Welcome to the Jungle

[JsARCLIGHT]

I put most of the blame on the poor quality of music in GTA:SA on the lisence issue. Sure if they could have got the lisences for all the actual music that was chart topping in 1992 (like they did in Vice City) then the game would have felt more "correct"... but sadly most of the artists that were topping the charts in 92 are either still somewhat active (and demanding large sums for their "Best" music) or they are just being dorks and not letting a game like GTA have rights to their music.

When I think of music in 92 (I was not really in America then so my thoughts might be wrong) I think of bands like REM, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Pearl Jam and such for alternative (none of whom are rep'ed in the game) not the more niche stuff they had on Radio X. Depeche Mode? That was late '80s... Violator was like 88 or so... I remember having that tape before 1990.

[Agent ONE]

Eh, most who are going to play this game aren't as old as we are. 90's and 80's are the same to most kids.

[Blaine23]

I agree with that, A1 - but it ain't all kids anymore.

When I hit the Best Buy at lunch last Tuesday with my friend so he could buy Halo2 and when I was there getting GTA a few weeks earlier, there were actual lines of guys ranging from 20-35 buying these games. And from chatting with them, they weren't picking it up for Junior.

The other reason the 90's are quite the 80's yet is that it's still sorta "just the other day" It wasn't that long ago that the 80's replaced the 70's as a funny decade. I'd say in the next 2 years we'll see the 90's being properly referenced and mercilessly mocked.

[Agent ONE]

I just got to the part of the game where Officer Tenpenny makes CJ aware of C.R.A.S.H.

This renegade corrupt branch of the Los Santos PD is actually bassed on LAPD history, as some of you may not know.

Rampart CRASH:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/lapd/scandal/

[Akilae]

Well, still waiting for the PC version so I can put REAL 90s music onto the playlist

[NSJ23]

Zero's missions made my head hurt.

[The_Major]

I think of bands like REM

Shiny, happy People.

ahem sorry

[JsARCLIGHT]

Rise from the dead!

GTA:SA is out for XBox and PC. I picked up my copy for PC last night and here is my mini review of it for those who are interested (I only had a few hours of playtime last night so these are mostly first impressions and don't speak to the "whole" game yet):

PACKAGE

The package design for the PC release is stellar. It is few and far between that a game package impresses me as most of them tend to be simple plastic clamshell DVD cases or the tired small cardboard box with cardboard tray affair. GTA:SA did something with a twist... the pacakge on the outside looks like a run of the mill DVD case with a cardboard slipcover on it but once you open it you discover what you thought was a run of the mill plastic DVD case is in fact a nice hardcover book! Said hardcover book, done up in a fancy black glossy cover, contains both the pull out map (which is pretty much the same thing as the PS2 release) and in the back houses the single DVD-Rom game disc. This sweet hardcover book is easilly four times as long as the old PS2 manual and goes into much greater depth about the three cities in San Andreas as well as going so far as to list other things in the game of interest as well as giving you "nutritional information" about the fast food joints. Being in package design myself I found this twist of packaging to be a very welcome change... it adds to the sense of value when you buy the game and the hardcover book gives you something to read that you actually want to read (unlike most simple staple together game "booklets" that read more like brochures). I rate the packaging a 10 plus, some of the best video game packaging I've seen to date. Now on to the meat of what you pay for...

THE GAME ITSELF

Contextually the game has not been changed... or so they say. The actual game, what happens, what appears, etc. is supposed to be exactly the same as the PS2 release with no alterations, new missions or anything that would set it apart from the original. After playing for a few hours last night I could swear that I am noticing subtle game differences... I'm seeing more "high end" cars around, noticing more variation in the people, finding items where I don't remember them being in places, etc. Then again all that could just be my own poor memory from playing the PS2 version months ago. Also playing on PC has other bonuses that come with much greater system memory and hard drive. Load times are almost nonexsistent. Once you start the game you have an initial load screen that lasts about 5 seconds (similar to the PS2 initial load screen but ten times faster). The only times the game "loads" during play are the transitions between building interor and exteriors, and on the PC it is instant. The game has, to a good degree, achieved a seamless playback on PC without compromising anything. Outside of the upgrades the game has received (see further down), the game is the same. No story elements changed, no missions altered, no weapons added and no vehicle changes. Suffice it to say, Carl is still Carl, the Grove street boys are still the Grove street boys, OG Loc is still a retard and the state of San Andreas is still one violent place. I'm going to cover the game in three separate categories to make it easier to get my impressons down: graphics, sound and play control.

