By Jim Drewes - July 5, 2005

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Overview

Although the latest title in the blockbuster Grand Theft Auto series has been out for months now on the Playstation 2, the PC and Xbox titles hadn’t hit the shelves until just recently.  The latest platform releases differ from the original Playstation 2 version in a few distinct ways, but overall the game remains largely the same.  This particular review will address at the Xbox version of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, first commenting on the game itself and then later discussing some of the differences between the Playstation 2 version and the Xbox offering.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas begins much in the same way as past GTA titles, with the player starting as a grunt thug.  However, the gangster influence of San Andreas has taken a more urban turn and shifted towards ghetto gang-banger beginnings where the ‘hood is the primary focus, rather than following the godfather-esque mafia or drug cartel plotlines of the past GTA games.  Arguably, this has paved the way for a more diverse storyline than previous titles.  Additionally, with the saturation of street gang life in current pop culture, the premise of Grand Theft Auto is also more familiar and en vogue than the Italian mob or South American cartel themes.

Certainly plot has begun to play a much larger roll in video games, and GTA: San Andreas is no exception to the rule.  GTA: SA plays out like a decently written movie, with all of the expected plot twists and character development.  From a storyline point of view, the San Andreas developers did a fantastic job of creating immersive dialogue.  Even big-budget Hollywood can’t always write dialogue that is entirely believable to the audience, but the GTA writers have been able to immerse players into gaming interactions with meaningful and believable dialogue.  The actual story of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas however, is nothing new to the genre in either the gaming or cinema arenas.  Regardless, credit must be given to the producers for being able to continue an interesting story line, while providing a plethora of missions to satisfy gamers from all areas of the industry.

Inevitably, those who have been watching the progress of the Grand Theft Auto enterprise progress from the sidelines will undoubtedly ask, “why should we care about THIS version of GTA?”  The simple answer to the question is that San Andreas is probably the best GTA offering yet.  Of course, this answer is vague.  Taken individually, San Andreas is the superior Grand Theft Auto title simply by virtue of providing more to do, having more coherent objectives, and by providing more cars, weapons, and music.  Taken as a whole however, most of San Andreas is really just a refinement on the elements that worked well in the past two GTA titles.  But, there are plenty of new features in San Andreas to keep GTA fans interested.

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1: Overview 2: Enhancements From Past GTA's 3: Game Play and Violence 4: Summary