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***Official Xbox GTA Tips/FAQ Thread*** (1 Viewer)

Matt Butler

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I know theres a couple GTA threads regarding the new XBox release but I need a bit of help and wanted to start a thread about it.

Ive played the PS2 version for a while but sold my ps2 and am startng over with the XBX version. I have the manual and am searching for the hidden packages. I cant find the one on the rooftop across from Washington Mall. Do I do a stunt jump or is there a stairway?

Help?!
 

Matt Butler

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Rob,
I wish I could go to gamefaqs but I dont have a computer at home and game sites are firewalled at work.

Thanks though,
Matt
 

Jay Mitchosky

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I'm going to make this the official GTA-X Tips/FAQ thread. Not to be confused with the general review/discussion thread concurrently active.
 

Scott_lb

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Can anyone offer any tips on how to complete the mission called "Death Row" (where Lance has been captured and you have to drive in a save him before his health meter runs out)? I have played this level 10 times tonight (including with cheats) and still cannot pass it. Basically, here's what I've been doing:

1. I drive a sports car outside The Malibu to start the mission.

2. I race over to the junkyard where they are holding Lance in a very timely manner, although it takes forever since it's on the other side of town.

3. I head to the entrance of the junkyard and run over the two or three guys guarding the entrance, and my car explodes shortly thereafter from being shot at.

4. I run/sprint towards the yellow marker where Lance is being held in the hangar and confront about 12 guys along the way. I use the automatic shotgun to take them out as quickly as possible, but sustain heavy damage along the way. Also, the camera wigs out every time, and I can barely tell where the enemies are coming from.

5. Right before I get to the hangar, I confront the sniper on top of a building. I equip an M-16 or sniper rifle, the camera changes to the complete opposite direction, and I take out the enemy sniper after re-orienting myself (meanwhile, Lance is continuing to lose health while I babysit the camera).

6. I re-equip the automatic shotgun, head to the hangar, and take out the three or four guys in the hangar. The camera isn't much of an issue here because the enemies are pretty much all coming from the same direction.

7. I walk over to Lance, who has about 15% energy left (at most) and he gets up out of his chair. In about 4 seconds, he dies because he runs out of energy (even though no enemies are around to hurt him). I once had a car with me when I reached this point, got him out of his chair, and he wouldn't even enter the car (and died as a result).

What the heck am I supposed to do here? After I arrive at the junkyard, Lance's health is about 50% because it takes so long to get over to the other end of town. After I arrive, there are so many enemies to take out that I have no idea how to kill them in a timely manner so Lance will still have enough health left when all enemies are taken out (then again, even if he did, I have no idea if he would actually even do anything since he didn't enter the car the first time).

Rant on:

All in all, I'm pretty frustrated with this game. It's frozen up on me five times already, I've been pulled out of my car on the street going around 30mph, on some occasions I've shot enemies with heavy guns multiple times to no avail, and I've been mysteriously killed by enemies through concrete walls. I realize that many, many people absolutely love this game but I'm having a hard time seeing the attraction to it (especially when compared to other AAA titles that were out at the same time).

Rant off.
 

Scott Weinberg

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I'd offer some help, Scott, but I'm not even up to that part yet.

As cool as these games are (and they're VERY cool), they still have that same problem: when the levels suddenly get much harder, the game becomes too monotonous.

Or maybe I just suck at it. :D
 

James T

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For the Death Row mission, it seems like you have a good start Scott. You may want to consider hoping into the garbge truck once in the junkyard for extra cover. You don't have to kill evyerone to get to Lance, just those in your way. If you can outruun the gun fire and make it to Lance, then the 2nd part of the mission takes place.
 

Keith_R

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You might want to use a helicopter for that death row mission. Fly it over to the area, land it on a building next to the junkyard and snipe out as many guys as you can see. I believe that is what I did to beat it, took a few tries though.
 

Andy Sheets

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7. I walk over to Lance, who has about 15% energy left (at most) and he gets up out of his chair. In about 4 seconds, he dies because he runs out of energy (even though no enemies are around to hurt him). I once had a car with me when I reached this point, got him out of his chair, and he wouldn't even enter the car (and died as a result).
Huh. That's odd to me because I just played this mission last night and, IIRC, the health meter for Lance should disappear once you get him out of the chair. Maybe I'm just misremembering and it goes away once he's in the car (which is to the right of the warehouse he's in). From some of the comments you made, it sounds like your copy of the game is unusually flaky.

