Although still only officially appear for PlayStation 2 this October, nosotros'll challenge Tommy Vercetti to a chainsaw duel if we don't see G Theft Auto: San Andreas on PC by this time side by side year. Here's the major revelation - San Andreas is really a huge The states state similar to California, with three fully-rendered cities the same size as Vice Metropolis - Los Santos (Los Angeles), Las Venturra (Las Vegas) and San Fierro (San Francisco). Not just that, but you take all the countryside in-between, with mountains, strange locals and a definite route movie feel.
Crips And Bloods
San Andreas is prepare in the early 1990s, complete with those infamous period radio stations. You play through the game as Carl Johnson (CJ), a street kid who's recently returned to his dwelling house of Los Santos to detect in-fighting in his family and his gang, the Orange Grove Families. CJ is soon dragged back into the gangsta lifestyle when a couple of bad cops get on his tail and everything goes tits-up.
Rockstar has included more existent estate to purchase, including casinos, and many more interiors of buildings have now been fully modelled - important, equally you tin at present go robbing houses for money. CJ has to eat to maintain his stamina meter, but don't go scoffing too many burgers and fries or y'all'll put on weight, affecting speed and forcefulness. If you're getting likewise porky, it's fourth dimension to become downwards to the gym and slim down.
San Andreas also promises new vehicles including bicycles, more satisfying weapons with ragdoll physics, improved NPC Al and the power to recruit gang members for 4-way bulldoze-by shootings. By our reckonings, this is going to exist B.I.Grand.
Download Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
XBox
System requirements:
- PC uniform
- Operating systems: Windows 10/Windows viii/Windows 7/2000/Vista/WinXP
XBox 360
System requirements:
- PC compatible
- Operating systems: Windows 10/Windows 8/Windows vii/2000/Vista/WinXP
PC
System requirements:
- PC compatible
- Operating systems: Windows 10/Windows eight/Windows seven/2000/Vista/WinXP
Playstation 3
Organisation requirements:
- PC compatible
- Operating systems: Windows x/Windows 8/Windows 7/2000/Vista/WinXP
Playstation 2
Organisation requirements:
- PC compatible
- Operating systems: Windows 10/Windows eight/Windows seven/2000/Vista/WinXP
Game Reviews
Every bit Proud PC gamers, you may feel a little aggrieved to be reading this review now, rather than nine months ago when this game offset reared its tabloid-baiting caput on the PlayStation 2.1 myself crumbled in typical lily-livered way, holding out until effectually terminal Christmas, at which time I decided that I couldn't wait some other half a year for a game that all and sundry were raving almost. And I had a smash with the PS2 version. I really did. But now I wish I'd had the patience to expect that half a year, considering after spending time with this version I'd much rather exist playing San Andreas through for the get-go time on my PC.
Unless you've been squatting in a Saddam-mode hidey-hole for the past x years, I'm going to assume you know what the GTA games are all near. But here are the revision notes for anyone who may have recently awoken from a blackout: yous're a career criminal in a fictional city (although one that'due south clearly inspired by a real-life metropolis) filled with people and vehicles, any of which you tin can kill/bulldoze (delete as appropriate). You accept the pick of undertaking missions - some of which proceed the story ticking forth, some of which don't - but yous are besides free to roam around the urban center if you wish; the game world is very much your oyster. Embark on the sort of whore-murdering rampage that recently got Hillary Clinton's knickers in a public twist, or simply cruise around town looking cool - the option is yours.
California Love
Rockstar North's latest sticks closely to the formula. The main departure is that instead of being given the freedom to roam effectually a single city, you become a whole state in which to indulge your gangsta leanings. Inspired past California (and a sure neon-lit corner of Nevada), the game world is huge. Fully v times bigger than Vice City, it's dwelling house to 3 cities and numerous modest towns, with plenty of redneck-packed, hillbilly countryside in between.
