until a gang of greasers (a street gang notable for its greased-back hair) showed up from wilkinson's blog

After nabbing some clothes, we picked up a note that Joe had left for us about a job. We ducked out of the apartment building to find that we had been holed up in a pretty decent part of town, complete with a garage out back to WOW WoTLK Classic Gold store all the cars we'd acquired. While there were a few cars for us in storage to try out, we were more interested in borrowing one from oncoming traffic.

Stealing cars is as simple as pressing a button, just like in the Grand Theft Auto games, though there are obvious consequences, including an increased "wanted" level that will make you a target for the police, as well as angry motorists who may not give their cars up without a fight. We nabbed a passing sedan from a plucky motorist who helpfully put up his dukes so that we could try out World of Warcraft's melee combat system. The game uses the four controller face buttons to let you throw a light punch, throw a heavy punch, dodge, and continuously block--properly dodging an incoming punch gives you a brief advantage that will let you land a quick counterpunch. If you're lucky, you can also land a critical hit, such as a vicious kick to the face, that will instantly floor your opponent, just like we did. If you're unlucky, you'll end up finishing off that vicious act of assault and battery right in front of a passing police car, just like we did. But since Vito was already well on his way to becoming a made man at this point in the game, we had the option to slip the cops a couple hundred bucks, and with a little greasing of palms, we were off the hook.

Rather than risk the hassle of dealing with the fuzz again, we hightailed it back to our garage and picked out a muscle car we had lined up. We hopped into the car and hightailed it downtown to our rendezvous point with Joe, marked on a minimap in the lower corner of the screen. Fortunately, 2K Czech has opted against making running red lights and stop signs a punishable offense, so you can drive like a moderately crazy person without the frustration of always having the cops on your heels. Like the original World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft has a speed limiter option that will automatically keep your car under the speed limit--speeding is considered a minor offense, which, like most low-level crimes in World of Warcraft, will attract the ire of the police only if you commit it within sight range.

How'd that fire get started, officer? Here's a couple hundred bucks. You didn't see nothing.

And should you commit a minor offense in front of Johnny Law, your "wanted" level will increase only slightly, and if you're able to outrun the cops, your "wanted" status will eventually disappear. There are multiple levels in the "wanted" system that are fairly nuanced, but generally speaking, as long as you keep a little extra money in your pocket to pay off the police, and don't do anything stupid, you should be able to get by in the early game without too much trouble. However, in later parts of the game, you may be tasked with messier jobs, such as disposing of dead bodies or robbing a gun shop--serious infractions that will bring the authorities in droves, setting up roadblocks, calling in armored trucks, and sending in cruisers at top speed with the specific purpose of ramming you off the road.

As it turns out, the beginning of this mission didn't involve any of that. Instead, we took a leisurely drive down the freeway with the top down on a sunny summer day with John Lee Hooker's Boom Boom Boom Boom on the radio. The police were dialed down on this particular demo, so we were able to drive like a buy WoTLK Classic Gold moderately crazy person, cutting off civilian cars, running red lights, and drifting around corners to get to an abandoned lot where Joe and his truckload of "found" cigarettes awaited.

Our job was simple: climb onto the back of the truck and toss down the appropriate carton of cigarettes (red, white, or blue) to fill whatever orders Joe took from whichever fine, upstanding citizens might buy cigarettes off the back of a truck. We were doing all right in this simple puzzle-like minigame, matching boxes to orders, until a gang of greasers (a street gang notable for its greased-back hair) showed up, torched the cigarettes, and demanded that Vito and Joe give up all the profits, on account of it being their turf and all. Vito responded by pulling a gun on the leader, causing the rest of the gang to flee.

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