Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 open world action-adventure
video game developed by
games developer Rockstar
North in the United Kingdom and published by Rockstar Games. It is the
third 3D
game in the Grand
Theft Auto video
game franchise, the fifth original console release and eighth game
overall. Originally released for the PlayStation 2 in October
2004,[2] the game has
since been released for the Xbox and Microsoft Windows (PC) in
June 2005, and has received wide acclaim and high sales figures on all three platforms.
It is the best-selling game of all time on PlayStation 2.
It was made available on Steam
on January 4, 2008,[11] and on
Intel-based Macs running a minimum of Mac OS X 10.6.6 in
September 2011. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was succeeded by Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and
was preceded by Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
The game is set in the fictional state of San Andreas,
which contains three metropolitan cities: Los Santos, based on Los Angeles, San Fierro,
based on San
Francisco and Las Venturas, based on Las Vegas. Set in late
1992,[12] San Andreas
revolves around the gang member Carl "CJ" Johnson returning home from Liberty City to Los Santos, San Andreas, after learning of
his mother's murder. CJ finds his old friends and family in disarray. Over the
course of the game, CJ gradually unravels the plot behind his mother's murder.
The high-level plot strongly resembles the LAPD Rampart Scandal and the
game even culminates with a spoof of the 1992
Los Angeles riots.
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 world environment in
which to move around. On foot, the player's character is capable of walking,
eating, running, sprinting, swimming, climbing (the first GTA game in
which swimming and climbing is possible) and jumping as well as using weapons
and various forms of hand to hand combat. Players can drive a variety of
vehicles, including automobiles, buses, semis, boats, fixed wing aircraft,
helicopters, trains, tanks, motorcycles and bikes. Players may also import
vehicles rather than steal them.
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 look
around the cities, eat from the restaurant, or cause havoc by attacking people
and causing destruction. Creating havoc can attract unwanted and potentially
fatal attention from the authorities. The more chaos caused, the stronger the
response: police will handle "minor" infractions (attacking people,
pointing guns at people, stealing cars, killing a few people, etc.), whereas SWAT teams, the FBI, and the military respond to higher wanted levels.
The player can partake in a variety of optional side
missions that can boost their character's attributes or provide another source
of income. 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 burglary missions, pimping missions, 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.
Not all locations are open to the player at the start of
the game. Some locales, such as pay 'n spray, gyms, and shops, become available
only after completing certain missions. Likewise, for the first portion of the
game, only Los Santos and its immediate suburbs are available for exploration;
unlocking the other cities and rural areas again requires the completion of
certain missions.
Unlike GTA III and Vice City, which needed
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. Other differences between
San Andreas and its predecessors include the switch from single-player
to multiplayer Rampage missions (albeit not in the PC version), 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 various stealth elements,[13] as well as
improved target crosshairs and a target health indicator which changes colors
from green to red to black depending on the target's health. The PC version of
the game implements mouse
chording; the player has to hold the right mouse button to activate
the crosshairs, and then click
or hold at the left mouse button to shoot or use an item, such as a camera.
The player has a gunfight with members of an enemy gang.
In addition, players can swim and climb walls for the
first time in the series.[14] The ability to
swim has a great effect on the player as well, since water is no longer an
impassable barrier that kills the player (although it is possible to drown).
For greater firepower, players can also wield dual firearms or perform a
drive-by shooting with multiple gang members. Due to the size of San Andreas, a
waypoint reticule on the HUD map can be set, aiding the player in reaching a
destination.
RPG features in
character development
Rockstar has emphasized the personalization of the main
protagonist by adding many role-playing
video game elements. Clothing, accessories, haircuts, jewellery 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 recruits and street friends varies according to his
appearance and actions, as do his relationships with his girlfriends. Players
must also ensure CJ eats to stay healthy and also exercises properly. The
balance of food and physical activity has an effect on his appearance and
physical attributes.[14]
San Andreas tracks acquired skills
in areas such as driving, firearms handling, stamina, and lung capacity, which
improve through use in the game.[14] CJ may also
learn three different styles of hand-to-hand
combat (boxing, kung fu and Muay Thai) at the gyms in
each of the game's three cities. CJ can also speak with a number of pedestrians
in the game, responding either negatively or positively. According to Rockstar,
there are about 4,200 lines of spoken dialogue.[15]
Vehicles
In total, there are about 200 types of vehicles in the
game[16] compared to the
approximate 85 in GTA III. New additions include bicycles, a combine harvester, a street sweeper, a hovercraft, trailers and others.
