Over the past few months, we've been bringing you lots of details on different aspects of the next entry in the juggernaut Grand Theft Auto series, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. To date, we've touched on the game's food system, its character-customization features, the city of Los Santos, the home-invasion "minigames," and San Andreas' expansive countryside. This week, we'll tell you all about the fine city of San Fierro, the San Francisco-inspired metropolis that will be one of three major cities in the massive game. We also have additional details on safe houses, buffing up your character's abilities, and the fun to be had in jacking yourself a train.

We've got a soft spot for San Fierro, since it's based on the bursting-at-the-seams city in which GameSpot HQ is located.

During a recent visit to Rockstar's offices, we were given a tour of San Fierro that showed off the city's rich diversity. The tour began at the Hashbury and Garcia Joint Festival, where we got to see our character, CJ, hanging out. Apparently looking to avoid any trouble from Los Santos that might catch up to him, CJ has had a makeover to better blend in with the local scene. Our streetwise antihero has chosen a mighty Afro, a handlebar moustache, and a Rockstar sweatshirt to serve as his camouflage while going about his business in San Fierro. A quick look at CJ's surroundings show the neighborhood to be a colorful place, in tune with the mellow vibe of that part of the city.

The look of the city changes dramatically as our boy gets on a nearby motorcycle and starts driving around. The colorful hues on the buildings slowly shift over to more-sedate tones as he leaves the neighborhood and heads over to the local dojo, Cobra Martial Arts. As we've mentioned previously, you'll be able to develop CJ's fighting ability by training in a variety of ways, and visiting a dojo is one of the more-formal methods. The interior of the dojo contains two major points of interest. On one side of the room you'll find a treadmill and a weight bench, which are standard issue for gyms and dojos, and in the center of the room you'll find a ring where you'll meet your sensei. The sensei at Cobra Martial Arts is cut from the old-school kung-fu-movie cloth: Curt talk, taunting, and a bit of disdain is what you'll be getting initially. After talking with him you'll have the option of training with him or declining the offer. If you take him up on it, you'll have to beat him in a fight to earn the right to be trained.

Become San Fierro's resident karate kid.

If you beat the master, you'll earn a few new moves. The moves in this dojo appeared to be more kick-oriented, with CJ earning roundhouse kicks and running front kicks. Once you learn them, you'll get tips from your sensei on the best way to use them and be able to practice on sparring partners who are near the ring. You'll notice that, after earning moves, CJ's fight animation will change to reflect his newly earned skills. In the case of the new, Cobra Martial Arts-improved CJ, we noticed new blocking techniques, as well as the aforementioned kicks. The new moves you'll learn will actually replace CJ's rawer street moves, which ends up being for the better, as the new moves are more efficient than his old-school ways. Once you progress further in the game and begin visiting new dojos, you'll find that training at a dojo when you already have a set of earned moves will present you with a choice of replacing what you already know.

Basically, the system works in the following way: When you start the game, your default moves will be the raw self-taught moves that CJ has learned on the streets of Los Santos. As you progress through the game and train at dojos, you'll be able to replace those moves for a new set. So you'll be able to make use of only one dojo's set of moves at any given time. If you find yourself pining for the moves learned in one dojo after having replaced them with another's, you'll be able to go back and relearn them, which is nice. The only moves you won't be able to get back are CJ's original moves. However, if you want to keep it good and real, you can simply choose to not learn any moves at the dojos you go to and thug it up through the entire game, which seems like it might be a fun challenge to try.

Of course, martial-arts training is just a small fraction of what San Fierro has to offer.