Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Preview
It's a "Blowout!" - yes, our tyres have exploded and apparently this means we have lots of new information. Trailers (yes, plural), new shots, co-op details, voice cast exposed, big guns, pedestrian interactions, soundtrack line-up, and on it goes...
Order yours now from Simply Games.
Judging by the first reviews of GTA: San Andreas that sprang up overnight, US critics are sparing no superlatives in their search for weighty recommendations. We've already seen one review that proclaims it's one-hundredth short of perfection (which is bound to elicit a call from Rockstar complaining that it didn't get top marks, if our experience with Vice City was anything to go by), and the others have decided that the game's minor flaws - including slowdown, a bit of AI oddness and some camera concerns - simply can't do enough to detract from the game's epic brilliance.
Lights, camera, two-player action

Naturally we'll let you know if we agree with that assessment in due course, but in the meantime Rockstar has been piling on the pre-release fanfare, adding another couple of excitable passages to its growing Book Of San Andreas, revealing details of the high grade weapons and how CJ never shuts the hell up, and has also revealed who's been in the recording booth this time around - for voice acting and musical performances - as well as releasing a 'Homecoming' trailer, and a host of smaller movies showing off jumps, helicopter crashes and more besides.
You'll obviously want to see all that. The first thing we mentioned, the Homecoming trailer, was released last week and you can get hold of it from Eurofiles here (10MB). However the various other movies are direct-feed snippets from a number of different sections of the game designed to have you salivating a bit more. We've taken the liberty of zipping those up for you and putting them up here (23MB in total), and we'd recommend giving them a watch because, let's face it, you want to do the things they do. So do we.
We've also learnt about the game's two-player co-operative options. Having rescued and befriended a young lady at a particular point in the story, it then becomes possible to play co-operatively - one of you handling CJ, and the other tackling the bonny lass. When you go to her house you can plug in another pad and the two of you can roam around relatively freely, switching between perspectives, and one of you can even ride shotgun when you go out for a drive, which certainly adds something to drive-by shootings as one of you handles the wheel, and the other has a targeting reticule to wave around. A great way to make use of the eager friend who'll inevitably be parked admiringly at your side when San Andreas gets home from the shops this Friday...
The main players

Fortunately you won't need a friend at your side to enjoy the music or the voice cast. The full soundtrack is remarkably vast - needless to say really, given that we already know that November 23rd will see the release of an eight-disc soundtrack set. In fact, it's so vast that if we tried to include it all on this page it would probably break the entire Internet. Formatting it already broke our fingers. So, you'll have to head here for the full listing. The voice cast, however, we can happily slot into place. We already know that central protagonist Carl "CJ" Johnson will be voiced by LA rapper Young Maylay, but anybody expecting a selection of unknowns to fill out the rest of the cast is going to be, well, pleasantly surprised at the names Rockstar's managed to lure into the booth.
The first familiar voice you'll pick out from the crowd is none other than Samuel L. Jackson, as corrupt Los Santos policeman Officer Tenpenny, who along with his partner (voiced by Sean Penn's brother Chris) introduces himself by dragging CJ under his thumb the minute he lands in Los Santos. We won't spoil the introduction, but suffice to say Officer Tenpenny is very much drawn from the Jules Winnfield school of hard man. Other cast members include James Woods, William Fichtner (yes, the return of Ken Rosenberg), Peter Fonda, David Cross and even drug addled former Happy Mondays 24-hour party person Shaun Ryder, who plays a character called 'Maccer' - someone we're very much looking forward to freaky dancin' with in due course...
Eagle, um, 'eared' gamers may also be able to pick out the likes of Bijou Phillips, Ice-T, The Game, Yo-Yo, Kid Frost, Big Boy and other rappers and musicians. Oh, and keep an ear on the DJs marshalling the game's numerous radio stations; amongst their ranks are George Clinton, Chuck D, Andy Dick, and even Guns 'N Roses frontman Axl Rose...
