Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Eight months after its PS2 release, the latest installment in the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series has finally reached the PC.

Building on its two popular predecessors (GTA3 and Vice City), San Andreas is the most ambitious project to date, featuring a game world five times larger than that of Vice City.

If guns, violence and bad language don't impress you, look away now. Set in the early 1990s, the game revolves around Carl Johnson, a man whose family once ruled the fictional city of Los Santos.

After hearing of his mother's murder, he returns to find his family in disarray. It's up to you to save them from falling apart while regaining control of the streets.

There are so many improvements over Vice City it's difficult to mention them all. As before, much of your time will be spent driving, and developer Rockstar has worked hard to improve the already impressive in-car experience.

In Vice City you could smash your way through traffic and expect other drivers to accept it. In San Andreas, it's a different matter. Dent the bodywork of a proud car owner and they'll chase you down the highway to get revenge.

But this brings us to one of the few areas that disappoints: artificial intelligence. Drivers trying to chase you appear to have little sense, often slamming into walls simply because they have a bent fender. If they do catch up with you they offer little resistance to a beating.

Similarly, even when playing advanced missions, most enemies appear to have no knowledge or care for tactics. They'll simply charge at you, which makes it simple to pick them off from a distance.

San Andreas also lets itself down with some rather average graphics. There are no advanced 3D techniques to speak of, which is disappointing in a game with this much time and money invested in it.

Textures are very basic and cut-scenes are played out by rather blocky characters. This, in the main, is down to the GTA series being developed with the relatively sluggish PS2 in mind.

Other aspects of its presentation are top notch though, with a star voiceover cast including Samuel L Jackson and James Woods making amends for the poor graphics.

Although it has some minor niggles, San Andreas still deserves full marks. The cleverly designed missions and sheer enormity of the game ensure that it will keep you amused for months on end.

System requirements:

• 1GHz processor
• 256MB RAM
• 3.6GB hard disk
• 64MB graphics card

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