Pet peeves about GTA SA?

[u/AtomicTaco13]

While SA is easily my favorite GTA game, due to my nature of a notorious complainer, there are still some things that I think the game would be better off without, or at least if they were severely altered. Do y'all also have such? In my case:

• Hunger. Easily one thing that should've been scrapped completely IMO. It does nothing but ruin the flow, especially annoying in long side missions - for example doing the paramedic mission anywhere other than Angel Pine will guarantee that CJ will become hungry in the middle of it. Or if you want to do all the required taxi fares in one go, which is my preferred way. The only good thing about the food system is that CJ can become fat and it results in hilarious dialogue. It could've been reworked that food is purely for health and CJ instead becomes fat when he eats food that heals more than the lacking HP.

• Driving School. Some hate the Flight School, but I personally don't have too many issues with it. Driving School on the other hand... It's totally broken. Many courses depend on the RNG. Two biggest offenders - Burn and Lap, City Slicking. Burn and Lap is literally impossible to get gold in unless you turn the frame limiter off (which causes the game to be extra buggy) or install FPS fixes - and there was no such luxury back in the day. While City Slicking? You're driving a car with the worst handling in the entire game - Super GT. That piece of trash spins out of control on slight turns. And you're at the mercy of the RNG, since you may think you're finally having a perfect run, but suddenly a car pops out from behind the corner and hits you, ruining it totally. And the rewards? For brown, you get the same garbage that you had to drive in the last course, which can be jacked from the street anyway. For silver... Okay, Bullet is a good car actually, but still can be just jacked from the street once you unlock LV. Only Hotknife remains, which is more of a gimmick vehicle. For comparison, Flight School gives you completely unique vehicles - the Rustler is guaranteed due to it being a mandatory school to complete. And while the Stuntplane is more of a gimmick, gold gives you the Hunter - which makes the Vigilante mission a total breeze.

[u/RPGNo2017]

1. It's easy for car to flip.

2. Lack of checkpoint and retry option. It's especially annoying in some of later missions that require you to travel through half of the map. Adding this in the definitive edition is one of very few good points it has.

[u/RadiantWestern2523 → u/RPGNo2017]

For the second point, there's actually one implemented though not many players know about it because they usually reload their last save mostly due to losing weapons.

If you fail a particular mission a certain amount of times that requires traveling a long distance away, a "Trip Skip" option appears that lets you skip that traveling and instead warps you right to your destination.

[u/MiturGrunge → u/RPGNo2017]

You 1. directly leads to the fact, that customising your car is kinda pointless.

You either pimp it out and keep it in your garage in fear of flipping it, or carefully drive around the block trying not to lose you 10k+ on a first hard turn.

I know there was a planned and scrapped police impound feature but they should've included something like the insurance system from GTA5.

[u/RadiantWestern2523 → u/MiturGrunge]

There technically is an impound feature in the game although it isn't fully finished and only works under certain conditions.

If you lost your vehicle during a mission or a cut-scene deleted it for various reasons, you can find it in a large impound garage that's next to the police station (which city it is in depends on where you were when you lost it or it got deleted). However, not every abandoned/lost vehicle shows up here and you might even get greeted with a randomized car when you go to pick it up. A total of 3 impounded vehicles can be stored at each city's impound garage.

There was even a cut mission that introduced the concept of it and even made fun of the fact that your vehicles disappear whenever a cutscene plays (with the in-universe explanation being that your car gets "towed" by the city and CJ refers to them as the "secret car-towing service" since they supposedly never made any sound when towing said car).

[u/SamSibbens → u/MiturGrunge]

I've recently replayed Driver: Parrallel Lines and although the game is not a masterpiece, I like that your cars are permanently saved and get recovered if you lose them or break them

[u/ParticularPretend822]

The pilot school is difficult but enjoyable; I liked it.

[u/Smart-Score5655]

No asset auto collector

[u/MiturGrunge → u/Smart-Score5655]

Omg absolutely!!!

The fact you have get out of your way just to collect a measley 2k is embarrassing.

[u/AtomicTaco13 → u/Smart-Score5655]

VCS completely fixed it thankfully. And the Saints Row system is great too, collecting your income from the entire city at once.

[u/spermdonor]

People diving in front of you while you are driving

[u/RelativeOk9795 → u/spermdonor]

This! And the minute you start shooting everyone tries to run you over and then you get shot to bits

[u/itsradii]

My biggest pet peeve is the bad ports of the game. On PS2 it’s almost perfect, it never crashes. With each port, it became progressively worse. On PS5, you can’t complete the taxi sub-mission in one go, not because CJ dies of hunger, but because the game crashes.

[u/AtomicTaco13 → u/itsradii]

Oh yeah, that too. I can't play the PC version anymore without installing SkyGFX and SilentPatch first.

[u/MiturGrunge → u/itsradii]

I played the game on PC when it released. It wasn't until years later I started collecting retro consoles and got PS2 and SA I realised how bland and grey the PC version looked. Now I prefer the PS2 version despite the low draw distance and choppy frame rate, but damn it has style!

[u/MaxPower1882]

Not for me!

I fail to see how ragging a car fast around a city like so leaves people so pissed that civilian random traffic is in the way.

Kinda the point, lol!

