Forgive me. I don't normally open topics just to deride upcoming movies, but I couldn't let this one slide. I'm not a fan of the Carribean franchise, although I didn't mind the first and the second was passable. The third, however, was a pile of codswallop that left my memory no sooner than it had entered it.

Now, obviously for pure cash-in purposes, we're on to Pirates of the Carribean 4: Johnny Depp Collects Another Pay Cheque. I watched the trailer for this movie out of pure desperation for a trailer that I haven't seen (I'm big on trailers for some bizarre reason), and I gotta say...even the trailer had me reaching for a pillow and blanky. The Fountain of Youth? Blackbeard (who was an ACTUAL pirate)? Penelope fucking Cruz??? What is this shit? You'd think with the umpteen squillion dollars the original three movies made that they could have pieced together something even a tad better than that. Captain Jack Sparrow VS Godzilla would have sounded better...and that sounds like utter crap!

I only ever saw the one Pirates entry (Dead Man's Chest) at the cinemas, and I'll be making damn sure that doesn't change. I'll keep my $20 and spend it on custard tarts that I can hurl at old people as they wait outside the bank on pension day.

Let me know what ya think about the movie, guys - positive or negative.

DISCLAIMER: Any person or persons relating anything positive about the movie will be beaten soundly with a large chunk of Penelope Cruz's nose - she can spare it.

I decided to do a double feature for this week's Blast from the Past: No Mercy and Havoc. The former was made at a point in time when GTA Stunting was really beginning to gather steam. The newly formed aMpT forums were THE place to be for any budding stunter, and doing a vid that epitomized the community just seemed like the logical thing to do.

No Mercy was (as far as I can recall) the first official aMpT Forums Community Video. While there was only a handful of contributors for this one, the result is what I still consider to be the second best community video to date. The reason? It was entirely reflective of the community at that time. Everyone was a novice, both in regards to stunting and also to video editing. GTAFanatic (then a member of aMpT) was given the task of editing, and he did so using his trademark mix of style and subtlety (keep in mind that GTAF used WMM2). This is a stunters vid, showcasing some of the top-notch stunters at that point in time, with a kick-ass soundtrack and an almost tangible feeling of community.

Fun Fact: Ramboy's big spin was the rotation record at the time (later smashed by almost 2000 degrees).


No Mercy

Havoc (released only one month after No Mercy) was released as a kind of companion vid to No Mercy, despite the fact it featured less stunters. Having already tackled the inaugral community vid, the buzz surrounding this one was not so intense. Having said that, it did lure some of the best stunters in the community including Barney, Ramboy and LightsideKnight (GTAF's 5257 crew mate). GTAFanatic was again tasked with editing, and I can recall his decision to edit it much like No Mercy to give a connecting feature between the two vids. The stunts are fast, furious and cut to a track from the (then) upcoming San Andreas.

Fun fact: Yoman went on to become Urban Legend.


Havoc

These two vids began a GTA Stunting tradition. Every member of the community at the time had tremendous enthusiasm about the prospect of a vid featuring anyone in the community who decided to submit. It was a chance to stand shoulder to shoulder with the stunters who inspired and thrilled you when your PCJ still had training wheels.

Enjoy No Mercy and Havoc.

This is the first of 4 parts on the history of the ATS crew.

http://www.filefront.com/14803283/History-Of-ATS-pt1.wmv/

As the topic description suggests, this isn't the "crew vid". Technically it's A crew vid...just not THE crew vid. Aries, Neo, Knapman and I just put this together in the interim. It also kinda acts as Knap's introductory vid, seeing as how it was a little late to put him in the crew vid...the OTHER crew vid.

Anyways...enough of that nonsense. Enjoy.

Filefront Link Alternative

TGA Link Alternative

GTAS Youtube Alternative

Alternate (no pun intended) mirrors would be appreciated. The amount of woes I had getting this actually rendered, let alone uploaded is worthy of an epic themed vid. Cheers in advance.

I thought this might be a good idea as more and more people are getting into mission coding.

Post your questions about coding problems or coding ideas you can't quite figure out how to make work. Ensure that you post your code along with a description about the problem you're encountering. Keep in mind that this isn't meant to act as a holy saviour for you, as not all problems can be overcome. This thread is open to everyone for both questions and answers.

Almanac - Filefront Link

Almanac - TGA Link

This is a vid I wanted to do ages ago...finally got around to it. I was lazy with the creds, and I have one typo...but close enough is good enough  

Enjoy  

Okay...so I've got some time on my hands and I decided to do up a review of GTA IV...just for the hell of it. I'm yet to get my 100% finish of the game, but I'm far enough to give a valid opinion. I'll just go ahead and break this sucker up into sections. It'll be lengthy, yes...but...but I don't know how to finish that sentence.


Story & characters:

Well I found the story to be a little uninspired and lazy. It seems that anyone of Eastern European origin appearing in a video game lately has invariably been involved in some un-named war. The old tale of the insatiable need for vengeance, and the price one often has to pay to exact it has been around since Moby Dick. I suppose the story side of a video game will always suffer when so much attention and budget is being focused on the technological aspect.

