"The best game so far on the Playstation 2."

Since Grand Theft Auto III, a new breed of games have emerged which have totally changed your typical type of videogames. 3 years and 2 GTA titles later, here comes the much anticipated Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. With every new GTA title, the gameplay just gets better and better, and San Andreas is no exception. It is undoubtedly the best GTA game so far and the sheer magnitude of the game can just blow your mind.

Firstly, I shall elaborate on the graphics. While the graphics in GTA: SA isn't as impressive as the likes of some other games, it is indeed of rather acceptable quality and to some, it might be better than the average Playstation 2 games. While there isn't much difference in the graphics of the environments compared to GTA: Vice City, there is a noticeable improvement in the character details. The characters do not look like they've been made of “blocks” anymore and the models look pretty sweet. For example, if you were to have CJ get totally beefed up, maxing out his muscle stats and have him go bare-chested, the shape of his biceps, chest and back muscles look great.

At the start of the game, there is a lot of swearing, and I do mean A LOT. Some players might be taken aback by this as the previous GTA titles hardly had rampant swearing and might even complain about this. But then again, it does give a realistic feel to the game as swear words would definitely be flying around such tense situations. However, the amount of swearing does reduce later on in the game compared to the beginning. GTA: SA also features several famous people behind the voices of the characters like Samuel L Jackson, Chris Penn and David Cross, just to name the more prominent ones.

And when would driving around be complete without to the radio stations. I can safely say that San Andreas has the best mix of songs seen in the GTA series, featuring songs from artists such as Rage Against The Machine, 2Pac, Guns N' Roses, Soundgarden, Rod Stewart, Ozzy Osbourne and James Brown, as well as the usual talk show radio station which makes no sense at all but is totally hilarious. And you WILL spend a lot of time driving around as the San Andreas landscape is seriously huge. It's at least twice the size of Vice City and the beauty of this game is that besides the 3 major cities – Los Santos, San Fierro and Las Venturas – there is also the country side where you can explore the mountains and open lands in your off-road vehicles, bikes or atv's.

Vice City came up with the idea that you can change different outfits but San Andreas takes it one step further by being able to mix and match different clothing, shoes and accessories. There are five different stores where you can buy your clothing from – Binco, Prolaps and Sub Urban, which are available from the start of the game, Zip, which will open once you have unlocked San Fierro, Victim opens once you're in Las Venturas and Didier Sachs' available once you've completed the game. Rockstar wanted players to be able to fully customize CJ to their own personal liking and not only that; you can also have different tattoos and hairstyles. You can even control CJ's physique. You can pig out on the fast foot restaurants out there and become obese or you can pump some iron in the gym and be filled with muscles or you can just remain the way you originally are; skinny. Speaking about fast food restaurants, there are no more health pick-ups littered around San Andreas but instead if you want to replenish your health, you have to buy food from the fast food restaurants or sidewalk stalls. Even if you do not need to restore your health, you still have to eat regularly in order to survive, so that CJ doesn't lose energy or muscles.

There are about 170 vehicles that you can drive – bicycles, motorbikes, cars, trucks, planes, helicopters and boats. This is definitely a huge variety, even in any game, for you to choose from. And the more you ride such vehicles, the better your skill at handling these vehicles will be. For example, if you ride the motorbike often, your bike skill will eventually get higher and you'll get less prone to falling off your bike. Some cars can even be modified at modification garages throughout San Andreas. There are namely 3, Loco Low Co., which deals mainly with low-riders, Transfender, which modifies a whole lot of cars, 65 of them to be exact and Arc Angels which works on street racers. Some cars you can fully customize them by changing the front bumpers, rear bumpers, side skirts, exhausts, nitro, sound system (which adds more bass) and even install hydraulics in your car.

