Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas Details Revealed

Thanks to Eurogamer for its article revealing many new details about Rockstar North's ravenously-awaited PlayStation 2 title, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which had first screenshots revealed during last week's E3 show. Hitherto unavailable information includes the setting ("comprising Los Santos (Los Angeles) where you start out, San Fierro (San Francisco) and Las Venturra (Las Vegas), it's an epic environment allegedly six times the size of Vice City") and unorthodox new features ("through dozens of accurately modelled restaurants and other eateries, the criminal wannabe will be able to top up his stamina meter, and actually visibly gain weight"), with Eurogamer concluding happily: "We fancy that Rockstar North's dark and satirical sense of humour, and passionate obsession with minutely detailed gameplay will see us through many a lonely night in San Andreas."

Comments

BUT

[Lord Bitman]

is it possible to obey the law?
will police get all over you just for not slamming on your brakes when a light turns red?
can I hit someone over the head, drag them into a warehouse, chain them up, and fuck them with a dagger?
If I kill someone, will the police not just give up after 5 minutes of looking for me?
Are acciidents persistent?
Can I completely eliminate the prostitute population of the city?
If I start killing all the taxi drivers, will the taxi drivers stay home?
Will all the various murders which are just too fucking easy to pull off in vice city be harder to do en-masse?

I want a game that will let me kill people, but will beat me down if I dont do it clean!

Re:BUT

[Triprotic]

I want a game that will let me kill people, but will beat me down if I dont do it clean!

You've never tried Hitman?
Ok granted it's not on the same scale as GTA, but it does the job. (Shame the Hitman series seems to be getting worse with each new game)

Anyway, back on topic...
Reading that article it sounds quite promising. I'm still a little worried that not putting it in the 70s would make the game lose the tounge in cheek that Vice City had lots of!

Re:BUT

[Anonymous Coward]

I would prefer it if they actually sorted out the police AI to be a bit more fair about things.

I got a bit fed up of a gang attacking me with guns and the police doing nothing. As soon as I throw one punch at a gang member then I get the police on my back.

Though I suppose Rockstar is going for realism so it won't happen

Rockstar in a Rut

[superultra]

First, GTA3 was unarguably seminal in video gaming. No doubt about that. It framed not only how games are played, but how they're perceived, how they're designed - through and through GTA3 changed everything about video games.

Enter GTA:VC. It did what - great music? This new GTA is as groundbreaking how? They have mountains? Eating? Minigames? Ragdoll physics?

Rockstar has produced one groundbreaking game. One. And, they've been living off it ever since. Even Midnight Club II, which was racing bliss at its most pure, was developed by a company they bought that had designed the original Midtown Madness series for Microsoft on the PC. Maybe they're waiting for the next gen systems to really do something new, but as far as I'm concerned Rockstar is an overrated one-hit wonder that, apparentely quite accidently, hit an oil well in their background and are sucking it dry. Most of their other work has been luck (Midnight Club II) or medicore to above average at best (State of Emergency, Revolver, Manhunt, etc). What remains to be seen is how long the public will endure variations of the same thing, made more difficult by Rockstar in that other companies are trying to draw from the same well.

I'm worried

[tprime]

I am seriously worried that a large amount of this game will never be seen by gamers. Why?? I am sure that everyone here remembers all of the whining and crying that was done by the Haitian community over the "Kill all the Haitians" phrase in VC. What did Rockstar do? They caved and blurred out that phrase in future versions. Go ahead and flame me about being a killjoy on what looks like an incredible game, but does anyone else here think that the NAACP won't scream wildly and make a public scene about what they think is racial stereotyping in LA? You are a black man, in a gang, committing murders and robbing houses with your homies. This non-racial issue will be turned into a racial scene by the likes of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.

God, do I hope I am wrong and we all see this game how it was intended, but I will not be surprised if it is changed just prior to release.

Product Placement

[Lord_Dweomer]

"through dozens of accurately modelled restaurants and other eateries"

I couldn't help but read this and cringe. I know the GTA franchise has done a great job of satirizing cars and such, but that was because they had to legally.

I am terrified that there will be a real McDonalds in this game. In a game that's been about a quasi-real world, a real restaraunt would take away from the feel of the game I feel. Some games like Gran Turismo NEED real company logos/cars etc. to make it feel right. GTA needs fake things to make it feel right.