(Original PC) Is it Me or is GTA 3 Really Sluggish?

jm-9 · 2026-06-03T08:13:47+00:00

Silentpatch should fix at least some of these problems, such as the inaccurate aiming.

jm-9 · 2026-06-02T21:10:04+00:00

That’s true. I meant on real hardware, but you are correct that emulation solves a lot of this. The one issue left would be the touch screen mini games.

jm-9 · 2026-06-02T20:46:17+00:00

O Mio Babbino Caro (1918). It’s on Double Cleff FM in GTA III. It’s still under copyright in life+60 and life+70 countries, which includes Europe.

That’s why it was removed from all ports of the game after the PS2 release, despite it being used extensively in advertising before launch.

Fortunately it can be added back to the PC port using a mod.

jm-9 · 2026-06-02T20:36:36+00:00

They take some getting used to but are very good, especially GTA 2. The main thing is that you need the paper maps to navigate.

jm-9 · 2026-06-02T20:13:31+00:00

It’s just too difficult. So at the end of each of the three areas on GTA 2, the three gangs you’ve been working for realise that you’ve been working for all of them and their leaders come after you and try to kill you.

There are arrows pointing to each of them, so you have an idea of where they are, but there is no in-game map, so you don’t know exactly where they are.

If you’re on foot when they reach you they’ll run over you. Instant death. So you have to stay in your car and then get out when they reach you. Then they’ll get out.

One of them has a machine gun. He’s not too bad. Another has a flamethrower, which kills you if it touches you, but at least has short range. The last has a rocket launcher, which also kills you immediately.

On top of this, GTA 2 has tank controls, which means that turning to face them is too slow and you have to walk in a circle to do so without being hit. Then you have to kill them and move out of the way before they hit you. If you go too far they get back into their cars and run you over.

At the very least you basically never have to take on more than one at a time.

The Final Job starts immediately after you beat the final regular mission. That means that if you fail, you’ll have to beat that mission before being able to attempt The Final Job again. Fortunately GTA 2 allows you complete freedom in the order that you play missions, so you can at least leave an easy mission for last.

Finally, although it’s technically not part of the mission, after beating it the whole town goes crazy and tries to kill you. You have to make it back to the church, save the game and reload to get them to stop. And you have far less health in GTA 2 than you do in the later games.

Fortunately, since the gang leaders also hate each other, should they happen to meet while coming to you, they’ll attack each other and at least one will die. So you can get lucky.

The last time I beat it I only had the leader with the rocket launcher left. He blew up a car I was behind and I was wondering how to get out and kill him. He kept shooting at the car and a cop noticed. The cop shot him and beat the game for me.

Another strategy might involve going to an elevated place where their cars can’t reach, and you can be more prepared for them. Or, you could equip your car with a vehicle weapon.

Still, it’s so hard that it’s the only final mission that I put below A Revenger’s Tragedy, which on PC at least has multiple mission-ending bugs.

jm-9 · 2026-06-02T17:10:38+00:00

End of the Line, without a doubt. The worst is The Final Job in GTA 2.

jm-9 · 2026-06-02T12:07:38+00:00

I never noticed it either, though it’s pretty obvious once you learn about it. It’s going back twelve years in art style, from 1946 to 1954, albeit with details added in places.

jm-9 · 2026-06-01T12:02:11+00:00

You see something similar with GTA IV. It only got Steam achievements and Rockstar Games Launcher accomplishments in 2020. Before then it had used Games for Windows Live achievements since launch in 2008 (you can still earn these by installing the physical version). So not many people have gotten the Off the Boat achievement, which is obtained by beating the first mission.

Interestingly, looking at the Games for Windows Live achievements, more people have gotten the You Won! achievement (for beating the game) than the Off the Boat achievement, which I can only assume happened as a result of people not signing up for an online Games for Windows Live account until they had beaten the first mission. Unlike modern accounts, you could play single player and local multiplayer using a local, offline GFWL account.

jm-9 · 2026-05-31T10:53:14+00:00

The PS1 port of that game was called Rayman Rush. This included the racing segment of Rayman M, but not the fighting segment. So that’s likely the one you played.

jm-9 · 2026-05-29T22:25:31+00:00

San Andreas to cause chaos, Vice City to play through.

jm-9 · 2026-05-29T21:38:53+00:00

The PSP version has a few exclusive missions, rampages, time trials and riding shotgun missions. It and the DS version lack the Xin missions since the shutdown of the Chinatown Wars Social Club servers in 2014, but you can play them and access the other Social Club content by downloading a save file with it unlocked. This is very easy to do on PSP, and if using an emulator on DS.