Car physics and features are
similar to the Midnight
Club series of street racing games,
allowing for much more midair vehicle control as well as nitrous upgrades and
aesthetic modification.
There are several different classes of vehicles that
serve different purposes. Off-road vehicles perform better in rough
environments, while racing cars perform better on tracks or on the street. Jets are fast, but usually
need a runway to land. Helicopters can land almost
anywhere and are much easier to control in the air, but are slower. While
previous Grand Theft Auto games had only a few aircraft that were
difficult to access and fly, San Andreas has 11 airplanes and nine
helicopters and makes them more integral in the game's missions. There is also
the ability to skydive from aircraft,
using a parachute. Several boats were added, while some were highly modified.
Other additions and
changes
Other new features and changes from previous Grand
Theft Auto games include:
- Gang wars: Battles with enemy gangs are prompted whenever the
player ventures into enemy territory and kills at least three gang
members. If the player then survives three waves of enemies, the territory
will be won and fellow gang members will begin wandering the streets of
these areas. The more territory owned by the player, the more money that
will be generated. Occasionally, the player's territory will come under
attack from enemy gangs and defeating them will be necessary to retain these
areas. Once all marked territories are claimed from one of the two other
gangs for the Grove Street Families, that gang can no longer attack. Once
the player takes control of all the territories, none can come under
attack.[17]
- Car modification: Most automobiles in the game can
be modified and upgraded at various garages. All car mods are strictly
visual apart from the stereo and nitrous oxide upgrade
which increases bass and gives the car a speed boost when activated
respectively; and hydraulics, which lowers the car's height by default and
allows the player to control various aspects of the car's suspension.
Other common modifications include paintjobs, rims, body kits, side
skirts, bumpers and stereo system upgrades.
- Burglary: Continuing the series' tradition of controversy, home invasion is
included as a potential money-making activity.[18] By stealing
a burglary 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' lowriders 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, such as betting on virtual horse races.[19]
- Money: The money system has been expanded upon, compared
to previous titles. Players can spend their cash on gambling, tattoos,
meals, etc. Excessive gambling loss can force the player to sink into
debt, which is shown in red negative numbers. When the player leaves a
safehouse, CJ gets an unexpected call and a mysterious person tells him
about his debts. Four gang members suddenly appear and shoot Carl on sight
if he does not erase the debt when the mysterious person calls him a
second time.
- Multiplayer: Rampages have been modified to
allow two players to complete them. The players are both shown
simultaneously on the screen, meaning they must stay within close
proximity of each other. The multiplayer rampages were removed from the PC
version of the game. While multiplayer modes were absent on the PC version
(as with the previous games), third-party modifications like Multi
Theft Auto provide such functionality.
Setting
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas takes
place within the state of San Andreas, which is based on sections of California and Nevada. It comprises three major
fictional cities: Los Santos corresponds to Los
Angeles, San Fierro corresponds to San Francisco, and Las
Venturas corresponds to Las Vegas.[14] The environments
around these cities are also based on settings within the Southwestern region of the United States. Players can climb
the half-mile (800 m) tall Mount Chiliad (based on Mount Diablo), 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 Sherman Dam (based on the
Hoover Dam), a large secret
military base called Area 69 (based on Area 51), a large satellite
dish (based on a dish from the Very Large Array), and many
other geographical features. Interestingly the bridges in San Fierro are based
on the Forth road
and rail
bridges which link Edinburgh, the home of Rockstar North, to Fife even although
the road bridge is highly similar to the Golden
Gate Bridge. San Andreas is 13.9 square miles (22.3 square
kilometers),[20] almost four
times as large as Vice City,
and five times as large as the GTA III rendition of Liberty City. The three cities are linked by numerous
highways, a train system, and air travel. While its predecessors' areas were
limited to urban locations, San Andreas includes not only large cities and
suburbs, but also the rural areas between them. It also has a fictional version
of the Nellis
Air Force Base[citation
needed] called ingame the Verdant Meadows Airfield.
