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 Episode 8: Burning Desire Don't you wanna know how we keep starting fires? It's my desire. It's my desire. As for Scipio, while I know Scipio Africanus lived long before Caesar and is famous for defeating Hannibal's forces, I usually associate the name with his grandson whose exploits in Caesar's Civil War were covered in the historical documentary "Asterix the Legionary" I'm very familiar with. I promise this will make sense in the context of the episode. NOTE: From here on, I'm doing 4K renders for some of these shorter episodes. Processing can take anything between 3 and 24 hours depending on how poo poo YouTube is being at this moment in time, so if you want to see the video at full source quality you can wait for that to finish. Or, if you prefer, just watch the 1080p render now. EDIT: 4K version is up! DMorbid fucked around with this message at 07:06 on Mar 8, 2021 |
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Mar 8, 2021 00:22
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CJ killing Scipio- in Jerusalem’s fanfic LP, this was justified by CJ reflecting that Mad Dogg’s manager would often brag on the radio about Balla connections for street cred- I never listened to the radio enough in game to know if that were true, though I did remember a lot of other memorable radio bits the LP referenced. One can presume CJ didn’t want to mess too much with Mad Dogg directly- he’s a talent celebrity- and maybe taking out his manager would prompt him to get a better one. And Loc is a friend of CJ, even if he’s of questionable quality as such- he’s hardly the only friend with issues CJ has. This doesn’t justify CJ also killing the girl with Scipio in the car though- it’s good he avoids similar collateral damage in the Burning Desire mission. Maybe there was no way to avoid collateral damage in one mission and still succeed and there was a way in the other mission. I don’t know. Probably best not to analyze too deeply the morals of a GTA protagonist.
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Mar 8, 2021 10:05
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achtungnight posted:CJ killing Scipio- in Jerusalem’s fanfic LP, this was justified by CJ reflecting that Mad Dogg’s manager would often brag on the radio about Balla connections for street cred- I never listened to the radio enough in game to know if that were true, though I did remember a lot of other memorable radio bits the LP referenced. One can presume CJ didn’t want to mess too much with Mad Dogg directly- he’s a talent celebrity- and maybe taking out his manager would prompt him to get a better one. And Loc is a friend of CJ, even if he’s of questionable quality as such- he’s hardly the only friend with issues CJ has. This doesn’t justify CJ also killing the girl with Scipio in the car though- it’s good he avoids similar collateral damage in the Burning Desire mission. Maybe there was no way to avoid collateral damage in one mission and still succeed and there was a way in the other mission. I don’t know. Probably best not to analyze too deeply the morals of a GTA protagonist. I think the Ballas connection is something he completely made up for the story as well to make CJ less of a dick in this mission. Funnily enough, the censored Japanese version of San Andreas actually does the exact same thing whenever CJ needs to waste a civilian in a mission! DMorbid fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Mar 9, 2021 |
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Mar 8, 2021 15:49
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Is there a link to the Jerusalem LP anywhere? I remember reading it back when it came out and enjoying how it managed to somehow make the side missions and rewards (like magically making CJ fireproof) all make sense.
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Mar 8, 2021 16:13
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https://lparchive.org/Grand-Theft-Auto-San-Andreas-(Screenshot)/ When in doubt, check the archive.  I'm probably not gonna read it for some time yet, but there it is.
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Mar 8, 2021 16:18
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Read it when you can, it’s awesome. I avoided spoilage a bit, thx to DM for filling in viewers further.
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Mar 8, 2021 19:46
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Good thing they didn't have you toss grenades into a small opening and get yourself blown up for failure.
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Mar 9, 2021 02:10
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 Episode 9: Wrong Side of the Tracks All we had to do was keep up with the train engine and maintain the optimal distance from it to keep Smoke from shooting the train instead of the guys he was supposed to shoot! Hm, I guess that's not quite as catchy.
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Mar 9, 2021 22:14
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All you had to do was shoot the bad guys, not the train, Big Smoke! All you had to do was shoot the bad guys, not the train!
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Mar 9, 2021 23:10
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Welcome to part two of "San Andreas NPC partners can't shoot for poo poo."
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Mar 10, 2021 00:03
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I feel like this game hit the exact balance point between just letting you play the drat game, and delivering a cinematic experience. Not letting you destroy the truck early doesn't feel unreasonable (because it's huge and feels like it should be basically unstoppable) and then you hit the cutscene and go "Oh, Terminator 2. Cool." and it works. Unlike later games where it really felt like they were punishing you for not knowing the script in advance by making everything you tried just not work until you did the specific thing they'd planned for.
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Mar 10, 2021 17:03
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The crappy guns they give you are good, it's just you need to fire ten thousand rounds at objects to make them good. This isn't an RPG, Rockstar.
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Mar 11, 2021 03:41
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I love watching a speedrun of this famous train mission because they just ride on top of the train and it's over in like 8 seconds because the guys on top have inflated HP values for difficulty reasons i guess 
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Mar 11, 2021 07:45
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Oh hey, I finally got some nostalgia with the music! I was a bit confused as to why I didn't recognise any of it before I realised that I'd been listening exclusively to the rock channel.
