San Andreas runs like a dream, with the excellent mouse and keyboard control system of Vice City, extended visual range and atmospheric effects. GTA 3 struggled to make the technical leap to PC with its code intact, but months of finger-crossing and animal sacrifices to nameless gods have paid off. But it's the fact that it's one of the best games ever made that has already propelled it to console ultra-success. San Andreas reaches new lows of depraved morality, senseless violence and alpha-male aggression. The fifth in a series that since its 2D birth on PC (back in 1997) has celebrated despicable gangsters and drive-by/-thru/-into and -over crime. The ugly caterpillar has become a beautiful (if foul-mouthed) butterfly. Welcome to GTA as it was always meant to be.įorget the fact that GTA San Andreas started life as a PlayStation 2 game. With a staggering amount to see and do, wrapped in in Rockstar's trademark cultural satire, we strongly recommended it then and we strongly recommend it now. It's a bouncing playground filled with sights and delights, whether that's bombing through Red Country on a jet-pack, crop dusting with Guns 'N Roses on the radio, or pumping iron at the local gym. What it does have, though, is a sublime silly streak. Nine years on, San Andreas doesn't have great graphics.
