Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas

Grand theft Auto. San andreas (for PS2) Review by Richard Cahill

Low-down.
The 3rd edition of whats become the most loved and most hated game in the world released by Rockstargames aims to be the biggest, best and most varied game ever devised, and in most respects does with bells on. This time around you play as Carl Johnson ex-gangmember returning to his home city Los santos only to find his mother dead and his old "hood" plagued by crack and the heads that tend to come with said drug. if thats not bad enough his welcome home party is the local Bent Cop, officer tenpenny who immedatly frames you with the murder of a police officer. with this hanging over your head tenpenny (voiced by Samuel L jackson) has you running around on errands.

At the same time Carl starts a Quest to clean the streets of the crack dealers. No doubt the moral high ground required to allow such a game to be released. you see carl has no problem shooting and maiming innocent by-standers, police and fellow gang bangers, but drugs? no no no Carl dont like that Shiat..

Not long after the start of the game it all goes pear shapes for our plukky Anti-hero and he is whisked away to the back end of nowhere, this is how the game introduces you to the next city (of three) San fierro, where the game abruptly drops the "Boys in the hood" Facade, although not giving the story away it does eventually go the full cycle and end back in gang banger territory.
Just in case your scouting for games to buy your Child or younger brother and you have been living in a cave for the last 5 years, this game is not for kids. the language alone would demand a 18s cert, not to mention the content of the rest of the game, so mam and dad, dont be fooled by the whole "its only a game" attitude. note also that I am no prude.

Gameplay
Anyone who has played GTA vice city or GTA3 will feel right at home straight away, its basically Way more of the same, only the missions are a lot more fun and a lot more varied. Thats not to say that it doesnt suffer the odd infuriatingly hard mission, usually the ones with time limits. but overall they quite simply kick ass.
The one thing that does get me however is the controls, I'll clear this up straight away, I hate the Ps2 control pad, hell I hate control pads in general, but some missions that require percise aiming are lost on me altogether, there is one mission that stands out a mile in this respect.
"Z", the local san fierro Nerd and RC model shop owner asks you to protect his Antennas on the roof of his shop from a rival nerd and his fleet of RC planes armed with bombs. For this you must use a Mini gun. Just dont get me started on this mission, I was nearly gonna write a strongly worded letter to Rockstar over it. you must hold out for 3 and a half horible minutes, Sigh....

So whats new?
Well lots, you can now kit out Carl with all kinds of clothes, kinda lost on me but a nice touch I suppose, carl must also eat to stay alive, but to much food and you become a chunky Barry white looking mofo, dont eat and you become a decrepit skinny dude (hilarious looking I'll add) you can also go to the gym and become a huge musle bound body builder, it basically involves tapping X and O really fast ala every olymics game ever made.

In gyms there is also fighter training, which basically involves kicking the life out of the trainer, who then teaches you some new moves, some trainers teach you boxing while oters teach you karate, depending on the gym you visit, although you can only have one style at a time it only takes a couple of seconds to switch to an other.
Weapons are in abundence, and in a slight nod to RPGs using them alot upgrades you ability with with the paticular weapon your using, your accuracy and range mostly, but hit Hitman level with certain weapons and you can use two at a time, Very cool indeed. I love dual ingrams..
Upgrading your abilitys isnt just confined to weapons either, cars, bikes(both push and motor), planes, helecopters and swimming are also upgradable, although bikes seem to be affected the most, at the highest level of motorbike skills, its hard to come flying off, which to say the least is pretty handy when being chased by the law/bad guys.

Speaking of Vehicles, you simply wont believe the vastness of the aresnal, unbelievable amount of cars are there for the taking, and on top of that, you can bring them to the local car work shop, and mod to your hearts content, although in saying that, it seems the better the car the less you can add, but certain things are availible to all, such as alloy wheels, paintjobs, hydrolics and a bass booster for the car radio that Really works!! I know I was blown away also.
scattered around the city you will find an abundance of sub games and all round fun stuff, Carl even owns his own games console, and yes you CAN play it, the games are simple but fun.

You will also find arcade games around the city, a bookmakers, and yes you can bet on the horse racing, and in the final city las venturas you will find Casinos, with sweet games like Blackjack and one arm bandits, did I mention you upgrade your gambling skills also? well I did now, gamble alot and you can increase your bets.
I could go on all day about the gameplay, there is simply too much to talk about. 10/10

Graphics
The map in this game is absolutly Huge, three citys all big in there own right a huge country side, and a desert with ghost towns scattered around and amazingly, the game never stops to load the next bit, NEVER! think back to vice city that had to stop to load and the map is nowhere near the size of this monster. yet the graphics are still really cool, the one thing about them is that they are quite blurry, and the level of detail changes on the front of buildings can be quite abrupt, also the popup and apperance of objects can happen way to late, especially when in airbourne vehicles, I found myself slamming into walls that appear right infront of you. but taking the size of the map, I can forgive it, as it didnt happen that much. the car models are superb and the damage as good. The cars have a cool shine on them, but it's a little hidden by the blurred graphics. all that I found myself saying to people watching me play was "wait until you see this on the PC" and I will say it again! because this is one title I will glady get a second time just to play in high resolution, and of course mouse keyboard combo that simply owned the playstation version in both part 3 and Vice city. 9/10

Sound
Rockstar really went all out this time, from a star studded cast to an exellent soundtrack in both quality and quantity, there is simply hours of music and the trademark GTA ads and Chatshows, I found myself pulling over and just listening, there is music for nearly all tastes, spread over 10 channels, from the hilarious WTCA chat radio to the Reggae channel Kay-Jah, its all good, even music styles that I myself wouldnt normally listen to I found myself tapping along with, you can see that the songs where expertly chosen for there universiality. simply ground breaking stuff.

Overall
I've ran out of big words to describe this Beast. the best game ever? could well be, although I'll reserve that for the PC version which simply must be released. this game is A if not THEE reason to go out and get a Ps2 espesially the new model thats about the size of the GTA-SA box.
But a question remains, after the release of Vice City, I speculated (correctly) that San andreas would be the next release, so whats next? if they are to follow the original GTA it should be GTA london, of will they skip that and go to the lackluster GTA2 futuristic city? comments and speculation are wholly welcome.

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