On the other hand, Niko is probably one of the best and most believable GTA characters. His whole demeanor and attitude toward other characters is just so incredibly stylish and cool. He's the European version of Jules Winnfield from Pulp Fiction (Sam L Jackson's character). Unfortunately most of the other characters are either cliched, underused or just plain irritating. I chose to kill Playboy mainly because I saw Dwayne as another cool character when he first entered the story...alas it didn't take long for him to become a whining, melodramatic head-case. Outside of Niko, Packie and Gerry were about the only characters that were entertaining.

Gameplay & Missions:

Might sound like the same thing, but bare with me. Gameplay is more about everything that happens between missions: driving cars, interacting with the city, etc. This is one of the game's high points - particularly in reference to driving. I'm on the XB360 version of GTA IV, so I don't know whether the same can be said about the PS3 version, but driving cars around is a sheer joy. The amount of control you have over speed, braking and steering just makes driving a lovely experience. It almost doesn't matter what piece of shit car you're driving - it's still fun to drive. In a city so large, driving from location to location could easily become an annoying chore (as it tended to become in SA...*shudder*), but driving is so fluid that you almost can't wait to go somewhere. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about bikes. Lynch me if you must, but the bikes in GTA IV suck major ass...but I'll go into that in more detail later.

The city itself offers interactivity on a level that I've personally never seen in a game. Although the player's physical limitations make exploration a bit stagnant, it is still fun to occasionally take a stroll and just people watch. My only real beef with the player on foot was somewhat clunky controls. This having to turn around, rather than pivoting on the one spot (which people actually can do, believe it or not) could make accurate maneuvering of the player sometimes frustrating. Of course, it's something the player ultimately adapted to, but that didn't make it any less annoying.

Combat was another slight sore point for me. A bit of a trial initially, it wasn't long before it became second nature. However, I just thought it to be a little indirect at times. Crouching for cover is a nice addition to the combat mechanics, but there were too many inconsistencies in what you could and couldn't take cover behind, and a little too much room for error in regards to taking cover behind the wrong thing. Thankfully any clunkiness of the combat system was more than made up for by much more frenetic combat than in past GTA outings. In scripted missions it was much more elaborate and movie-like, but even just equipping yourself up for a random bout of mayhem out on the city streets made for some hectic thrills and spills. It's the kind of combat you'd expect to see in a COD episode or a Tom Clancy game...only better.

On the missions side of things...I'm kind of half in, half out. While some of the missions really stood out (Four Leaf Clover being the best GTA mission I've ever played), the percentage of these gems was way too small. A lot of missions were uncreative and just plain blah. One mission in particular saw you having to ferry a truck laiden with explosives to a location before exiting said truck and triggering said explosives...that old gag's been around since GTA 2. Missions like Three Leaf Clover: lengthy, exciting, intense...that's what I was really hoping to see much more of. On the upside, the mission structure was nice (via mobile contacts), and the ability to replay a mission without having to cart yourself off to the origin point was a gem of an idea.

Graphics & Sound:

It goes without saying that this is where the game excels. To now go back and play within GTA III's version of Liberty City would be tantamount to breaking off your relationship with Jessica Alba to start afresh with Estelle Getty. The city looks and sounds so much like a true functioning city that you can be excused for talking with friends about New York like you've actually been there. The vehicles, the people...even the trash that seems to be just about everywhere you look, it's all so beautifully detailed that I found myself running into street lights quite often because I wasn't watching the road. What makes it even more pleasing to the eye are the little details that the developers didn't overlook. Cigarette smokers, rain puddles, shadows, character movements inside a vehicle. To go to such extremes to put stuff like that in, stuff that may never be seen or appreciated by a large number of players is just another sign of R*'s commitment to pushing the envelope further and further.

You know a game has a great sound team behind it when you hear in-game police officers yelling "Stop now or I'll shoot you in your ball sack!" GTA IV is jam packed with so much audio that it's difficult to know how they managed to get it all onto the same DVD as the game. There are so many radio stations that you often flick for what seems like forever before getting to the one you want. Also the often cartoonish take on sound in previous GTAs has been dropped in favour of much more realistic, gritty sound. Added to that, everything, and I do mean everything makes some kind of sound: people dropping their coffee, weapons hitting the ground after some poor sucker's been relieved of them, people stumbling down a flight of stairs (which is hilarious to watch also). All of it only adds to the already staggering degree of immersion the game holds.

Fun Stuff:

What would a GTA be without pointless fun stuff to distract you from your missions? Although GTA IV is much more pared back than VC & SA, it still offers a lot of things to do to wile away the hours long after all the missions have been finished.

Most Wanted - A different take on Vigilante which is a little more structured than just driving around to random points on the map and blowing up vehicles. It's not too bad, but I would have liked to see some kind of pay-off for taking the time to do them all.

Street Races - One of the GTA mainstays that actually made it into IV. The problem I had with this little side-game is that you weren't restricted to driving the same vehicle as your opponents (like in SA). So showing up to the starting grid of a race in a Turismo or Banshee put you at a distinct advantage over your family wagon or SUV driving opponents. Fun to do, but a little too easy most of the time.