Guns, lots of guns

Obviously we've all come to expect pistols, shotguns, Uzis, AK-47s and plenty of other hardware from Grand Theft Auto games, so this time Rockstar North has had to be a bit more inventive with its top-end gunnery. For a start there's the Tec-9, a cheap sub-machinegun, which admittedly doesn't sound that exciting until you consider that CJ can actually wield a pair of them. Up the man's weapons skill level to Hitman level and he'll be able to walk around and target at the same time and later automatically make use of two at a time, sharing ammo between them and effectively doubling his rate of fire. You'll also need to up his weapons skill if you want to make the most of the Desert Eagle - a proficient gunner will find it's more accurate and reloads quickly as well as packing a .50 calibre punch.
Moving further up the chain you'll soon get your hands on the M4. The M4 is a modified M-16 with a shortened stock and barrel, and it's particularly good at things like targeting gas tanks. One of the things you can do with San Andreas' rejigged aiming system is to strafe, roll, auto target proficiently and even manually adjust targeting with the right analogue stick, and unsurprisingly there are plenty of explosives waiting to react to the lead of the M4; you can even roll left and right while using it. Watch out for it when you start to gain access to everyone's favourite purveyor of weaponry, Ammu-Nation.
And if that's still a bit too conventional for you, keep your eyes open for a heat-seeking rocket-propelled grenade. The Stinger. A wonderful way to deal with pesky road users, but also a perfect way to shoot down helicopters, jets and prop planes. And if that doesn't suit your purpose, how about a Vulcan Mini-Gun? This one's so ridiculously big and powerful that the police in San Andreas won't even bother showing up; they'll just send SWAT in to take the bullets. Spinning it up alone with R1 is bound to give people a wobbly moment, and all hell breaks loose when you start to tug on L1 and the bullets start to spray.
Crowd control

With the game now just days away from release in Europe, one of Rockstar's final tactics in boosting awareness has been to badmouth Tommy Vercetti. Eh? Well, no, they're not saying that Ray Liotta's memorable turn as Vice City's up-and-coming mafioso was anything less than razor sharp, but the folks at Rockstar are eager to point out that Carl Johnson has a lot more to say for himself. Around 4,200 different things, actually, not including 3,500 scripted comments and the lines that make up the game's two-hours-plus of cut sequences. CJ's voice actor Young Maylay was understandably rather busy with that lot.
But he does a good job. Or a bad job. It all depends on your reaction. The residents of San Andreas have a lot to say for themselves as it is - regularly lapsing into conversations amongst themselves which the player can eavesdrop on just by walking past - but if they happen to lock our little anti-hero in conversation it's no longer just a question of sitting around and waiting to hear about it. By pressing left or right on the D-pad CJ can respond negatively or positively, and this can be as useful or as dangerous as it sounds. To give you an example, at one point fairly early on CJ is tasked with pinching a sound system from a Los Santos beach party; he does this by first sweet-talking the young lady minding the sound truck, before being invited inside and then making off with it as soon as he's had a chance to kick her out of the side door...
CJ's mood also plays a part in how he talks. It all depends on how you go about developing his character. If you eat too much and he turns into a bit of a porky pie, he'll sound one way, whereas if he's trying to sweet-talk a young lady he'll sound completely different. He can also be pissed off, wisecracking, and plenty of other variations. We're not sure what happens if you start manually shooting young men in the backside, but knowing Rockstar it won't be without appropriate punctuation...
Not long now...
Of course, with the game already on store shelves in the States, CJ and his friends won't be the only ones talking about what happens in San Andreas. You will be too. We haven't played it for that long yet - relative to the size of the game anyway - but even now it's hard to see how the game won't be essential to everybody with a PlayStation 2 under their television. It does everything its predecessors did, and, despite our initial concerns, it does do a stupendous amount of other, new things too. There are rhythm-action low-riders, gang wars, camper van jumps, bike chases, street races, burglaries and even a fairly well developed stealth system that has CJ creeping around slitting throats and making use of a silenced pistol. If GTA III was a sandbox full of toys, San Andreas is the Sahara desert with the contents of every major toy store in the world dumped on top of it. Polish your bandanas, chaps; it's just around the corner...
