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Pooled GTA:SA Resources!

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http://www.gtasanandreas.com

- 3 pics so far

- Can refresh and get new art behind the logo

Credit to Curly for first posting information -- Wed May 12, 2004

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http://www.planetgrandtheftauto.com - Exclusive information. You can read the important info right here, quotes:

San Andreas EXCLUSIVE Comment!

10:45 PST | Jordan

I knew I would find something! I didn't fly across the USA to give you all nothing on San Andreas. Here is your treat. I have exclusive information that has not yet been released to the public. It is all confirmed and official from an early release of Game Informer here at E3.

"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.

I will bring more of it later, and there is a lot more. Excited?

Extra SA Info Comment!

11:21 PST | Jordan

I am now able to give out the rest of the info. 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.

Credit to Dgtadude for first posting -- Thu May 13, 2004

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http://www.gtagaming.com/sanandreas/info.php

Official scanned and uploaded images from game informer magazine of GTASA. It also provides new information they find about GTASA.

Credit to Cray for saying link on IRC as they were actually coming out 1 by 1! -- Thu May 13, 2004

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http://greatmovies.bravehost.com/sanandreas.html - Game Informer: Plot Summary

This is the world that San Andreas' main character, Carl Johnson, finds himself coming back to after spending five years in Liberty City. Johnson left his neighborhood in the ghetto of Los Santos after the death of his brother Brian, who died in a tragic accident. Carl's older brother Sweet Johnson blamed him for Brian's death, leading to a period of estrangement that is broken by the sudden passing of his mother.

On returning home for the funeral, Carl finds his biological family and his former gang, the Orange Grove Families, in disarray. Sweet and his sister Kendall are at each other's throats. His former crew - Sweet, longtime family friend Smoke, and Ryder - have falled from power on the streets, and are now besieged by both rival gang factions and internal quarrels.

Although Carl is reluctant to get dragged back into the street life, fate intervents when his crew comes under the thumbs of Frank Tenpenr and Eddie Polaski, who are characterized as a "heavy-duty pair of lunatic corrupt policemen on your case." As always, events soon spiral out of control, and Johnson finds himself on a frantic adventure that will take him across the state of San Andreas as he fights to preserve his family, his gang, and his life.

http://www.gtagaming.com/sanandreas/gameinformer - Game Informer: Synopsis

San Andreas is not a city - it’s a state. The game will take place in three cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and the countryside in between. Los Angeles will be called Los Santos, San Francisco will be called San Fierro, and Las Vegas will be called Las Venturra. Each city is relatively the same size as Vice City, and will be fully open to the player at different points in the story arc. The entire game is approximately four to six times as large as either GTA III or Vice City.

You will be able to travel between cities on roads that reach through a vast countryside, and the countryside has its own unique characters and gameplay sequences. Each city will have a much more diverse set of experiences for the player and will emphasize a different aspect of San Andreas’ gameplay. San Fierro has plenty of hills and thus is more focused on driving. Specialty vehicles can be unlocked to bring new fun to the environment of the cities.

The countryside will expand on the GTA experience where cities could not. For example, there will be a mountain that you can drive up. You will be able to drive from Los Santos through the countryside, up a mountain into San Fierro, and continue on to Las Venturra to give depth to the game and make it feel completely real.

Because of some new streaming and rendering that Rockstar designed themselves, San Andreas will feature environments that are both more intricate and more interactive than Vice City. Vice City had a bigger map than GTA III, but not everything was as dense and interesting as it could have been. In San Andreas, the entire map is crisper and has a lot more things going on. Even the desert will feel vibrant and alive.

The graphics engine has been overhauled and now has new techniques like radial lighting which gives more realistic shadowing. The engine also includes real-time reflections on cars, windows, and mirrors, and soft-shadow lighting for interior levels. Everything in the game now has independent models for day and nighttime, so the objects can look as detailed and vivid during night as they do during the day. San Andreas will feature "impact animation," or rag-doll physics.

San Andreas will push the limits on interiors. While Vice City introduced the idea of interiors, most of them were nothing but detailed save points. In SA however, tons of interiors have been fully rendered out and made more interactive, for example robbing houses.

Rockstar has pushed themselves to create a vast interactive world. San Andreas will have scores of unique interiors, dozens of restaurants, and a fully operational casino. While many of these would have been mere novelties in the past, they now directly affect your characters progression, abilities, and even appearance.

Purchasing buildings was just touched on in Vice City. Now, it has a much higher importance. In San Andreas the idea of building your criminal empire has been taken a lot further, for example in Las Venturra you can buy, build, and run your own casino. Every part of the San Andreas society will be precise - from the rich residents to the ones living in suburban areas to the maniacs in the countryside. San Andreas will push the envelope on feeling more like a living, breathing world than its predecessors were.

