Grand Theft Auto: San Andrea
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (GTA:SA) is an action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North. It is the third 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise and fifth original game overall. Originally released for the PlayStation 2 in October 2004, the game has since been ported to the Xbox and Microsoft Windows, and has received wide acclaim and high sales figures on all three platforms.
Set in 1992,[1] the game revolves around the main character, Carl "CJ" Johnson returning home to Los Santos after learning of his mother's murder. CJ finds his family and his old gang, the Grove Street Families
in disarray. Over the course of the game, CJ gradually unravels the
plot behind his mother's murder while trying to reestablish his gang
and return it to its glory days.
Much like the previous entries in the Grand Theft Auto series, San Andreas's
critical and commercial success has not been without controversy;
hidden content in the game resulted in the game's re-rating and
subsequent removal from many retailers' shelves.
[edit] History
Following the success of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, many gamers anticipated a new Grand Theft Auto game on the PlayStation 2 in late 2003. The first concrete evidence of a new installment came on October 29, 2003, when Take-Two Interactive announced that an untitled GTA5 game was set for release in the "later half of the fiscal fourth quarter 2004".[4]
By this time, pundits online had theorized about the plot of the game;
it would either be based in the fictional city of San Andreas,
California in the modern day, or in Sin City, Nevada.
On March 1, 2004, Take-Two announced in a press conference that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas would be released on October 19, 2004 in North America, October 22 in Europe, and October 29 for Australia.[5]
The first news of the game's content was revealed on March 11, when it
was divulged that San Andreas would not be a city, but rather an entire
state consisting of three whole cities and the surrounding territory.
On September 9, 2004
in Take-Two's third quarter financial results for 2004, it was
announced that the release date would be pushed back by a week. In the
same release, Take-Two announced the Microsoft Windows and Xbox
versions of the game.
San Andreas was released for the PlayStation 2 on October 26, 2004 in North America and on October 29, 2004 in Europe and Australia. The Windows and Xbox ports were released on June 7, 2005 in North America and June 10, 2005 in Europe and Australia. It is slated for release in Japan on January 31, 2007.[6]
[edit] Gameplay
San Andreas is structured similarly to the previous two games
in the series. The core gameplay consists of elements of a third-person
shooter and a driving game, affording the player a large, open
environment to move around in. On foot, the player's character is
capable of walking, running, swimming, climbing and jumping, as well as
utilizing weapons and basic hand to hand combat. Players can steal and
drive a variety of vehicles, including automobiles, boats, airplanes,
helicopters, trains, and motorcycles.
The open, non-linear environment allows players to explore and
choose how they wish to play the game. Although storyline missions are
necessary to progress through the game and unlock certain cities and
content, they are not required, as players can complete them at their
own leisure. When not taking on a storyline mission, players can
free-roam and create havoc (e.g. drive-by shootings, robberies, etc).
However, doing so can attract unwanted and potentially fatal attention
from the authorities. The more chaos caused, the stronger the response:
police will handle minor infractions, whereas SWAT teams, the FBI, and the military respond to higher wanted levels.
The player can also partake in a variety of optional side missions.
The traditional side missions of the past games are included, such as
dropping off taxi cab passengers, putting out fires, driving injured
people to the hospital, and fighting crime as a vigilante.
New additions include truck and train driving missions requiring
players to make deliveries on time, and driving/flying/boating/biking
schools, which help players learn skills and techniques to use in their
corresponding vehicles.
[edit] Characters
-
The characters that appear in San Andreas are relatively
diverse and relative to the respected cities and locales that each of
them based themselves in. This allows the game to include a
significantly wider array of storylines and settings than in Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City.
The Los Santos stages of the game revolve around the theme of the
Grove Street Families gang fighting with the Ballas and the Vagos for
territory and respect. East Asian gangs (most notably the local Triads) and an additional Vietnamese gang are evident in the San Fierro leg of the game, while three Mafia families who own a casino are more prominently featured in the Las Venturas section of the game.
Like the previous two GTA games, San Andreas's voice actors includes notable celebrities, including Charlie Murphy, Samuel L. Jackson, James Woods, Peter Fonda, Frank Vincent, the late Chris Penn, rappers Ice T, Chuck D and The Game and musicians Axl Rose and Shaun Ryder.
[edit] Locations
Los Santos, as seen from the low-wealth district of Idlewood. Downtown's prominent skyscrapers are visible in the background.
