Paramedic level 12. Over an hour of cautiously driving through the city. I had one patient left to pick up. ONE PATIENT!
And the moron ran in front of the freakin’ ambulance before I could slide to a stop on the beach.
Nnaaarrrgghhh!
:pant: :pant: :pant:
I’ll be OK. Really. I just need a drink.
Oh, yeah? the first time i got to level 12, patient 9 ran into the BACK of the STOPPED ambulance and DIED!
It took all of the willpower in the world to keep from chucking the PS2 out the window.
I hear you – I almost launched my controller through the TV screen.
Fortunately, I regained my composure and my TV is safe. The same can’t be said for those poor pedestrians who bore the brunt of my rage.
Firing off 2,000 rounds from my mini-gun was a nice way to take out my frustrations.
I knew there was a reason I never started the ambulance missions…
So by the time you get to level 12, how many patients do you have to pick up per go?
It increases by one for every level (I think) so by level 12 you have to pick up 12 patients. And since your ambulance can only hold three people at any time, it means a lot of trips back to the hospitial.
And of course you can’t damage your vehicle too badly or you will fail. And you can’t switch vehicles or you will fail. And you can’t run over any of your stupid walking-right-in-front-of-the-stupid-ambulance patients or you will fail. And your nerves are frazzled raw after the hour+ of constantly dodging traffic and watching the timer and sweating and…and…
:going to my happy place, going to my happy place:
You guys need to relax.
Maybe you should, I dunno, play a game or something.
Ah. Thank you, Bottle of Smoke.
Just think of the happy ice cream truck music, and you’ll feel better. 
That brings up a question – just how in the heck do I get the music to turn on in the ice cream truck? I can’t get anywhere on that mission. I press the L3 button and nothing happens. Do I have to be in a certain place or certain time of day? Is this a glitch or am I just missing something really obvious?
the music should work like the sirens in the police cars. (and never save your game at the ice cream factory)
“tell the captain i saw his wife, no wonder he likes those magazines!”
How is that? I haven’t figured that out, either!
It’s kind of glitchy in my experience. It is L3, but you sometimes have to hit it a couple of times, and sometimes you just have to hit it once.
I use R1 to turn on the music, honk the horn, etc, but I use controller setting 3.
I can’t believe you’ve had so much trouble and it’s taken you so long to finish the ambo missions. I did it, second try, about 45 minutes. Once you get to level 4 or so, you get plenty of time to drive carefully.
Well thanks for the vote of confidence, Mr. Smarty Pants “Oh heck it was a piece of cake why I drove with one hand and did my taxes with the other” Ambulance Driver man.
I will admit that the driving itself is not that hard. It’s the freakin’ patients that cause me to pull my hair out. It’s most especially the amount of time I usually have invested before one of the patients decides to do someting stupid, including but not limited to:[ul][li]Running in front of the ambulance before it has stopped.[/li][li]Getting run over by another car as they try to make their way into the ambulance[/li][li]Getting SHOT by an erupting gang/police skermish. That one really chafed my ass.[/li][li]Getting run over by the ambulance when the ambulance is struck from behind by a speeding car. OK, that one’s not really the patient’s fault, but still…[/ul][/li]I am confident I will best this annoying mini-game, but the patients are being entirely uncooperative.
I have found that it helps to follow the advice given in this most amusing FAQ when the inevitable happens:
i see you haven’t run into the “accidently run over the stupid cop who is standing in the middle of the ambulance drop zone, so cops chase you for the next six patients.” consider yourself lucky.
Oh yeah – I forgot to include the cops. That actually did happen to me, but it was a while ago on one of my earlier attempts.
I don’t even remember hitting a cop or cop car…maybe I smooshed a pedestrian while a cop was watching. In any case, I had gotten one wanted star at some point, and when I stopped to pick up a patient, some randomly-generated beat cop pops out of nowhere from behind the ambulance and busts me. Mission over.
Well, you guys can get ready to hate me. I just did all 12 levels. On my first try. I thought it was pretty easy, really. You just have to go slowly so you don’t destroy or roll over your ambulance.
Oh, and by the way, you guys DO realize that just because you hit someone and they collapse on the ground, that doesn’t mean they’re dead, right? Just hang around for a few seconds and they’ll get up, shake it off, and hop in. Unless, of course, you happen to be parked on them. Then, just move a little bit, and they’ll recover. I was running into patients right and left, but I never managed to actually kill anyone.
It works all the time for me. Just tap and quickly release the horn button to turn the siren else on or off.
Well, duh. 
What happened to me (and I suspect to Bottle of Smoke) was different. The people ran in front of the ambulance, got hit, and died outright, ending the mission. I’ve had a few passengers who got run over but sprung right back up after I reversed off of them. But these bastards just die. Depriving you of the pleasure of killing them.
Congratulations on finishing the missions, btw. The last time I tried them I barely made it to level 7 before I got the kamikaze.
First off, let me reaffirm my deeply-held belief that programmers who put mind-numbing torturous crap like what I’ve just seen here in video games (and boy, the stories I could tell…don’t ever get me started on Puzzle Bobble, you’ll be on this board for a week) should be subject to public censure. At minimum.
Other than that, don’t have much else to add, except…
Bottle of Smoke - Thanks for pointing out that well-written and very funny FAQ (you have to actually go GameFAQs before you can access it, BTW). One thing that struck me as weird…or should I say, depressingly familiar…is that the author’s lockstep denouncing of using cheat codes to make the task easier, even after stating that the mission was unbelievably hard AND badly designed.
I read similar comments regarding the use of speed modifiers in certain Dance Dance Revolution songs, particularly Bag (where you almost have to, for crying out loud), and it baffles me to no end. Why do so many gamers willingly torture themselves like this? Why is a cheat device, which is the easiest way to rectify gaping flaws in the game, somehow dishonorable or inappropriate or some other junk? Look, when the patient runs right into the flippin’ ambulance, as far as I’m concerned, the game has lost the right to be played “like it should be”. And anyway, success without “honor” (which has no bearing on a freaking video game, as far as I’m concerned) is infinitely preferable to panic, madness, rage, and no success.
Gad. I may actually have to play this game just to spite some folks. 
Well, in Vice City, it’s a real issue because there are apparently glitches, so that if you use certain cheat codes and then save, some of the things you need (like hidden packages and rampages) to get 100% disappear.