Characters
Main article: List of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
characters
The characters that appear in San Andreas are
relatively diverse and relative to the respective cities and locales which each
of them based himself 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 player controls Carl
"CJ" Johnson, a young African-American gang
member who serves as the game's protagonist.
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 and the Triads who all own their respective casino are more
prominently featured in the Las Venturas section of the game.
Like the previous two GTA games, the voice actors of San
Andreas include notable celebrities, such as David Cross, Andy Dick, Ron
Foster, Samuel
L. Jackson, James Woods,
Peter Fonda, Charlie Murphy, Frank Vincent, Chris Penn, Danny Dyer, Sara Tanaka, William Fichtner, Wil Wheaton, rappers Ice T, Chuck D, Frost, MC Eiht and The Game and musicians George Clinton, Axl Rose, Sly and Robbie, and Shaun Ryder.[21] Young Maylay makes his
debut as the protagonist, Carl.
The Guinness World Records 2009 Gamer's Edition lists it as the videogame with the largest voice cast,
with 861 credited voice actors, including 174 actors and 687 additional
performers, many of those performers being fans of the series who wanted to
appear on the game.[22]
The story begins in 1992 when Carl "CJ" Johnson (Young Maylay) returns to
Los Santos to attend his mother's funeral after five years living in Liberty City following his brother Brian’s murder. Upon
returning, corrupt C.R.A.S.H.
police officers Frank Tenpenny (Samuel L. Jackson) and Edward "Eddie" Pulaski
(Chris Penn) threaten to
frame him for a fellow officer's murder unless he assists them.
Carl returns to his former allies in the Grove Street
Families gang, working with his brother Sweet (Faizon Love), and fellow
gangsters Ryder (MC Eiht) and Big Smoke (Clifton Powell) to
reestablish Grove Street as the predominant gang in Los Santos. Carl is also
forced to assist Tenpenny and Pulaski with several jobs, as well as helping his
neighbor OG Loc, a wanna-be gangster
rapper with no talent, get started with his music career by ruining the career
of prominent rapper Madd Dogg (Ice T).
Shortly before a gang battle, Carl receives a call from
his sister Kendl’s boyfriend Cesar Vialpando (Clifton
Collins, Jr.), who shows Carl the vehicle involved in his mother’s
shooting being escorted by Big Smoke, Ryder, a group of Ballas, and Tenpenny.
Carl is too late to save his brother from being ambushed and is arrested and
dumped in the San Andreas contryside to assassinate a witness threatening
Tenpenny and Pulaski. Meanwhile, Ryder and Big Smoke, now openly in league with
the Ballas, take over Los Santos, flooding it with crack cocaine.
Tenpenny has Carl work with the aged marijuana farmer
hippie "The Truth" (Peter Fonda) in preparation
to discredit a DA. In the meantime, the similarly exiled Cesar sets Carl up to
assist in a robbery spree with his cousin Catalina and joining in
underground street races. Through these races, Carl meets the blind Triad
leader Wu Zi “Woozie” Mu and wins
the deed to a garage in San Fierro from Catalina. With help from The Truth,
Carl works to convert the garage to a chop shop.
Besides performing jobs for Tenpenny, Carl insinuates
himself into the Loco Syndicate, Smoke and Ryder's supplier. Carl eventually
assassinating the Syndicate leaders, killing Ryder, and blowing up their crack
factory. He also helps Woozie fend off a rival San Fierro Vietnamese gang, the
Da Nang Boys.
Carl is contacted by the presumed-dead Loco Syndicate
leader Mike Toreno (James Woods), who reveals
he's a secret government agent and agrees to secure Sweet's release from jail
in return for Carl's help.