The game is not about gangbanging. There will be a rap station, but as always there will be a variety of other types of music. No details on the radio stations has been released.

Rockstar has implemented things the hardcore fans of GTA III and Vice City. San Andreas will have some characters from past games making reappearances or being mentioned. There will be plenty of fun things to catch if you followed the stories of the previous games.

The AI has been improved. NPCs now react to you more intelligently with their new "brains." For example, before you could kill someone in the middle of the street in broad daylight and have no one notice. This won’t be the case in San Andreas. NPC intelligence now has a need for hour long recording sessions, which was only ten minutes in Vice City. San Andreas will have plenty of well known and some excellent unknown voice acting talents.

With the new AI comes dynamic difficulty. This means based on your performance missions will be made to suit your skill level. This will allow more players to be able to play the game to the end. You will also be able to recruit gang members to aid you during missions, and one use for them is a four person drive-by. You can run your gang, but you won’t be checking on inventory or anything like that. You will run it in a way where you are kept in the story, through phone calls and speaking to people. In Vice City and GTA III you were either on a mission or you weren’t, and the story didn’t feel like it progress outside the missions. Well now the game changes all the time. While you aren’t on a mission, you can things that reflect your position in the storyline. You can take up side missions where you can learn a skill you need for a mission.

Money has a greater use than it did in Vice City. Outside missions you can rob homes to earn some cash. However, house robbing is nothing like carjacking. It will take a lot of skill and planning to pull it off.

As you progress in the story, you can open up new things to do outside missions, which are still tied into the story. In Las Venturra you can gamble your money in your casino. The way things unlock are more complex now. There are basic tutorials at the start of the game, and then on each mission you can learn a skill. So in every mission you will be doing something new, and the game will stay fresh and challenging throughout the story.

Your character also changes depending on what you do. There are plenty of restaurants around San Andreas and you have to eat to stay healthy and retain your stamina. If you eat fast food often and don’t go to the gym, your character becomes fat, and this changes the game. Pedestrians call you a fat bastard, your running speed and strength are low, and your character’s physics change. Being fat makes missions more difficult or in some cases not possible. To fix being fat, you can go to gyms to work out. Working out gives you strength and more speed, and your character model looks fit. Rockstar wants to make you feel like you have complete control over the story and over your character, and this example of his weight is just the tip of the iceberg.

The targeting and camera systems are being overhauled. While no details have been released, Rockstar made references to features in Manhunt, and promises that the targeting will be really fun this time.

All new animations have been designed. Hand-to-hand combat will be more improved to include more variety in stances, attacks, and control over the fighting. There will be new styles of carjacking. Swimming is now included in the game. Rockstar has put in a lot of new weapons with more variety, and also focused on revamping old ones to feel more unique. Your character can dual wield pistols and possibly other weapons.

The vehicle physics engine is being changed to improve car handling and open up the possibility of new types of transportation. Vice City ranged from a moped to a plane, and the range in SA is much bigger at both ends this time. You can even ride a bicycle in San Andreas and you will have to press buttons to pedal it.

Credit to sm sculay for posting -- Mon May 31, 2004

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http://www.gigex.com/playstation2/previ ... urce=00001

Extended Preview:

If you haven't heard anything about the evolution of the Grand Theft Auto games, you've either been living under a rock or hiding in a cave with religious fanatics. The Grand Theft Auto series made its console debut amid controversy on the PlayStation a few years back, with two entries that caught the attention of many gamers. But it's with the debut of Grand Theft Auto III that the series really took off, as the game arrived on the PlayStation 2. It brought with it a level of immersion that few games could pull off at the time, bringing you into the seedy underworld of Liberty City and allowing you to really do anything, be it involve yourself in gun fights with cops, carjack rival gang vehicles and trash them to the point of devastation, or simply rob passerby for a few bucks, beating them senseless... perhaps even dead.

Rockstar followed this up with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, an even deeper game taking you back in time to the 1980's in the middle of Miami, where a seasoned thug (voiced by Ray Liotta) gains respect, cash, and all sorts of heat for his actions, ranging again across a series of criminal activities like carjacking and even murder. The development soared even further with a better looking graphic engine, the addition of various 80's soundtracks and a bevy of voice actors, and more hidden surprises. It immediately gained cult status, and for good reason.

Has this series brought controversy? Of course; Congressmen fear the series, feeling that it will have a negative impact on society and blaming it for corrupting various futures. The truth of it is, the Grand Theft Auto games bring with them an experience, not just another game. They allow you to delve in and change your own fate, be it all out ruthless crime lord or just someone who gets a kick out of driving exploding R/C vehicles into oncoming traffic. And now, with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, it looks like Rockstar Games is again elevating the series into an even higher status.

