Grand Theft Auto 4: cable management

Save game list getting full. Time to exit and see if I can archive them. Yep, just fine. Delete all the saves but the most recent, rename it so that it ends in 400, and you're good to go.

You can start a mission when you walk up to a floating yellow arrow, or drive under it it. In previous GTA games, if you didn't place your car carefully, it could be gone (forever) when you came back out of whatever cut scene. Now, your car is preserved, but it might be parked somewhere nearby. An improvement, surely, but why not just leave the car where it was?

This Internet cafe has some good cable management. Earlier today I saw a garbage truck, nothing new to GTA (except they like to call it dust bin or ash cart or something), but it had two guys hanging off the back. I'm still getting surprised by the detail in this game. OK, so now I'm in a simulated internet browser, in a simulated internet cafe, in a simulated New York City. It was inevitable.

It makes sense, to push the detail of the simulation just a little further. Kind of like how your money, in previous GTA games, used to be shown in a corner of the HUD at all times, as if you kept hundreds of thousands of dollars on you at all times. Now you have to step up to an ATM machine to get a balance. It actually makes sense. There are probably any number of game mechanics which were cumbersome before that can now be swept into the simulation of using the Internet. Perhaps one of these ads will allow the purchase of my next safehouse.

Finally, a bike. I already have 2 sports cars in my spot outside, and this bike barely fits - I wonder if the game will let me keep all 3, or delete some? I reload my save and head outside. Nope, the bike is gone. Too bad, and something to note for later.

My armor is trashed, time to go pick up some more. Awesome - I can finally buy ammo, instead of having to buy a whole new gun every time.

And, off to a new safehouse. GTA games have forced you to vacate a safehouse sometimes, but this is the first time I can remember it actually being destroyed. Poor cousin Roman, lamenting his fate - he doesn't know that he's in a GTA game. We may be poor now, but by the end of the game there will be all manor of real estate, business, helicopters, guns, girlfriends, clothes - everything the GTA world has to offer. I just need to go on a few more missions, that's all.