Awesome, need a say more?
I think most people who gave this bad ratings and said GTA 3 and vice city are better most likely white guys who didn't like the switch from mafia white boys to black gangsta life.I am white but since i have the luxury of not being prejudice i was able to fully enjoy this game and see how vastly superior it was to the previous two games in the series.Graphics have never been GTA's strong point but considering the vast size of this game its amazing they had room to get the graphics up to the quality it is.There are some annoyances such as draw distance (like when you are in a plane and a tree suddenly appears in front of you) but it doesn't detract much from the overall game.The country missions were a little tedious from the long drives but at least it added some variety to go beyond just the city life.some missions are hard but i was able to beat the game without any cheats and i am not the greatest at video games.I have not been able to beat alot of the games i own so if i can beat this game i can't see how others would say its too hard.The main drawback in this game is that the selection of songs to represent the 90's was not as good as the selection in vice city to represent the 80's.But in every other aspect of the game this game is bigger and badder and more in depth than any before it.I like that you can customize the clothes and even the physique of your character.I also like when you are hurting for cash you can bet on the horses.It has great variety of side missions but you don't have to complete them all to beat the game,just the main missions.I hope to see bigger and better things on the PS 3 when they come out with their first grand theft auto but for now i think GTA:S.A. really pushed the PS 2 to its limits even just sheer size of the map and all the things you can do.The missions in this one were less repetitive,they added more variety instead of just rehashing alot of missions like in previous GTA games.Next to Socom 2 online this is my second favorite game of all time and thats out of a collection of 250 PS 2 games i own so thats saying alot.
Gameplay:
Great.fairly east to control,some minor annoyances like locking onto the wrong person to shoot at on occasion and the draw distance thing i spoke o but the pros far outwiegh the cons to make this the biggest and baddest GTA yet.
Graphics:
The graphics sure don't blow you away but i think they did a sufficeint job on it.Actually i am impressed with how well the graphics came out judging by how much room on the disc must have been used just on the game size alone.You'd think there would be no room for graphical enhancements at all so what they offer is satisfying enough even if the characters look a little blocky at times.
Sound:
the in game sound effects are great but the music selection in this one seems to leave out alot of the more popular 90's songs.Vice City did a better job of capturing the 80's feel with its music than whay S.A. did of trying to capture the 90's era.With that said S.A. is still by far the best GTA game overall by a long shot.