San Andreas takes a different twist than the previous games, shying away from Liberty City altogether. In the game, you take control of Carl Johnson, a young man who has shied away from his corrupted hometown of Los Santos, San Andreas, to try and rebuild his life. However, after five years away, he comes home to find all sorts of chaos and ruin in the city he once called home. His mother has been brutally murdered; his sister and brother are practically at each other's throats, looking for his loyalty; and a few of his childhood friends have gotten themselves in terrible ordeals that could pretty much seal their fates. On top of that, two corrupt cops have framed him for murder, leaving him on the run from the police as well. The game chronicles Carl's search for respect through power and decisions, some of which could very well end up rather bloody.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas features a well-revamped graphic engine that shows a greater amount of detail than the previous games. For instance, one highlight is the lighting. In some cases, a police helicopter will join in the hunt for you, depending on your "Wanted" rating, and shine a spotlight down trying to spot you. As it does this, the lighting is reflected wonderfully, right down to the shadows left from the fences and other objects. Another great detail is how you can be affected by how much you eat. If you find yourself visiting the donut shop too many times, you begin to gain weight, which in turn effects your speed and stamina, and also makes you look a bit chump-style to your cohorts and friends. However, visits to the gym can help shape you up and get you out of Fat Albert mode. This dynamic adds greatly to the character design, as you can actually see how physical changes affect you. Throw in the details that surround the interconnecting parts of San Andreas and other little things like how an enemy stumbles to the ground depending where you shoot them, and you have a game that will definitely look better than the previous GTA games before it.

The game also lets you choose from different paths, like who to align yourself with and who to begin wars with. Like the first two games, you can steal vehicles, including bicycles, to help you get further on your path. However, piss off the wrong group and you could find yourself in the middle of a drive-by attempt, with a roving gang ready to take you down. Of course, with a number of weapons that can be picked up in San Andreas, you can fight back rather nicely.

The game's voice cast and soundtrack hasn't been revealed yet, but it definitely looks to have an urban setting to it, so you can expect a few rap and R & B tracks to make the cut, along with a few others. There's also word that 50 Cent, the popular rapper behind such tracks as "In Da Club" and "Wanksta", is heavily involved with the game, doing voicework for Carl Johnson's character and possibly even supplying some music. This hasn't been confirmed yet, but it would be a nice touch and show Rockstar North's dedication to the product.

One thing that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas does have in common with its previous games is its depth. The game will be HUGE, allowing you to take on a number of tasks while working with a wide assortment of people. There will also be hidden bonus boxes and star vehicles scattered throughout, so you can do some digging and find some hidden treasures all about.

Let's face it, the game could be called Grand Theft Auto: Romper Room and there would still be people looking into it in utter fascination. But Rockstar North is truly dedicating themselves to making the next Grand Theft Auto game the best yet, and early details are showing just what kind of work they are truly putting into the game. When it arrives this October, it's a sure bet that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will be a mammoth hit, and it will have earned every ounce of respect that it is given. The game looks to be redefining what gaming is about all over again, controversy be damned.

Credit to sm sculay for posting -- Thu Jun 03, 2004

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http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=55550

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

by Tom Bramwell

"San Andreas is not a city - it's a state." Those words from Rockstar's Dan Houser more than anything ought to inspire the Grand Theft Auto loving crowd (which is 95 per cent of us, judging by the sales figures). Comprising Los Santos (Los Angeles) where you start out, San Fierro (San Francisco) and Las Venturra (Las Vegas), it's an epic environment allegedly six times the size of Vice City, unlocked gradually over the course of the game, and besides the cities it also features all the roads in between, allowing you to race through the desert, countryside, and even over a mountain...

Mountainous

"You've never had a mountain in a GTA game before." No Dan. No we haven't. Speaking in one of those loony print exclusives (with US mag Game Informer, cunningly handed out at E3 this week), Houser is outlining all manner of treats that GTA fans had no right to expect, and the idea of driving through the countryside outside LA and then climbing over a mountain to reach San Francisco is bound to evoke some dreamy cunning stunts in any ramp-junkie's subconscious. It's kind of a nod to folks who thought VC was too flat.

The fact that San Francisco is a seriously hilly place is another. Speaking about Vice City, Houser admits, "For good driving, one of the things that we missed was hills. It just adds that third dimension; it's not as fun with out." San Francisco - sorry, San Fierro - will reflect a shift in balance. It's hilly, the story finds ways to make you explore the hills, and some of the city's speciality vehicles are geared towards doing "some wild s**t you've never done before". San Francisco may have been done to death by the likes of Driver, but you can be sure Rockstar's version will be positively brimming with reasons to care - and across the three cities, the possibilities for references and satire exceeds anything in either previous third-person GTA title.