Sports - Of the three so-called 'sports', bowling was the only one I really enjoyed. Unfortunately R* still don't have the physics of a believable pool table down-pat, and playing Darts was pretty much over before it even started. Bowling, on the other hand, was fun and a nice challenge. I suppose in a game where social interaction plays a pretty important role, these little tidbits made it all the easier.

Girlfriends - Well this was an aspect of SA that I found unnecessary and dull...and that opinion didn't really change in IV. Some of the girlfriends gave you neat little abilities (if you can call them that), but they usually became so annoyingly needy that the nuisance factor far outweighed any benefit.

Pigeons/Jumps - Another mainstay that found it's way into IV. My problem with them on this occasion (particularly those accursed pigeons) is that there wasn't any real pay-off for taking the trouble to get them all. You get your 100%, yeah...and you get your damn 'achievement', but for the love of Pete...give me something I can have fun with. Reward me with a fancy car, or a one-off weapon...something that I can utilize and have fun with. Otherwise, what's the point of me taking all that time? To say I got 100% completion? Big whoop! The little bonuses for busting your bunions was one of the things that made busting those bunions worthwhile.

Drinking/Eating - I guess in a functioning city, eating and drinking are par for the course. Getting drunk is one of the most hilarious things I've ever seen in a video game. The random swaying, stumbling and general waywardness of those under the influence is so close to reality that you wonder how many R* motion capture artists spent most of their working days pissed as farts. Eating's kinda neither here nor there...although I did love the Burger Shot employee who's customer greeting was "Welcome to Burger Shot, muhu-fuckaaa!"

Stunting:

Bah...humbug. That's right, I'm the GTA IV Stunting Scrooge. As I mentioned earlier, the bikes in GTA IV suck major ass. Why do they suck major ass? Because...they just do. It's quite apparent that the pinnacle of GTA bike physics occurred when they were designing Vice City, because it seems to have gone downhill rapidly since then. I don't hold a bike license, and I wouldn't know how to ride a motorbike if my life depended on it (so if I tried to ride one...my life WOULD depend on it), so I don't know exactly whether or not the behaviour of the bikes in GTA IV is in any way accurate...but I wouldn't like to think so. Bike steering seems to randomly go from incredibly difficult to touch sensitive completely at random. Also, I'm pretty sure that if you lightly apply the brakes on a bike while turning, that doesn't automatically stop you from turning. I'm a victim of a great deal of time spent riding bikes in VC, yes. But with that aside, the bikes in GTA IV just don't seem very rider friendly...certainly not enough to make me anxiously await the next GTA IV stunting session.

The new physics engine also provides a myriad of problems when it comes to stunting potential. When I did stunt on a bike in the new LC (which wasn't much, but enough to see what problems lay ahead), I noticed that speed was your greatest enemy. Exceeding a certain speed threshold would almost always see you hurled over the handlebars of your bike whenever you hit anything that wasn't an obvious incline. The upside I suppose is that it would also seem that you don't need a tremendous amount of speed to get good height on a successful bump. Now for another downside - what the hell kind of bike are you riding that can flip from right side up, to upside down, to sideways, to upside down again all in one jump? This ridiculous looking locking into certain axes is not only horrible to look at, it's also frustratingly unpredictable. I'm much happier having to pay a price for flipping my bike back too far, to be perfectly honest. Bike stunting (for now, at least) just seems to me to be somewhat of a dead loss. I know I'll be proven wrong...so ner-ner!

Car stunting, I believe, holds the most potential for GTA IV. Even though being flung through your front windscreen can prove to be a problem at times, the bounciness and speed of a lot of GTA IV's cars give the idea of car stunting a lot of promise. If only Niko would learn the value of the seatbelts.


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So all in all, GTA IV is a great game...but I don't know that I'd be hasty to give it a 10/10. It's definitely not the 'best game of all time' like I've read here and there. It has quite a few flaws that detract from it immensely. But on the whole it's a well-polished, slick game that I'm definitely glad to have played.

Okay...so here tis - the new crew vid. Just a few things to note about this one:

- Daffy is a guest stunter. Unfortunately working him into the official intro was gonna prove too much of a pain. The intro was done before he was 'officially' in the vid, so there's no definitive mention of him as a guest stunter.
- The intro and outro were created by Neo. I didn't mention it in the credits as it was gonna push an already long vid even longer.
- As mentioned, the vid is long - 11:23. This, naturally, pushed up the vid's file size. Low and toob renders will be forthcoming soon. The stunts don't run the entire length, there's just a lot of cinematic content. We just had fun with it and made it into a show.
- Neo's workload on this particular vid is STAGGERING. Thanks so much to him for the tremendous amount of work he put in.

Anyways....with that outta the way, here's the link. We hope you enjoy it.

Trial By Fire
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Trial By Fire (MegaUpload HQ)
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Trial By Fire (Youtube streaming)
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Trial By Fire (Google Video streaming)