Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

...It's an epic! "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" has to be the greatest video game ever made. I've been playing the game almost everyday since it dropped on October 26th and I'm still not even half way through it. That goes to show you just HOW MUCH thought and detail was put into its production.

While this "GTA" title is a massive improvement over the previous two, it doesn't just surpass them in terms of graphics and gameplay, it surpasses them by building on the many things that made them great in the first place, and then some.

I've been a massive fan and player of the "GTA" titles on the PS2 since the revolutionary "Grand Theft Auto III" was released in 2001 and its 1980s prequel/sequel "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City," which dropped in the early fall of 2002.

"GTA: SA" puts a lot of its focus on Carl "C.J." Johnson, who returns to the city of San Andreas and the minute he steps off the plane, he runs into trouble. Trouble comes in the form of two corrupt cops who have him set up to take the fall in the murder of a police officer, and C.J. finds that his old neighborhood of Ganton is in shambles.

His mother has passed, many of his childhood friends are into gangbanging, and many of the families have since dissolved their relationships with one another. What follows is a statewide odyssey for C.J. that will take him out of his Ganton ghetto and into the flash and glitter of the casinos in Las Venturas a la Las Vegas.

From the get-go, you're entranced by a thoughtful storyline that has you doing a lot more than just missions so that you can earn "respect"; you become a significant part of the story, or more accurately, you become the story. Whereas the previous two titles had you doing things to further your position, not a whole lot of weight or thought was put into your motivations in those games.

It is true that this game was heavily influenced by the hip hop culture of the 90s, and many rap artists are prominently featured on the soundtrack, including Dr. Dre, Snoop [Doggy] Dogg, Public Enemy (Chuck D is the "Forth Right MC"), Big Daddy Kane, Eric B. & Rakim, Ice Cube, Cypress Hill, 2Pac, and N.W.A. And also, references to many "'hood" movies from this time are in abundance, namely "South Central," "Menace II Society," and "Boyz N the Hood" (be on the lookout for a "Tre" look-alike wandering about).

10/10

Another successful GTA game is here and it's great. What more can I say? From the Liberty City to the streets of Los Santos San Andreas, CJ must find out his mother's killer at the same time, bring the gang back together and bring the streets back to the Grove. Wow, they depicted California and the West Coast in the early 90s, and it was cool, no to mention the city that is supposed to be Las Vegas. Speaking of which, I was one of those who believed that this game was to be in las Vegas. Those old rumors regarding 'Sin City', hence the name, and it would mostly include gambling. But those rumors were just rumors. But hey, this game is just so hard boiled and great. There are new features, an eating system, where you have to keep your energy up, and at the same time making him full, and an exercise system, where you have to keep him buff, so he will develop strength, and so you can give people a hard punch. And now, you can develop driving skills too, and the weapons you use, the skill will also be upgraded too. And everything else from the previous GTA games are in it, the gameplay, the driving, it's here. Great. Marvelous. Keep it up Rockstar. Recommended for the fans of the games.

CJ is one of the best GTA characters! I actually liked this game better than GTA V.

And this is one of them. I want to start with its cons. The graphics wasn't really good at those time. Absolutely it was good but not very good for a GTA. But they have tried to make much much bigger map and they've done. Even now 15 years later this game is playable at mobile phones and with mods. This game is just evolving with its mods. Amazing, unique action game.

This review I'm writing is just on what i have accomplished. I have been playing this game for a total of 20 hours. I love to take it slow and really walk around and explore. The amount of detail and stuff to do, is incredible. The gameplay is as solid as ever. the story sucks you in like very little video games do these days. I have only gotten up to the second city, San Fierro. I've done a few missions but mostly I'm just looking around, I can't help it! I've been a fan of the GTA series since GTA2. The fever died down after a while though. When GTA3 came out I was amazed how they totally blew every other game out of the water. GTA3 to this day is one of my favorite games of all time, over Vice City even. this games is starting to become a huge time suck, which means this game is awesome. I'll finish this review when ever I finish it. For now, 10 out of 10!