Grand Theft Auto game comes out in October, but only on the
PlayStation 2. Xbox and PC owners have to wait a half a year or so for their
versions of the game, and each always has the potential to be better than the
original release. That's saying something, because we're already talking about
one of the best games of 2004 and the best game in the Grand Theft Auto series.
Once again, the wait is over, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is now
available on the PC and Xbox. While both versions have aspects that are better
than the outstanding PS2 game, visual weirdness on the Xbox and a handful of
technical issues on the PC prevent either version from being the clear-cut best
of the bunch.
The PC version comes on DVD only and is packaged with a
fully bound book that serves as the manual. It's definitely some of the coolest
PC game packaging around. This version also has the potential to be the
best-looking version of the game by a long shot. Support for higher resolutions
makes the textures and characters look sharper and much better than either of
the console versions. There's a draw distance slider that, when turned all the
way up, almost totally eliminates the draw-in and fogging that's become
synonymous with the series. Your Grove Street home looks much more like a
run-down South Central neighborhood when you can see more of its surroundings.
But all this graphical quality is offset by some serious problems with the
sound. Testing on three different machines that exceed the recommended system
specs got us three results. On one machine, we didn't experience any audio
glitches. On another, the audio simply cut out a lot, leaving you to drive
around with only music to keep you company. It's tough to play when you can't
hear your mission descriptions. On the third machine, loading up a save game
caused a loud grating noise--which sounded like the bike-riding audio mixed
with a helicopter--to scream out from the middle of the Grove. We had to hop in
a car and drive away from the area to make the noises stop. Also, the cutscenes
occasionally desynched from the audio, making the lip movement appear to be way
off.
Both versions have custom soundtrack support, though using
it robs you of the great DJs that populate the game's radio stations. You'll
still hear a lot of the funnier ads on the custom station, though.
Overall, each version of the game has its share of
differences and minor issues, but the core game is fantastic, regardless of the
platform you play it on. While the list of games that can list GTA as an
influence grows longer and longer, there's still nothing quite like the real
thing, and the "bigger, better" approach to sequel design definitely
works in San Andreas' favor.
Just when you think you're getting used to gang warfare,
everything goes sour. We're certainly not interested in spoiling the game's
many interesting plot twists, so we'll leave out the details. But suffice it to
say you'll eventually need to get the heck out of Los Santos. You wind up in
the country outside the city, where you'll encounter many more great characters
and officially embark on your quest to put right what's gone wrong. Once you
get out of Los Santos, you won't really have to worry about gang warfare for a
while, and here the game settles down to present a more GTA-like feel.
Processor: Pentium 4
RAM: 512 MB
Graphics: 128MB
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