Grove Street for Life

Let me start by saying that I am a huge fan of all the new generation grand theft auto games. So naturally I had high expectations for Rockstars new car GTA: San Andreas. When San Andreas came out I saw that a lot of reviewers were claiming it was easily superior to its predecessors. Before I had played the game myself I found it hard to believe that it could actually be that much better then Vice city (unless of course it had oompa loompas or heaps of llamas, and therefore it would be quite understandable why the game was a lot better then its predecessors). So I had to see for myself, if this game truly was worth of the claim “best GTA game ever”. My original impressions were; “hang on this doesn’t have oompa loompas”, “and I haven’t ran into any llamas yet either”, “but it does make up for its lack of enslaved midget race, with a cool intro scene”, “and wow I feel like I really am part of the grove street hood”. If I wanted to I could write this whole review with quotes of my own thoughts of the game, but I don’t think it would be appropriate to share my thoughts with the world in that form, because I think a lot of strange stuff.

Anyhoo, on with the review
Basically I’m going to assume that you have played or at least seen someone else play one of the last two grand theft auto games (if you haven’t then you should and if you don’t then maybe I will enslave you to the midget slave race of the oompa loompas where you have to make chocolate treats all day long for that evil slave master Mr. Wonker). So assuming that you know what the old GTA games are like I can discuss only the advances that San Andreas had made on its predecessors. So basically at a deep down, atoms and molecules sort of level the game is essentially the same concept. Hijack cars, shoot people, do missions, pass missions, do harder missions for someone else. Repeat. The essential change to the game is that the story to the game is more alive, and you feel like deep down you might really be gangster African American. The game involves you more through some brilliant voice acting (Samuel L Jackson lends his talent as the bad dude copper) and some great plot work in the story. You will really end up hating your enemy gangs and before too long you will find yourself randomly yelling out on public transport saying “GROVE STREET FOR LIFE”.

Who would of thunk that riding a push bike could be fun?
So I think I’ve established that I found the bestest (not actually a word but it should be) part of this game to be the story and involvement of the game, but I would also like to part to my humble readers some other bits that helped make the game truly enjoyable compared to the previous GTA games. Firstly and Fore mostly I would like to say that somehow the genius programmers have made it so you don’t have to go through a half minute long loading screen every time you go to a different city or area. It’s bloody great. San Andreas is this massive game with three full blown cities, with a few small towns in between with farm houses to boot. And yet you never ever have to see another load screen once you’re into the game. This makes it a truly enjoyable to play. The game also has its usually addition of vehicles to get around San Andreas in, the most notable and ingenious however is the human powered push bikes you can kindly borrow from people. You will be surprised at how much fun these are to get around town with, with there excellent maneuverability and their ability to get through small gaps they are a great choice to chase down unsuspecting enemy gangs. Another thing that I must say I really really like about this game its addition of more RPG type elements, you now have a list of attributes which you can get CJ (thats you) to improve. Such as your muscles and how hot the ladies thing you are to name a few.

To sum up
I know that there is plenty more to say about this game and I could even go on to talk/write about the differences of this Xbox version of the game to its other counterparts. But I’m not going to. What you should be aware of by now is that this game is a worthwhile investment for any Xbox owner, it shouldn’t matter if you have precedent of any other gaming genre, and everyone should be able to find something in GTA: San Andreas to feed there gaming hunger.

THE END