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is due out in Europe this Friday, October 29th. Expect a full review in due course, and don't forget to check out our new screenshots, the 'Homecoming' trailer and a host of other smaller movies focusing on jumps and other antics hosted on Eurofiles today.
You may also like...
-
Happy Action Theater Review
-
Motorola Xoom 2 Tablet Reviews
-
ModNation Racers: Road Trip Review
-
Sony confirms PS Vita 1st Party digital only game prices
-
Call of Duty: Black Ops has best game ending ever, says Guinness World Records
-
Sony explains PlayStation Vita game price strategy
-
Mass Effect 3 Demo: The First 20 Minutes
-
Why Devs Owe You Nothing
-
DICE working on multiple Battlefield 3 fixes
-
3DS Ambassador Super Mario Bros. game updated
-
EGTV: Eurogamer playtests PlayStation Vita
-
Rockstar mulling LA Noire 2 development
-
Halo 4 Master Chief action figure flaunts new suit design
-
The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition Xbox 360 trailer
-
Mojang: no plans for Minecraft on Vita
-
Tim Schafer: publishers aren't evil
-
Apple begins Foxconn factories inspections
-
App of the Day: Monkey Bump
-
Face-Off: Final Fantasy 13-2
-
Digital Foundry: PS3 Skyrim Lag Fixed?
-
Who Killed Rare?
-
Fallout: New Vegas dev asks fans what game they would like it to Kickstart
-
UK Top 40: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning beats Darkness 2
-
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Review
-
Sony's $50m Vita marketing campaign targets PS3 owners









Comments (71) Latest comment 7 years ago
Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
I very much doubt it'll be essential.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
I love the fact that in the 3 huge articles I've read on GTA:SA today I've learned about several new gameplay things in each, that just goes to show me the scale of the game and make my mouth water in anticipation
Comment below viewing threshold Show
only conclusion: GTA = Baldur's Gate!
looks great.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
So yeah, Xmas next year
Comment below viewing threshold Show
So the 2-player isn't just limited to the "rampages" then, is that what you're saying?
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Aaaah, who am I fooling, the Mrs will get this + a PS2 as a Christmas request from me.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Oooooooonly kidding.
/watches clock.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
2 reasons.
1) I dont have a ps2
2) I've only really just dented Vice City
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Theres also supposed to be oysters you can swim underwater to find.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
/sneaks a look
No! I won't read! Nope.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Gloating ends
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Even though you had fuck all to do with it.
When you look in the mirror in the morning, is that the kind of thing you say to convince yourself that your existence was worthwhile?
Boy. That's some claim to fame. You gonna put those words on your tombstone?
"Here lies turt. At one time he lived in about the same area as those guys what made that there GTA game. No, REALLY."
Comment below viewing threshold Show
While I'm not trying to pretend to have any claim to fame, I did notice in the credits for GTA:VC (or possible III), that they credit a bar that is just down the road from my sister's place in Edinburgh. Very nice place too! Never seen anyone that looks like a game developer in there, though...
Max
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Best. Typo. Eveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer! :-D
Comment below viewing threshold Show
So what do game developers look like???
Comment below viewing threshold Show
one...
side...
I can get out of.
Shit.
Figures.
Joking aside, it has nothing to do with sides of beds, as it happens. I just hate this kind of tub-thumping, "My Country Pisses In Your Countries Chips" mentality (America! Yes, you boy! I'm talking about you).
Like, what the hell does it really have to do with anything? If you're sad enough to have to rely on the place you were born (heads up for you here, turt: last I checked, YOU HAD NO SAY IN WHERE THIS WOULD BE) as some sort of measure of how well you're doing in life, well...
you already lost.
I could understand if we DID have some sort of say, you know? Like:
"Where were you born?"
"I chose Canada."
"Nice one."
"I know. You?"
"Wales."
"Ooooh. unlucky."
BUT.
WE.
DON'T.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Oh my....
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
/sob
/sob
/more sobbing
It's coming out on PC and maybe even X-Box Yeah, that's right. Now I remember. A better version without slowdown. You never know, online mods. Full-scale riots anyone?
