Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas  Preview for Xbox

Monday, May 09, 2005

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Title: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas .............................................. System: Xbox .............................................. Genre: Action/Adventure .............................................. Publisher: Rockstar Games .............................................. Developer: Rockstar Games .............................................. Release: 6/6/2005 .............................................. Online: No .............................................. ESRB: Mature (M) .............................................. You are CJ, a gang member who has come back to see his gang and family after his mother passed away in a drive by shooting. You belong to a gang called “Grove Street”; your rival gang “The Ballas” have taken over most of your territory and now you have to help your gang gain it back while dealing with corrupt cops and finding your mother’s murder. A nice little feature added to this game is the ability to customize your character. First off, you could have a fat person from eating a lot of fast food, or have a chiseled body from working at the gym. There is also sexual appeal you have to worry about if you want a girlfriend. New clothes, haircuts, tattoos, and other accessories will help boost your sex appeal, which all could be purchased from stores scattered all over San Andreas. Going out with your girlfriend is just a nice little thing and if you please them enough, you can start getting nice little bonus like driving their rare cars, keep your weapons after dying, etc. Another little stat you have is ‘lung capacity’, which is used to determine how long you can stay underwater. Yup, you heard it, CJ can swim so you won’t have to worry about drowning anymore! Being that you are part of the gang “Grove Street”, you have to help your gang kill rival gangs. Rockstar has included a new type of mission; the gang wars. You are supposed to conquer your rival gangs and take over their territory. The more territory you take over, the more respect you get from your gang and more money you get from them. Respect can also be used to gather up your homies with you to help you take over a territory or even a mission. They will protect you with their lives and if anyone even wants to try and shoot you…your homies will pump them full of lead. Jump into a car with them, drive them around and they will do drive-bys on rival gang members. You can have up to 7 gang members with you at one time! The amount of effort that Rockstar has done to make the graphics cleaner and sharper than Vice City shows. Every building, car, person, etc. are just beautiful. The map is about six times larger than Vice City and also has different kinds of places ranging from San Andreas, Las Venturas (Las Vegas), mountains, desert, and even a section that looks like redneck Iowa! All the vehicles from the previous GTAs are back plus many more. You can choose many different modes of transportation from cars, trucks, semi trucks, motorcycles, and now even bicycles. Now you are able to take a majority of the cars --from low-riders to sport cars-- to customization shops to add things like hydraulics, paint jobs, rims, stereos, and even nitrous oxide! If you don’t like those modes of transportation, you can just hijack yourself a train and take it around the islands or even buy a ticket to fly to the different islands. Now I know that everyone who has played GTA before is saying: “Buy a ticket?!?!? Why can’t I just fly a helicopter or plane like before?” Well, you can, just not right away. You first have to get your pilots license first, which won’t be until you unlock the last island. But the wait is worth it, from flying full-sized dodos, a stunt plane, an assortment of helicopters, and even a jet; but that’s not all you will fly either, there is many more ways to fly! Another nice little addition is the ability to jump out of any flying vehicle. Don’t worry, you’re given a parachute… Any game where you are suppose to shoot people, drive nice cars, fly, cause as many crimes as you possibly can…is going to be one of the best games ever!

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