Part 44: XLIV - Hoch Wie Nie

So, after we just got done with Mitnick's quest, we still have Gary's and Tung's quests to deal with, both of which don't require any business in Chinatown, so we should be leaving shortly.



However, before that, we still have a new friend to meet.



This is Tseng's completely honest and totally on-the-level herbal remedies shop. I think we need some herbal remedies.



You don't seem like the type to sell herbal remedies.
[Listen] Selling remedies is honest work! I came to America after discharge from Chinese Arm- uh... herbal remedies forces, to help aging parents with store. Definitely I am now American citizen! God bless the allegiance flag!
C'mon, I know you were in the military.
<Coughs>
Know anything about guns?
Chinese invented gunpowder! Yes, I know guns!
Got any?
Hold on please!



And the shelf turns, revealing plenty of guns.

Excellent. Let's see what you got.



Oh boy. Lots of good shit to be found here. There's some spiffy new duds and plenty of ammo to be had (including my coveted SPAS ammo), and a new melee weapon to boot - a legit katana, not the gunto we've been carrying around. I spend loadsamoney on the new clothes, the katana, and ammo, and after that I'm left with 222$ of our original 1181$, and I even sold off some vendor trash and old weapons as well. That, as it turns out, was a mistake. You'll see later just why. Damnit, there's too many stats I want to boost. Now I can add Haggle to the list.

Oh, and before we leave, here's Tseng's greeting if you're a Nosferatu. It's pretty funny.



So now we're rocking a leather trenchcoat of sorts. Fine by me. Anyway, our next destination is Santa Monica, to give Tung back his CD.



I did. Here you go.
Haaah, excellent. Now, listen up, fledgling, you might wanna take notes.
Sorry, no time for notes. Gotta run.

This is the only dialogue option we get. We just got stiffed on our quest reward. And why? Because it's a dot in Computer. Which Melissa already has maxed. Damnit, that saved XP could have been like three points in Haggle! Bah, this schmuck isn't qualified to talk computers with the l33t haxx0r that is Melissa anyway - his passwords are "tung" and "obfuscate", for fuck's sake. Tung should have been out of a job long ago.

Oh well, let's move on. Next stop - our haven, because we have a new e-mail to read.

quote:

<Subject> Cheat Codes
<From> gary@schrecknet.vtm

Enjoying the film, boss, but I think I've really let myself go over the years. Alright, this seems to be your bag, so, here's the deal. Know that Toreador in Vesuvius, "Miss Velour"? Back when she was breathing, it was more like "Miss Anything For Three Hundred". And I got a poster. Will trade for a revealing photo I saw on Haunted LA.

Haunted LA? Well, I have a sneaking suspicion that we're going to find what we're looking for in this building. Now, what floor did that guy live on again?



No.



No.



No.



No.



No.



Fucking finally. Man, when I forget where to go and just try every possibility, I always end up with the worst luck.



And suddenly, there's a photo on this guy's desk! How did it appear here when the guy inhabiting this floor is now in somebody else's digestion? No idea. Oh well, Gary wants it, and Gary will get it.



Yeah, I could see why this could become an issue if this were to come out. Poor form from that Nos to suck out some fucker right under a streetlight.



See, this guy knows what I'm talking about with the guy inhabiting somebody else's digestion.



Anyway, we deposit the photo in our mailbox, leave the building and come back right away to trigger the next part of the quest.

quote:

<Subject> Want to Learn Vicissitude?
<From> gary@schrecknet.vtm

How ya been, boss? Same drill as before. Got a surveillance shot of a certain Kuei-jin. It would be degrading to photochop it into a tacky poster, so that's exactly what I did. Yours for a song - actually a tape - something Imalia did before I put the bite on her. I like to keep the kids in check- Last year's Jock Shot magazine's swimsuit shoot. Two hard, pointy reasons why they pulled it off retail shelves.

I don't need to learn Vicissitude, Vicissitude is already in the thread here! Hm, something involving Imalia... I think I have an idea where we can find that.



Picked up a dot in Security because better lockpicking is always nice. Now, where are we going?



We're going to... wait. SHIT.

...at first I thought that was that, we weren't going to complete the quest. But I decided to try the console command again, because why not, and...







...it worked. I don't know why the fuck this is, but windowed mode also fucks up some console commands, it seems. Man, this is weird. Also, it took me about a minute to find where the fuck I was going. This is very annoying.



