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.
Control in the PC version is full of options. You can decide to hook up a dual analog gamepad so that you can play it just like the console versions, or you can instead opt for mouse and keyboard control. Either method works, though we had several cases where the game would simply stop responding to any mouse input until we alt tabbed out of the game, moved the mouse, and then jumped back in. This isn't exactly the sort of thing you want to have happen in the middle of a shoot out. Mouse control also removes the lock on aspect of the targeting, giving you easy access to manual targeting. The refined control the mouse gives you seems like an unfair advantage at times, because it's very easy to rack up one shot kills by aiming for the head. If you have a smooth mouse hand, even the roughest firefights are really basic provided the mouse doesn't die on you.
This latest installment takes place in 1992 in the West Coast themed state of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. GTA San Andreas is an island containing three cities. You'll begin the game in the city of Los Santos, which is based roughly on Los Angeles and consists of a mixture of ritzy downtown areas and the gangland ghettos of South Central. San Fierro is based on San Francisco, reproducing the real city's hilly terrain and ever present fog. The game's third city is Las Venturas, which is a great take on early '90s Las Vegas, complete with a strip full of casinos and the surrounding desert. While one to one measurements against previous games in the series are difficult in practice, San Andreas definitely feels like a much, much larger place than Vice City ever did. But at the same time, the growth is handled intelligently. There are plenty of things to do both in and out of the cities, which makes all this real estate matter. Carl Johnson is going (going) back (back) to Cali (Cali).
While Grand Theft Auto III was inspired by movies like The Godfather and Vice City took several pages from the Scarface playbook, San Andreas draws its inspiration from the ghetto and gangsta struggle films of the early '90s. Movies like Menace II Society and Boyz N the Hood are the clear influences here. In San Andreas, you play the role of Carl "CJ" Johnson. The game opens with Carl returning to Los Santos after spending the last five years in GTA III's Liberty City. But his homecoming isn't a happy one: He's returning home because his mother has been killed. Carl isn't on the ground for more than an hour before he's picked up by a pair of crooked cops and thrown right back into the middle of the street life he left Los Santos to avoid.
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.
Like the previous entries in the series, San Andreas features a fairly linear story that takes you through the game's areas. You'll start off restricted to Los Santos something the story justifies by claiming that an earthquake has taken out the bridges and roads that link Los Santos to the surrounding areas but it doesn't take long to unlock the other two areas. The game also throws in some pretty great surprises in the form of characters from earlier GTAs. These characters tie the GTA games together really nicely, so while San Andreas feels pretty different from the other offerings in the series, it still feels like you're playing in the same universe.
The Grand Theft Auto series has always been rather stylish, visually speaking. Vice City did an amazing job of capturing both the look of Miami and the feel of the mid '80s. San Andreas has to live up to that standard while creating four unique landscapes: one for each city and one for the countryside between cities. Fortunately, the game does this very, very well. The parts of Los Santos that you call home have a very realistic ghetto look that fits perfectly. The other cities also look a lot like the towns they're modeled after, but the most dramatic difference occurs when you leave town. The countryside is unlike anything you've seen in previous GTA games. The winding country roads, the small towns that pepper the landscape, the plethora of off road action, and the abundance of nice looking foliage make these areas look pretty amazing. Outside of Las Venturas, the area is much more desertlike, which also looks really great.
The architecture looks great, and the game has some new effects to match. The old "trails effect" from Vice City and GTA III is history. Now, you'll see everything pretty clearly, and when you're in warm areas, the game even has a nice heat shimmer effect. When you're moving at or near top speed in a car, the screen blurs a bit, which does a fantastic job of conveying an extreme sense of speed. Also, the game takes on a grainy, filtered look when it rains, which also looks really good. The character models throughout San Andreas look great as well, though some aspects, like the characters' blocky hands, look a little weird at times. A widescreen display really helps you see more of the action, which is handy in a shoot out.
