The Bossman

That's alright. Also, forgot to mention for anyone else if they're struggling, alternate between holding the analogue stick up and down, depending on the waves you're going over. You should get the feel of it during the chase.

You have to adjust the pitch to get it to a decent speed - basically, on the analogue stick hold it up or down, up to tilt the boat forward, back to tilt the boat backward. Hold it back about halfway and you should get a little bit of extra speed. If you can get to the boat in the first place though, it shouldn't be too hard keeping pace.

I've got the guide book, so to answer your questions: 1. It depends where they appear, sometimes when you're driving around and you've completed a certain mission, the person icon will appear on the map. Their position never changes, so they'll still be there later if you don't bother doing their mission. 2. The most times you'll meet one character is 3 times, and that's with Brian, as you said, and Jeff, 'a jealous husband and quite neurotic, worrying himself to death about his wife cheating on him'. You meet Brian first near the beginning of the game, and you meet Jeff around halfway through the game. All other random characters you'll meet either once or twice, and that's it. 3. They'll only give you money when you finish the missions, it's just another way of getting cash. 4. They show up when you get reasonably close to them, they won't appear on the radar after finishing a mission, you have to be near them.

Don't know if this'll help, but I'll try. When I bowl, I always take 1 step to the left, then as I'm pulling back the stick, I push it forward as hard as possible, then you only need to make miniscule adjustments with the analogue stick and you should hopefully get a strike each time. If you follow what I said, the ball will go slightly out to the right hand side before cutting in at the middle, hopefully knocking all 10 down. On one great run I had, I consistently got 9 for the first go, then a spare for the 2nd. I took a pic of it as well with my mobile.

You mean Michelle, not Mallerie? Michelle, or Kate as she should be known, is the cop, not Mallerie. I was surprised at the ending too, that one of the characters had to die. I would have preferred Kate to die ahead of Roman though, because she's a sort of side character and you don't interact with her as much as Roman. And if you're reading this before you've finished the game, I've just ruined it for you - you shouldn't have clicked here in the first place, the topic does say spoilers after all.

MGS4, without a doubt. Saints Row is okay but won't get much attention, and Spore is a little too niche. Add to that the fact MGS4 is ending the series and is the first on current gen consoles, and a clear favourite emerges.

I got Norton Antivirus 2007 and the Windows Firewall, but I'll soon be changing to NOD32, which is supposed to be a great protection kit. Fucking piece of shit Norton, I bought a new licence key, entered it, and it still hasn't registered. I feel a few angry phone calls coming up. Not only that, their own customer service is atrocious. Nowhere to e-mail, and next to impossible to locate their contact helpline.

Call of Duty 4, bought it a few days ago, and I'm now on Act 2. What's with the crap textures, though? The grass, walls, mud, etc, all look abysmal, PS2 quality.

This, along with GTA4, were the main reasons for me to get a PS3, amongst other things. It's a shame it was delayed a few months back though, otherwise we'd have our hands on it now. I'm sparing myself from watching gameplay footage, UNLIKE GTA, because I know it'll completely blow me away during my first impressions. So many plot twists to be revealed - the Metal Gear Rex, Raiden as a robot, Eva - could Snake be her son? Why is Vamp back? Etc etc... I really can't wait.

The frame rate for the PS3 version is a tiny bit better than the 360 version with slightly smoother textures, but if you have a 60GB PS3, the frame rate will be hideous unless you download the new patch out. The reason it's slightly better is because you install the game to the hard drive before playing, around 7 mins to install, so it makes the load times quicker, as well as a few other things. I have a 40GB PS3 so I've had no issues with the game, occasionally it slows down when there's a lot on screen, but that applies to the game engine for both consoles. The 360 version will obviously have the DLC over the next few months, so therefore that's the better version. I'm trying to be as impartial as possible.

Possibly, I haven't seen them anywhere so maybe they're unlocked after achieving a specific objective. However, if you can unlock extra clothes, I hope it's equal for 360 and PS3, otherwise that would be unfair. It could even be DLC, but I doubt it. Either those options, or they scrapped them.

