Flying in San Andreas

[moya]

OKAY WAHT TEH HELL!!!???!!1

Just hit the Flying School missions in San Andreas (yeah, I know I'm way behind the curve), and... what the hell happened to the difficulty level of this game? It's like it increased from 4 to 10 all of a sudden, with no warning other than "OKAY, NOW YOU HAVE TO LEARN TO FLY A PLANE AND IF YOU CAN'T THEN TOUGH LUCK SUCKA!"

I'm playing with keyboard and mouse and managed the taking off and landing missions, but have come completely unstuck on the "circling the airfield" mission. Is it just me being sucky or is it really easier on a gamepad (not that I want to buy one just for this one section of one game when all other parts are perfectly playable on a mouse/keyboard combo)? Or is it just that this part of the game is b*stard hard?

[silversparrow]

I've managed to complete all the flying missions in the game with just the keyboard. When you want to turn gently, first turn with the rudder (Q and E keys by default), then use the arrow keys afterward and you'll turn without taking a nosedive. It takes a bit of practice, but eventually you'll get the hang of it.

Oh and another thing, turn off the guiding w/ mouse option if you haven't already, it makes things much easier.

[Mochan]

I mentioned this, didn't I? I'm stuck at the flying missions myself and I really don't feel like playing anymore. And man, I'm using a gamepad and not a keyboard/mouse!

Anyway the game lost its charm and it was time for me to move on. I uninstalled the game, and am now playing SWAT 4 and Morrowind in my spare time.

[moya]

You did mention it Mochan way back when I was stuck on the OG Loc bike chase mission! You were right: this is WAY harder than anything before it.

Thanks for the tips silversparrow, I managed to complete the circle the airstrip mission last night by using a light touch on the controls and a combination of rudder/banking turns. But what gives? I got my pilot's license after completing that, but there are no calls on my cellphone and no more missions to complete. Do I have to do the whole Flight School to progress further in the story?

[Mochan]

Hehehe, maybe you do need to finish flight school! That would be horrible though. I myself I remember I finished driving school in one go.

[moya]

Sodding driving school was bad enough, but at least that wasn't part of the storyline. I remember being stuck for ages on the one where you have to powerslide around this tiny little cone circuit - 5 laps in under 40 seconds. I just could not do it within the time limit until I finally realised that you have to accelerate VERY soon after you've applied the handbrake otherwise you simply will not go fast enough to get around the circuit. Of course that makes it all the more difficult to control coming out of the slide, but I guess that's the point of the test!

Motorbike school in Las Venturas was a lot easier and a lot more fun, but then bikes are my preferred mode of transportation around San Andreas simply because they're easier to handle, and you can do loads of wicked-cool jumps all over the place.

[Aku]

All arcade racing sims where you have to execute everything to perfection to just barely win totally suck. You should try some of the time challenges in Trackmania: Sunrise. They'll have you pulling your hair out.

[Mochan]

Not a fan of stuff like that myself, but then I've never been a racing fan. I've always been an RPG guy with some strategy on the side. Oh and action too of course, FPS in particular of late.

[silversparrow]

I got my pilot's license after completing that, but there are no calls on my cellphone and no more missions to complete. Do I have to do the whole Flight School to progress further in the story?

After you finish flight school, there should be a red circle somewhere in the airstrip. Either that or you still have something incomplete.

[moya]

All arcade racing sims where you have to execute everything to perfection to just barely win totally suck.

Yeah, I completely agree. Good job that's only a fraction of what there is to do in GTA: San Andreas then.

[Aku]

My wife just bought me San Andreas for a present (how nice, I take back all the bad things I said about her the other day! ;) ). Ah yes, the classic GTA gameplay. I played a pool game and we both sucked. I only won because the other guy sunk the eight ball. My wife regretted getting it when she saw me busting up a crack house, lol. I don't like the LA setting as much as Vice City, but I'm looking forward to the fake SF (my home!) and the fake LV. Man, between this, SWAT 4, and Longest Journey (and I picked up a vintage boxed copy of B17 Flying Fortress for just $6 at EB), not only am I fully loaded with games for the rest of the year, I'm just about out of space on my hard drives.

[Mochan]

You're out of space on your HD? How big is your HD anyway?! Or what crap do you have in it??? Only about 6% of the space of my HD goes to games, believe it or not. The rest goes to... uh... that is a secret. :) (though you guys can probably guess)

[Aku]

I have 120 gigs total (80/40). I have about 17 gigs left across 3 partitions. Not a lot now that you have all these 3-5 gig games coming out. And I never pull games off my hard drive, so it's filled with old games. So it looks like I'll have to get rid of a couple. But I'm like a pack rat - even a game I haven't played in two years I like to leave it on "just in case".

[Mochan]

LOL, no wonder. I get that feeling too so I keep games I'm not necessarily playing online as well. I got 240GBs of space but like I said only about 6% of it is used by games.

[Aku]

Wow, that's only about 15 gigs of games. Probably about 75 gigs on my hard drive is games, with another 10 gigs of game download files, patches, etc.

[JjEjFjF]

OKAY WAHT TEH HELL!!!???!!1


Is it just me being sucky or is it really easier on a gamepad (not that I want to buy one just for this one section of one game when all other parts are perfectly playable on a mouse/keyboard combo)?

I found it to be 10 times easier to play this paticular game with a game pad.
Walmart has a gamepad for $15. called "Recoil" usb Its laid out like a PS2 controller.
I guess i might have been used to using a controller for SA on the PS2 and just couldnt get used to the mouse and keyboard , although i do use the mouse and keyboard on all of my other fps and action games.

[Aku]

I use a Logitech dual action controller, and it's great for all the driving parts of the game. Used it in Vice City and GTA3 as well.