Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"All it's cracked up to be"

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the biggest GTA ever made, and 2nd best (GTA IV is all that needs to be said). The awesome mechanics of previous GTA games have been very refined, to give you what is one of the most fun experiences you can have on your PS2; actually, it is; Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the best PS2 game ever made. Period. It is just so amazing. Never have I had so much doing a Base Jump off a canyon, and getting smashed into by an oncoming plane. The Story: Carl Johnson (CJ) returns to San Andreas, from Liberty City, after his "Moms" was killed in a drive-by retaliation from a rival gang (CJ's a part of the Grove Street Family); while headed back, CJ is framed for killing a police officer, framed by Officer Tenpenny (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson), and is forced to do some dirty work, along with his "homies". You can drive, shoot, and cause mayhem like any other GTA, but it's been refined, to a "T"; you can now aim manually, while moving, which is great; diving is nice and tight, fun "arcade" feel to it; the mayhem is awesome, with awesome new weapons, and the only time in the series you can ever control a plane; this is also the first game where you can swim, and underwater, at that. The music is fantastic, with Ice Cube, Lynard Skynard, Eddie Money, Rod Stewart, Rick James, Billy Idol, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and many more; the Xbox version allows players to import their own music into their own radio station, but with all the great music in this game, who would want to. The size of San Andreas is roughly the size of a small state (maybe?), as it takes Liberty City and Vice City and expands 3 times upon them; 3 cities: Los Santos, the striving ghetto area, beginning city; San Fierro, "San Fransisco" basically, 2nd city; and Las Venturas, the "Sin City" of San Andreas, final city of the game; and lots of country, forest, and desert in between. Sice this is a GTA game, the weapons and vehicles are obviously top-notch; vehicles can go unbelievably fast, and guns go boom, like usual. Since you are in a gang, you can take over other gang's turf; Ballas and Vagos turf can be taken over by killing a bunch of them on their turf, and they can be indicated by purple and yellow clothing, respectively. Speaking of clothes, you can now customize CJ a lot; not just tons of clothing items, but also hair and "tats", which makes the game very dynamic. Collectibles are also very much "there", with oysters, snapshots, horseshoes, numerous Unique Stunt Jumps, and tags you can tag over with spray paint. The game is also the first of the "GTA III Era" to have some sort of two-player; there are little races, 2-player Rampages, and Free-Roam games scattered around San Andreas that, if you find them, you can play with a friend (not through the story, but you can still cause hell, elsewhere). There are also some fantastic cheats for the game, which can make for some fun, just I recommend not using cheats past the 500 mark (you can see how many cheats you've entered in the stats section of the start menu) until you get past a certain "Madd" mission in Las Ventuas, because it could cause the mission to "happen to fast" and will be very hard to accomplish. Respect can also be earned, which will allow you to create little gangs of your homies, to go cause havoc with; you can earn more "slots" as you gain Respect, but make sure you have enough "slots" in your car for 'em. Bottom Line: This game is fantastic. That's it. So, get off (or more like on) your ass and play some SA; it's available on Xbox Live (definitely worth the money), and for PS2, Xbox, Windows, and Mac (might be coming to Playstation Network, GTA III and Vice City are). Oh, and Jetpacks!!!