Merely as with other GTA titles, you can't see everything right from the start. Wisely, Rockstar feeds you fresh slices of San Andreas equally y'all accelerate through the game'due south story, opening up routes to new areas as you progress. The plot is pretty much thus: it'south the early on 1990s, and you lot're Carl CJ' Johnson, a Los Santos native who'due south spent the past few years thugging it up out of state. Dragged dorsum to the hood by the death of your mother, you offset running with your one-time homies once again. It'south non the most interesting of hooks -although at that place'south a pleasing corporeality of backstabbing, betrayal and brotherly love thrown in - simply information technology works, and the promise of new areas to explore helps drive you on.
Menace Ii Society
The core gameplay has changed hardly at all from Vice City. A typical mission might see y'all tasked with chirapsia up a drug dealer. And then you jump in a machine, bum it round to the crack den and proceed to knock 7 shades of shit out of your target with the baseball bat you looted from the corpse of an earlier victim. Other mission types include illegal street races, heists and lowrider bouncing contests.
But if yous're thinking that this is simply a rehash of earlier GTA games with a bigger map, call up once again. San Andreas adds an incredible amount to this core gameplay, and it makes the game feel even vaster. For instance, CJ can become tattooed, have a haircut, bulk up in the gym and buy apparel. Hell, you tin even pull a fast one on out your ride in several garages dotted around the map. None of this is purely cosmetic: irresolute your advent gets the cops off your dorsum, while weightlifting increases the amount of damage you deal in a fight. Nosotros haven't even mentioned the numerous girlfriends you can squire, the burglaries, the fat stat or the properties available for buy. At that place's a listen-boggling corporeality of stuff to practice.
Role With It
Other additions include RPG-way skills, which become improved through practice: bump upward your burglarize skill and shooting becomes sharper: increment your motorcycling proficiency and you won't tumble off as often. Another important stat is Respect', which rises equally you plough through missions. The higher it is, the more than gang members yous can entice into your entourage.
San Andreas has a turf war arrangement that requires you lot to take hold of rival gangs' territory and claim it every bit your own. Any areas you lot control will exist populated by recruitable thugs who follow you around, attacking enemies and performing drive-bys. While not the best fighters, they do provide a welcome extra dimension to GTA's combat. Ah, gainsay. This brings me nicely to the signal I touched on before. Like I said, I wish I'd waited for this version of San Andreas before picking up my digital Glock and embarking on a pixellated life of crime, as the newly arrived PC version is better than the PS2 version in a couple of significant ways.
Thanks to the mouse and keyboard philharmonic, combat is vastly improved. You tin can actually manually aim the guns accurately and quickly, which is nigh-on impossible to do on the PlayStation 2. Gunfights are more tactile, enjoyable and far, far less frustrating. Then there's the visual side of things.
Oh You Pretty Thing
You tin can probably tell from the screenshots that San Andreas is not particularly impressive when compared to the likes of Half-Life 2 - most of the textures are blurred and fuzzy, and none of the latest graphical furnishings accept been implemented. But it's nevertheless far superior to the PS2 version: the draw distance is further, the frame-rate is meliorate and the resolution is college. Realtime shadows supercede indistinct blobs. All told it's a smoother, slicker-looking game. Rockstar has likewise thrown in some new features for the PC. Photos and stats can be exported, at that place's a 30-second replay office, and should y'all get bored of the ludicrously fantastic soundtrack and fancy yourself as a scrap of a Dave Lee Travis, you can create your own radio station using MP3s. Commercials are fifty-fifty spliced in between tracks to create a more than authentic feel, and the game is now moddable -something that volition open things out fifty-fifty more.
One thing that'southward missing is the co-operative 2-player manner of the PS2 version, which Rockstar claims wouldn't piece of work given the PC's command options. Debatable perhaps, but information technology was a pretty insignificant role of the game to brainstorm with, so it won't exist missed too strongly.