Later, Carl is invited by Woozie to become a partner in
the Four Dragons Casino in Las Venturas, where they are facing harassment from
the Mafia-run Caligula's Palace casino. To displace the Mafia, they begin
planning to rob Caligula's. Through The Truth, Carl meets music producer Kent Paul (Danny Dyer) and through him
Caligula's manager Ken Rosenburg (Bill Fichtner), under
pressure for support from the three Liberty City families. When Salvatore Leone (Frank Vincent) comes to Las
Venturas to take over all of Caligula's for himself he takes Rosenburg, Kent Paul,
and Maccer hostage, but Carl helps them escape under the guise of helping
Salvatore. Whilst working for Salvatore Carl is sent back to Liberty City in
order to take out a mafia family operating at Saint Mark's Bistro. Only the
front of the bistro and the background viewable from the front were made from
GTA III. The interior of the bistro was made from scratch. After final planning
Carl and Woozie carry out their heist, taking millions of dollars from
Salvatore's Casino. After the heist Carl receives a phone call from an enraged
Salvatore who repeatedly tells Carl he's, "Dead!" along with threats
of murdering his friends and family. Carl mocks Salvatore and hangs up.
Salvatore isn't heard from again for the rest of the game.
Meanwhile Tenpenny and Pulaski, now under indictment, try
to kill Carl, but Carl manages to kill Pulaski. Carl also saves the fallen Madd
Dogg from killing himself, becoming his manager, and reestablishing him in Los
Santos. Shortly afterwards, Sweet is finally released and has Carl once again
help him restore Grove Street.
Tenpenny goes to trial for several felonies, but the
charges are dropped for lack of evidence, as – thanks to Carl – all the
prosecution's witnesses are either disgraced, missing, or dead. Tenpenny's
release sends anger and shock throughout Los Santos, triggering the in-game
rendition of the 1992
Los Angeles Riots.
During the riots Sweet manages to track down Big Smoke who
is living in a fortified crack fortress. Carl breaks through all of the
defenses and kills Big Smoke in a shootout only to be confronted by Tenpenny
who steals all of Big Smoke's drug money and escapes in a fire truck. Carl and
Sweet pursue Tenpenny through the streets of Los Santos until Tenpenny loses
control and crashes off a bridge, landing at the entrance of the Grove Street
cul-de-sac. Tenpenny manages to crawl free of the wreckage before collapsing.
As Tenpenny is dying Carl considers shooting him, but Sweet stops him, saying
that they shouldn't leave evidence that Tenpenny was killed instead of it just
being an accident.
In the aftermath Carl's family and friends arrive at the
Johnson house for a meeting. Madd Dogg announces that he's received a gold
record for his new album. Cesar also proposes to Kendl. As his friends and
allies celebrate their success, Carl turns to leave. When asked where he's
going, he replies, "Fittin' to hit the block, see what's happening."
Soundtrack
Main articles: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas soundtrack, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Official
Soundtrack, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Official
Soundtrack Box Set
As with the previous two entries in the Grand Theft
Auto series, San Andreas has an exhaustive number of tracks taken
from the time period in which the game is based.
San Andreas is serviced by eleven radio stations; WCTR (talk radio), Master Sounds
98.3 (rare groove, playing many of
the old funk and soul tracks sampled by 1990s hip-hop artists), K-Jah West (dub and reggae; modeled after K-Jah from GTA III), CSR (New Jack Swing, Modern Soul), Radio X (alternative rock, metal and grunge), Radio Los Santos (gangsta rap), SF-UR (old
school Chicago house music),
Bounce FM (funk), K-DST (classic rock), K-Rose (country) and Playback FM (classic
hip hop).
The music system in San Andreas is enhanced from
previous titles. In earlier 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
is 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. This system would be used in Grand
Theft Auto IV. WCTR, rather than featuring licensed music and
DJs, features spoken word performances by actors such as Andy Dick performing
as talk show hosts and listener callers in a parody of talk radio programming.
Lazlow again plays as himself on the show
"Entertaining America" on WCTR in the same persona as in III and Vice
City. He takes over after the former presenter, Billy Dexter, is shot on air by
in-game movie star Jack Howitzer. Lazlow interviews guests such as O.G. Loc,
who is one of the two characters Carl encounters during the game that is on the
radio along with Big Smoke.