Graphics

Obviously the PC version has superior graphics to the PS2 version. The inclusion of the original high res texture maps plus higher polycount in the characters and vehicles give the game a much, much cleaner appearance. Just like the transition of Vice City from PS2 to PC now you can actually read street signs (gasp! ), see character's faces, notice rust and damage on vehicles better and on and on. I never knew how easy it would be to navigate when I could actually see the street signs from further back rather than right in front of them. Add to this the much further draw distance with no pop in makes it so much easier to "See stuff coming". Just like my experience on the PS2 I'm running GTA:SA on the PC in widescreen and the game looks better wide than in normal 4:3 (but that is personal preference, people who have only played the game in 4:3 will never miss widescreen but those who played it in widescreen will never go back... if that makes any sense). Another very minute but very noticeable addition to the PC graphics punch are shadows... all the shadows in the game are now soft and very natural. Also now everything casts shadows onto everything... you can see the shadows of the overhead power lines cast onto CJ as he runs under, you can see the ominous shadow of that darn police chopper overhead creep up on you and you can see the shadows under bridges and behind buildings. The tiny addition of these background shadows seems to add a touch more life to the world and makes it feel more natural on some levels. In the end, graphicly the game has much more punch and pizzazz on PC. Cleaner textures, higher res and soft shadows galore.

Audio

First and foremost I should note that all the radio stations from the PS2 are the same. Same content, same songs, same DJ's, same everything. The one and only addition is the "do it yourself" MP3 radio station. However, unlike Vice City where the MP3 station was a simply a playback of your songs from one to the next the San Andreas MP3 radio goes further. It not only plays back your songs but adds in commercials, radio imaging and the like. I was shocked and very entertained to hear "More Music! Less Talk!" mixed in with my songs last night... and then hear a commercial! So in effect it lets you make the radio station from the early '90s you actually heard on the air with songs you really want to hear rather than the stereotype radio that the game runs.

Next under audio are the sound effects and foley. They also, for the most part, are totally unchanged from the PS2. The citizens of SA still banter, you still hear that guy on the street blurt out "I smoke cause it gives me knowledge!" and every shunt, bump and chirp of the tires sounds the same. The weapon sound effects sound a bit more thumpy and less firecracker this time around though.

Now for a bug that it seems I have found reguarding the audio. When you start the game it plays fine, but when you save your game or escape to the menu and go back into the game the audio freaks out for a minute or so. What it does is it stops playing half the sound effects and instead creates this annoying buzzing noise that plays for about a minute. Once the buzzing stops the game returns to normal. This is very, very annoying and I assume there is a bug fix coming soon for it. It is not a hardware feedback buzz as it is actually the sound effect of bicycle tires rolling from the game, just played back really, really loud. It's an obvious glitch in the game as the sound is even "dimmensional", meaning as you run around with the sound playing it is actually exsisting in the game world somehow. By this I mean as you turn CJ the sound dopplers around your speakers as if it was being made by some object in the world in dimensional placement to CJ. All in all it is very strange and very annoying, but as I said a patch is most likely in the works and it only happens when exiting to the menu and re-entering the game and then it only lasts for 30 seconds to a minute before magically going away and returning the game to it's normal audio operation.