I've finished it, and I'm pleased with how the whole game went. It's very different from the traditional GTA format, you don't end up as the kingpin of the city like previous games, you're just one guy struggling to make a living, and maybe some people have been put off by that. It was made extremely clear though around the time by Rockstar, that it's a 'rags to better rags' tale. Around 1/3 of the missions are excellent, with 1/3 okay and the other 1/3 a bit dull and difficult, and it has lots of replay value. Not for the endings though, because you can just create 2 save files after the previous mission and then get both of them, but just creating havoc around the city. If you use cheats after finishing the game, even better. You know, I've just started again with cheats, and it's remarkable fun. I haven't yet got bored of it at all, I play it hours at a time and still want more after about 3 hours. So, if you are bored of it, make up your own rules - act as a normal pedestrian and drive around the whole city, only use RPGs in shootouts, fly the helicopter between the tightest gaps possible, explore every alleyway, kill every 'Flying Rat', etc etc. The whole city is there for you to muck around in, it's just your imagination, or lack of, that's restricting the experience.

The article isn't bad, but it's a bit bland. If they had a few shortlists of songs to listen to, e.g. a top 3 best and worst songs, where to hear them and where to buy them, along with other descriptions, then I'd be interested.

Alright, I've finished the game and I've got around 75% complete. I'll post more of my experiences tomorrow maybe, I'm too tired ATM.

I guess this is just mind games Rockstar are playing, but anything is possible. I'd love for it to return to SA, with the power of the current gen consoles, it would be amazing.

Occasionally a friend might e-mail or text you, mentioning a few people that could be perfect matches for you. I went on a date with Sobohoe, and after the 2nd date, I can phone her up at any time and get a free health boost, which is awesome after a long hard mission. She expects you to date her all the time though, so that's irritating. You can date men as well, if that's the sort of thing you like.

I did the mission today, and picked Playboy X, simply because he deserved to die and Dwayne didn't. Playboy was too cocky for his own good, even though he didn't do much to annoy you. I feel that Dwayne was just depressed. Also, I saved his girlfriend during the mission where you have to kill the person she's dating. You choose whether to kill her or let her live, and he's pleased you don't kill her - 'she's just an idiot.' Also -

I did it second time, it's best to memorise what way it goes TBH. At one point if you keep directly following it, it'll lead you to a dead end, so it's only at that point that you have to be wary and quickly dash around the nearest corner to catch up. Other than that, it's plain sailing. It's all down to your driving skills, though, and how busy the roads are during the mission. And I can also say the game hasn't glitched for me on that mission, and I'm using the 40GB PS3 for it. A quick restart should fix any problems.

Apart from that, I'm unaware of any others because I haven't got that far in the game, but I'm sure at least 1 more will become available on the 3rd island.

I just don't see how such an irrelevant feature matters so much to you. Have fun with the rest of the game, and don't worry about stupid things like this, it really doesn't matter.

You could always call up your contacts to do side jobs for them, eg for Roman picking up passengers, or for Jacob dropping off the drug packages, or even in a police car, if you're that far, using the system to locate crimes currently occurring. And to save money, always use Romans car service, or if you can't do that, steal a car. All the money you use for Taxis builds up after a little while.

^ I think the ability to climb up poles has gone as well, and I'm not sure about pushing people off buildings, I haven't got to a point where you can do that yet. Also, I haven't been able to withdraw and deposit money from ATM machines. I'm not really bothered that these are missing though, because I couldn't see myself climbing up poles anyway, and having all your weapons at hand just feels easier IMO.

Was there any doubt, after the wave of hype that surrounded the game? Of course not. Congrats Rockstar, you deserve all the plaudits for this game, it's truly something special.

The police system is great, looking up your current employers is great, seeing what they're wanted for and why. The internet is great as well, although a little limited IMO. Calling in fake alarms for the police, medics and fire brigade is great fun, and pushing people off their seats is hilarious, as is pushing them down stairs.

There's not a lot I don't like, but I do have a few irritations: You can't switch your aiming. By that I mean, you can't change to the left hand side to shoot around corners, except when you're up against cover. Apart from that, you're stuck shooting via the right hand side. The handling of the cars is a little too heavy for my liking, and car chases don't have the same excitement as before, unless you're on a fairly straight motorway. The fighting system is poor - you don't move quick enough during the fight, and there are only 2 or 3 different punches you can do, with 1 or 2 kicks. This might change later in the game, I'm just basing my opinion on what I've experienced so far. I get knocked off my feet too often by idiotic drivers. There isn't as much interaction with pedestrians. Lastly, running up and down stairs looks silly. His legs look broken when running down them, and he's like a tortoise running up them. Ohter than those small irritations, the game is excellent.