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Mar 11, 2021 19:09
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The rock station DJ, by the by, is a pastiche of Axl Rose, played by... Axl Rose.
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Mar 11, 2021 19:22
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Ablative posted:The rock station DJ, by the by, is a pastiche of Axl Rose, played by... Axl Rose.
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Mar 11, 2021 19:43
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That's the punk station, totally different.
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Mar 11, 2021 19:46
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For the uninitiated, there's the dad rock station (K-DST) that plays stuff like Rod Stewart, Lynyrd Skynyrd and CCR and has Axl Rose as the voice of the DJ, Tommy "Nightmare" Smith, a washed up rocker from the 70s who keeps talking about this newfangled rap and grunge poo poo ruining music. Then there's Radio X, which is ostensibly the "alternative" station ("Alternative to what? We don't know!") but is really more of an all-purpose late 80s/early 90s rock station with a stereotypical Gen X DJ who calls herself Sage. It plays grungy stuff like Alice in Chains and Stone Temple Pilots, as well as some Depeche Mode and The Stone Roses and late 80s hard rock/metal such as Danzig, Ozzy Osbourne ("Hellraiser" is actually from 1992, but Ozzy never really left the 80s), Living Colour and, as we heard in the latest video, Guns N' Roses. Of course, it's all dad rock now... 
DMorbid fucked around with this message at 20:26 on Mar 11, 2021 |
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Mar 11, 2021 20:23
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 Episode 10: Doberman Your 'hood is under attack. edit: I know the parody forklift safety video is named Staplerfahrer Klaus, so why did I say "Staplenfahrer"?  My old German teacher's gonna rise from her grave and kick my rear end...
DMorbid fucked around with this message at 15:45 on Mar 12, 2021 |
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Mar 12, 2021 02:19
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Doc’s advice notwithstanding, I usually took all the territories I could at this point during my playthroughs. It beefed up my character and stopped the annoying mechanics of enemy attacks on territory. It also made sense with the story- Grove Street getting big again with CJ’s help and then of course the bad guys must reassert their villainy. But you do as you like.
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Mar 12, 2021 03:23
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There are always a few territories that just don't want to cooperate and let you take them, especially if you go in a bad order...
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Mar 12, 2021 04:54
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You know, I never quite appreciated how much bigger this game was than its predecessors until I started doing this LP and putting the videos together. The GTA III and Vice City LPs had 13 (including the bonus episode) and 14 videos respectively, and here we haven't even gotten out of Los Santos (basically the game's tutorial!) in 10 episodes. Sure, III and VC weren't 100% runs, but I still did a decent amount of side content in both games.
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Mar 12, 2021 05:16
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That last mission has some real highlights - Sweet has nothing but praise for CJ for once, there's a standout performance from Unnamed Bicycle Messenger, and everybody dunks on Loc. On the other hand, it feels way too artificial to have the guys gunning down something like twenty dudes on their own doorstep and casually going back to the party. Even in-universe, prior missions where you kill fewer people in enemy territory have the gang breaking off and trying to lose heat.
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Mar 12, 2021 05:53
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I didn't know that planes can crash so early. I had one mission where there were over twenty crashes and failed the mission after having to drive over so many planes. They sure give out a lot of healing items for gang fights. Almost like it is poorly implemented and they expected you to brute force every piece of land.
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Mar 12, 2021 07:30
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rchandra posted:There are always a few territories that just don't want to cooperate and let you take them, especially if you go in a bad order... This. The worst part about the turf wars is the tiny mini-territories that basically consist of a small section of a single street. Since the area's so small, the chance of enemy gang members spawning there so you can initiate a turf war is pretty low. Sometimes you can circumvent this by shooting at gang members in neighboring hostile territories while standing in the one you want to take over, but if you're dumb (like me) and save the small ones for last it gets a lot more annoying.
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Mar 12, 2021 08:57
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 Episode 11: The Green Sabre We crash a Balla funeral, try to reunite the Families, and finally make a terrible discovery as the first act of San Andreas comes to an end.
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Mar 14, 2021 22:02
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Huh, I'd never considered that about Ryder. Wonder what the rest of the game would be like with him still being an active part of the plot. Maybe he'd have character-developmented into less of an rear end in a top hat. That said, I'm suspicious of the fact that all his appearances so far have been fully-voiced. Seems weird to have act 1 fully voiced then literally nothing for the rest of the game. You'd think they'd get the voice actor into the studio initially to do the big plot beats - introduction, the character's finale (whatever it might be), other stuff that's core to the plot - before all the incidental mission dialogue that might have to change as the missions get refined during development. If anything I could believe they just plain forgot Ryder existed from this point on and had to hastily patch him into the villain scheme here once they realised they'd forgotten a character. It makes as much sense.
