How to lose friends and alienate people in one
sentence: Grand Theft Auto San Andreas was the last game I’ve ever had
to pay for with my own cash. Sure, the perks of living life as a games
journalist means we rarely have to pay for games, but considering that I
could’ve waited it out and been sent a copy a few days after release
and still went to a shop to buy it on launch day says something about my
anticipation of San Andreas.
I read every magazine article,
poured over every screenshot and memorised each rumour regardless of how
far fetched it seemed – there was no way I was missing the launch of
San Andreas by a single minute, nevermind several days. In short, my
anticipation levels were already through the roof.
I’d booked the
day off, bought a load of nibbles in and prepared to lose myself in this
latest Grand Theft Auto. From the moment I hopped on the BMX with lead
character Carl ‘CJ’ Johnson I was hooked. “I’M DOING WHEELIES ON A BMX!”
I shouted aloud to no-one.
Above: WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
There
are tons of moments in San Andreas like this. Upgrading cars with
nitrous, working out in the gym to make CJ massive and escaping the
scene of a crime via a jet-pack were all stand-out moments for me, and
it never really let up for the 30+ hours I put into it. For me, an open
world game lives and dies by the amount of new stuff you see beyond the
eight hour mark, and San Andreas has plenty to keep pushing you on.
Of
all the GTAs, San Andreas is largest for sheer scale and scope and as a
result remains my number one in the entire series. Although I
thoroughly enjoyed GTA IV it felt stripped back compared San Andreas,
and in many ways it is. The character customisation has been yanked out,
the property purchases have been toned down and you can’t even ride a
push-bike in Liberty City. Anyway, GTA V will bring all this back right,
RIGHT?
I remember coming into the office and chatting with
colleagues who were ahead of me in the game, and conversations regarding
San Andreas were often talked about in code. A typical conversation
went like this “Did you? With the thing near the bridge? Purple monkey
dishwasher?". Anything more that could be considered a spoiler would see
you cut from the social circle and eating lunch alone for a week. But
that’s how much it meant to folk, and me, when blasting through the
game.
Above: Hit the weights in the gym with CJ to make him look body-builder buff
What
I really love about San Andreas is that the three big cities that make
up the fictional state all feel unique and packed with personality. Los
Santos (L.A.) feels as busy and bustling as you like when you head
downtown and the out of town ‘hoods are pitched at a particularly
menacing level – with gang colours paraded on every corner.
San
Fierro (San Francisco) provided me with the hills that made for some
terrific jumps in my tricked out cars. Plus, the hippy missions where
you use the radio controlled cars to blow up vans is another particular
highlight. And then there’s the neon lit Las Venturas (Las Vegas) with
garish super casinos complete with the jingle-jangle of coins dropping
in the slot machines.
But beyond these distinct areas there are
dusty wastelands to explore on dirt-bikes, dense forests and the huge
Mount Chiliad to scale and then base-jump off. Everything about the
playground that San Andreas provides is done for a reason and I rarely
felt the slog getting from point A to point B that many open-world games
deliver.
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