-
The fictional state San Andreas is based on sections of California and Nevada, comprising three major cities: Los Santos and the badlands correspond to Los Angeles and the California badlands; San Fierro corresponds to San Francisco; and Las Venturas and the surrounding desert corresponds to Las Vegas and the Nevada desert. Players can climb Mount Chiliad (based on Mount Diablo), a half mile (800 m) tall mountain, parachute
from various peaks and skyscrapers, and visit 12 rural towns and
villages located in three counties: Red County, Flint County, and Bone
County. Other notable destinations include a massive dam (based on the Hoover Dam), a large secret military base called Area 69, a reference to Area 51,
a microwave dish, and many other geographical features. San Andreas is
approximately 17 square miles (44 square kilometers), almost four times
as large as Vice City, and five times as large as Liberty City.
[edit] Los Santos
Los Santos features landmarks reminiscent of the Watts Towers, the Los Angeles Convention Center, the Capitol Tower, the U.S. Bank Tower, Griffith Park Observatory. The Metro Link, the Forum, the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Grauman's Chinese Theater.
The city of Los Santos has several important areas, including the
gang-ridden Ganton, Willow Field, Idlewood and East Los Santos, based
on Compton, Willow Brook, Inglewood, and East Los Angeles,
respectively. Also located in the city are a busy downtown, the wealthy
Rodeo and Mulholland districts, beach areas representing Santa Monica
and Venice Beach, and glitzy Vinewood (complete with giant VINEWOOD
sign in the hills), based on Hollywood.
[edit] San Fierro
San Fierro features Rockstar's interpretations of the Haight-Ashbury district ("Hashbury"), the Castro district ("Queens"), Chinatown, and the Golden Gate Bridge ("Gant Bridge"), as well as the city's prominent cable cars and hilly terrain. Several other familiar landmarks have been recreated, from the Embarcadero clock tower and the Transamerica Pyramid ("Big Pointy Building") to Lombard Street ("Windy Windy Windy Windy Windy Street"), and Scottish landmarks such as the Forth Bridge and the Forth Road Bridge. There is a district known as "Garcia", a tribute to Grateful Dead frontman and San Francisco native Jerry Garcia, and San Fierro's City Hall closely resembles San Francisco's ornate city hall.
Police trouble in Las Venturas, PC version.
[edit] Las Venturas
Las Venturas is home to several casinos, where the player can partake in blackjack, poker, roulette, or play slot machines. Off-track betting parlors are also available in the game's other regions. In addition to gambling, strip clubs are also prevalent in Las Venturas. Many real Las Vegas Strip casinos are faithfully interpreted on Las Venturas' Strip, including the Excalibur Hotel and Casino ("Come-a-Lot"), the Sphinx and pyramid of the Luxor Hotel ("The Camel's Toe"), and the Pioneer Club, with Vegas Vic and Vicki[7] replaced by Vice City characters Avery Carrington and Candy Suxxx.
[edit] Plot synopsis
Flying a stunt airplane over the desert region of Las Venturas, PC version.
Carl discovers his best friends, Big Smoke and Ryder, are working
with the crooked Officer Tenpenny and Grove Street's hated rival gang,
the Ballas.
Smoke and Ryder help the Ballas ambush Sweet, who is then arrested by
Tenpenny and thrown into jail. Tenpenny kidnaps Carl and ditches him in
the distant rural countryside. Carl, realizing Tenpenny is his only
hope for staying out of jail or potentially seeing Sweet released,
continues to run the cop's crooked errands, in the process killing many
people who would testify against Tenpenny.
Carl steadily befriends new allies, among them, blind Chinese gang
leader and businessman Wu Zi Mu; the seemingly aloof but extremely
knowledgeable hippie The Truth; and Cesar, a former Hispanic gang
member who, like Carl, has been betrayed by his old friends. Carl,
along with Cesar, Kendl (Carl's sister and Cesar's girlfriend), and The
Truth's friendly technicians, works to open a garage in San Fierro.
After finding and killing Ryder, Carl becomes immersed in the affairs
of a shady government agent, Mike Toreno, who implies that he will
release Sweet if Carl helps him with his covert operations. At Toreno's
assertion, Carl avoids Los Santos and instead works alongside Wu Zi Mu
to promote the growth of a new casino in the mafia-run Las Venturas.
Carl enjoys newfound wealth and eventually returns to Los Santos.
Toreno gets Sweet released early from prison, but to CJ's surprise,
Sweet wants no part of Carl's new lifestyle and insists on
reestablishing the GSF rather than rest on the laurels of Carl's
success.
