Right! OK in order to make the deadline of this post being actually posted in this month and not October, I will make this a pretty quick one (well kind of!).
So this post will cover my pick of the top 5 most annoying Grand Theft Auto San Andreas missions. So with that said, let's get to it.....
5. End of the Line
So to kick of at No.5 is the game's final mission, End of the Line, which is actually a pretty good mission but regardless of that its still a bit of a pain in the bahookie. This is mainly because it is broken into separate stages of CJ having to break his way into Big Smoke's crack lab (Smoke being one of the main villains in the game) fighting his way up to the top of the lab to face Smoke and finally his escape and pursuit of Tenpenny (the corrupt cop and primary villain of the game).
Now I actually found out after dying during this mission and after CJ is hospitalised and he get's out and if he returns to the starting point of the mission (CJ's brother's house, Sweet) it will actually create a checkpoint that will take you to the last point of the mission the game allows to be checkpointed at. However unless you actually decide to let yourself die and simply go back to the starting point you would never know this as I usually just reload the game save from my Playstation at this point!
And to top this off the most annoying part of the mission itself is simply CJ's escape from the burning crack lab as he has to alternate between turning on and off his night vision goggles to see what he is doing and putting out the fires. Now this wouldn't sound so bad but the fact that you have to keep chopping and changing between turning the goggles off and on and then selecting the fire extinguisher and putting out the fires (or trying to!) and if you stand too close to the fire, you will end up getting burned! So this makes for a pretty annoying experience.
So there you go, End of the Line might still be a fitting and enjoyble end to the story of the game but its still a bit of pesky one so that's why its on at 5.
4. Supply Lines
At No.4 is a mission that most people would put at the No.1 spot but for me I thought this would be a good place to put it, yep Supply Lines is a prize pain of a mission and yes when I first played it I was ready to rip out my hair! But having recently replayed it, I found Supply Lines to be a pest but not a massive one like I had previously thought (either that or I'm just a better more patient gamer now! ;-)).
But let's face it, this is still a mission that would get on anyone's goat as it has all the hallmarks of being a frustrating one. The mission starts with CJ piloting a small toy plane (albeit armed with guns!) to help out one of his business partners, Zero, a geeky electronics genius, fight against his bitter rival, Berkeley (who is never seen) and destroy Berkeley's mail order company by targetting and shooting the couriers. The snag of it all is you only have one plane to fly and the couriers are armed and shoot at you, not only that the plane has limited fuel, so if the plane isn't shot down in flames it could end up running out of fuel before you can finish the mission.
So this is where Supply Lines can seriously do your head in as you have to balance between conserving your fuel and finding the couriers in a timely manner and taking them out without the plane sustaining too much damage. And it actually begs the question??? Why didn't Zero bring a second plane as a back-up??? I mean in GTA Vice City, the main playable character, Tommy Vercetti, did a similar mission where he flew toy planes to sink Cuban boats on behalf of a Haitan gang leader and when he lost one he had two more back-ups!
But nope! This time Rockstar wanted to go balls out to annoy everyone and they did a great job so that's why Supply Lines remains one of the most annoying missions in the game.
3. Interdiction
At No.3 is Interdiction, which is a Mike Toreno mission (a dubious government agent) which invovles CJ having to protect a cargo helicopter in the desert from being destroyed by enemy agents. And again this sounds like it should be easy enough, but nah its a major feckin frustrating pain in the you know what!
And the problem for me with this mission is basically that it is TOO easy to end up getting the cargo ship destroyed as the enemy choppers fly in too close to it most of the time so if you fire a rocket launcher at the enemies it most likely could take down the cargo chopper too!
Its also a frustrating mission because of the time it takes for you to get out to the spot in the desert and arrive there only for you to have to defend the cargo chopper only to have it get blown up again and again! So there is that and also the inclusion of the parachute which I found never really works in time when CJ tries to jump off the top of the cliff to occassionally evade the police, who may arrive as you might have gained a two star wanted rating.
So essentially, Interdiction is an annoying mission because it should be easier than it is but in the end its a frustrating process of trial and error until you finally see those magical words "Mission Passed" and frankly by then it couldn't have come soon enough!
So for me Interdiction is worthy of the 3rd spot on the list.
2. Vertical Bird
At No.2 is of course the infamous Vertical Bird mission where CJ is forced into doing one last task for Mike Toreno, which consists of CJ hijacking a fighter jet and using it to destroy a flotilla of warships at sea. Sounds simple yeah??? Nope!
No, this mission can be a real nightmare aswell and I also have fond memories of this one as I nearly threw my Playstation 2 out the window at the time when I first got the game and played this lovely mission.
The main problem with this mission is of course the controls for the jet fighter themselves as they are horrendously awkward to use. The jet has lateral movements as well as moving up and down but the controls for these movements are just awful and I spent most of my time trying desparately not to crash the plane into the sea or into the ground but trying to keep it afloat somehow! And most of the time I would fail to do this although in my most recent playing of the mission it took four or five goes and I finally managed to do it!
Another issue with this mission is to do with auto-target system for the jet's missiles as there is a sequence where CJ has to destroy three fighters sent out to take him down once he has taken the jet. The movement of the jet itself makes it near impossible to accurately maneauver into position to get a solid lock on to destroy the jets easily so you may spend alot of time trying to aim to get anywhere near on target!
Sooooo, Vertical Bird is a notorius mission with good reason in GTA: San Andreas and its deeply frustrating jet fighter controls alone earn it the runner up spot on the list.
Now for the No.1 choice....the most annoying game (for me anyway) in GTA San Andreas is.....
1. Cop Wheels
Yep that's right, not Supply Lines or Vertical Bird, but Cop Wheels takes the top spot for this one as I had the real displeasure of playing this one again recently and believe me I found it to be THE most annoying mission in the game by far!
The premise of the mission is relatively straight forward as CJ has to basically steal some police bikes for the casino robbery and load them up onto a packer on an extremely busy freeway in Las Venturas. Sounds pretty reasonable and easy enough, right??? Nope! THIS mission takes its premise and totally makes you want to find the makers responsible and punch their feckin lights out!
What's wrong with the mission??? Well put simply you are given a 12 minute time limit for starters and it made me think, well you need to get four bikes in that time and they are all very far apart from each other and to top that off, the packer is miles away on the freeway! So in that respect you can waste far too much time driving around to locate the bikes and to try and find the packer on the freeway aswell!
Now you could try and structure it in a way that you could set a waypoint to get to the nearest police bike first but that might not always pan out either given that the police officer could jump on it and drive away before you get to it (although you can punch him off it or crash into him using a car if you aren't close enough to do that).
Also the cops are often on you for stealing the bikes anyway so you tend to end up with a two star wanted rating, so not only do you have to deal trying to locate the bikes and then find the goddamn packer, you need to of course avoid the cops too! And I quite often found myself getting rammed into by police cars and soon getting arrested by the cops before I could get out there! So, yes this mission took me quite a while to get by as I had spent the better part of a day trying to do it, over and over and I eventually DID get there in the end, but it was a serious bugger to complete.
And for me Cop Wheels is easily THE most frustrating mission in the whole game and that's why it takes the top spot.
Right! So that's it for now and I will be back next month with more posts (whenever I find the time to do them).
Till the next one its bye for now.