Then has San Andreas on PC been worth the wait? Well, yeah, quite frankly: it's a marked improvement on what was already a bloody brilliant game. If you've played through the PlayStation two version so nosotros wouldn't propose spunking some other 35 notes on it, merely if yous've been more patient than stupid former me, become out, buy information technology and play on, playa.
Acting Up
Rockstar Hits Its Voice Interim Marks Once more
Let'due south face information technology: for the most part, voice interim in games is sad. Whether it's due to the quality of the actors (if you lot can telephone call them actors), or only the amateurish directing, it's a fact. Thank god, then, for games similar GTA: San Andreas. Rockstar might accept the sort of budget that sends nearly developers greener than a leprechaun on St Patrick's Day, just it also knows how to apply information technology We're willing to bet that a large slice went on hiring some real talent to provide the voices.
San Andreas' bandage boasts such stellar names as Samuel L Jackson, James Woods and Peter Fonda. And so there's back up from the ever-reliable likes of Chris Penn and Frank Vincent, while Danny Dyer and Bill Fichtner reprise their roles from Vice City. Fittingly, the bandage likewise features a slew of West Coast hip-hop stars, all the manner from the erstwhile school (MC Eiht, Ice T) to the new breed (The Game). And nobody does a bad job. Look to Rockstar, developers, and take a lesson in how to produce voice acting that won't take us reaching for the mute button.
Yard Theft Auto. I know what it is, you know what it is, and more likely than not, fifty-fifty your mom knows what it is. In our community of gamers, it'south known for the immersive and innovative gameplay that gives the player freedom unlike any other game out there. In the mainstream media and everywhere else, it's known equally that one game that teaches kids how to hijack cars and selection upwards hookers. Rockstar Games, even so, not 1 to disappoint, satisfies both camps by offer upwardly plenty of innovative and immersive gameplay that'll be rife with controversy with Grand Theft Machine: San Andreas.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, in many ways is 2 games in itself. In that location'due south Thou Theft Automobile: San Andreas, the actual game, that'south consummate with missions, side missions, and everything in betwixt. More often than not, the missions have been improved upon, and in that location are some definite 'holy crap, that was awesome'? moments laden throughout the game. Nevertheless, some of GTA's core mechanics yet suffer from the same problems that have plagued the series since Grand Theft Automobile three, like the sometimes screwy targeting system and the steep, steep difficulty level.
So there's K Theft Auto: San Andreas that yous, the gamer, are gratuitous to interpret. San Andreas is basically your virtual playground, filled with fast cars and mortiferous guns, and it'south up to you to decide how you want to spend your time in San Andreas. By giving you lot a huge, sprawling environment to cause havoc in, G Theft Auto: San Andreas is a game that's entertaining to just explore, or slowly destroy if that's more your thing. Some people are content just lazing the solar day away, accomplishing nothing merely havoc and mayhem in San Andreas, and in this respect, Rockstar has really improved upon the series. San Andreas is absolutely huge, with each city feeling uniquely different and filled to the brim with things to bank check out, and past throwing in some gameplay elements that are quite similar to the Sims, there'due south less of an accent on really pushing through the game.
When yous take the scope of the entire game into considerations, San Andreas is a real technical feat. Some of the textures don't look too hot and there are a few prominent visual bugs, just just almost everything else has taken a pace upwards from Vice Metropolis. Likewise, the audio presentation is probably the best yet in the series: the vox-interim is impeccably convincing, the dialogue smartly written, and the diverse music fits in perfectly with the gang-bangin' theme of the game.
Ask yourself this one question: did yous like Yard Theft Auto three or Vice City? If your answer is anywhere from an enthusiastic "hell yep" to a wishy-washy "kinda" than y'all should probably be playing Chiliad Theft Auto: San Andreas right now. However, if you're in the minority and your answer is a "no, not really" and so you should probably still give it a hire. Nothing in the series has changed drastically, just at that place's and so much more content that even without a major face lift, San Andreas merely might win you over.