Tenpenny goes to trial for several felonies, but the charges are
dropped for lack of evidence as all the prosecution's witnesses are
either missing or dead Tenpenny's release sends the citizens of Los
Santos into a citywide riot, similar to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots.
Fueled by Sweet's resolve to topple Big Smoke, who has become the
city's biggest drug kingpin, Carl reacquires lost gang territory and
hunts down the traitors responsible for aiding in the drug business
that destroyed the Grove Street Families. He kills Smoke, after which
Tenpenny shows up and flees with Smoke's drug fortune. Sweet and Carl
pursue Tenpenny through the streets of Los Santos, finally forcing him
off a bridge, killing him. The final scene shows the Johnson family
reunited, with Carl walking out the door, saying "Fittin' to hit the
block, see what's happening."
Spoilers end here.
[edit] Differences from previous Grand Theft Auto games
Unlike Vice City and GTA III, which had loading screens when traveling between different districts of the city, San Andreas
has no load times when the player is in transit. The only loading
screens in the game are for cut-scenes and interiors, which is notable,
given how much larger the game map is than in the previous games. Other
differences between San Andreas and its predecessors include
the switch from single-player to multiplayer Rampage missions, and the
replacement of the "hidden packages" with spray paint tags, hidden
camera shots, horseshoes, and oysters to discover.
The camera, fighting, and targeting controls were reworked to incorporate concepts from another Rockstar game, Manhunt,
including improved target crosshairs that change colors from green to
red to black depending on the target's health, as well as various
stealth elements.
[edit] New features
In total, there are nearly 200 types of vehicle in the game, compared to approximately 85 in GTA3.
New additions include bicycles, jet planes, lowriders, a jetpack,
quadbikes, tractors, a train, a combine harvester, police motorcycles,
a forklift, a street sweeper, and many others. In addition, players can
swim and climb walls for the first time in the series. For greater
firepower, players can also wield dual firearms or perform a drive-by
shooting with multiple gang members. Also, due to the immense size of
San Andreas, a waypoint reticule on the HUD map can be set, aiding the
player in reaching a destination.
Running in Los Santos, PC version. The player's character initially has
little money, fitness, or skills. These attributes improve as one
progresses through the game.
Rockstar has emphasized the personalization
of the main character. Clothing, accessories, haircuts and tattoos are
now available for purchase by CJ, and have more of an effect on non-player characters' reactions than the clothing in Vice City.
CJ's level of respect among his fellow Grove Street gang members varies
according to his appearance and actions, as do his relationships with
his girlfriends. Players must also ensure CJ eats to stay healthy but
also exercises properly. The balance of food and physical activity has
an effect on his appearance and physical attributes. If CJ eats too
much and does not exercise, he will grow fat and move slower. If he
fails to eat at all, he will become less muscular and, eventually, will
lose health.
San Andreas also tracks acquired skills in areas such as
driving, firearms handling (when skills are high enough,
double-wielding of certain weapons is possible), stamina, and lung
capacity, which improve through use in the game, adding an RPG aspect to San Andreas. CJ may also learn three different styles of hand-to-hand combat
at the gyms in each of the game's three cities. CJ can also speak with
a number of pedestrians in the game, and Rockstar claims that he has a
total of about 4200 lines of spoken dialogue.[8]
The game's artificial intelligence
was also improved. No longer can the player beat a pedestrian to death
on a busy street in broad daylight and have bystanders not respond.
While most pedestrians will flee or duck for cover, some armed
civilians and enemy gang members will attack CJ, and friendly gang
members will shoot at and pursue his opponents. This makes the
previously mentioned foreign-turf invasions more difficult than one
might expect. The area's occupants will resist, and will frequently
draw weapons. Cops will now chase other rival gang members who are
committing crimes, instead of just the player.
Other new features include:
Driving a modified sports car in San Fierro while deploying
nitrous oxide to boost speed, PC version.
- Car modification: Most automobiles in the game can be
modified and upgraded at various garages. Most car mods are strictly
visual, adding aesthetic appeal to the vehicles, as opposed to those
which improve the performance. Common modifications include nitrous oxide tanks, hydraulics, paintjobs, rims, body kits, and stereo system upgrades.
- Gang wars: The goal is to gain as much territory within the
city as possible in order to earn money. Battles with enemy gangs are
prompted whenever the player (either alone or accompanied by fellow
Grove Street Families members) ventures into enemy territory and kills
3-4 gang members. If the player survives multiple waves of enemies, the
territory will be won and fellow gang members will begin wandering the
streets of these areas. Occasionally, your territory will come under
attack from enemy gangs and defeating them will be necessary to retain
these areas.
