Customer Reviews

Really, really not for kids, but Gouranga quintupled baby!
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (GTA:SA) is, simply put, a great game. The six month wait for a PC port was worth it; although still not state-of-the-art, if you've got the rig for it graphics are noticably improved over the PS2. I'm a bit biased having been addicted since the original GTA came out - Gouranga refers to the easter egg you get for taking out a line of hare krishnas in the original - but the game is probably the best of the series as the world is richer and the missions more fun. My only reservation is that the violence and plot here have no place anywhere near kids, but for adults this is the best of the genre and deserves 5 stars.

GTA has fully evolved from a pure-action game in the original GTA to an RPG with a good deal of action in GTA:SA. The majority of the game revolves around completing missions rather than simply jacking cars and running over people as in the early versions. The good news is that the RPG works. Missions are funny but brutal.

It's important to note this isn't the tamer, slightly cartoonish Scarface-inspired Vice City. Instead, this is the very nasty world of early 90's South Central LA with a gangbanger-influence and language that many will find disturbing. With the revelation that interactive softcore porn is included, this very much deserves the new AO rating. (All the infamous 'hot coffee' mod does is unlock some hidden but pretty rough sex simulations and take off the computer-generated clothes of those involved - if you're disturbed by the gangbanging the in-genre scenes will make it even worse.) One wonders if the rumor that TakeTwo leaked information about the hidden code to the hacking community as a marketing stunt is true - if so, it's massively backfired and it's hard to argue they don't deserve at least some criticism for at the very least not being far more upfront about its inclusion. Even before hot coffee this was pushing the upper limits of an M rating and probably deserved an AO one. Then again, any parent who let their kid near this game - or incredibly, a litigous grandmother buying this for an unsupervised 14 year old when M is clearly marked for 17 year olds - really isn't doing their job either as its incredibly obvious this is not a game for kids. Caveat emptor, and it looks like the AO version is about to become a collector's item.

Regarding content, there are so many more things to do compared to even Vice City. The world is, in a word, huge. It takes at least 20 minutes to drive from one end of the world to another (although if you're creative you just jump the airport fence and fly a plane for 2 minutes instead). Sure, there are standard GTA missions, like mugging drug dealers and drive-bys. But there is a lot more. Want to play death from above? Complete a ton of missions and get the easter egg of a Hunter gunship that can blow anything in the game away. Want an insanely fast car? Don't steal one; go to the docks and import a Super GT. Want to show off your moves? Enter the lowrider contest or go dancing with a date. Where the change from action game to RPG is most noticeable is in the addition of skill-based character advancement. CJ needs to eat and be in shape, but more importantly needs experience with weapons if he wants to hit something besides his foot. It's not onerous by any means, but it's a noticeable difference. One other note for veteran GTA players: this is probably the first GTA in which you'll use your keyboard a bit. The shooting missions are easier with mouse control for targeting, although I definitely prefer my Logitech gamepad for driving.

The PC port is clean although several of the PS2 cheats I tested don't work. Several things are better than the console versions. Besides making your own radio station from MP3s (although the GTA ads still air in between songs), graphics are improved. If you have the hardware to run it, high end tweaks like shadowing and draw distance (meaning you can actually decipher signs among other things) are nice. This isn't a showpiece game like Half Life 2 for your 45" LCD monitor by any means - the PS2 development still shows in a vaguely polygonish feel - but the port is a definite improvement over the consoles and the previous GTAs. (If Rockstar insists on an exclusive PS3 contract going forward, hopefully the 1080p PS3 will force improvements in the next game.) I like the special guest voices (like a corrupt Samuel L. Jackson) and the 5.1 surround in general, and have fortunately not experienced any of the numerous reported sound or running problems. (I'm running a 6800GT and a dual Opteron 246 setup which probably helps.)

It's probably not the best PC game of the year based on the legacy limitations of developing this for the PS2, but it is a genre defining game and is a must play for anyone who likes being bad. Five stars.

Great game
I hope amazon does not submit to the pressure to stop selling this game. With the recent change to the rating on this game it's making it very hard for ADULTS to find this great game. I'm tired of the retail industry thinking all games are suppose to be for kids. There are grown adults who enjoy playing games. These are the same adults that grew up with video games and now want games that reflect their age. The rating system is to educate people on the content of the game, not to punish the publisher by refusing to sell it. I don't want the retail industry telling me what I can and can't buy.

San Andreas--Fun on a Faultline
I've been aware of the *Grand Theft Auto* series from the beginning, but it took the controversial and revolutionary game play of the third outing to grab me. *GTA III* essentially stands as the beginning of an epic remake, and at last developer/publisher Rockstars bring out the conclusion. *Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas* not only brings together the previous two titles, but realizes the world of the original. It's the best of the series--and a big bite to chew.

