GTA: San Andreas/GTA: San Andreas Multiplayer Review

[flibberdipper]

GENERAL INTRO

Since I’ve been playing this game a lot (and someone had requested that I do a review on it) I figured I should finally get around to doing a review of GTA: San Andreas and GTA: SA MP (the multiplayer client, which allows you to go on servers and play with other people). The first part of this review will be just for GTA: San Andreas, and the second part will be for the multiplayer side of things. Both of these will be on PC, obviously.

 

 

GTA: San Andreas

INTRO

I’ve been playing this game for about 7 years, and I started out on the PS2. About 2 years ago, my dad got me the GTA Trilogy deal for Christmas (GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas) for PC. Then I was able to play it even more, and I know my way around it pretty well.

 

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay isn’t quite as good as something like GTA V, but that’s to be expected from a game that is this old. Given the time, the controls are pretty nice, the ability to switch between controls optimized for mouse/keyboard and joystick (controller) is great, and then you have the ability to change the controls to your liking (thank God). I ended up using my controller a lot, so I used the default setup for it and it was almost perfect, since it was basically like what I was used to on our PS2. The controls are just sensitive enough, but sometimes they feel a little loose, and I do kind of miss some of the auto-aiming in GTA V, since it works a lot better, and I suck at aiming with a controller.

 

STORY

Let me just give you a little bit of backdrop before I tell you the main part of the plot. The game takes place in 1992 in the state of San Andreas (kind of Rockstar’s spinoff of California and Nevada). There are three main parts to the state: Los Santos (Los Angeles), Las Venturas (Las Vegas) and San Fierro (San Francisco). There’s a military base, Area 69 (Area 51), there’s Mount Chiliad (Mount Diablo) which is about 800 meters tall, the Sherman Dam (Hoover Dam), and quite a bit more. The city itself is 13.9 square miles (36 square kilometers), which is 4 times the size of Vice City’s map.

In the game, you play Carl Johnson, CJ, who is a young gang member. He returns to San Andreas after spending 5 years in Liberty City, when his brother Sweet calls him to tell him that their mom has been killed.  After you get done in a confrontation with a couple of corrupt police officers, you return to your house, only to find that your gang has lost much of their turf, and you basically spend most of the game trying to get it back.

 

GRAPHICS

For a game that was released back in 2004, it doesn’t look that bad when you crank up the details and resolution, honestly. I wasn’t able to crank them up all the way, but even then I was still very impressed with how it looked. I honestly thought it was released after 2004, since they looked so good.

 

SOUNDTRACK

This game does have a pretty good soundtrack. My favorite station is Radio X, which is why I provided a YouTube video with that radio station, if you desired to listen to it while you read this review.

 

EXTRAS

There was also an in-engine video, The Introduction, which was provided on a DVD with the soundtrack for the game. I did a little bit of looking on YouTube, and found the video (from Rockstar) instantly. I put the video at the end of this part of the review. The mini-movie is about 20 minutes long, and it shows the events that led up to the events of San Andreas and provides some insight on the development of the characters up to the point that CJ finds out that his mother has been killed and returns to Los Santos to find that his life is completely ruined. The mini-movie also shows some places from GTA III which is kinda cool.

 

SHOULD YOU GET THIS GAME?

If you like GTA, yes. If you like to kill people, yes. If you like to get in 6 star cop chases with a ton of weapons and just blow the living shit out of cops, yes. This is one of the best games I have played (GTA V and Vice City are still a touch ahead, IMO), and even though it may not have the best story or mechanics, I can still play this game a lot and not get bored. I do have 100% completion in the game (finally), since I was able to play it for that long and not get totally bored with it.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daw8xhaGj2s

 

 

GTA: SAN ANDREAS MULTIPLAYER

INTRO

Once I found out about this, I became instantly hooked. There are quite a bit of servers that you can choose from, and most of them are pretty good. The UI is pretty simple, and a lot can be done to the servers to make them more fun or interesting. Here’s an example of what the UI looks like.

 

As you can tell, there are 3 sections. One is for servers that you have added to your favorites, so that you can get to them a LOT quicker. Then there is the internet tab, which is basically a list of all the servers that you can possibly access. Then there is the hosted tab, which if I remember right is the tab where you can see all of the servers that you are hosting.

 

GAMEPLAY

There isn’t that much that can be said for this, since there are so many different servers that have different modes. For example, there is the SACNR server (San Andreas Cops N Robbers), in which you can play as a few different types of characters. You can play as a civilian, and raise hell as you rob banks and casinos, grow drugs, sell drugs, become a mass transport driver, and get a job. You could play as a cop/undercover CIA agent/army dude, and crack down on the civilians. Or you could become a medic and go around trying to heal people. Then there are the freeplay servers, in which you can basically do whatever the hell you please. There is also a “DayZ” server, in which you basically fight to stay alive. And there are roleplay servers as well, in which you basically try to live a normal life.

