Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

[emad]

Written by me yesterday, posted at bytesector.com just over an 15 minutes ago


Title: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Description: For many gamers, the Grand Theft Auto series is one of the greatest of all time. So it's not surprising when Rockstar Games announced GTA: San Andreas that first week sales were expected to reach $225 Million. But why will the game sell so well? Why did I wait in front of EB Games for over an hour before they opened their doors and another 30 minutes in line to actually purchase the game? And why did the people in line behind me wait up to 2 hours to get their copies? For me, it wasn\'t the hype surrounding the game; instead, it was the fresh new environments to play in, to have more missions, to play the mini-games, and just to see what Rockstar could possibly do to improve on what was already one of the top selling video games for the PS2.

View it here

 

[Nasadus]

Nice Review emad. 👍 .

 

[DQuaN]

and is almost as amazing as the voice acting from Metal Gear: Solid

You gotta be kidding me man

 

[PublicSecrecy]

Over time and progressive gameplay, do you think you will review missions? Not give them away on how to do them or anything but like easy, hard, frustrating etc. and reviews on new vehicles gangs jobs etc?

 

[emad]

Over time and progressive gameplay, do you think you will review missions? Not give them away on how to do them or anything but like easy, hard, frustrating etc. and reviews on new vehicles gangs jobs etc?

Not necessarily that but more than likely, i'll be trying to write a quick tips guide. Reviewing missions imo, is just unnecessary.

But then again, I might also be able to convince one of the other writers at the site to help me do a "san andreas: revisited" sort of thing where we go through and i guess, try to offer a second opinion of it?

 

[PublicSecrecy]

Good idea. I'll keep an eye out. 👍

 

[Travi_D]

I think the main draw card for this game is the sheer size of it. I've got 37 hours or so and i'm only 31% into the game. Nuf sed.

 

[JohnBM01]

Finally, us brothas' in 'da hood got a tight game. Holla' at dis' here game, player.

It's no wonder GTA: San Andreas upset HALO 2 and Burnout 3 as Game of the Year (according to Spike TV's awards show). In fact, I dare call this an RPG. You have a big world, lots of customization, a multitude of things to do, simply, this thing is bigger and better than GTA3 and Vice City COMBINED. I'm still playing this game, but I'll really tell you what I think about this game in a future post.

 

[maxeva69]

The game is sooo bad i returned it 2 weeks later to get a refund it runs like **** on the ps2 the homey talk and gangster crap is unbearable and rockstar have ****ed this one on ps2 its crap i'll get it on pc when it can run properly otherwise its a gay load of **** that nobody should ever play

 

[emad]

The game is sooo bad i returned it 2 weeks later to get a refund it runs like **** on the ps2 the homey talk and gangster crap is unbearable and rockstar have ****ed this one on ps2 its crap i'll get it on pc when it can run properly otherwise its a gay load of **** that nobody should ever play

I'd suggest that you clean your ps2's laser or change it if the game is running slowly or loading too often.

As for all your complaints of it being a crappy game, how about if you go into detail as to why you hate it so much? The gangster talk goes down as you progress through the game. Once the introductory bit with the gangs is done, there's almost none at all. How many hours did you put into the game anyways?

 

[Slick6]

Once the introductory bit with the gangs is done, there's almost none at all.

Speaking of that emad, you know when you are able to start taking over territories early in the game, I had all of them taken over on Los Santos. I then decided to continue on with the game. When I got to the Country missions all of it was lost. I was wondering if you ever get that back or not. I had well over over 8 hours in taking territories.

 

[emad]

I'm not 100% sure since I never had the chance to beat the game. Soon after the GTA review was up, I had to do ATV Offroad 3, Rocky: Legends, and then i ended up buying Metal Gear 2 and soon after that I downloaded NFSU:2.

 

[Shannon]

Speaking of that emad, you know when you are able to start taking over territories early in the game, I had all of them taken over on Los Santos. I then decided to continue on with the game. When I got to the Country missions all of it was lost. I was wondering if you ever get that back or not. I had well over over 8 hours in taking territories.

You get to take over the territories again towards the end of the game. I could give you details of where and when, but I don't want to spoil it on you.

Nice review emad. 👍 The shear size of the game and (vastly) improved physics make it even better.

 

[JohnBM01]

First of all, don't judge the game as crap because there is a lot of gangster talk and such. This is era-specific like Vice City. Vice City was supposed to be like Miami Vice, while San Andreas is more like an early 1990s depiction of the ghetto-fabulous time of when gangster rap was king. Names like Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, and such were king. Maybe I could better relate to this since I'm African-American, but you have to read between the lines.

