Developed by: Rockstar North | Published By: Rockstar Games | Played: 10/26/04

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Many improvements and innovations from Vice City: your player has stats, the story unfolds in a much more well-done way, there are many more ways to customize your character, the territory is much bigger and also includes a countryside, companion AIs can shoot at enemies while you drive, and much more.

There are now more ways to skip segments of a mission that you have already played before.

The controls are generally more well-tuned.

You can now climb over walls. One more degree of freedom.

This game also adds rhythm game elements. You can dance in a club or with your low rider.

The missions are very well coreographed, with very exciting action sequences much moreso than previous GTAs.

The blurring effect when you're going super fast is nice.

The game also now has stealth skills to use. You have to sneak up behind people like in Tenchu or Splinter Cell. Just one of many types of game rolled into one to make San Andreas full of variety.

Now they've got this whole new concept of gang territory. You can attack other gang's territory and aquire it as your own, and you will also have to defend your territory when it comes under attack. Gaining more territory earns you respect.

There's a whole new set of stats to pay attention to. Respect, fat, muscle, driving skill, biking skill, etc. You got ta build up yo skiws ta be da kang uh da hood yo.

You can also recruit people to accompany you and command them squad-based style.

Unlike Vice City, this one had plenty of hillsides to go up and down, not just flat flat city.

There's arcade game you can play in the game! You can play Go Go Space Monkey, Bee Bee Gone, and more!

Very well-designed environments. The contryside and the city are very interesting, multilayered places.

NPCs go very fast on the highway, so if you stop in the middle there will be a pileup. Awesome.

The GTA3 guy makes a cameo along with Catalina. Sweet!

In race missons, the markers are taller and easier to see, plus they now have a symbol on them telling you which direction you will have to go once you hit it.

At the beginning of the game, the early missions introduce you to the different elements of the game (food, gym, girlfriend, hydrolics, clothes, haircut, etc.) in a way that is seamlessly integrated into the storyline.

A very wide variety of environments. Mocks of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas, as well as their surrounding countrysides, are all in the game and give the landscape of San Andreas a very diversified feel.

The one thing that stands out about this game, as well as in the other two GTAs, is the game's personality. The characters in the story, the NPCs walking around, and the radio stations all combine to make San Andreas feel like a very rich, multilayered place.

Airplane controls seem much more realistic.

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It's the early 90's, and there are no Nirvana or Pearl Jam songs on the radio! Something's missing...

Although the airplane controls are more realistic, they are also much more frustrating and make it difficult to maneuver.

Although it is somewhat improved since Vice City, the controls still need some tuning. It gets jerky and unnatural sometimes.

Graphical quality is the worst part of this game. The frame rate gets choppy sometimes, and there are jagged edges all over the place.

Although there are some innovations, overall it's still the same old stuff. The basic format and gameplay is the same as III and Vice City.

Still and uninspring story. It's all about spinnin' on your back, poppin' 'n' lockin', and gang bangin'. It's slapstick entertainment. Not very sophisticated.

Throughout all of San Andreas there is no place to find a decent taco!

PS2 controller has sticky analogue stick that makes it difficult to aim.

Your position on the overworld map is off. This was a similar problem in Vice City that apparently was not fixed.

Sometimes during missions cars will be completly vacant from the streets. There is no reason why they shouldn't be.

The loading times when trying on clothes and getting haircuts is really tedious.