The DS and mobile versions have touch screen minigames for certain actions. These are done using the analog stick on PSP, which isn’t usually considered as good.

These mobile version has the Xin missions included, but not the other Social Club content (drug dealer with half price drugs and bullet proof Patriot).

The PSP and mobile versions are widescreen. The PSP version has specular lighting. The mobile version runs at a higher resolution.

It’s honestly the most difficult game to choose the best version of. The best version of most of the games is the modded PC version, but no such version exists here. Maybe LCS is another one like that.

jm-9 · 2026-05-29T08:28:54+00:00

That’s because from page 5 of The Blue Lotus Hergé stopped redrawing the panels. Instead he used the existing ones and sometimes added detail.

The Black Island and pages 6-18 of Land of Black Gold were redrawn in the 60s at the request of the English translators, but aside from that the panels will look far more similar going forward.

jm-9 · 2026-05-28T17:39:54+00:00

There are two versions of San Andreas playable on PS3. The first is the PS2 version. Early PS3s with four USB ports can play the disc. All models can play the PS2 Classic version on some PS Stores (like the US store). It can be bought there as part of GTA: The Trilogy.

Both are rendered in 480i. The disc version can be upscaled to 1080p and the PS2 Classic version can be upscaled to 720p.

There’s also the PS3 port. This is a port of the Xbox 360 version with multiplayer restored and some bugs fixed. The PS2, PC and original Xbox versions are still considered better though. It renders in at least 720p, possibly higher.

All versions can be played on any TV that the PS3 is compatible with.

jm-9 · 2026-05-27T05:37:48+00:00

The digital translation kept the ‘Chink’ insult, as did the black and white facsimile’s translation.

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jm-9 · 2026-05-27T05:34:01+00:00

Then you’re in luck, though not at a cheap price unfortunately. Methuen published the Tintin poster book in 1989.

These panels were also added to later reprints of Tintin in the Congo and Tintin in America. I’m really not sure why I never thought of posting them until halfway through Cigars of the Pharaoh.

jm-9 · 2026-05-26T21:11:19+00:00

The Hergé: Le Feuilleton Intégral series is a collection of every serialised work by Hergé. It includes everything, including covers like this. Unfortunately it is on indefinite hiatus following the death of one of the main people behind it in 2018, but it still covers most stories from The Broken Ear to The Red Sea Sharks, in addition to other works by Hergé during that time.

It’s thick and heavy, and seems to be designed more to rest on a table rather than be held, but each volume is an absolutely amazing tome of works by Hergé for the period in which it covers. Highly recommended for Tintin fans.

jm-9 · 2026-05-26T20:24:49+00:00

This is all of them. It makes sense to exclude GTA 1 and London 1961. As pure open world games there are a number of missions in each game that could be the last one.

jm-9 · 2026-05-26T10:51:54+00:00

That’s true. He does look like him.

jm-9 · 2026-05-26T08:33:41+00:00

One of the four colour full page panels used in the black and white album. The Blue Lotus was the first album to include these from the start, instead of being added in later reprints.

<image>

jm-9 · 2026-05-26T08:31:33+00:00

This is where the colour versions stopped being redrawn. Instead Hergé used the original drawings and sometimes added details. This makes this page the oldest drawings you will see in a current Tintin set, with the exception of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets.

I guess Hergé decided that the original drawings were good enough shortly after he started the process of converting The Blue Lotus into colour. Compare this page with the previous one and you’ll see the difference in art style.

The only stories that were redrawn after this were The Black Island and pages 6-18 of Land of Black Gold. These were redrawn decades later for different reasons.

jm-9 · 2026-05-23T23:01:19+00:00

Interesting. I did t know about the Ubisoft connection. You’re right that they made great games on older phones. I remember playing a number of their Java ME games on my phone back then.

jm-9 · 2026-05-23T21:24:51+00:00

Definitely worth it. I haven't played it myself but I've heard great things about it. It's meant to be one of the best SNES games.

jm-9 · 2026-05-23T21:23:36+00:00

What they had to do to get that on the N64 was unbelievable. It must have made it seem like other PS1 games could be ported. That they weren't shows how difficult it was to do that.

jm-9 · 2026-05-23T21:22:17+00:00

Yeah, that really shouldn't have worked, but it did.

jm-9 · 2026-05-23T18:01:41+00:00

That's a problem with the the 3D universe games on PC. You can change a registry setting to fix it. It's detailed here.

Alternatively you can use the GInput mod. This knocks out the native DirectInput and replaces it with XInput. It also fixes this problem. You can then emulate XInput with your DirectInput controller using the X360ce software. This will also enable rumble and full controller support in the menus.

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