Non too long ago, information technology seemed doubtful that the Xbox would always receive the Grand Theft Car handling that the PlayStation 2 reeled in success from. With the announcement of the Grand Theft Motorcar: Double Pack for the Xbox however, the horizons brightened for Xbox owners equally two of the finest titles in the PS2 library finally fabricated its appearance on the Xbox, cementing the possibility of future 1000 Theft Auto titles.
And lo and behold, just half a year later after the initial appearance on the PlayStation 2, the Xbox gets the majestic treatment with M Theft Auto: San Andreas, which ultimately turns out to exist a straight-up port of a fantastic game.
Grand Theft Machine: San Andreas is the same game it was on the PlayStation ii, and as such, there's no signal in going over my rambling drivel when y'all can just read it in my original PlayStation ii review. However, if you want the long and short of information technology, here it is: San Andreas is a lot of fun, and then filled to the brim with content, that even if you didn't dig Grand Theft Auto before, it's worth checking out now.
With that said, the deviation between the Xbox and PS2 version of San Andreas is largely cosmetic. The Xbox version definitely looks sharper with a cleaner textures and HDTV support, simply strangely, the load times are no ameliorate, and in some cases worse, than the PS2 version; makes you wonder what that hard bulldoze is for, doesn't it?
Another major failing of Thousand Theft Machine: San Andreas on the Xbox is the unnatural controller layout, and it's a mistake that tin't be too heavily attributed to the developers. The PS2 version of San Andreas utilized every single button on the PS2 controller, with the specially important four shoulder buttons in constant rotation, and since the Xbox has only ii shoulder buttons, this creates an event. Drive-bys, for example, are just possible with a contortionists flexibility, making the already tough game quite a fleck harder.
Make no fault, information technology's nonetheless a pleasure to prowl down the streets of San Andreas, but if you've cruised down the streets via your PlayStation 2, then not plenty has changed to warrant cruising down them again via the Xbox. However, if you oasis't experienced the uncomplicated pleasures of high speed chases on the hilly streets of San Ferrio or the thrills of re-experiencing the ninety's in a fierce manner, then don't hesitate to check out M Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Grand Theft Motorcar. Arguably, ane of the near well-known and hyped game series of the past few years. San Andreas, the third title in the GTA series, puts you in the shoes of Carl Johnson, a former die-hard street hood looking for a new life away from his old neighborhood in Los Santos. When his mother is killed and C.J. returns for the funeral, he is drawn back into the life he once left backside. But will it be for revenge, or redemption?
Disclaimer: I experience it merely fair to bespeak out that I wasn't very enthusiastic about playing/reviewing this championship. Frankly, nearly MA/AO rated titles seem to be based on the same principle of straight-to-video soft core porn flicks: No substance, and all about the 'titillation cistron'?, using cheesy gimmicks similar linguistic communication, violence, or nudity to appeal to the teenage male demographic. So delight bear with me, as this was the expectation I had going in to this review.
The showtime affair that defenseless my eye with GTA: San Andreas was that information technology feels like a direct port from a console gaming system. Controls, video, and the like all seem to be non much improve than your average gaming console'southward, which is quite evidently the case. All the same, where many 'ported'? PC titles seem to tweak the graphics or other items to better utilize the power/flexibility of a PC, GTA: San Andreas seems to be an nearly directly port from the gaming systems, with little to no additional 'eye candy' or upgrades.
Yet, bad graphics I can forgive if a game has other worthwhile aspects. GTA: San Andreas has this in spades in some departments. The audio is top notch, with fantabulous vocalization acting, only fantastic music, and well-used sound furnishings. The stereo furnishings in vehicles makes me feel like I'm dorsum in a large metropolis again, complete with the fast-talking DJs and gritty, urban tracks.
GTA: San Andreas as well boasts a HUGE playfield area, where, in addition to playing through the storyline, you'll be able to experience the many sights, sounds and activities that the several cities in the state of San Andreas has to offer. Cheque out how the other half lives in the swanky parts of town, or slide into the gutters where the dregs of humanity lives, information technology'southward all represented here in GTA, and in great particular.
