I'll probably get it in the next couple of days, no later than Sunday. How big is the city?

crookshow wrote:

I'm loving it...got it this morning and have been playing it just about all day. I'm about 14% complete as of now. I'm not sure exactly how big the city is as I've only traveled within a few areas of the map so far. It seems to me as if the overall map is not as big as it was in San Andreas, but it is much more concentrated. In San Andreas, you had those huge desert and back country areas connecting the 3 different cities, but there was a lot of empty space out there, making it seem larger than it actually was. This time, the actual city seems to take up the entire map and everything is much more detailed overall. Also, if you have the 360 version there's going to be additional maps available as DLC. Anyway, there seems to be so much to do in the game it's pretty overwhelming at first. Can't wait to explore everything...

I don't wanna ask too many questions because I'm sure you'd rather be playing it than answering questions, and I'll have it in a few days anyways. But is there a lot more buildings than you could go into in the past games, or about the same from what you can tell? In the past, you've never really been able to go into very many places.

I always thought it would be awesome to be able to run through an apartment, out the fire escape to access rooftops and stuff, like you see in movies or cop shows where the criminals are running from the cops, jumping rooftops and stuff.

crookshow wrote:

It's cool. I'm done playing for the night anyway. It's funny you mention rooftops because in one of the early missions, you need to kill this guy and your literally jumping from rooftop to rooftop as you chase after him. It has a movie type feel to it and its pretty sweet. In another mission I had to chase a drug dealer through alleys and then up like 6 or 7 stories in some apartment tower and into his unit before getting into a shootout with him and his crew. You can take cover behind walls and objects now, giving shoot outs a much more realistic feel. Anyway, outside of the general buildings you always have access to (ie safehouses, restaurants, stores, internet cafe, etc.) it seems like you can only enter buildings during specific missions. Even then, access seems to be fairly limited. If you're in a building, for example, you won't be able to explore all the rooms, just the places that are relevant to the mission at hand. I haven't even really begun exploring for the most part so this may not always hold true, but it is my understanding so far...

I always thought it would be awesome to be able to have more access to the houses and buildings in the game. Banks would be a good one. Going in the mall was great in Vice City, hoping in the car and driving through the mall or popping a cap in someone's ass in the food court.

I like the idea of breaking into houses, and I don't just mean the way you with the van in San Andreas. I mean more like the way you kick in the doors of closed stores in Saint's Row. It doesn't even have to be that complex. They could have one or two generic layouts for the different types of homes (lower, middle, upper class, mansions, appartments, etc).

At any rate, I'm pumped. My brother-in-law is in the military and he will be home for a few days so we are going to visit my in-laws, then I'll be visiting my parents for a week. So, I'll be taking my 360 with me. I've got a place to go where they are never sold out of systems/games. So I shouldn't have to worry about it being sold out. So while I'm on vacation, even though I'll be visiting people, I should still get quite a bit of playing time to really get into the game.