Play Control

The meat and potatoes of GTA:SA. Gone is the auto aim (thank god). Returned has the mouse aim! (once again, thank god). This time around it is not as simple as pointing and shooting like in Vice City though. Now that GTA:SA supports shooting on the move you now must hold down the right mouse button to call up your "aim" reticle at which point you press the left mouse button to shoot. This is actually quite nice once you get used to it as now it gives you very precise aim ability, plus small arrows appear over hostile targets letting you know their health (in the PS2 version the autoaim reticle changed color to let you know if the target was hurt or not, now in the PC version a small arrow appears over the target's head and it changes color to let you know the status). What this right click aim gives you is the ability to move while shooting, which I found indispensable in the PS2 version but a tad herky jerky and more "Spray and pray"... on the PC the shoot while moving function is more fluid and I can actually manuver and fire much like I would in a FPS. So now I can run and strafe while gunning down my targets.

Some other crossovers from the PS2 to PC are the "button tapping" controls. Such as peddling your bike or dancing in the game required sequential button presses or rapid button taps to perform... they still do on PC. This can be a tad frustrating at times but no more frustrating than it was on the PS2.

Just about everything else is the same as it was on the PS2, just with comparable PC keyboard buttons rather than controller buttons. The game retains the ability for you to buy one of those PS2 PC controllers and use it just as the PS2 version of the game would function... but when you have mouseaim why bother? I guess the long and the short of the PC play control in my mind is the mouseaim... if you are captain butterfingers when it comes to console controllers like I am and more comfortable with a mouse and keyboard then you will dominate this game.

Final Thoughts

This is GTA:SA as I wanted it. High res, mouseaim, widescreen bliss. If you are anything like me you will wonder why you bought it for the PS2 in such a "rough" form. I only hope they get the audio glitch sorted out soon as it becomes quite annoying quite fast and it is really the only blemish on an otherwise stellar PC port.

[zeo-mare]

i so want to get the pc version i will hopefully be picking it up this week. i need to pick up a DVD Rom Drive my PC still has only a CD drive.

chris

[Effect]

Finally. Does anyone know if the auto-aim is gone from the Xbox version as well? Trying to decide which version to pick up the Xbox or PC one since I passed when the PS2 version came out in favor of getting Halo 2 instead. Should have gone with GTA3: SA to be honest but oh well.

[JKeats]

Great review, JS! I'm waiting to hear word on the XBOX version also...

[trueblueeyes]

Thanks for the review JS. This will make a great birthday present for my husband. I think he would probably prefer it for the X-Box though, so any info is welcomed. Anyone have this version yet? If so, a review would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Melissa

[JsARCLIGHT]

After some digging I found the fix for the nasty buzzing noise. No patch needed just some tweaking of the settings, now it runs just fine.

I played it again tonight and got a tad further in the game, so far no real changes seen. I like the game much more on PC than on PS2... two words: head shots. On the PS2 you had to have hitman level on your weapons and be fairly close to your victim in order to possibly pull off a head shot, but now just like VC's PC version you can simply aim and shoot and get a head shot. I found my weapon of choice (the AK) and have just sat back, kneeled down and headshot most of the punks with ease. The only real improvement this game needs is smarter AI... they still just run straight for you.

[Fugly]

Whee! A San Andreas thread....

Ahem. Anyway, the Zero missions suck balls, but the Woozie (best. character. ever) missions are well-paying, not too hard, and fun. I still can't do that goddamn Red Baron mission...and Jizzy! Fugggggggg....those are LONG.

Radio X n' K-DST are my fave. radio stations, what are yours?

Edited June 9, 2005 by Fugly

[JsARCLIGHT]

My new favorite radio station is K-JsARCLIGHT that plays actual hits heard on the actual radio in 1992 like Pearl Jam, the Cure, INXS, Chilli Peppers and more!

... well... only half of Radio X is crap, Playback is good and K-DST at least has one good Bowie song, one decent Boston song and one not so good Who song.

Sorry but I can't stand most of what's on the radio stations in San Andreas... especially that country station, it's like a fork on a chalkboard.

