New San Andreas trailer showcases mayhem

This afternoon, Rockstar Games released the second trailer for the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The trailer, which is available in MPEG and Windows Media format for free download and stream below, is a little over a minute in length and shows off various environments, cutscenes, and action sequences from the game.

Set to the beat of Guns N' Roses' classic "Welcome to the Jungle," the trailer begins with a montage of the scenery of all three cities featured in the game: Starting with helicopters hovering above the "Vinewood" sign in Los Santos, it continues with a panoramic shot of the Golden Gate-esque bridge leading to San Francisco-style metropolis San Fierro, a tour of Las Vegas clone Las Venturas' neon-soaked landscape, and even a quick fly-over of the farms and silos of the countryside of the state of San Andreas.

Then the trailer switches to more-detailed locations--a replica of the famous Watts towers in South Central LA and a Santa Cruz-style boardwalk amusement park. The trailer also flashes a Lear-style jet--presumably the executive class of air transport in the game.

The San Andreas trailer then switches to street level, with the game's protagonist, Carl Johnson, being greeted by his brother Sweet. "So you back on the block, huh?" Sweet says in a voice that sounds very much like that of rapper/actor Ice Cube. Johnson is then greeted by Ryder, a homicidal Eazy-E doppelganger, whose speech pattern resembles that of Chappelle's Show star Charlie Murphy. However, neither characters' voice casting has been confirmed by Rockstar.

Immediately afterward, there's a quick montage of scenes from the game, including a hopefully flyable Apache attack helicopter; a buffed-up and Afroed Carl on a speedboat; some off-road 4x4 action; a bit of street basketball, a Ferrari lookalike peeling in out in a parking lot; a fight breaking out at a party; SWAT teams rappelling from a helicopter; an ATV chase; CJ practicing with a katana; some bicycle riding; and a spectacular SUV jump.

Also included in the trailer are several badass shots of Carl walking away from exploding cars and toting an RPG while a helicopter hovers overhead. There are also scenes of several drive-by shootings, as well as one of Carl getting into an altercation with his sister's Latino boyfriend.

While those latter scenes are set in LA clone Los Santos, the action shifts to the casinos of Las Vegas clone Las Venturas, replete with blackjack tables and pole dancers. But then it's back to LS for a quick-cut montage of car and foot chases, as well as some interaction with the corrupt LSPD officers who force the initially legit Carl back into a life of crime.

Finally, the San Andreas trailer ends with a series of bangs, with Carl running down a street full of flaming car wrecks and jumping a motorcycle over roadblock of exploding cars. Before the now-iconic Grand Theft Auto logo comes up, we see Carl running away from a flaming building, clutching twin MAC-10s, with a police helicopter in hot pursuit.

Furthermore, the game's official Web site has been updated with new information on San Fierro, the San Francisco-style city that's one of three major urban locations in the game. SF residents will laugh at the cynical send-ups of local landmarks. The TransAmerica Pyramid is dubbed the "Big Pointy Building" while Lombard Street is referred to as merely "Windy, Windy, Windy, Windy Street."

The PlayStation 2 version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is scheduled for release on October 26, 2004. A PC version of the game has been confirmed for release next year.