Before I start my review, lemme just give u my opinion of the other two 3d games in the gta series. Gta 3, sure it was revolutionary and all, but the city was small and lacked detail, and the whole game was just about killing random pedestrians with flamethrowers. Gta vice city, good game, but it just got boring because of its luxury city feel, and game world was still too tinyy. Now on to gta san andreas. This game blew my socks off in the beginning of the game, and its still blowing my socks off 40 hours into the game. It probably blew off like 200 pairs of socks or something... In the beginning of the game, you get to ride bikes, play arcade games, start gang wars, help promote otherwise crappy rappers, play pool, do vigilance missions, do hospital missions, do pimp missions, omg its crazy. Middle of the game, lots more things open up like starting businesses, exporting cars, driving RC vehicles, tons more unique stunts, driving boats, roaming the countryside, amunation shooting gallery... by the end of the game, u can fly planes including JETLINERS and HARRIER VTOL JETS, drive jetpacks, parachute from above the clouds, hijack trains, gamble... the open endedness of this game is so amazing, it will keep u entertained for 50+ hours alone. The targeting system is one word- revolutionary. Not only do u no longer lock onto dead bodies, but u can also lock onto people with assault rifles, ur lock on aim gets better with experience, and u get shoot every weapon manually using a crosshair, allowing u to pop tires, break windshields, and shoot gas tanks of cars. This leads to a lot more possibilities in vehicle combat. It would be cool if u could lock on or manually aim with any type of gun looking out of a car, but like in all the gta games u are limited to drive bys using smgs. This is hardly a problem in gameplay though. THERE ARE 3 CITIES IN THIS GAME, AND COUNTRYSIDE IN BETWEEN!! It takes about a half an hour to drive from one side of the world to another, and about three minutes to fly from one side to another in a military jet, so yeah the game is HUGE on a scale the other gta games didnt even come close to. The size of this game actually makes it a little hard and annoying at times, especially when u have to travel cross-state to complete a mission and fail it. Luckily, theres a trip skip feature enabled with most missions, so if u fail a mission and are near the start of it, just go do the mission again and hit left on the d-pad, u will be taken right to the mission. Most of the time, however, its just more intelligent to reload the game :( As for the story, the voice acting is amazing, the missions are fun, and even the radio changes with ur progress in the game (OG Loc radio talk shows, etc.). The only problem with the missions are that some of them are wayyy too hard. If ur a casual gamer and plan to unlock all three cities in this game, i suggest getting some professional help or using cheats because u wont be able to experience the full ownage of this game without AWESOME driving skills... The reason i put 4 or more hours as the learning curve isnt because this game is hard, but because the game opens up more and more things as the story progresses. When 40 hours pass, u still wont know how to do every single minigame or drive every vehicle. The sound in this game is awesome. The guns dont sound like crap anymore, they sound loud and awesome, and u can hear them from like miles away. The planes flying above u make an awesome engine sound that gets louder and softer with distance. The voiceovers and the amount of voiceovers in this game is AMAZING. As for the graphics, things arent as sharp as they could have been and theres a lot more popup than say halo 2, but they are MUCH MUCH better than the previous gta games, and considering that the world in san andreas is over six time bigger than vice city and the render distance is twice to four times as far, id say san andreas' graphics are pretty awesome. Actually, the attention to detail within the game makes me want to put 10 as graphics, but i just cant *sniffle*. Oh, another problem with this game is the camera angle. u constantly have to hold the analog stick up as u go up hills to get an overhead view so u dont crash. This gets... annoying. If I had to compare this game to halo 2, gta san andreas would be the one to buy definately. If u want even better graphics, wait for this game to come out for xbox and pc, but i suggest not waiting to play this awesome game, get it for ps2 NOW! Trust me down below ;)
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I consider this game to be a masterpiece - everything involved; the gameplay, the weapons, the vehicles, everything. From the motorcycles to the Rustler airplane; from the jetpacks to the reference to Grand Theft Auto 3 ... Read Full Review
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