The Xbox and Windows versions of the game include an
additional radio station that supports custom soundtracks by playing user
imported MP3s, allowing players to
listen to their own music while playing the game. This feature is not available
on the PS2 version of the game or when played on the XBox 360. [23]
Reception
Upon its release, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
was met with universal critical acclaim, with many calling it one of the
PlayStation 2's best games. It received an average review score of 95%,
according to Metacritic,[33] tying for the
fifth highest ranked game in PlayStation 2 history. IGN rated the game a 9.9/10 (the highest score
it has ever awarded to a PlayStation 2 game), calling it "the defining
piece of software" for the PlayStation 2.[19] GameSpot rated the game
9.6/10, giving it an Editor's Choice award. GameSpot said "San
Andreas definitely lives up to the Grand Theft Auto name. In fact, it's
arguably the best game in the series".[14] San Andreas
also received an A rating from the 1UP.com network[34] and a 10/10
score from Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine. Common praises were made
about the game's open-endedness, the size of the state of San Andreas, and the
engaging storyline and voice acting. Most criticisms of the game stemmed from
graphical mishaps, poor character models, and low-resolution textures, as well
as various control issues, particularly with auto-aiming at enemies. Some critics
commented that while a lot of new content had been added to San Andreas,
little of it had been refined or implemented well.[35] Nevertheless,
since its release, San Andreas has been regarded to be one of the
greatest games of all time, placing at number 28 in Edge's Top 100 Games to
Play Today. Edge declared that the game remains "the ultimate
expression of freedom, before next-gen reined it all back in."[36]
Sales
By March 3, 2005, the game had sold over 12 million units
for the PlayStation 2 alone, making it the highest selling game for PlayStation 2.[37] As of September
26, 2007, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has sold 20 million units
according to Take-Two
Interactive.[38] As of March 26,
2008, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has sold 21.5 million units
according to Take-Two Interactive.[39] The Guinness
World Records 2009 Gamer's Edition list it as the most successful
game in the PlayStation 2, with 17.33 million copies sold for that console
alone, from a total of 21.5 million in all formats. In 2010, GTA: San Andreas
is the 3rd Best Selling game of all time.[22]
Hot Coffee mod
Despite the game receiving widespread acclaim for its
technical achievements and free gameplay, it also received widespread criticism
– initially due to its "gangster" elements, which include drugs,
prostitution, and murder; but later due to the discovery of disabled
interactive sex scenes, nicknamed Hot Coffee, which could be re-enabled using
third-party mods. In mid-June 2005, a software patch for the game
dubbed the "Hot
Coffee mod" was released by Patrick Wildenborg (under the
Internet alias "PatrickW"), a 38-year old modder from the
Netherlands. The name "Hot Coffee" refers to the way the released
game alludes to the unseen sex scenes. In the unmodified game, the player takes
his girlfriend to her front door and she asks him if he would like to come in
for "some coffee". He agrees, and the camera stays outside, swaying
back and forth a bit, while moaning sounds are heard.
After installing the patch, users can enter the main
character's girlfriends' houses and engage in a crudely rendered, fully clothed
or nude sexual
intercourse mini-game. The fallout from the controversy resulted in
a public response from high-ranking politicians in the United States and
elsewhere and resulted in the game's recall and re-release.
On July 20, 2005, North America's organization that
establishes content ratings for video games, the ESRB, changed the rating of the game from
Mature (M) to Adults Only (AO), making San Andreas the only
mass-released AO console game in the United States. Rockstar announced that it
would cease production of the version of the game that included the
controversial content. Rockstar gave distributors the option of applying an
Adults Only ESRB rating sticker to copies of the game, or returning them to be
replaced by versions without the Hot Coffee content. Many retailers pulled the
game off their shelves in compliance with their own store regulations that kept
them from selling AO games. That same month in Australia, the Office of Film and Literature
Classification revoked its original rating of MA15+, meaning that
the game could no longer be sold there.[40]
In August 2005, Rockstar North released an official
"Cold Coffee" patch[41] for the PC
version of the game and re-released San Andreas with the "Hot
Coffee" scenes removed (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Version 2.0),
allowing the game to return to its "M" rating.[42] The PlayStation
2 and Xbox versions have also been re-released with the "Hot Coffee"
scenes removed in the Greatest Hits Edition, the Platinum Edition, the
"GTA Trilogy Pack"[43] for Xbox and
PlayStation 2, as well as a Special Edition for PlayStation 2 that includes the
documentary film Sunday
Driver. The updated game disc has "SECOND EDITION"
text under the "M" rating logo.
