LATEST CHATTY HEADER

I am finally getting around to playing GTA3:SA, Second Edition. Yeah, I know late to the party yadda yadda.

The most difficult part of the game so far has been installing it. My Goodness, the acting is cool, the actions is sweet, but just getting there was a struggle. For some reason, during the install a file, different each time, could not be located.

The choices were the age old (A)bort, (R)etry, or (I)gnore. Abort isn't the right option, Retry created a "catastrophic failure" immediately ending the installation with files still installed and I can't uninstall because it's not a complete install. And the most sucessful option which I used Ignore to continue the installation, but the problem is that *duh* files are missing. The most recent install is running smoothly, but this is after 6-7 attempts that included the game crashing to the desktop when I was shot at. The game media is pristine, as I said I'm just getting around to playing it, it's been in a zipper sleeve for years.

Which brings me to my gripe: installations that don't have a recovery or repair mode. Even checking to see what files have already been installed and bumping up the progress bar, detecting a previous failed installation or generate an error log and the game switches to repair mode to try to get the rest of the program to complete the installation. It's a trajedy when selecting Retry creates an unrecoverable error.

If memory serves, Dungeon Seige1 had a repair mode. I'm temped to say that a previous edition of Unreal Tournament would enter into a safe mode if there was a problem. My PC runs the game just fine, the DVD player works just fine, but clearly there's a problem.