GTA: San Andreas

[Shard O'Glase]

Who's got it what's your opinions?

My issues I have which so far have stopped me from getting it until I hear form people I trust(people on this board) and not some mindless fanboyism or corporate sucks up at ign.

1. Size: they claim its 5 times bigger than vice city but how much of that size is vice cities beach of nothingness oh yeah 3 times bigger than GTA3. So is it real useable extra size or bogus beach size.

2. The sims aspects of the games do you need to do them or can they be ignored. There were reports that you need to eat to live, do they actually go that far or is more like fable where if you don't eat your just skinny, and you can freely ignore all the IMO lame sims crap.

3. Is it really any different or is this just a slightly spiffier version of 3 and vice city.

4. I hate the vast majority of 90's gangsta flicks how pervasive is it to the game.

5. music not a fan of rap or country how are the other stations, what songs do they play that stand out to you.

I really like these games because its the closest I can get to a shadowrun game if I don't want to go back to my snes or genesiss.(I loved both of those games by the by). I mean you got a bunch of jhonsons giving you jobs to do as a freelance criminal.

 

[driver8]

Well I have it. My answers arent in any way official obviously but:

1. Just started so not sure. There supposed to be 3 distinct cities- a faux LA, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. In addition the terrain between the cities exists too so you drive from city to city and visit small towns in between. It is in fact most of the fictional state of San Andreas. Ill have to see like you, but the reviews Ive read say the game is much bigger than Vice City.

2. As far as eating and exercising- eating restores energy. Working out is a benefit since it builds muscle and stamina. You can also train and gain new moves. This seems to be minimal though. The game only lets you train for a certain amount of reps anyway per game day-you cant spend all the time in the gym. So whatever changes occur occur slowly. And from what I understand the melee moves you learn help but arent critically vital. But stamina will let you run and climb easier and longer.

Either way, the time spent doing exercise is not that long if you choose to do so. And the game has an easy to access menu that gauge your vital stats.

And like getting clothes and a haircut, the physical changes make CJ look different either eventually very fat or very muscular- or neither.

3. The core gameplay is essentually the same. CJ get a climb fence ability and the shooting lock on is improved. And skills like shooting driving etc improve with use. And the games much bigger.

4. well you character is an African American returing to a fictional LA. You wear gang colors, try to reclaim your turf..etc. So yea its pervasive. Replace gang for the mob from the earlier games.

5. Alot of variety in stations: country, rock, classic 70s, talk radio, 90s era alt rock, r and b, etc etc all of it actual music by the real artists like Vice City. If it was on the radio in the early 90s the game represents it well. Ive hears Dr Dre, Hank Williams, Guns and Roses, and Depeche Mode. And I think I even heard Boys to Men lol.


The only thing Id add if you liked the other games youll probably like this one. Its graphically kinda ugly given todays standards. The enivronments are nice, but the character models look defromed close up. There are some stuttering grpaihics when things get heavy on screen, but the Rockstar production values are all here: attention to detail voice acting etc..

OH yea get used to hearing the F bomb dropped alot by the charcaters. ALOT.

 

[ohGr]

Driver8 addressed everything, so i'll just expand on a few bits. Mind you, i just got the game today and have put only 4-5 hours in.

1. Well, just cruising around the city you start in, Los Santos, i'd guess it to be about the same size of Vice City. Looking at the map, all three of the major cities appear to be about the same size. So just there alone, San Andreas is about 3 times the size of Vice City.

Of course, that's not all, there's also a rather expansive countryside seperating the three cities, which looks to be roughly twice the size of all three cities combined. It's not all "dead space", like Vice City's beach, either. At least 8 small towns, a military base, a "no fly zone" (area 51-like secret military base?), various and sundry industrial plants and farms (one marked simply "The Farm" [in quotation marks] is denoted as a cult location), a mountain range, and a host of other natural and tourist sights dot the countryside.

In short, San Andreas is BIG. Estimates that it is 10 times the size of Vice City seem to hit the mark pretty closely.

2. You probably could ignore these aspects and see very little detrimental effects. Going in, how they implemented the eating aspects worried me. In my time playing, however, i have only stopped to eat once, and that was because i was nearly dead and on foot deep inside rival gang territory, so i needed the healing. I have yet to see any detrimental effects from not eating; if it takes more than 4-5 hours for those detrimental effects to kick in, it's really not a problem.

