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GTA San Andreas: more details emerge

Does it have motorbike cops in it?

In traditional drip feed fashion, Rockstar North has revealed a few more tantalising morsels about Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in this month's UK edition of the Official PlayStation 2 magazine.

As a childhood fan of CHiPs, there's a sense of giddy excitement to learn that there are motorbike cops this time around, which should prove to be an interesting addition to the chase element of the game, with associated ramming cops off the road and running over their bodies-type issues. Apparently the cops can even somehow latch themselves onto your car, although quite how that works is a mystery.

The article even states that certain vehicles will have hydraulics, making for some amusing stunts at the very least.

Finally, how your character looks in San Andreas will have a greater bearing this time around, with your appearance apparently having a direct effect on how the NPCs react to you - although we're not entirely sure whether the mooted ability to change your hairstyle will tie in with this. Crazy punk spikes, or crusty dreads? We can but hope.

Due for release in mid October, Rockstar North claims that it has tweaked the engine sufficiently to enable a draw distance six times greater than previously, with the usual streaming system of data off the disc meaning that only interior locations result in any of those irritating loading pauses.

With the game allegedly three times larger than its predecessors, you'd perhaps imagine there would be storage issues, but no so - San Andreas is to be shipped on just one disc - a single dual layered DVD at that.

For the full article, check out this month's Official PlayStation Magazine.