Anyway, when I did the mission, I used the sniper rifle to take out of the first few guys in front, then I switched to the submachine gun to take out everyone else. It's not the MAC10, but the bigger one (I forget the name of it). It has a good range and power so you get a nice balance between taking aim at the bad guys before they reach you while still being able to move quickly. I also like to stop at the Ammunation and get body armor before dangerous missions like that one. I still took a bunch of hits but at least I was able to get to Lance with a reasonable amount of time to spare.
 

Matt Butler

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I played that level when I had Ps2 and its is indeed a bitch. Took me forever.

Im not that far on the XBox version yet though. And IIRC Lance's health meter disappears after you pick him up in the hanger
 

Kenny Goldin

Second Unit
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Sep 3, 2000
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Do some cheat codes still lock up the game? I had the PS2 version and if you did the cheat that made tanks appear, the game would freeze up or not load or something the next time around (I forget what exactly happend it has been a long time since I bothered).
 

Scott_lb

Supporting Actor
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After playing through it a few more times, I am now able to get half-way through the entire mission. First off, Lance did indeed "die" after standing up from his chair, although his health meter didn't appear on the screen any longer. I could swear that I took out all enemies before getting to him both times, and he may have died because he had very low health. I was able to finally take out the enemies by equipping the machine gun (which I used a code for) and full armor. However, two times this evening I was standing directly infront of two enemies at the junkyard (no more than what would be ten feet away in real life), held down the left trigger to lock-on to them, and the target never locked on and I was killed as a result. Other than that, no bugs.

However, despite my progress up to that point, I now cannot finish the second half of the level. I get into the car near the garage and head out to the hospital. On the way, I get completely swarmed by a half-dozen enemy cars who seem to smash into me every single time no matter how I try to evade them! The car blows up almost immediately (because cars tend to do that when six others ram into it) and the mission ends because Lance is killed in the explosion and I then have to start all over again.


Edit: I'd like to add something here. I realize that in both of my posts I seem pretty negative toward the game. I realize that there are an amazing number of people out there who absolutely love this game, and I'm not attempting to say "it sucks." It doesn't suck, I just don't understand why such a highly rated game seems to have bugs in it. I recall that when the PS2 version first came out, the only review I saw that covered the bugs was the review from Extended Play. They showed actual game footage of the "bugs in action" and my thoughts were, "Gee... I'd anticipate these bugs being fixed if the game ever comes out on Xbox." Now that it has, I'm suprised that I encounter these types of problems when I play.
 

Scott_lb

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Progress update:

I can now easily take out all the enemies in the junkyard by using the small machine gun and save Lance in time (although there were still multiple times when I was standing right in front of an enemy and pressed the auto-target button only to end up targeting a cement wall instead). For the life of me, I cannot complete the second half of the mission (taking Lance to the hospital while 5 or 6 heat-seeking missles, err... enemy cars, follow you on the way. I've tried:

1. Using a "crotch rocket" motorcycle with Lance on the back. I thought since it has the most nimble handling and fastest speed that it would provide the greatest chance of out-running the bad guys on the way to the hospital. Nope. I get swarmed immediately with no chance of escape.

2. Using a sports car that I bring in with me to the junkyard - However, after I pick up Lance, my Porsche mysteriously disappears so I can no longer use it (and no, it was not destroyed by enemies).

3. I implemented the "tank code" which ends the mission when you try to leave the junkyard. The tank drops down right in front of the entrance facing the wrong direction and is stuck between the entry posts. Therefore, because it's stuck, you can't get out and the mission ends.

4. Using the standard sedan parked next to the garage (including using the "perfect handling" code). I've tried this about 8 times, and every single time I exit the junkyard I am swarmed by the enemy cars and my own car gets flipped over and explodes almost immediately after. I can make it out in time and get far enough away, but Lance simply stands next to it and gets caught in the explosion. After all, why try to get away from a car that's about to explode?

5. I've tried staying on foot, equiping the largest machine gun possible and taking out the enemies. No matter where I am standing or how much I am firing at them, every car swarms onto me like bees to honey and Lance and I are killed. I've tried this both outside and inside the junkyard.

6. I've read that a helicoptor makes things easier since you simply fly over the enemy cars to the hospital and take them out from the roof. I understand that, however, the guide that I've been using states that helicopters are not available yet in the game (and I cannot find a code to get one either).

Therefore, I have absolutely no idea what to do (although trading it in at Gamestop is looking pretty good right now). Thoughts?


"As cool as these games are (and they're VERY cool), they still have that same problem: when the levels suddenly get much harder, the game becomes too monotonous." - I completely agree!