I'm currently in San Fierro (supposed to be San Francisco), and I'm mad as hell about the "Supply Lines" mission, where you have to take down five couriers with an RC Plane with a machine gun, then fly ALL THE WAY BACK to the main pad. I completed the courier takeouts, but I wasn't even 1/3 away from the home pad when I ran out of fuel. No wonder it's one of the most frustrating missions in the GTA series. It's worse than "D**do Dodo" from Vice City.

The soundtrack is great, the cities are styled wonderfully, gunplay and combat have improved, you can mod cars you steal (some of them, anyways), you can have girlfriends, the damn state of San Andreas is insanely huge with an endless number of activities to do... instead of maybe some problems with gangs and the police, this game is sensational in almost every respect. It blows Vice City out of the water and beats it several times over. Oh, and the biggest plus? No annoying "Welcome to (city name here)" when you cross into a certain city. I'm sorry. It was a distraction to me. So, this is an excellent game even if you don't like the music, era, challenge, or such.

By the way, I didn't like the 80s deal with Vice City, but it was still a great game (before San Andreas came out, of course).

 

[Meglomaniac]

Grand theft auto san andreas, is perhaps the best game i have ever played, the sheer detail and size as mentioned before, has won me over as a big fan of the Grand theft auto series ( as basic as it sounds). Come on, i very much respect what rockstar have achieved here, something very special i think, as im sure many would agree.

hmmm, Actually, i thought the 80's scenario in vice city was quite a nice touch. but your right, the 'welcome to vice city' thing was a complete loada dogs crap, did anyone die several times while crossing the bridge due to that messages that came up?
Did i hear rumours somewhere, of a Rockstars next plan, a Grand theft auto Tokyo 2010?

Meglo

 

[Slick6]

Thanks Shannon.

 

[sennafreak]

i get the feeling the game wears out to quickly, i remember first playing vice city and being totally 'in' the game for a couple of weeks...(the ganja might have enhanced that though), but with san andreas although it is much bigger and complexer my attention is gone, i stopped playing while starting out in las vegas and haven't really gone back to it since... i guess it reminds me to much of 'been there, done that', but i can't say i didn't have fun and excitement in those first weeks, it just weared off too quickly, i think i was a bit dissapointed with the san-fransisco level, it didn't have the same 'aaahh' like starting out in los angeles...

 

[sennafreak]

and yes that model plane mission was the hardest i had to do also with that fuel emptying and them unloading at your pissy flyer from the instance you fire at them...
the trick is to plan your route and make sure the last courier you do is near the roof you need to land on.

 

[JohnBM01]

Senna, that's what I was thinking about. I was thinking about taking down the farthest targets first, then try to get the ones close by. This way, all I have to do is just climb to the roof to complete the mission. I still have to try to enhance CJ's Lung Capacity so I can play the "Amphibious Assault" mission with Wu Zi Mi. I'm also kind of wondering where to find some parked vehicles. The best one I've found was the NRG500 motorcycle, which looks more like a MotoGP bike, just not as fancy and with functional lights. I've always kind of wondered why superbikes don't really have functional headlights unless it was an endurance motorcycle race (for example, the 24 Hours of Le Mans Moto). I haven't checked the GTA Forums, but if you want your own, I found actually two of them at East Beach in Los Santos. Just look for the big, empty parking garage. There's one on the second level and on the roof. It's a fast bike! Not with the mean growl from the FCR900, though.

By the way, there are now more bikes in the game, both with or without pedals. The PCJ-600 was perhaps the most awesome MACHINE in Vice City. It was just the thing for evading the police, chasing down and blasting fools with your machine gun... but in San Andreas and even in the Strategy Guide, there's better bikes in the game. Only machine I'm trying to get now is the Go-Kart. Oh, and a few more complaints? The Bloodring missions in Vice City were remotely tough, but San Fierro is damn near impossible. I try not to use my Micro SMG or SMG against the competition because I don't want to take chances in getting my car blown up.

My ending stat? Best ever Bloodring time from Vice City: 5 min

 

[sennafreak]

yep but they knock you off the bike as soon as they get close, and it's a no-go when they have the army chasing your sorry hind, rather stay on 4 wheels during chases.
the best way to tackle the game is to smoke one buddhastick and get 'into' the game, my best moment was when i had top nick those rhymes from the rapstar, high on the greens i sneaked through the whole mansion killing them 'commando' style without them noticing me, and when i got out the sun came up over vinewood,mmmm... gangstastyle.
ps: that model plane mission is horrendous, i felt like killing that geek from the modelshop out of agony, only just made it to the roof with my fuel...