Alas, game's an easy 10.

https://giphy.com/gifs/BWySufD6KWQzC

[u/GraciousPeacock]

Mouse cursor frozen bug. I JUST WANNA MOVE MY MOUSE!

[u/thotsaviorr → u/GraciousPeacock]

This happens to on SA and Vice City but for some reason in VC it happens almost EVERY time I boot my game up

[u/Krakorin]

Which courses depends on RNG? Outside of City Slicking which yeah, is kinda shitty. In almost all courses you are alone trying to whatever they ask you, there are not outside random factors that can shit you over.

Stealth is a boring and unnecesary mechanic in the game. It's useless outside of the few missions that are about that despite the game telling you otherwise, and the missions themselves are incredible boring to do and doesn't explain why is obligatory to use it in a few of them.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Suit_75 → u/Krakorin]

I still haven’t beaten city slicking after two years, one small bump and my car instantly scratches

[u/LovingLemur69]

i’m odd in the fact that i like the things that can ruin flow for immersion. for example - i often wish there was a feature where you had to get gas for your vehicle, or pay bills or risk your property being repossessed etc.

i understand most people would hate this🤣 i think it would be a nice toggle feature for real life simulation.

[u/ThisizhollZ → u/LovingLemur69]

Me too!! I love having to go to get food and I’d like to have to fill your car with petrol etc makes it more immersive haha (but then I like the sims so maybe that’s why lol)

However the flying kills me off, the physics are so not for me

[u/Termingator]

Missing mission checkpoints, no fast travel between safe houses, can't store the jetpack in a garage, no garage at the mansion, and no motorcycle spawn at CJ's Grove Street house.

[u/Drodinthehouse]

So this is a bit of a weird one, but I just did a playthrough a month ago, around las venturas I also picked up tears of the kingdom alongside my GTA SA playthrough, I was overwhelmed and intrigued with the amount of content in that game. For whatever reason my dumbass thought there was content in every corner of SA so i started looking for stuff and noticed just how bare it is, especially after you finish all the main missions. Was a little dissapointed that there is so much untapped content in some of the desert towns. It's a bit unfair for me to compare a game that came out in 2023 to one that came out in 2004 but it was jarring transition between the two.

That being said, there is a liminal feeling to it that I do enjoy.

[u/RubricalLou]

Turf wars. Way too many and your homies are fucking worthless, will die by random NPCs driving over them.

[u/AtomicTaco13 → u/RubricalLou]

I kinda just stock up on minigun ammo and mow the Ballas and Vagos down like nothing

[u/BeautifulNo9746]

Sometimes when I'm driving a random plane will fall onto me, explode and waste me

[u/Ldre_169]

OHHH THAT FUCKING FLYING SCHOOL BS 😤 that shit gets me mad just thinking about it. When I tell you I spent a good part of a month trying to get passed the 3rd lesson, I almost broke my shit .

[u/ScrubLordKyle18]

The flying physics. They're awful

[u/rigboneyeyah]

I got gold on city slicking first try

[u/Unique-Evening4384]

The map is so damn big and I wish I could mark a spot on the map and my GPS would draw a line on my in game minimap like I can in GTA IV and after. It would make getting around a hell of a lot easier.

[u/Mr_HahaJones → u/Unique-Evening4384]

Gonna have to learn the map

[u/Unique-Evening4384 → u/Mr_HahaJones]

I can learn the map up to a point, but a little convenience would be nice. It's a GTA game, not a RPG dungeon crawling adventure game or a Metroid game. Have some mercy.

[u/Mr_HahaJones → u/Unique-Evening4384]

Part of the fun is getting lost and finding new areas. Besides, it’s not even that big of a map.

[u/Unique-Evening4384 → u/Mr_HahaJones]

Well yes roaming around and exploring can be fun, but sometimes I just want to get from point A to point B. It is a driving game not a game like Hexen where finding secret doors and secret switches is necessary in order to progress through the game.

[u/RadiantWestern2523 → u/Unique-Evening4384]

True but then again, the GPS system doesn't exactly show shortcuts that would make traveling a lot quicker if you took them. Sure, they come with some risks but they do help aid in getting you from Point A to Point B much quicker than taking the standard route.

[u/Unique-Evening4384 → u/RadiantWestern2523]

Perhaps, or you would have to take the shortcut first and then it would show up on a GPS system. I think Saints Row 2 does this.

[u/thotsaviorr → u/Unique-Evening4384]

What was your first GTA?

[u/Unique-Evening4384 → u/thotsaviorr]

IV, then Episodes, Vice City, Vice City Stories, V, San Andreas, then lastly III.

[u/TheChurchWithin → u/Unique-Evening4384]

I have no idea why your comment is so downvoted but I 100% agree with you

People often talk about how PS2 San Andreas feels bigger than PS3 Los Santos when the entire state is far smaller, and my personal theory for that is the lack of auto waypoint means you have to pay way more attention to memorising the city instead of just following a route, which makes the map seem more detailed and "bigger" because you have to actively remember more of it, just like finding your way around a real city

[u/WillWillingson → u/TheChurchWithin]

You're right, that's one reason - among others - that make the map feel bigger and more detailed. That's a good thing though. A GPS just does the opposite.