/evil grin
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
I'm sorry I got at you now. No, really. I feel for you.
It appears the fact that you were born in the same place as the developers of this game IS all you have going for you.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
haha i love that one.
seriously though why is everyone having a go at turt. the poor fella was just pointing out that there are a few good / ok development studios up there in scotland where he happens to live. it's like if i said i live in the north east and there's a fair bit of talent here, or possibly like saying i live just round the corner from pinewood studios, this or that film was made there. so lay off him will 'ya.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
As it were. (Ahem)
It's just his post come across like some sort of yank drivel "We ROCK!" kinda thing (but with a different accent).
(Though I would still like to know what he meant by: "Whats that you say? England? no no son, thats where the bad people go."
This sort of thing drives me up the wall. Like I said, so what? Get out there, make a name for yourself, then come back and gloat. By all means. If you want to. You're still a tit for gloating, mind, but at least then you'd have something to gloat about.
Don't go gloating about something a bunch of other dudes did just because you live near them. Christ.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
I was the one who started on about England vs Scotland.
I was the one with issues regarding this.
Are you even paying attention to anything that is going on here?
You just accused me of the two main things I pointed out you were doing in your original post.
If you ARE proud of where you are from, you best just shut it now; you're doing nothing for the image of the Scottish here, dude.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
I was really glad of that, and was amazed no other site thought to mention the XBox Live implementation (especially in the lobby area) was different.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
im the invisible man duh duh,
incredible how you can.... read right through me
LOL
after your first 3 comment most people probably put you on ignore. as for why it's coming out in the us first. probably better supply and distibution chains and they have more printing factories over there
Comment below viewing threshold Show
the answers to your questions are:
1. Yes, sort of.
2. No.
3. Probably not.
4. Yay! (though it was a comment rather than question).
Sincerely,
pauleyc
/edited for clarification
Comment below viewing threshold Show
As a perpetual lurker on these boards, it always seems to me that when there's a thread surrounding a popular game, two or more people invariably decend into a childish rant at one another whilst the rest of us have to sift past them to get to the worthwhile comments. Show some restraint guys.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
That's not fair. Scotland's beautiful, and the people are great. And turt had a great point, Scotland is an up and coming place for game development, thanks to great universities, low property prices, and dedicated workforce.
So what do game developers look like???
Heh, consider my comment withdrawn; having thought about it any number of the people I've seen there could have worked for R*.
Max
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Well no, as a matter of fact it isn't. Racism doesn't mean what you imply at all.
Also, there are any number of examples in GTA3 and GTAVC of non-white NPCs who are obviously not in any of the groups you mention.
And I'd also challenge you about saying that the Hispanic-Americans in the game look dumb, in what way do they look "dumb"? - to me they look like any of the other NPCs
I await your reply with interest.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Thing is, I'm a bit strapped for cash at the moment and I haven't finished Burnout3 yet, so it would be sensible to wait another two weeks.
Then again, who am I kidding, being sensible will be extremely hard come Friday.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
/faces corner and hangs head in shame
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Luv you!
Comment below viewing threshold Show
I'm still enjoying Burnout 3, but I have Driv3r, Simpsons Hit & Run, The Getaway and True Crime lying around, so that might be a possibility to get rid of them, thus financing San Andreas.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
just a bit of cheek. took the mic out of the english and scots in one fowl swoop (i'm half english and most of my mates are jocks by the way) but i used the "c" word. it was all in jest but i guess it's not appreciated. eiyther that or i never hit submit!
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
I see.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
I laugh in the face of the Xbox fanboys who slate this game without ever playing it. This is the best non-footie game I've played all year (it might not look as nice, but it knocks the shit out of Doom 3). This will do me nicely until FM2005 is released on PC.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
I've checked and there are something like 15 game shops between work and home, one of em must be itching to start selling soon!
Comment below viewing threshold Show
/ points up thead a but...
i think argos are
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Maybe I should have held on - I'm sure that someone will offer the new PS2 console with a cheap/free SA bundled.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Ha ha haha ha! You got kicked off the threads, you wank bucket!
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
/coat
Comment below viewing threshold Show