Unfortunitely, GTA: SA is merely more of the same, except you can eat food, get haircuts, and ride bicyles.
User Rating: 6.9 | Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas PS2
First off this game is not worth your hard earned $50+$3 tax. Its yet again a refreshed version of the GTA 3 engine. Xbox people, you are not missing much so don't run out and buy a new PStwo just for GTA: SA, just patiently wait it out. This time you can tool around on a bike...big deal. Oh yeah, and you can get hair cuts, work out in a gym, eat food, and buy clothes...um yeah. This is a video game, not real life. Ok, first off, I don't want to be reminded of the boring things we all do in life. I'd much rather stick with doing things in the game that I would never do in life. Please leave the mundane stuff to real life and with casul gamers that enjoy 'The Sims'. I think the main character would have more important things on his mind rather than the balance between fat and muscle...maybe like staying alive and becoming 'really legit'(rather than 'just legit')??? Graphics maybe look a notch or two better...but I really can't tell...the framerate frequently drops below the 30fps borderline. Your on a mission that has you tool across the city to take care of business....but there is lots of business and it bogs down the framerate so much that its almost unplayable...then you lose....then you get to retry the mission again, and again, and again. So its true when GS says it stays true to the GTA formula I guess. I won't even complain about jagged edges since this is only meant to run 640x480 on a TV. Sound is so-so...not really expecting much since the PS2 is not capable of in-game dolby-digital(with exception to in-game movies). It would have been nice if the sound was crisp and crystal clear since this is a DVD with lots of storage room. Control is again, nothing special. The camera constantly pans around you...most of the time lagging behind when you run or drive around a corner, or if you suddenly cut left or right. This is much of a hinderence when you are trying to complete a mission since you have to worry about the AI AND the dropped framerates. Being able to jump fences and walls is a nice little touch, but was purposely left out of the previous GTAs so that it could convienently be a bulleted feature for this installment. Manually aiming with dropped framerates is extremely frustrating. Here we are with the third installment, and the same problems that were easily overlooked the first time are still apparent the third time. These oversights should not be ignored this time. This game is maybe worth $40 brand new with occasional $30 weekly specials, but definitely not $50. I would rent it first to get the marketing hype and SIGNIFICANTLY BIASED reviews out of your head. Hmmm...how is it possible for majority of the review sites and video game reviews on tv to conclude that this is such a great game many when its just more of the same??? So much for unbiased reviews... I'm glad all I did was rent it. GTA: SA is worth a weekend rental or waiting for the crisper Xbox or PC versions. 
