I’ve only played GTA, so I’m glad they’ve changed this a bit. The first one had they would chase you forever until you finished the mission or found a garage.
Actually, that really bugged me about it. The cops could find you anywhere in the city and track you down in seconds, but you could go into a garage and get spray painted/plates changed right in front of them, and the cops suddenly have no idea where you went. I can see this working at times, but it’s pretty rediculas when you are driving the tank, then suddenly the cops can’t find you anymore.
Because firing 100mm+ pieces of artillery in urban areas tends to cause a lot of property damage if you miss the target. (“Oh, shit, I missed the car and blew up Saks Fifth Avenue”)
I always figured that the Pay’n’Sprays were primarily brokers for bribes. A free car fix-up and repaint was just a bonus, sort of getting-fries-with-that.