GTA: San Andreas

There's been a fair amount of information and screenshots released so I thought I'd post it here.

GTA: San Andreas
What we know

Five years ago Carl Johnson escaped from the pressures of life in Los Santos, San Andreas...a city tearing itself apart with gang trouble, drugs and corruption. Where filmstars and millionaires do their best to avoid the dealers and gangbangers. Now, it's the early 90s. Carl's got to go home. His mother has been murdered, his family has fallen apart and his childhood friends are all heading towards disaster. On his return to the neighborhood, a couple of corrupt cops frame him for homicide. CJ is forced on a journey that takes him across the entire state of San Andreas, to save his family and to take control of the streets.

Click to expand...

• Bicycles are being integrated.
  
  Gangs will now drive around in cars and can hang out windows to shoot at other gangs...or probably you.
  
  The Ingram Mac-10 makes another appearance as a weapon.
  
  The Greenwood or the Virgo will make a re-appearance as a vehicle.
  
  Same game engine as GTA III and Vice City.
  
  You play as a black male, thus possibly confirming the rumors of a rap/gangsta-based theme.
  

"Probably the most interesting thing you [need to] think about for a second is that we are not setting the game in a version of Los Angeles or San Francisco or Las Vegas, but in all three - and with the countryside in between," said Dan Houser.

He went on to talk about how "we take this GTA stuff really seriously and we work like f*** on it, and we don't just try to churn out a game. We think we've got some clever ideas and clever angles on things."

"Los Santos" is the game name for Los Angeles, "San Fierro" for San Francisco, and "Las Venturra" for Las Vegas. Each city is about the same size as Vice City. As in other GTA games, not all of it will be open at the beginning of the game.

Houser said that he estimates that "the entire game area is approximately four to six times as large as the entirety of either of the previous entries in the series."

In San Fierro, things are more driving-based due to the hills. Houser mentioned that "one of the things we missed in Vice City was hills. The idea that you will be able to drive from LA, through the countryside, up a mountain (yes, a mountain!) into San Francisco and on to Vegas is just freakish, and it feels amazing!"

The article goes on to say that they have done more to the graphics engine to tweak it, so don't worry. Also mentioned was that the desert isn't just an empty place with a cactus here and dirt there...but "there's still some weird s*** to see and the map feels very vibrant and alive."

Smog will be present to give LA the right feel. Expect "real-time reflections on cars, windows, and mirrors, as well as new techniques like radial lighting, which allows for more realistic shadowing, and soft-shadow lighting for interior levels," said Game Informer. They also mentioned that everything in the game now has independent models for day and night to give better lighting and shadowing.

Expect a lot more buildings with open interiors. But here is a bigger thing: "In Las Ventura, you'll be able to run a casino there, which you will have bought and built," said Houser.

First off, expect some pimped-out lowriders. The game is more serious than previous GTA games, but the satire remains. The article also talked of research where the whole team went to Calfornia with "hundreds of digital cameras," " hundreds of movies" and talked to people around the area.

Houser went on to say that, for the radio stations, "there will probably be some rap music in there, but GTA music has always been about variety and we're not going to deviate from that at all."

He mentioned that some characters from the past will return, but didn't mention who. I would put my money on Phil returning definitely.

You will be able to recruit gang members to go with you wherever you want and do four-person drive-by's (as seen in the screenshot released at the official website).

Also, house robberies can now happen, but "Houser warns that these jobs wil require real skill and planning," said Game Informer.

You now have to eat in order to stay in a good physical state. This is reflected in a new stamina meter. If you eat too much, you get fat. If you eat enough at a regular rate, you are ok. There are also gyms to exercise in.

Also, expect ragdoll physics. It is called "impact animation" by Rockstar North. Also, dual weapons (dual pistols confirmed) have been implemented.

So, in closing, Rockstar North has worked their butts off for the past two years...and the stuff they have come up with is nothing short of amazing... The Linerunner makes another appearance as well as a 90's version of the Blista Compact.

Each and every character you see onscreen now has a "brain," and will react to your actions and other events in a much more intelligent fashion. Rest assured, the sometime dimwitted reactions of pedestrians in past editions of GTA is a thing of the past. NPC intelligence behavior has now become so varied that voiceover recording sessions for an average pedestrian characters dialogue have gone from ten minutes to an hour in length. The AI is not limited to the behavior of NPC's, either, as San Andreas will implement dynamic difficulty based on your performance, sometimes easing the challenge to allow players to advance past troublesome objectives - a move that Rockstar hopes will allow more fans to play San Andreas through to completion.

The following are the first official screenshots released by R*

These ones are magazine scans, the magazine reportedly added an orange tint to them, so it's not exactly like they'll be in game.