Hey there, mister news man, what're you looking at?



Now, there was this chest in Carson's room that was too hard to unlock for us last time we came around here, so it's time to check out just what's inside it.



Jackpot.



Also, more vendor trash. I'm not complaining. While we're here, let's drop in with Mercurio.



Oh Mercurio, you know just what I want.

Headshots were the last thing missing from my life.

Aw yeah, I'm getting myself a SWAT rifle! I'm getting myself a sniper rif-



...wait. SHIT. I spent too much money! Aaargh, if only I had more points in Haggle... god damnit. At least there won't be a lot of fighting in our future before we can get our hands on some dosh.



Anyway, same procedure as last time, drop shit off in mailbox, leave, come back, check e-mail.

quote:

<Subject> Rocket Launcher for Sale
<From> gary@schrecknet.vtm

Boss, got another poster just collecting dust, if you want to trade. Looks like one of the anarchs did some "art" photos before she got Embraced. It's all yours for the low, low price of the wooden pull toy from The Glittering. Might be in Metalhead Industries. You've talked to Mitnick, right? In the mailbox, like before.

This marks the beginning of WESP making changes to this quest. Apparently, this used to be a CD, but now it's a pull toy. Why? I don't know. But we've already got it, so let's just jump right to the next one.

quote:

<Subject> Confidential Nigerian Proposal
<From> gary@schrecknet.vtm

Are you tech savvy, boss? Because Mitnick wants a special name plate with an integrated transponder chip. Don't know what he needs it for, but will swap for a poster of Tawni Sessions that Imalia hasn't got her angry claws on yet.

Now we're getting into the part that WESP just added to this quest because hell, there's more posters to be had, might as well lengthen the quest. I'm not complaining. Scavenger hunting weird items for Gary is one of the more pleasant activities out there. Once again, we've already got this, so what's next?

quote:

<Subject> Replica Stakes
<From> gary@schrecknet.vtm

Hey boss, got another job for you. One of our researchers into the occult would like to get his hands on a squashed Odious Chalice seen in Chinatown. Would offer a poster of Imalia in her full beauty, before I gave her my special treatment! The usual way like before.

Chinatown - and I know that the place where we're going to find this is only accessible through a main story quest, so we'll keep that for next time, when we start Chinatown proper. Now, I guess it's a good time to check out the posters we've accumulated so far. I figure this is classified as , so watch out.







Now, I have a pretty big problem with these posters, and it's not what one would expect. My problem is that they drew most of these pictures as opposed to making them with the in-game models (exception being the Tawni one, but that was probably because they wanted to put less effort into a poster that was just going to end up defaced, and the VV one, which you can also get from VV herself alongside an autographed picture of her which is worth loadsamoney if you were nice to her, by the way). That might sound like a nitpick, but to me, it's kind of major, because it goes against one of the big strengths this game has. One of the things that people always remember about this game next to the excellent atmosphere, memorable characters, and those sewers is that the facial animation was fucking mind-blowing for its time, and still holds up as really good today. Because of that, a player tends to pay a lot of attention to the faces once they notice this, and because of that, the faces get burned into your mind together with the character, much more so than in other games, where you might remember the character and their voice, but didn't pay particular attention to their face, just their general build and key characteristics.

Because of that, when I look at this poster of Jeanette, I don't see Jeanette. I see somebody else, made to look like Jeanette. When I think Jeanette...


...I see this in my mind's eye, imperfections coming from being a video game model and all. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm kind of disappointed Troika didn't notice that their models really make an impression on the player and didn't make these posters with them. That, and this picture of Jeanette looks fucking weird to me. Same with the third one - which is the Kuei-Jin one, by the way. That actually is supposed to be Ming-Xiao, and she looks fairly different in-game as well. We'll get to her when we get to Chinatown, but that'll be next time.



For now, there's one last thing to be shown, and we find it in Hollywood.



To be exact, we're going to be going back to the Luckee Star motel for a little easter egg.



There's a room, locked with a hard lock, that holds a computer for us to check out.



First, let's check out "printer".



I have no idea if that actually does anything, and I'm not going to run around checking every printer in the game. Let's check out "easter eggs" instead. It's locked with a password, that being "lycans". We could have found this on a note in the back room in the entrance area, but, you know, 9 Hacking and shit.



What? Let's see what this "hint" is about...



I... what? ...hm, I guess...

You should probably watch this. Seriously.

...so, what the FUCK was that?