Besides vehicle skills, there are also weapon skills. So obviously, the more often CJ uses a certain type of weapon, the better he will get at handling it. Max out the skill for a certain weapon and you will reach the level of Hitman where and can hold two pistols or two micro smg's at the same time. There is a total of 34 different weapons in GTA: SA which are classified into different slots – hand, melee weapons, handguns, shotguns, machine pistols, assault rifles, rifles, heavy artillery, thrown weapons and handheld items. However, the drawback is that you can only hold one type of weapon from each slot of one time. Therefore, you cannot hold a pistol and a desert eagle or an ak-47 and an m4 at the same time. There is even a slot that is classified as ‘gifts' such as presents or flowers which you can give to your girlfriend. Girlfriends are another new feature that has been added into San Andreas. During the course of the game, you can hook up with several girls (6 in total) but some of them you might need certain prerequisites before you can start going out with them. For example, Michelle prefers guys who are real fat, Helena likes guys who are average looking and Kate looks for men which lots of muscles. The best part is that you can date all women at the same time and do not need to break up with one in order to be with the other. Go out on dates and CJ progress meter with your girl will increase (that is if she has a good time during the date) or else if you don't the progress meter will slowly decline.

Like any other GTA game, there are standard missions that you have to complete before you can progress in the game. However, there are side missions available which you can complete so that you can obtain a 100% completion for San Andreas. Apart from the basic vigilante, ambulance, fire truck and taxi missions seen in GTA III and Vice City, GTA: SA also features new side missions such as burglar, pimping and trucking. Burglar has got to be my personal favorite of all the side missions. Basically, CJ has to get into this big black van and the mission can only be triggered by pressing the R3 button after 20:00 hours and you can pull up to houses, enter them and quietly take their expensive possessions such as television sets and hi-fi's. You've got to be real quiet (there's a noise meter), or else the resident of the house will wake up and alert the police. In the pimping missions, CJ has to transport hookers from one location to another. Kind of similar to the taxi missions except you're dealing with prostitutes instead while for trucking missions, CJ has to drive a truck cross country to different locations in San Andreas.

One really cool feature in GTA: SA is that you can have gang wars. The more respect you earn, the more gang members you can recruit to follow you around. This is done simply by targeting any of your gang members with the L1 button and then pressing up on the directional pad. Together with your gang, you can venture out into enemy territories and have a gang war. If you win, the territory would be yours. Sometimes, enemy gangs will attack your territory and you've got to get to the location fast. If you just ignore it, the territory will be lost.

Like all GTA games, San Andreas does feature a bunch of unforgettable characters in the game, which includes the likes of Officer Tenpenny, The Truth, OG Loc and of course yourself, Carl “CJ” Johnson. For the first time in any GTA game, Rockstar has incorporated a 2 player function into a game, but these can only be activated in certain areas of the game where the 2 player logo is available. The 1st player will control CJ while the 2nd will control a previously non-playable character in the game, such a girlfriends, the hot-dog vendor or even an Elvis look-a-like.

If Tommy Vercetti and CJ were to go head-to-head, CJ would most definitely beat Tommy Vercetti flat. CJ can climb over walls and Tommy can't. CJ can swim but Tommy can't. CJ can hold two micro smg's and Tommy can't. Get my drift? CJ can simply throw Tommy into a lake and he'd just die.

Probably the thing that attracts console players to GTA is it's variety for you to do different things and simply the sheer size of the game. Before GTA III came out, no one ever thought you could have a game with such a huge map, yet alone in San Andreas which is practically three times the size of Liberty City. Furthermore, even though the main missions are a little linear, there are tons of side missions, odd jobs and exploring you can do. So if you're tired of doing missions, you can enter a race at the nearest racetrack, get into a police vehicle to take out criminals or put out fires using a fire truck within the time limit. The fact is, it's unlikely that you'll get bored playing San Andreas for a long time, as mentioned before, there are TONS of stuff for you to do. It definitely has a high replay value and you'll spend many hours in front of the television, completing the game. If you plan to get a few games this holiday season, don't. Just get one – Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. This is one great game that has to be owned by all Playstation 2 owners and those who do not have this game would definitely be deprived of a marvelous gaming experience. Two thumbs up for Rockstar and GTA: San Andreas.

Score: 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/04/04