I've had to force myself to use the real brake, not the handbrake, and not go at full speed into a turn on most cars. (I'm usually a pedal-alltheway-down driver). Once I did that and got used to it, it's a little easier (the choice of car makes a difference as well.

The follow-the-train mission took me about four tries as well. Just had to learn to anticipate where it was going. Once I did that, and got to where the guy got off the train, it was pretty easy.

The construction mission wasn't too bad, if I went slowly and took them out one by one (and yes, I bought armor before hand). Snowstorm was worse--and I had to switch cars (actually, I got flung out of my car, stuck crawling around under some bridge, and came out in a parking deck or something, and the only car near me was a garbage truck. It's very hard to outrun a dozen police cars in a police car; on the positive side, no one got in my way.)

One thing this game needs is an instant replay or camera function. I've been in lots of situations, especially when driving, that I've wanted to back it up two minutes and watch it again, from the cinematic view.

I've found handbreak turning to be more effective at high speeds when you need to take a 90 degree turn. I've perfected it online.

ok, I played a DM and it was fun as hell, only problem is after it was done I saw no option to leave the match, I hit every button and none did anything except X to see the players

Use your cell.

I hit up to try to access the cell and it just sat at the screen showing all the kills and such

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...s/5796892.html

Show him the money
Grand Theft Auto actor is a star but paycheck isn't

By SETH SCHIESEL
New York Times

All those years when he was struggling to get by as an aspiring actor — tending bar, working in a bagel shop in Manhattan, spraying perfume at Bloomingdale's — he was aiming for Broadway and prime time. As he moved from regional theater to soap operas, middling musicals and Law & Order, he remained just another good-looking guy hoping for an audition.

His face still isn't famous, but Hollick's voice and gait have moved into the pop-culture firmament recently as those of Niko Bellic, the sardonic, textured Balkan criminal at the heart of Grand Theft Auto IV, the acclaimed gangster fantasy that has become the fastest-selling game to date. Produced by Rockstar Games and its corporate parent, Take-Two Interactive Software, the game has generated at least $600 million in sales in the past three weeks.

Yet even as Saturday Night Live has spoofed the Niko character, even as Hollick's voice has been heard in tens of millions of homes in advertisements broadcast during American Idol and the NBA playoffs, even as fans have flocked to his MySpace page, his triumph has been bittersweet.

That's because Hollick was paid only about $100,000 over roughly 15 months between late 2006 and early this year for all of his voice acting and motion-capture work on the game, with zero royalties or residuals in sight, he said.

Had this been a television program, a film, an album, a radio show or virtually any other sort of traditional recorded performance, Hollick and the other actors in the game would have made millions by now. As it stands, they get nothing beyond the standard Screen Actors Guild day rate they were originally paid.

That is because the contracts between the actors' union and the entertainment industry make little or no provision for electronic media such as video games and the Internet. It is a discrepancy that is expected to dominate negotiations between Hollywood and the guild this summer, with many predicting an actors' strike to parallel the writers' strike last year, which revolved around similar issues.

"Obviously I'm incredibly thankful to Rockstar for the opportunity to be in this game when I was just a nobody, an unknown quantity," Hollick, 35, said last week over dinner in Brooklyn. "But it's tough, when you see Grand Theft Auto IV out there as the biggest thing going right now, when they're making hundreds of millions of dollars, and we don't see any of it. I don't blame Rockstar. I blame our union for not having the agreements in place to protect the creative people who drive the sales of these games. Yes, the technology is important, but it's the human performances within them that people really connect to, and I hope actors will get more respect for the work they do within those technologies."

Rockstar declined to comment for this article, but it is an issue that has been hanging over the video-game industry for years. On the one hand, through both creative and technical ambition, game makers are infusing their wares with more realistic characters and stories than ever. On the other hand, the $18 billion U.S. game industry has steadfastly refused to pay royalties to voice and motion-capture body actors along the lines of other entertainment media.

