Cesar
High Stakes, Low Rider
This is a simple checkpoint race against five other cars; if you’ve played either of the other GTAs, you should know the drill. To enter the race, you’ll need a low-rider, but don’t worry if you don’t have one, as there should be a Blade parked a couple doors down from Cesar’s house that’ll do the job fine. One of the nice new additions here are the inclusion of arrows in the waypoints, which’ll let you know which way to go. Once you see the pier, you’ll know that you’re at the homestretch, so floor it and take home your thousand dollar reward.
OG Loc
Life’s A Beach
Life’s A Beach is another funkdafied rhythm contest for you to get frustrated with. This one’s a lot, lot tougher than the lowrider competition, as instead of simple analog stick movements, you’ll have to hit the face buttons of the controller as they scroll by. It’s all in the name of music, though; the end goal of the dancing contest is to steal a sound truck for Loc’s rap party. When you’ve proved yourself a master dancer, get in the truck, kick out the DJ, and cruise back to the stash and drop the vehicle off.
If, for some reason, you really like dancing, you can hit up clubs that are scattered throughout the cities in San Andreas for more fun.
Madd Dogg’s Rhymes
Loc seems to be catching on to the fact that he’s not a very talented rapper, so your next task is to find and retrieve the lyrics journal of one Madd Dogg, presumably a rapper himself. You’ll have to find his home before you can break into it, which can be easier said than done, as it’s high up in the Mulholland hills. If you find yourself passing underneath the bridge leading to the house, you can get out of your car and climb up the hill on foot; it’s much easier to ascend slopes while running than it is while driving.
When you reach the mansion, you’ll be pointed to the back of the house; after heading inside, you’ll get a little tutorial on stealth kills. If you happened to play Manhunt, Rockstar’s other paean to mindless brutality, you should recognize the mechanic, since it’s fairly similar (in manner, if not in pure cathartic violence) to those of that game. You’ll need to sneak up behind the guards while crouched, wait for CJ’s hand to raise, then hit the O button for a stealth kill.
There are two more guards between you and the recording studio, where the rhymes are kept. The first paces around the swimming pool, so wait until he turns his back to you, then follow him along - at a distance - until you reach the next room. Another guard will approach, so duck into one of the changing rooms and wait for him to assume his position before moving on. When you hit the bar, sneak past the first guard, then stealth kill the man playing video games. The recording studio is right around the corner, so grab the body armor, knife the sole guard, then grab the rhymes.
After you obtain your treasure, new guards will spawn in, carrying silenced pistols. If you wait for a minute, one will take up position near where the body armor was, so sneak up behind him and knife him to obtain the new weapon. You only have five rounds for it, but you should only need two to kill a guard, so make your way back to the door through which you entered and escape.
Management Issues
Now that you have Madd Dogg’s rhymes, it seems that his manager is putting the squeeze on Loc. Since CJ seems somehow compelled to help him out no matter what the cost, it’s up to you to kill off the manager while he attends an awards ceremony.
Before you can get close enough to the manager, though, you’ll have to steal one of his cars. A driver is eating at a burger shop nearby, so head there, then damage the car enough to force the driver out. You can ram it with your own car, after which the driver will step out and start firing at you.
Now comes the hard part! You have to meet up with the other drivers before ten o’clock (22:00), but you have to arrive in a pristine car, meaning that it can’t be damaged at all. You’ll have to drive down to the spray shop by the beach, then carefully maneuver yourself up to the driver rendezvous without hitting anything. No pedestrians, no cars, no streetlights - nada. You’ll need at least an hour of game time to get to the rendezvous, which means that you probably won’t have enough time for more than two shots, so if you think you’re going to miss the deadline, just reload your save and try again.
When you actually get the car to the rendezvous, though, things get a bit easier. You have to stay between the other two cars until you get to the awards show, but it’s a straight shot there and the drive only lasts 30 seconds or so. When the manager gets into your car, jam on the gas and head towards the pier marked on your map. When you reach the end of it, bail out of your car and watch it sail off into the ocean.
House Party
After you finish off Management Issues, Loc wants to throw a party. He’ll relocate back to Grove Street, so head back home and hit up his house after ten o’clock, when he’ll start showcasing his NBA superstar-grade rap talents. Things quickly take a somewhat less-than-festive turn, though, as the Ballas gang initiates an ambush!
You’ll have three waves of enemies to deal with here. The first will be on ground level, and will hide behind their cars, so you may have to maneuver a bit in order to hit the last stragglers. The second group is atop the bridge that runs over your hood; these are easy to kill, since they have no cover. The last and biggest group will attack from the alleyway nearby. If you have some body armor, you should be able to just stay in the open and blast away, but it really helps a lot if you have a lot of SMG or AK-47 ammo. Watch your targeting, and make sure no one (especially Sweet) gets between you and your target. After all of the enemies go down, you can rest easy knowing that the Ballas won’t try anything that stupid again.