- Robbery: Continuing the series' tradition of controversy, home invasion is included as a potential money-making activity.[9] By stealing a robbery van, CJ is able to sneak into a residence at night, and cart off valuables or shake down the occupants.
- Minigames: Numerous minigames are also available for play in San Andreas, including basketball, pool, rhythm-based challenges (dancing and "bouncing" vehicles with hydraulics), and video game machines that pay homage to classic arcade games. In addition, there are the aforementioned casino games and methods of gambling.
- Multiplayer: A two-player cooperative mode has also been
added for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions. Accessing this mode will
launch a series of special objectives similar to "Rampages" from
previous Grand Theft Auto games. Two human players will be able
to travel by car or on foot. Both players are required to remain on the
same screen and within a reasonable proximity of one another. There has
also been a modification designed for PC called sa-mp which allows up to 100 players to play each other online on different servers, in different types of challanges.
[edit] Soundtrack
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Just like the previous two entries in the Grand Theft Auto series, San Andreas
has an extensive amount and variety of tracks taken from the time
period the game is based in. Notable inclusions to the game's
soundtrack include Depeche Mode, Soundgarden, Rage Against the Machine, Guns N' Roses, Snoop Doggy Dogg, N.W.A., 2Pac, Dr. Dre, Eazy E, Stone Temple Pilots, and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
San Andreas is serviced by eleven radio stations; WCTR (talk radio), Master Sounds 98.3 (rare groove), K-Jah West (reggae), CSR (new jack swing), Radio X (alternative), Radio Los Santos (gangsta rap), SF-UR (house music), Bounce FM (funk music), K-DST (classic rock), K-Rose (country) and Playback FM (classic hip-hop).
The music system in San Andreas was enhanced from previous
titles. In earlier games in the series, each radio station was
essentially a single looped sound file, playing the same songs,
announcements and advertisements in the same order each time. In San Andreas,
each section was held separately, and "mixed" randomly, allowing songs
to be played in different orders, announcements to songs to be
different each time, and plot events to be mentioned on the stations
such as weather reports.
The Xbox and PC versions of the game include an additional radio station that plays user imported MP3's.
[edit] Weapons
The weapon selection in San Andreas is similar to that of Vice City. As in Vice City, weapons are categorized by type, and the player can carry only one weapon in each "slot" at a time.
- Slot 1: Hand: bare fist, brass knuckles
- Slot 2: Melee Weapons: baseball bat, shovel, cue stick, katana, golf club, nightstick, knife, chainsaw
- Slot 3: Handguns: 9mm pistol,[10][11] silenced 9mm pistol, Desert Eagle
- Slot 4: Shotguns: pump-action shotgun, sawn-off shotgun,[10] combat shotgun (SPAS-12)
- Slot 5: Sub-Machine Guns: TEC-9,[10] micro-SMG (Micro-Uzi),[10][11] SMG (H&K MP5)
- Slot 6: Assault Rifles: AK-47, M4 Carbine
- Slot 7: Rifles: hunting rifle, sniper rifle[11]
- Slot 8: Heavy Weapons: rocket launcher (RPG-7), flame thrower, heat-seeking rocket launcher, minigun
- Slot 9: Explosives and Incendiaries: hand grenade, (lethal) tear gas grenade, Molotov cocktail, remote satchel charge
- Slot 10: Handheld Items: fire extinguisher, spray paint, camera
- Slot 11: Gifts: flowers, dildos, canes, and vibrators, which can be given to CJ's girlfriends or used for melee attacks
- Slot 12: Special Items: thermal/night vision goggles, parachute
- Slot 13: Miscellaneous: detonator for satchel charge
[edit] Crossovers from other GTA games
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Many characters, locations and fictional elements from previous Grand Theft Auto games reappear in San Andreas, at times with minor modifications due to the difference in time periods. Due to the fact that Vice City
occurred before the events of San Andreas, crossovers from that game
are more prominent, although there are also numerous crossovers from GTA III.
One of the most notable is Catalina, who accompanies CJ on a number of
robbery missions. Catalina was the girlfriend and betrayer of GTA III's protagonist, who also makes an appearance in San Andreas. CJ refers to him as "that mute asshole," referring to the fact that he never spoke at all during the game.
Posted at 09:25 am by mhac13_03
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