User:Sympleko/GTA Diary

My 360 stopped playing 360 games, and I don't have $99 to fix it now, so I'm back into Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

My current goal is a "clean start" game where I can complete as many of the side missions as possible, without doing the story missions. Here's what I've got so far:

After In the beginning and Big Smoke, I grabbed a taxicab and drove around until I had enough cash to buy the safehouse in Jefferson. Then I did the rest of the Taxi Driver mission, which is kind of cool because now any cab you get it in is magically equipped with nitro.

Then I did the Los Santos Courier mission which gives you some cash flow. Not that I needed cash, because I went to the OTB parlor and played the ponies until I made about $50K.

At this point I wanted to do that Gang Tags mission, but it's not unlocked yet. So I did Tagging up Turf first. Apparently since the restaurants aren't open, either, you don't get hungry. I did eventually do Ryder so I could get a phat cornrow do.

Then I did Cleaning the Hood and Drive-thru so I could go to the gym and get all pumped.

Then I got more serious about the side missions. I did Pimping by grabbing the Broadway that spawns behind the Going gas station in Little Mexico. Then I did the BMX challenge. Then I went up to Montgomery to do the Paramedic mission. It took me a couple of tries, but it's much easier than doing it in Los Santos.

Because of the free weapons that the Tags mission unlocks, I'm flush with molotovs. I used some to start a fire on Ganton boulevard, then stole the firetruck and drove it to northeast Red County to do the Firefighter mission. That didn't take too long. Now that I'm fireproof, the molotovs are much more fun.

Vigilante
Next I want to do Vigilante but I'm not sure how to do this in Los Santos/Red County. My first time through I stole a tank and did the mission with that vehicle, which is nice because they can't blow you up. I don't know if I can get to the restricted areas and back with the automatic four-star rating that straying into unlocked areas earns you. So the choices are to try to attract a tank by getting a five-star rating or use another vehicle.

I tried to get a five star wanted rating in Palamino Creek, where there's a nice building with a two-level roof. Using molotovs I blew up cars, then cop cars, then I could hide in the corner of the rooftop and shoot down the helicopters. But eventually they got the better of me before I could get more than 4 stars.

I also tried to get to the restricted area for the tank by breaking into the LS airport. The Shamal was too fast to bail out of, I took the Dodo (right by the pilot's entrance) and was able to land in the restricted area without hurting myself. You get a four-star rating for crossing into Las Venturas/Bone Country, and then Hydras show up to try to shoot you down. You can dodge the missiles by pulling up quickly.

What's cool is that the cops won't enter the Restricted Area, so if you land there you can hang out and taunt the cops. What sucks is that there is no tank. The only vehicle in the Restricted Area at this point of the game is a Barracks and a cargo helicopter. What a drag!

In the meantime, I knocked out teh 8-Track race pretty quickly; much easier than the first time around. I guess I'm just better at driving; all I had to do once I go into 1st place was not crash. I also hit the ponies a few more times to get up to almost $1 million; then I bought all the safehouses in Los Santos. I think Vigilante is the only non-story mission open to me at this point.