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Mar 14, 2021 23:06
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But how could they possibly forget about Ryder? It's not like he's a bland one-note stereotypical self-absorbed drugged out gangbanger. He's a genius, man! [sarcasm detector is going off] They could have had issues with the voice actor too (Easy E), it's common with some celebrities unfortunately.
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Mar 14, 2021 23:49
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achtungnight posted:They could have had issues with the voice actor too (Easy E), it's common with some celebrities unfortunately. Ryder was voiced by MC Eiht rather than Eazy E. I’m surprised to hear about the voice actor issues - it’s not mentioned at all on the GTA wiki where I’d expect to see something like that mentioned.
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Mar 15, 2021 01:48
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Amazing how everything was shown in that cutscene to make sure you didn't miss anything. The big meeting mission pretty much showed everything falling apart and the end of the gang. I heard that CJ's VA used the game to promote himself. Did anything come of the guy after the game come out?
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Mar 15, 2021 03:42
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Zaroff posted:Ryder was voiced by MC Eiht rather than Eazy E. I’m surprised to hear about the voice actor issues - it’s not mentioned at all on the GTA wiki where I’d expect to see something like that mentioned. The handling of Ryder's character has been a big talking point in the fandom for years because of how weird the whole thing comes off. Apparently, someone on gtaforums asked MC Eiht about it and got a short reply saying the stuff in the game was all Rockstar wanted him to do, which makes the whole thing make even less sense somehow if that message is real. Scalding Coffee posted:I heard that CJ's VA used the game to promote himself. Did anything come of the guy after the game come out?
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Mar 15, 2021 07:22
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DMorbid posted:Young Maylay is still making music and collaborating with some fairly big-name rappers. If he ever wants to cash in on his GTA fame, the alias “DJ CJ” is right there.
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Mar 15, 2021 07:36
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Sorry I got the voice actors mixed up. I guess in the end all we can do about this mystery is shrug and move on.
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Mar 15, 2021 08:33
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achtungnight posted:I guess in the end all we can do about this mystery is shrug and move on. The reason the twist is so weird and people fixate on it so much is that every one of Ryder's missions directly makes Grove Street stronger by giving them better weapons and such (you can see this in-game as well, because Grove Street members will be equipped with TEC-9s after "Robbing Uncle Sam") and he's actively hostile towards the Ballas, taking the initiative in missions such as "Cleaning the Hood", so him suddenly deciding to join them doesn't make much sense. He does start to act more suspiciously in "House Party" where he supposedly leaves to get backup but never comes back, and in "Reuniting the Families" where he and Smoke initially run off. With MC Eiht's comment in mind, I'm thinking that Ryder probably wasn't meant to be an antagonist when his initial missions were created, but Rockstar realized fairly early on they didn't have anything for him to do after the first act so they pivoted in this direction, added some stuff to hint at the betrayal, and figured they'd be able to wrap up Ryder's story without calling MC Eiht back in for more VA work. I'm not sure why they wouldn't just kill him off at the end of act 1 if they had nothing for him, but this is all speculation anyway so it doesn't matter.
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Mar 15, 2021 09:59
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 Episode 12: Badlands Now stuck in the San Andreas countryside, we are sent by C.R.A.S.H. to take out an informant hiding somewhere up Mount Chiliad. Before we can get to that, however, we are challenged by Chiliad itself as we take part in a series of increasingly terrible mountain bike races. Even though these are just the highlights, watching this brought back all that frustration so I ended up sounding quite a bit angrier than expected in this episode. Also, YouTube's wonderful ContentID system seems to have become confused and refuses to complete the automatic copyright check. I'm assuming there will be a ContentID claim or two (which wouldn't be the first time and is nothing to worry about) for the country songs on K-Rose once the checking process finally decides to finish, but hopefully nothing bigger than that.
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Mar 17, 2021 12:54
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I can almost see why bikes didn't make a return in GTA4.
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Mar 17, 2021 13:24
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The biggest problem I was having in the last race, aside from everything else, was the fact the bicycle is very fiddly at slow speeds. It's also very fiddly at high speeds, but especially at low speeds and especially when you first get going. When you accelerate from a complete stop, you can't really control where the bike goes for the first second or so and since our bicycle skill is maxed out, CJ will travel a pretty long way in that first second. That's the main reason why CJ went exploring the woods or just ran into everything, making me look even less competent than I actually am. I will redeem myself once we start racing motor vehicles again. DMorbid fucked around with this message at 13:46 on Mar 17, 2021 |
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Mar 17, 2021 13:40
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I would have rewarded people with a skill boost or something for these races. You didn't even get money for doing them.
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Mar 17, 2021 16:10
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And yet they are required for 100%. Grr..... As with all races, using a Gameshark slow time cheat was a big help.
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Mar 17, 2021 18:35
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Given the whole Ryder thing, I wonder whether the story would be any better if either Smoke or CRASH shot Ryder during the Green Sabre cutscene? It would conveniently write Ryder out, as well as up the stakes and clear the ambiguity with Ryder’s missions.
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Mar 18, 2021 01:58
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