Kenny - when I entered cheat codes on the Xbox version the game did not lock up. However, when entering codes for "perfect handling" or for spawning a tank, I had to enter the code at least 4 times for it to work. I know that I entered the code correctly because it says "cheat activated" in the upper left-corner of the screen. This happened every single time I tried using the code, by the way.
 

Todd Terwilliger

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I just picked up the pack today so I haven't had much progress yet but I'll definitely keep these tips in mind when I get to that mission!
 

Matt Butler

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Scott
You have access to a helicopter right now. There is one on the roof of the Police staion in Downtown. Go to Starfish island; go over the bridge to the second island and go right when you are facing the doughnut shop. Once the street starts to curve to the left and all the buildings are white start looking for a police car parked on the side of a buliding on the corner go to the stairs in the back. Go to the roof and voila: Police Maverick!

It is like stealing candy from a baby! :D

Also when you buy Hyman condos on the second Island there is a chopper on the roof.
 

Scott Weinberg

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Maybe I just suck, but these are the missions I'm stuck on:

1. Ringing Phone tells me to assassinate a bunch of people. I cannot kill the last guy (on a motorcycle).

2. Boat race. The handling of the boat is too loagy. I'm not good.

3. The Cubans want me to do a stunt schpiel with the boat.

I've been stuck on these for a while. Don't laugh at me. :frowning:
 

Matt Butler

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Scott,
You dont suck. Some of the missions are really tough I think. 2 and 3 Ive never played. No 1 I tried once or twice. Practice driving a bit before trying again. Ive discovered that driving and manuvering (sp?) as well as time management is key to some of these missions.

Just an idea as to how much Ive played this game:
I used to have a Ps2 (as I mentioned in other threads), and have played VC relentlessly between myself and at a friends house. Before I got rid of my system I had just bought the strip club and was about two or three missions past aquiring the Diaz mansion. I had had about 23 hidden packages.

Right now since starting over on the XBox version; I just finished "Demolition Man", "Phantom Phenoh (sp?)", and have 60 hidden packages (just got the minigun :D ).

Now some of the missions are a bitch. Ill be honest, im not looking forward to the Death Row at all. If you need any help post here and/or PM me here on the forum. Im not an expert and I have alot work to do and missions I havent even seen; but I can give alot of advice and tips when I can.
 

Scott_lb

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Scott (I feel like I'm talking to myself here):
I agree that you don't suck. What frustrates me about some of these games is that unlike during my "younger years", I simply don't have time to replay a certain level over and over and over again because I have more responsibilities that require a larger amount of my time (like many others). Growing up, I must have played hundreds of hours of Gauntlet, Ninja Gaiden, and Phantasy Star with my best friend. Whenver we got stuck, we would literally sit there for hours (or days) on end until we figured it out. Like many people, I simply don't have that kind of time anymore. Therefore, I get pretty frustrated when a game suddenly raises the difficulty level significantly above the "difficulty tempo" that has been building and my progress is suddently stunted. The two most recent games to do this are Vice City and Voodoo Vince. I read Matt's advice about using the helicopter today but haven't had the chance to sit down and try it out yet. Regarding Voodoo Vince, I have looked for online guides and found none (including gamefaqs.com), looked for printed strategy guides at book/gamestores and found none, and utilized the help of some people on this form to no avail. I am 100% clueless as to what I should do, and I'm only on the second or third level. I only paid twenty bucks for it, and I can get sixteen at Gamestop right now. However, I feel like I have to get past this level out of obligation. Also, I've really enjoyed the game up until that point and would like to see what lies ahead. I have the feeling that I will never be able to do so, however.

Based upon my expereinces with certain games over the past few years, I have decided that I'm going to purchase far less games than I do right now but those that I do purchase will only be AAA titles (Doom 3, Half-Life 2, Halo 2, etc.). Sure those games may contain a similar "problem", however, I would have fewer games so I could allocate more time to each one.
 

Matt Butler

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I forgot how hard Autocide was!! AARRGH! No Scott you dont suck (or we both do indeed suck!) ;).

Oh and go to Prawn Island, go over the bride and the first buidling on the right once you get into downtown has a sign on the front reading VCN (blue lettering). Go inside and you will be magically on the roof. Hence a helicopter will appear once you go up a ramp. I wasnt sure how to get this one when I posted the directions on aquiring the police chopper before. I just found this one Sat night.

Good luck!

Scott W,
On Autocide, how do you get past the two guys, (one on foot, one in truck)? I always get shot up, busted by cops or chase they guy in the truck forever. Any advice?
 

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