rand Theft Auto sets the bar, and others aspire to it. It’s certainly not the graphics that keep people coming back, and anyone would be hard pressed to point out any one action, event, or situation that makes the game so great. What it really comes down to is the relentless fun that assaults you throughout the time you play. Nearly every moment in San Andreas is filled with excitement, humor, or intense action. It lets you try things you’d never do in real life, and always keeps you coming back to see what will happen next.

The tale of Carl Johnson is an incredibly lengthy one, and you can expect to spend dozens and dozens of hours just exploring the main story. Then there’s the skydiving, mountain biking, dating girls, working out, and swimming – the list of things you can play around with is far too long to include. Every few minutes San Andreas confronts you with another new situation to try – another challenge to overcome. Nothing is out of bounds, and if there’s something you’ve always wanted to do, there’s a good chance you’ll find a place to try it.

Even though I was constantly entertained playing through this game again on a new system, there were a couple of issues that came up. On the PS2, pop-up has become an almost accepted part of the GTA experience. While the problem seems to have been partially addressed for this port, the Xbox version still has way more draw distance issues than I’d like to see on the powerful machine. Thankfully, the PC version seems to have mostly dealt with this. Otherwise, both new formats show noticeable improvement in the graphics department, particularly in the realm of light and shadow. Then there are the controls. While mouse and keyboard are an option on PC, the whole thing feels pretty wonky (particularly driving), making a purchase of a PC dual-analog almost a necessity in my mind. Meanwhile, on the Xbox, having two of the shoulder controls remapped to the black and white buttons makes for some awkward actions. In particular, shooting while driving has become a major chore. Making up for these minor annoyances are a couple of cool additions. The more substantial of the two is the availability of custom soundtracks on both Xbox and PC. The second new feature is a replay function that lets you rewatch the last few seconds of gameplay, which is great for showing your buddies that ridiculous jump you made, or the plane crash that made you jump out of your seat.

Overall, it must be said that this is a fantastic port of a stellar game. I would have liked to see a little bit more done to take full advantage of these two more powerful systems, particularly in the control department, but it’s a very minor complaint when placed against the mammoth fun and excitement this game offers.
I don’t know that PS2 players should feel any reason to pick up these
new variants, but gamers who missed the boat should make it their highest priority to play this immediately.