San Andreas, like Vice City and Liberty City before, was one of three cities in the first *GTA*. Now it's a state of the union, and the child hood home of Carl "CJ" Johnson: once a proud member of the Grove Street Families gang alliance, now a buster living in the relative safety of Liberty. Then a phone call brings CJ back to the streets of Los Santos, San Andreas. His mother has joined his brother in the afterlife, the alliance has collapsed, and rival gangs threaten to flood the streets with base. Carl must not only prove to his surviving family and friends he's down for life, but must ultimately save life.

This requires CJ to kill and destroy an awful lot. Not much has changed in the series on that end. But while the silent protagonist of *GTA III* was a cold-blooded mercenary to the end, and Tommy Vercetti was a sociopath who became kingpin of Vice City, CJ operates from a pirate's code of honor. His pride in family and gang contributes to the most ambitious and coherent story in the series. Major characters take a more compelling, frequent, and usually logical role than in previous installments. While *GTA III* and *IV* amounted to a succession of mercenary missions loosely bound by a drive for revenge, *San Andreas* weaves a number of plot threads through the length of the game, with story and missions mutually bound to each other.

*San Andreas* suffers from a few snares though. My new DVD-RW drive successfully installed the game, but couldn't detect the disc whenever I tried to run it. Technical support insisted my firmware needed to be updated, but updates didn't help. My newer DVD-ROM drive likewise failed at first. Then tech support had me disable all Startup options in msconfig; only then could my ROM drive detect the disk, and not 100% of the time. Finally, I discovered that disabling Drive Letter Access on my RW drive would allow my ROM drive to reliably read the disc. This hasn't prevented the occassional Blue Screen of Death, but otherwise I have not suffered the audio and video bugs reported by others. Such problems nevertheless spoil an otherwise clean record between my PC and Rockstar.

So imagine my mood when I also discovered a significant control change from previous PC ports. The ability to mouse-look and strafe with the keyboard arrow keys seemed absent. Having only tinkered with the PS2 version, I didn't realize *GTA:SA* incorporated a weapon skill system. One must gain proficiency in a given weapon before CJ can strafe, while mouse-looking with a target reticule requires one to hold a lock-on key, though it's still easier for me than using a console gamepad.

This being part of a simple reality check for the series. Unlike his predecessors, CJ can't just drive a Banshee or pick up an M4 like a professional. Practice make perfect: or rather improved control over vehicles and weapons through experience. CJ can also improve a wide range of attributes, including muscles, fat, respect, and sex appeal. Improvements unlock many abilities, like climbing walls, recruiting gang members, and picking up girlfriends-which in turn unlocks still more features. Skills and most abilities don't degrade, but CJ must continually exercise and eat to maintain feats like sprinting and swimming underwater. *GTA III* and *IV* tracked some use-based skills and abilities too, but with number V, the stat screens finally show exactly where CJ stands. The game gently and clearly reminds players of CJ's current condition. When a significant change happens, popups explain why it matters.

And things matter here. Within an already epic series, *San Andreas* takes players on a 100 mission journey across three cities, five regions, and the communities and countryside in between. Layers of activity cover the landscape: CJ earns respect to recruit gang members to seize enemy turf to earn tribute to buy fancy clothes to impress girlfriends who grant CJ gifts to better complete his story missions... and so on. CJ has reoccurring, freeform missions and one-shot missions so linear they put the Brown Streak railroad to shame. Ya want stealth missions? Check. Shoot `em ups? Here. Car chases may apply. Dancing, swimming, trucking, racing, bicycle riding, sky diving, dating--even automotive mods and low rider hydraulic competitions. And if CJ needs to take a break, he can always find a basket ball, pool table--or even a video game.

The only things missing are jet skis and skateboards. Come to think of it, the more the game adds, the more it seems to need. *GTA:SA* approaches being a comprehensive if simplistic world simulator. I want to see a fatigue meter as well as a breath meter. CJ should be able to buy ammunition instead of having to buy a whole new gun to replenish his ammo pool. Let's bring back convienence store robberies from Vice City. Perhaps players should have to start worrying about broken bones and rent... so long as it all remains fun.

In the end, Rockstar has a hell of a PC title on their hands, in both a positive and a negative sense. It's an almost boredom-proof game, though the sheer size of the maps may become tedious and overwhelming to some. Yet the graphics and level design ensure the scope massively immerses me. So long as we can play around the bugs and software conflicts. Let's get some patches out so this doesn't have to be last word on this latest game.