Still, with the amount of hype this game'due south getting, it seems people are agape to mention the many flaws that GTA: San Andreas has. And there are many. First off, the physics of the game are so bad it's almost unplayable at times, especially early. For example, your character seems to do a lot more harm with his fists than with the 9mm Beretta he steals from an unconscious cop; I beat down a gangbanger with a few well placed punches and kicks, merely when I tried to put the hurt down on one of his buddies with my pistol, I emptied a clip correct in to him and did fairly little damage. That'southward some screwed upward physics there.
With the advances gaming systems are making in graphics and animation, you'd think that the cut scenes in GTA: San Andreas would be height notch, right? Well, it's a mixed purse. In some cases, cut scenes and animation in game wait to be quite polished and well designed, but in others there's very lilliputian detail or complexity to character's movements and actions. In fact, there were some parts in this title that were done at a level lower than Half-Life, which came out several years ago.
In conclusion, and to be honest, I'm really wondering what the hype is all about. GTA: San Andreas for the PC just seems to be a poorly designed port of a rather good panel game. I'd say that'southward my main complaint, subsequently all the hype and build upwards: GTA: San Andreas is simply a good game, and not a great one. This is a perfect example of a Fans Only title. The elementary fact is, in that location are games out there that do it much ameliorate, including previous GTA titles.
People say:
9
My "to do" list...offset, I need to run to the clothes shop to go a new shirt (the boys in the hood aren't digging my raggedy married woman beater). And so I need to become a new chrome bumper installed on my hooptie ride, run across upward with Georgy to play a couple games of puddle, catch something to consume before I lose all my energy, go work out so I don't turn into a fatty slob...so finally, selection upwards my brother so we can crack open the heads of some rival gangstas. These are simply some of the possibilities in the first couple hours of One thousand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The biggest, blue-chip, most aggressive game ever (with the possible exception of fantasy function-player Morrowind) hits the Xbox in (generally) fine form. Live the life of a street thug like you've never imagined, from rags to riches, from a fictional Los Angeles to San Francisco and then finally Las Vegas, with plenty gang (or even totally innocent) activities to keep you busy for over 200 hours if you wanted. A little suspension of disbelief helps--the graphics are ugly and the cutting-scenes are rough (though well acted)--as does having a tolerance for a sloppy control scheme. But unless you're averse to crime/drug/violence themes, you can't become incorrect here. San Andreas is a brilliantly crafted videogame whose scope and scale will remain unparalleled for a long time to come up.
ix
Xbox gamers whose lives weren't jacked past the San Andreas phenom on PS2 volition probably wonder what all the fin' fuss is about when they take to this game's mean, ugly streets. And I do hateful ugly--despite small-scale improvements over the PS2 version, San Andreas is not a good-looking Xbox game. And who is this scrawny CJ guy? Why is his car fishtailing everywhere? Why practice I demand iii hands to handle a simple bulldoze-by shooting? Some of the answers are upward to you lot, because what this game lacks in looks, it makes up for in personality--one that you define. Beef CJ up at the gym, head to driving school to boost his wheelman skills, and swallow, eat--you're skin and bones! All these extracurricular activities are outside the meaty story portion of the game, which eventually veers away from gangland territory (you lot'll become to jack a jetpack and a spring jet). Certain, San Andreas is rough around the edges--distant vistas pop up, computer-controlled allies aren't too bright--merely no other console game lets you live a life this large.
ix
Fifty-fifty at present, more half dozen months later on information technology made its real touch on, San Andreas is still one of the most aggressive games e'er made. Just the movement to Xbox feels like more of a formality-- you don't really detect the slightly nicer environments, and if always a game didn't need custom soundtracks, this is the i. Unlike Crispin, I actually quite like the car handling, just I had a much harder time with the combat here than I did on PS2. Blame the Xbox pad; I do. Retrieve of it like ane of those DVD rereleases of a classic movie. It's still swell, only viii million of you have already seen it once.
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