[Zentrandude]

I been playing it for awhile and its very large and I basicly just driving the highway then cause multicar pile ups . but it has some things I dont like, I knocked over a light pole with a bicycle , and using the right mouse to aim is bit weird.

do like the arcade games you can play nice clones of the games i used to play back in the day.

the roadrage people in cars is bit extreme even when you leave the car they still try to drive on top of it. sometimes Ill see 2 cop cars bash each other like big horn sheep.

But I like it overall.

[ogami]

GTA is getting boring... Rockstar needs to make something new.

[Blaine23]

My new favorite radio station is K-JsARCLIGHT that plays actual hits heard on the actual radio in 1992 like Pearl Jam, the Cure, INXS, Chilli Peppers and more!

... well... only half of Radio X is crap, Playback is good and K-DST at least has one good Bowie song, one decent Boston song and one not so good Who song.

Sorry but I can't stand most of what's on the radio stations in San Andreas... especially that country station, it's like a fork on a chalkboard.

Hee... the country station is probably my favorite. It adds a certain Tarantino element that I think the game tries for (some of the time).

I was gonna ask you what tunes you put on your mix, JSA. You definitely oughta throw in some crap like EMF or Jesus Jones to really round it out.

One of these days I'm a-gonna get around to building a dedicated PC for gaming. Seems like the best way to play GTA from what I've read just about everywhere.

One thing about the music... can anyone explain to me why EVERY GTA game has to have a K-Jah Reggae station? Are these games huge in the islands or something?

I'm gonna put on an iron shirt.

JSA - you heard anything good about GTA: Liberty City Stories yet? Is it a good enough reason for me to buy one of these stoopid PSP things?

[JsARCLIGHT]

Well, I bought a PSP just for Lumines so when GTA:LCS comes out I'll probably buy it and let you know.

As for my current playlist on K-JsARCLIGHT, here is what is in rotation:

Under the Bridge (Red Hot Chilli Peppers)

The Fly (U2)

Oh What a Night (The Four Seasons with Frankie Vali)

Rocket Man (Kate Bush)

Cream (Prince)

Baby Got Back (Sir Mix-a-lot)

Mysterious Ways (U2)

Give it Away (Red Hot Chilli Peppers)

Alive (Pearl Jam)

Everyday People (Arrested Development)

Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)

I Can't Dance (Genesis)

The Globe (Big Audio Dynamite)

High (The Cure)

James Brown is Dead (L.A. Style)

Jump Around (House of Pain)

Move Any Mountain (The Shamen)

Heaven Sent (INXS)

Evenflow (Pearl Jam)

I Ain't Too Proud to Beg (TLC)

OPP (Naughty By Nature)

Wildside (Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch)

Come As You Are (Nirvana)

2 Legit To Quit (MC Hammer)

Friday I'm In Love (The Cure)

Drive (REM)

Keep It Commin' (C&C Music Factory)

I keep adding more as I get them out of my deep MP3 collection to the "User Music" Folder. I know I forgot a few tracks I have in there... I like to think my tracks are a better reflection of 1992/3 than the music in the game (most of which is from the '80s and earlier anyway).

[yellowlightman]

http://www.gtasanandreas.net/news/single.php?id=1436

[zeo-mare]

http://www.gtasanandreas.net/news/single.php?id=1436

[Max Jenius]

I'm still hoping for the next game to be set in the 70's. Smokey and the Bandit, Bullet, Dazed and Confused, Starsky & Hutch, the General Lee, disco, Lee Majors - there's so much more material to be mined there. I think picking 90's LA was too safe. Who cares if most of their players are too young to remember the 70's? If the game is good, they'll come along.

Don't forget Star Wars!

[Zentrandude]

I usualy go radio off, basicly all the stations anoy me but the xradio and the country station is the less anoying out of the bunch for me, strangly the xradio plays all the songs that a local radio station here plays.

Love driving the tractor just mowing ppl down with it is comical, sometimes they land on top of me then get up and walk off while im driving.