To the actors it is a simple issue of equity: equal pay for equal work, regardless of the medium.

"For instance, our contracts say nothing about the use of voices for promotional purposes over the Internet," Hollick said. "The first GTA IV trailer generated something like 40 million hits online, and that's my voice all over it, and I get nothing. If that were a radio spot, I would have. Same thing for the TV ads. I recorded those lines for the game, but now they're all over television. It's another gray area."

One of the big differences between games and traditional media is that though a film, play or TV show is usually marketed around a few well-known stars, games almost never highlight the people behind the digital characters, and almost no one buys a game based on which actors are in it.

"What drives video games is not Tracy and Hepburn; what drives it is the conception of the creative director," said Ezra J. Doner, a former Hollywood executive who represents entertainment companies as a lawyer at Herrick, Feinstein in Brooklyn. "The actor whose appearance or voice is used is more analogous to a session musician for a band. The session musicians don't get residuals on the sales of the CD. They get paid a session fee."

Hollick said he "asked about residuals when we negotiated, but I was told that was not a possibility."

The game companies that make millions in royalties appear reluctant to share. Among their executives, one real fear is that if they start paying royalties to a handful of actors, they will soon face similar demands from the legions of artists, designers, audio producers, musicians, programmers and other people who work for years to make a top-end game.

For Hollick, Niko has still been the role of a lifetime. A native of the eastern shores of Maryland, Hollick developed a talent for dialects as a theater student at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, he said. In the game Niko is a war-scarred Serbian who has worked as a human trafficker before landing in New York (known in the game as Liberty City). Hollick's masterly performance as the voice and body of Niko appears to stem both from Hollick's rich conception of the character as well as from a stellar script.

"Developing Niko, the dry sense of humor, as the story begins, he's this really hard guy with this really difficult background, but what gives it depth is that there is this naivete as well," Hollick said. "He comes to the big city, and he's not on firm ground. He's not sure where he stands. So there is a lot to work with. And as he becomes more confident, the sense of humor comes out. The screenwriters and directors were really hip to that and really did a great job of making the character three-dimensional."

Of course, because this is a video game, in addition to thousands of lines of dialogue, there were the more, shall we say, atmospheric effects.

"So we would have the 50 pages of screaming, 10 pages of being shot, 10 pages of being thrown off a roof, 20 pages of being burnt alive, just screaming," he said. "The ones being burnt alive were the best. And I'd just be like: 'Bring me more hot tea and honey and lemon. Earl Grey.' "

I've only seen this for the stunt jumps.

Disappointed to know that if I run to my safehouse to avoid the cops, they impound my vehicles sitting outside. :( I lost my Banshee and my Infernus. :mad:

Personally, I really like the driving expecially considering it's different for practically every vehicle you drive. I'm excellent at the spin outs (180's and 360's) and don't mind the pain in the ass of tight turns.

This is one area everyone seems to hate but for some reason I think it fits well.

How do you guys get the Infernus? I do not think I have even seen one in the game. I am only about 18% through the game.

You won't get the Infernus for awhile. You have to start doing missions for Bernie and you'll get the SuperGT and the Infernus after you've completed all of them. My favorite car is the Comet. It's fast, small and the easiest to control, IMO.


One of things I liked in the old game was being able to clear your wanted level by changing clothes. Apparently, that doesn't work in this game. *sigh

I hope that in the next game, they allow you to run and get in/on vehicles while on your cell phone. I don't like it when I'm chasing a cab or a good car and I get a call and suddenly I have to slow down and wait for the call to end before I can drive. I almost failed a mission (Ruff Rider) because Niko makes the call while I had the wanted level. The cop almost caught up, and I couldn't get on the bike to escape because I was on the damn phone.

This is probably a really obvious question, but where near the first safehouse can i park to save a car?

I agree. Last night I took a picture of this chick with my cell phone then stopped into the police car and "Search by Photo" and guess what there was no picture on my cell phone. Rockstar shows all these cool things that are available in missions but not after.

