CayceG

Everything I learn makes me more sad, without fail.

Diamond Joe is back behind the wheel, peeling out and laying down rubber for America.

Even then... seems fine.

In continuing my playthrough of GTA3, I had forgotten some of the little difficulties that come about with doing side missions. I'm still in Portland and just unlocked Don Salvatore's missions. This means that the Triads now hate me... That made El Burro's pay phone missions a little more difficult. Same for the Ambulance missions where you have to pick up patients. I chose to do those last night while ONLY the Triads hate me instead of them AND the Mafia with their shotguns. In GTA3, if you don't recall, the ambulance missions requires you to successfully complete Level 12 to get some powerups at your hideout and count towards 100%. They're easiest in Portland since it's a little smaller and laid out in a nice grid. Well, it took me over an hour last night, but I did it. Got it out of the way early. What I did back when I was 14 was I used the health cheat to restore my ambulance's health (no shame). The issue I discovered in the Definitive Edition is that with the modern controller layout, the health cheat uses one of the buttons that toggles the missions on/off. So the first time I used it, I ended the mission. PRO TIP: If you decide to use cheats during these Ambulance/Vigilante/Taxi/Firefighter missions, change your control layout to Classic or whatever it is where X is accelerate and Square is brake. That'll free up the D-pad for your health cheat and move the mission toggle from Up to R3. It's slightly frustrating it doesn't have an option to allow me to remap individual buttons, but I made it work. At least the ambulance missions are done and out of the way. That said, it's a joy to revisit this game in HD with better controls. But the rain effect does blow dicks.

Not gonna lie, I am really looking forward to the procedural stuff that comes out after QE2's death. It just seems like such a big, monumental event for such a small, unimportant country, that I'm eager to experience it!

That fucking moron. I just noticed that his Emergency Services pullover has his full name on it: "BILL LEE" He's such a putz.

Does Inuk run through the leaves and shovel them with his nose? I wish my dog did, but he doesn't care. He does it with snow though...

Naked Feet (and) Toes

I maintain that getting rid of pork barrel spending was one of the worst funding-related legislation decisions in our lifetimes.

Not Guilty by lunch time.

In other news, I've spent my lunch break collecting hidden packages. I've got all 30 in Portland that I can get for now. So I'll have a steady stream of 9mm, Uzi, and Grenades at the hideout. And I've got an ice cream van stashed in my garage for when I want to do those missions. Those were notoriously hard to find.

Hang on to that memory. I'm sorry for your loss. I remember when Vice City came over, me and a buddy from school picked it up at the game store, then went to my house. He stayed over and we took turns playing missions well into the wee hours. The soundtrack blew us away. What a time. The nostalgia alone is worth the money.

UPDATE! GTA3 just finished downloading. It looks amazing. Free-camera is a godsend and the physics feel just like how I remember them. I have already driven over a mafia gang member and stolen his 9mm. I have 6 bullets and have stolen a Patriot. It's very difficult to come back to my work computer and do big boy tasks.

Yeah. It isn't the FULL radio, but because of how extensive it is already, I don't think it's the end of the world. I do worry about the future, though, for when the licensing for others run out and there's auto-updates. But again, they're all on spotify.

Man, that is really disappointing about the soundtracks. I understand it, but it still sucks. Good thing Spotify has the stations as playlists Regardless, this will be a great shot of nostalgia for me. They hit the PS store in about an hour, so I'll be downloading them then. I'm extremely excited. And just to think... I met all you people purely because I signed up for IGN in 2001 when GTA3 came out. I cut my teeth on the GTA boards of IGN. I was there when Noops-n-Gleh flew the Dodo for something like 24 hours. I was there for the Vice City stunt crew that made some incredible videos out of that board. The worst part here is that I'm going on a weekend trip tomorrow and won't get back until Monday night. I won't be able to lock myself in my house and while away the hours on GTA!

That is an act of violence in support of Irish nationalism, and I am absolutely here for it.

Yeah. I know some of us might think Huey Long really would have been great for the country... But people like that are dangerous.

Yeah. We all knew Biden wasn't going to punish any of the shit that went on. And THAT was what was going to make us slide just a little further into the abyss.

That does look really nice. But when you led off with "My wife decided to do some landscaping..." the rest of the post did NOT go where I thought it was headed

Come on.

We had white tile floors and would sometimes write our Spanish vocabulary answers for a quiz on the floor in pencil before the teacher came in. Wiped right off afterward.

Essentially, what happens is that crowds in the back push forward and the people at the front get compressed. It sort of happens in waves, so there are "pulses" that act on the people up front who are hemmed in by some barrier or the stage itself. It happens more than you think: List of human stampedes and crushes - Wikipedia EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Infrastructure bill passed the House. There's been so much maneuvering and back and forth, I have no idea what's in the bill at this point. Using The Squad's votes as a bellwether, though, that portents some small amount of doom.

Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster has rocketed to the top of my favorites of the Showa era. The movie is a little more serious and deals with the topic of pollution. And the film is done by a more avant-garde filmmaker that usually did documentaries. So it has a weirder artsy air to it. It's wonderful. That short was REALLY well done! Great effects and classic music. Seeing Hedorah take a giant bong rip off that exhaust stack was