3. One neat change that they've made to firearms: if you press the R1 button to target somebody, but no-one's around to shoot, a cross-hairs will instead come up on screen that you can manually aim with the right analogue stick. It's not much, but i liked it.

4. Well, in Los Santos, the gang culture is all-encompasing, you simply can't get away from it. From what i've read, however, the gang influnce starts to drop off once you leave Los Santos and, by the time you've reached Los Venturas, the third city, it dissappers almost completely.

5. I haven't really listened to the stations much. I found one station i liked early on (Bounce FM, a funk station) and i haven't strayed on the dial to see what else is out there. Checking the manual, there's Playback (classic hip hop), Radio Los Santos (modern hip hop), Bounce FM (funk), K Rose (country), KDST (classic rock), Surf (house), KJah Radio West (raggae), CSR 103.2 (contemporary soul), WCTR (talk), Radio X (alternative), and Master Sounds ("Rare Grooves", the term to classify the songs on this one escapes at the moment, but my favourite James Brown song, "The Payback", is on the playlist. I'm gonna have to start listening to this one...).

Overall, i'm enjoying it quite a bit. If you liked 3 and Vice City, there's little reason why you wouldn't like this one (always excepting "More of the Same" syndrome, that is; by now, many people have grown tired of the GTA formula).

 

[Arnwyn]

I've had it for some days now, and really, it's "more of the same". As the others above me have said, if you liked the first two GTAs, there's no reason not to like this one.

There's some minor tweaks (noted above by others), and it really is huge. HUGE. The graphics, though, are the same, and suffer heavily from draw-in and pop-up when driving fast (but, since I'm not 12 anymore, graphics are pretty low on the priority scale for me) - but that's nothing new to the GTA series.

I have yet to bother with any of the "sims" crap. It's not integral, by any means (at least, not that I've noticed).

I like it, for what it is. I'm not a hardcore GTA fan, but the size and pure interactivity of this game (and series) is absolutely astonishing.

(But no DTS soundtrack, unlike Vice City. Boo!)

 

[Shard O'Glase]

thanks for the responses. I don't think I've yet hit the limit for the GTA style so the same old stuff factor wont bother me much. Though you always hope they come out with some brilliant leap to make it lots better. I'll probably pick it up today, though since I work the weekend I wont get much play out of it for a while. My only bitch that seems to stand out of my 5 worries is the gangsta film aspects which at least in the begining is pervasive. I really flippin hated those movies.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Are they going to release this for the PC down the line like the last two? I can't find any info online that says...

 

[Arnwyn]

And you won't find any info, either. There has been no announcements about any other system.

Probably, but you're likely waiting a year or so.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Actually, I found a FAQ that indicates Q3 2005 (May to June time frame). I think it just might be time to spring for a PS2...

 

[Shard O'Glase]

I have it and have played it for a while now. Problems so far are

1. the excercise/eat crap is a pain. I keep loosing muscle and I keep get warnings that I need to eat. Its not terrible since it doesn't take too much time but 10 minutes every couple hours I spend on this crap and it is really boring crap I could actually be enjoying the game.

2. the main character is a wussy loser. Yeah, yeah I can pop everyone I want easily enough but the movie sequences he's always a wuss. And he keeps doing jobs for friends for respect while there making cash loser.

3. I'm still doing way to many small time misions. The only not pathetic one seems to be robbing the national guard of big guns and what do you get a cool gun, a contact who seels guns maybe, some money? Nope +respect oh zippy. The only reason I'm not broke is because I keep poping random people for spare change.

Now that I'm done complaining I'm going to say I love this game overall. Its lots of GTA fun with some nice improvements, I like the burglary missions, I like being able to climb over fences and onto roofs, swimming, the bicycle(I can like bunny hop small buildings in a single bound), the new targeting system, skill levels in vehicles/guns all great ideas and I'm overall having a blast.

 

[driver8]

Shard I hear you about the "whining". I think however, the developers tried to make CJ likeable. giving him a reason hes doing illegal stuff.

As for losing muscle, you do if you run alot and stamina goes up.

And Im not sure how far you are , but after you get deeper into the missions (and I think youre close) the turf war opens up. You get a group of gang memebrs and reclaim turf on the map. The more turf, the more income you gain that appears at your home. And I finally got access to the AK 47 through this too.

From what Ive read the missions get really wild later.

BTW I hated the early racing mission. I had to cheat to freakin pass it.