There should be a yellow painted line on the street in front of the door where you can park your car(s)

You should have a sniper rifle by this point in the game. I just stayed close to my car, and kept my distance. You can kind of work your way up along the side of the construction site. By the time you get to the last guy, you can snipe him from a pier by the water without fighting any of the other enemies.

Finally beat "snow storm," now trying to do #1 with Brucie. Ugh.

I stole a car once with 2 passengers in it. I looked around for cops first, dragged the driver out and sped away with the passenger still in the seat. As I slow down to turn the first corner, Nico pushes the guy out of the door, which just happens to smack down a cop standing in the middle of the street.

Love how the car radio garbles before a phone call comes in. Really neat touch.

I just did a mission with packie and two of his friends we went to get in a four door car and it was locked and I love how all four of them smashed the windows to get in it was like a barbershop quartet of criminals

Yeah, a cab can knock your car out of those lines and then when you come back, its gone. So, be sure it doesnt get moved.

Also, I had a police car there to save it...when I went down there one time (after a save game), a police man was standing next to it and then got in and drove away. Odd.

Is there a quick way to replay a mission instead of driving back to the person who starts the mission?

Usually you receive a text message that if you answer allows you immediately to restart the mission if you fail.

I could tell you, but I always just reload the previous game if I die or get busted (though I don't think I've actually gotten busted yet).

If you're like that too, using cabs and ending the rides right away can save a lot of time. Half the time I can use Roman's service for free, and I still have plenty of money for ammo.

Is there any way to stop the camera angles from changing when driving? I like the angle to be a little higher than normal so I can see the traffic up ahead, and I really like the car fender and motorcycle over the shoulder views as well, but they keep on cycling through the different views.

it only changes when you have it on the cinematic view. you can move the stick up and down and that can help the view. Otherwise use select to change the view

Remember to turn off any car you leave or it will disappear. Hold Y when getting out in stead of just tapping it.

Some missions just peg as a fail, and let you try again later. I hate race missions.
I just noticed something weird. I did one of Elizabeta's last missions, and was only partially successful, but later on in a dialog with Roman, Nico referred to what I guess was "supposed" to happen.


Does that mess me up in the future? Did I just close off a path in the story?

So some missions I reply to the 'try again?" text messages, others I reload my save, others I just blunder on through and come back and try it again later. For the missions
that I keep failing but keep retrying, is there any negative impact later on?

Also: Three Leaf Clover. Holy crap.

And I've only met one of the random characters, as far as I can tell.

Is there a website that list what places each char likes to go to?
I took brucie to a diner and my like increased from 75 to 84, but when i took him there again, my brucie like decreased to 71. wtf?

A bit of GTA inspired artwork:

Were you late when picking him up? This will affect your percentage.

You can do it timewaster your genetically enhanced man!!!!

They don't like going to the same place twice. Yeah it can be avoided but try to go through every place before you take them to the same place.

Arrrggh. I hate stupidly difficult final missions. When I manage to

Hardest mission in the game by far. Took me forever to do it. I died every way possible on that mission.

OH MY GOD!!!!! WHEN DOES THIS GODDAMN GAME END????!!!!!!

I completed all the Ray missions, all the bernie missions, 3 of the Gerry missions, 2 of the pegorino missions, 2 of the phil bell missions, - when the hell does this game stop? It's getting so goddamn boring now.

I know there is a map in this thread but are there any tips on how to end it quicker?

Do all the Gerry missions, all the Pegorino missions and all the Phil Bell missions. Then it still won't end but you'll be closer.

Snow Storms a bitch. Do you really just have to take out all the cops and get to a Pay N Spray? I can't ever seem to escape when I have 3 or more stars!

I LOVE that. The speakers on my computer at work at my old job did that and it's such a insignificant thing that I cannot believe they put it in there. But it's a great touch.

I don't think I shot any police officers, I just ran out the front door (I had full armor) then outran the wanted level with the boat.

I actually didn't have that much trouble on that mission, but...