 

[emad]

You're right about the greens senna. The game goes from the greatest game i've ever played to like some sort of unholy ritual when I'm playing it stoned.

 

[213101]

You gotta be kidding me man

same level as mgs3? youve got to be kidding me its like ten times better.

 

[213101]

The game is sooo bad i returned it 2 weeks later to get a refund it runs like **** on the ps2 the homey talk and gangster crap is unbearable and rockstar have ****ed this one on ps2 its crap i'll get it on pc when it can run properly otherwise its a gay load of **** that nobody should ever play

i see your point as i absoulutely hated the gay 80s setting in vice city. i just hated it. pink lights n **** every where.

 

[JohnBM01]

As of now, I've recently unlocked all three cities Los Santos (Los Angeles), San Fierro (San Francisco), and Las Venturas (Las Vegas). Las Venturas looks pretty cool. I was kind of expecting more showgirls or something, but hey. I'm not complaining. Big surprise was that I recently bought two different casinos (Pirates in Men's Pants and... I'll get back to the other one). They cost about $6,000. I still had money left over when I had to learn how to fly in the game to buy an airstrip for $80,000. Had this been GTA3, I'd have enough money to buy almost ANY property in GTA: San Andreas. I've also cleared all of the racing missions in San Fierro. I can now do those Import/Export missions. I've just started and have about six cars left for my first list.

I don't HAVE to complete Zero's missions, so I left to return to Balla-infested Los Santos and I guess buy some property or complete the racing missions. Let me tell you. This may be the best game I've ever played. You can do almost ANYTHING in this game and go almost anywhere. If you can get out of your mind that this is a Mature-rated game with gangsta talk and stuff, you'll realize just what this game can do. I kind of didn't wish we were looking at era-specific gameplay. Maybe that's why I liked Grand Theft Auto 3 over Vice City in terms of the time. But I can do with 1992. I guess I like San Fierro the most, though it seems to be pretty small.

 

[TheCracker]

John - you are about at the same stage of the game as me, i've just passed all my flyimg missions - some were pretty tricky. I've yet to buy any property in Vegas (venturas), i tried the first Woozie mission there where you have a guy tied to your bonnet - but got 3 stars long before i scared the guy! I've tried and failed the first Zero mission so many times, i think i'll save it until the next GT4 delay. Have you done the airfield mission where you have to ride the bike onto the back of the cargo plane? - i tried it last night but could'nt get anyway near it, even when avoiding any falling boxes - you got any tips?

 

[JohnBM01]

Can't help you there, man. Haven't gotten there. A tip I will give is about the Barrel Roll flying test. I found that the best way to clear the Barrel Roll test is to climb upwards after the first corona, then perform the barrel roll. Afterwards, just bank or turn hard to the right to clear the test.

TOUGHEST TEST I'VE TAKEN: The Alleyoop (Driving School) - you have to put two wheels on a ramp, barrel roll in the air, and here's the kicker - you have to land it without taking damage!

 

[TheCracker]

Can't help you there, man. Haven't gotten there. A tip I will give is about the Barrel Roll flying test. I found that the best way to clear the Barrel Roll test is to climb upwards after the first corona, then perform the barrel roll. Afterwards, just bank or turn hard to the right to clear the test.

TOUGHEST TEST I'VE TAKEN: The Alleyoop (Driving School) - you have to put two wheels on a ramp, barrel roll in the air, and here's the kicker - you have to land it without taking damage!

I've done all the flying school tests, and started the flying school missions, the first is quite easy, but the second one is the 'driving onto the back of the plane on a bike ' that i mentioned above - wait till' you get to it - its a hard one!

I've not done the 'Alleyloop' test - is it at a second driving school somewhere? - i thought i'd done all the 'San Francisco' D.S. tests?

P.S. - have you done the 'unique stunt' jump over the 'nodding chicken' in the little town in the hills north of the airfield?

 

[JohnBM01]

I don't know. Can't say I have.

There should be 12 tests at the Driving School in San Fierro, and maybe 7 or 10 at the flying school. Of course, you HAVE to get past all of this in order for Toreno not calling CJ reminding him to learn to fly.

So far, I've cleared Driving School, Boat School, Flying School, and not really going back to Las Venturas for Bike School until I'm done with something in Los Santos.

 

[Randymcchickenf]

Gotta love the Hotrod car you get from all golds Drivin!!