What do you guys think about it?
For me, this is tied with GTA IV for the best Grand Theft Auto. San Andreas’ story, world and characters are great.
It’s my favorite of the series, though I never played V.
San Andreas struck a great balance between serious and ridiculous. Some of the gang rivalry story hit pretty hard for its time, but also there was a mini Las Vegas and a goofy jetpack and tons of dumb Cluckin’ Bell jokes. It even had RPG elements like CJ getting more fit if you work out or fat if you fed him tons of fast food. Not everybody loved this and not surprisingly it was cut from later entries but I thought it added to the world. And the map was great, lots of variation between city and countryside. Great soundtrack too, rivaled only by Vice City IMO.
IV just didn’t do it for me. The phone (cousin Roman!) was obnoxious, the cars felt too heavy, the story just wasn’t very funny, and the map was pretty much all city.
Maybe I’d enjoy V since it’s huge and supposedly the vehicles are more fun, but I hear the story isn’t great.
Did they really cut out fat and buff CJ? Or like the whole RPG system thing?
Yeah, in GTA IV, Niko doesn’t have any character stats, and his appearance never changes except for whatever clothes you buy. I assume it’s the same for the 3 protagonists in V.
Personally I hated the whole gang warfare mechanic in San Andreas, so I never finished the game.
GTA IV was filled with details and graphically very good at the time. But the constant hounding by your companions was a major turn off. Fuck that “cousin Romain disliked you didn’t pick up your phone while you were being chased by the police” shit.
V was okay, but I also never finished it. Both GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 just feels like a chore at some point. As much as I’d want to like them they just fail to hold my attention.
For me Vice City was the part I enjoyed most, not overly long and absolutely I loved the 80’s vibe. 🤤
I loved all those games at the start when everything is new and fresh. You’re just giving for a while, exploring the world, doing silly shit. Then once it starts becoming a chore to do stuff, or it gets repetitive, I start to lose interest.
Wasn’t my favorite. I loved Vice City and GTA3.
San Andreas was peak GTA, but it did get to be a bit much after a while.
My fondest memory of it was in college, shortly after the game released, everyone was listening to hip-hop and talking like a gangsta.
San Andreas was just so much longer and bigger.
I’d be lieing though if I said young me wasnt hyped for that game, and all the new stuff, and three huge cities.
Thats not to mention some of the best parts like jet packs and pink double sided dildos. Or that it technically had co-op so you could have a double sided dildo fight with your best buddy.
I do really love vice city too though, its almost a perfect game to me. Its not intimidating to replay, the music is excellent, and the pace of the story is fantastic. Its a far better scarface game than the actual scarface game, which wasnt a bad game itself.
It was the best in the series by far. The most amazing thing was the sense of scale they managed. The map feels huge. Even though it’s not that big.
Got to experience some of it irl, driving from Phoenix to Las Vegas over the Hoover dam with the GTA soundtrack on.
Or driving around in Phoenix with a rock music station with a former big ticket rock artist as a DJ. In game Axl Rose is the KDST dj, but in Phoenix Alice Cooper was dj for KDKB ‘everything that rocks’. It was just surreal.
The radio stations were extremely good. I still listen to the soundtrack at times.
It’s still the best gta game in the series, in terms of story, maps and also vibes
Never finished it. While no load screens was impressive, it did that with a massive mostly empty area. Way too long. Music wasn’t my thing.
Much preferred Vice City, and it’s spiritual successor, Saints Row 2.
A masterpiece, one of the best games ever made.