The sounds of San Andreas are, as you'd expect, many and varied. The game does a really strong job with things like engine noises. Vehicles like jets, fast cars, and motorcycles all deliver deep, throaty tones that make them sound as fast and powerful as they really are. Gunfire sounds about like you'd expect, and the surround support does a fine job of positioning the audio properly. Additionally, you'll surely notice how the quality of the voice work has improved since Vice City.
One neat thing is that the radio sounds differently depending on which vehicle you're in. So, for example, the radio will sound appropriately tinny on a dirt bike. You can even go purchase a bass boost for your car at the mod shop, but considering the disposable nature of vehicles in the Grand Theft Auto games, we recommend you save your money. Also, it's worth noting that the radio stations are the same, regardless of where in the gameworld you are. It would have been neat to have seen some of your station selections change as you drive from one city to the next. You'll hear some familiar voices on the radio, including Chuck D as the Forth Right MC.
The DJs on the radio do a good job, and the radio commercials feature the same style of tongue-in cheek humor you've come to expect from the series. Some celebrities even make appearances as DJs. For instance, Public Enemy's Chuck D plays the DJ of the classic rap station, George Clinton mans the funk station, and Axl Rose turns in a low-key but appropriate performance as the DJ of the classic rock station. The talk radio is, for the most part, pretty good. The most impressive thing about the talk station is that the news breaks update as you play the game. So you'll hear updates about, for example, a "mysterious" ship full of dead bodies found floating out at sea shortly after that swimming mission of yours. Lazlow returns with some great "celebrity" interviews, but you'll also hear a sports show, a matchmaking program, and a gardening show, whose host is played by the never subtle Andy Dick.
Usually, when a game tries to do a million different things, it's an overambitious hodgepodge that can't manage to get its different parts down cold. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas has you doing many, many more things than any previous GTA game, and while some of them do work a little better than others, the strength of all these different elements too many to count makes for a powerful package that doesn't disappoint, despite the extremely high standards that Grand Theft Auto established and that San Andreas needed to live up to. With its strong story, well written dialogue, terrific voice cast, impressive graphics, and extremely entertaining and varied gameplay, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas is a stupendous thrill ride that shouldn't be missed.
City Lights, the GTA version:
The first thing GTA San Andreas amazes you with is the impressive size of the universe where Carl Johnson aka CJ will have to struggle with the perils of a gangster's life. If you thought that GTA San Andreas will be just a sequel to GTA III or to Vice City, after the first moments spent in the game, you will think the previous titles were more like beta versions compared to Rockstar is offering now.
Each of the cities that make the GTA San Andreas universe: Los Santos, Las Ventura and San Fierro are larger than the famous Liberty City and this is just one of the concepts employed by Rockstar to make San Andreas a better game than its predecessors. Obviously, the larger the universe the more missions and challenges you will have.
Moreover, if you thought GTA Vice City had a wide variety of vehicles, know that in GTA San Andreas you will be able to take even bicycles, or any others means of transportation which will ensure you the supremacy of the city.
Although the graphics is a little bit old-fashioned, and actually this one of the reproaches that can be brought to this game, my opinion is that is preferable to have continuity rather than wait endlessly for bits of the game to load.
But don't get me wrong, the graphics might not be state of the art, but Rockstar did an excellent job in offering breath taking landscapes, preferring to go for more subtle colors and a satirical presentation of famous locations from Los Angeles, Las Vegas or San Francisco rather than a high accuracy of the details.
If you were accustomed to play HL2 or WoW at humongous resolutions, where every detail was carefully depicted, then GTA San Andreas might be a disappointment to you. But look on the bright side, you don't need the last hardware configurations to make CJ run from point A to point B.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Carl Johnson:
Another important change is related to the main character. If up until now, the GTA series employed Caucasian ferocious males with some Italian influences, San Andreas proposes something completely new: an Afro-American hero, CJ.
This change has a lot of consequences related to gang members and their censorship free language. After a few hours of playing, the coarse language and the idiosyncrasies of the black people, not to mention the Spanish bits which are delightful, will certainly get into your system.
CJ can be customized in every way: from the type of cloths to the number of tattoos and bling blings. And our hero is not some sort of super villain, he's you ordinary gangster who has to be fed and taken to the gym to stay in shape.