On November 8, 2007 Take-Two announced a proposed
settlement to the class action litigation that had been brought against them
following the Hot Coffee controversy. If the proposed settlement is approved by
the court, neither Take-Two nor Rockstar would admit liability or wrongdoing.
Consumers would be able to swap their AO-rated copies of the game for M-rated
versions and may also qualify for a $35 cash payment upon signing a sworn
statement.[44]
A report in The New York Times on June 25, 2008
revealed that a total of 2,676 claims for the compensation package had been
filed.[45]
Alleged racism
Even though the game received great reviews for its storytelling and gameplay, it has been
criticized for its perceived racial
stereotyping.[46] The game shows
the avatar
attacking different gangs based on their racial affiliations. Also the game
strongly stereotypes each race when they are portrayed in the game. The Asians
all have slanted eyes and talk in bad English, the Mexicans all have accents
and drive low-rider, and the black
community all takes part in gangs and hates the police. Another argument is
that by playing a gang banger,
you are furthering the racial stereotypes toward the black community.[47]
For all of the evidence for the affirmation of the games
racist agenda, there is an argument claiming the opposite. The game is actually
praised because it is the first game in the series to have a non-white
protagonist and is set in a location in which community is favoured over
individualism.[48] Many minority
gamers have embraced the game because of the lack of minority protagonists in
other blockbuster games.[49]
The racial stereotyping is seen as ironic[50] by many gamers
and actually can help players from different backgrounds to relate to the
storyline. A white player can still connect to the black storyline because the
game speaks in a common way. As one Dakota[disambiguation needed
]
commentator said, “characters from vastly different backgrounds can speak to
each other without moderating their slang or tone of speech, they understand
each other completely, and make no comments whatsoever about each others
vocabulary, background or speech patterns. They just communicate as human
beings.”[51] This
stereotyping is common to all games in the Grand
Theft Auto series, but is extremely prevalent in San Andreas
because of the game's location in racially centred communities as opposed to a
large metropolitan city. The
Ohio State University’s Kiri Miller said, “[San Andreas] invites
players around the world to join game designers in collaborative performances
that comment on American pop culture and politics.”[49] That commentary
on American pop culture can be seen to unite the different races instead of
dividing them because any game player can find a character they relate to and
understand their point of view whereas in previous installments of the series,
the same sense of relationship was not necessarily evident.
The Introduction
The Introduction, an
in-engine video, was provided on a DVD with
the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Official
Soundtrack, as well as the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Special Edition re-release for the PlayStation 2. The 26-minute movie
chronicles the events leading up to the events in San Andreas and
provides insight on the development of the characters of the game, to the point
when Carl learns of his mother's death in a phone call from Sweet and returns
to Los Santos to find his life is ruined. The game incorporates locations from
the original Grand
Theft Auto III game. The PS2 release also includes a live-action
documentary on the customized-vehicle culture (featured prominently in the
game) called Sunday Driver.
Follow-ups
Rockstar released two major follow-ups to San Andreas:
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories before
retiring the GTA III continuity and relaunching with Grand
Theft Auto IV. Both games include references to characters
featured in San Andreas, with Liberty City Stories set about 6
years after the events of San Andreas (in that game, for example, radio
reporter Richard Burns, featured in news bulletins in San Andreas,
returns as a radio call-in guest). Both games feature far smaller sandbox
playing areas than San Andreas, and also eliminate gameplay elements
introduced in the earlier game, including the ability to swim (in Liberty
City Stories, but reintroduced in Vice City Stories) and climb.
Except for news bulletins, radio programming in the later games also does not
change based upon player progress. While character customization elements such
as wardrobe changes are retained, the designers of the later games eliminated
the need for the game protagonists to eat and exercise.
Los Santos, one of the three central cities in San
Andreas, will be the main location of the next game in the franchise, Grand
Theft Auto V. [52]
An unofficial content port of the game's map to the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine, along with similar ports using
assets from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand
Theft Auto III, was created by several users from the GTAForums
community,[53] which replaced
the Liberty City map in Grand Theft Auto IV with a version of the one
found in San Andreas
