs be patched too?

Well I try to stick to DiscJuggler, but for Alcohol 1.9.2 just use the image making wizard and select the drive u put your game disc into. Let it rip the image to ur hard drive then burn the ripped mdf/mds to new cd-r with alcohol again. I prefer the rip/burn method rather than disc to disc copying, but it prob can be done.

Thats common procedure for archiving games. Since u can't zip a.zip or rar a.rar these smaller numbered.rar files (.001,.002 etc) get zipped together to further compress the game. Thats all. Winrar can handle zip and rar so just unzip the large zip into the numbered files and right-click on the.001 file and select 'Extract here' to extract the game ( usually.cdi or.nrg image ) to that folder.

One thing I have noticed about IRC in general, not just #1emu and #speakemulation, is that the abuse of powers is very noticeable. In DC hubs nothing of this kind would be tolerated, and ever has been. I can say that I have used both channels and have been either banned for absolutely no reason, other than people think it is 'hilarious', or I have been muted, again w/o any reason. If someone acts an ass in the hubs then he will receive the same treatment as if he was to mess around in the IRC channels. They are all run under the banner of 1emulation so therefore should be 'policed' by those in power in 1emu, ie GC, Maggy or whoever. I don't know the guy, or what went on, but the rules are there for a reason and as far as I rem reading about the sig thing then he maybe pushed his luck a little too far.

Nice one I have CDX but couldnt find the other 2.

I don't really know what u mean but before u load a game up the next time go to Options>Configure Video>Video Mode and click on 640X480 so the game will start in that size of a window, or whatever size u want. Hope that's what u meant