Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas review

When the last GTA game, Vice City, made its way onto the Xbox (along with GTA 3 in a boxed set) Xbox gamers around the world rejoiced. At last we could show those pesky PS2 lovers what a real games console can do with a great game. But the reality wasn't quite like that.

Vice City was little more than a straight port with slightly beefed up graphics and a slightly tweaked control method. Can Rockstar finally do the GTA series justice in this latest Xbox incarnation? Well, as if I'm going to write a one paragraph review. (You'd better not -ed)

Back in the hood

CJ, or Carl Johnson escaped San Andreas several years ago. The Gangs, the urban decay and the violence, and not to mention a sticky situation with the cops (crooked ones, of course) all meant a quick escape was the order of the day. But now Carl is back, the death of his mother (murdered? But of course.) means a trip back to his home town, and when he gets there, things certainly haven't got any better.

To top things off, those crooked cops frame him for someone else's murder almost as soon as he steps off the plane. Of course this being GTA, CJ doesn't take it lying down and fights back, with violence, more violence, foul mouthed abuse and even more violence after that.

A nice cut scene, with animation certainly better than Vice City starts it off, with recognisable voices (Samuel L Jackson voices one of the crooked cops) and then CJ is home with his old boyhood buddies. Your real adventure starts here, with bike riding to start with, followed by lots, and lots of missions.

These start with fairly simple with a can of spray paint, and you have to paint your 'tag' over rival gangs' own tags, but it doesn't take long for baseball bats, then guns to become your weapons of choice. A heavily rap biased soundtrack accompanies your murderous spree, but the Xbox version also has a custom soundtrack, but the tracks are well chosen and there's an even larger selection of radio stations over Vice City.

Pimp my Ride: The Reality.

The vehicles all handle pretty much as they did, the side missions like Ambulance driver, Firemen etc. are all there as before, with an added Pimp side mission that can be potentially very lucrative if you stick with it, as each successful 'trick' your girls pull gains you a multiplier, it only takes about 20 minutes play to be making $1000 from a trick.

Much has been made of the extra options, such as muscle mass, respect, fat levels and sex appeal, but these really only play a side part to the game and to be honest, I went and ate pizza once, went to the gym once to see what it was all about, and haven't been back since. It's certainly not a vital element of the game in the early levels.

Mouth to make a sailor blush

It all sounds very much like the PS2 version, and indeed it's pretty much the exact same game. That's no bad thing though as the huge playing area and the mass of different things to do at any one time show what a good base the PS2 version was to start with. But there also lies the problem. For my money, it's almost too much like the PS2 game.

The graphics are only slightly better, with a small increase in draw distance, only really noticed when travelling at high speeds, and the load times, if anything seem slightly longer than the PS2 versions. Sure, there's a 30 second replay option unique the Xbox, but that's more gimmick than useful tool. There's also a few other problems. I found the gangster flavour of the first 1/3 of the game cramps the game slightly, constraining it and limiting it when I got sick of the lingo and foul mouthed language.

And foul mouthed it is. I've never quite heard a game with such language in my life, and it certainly deserves its 18 certificate. Even some people who are pretty liberal thought it slightly overboard. It's as if they thought 'We're gonna get an 18 certificate as it is, lets REALLY go to town'. On the whole, I don't think it's needed, but I suppose Rockstar could say it only mirrors the language and sayings of the LA Gangster scene of the early 90s.

Testing the limits of human dexterity

Then there's the control system. Over complicated is my view, and the developer seems to have forgotten that there are still some players using the original 'Duke' large Xbox control pad. Whilst I don't have one, my brother, and several of my friends do. They've reported that the game is pretty much unplayable with the older, larger pad.

When driving for example, you can use the black and white buttons to look left and right instantly, where as the analogue stick is a gradual turn, taking a few seconds to get fully sideways, but then it rotates all the way round. To look behind you, you have to press the black and white buttons together, something nearly impossible unless you have the dexterity of a chimpanzee, and absolutely impossible to retain any idea of control when you try to do it.

Overall it's much like the PS2 version, a great game with hours and hours sitting there, waiting to be tapped into, or not, as the case may be. It's perfectly possible to jump into a car, on a bike or even in a real plane and just cruise around, enjoying the sites. With a play area three times the size of Vice City, it's quite a technological marvel Rockstar has packed so much into a DVD.

It's good, and will hold your interest, but with some slightly frustrating controls that aren't customisable, driving Duke owners to desperation, or a new controller S (effectively making it into a £55 game) it's only really slightly improved over the PS2 version. Not quite what we hoped, but a solid game that you can pick up and play for hours, or minutes.