 

SHOULD YOU DOWNLOAD THIS “MOD?”

If you don’t mind tinkering around a little bit, yes. All you have to do is download a patch to patch your game to version 1, and then install the client. Then you can go around and look at all of the servers. It’s usually a lot of fun if you go on the right server, and you can really get into it (like I have). But I think I can safely guarantee that you will probably like this, since it is usually a ton of fun to play.

[Askew]

AWWW yiss im'a read the shit outa this sucka, we were only talking about this the other day and mcclelland put in work.

 

AND you chose a radio station, ballin', radio X is entering my ears!

[flibberdipper]

AWWW yiss im'a read the shit outa this sucka, we were only talking about this the other day and mcclelland put in work.

 

AND you chose a radio station, ballin', radio X is entering my ears!

I try to deliver.

[HannahLewis]

Good review man! I played it on PS2 and PC as well, both 100% completion  

[Juggernautilus]

Radio X master race! \m/

[Askew]

Review is good man, I have the game on Steam and I want to play the multiplayer, can you post some links to get me started on the trail and maybe a mini-tut if you have the time, no probs if you don't.

[flibberdipper]

Good review man! I played it on PS2 and PC as well, both 100% completion

Thanks.

 

Radio X master race! \m/

Right on! SAGE 4 LYFE!

 

Review is good man, I have the game on Steam and I want to play the multiplayer, can you post some links to get me started on the trail and maybe a mini-tut if you have the time, no probs if you don't.

Sadly, it will not work with the Steam version. You'd have to go on eBay or something and buy a DVD for it, then use this site to get started.

[Askew]

Sadly, it will not work with the Steam version. You'd have to go on eBay or something and buy a DVD for it, then use this site to get started.

 

Oh that fucking blows... I own this game on PS2, I've owned it on Xbox original, I own it on the Xbox 360 marketplace, and Steam.

 

But no workie? Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

 

gaben has failed me!

[flibberdipper]

Oh that fucking blows... I own this game on PS2, I've owned it on Xbox original, I own it on the Xbox 360 marketplace, and Steam.

 

But no workie? Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

 

gaben has failed me!

Tell me about it. I wanted to do it on my netbook when I still had XP on it, and then I found out that it wouldn't work with my No-CD patch, so I had to give in and use an external optical drive. The load times were so good and then they took a dump.

[Askew]

Tell me about it. I wanted to do it on my netbook when I still had XP on it, and then I found out that it wouldn't work with my No-CD patch, so I had to give in and use an external optical drive. The load times were so good and then they took a dump.

 

What happens if you try to mount the ISO using a virtual drive?

[flibberdipper]

What happens if you try to mount the ISO using a virtual drive?

It might work if you install it from the virtual drive.

[Fuzzy112]

Sadly, it will not work with the Steam version. You'd have to go on eBay or something and buy a DVD for it, then use this site to get started.

Install Multi Theft Auto San Andreas (another flavour of Multiplayer) and it will automaticly patch the Steam version with a compatible exe, then SA-MP will work aswell. And in theory you haven't even downloaded any cracks or such.

[Xquisite]

@tmcclelland455

 

DUDE!
I used to play this a lot, and even script for it. I learned programming by coding the servers, making new maps, functions, filterscripts, etc.
And its quite fun too. 

The gamemode I used to play and script was on "Trucking" and the base of it was "PPC Trucking". 

[flibberdipper]

@tmcclelland455

 

DUDE!

I used to play this a lot, and even script for it. I learned programming by coding the servers, making new maps, functions, filterscripts, etc.

And its quite fun too. 

The gamemode I used to play and script was on "Trucking" and the base of it was "PPC Trucking". 

Cool. Time to go play some more, eh?

[Xquisite]

Cool. Time to go play some more, eh?

Sure

[Askew]

@tmcclelland455

 

Well what do you know I have a cupboard in my room where I keep old PC games/console games and I went in there to find my Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate retail box to see if the key would activate on Origin (to my amazement it did and it's downloading now ).

 

I also found this in there, completely forgot I had it.

 

[flibberdipper]

@tmcclelland455

 

Well what do you know I have a cupboard in my room where I keep old PC games/console games and I went in there to find my Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate retail box to see if the key would activate on Origin (to my amazement it did and it's downloading now ).

 

I also found this in there, completely forgot I had it.

 

 

Kewl. I like the artwork on the Trilogy disks better though.

[Askew]

Kewl. I like the artwork on the Trilogy disks better though.

 

Not seen 'em.