One of the biggest disappointments in gaming
GTA: San Andreas follows a character known as CJ as he tries to re-establish his family as the dominant gang in the State of San Andreas which includes three cities of rougly the same size as GTA III's Liberty City. Those cities are Los Santos (Los Angeles), San Fierro (San Francisco) and Las Venturas (Las Vegas). The game is set in the early '90s.
The story is argubly the best part of San Andreas. Although it doesn't have as many laugh-out-loud moments as Vice City or GTA III and its no-longer based on The Mafia, it does have its fair share of entertaining sections.
Graphics:
Visually the game is better than both previous 3D GTAs but its much more buggy. The pop-up is much more noticable and the game often fails to stream the environment as quickly as is necessary. This doesn't have a big effect on gameplay, but its something that shouldn't be happening when this is the third 3D streaming world that Rockstar have developed. It should be much smoother at this stage.
The framerate also suffers severe drops at times and this certainly can effect gameplay. especially during car chases and gunfights.
Gameplay:
The core of the game has been improved no end in San Andreas. The gunplay is much much better than the previous 3D GTAs and the driving model feels much more precise. However, for some reason Rockstar has added a whole load of "RPG elements" which have no place in a game like this.
In the early part of the game there is too much emphasis on spending time in the gym "levelling up" and this really detracts from the core gameplay. The same can be said for having to buy food to keep up your stamina levels and so on. It just gets in the way of the core experience and adds very little that you can actually engage with dynamically as the player.
Once the story mode is over, there is also little in the way of additional gameplay that hasn't already been seen. Beyond a few racing events and the interesting addition of the "triathalon," you'll find yourself slaving through taxi and ambulance missions yet again. Doing this for the third time is incredibly tedious and shows little in the way of imagination from the developers.
On the other hand, because the game environment is so vast this time around, you can have a great time by just exploring what there is to find in the state of San Andreas, particularly in the countryside and mountain areas.
Overall:
GTA San Andreas starts well with an engaging story but many of the new additions damage rather than improve the game, meaning that this time around, only the most incredibly hardcore GTA fans will be pushing for 100% completion. Most other people will tire of the game once they're finished with the story.