Rockstar has decided that the times of superheroes is over and that only practice makes perfect, so if you want have a hero that is able to take down every enemy, to drive like a race pilot, and to shoot as well as a trained assassin, then you have to practice.
And things are even more complex, because CJ will evolve in the same way as a RPG hero does. If you complete a mission, you get your buddies out of a mess, you go to the gym and you shoot some enemies, you gain some respect, some stamina and all sorts of things.
The missions CJ will have to accomplish are divided in two categories: those that are connected to the main story and those that aren't. Given the huge of the city, you will always find things to do, making GTA San Andreas a game you will be able to play for days. The biggest novelty is that CJ has learned to swim and this gives the game a whole new perspective.
Another important thing to notice is that unlike previous titles from the GTA franchise, in GTA San Andreas your objectives are much more detailed, which greatly simplifies missions.
But this doesn't mean GTA San Andreas is an easy game and as things evolve, the missions will become more and more difficult. Some of them will be similar to the ones from previous titles and you'll even encounter familiar characters.
The radio's worth all the bucks:
I can't imagine GTA without music, and I don't even want to because Rockstar has fitted San Andreas with the best radio stations ever. They are much more varied and numerous compared to Vice City and they fully contribute to recreating the atmosphere of the '90s.
Aside from the radio stations which cover a wide variety of music genres, San Andreas will also let you create your own radio station where you will be able to listen to your MP3s.
And the radio's not the only thing sending you back to the '90s because the characters' clothes and city views are also playing an important part in recreating that special feeling.
The truth is that even if there are nothing but great things to be said about the game's storyline, what really tops it all is Rockstar's effort to create a city in which you feel a rather compelling desire just to wonder about, and, truth be told, I've spent the first 3 or 4 hours of the game just walking around and admiring the landscape.
And GTA San Andreas is as authentic as it gets. I don't know if there are many games in which you stumble upon characters moving around with a joint in there hand and whose speech consists mostly of expressions as "motherfucker" and others of the kind.
Out of the games which can be included in the same category, only Mafia has succeeded in recreating a certain period and a universe to such a level of accuracy that you actually feel like having been there.
A game not to be missed:
Whether you're a GTA fan or not, GTA San Andreas is a game you cannot afford to miss. And although the game is not perfect, in the end, you'll end up being addicted to it.
I don't know if Rockstar will be able to come up with something better than GTA San Andreas, but this game will surely make history. One thing is for sure, GTA III's record of best selling game is seriously threatened by the new San Andreas.
System Requirements:
Minimum Requirements:
CPU: 1GHz Pentuim III or AMD Athlon
Memory: 256MB RAM
Drive: 8x Speed DVD Drive
Hard Drive: 3.6 GB Hard Disk Space
Graphics Card: 64MB Video Card
DirectX 9 Compatable Sound & Video Drivers
Keyboard, Mouse
Recommended Requirements:
CPU: Intel Pentuim 4 or AMD XP Processor (or better)
Memory: 512MB RAM
Drive: 16x Speed DVD Drive
Hard Drive: 4.7GB Hard Drive Space
Graphics Card: 128MB Video Card
DirectX 9 Compatible Sound & Video Drivers
Keyboard, Mouse or Game Pad
Size: 4.05 GB
Download from: Mediafire.com Part (1) - Part (2) - Part (3) - Part (4) - Part (5) - Part (6) - Part (7) - Part (8) - Part (9) - Part (10) - Part (11) - Part (12) - Part (13) - Part (14) - Part (15) - Part (16) - Part (17) - Part (18) - Part (19) - Part (20) - Part (21) - Part (22) - Part (23) - Part (24) - Part (25) - Part (26) - Part (27) - Part (28) - Part (29) - Part (30) - Part (31) - Part (32) - Part (33) - Part (34) - Part (35) - Part (36) - Part (37) - Part (38) - Part (39) - Part (40) - Part (41)
Part (20) Password: myfile
Please don't copy type password
No comments:
Post a Comment