As Rockstar revealed to the rest of us earlier this week, San Andreas is the story of Carl Johnson, a man on his way back to Los Santos after five years out in Liberty City. Johnson left his ghetto home after the accidental death of his brother Brian - for which his older brother Sweet Johnson blamed him. But upon returning home for his mother's funeral, he's forced to dive back in not only to his family life but also his former gang (the Orange Grove Families) as former crew Sweet, Smoke and Ryder find themselves besieged by rivals and under the thumbs of corrupt policemen Frank Tenpenny and Eddie Polaski. It's the early 90s (complete with a wide variety of tunes of the time - including rap), and that means that America (and particularly LA) is a very tumultuous place to call home - let alone to try and rebuild a criminal empire - but then Rockstar North has never been shy of toying with controversy. What price a "kill all the protesters" mission?

Homework

Houser reckons that the intense level of research undertaken by the developer will see them through any uncomfortable claims of mistreatment or what-have-you. He points to a full time set of researchers, artists who visited every absurdly expensive Beverley Hills neighbourhood, every trainers-over-the-telegraph-wire ghetto cesspit with couches in the streets and gangbangers cruising past in low-riders, and everywhere in between, and the company's partnerships with the likes of LA-based photographer and street culture expert Estavan Oriol and producer/film director DJ Pooh. "One thing that makes me slightly nervous is the notion that it's a game about gang-banging, which it is not really," he says to Game Informer at one point. Apparently maybe three per cent of it accounts for that.

Gang-banging may not be the theme, but players will be able to take advantage of their gang to get involved in one of the game's most interesting features - four-character drive-bys. Crawling along the streets in sunken cars, windows rolled down and caps popping out and preparing to investigate asses, it sounds like the ultimate takedown, and we could get used to the idea of doing it quite a lot. However instead of getting caught up in little gimmicks, it's clear this GTA is about plenty more besides.

Houser is keen for people to appreciate that where GTA IIII had utterly separate story missions and secondary tasks and mini-games, and Vice City kind of lessened the gap between them, everything in San Andreas is intrinsically linked. "Obviously you still have missions you have to do," he tells Game Informer, "but when you're not on a mission, not only are there a thousand things to do, but what you can do relates to where you are in the story." And besides, that, you pick up skills.

Pays the bills

"There are hundreds of skills to learn in this game so you can't have hundreds of tutorials. So each mission you learn a new skill. In every mission you'll be doing something new." And that something could be recruiting gang members to fight alongside Carl, gambling in a casino, robbing the much more pregnable (and thoroughly modelled) buildings for cash (something which requires careful planning - "If you don't do very well, someone's going to shoot your head off, and if you do it well, you'll get away with plenty of loot."), carjacking as a group, swimming, scooting around on a bicycle ("it just feels like a bicycle"), or even building and running a casino.

The empire-building aspect is apparently a lot more thought out this time, aiming to convey the fact that Carl runs a burgeoning criminal empire rather than just collecting save points with the occasional chopper on the roof or rocket launcher in the cellar. So... what? Paying bills? Ordering people to do missions for you? "It will be done in a way that keeps you in the story through phone calls and speaking to people instead of checking on inventory or something like that." Speaking of the story, Houser promises "lots of stuff" that fans of the last two games will be able to pick up on, whether it's "weird characters turning up again" or just getting a mention.

In terms of voice acting, Houser is actually quite defensive, arguing that "Rockstar North are the stars of this thing," in order to avoid naming names. However we are told to expect actors who fit the roles, and if they happen to be big-name types and recognisable porn stars and so on then so be it.

Blubber-buss

Perhaps the most interesting change we've been privy to so far however is news that Carl will now have to eat in order to maintain his physical state. Through dozens of accurately modelled restaurants and other eateries, the criminal wannabe will be able to top up his stamina meter, and actually visibly gain weight. In fact, he can overdo it. Says Houser, "Playing a mission when you're a fat bastard and everyone call you a 'fat bastard' in the game world is an amazing experience." It makes the mission harder, but Carl can always go to the gym to burn it off, and then head back and blow the dissenter's head off with his newfound dual pistols.

Is it a gimmick though? "We're trying to build up a sense of ownership over the world and over your character, from his weight to a hundred other things you can do to him in that world." It still sounds a bit silly, but we'll have to wait and make that judgement when we've actually played it. Which, knowing Rockstar's tedious obsession with secrecy, will probably be in the days immediately prior to its massively hyped release in late October.

We'd be lying if we said we weren't interested though, if only because a number of the changes Rockstar North has made are clearly geared towards improving our experience of the key factors that the game retains from Vice City. Hand to hand combat, for example, will be more in depth with more stances, attacks and actual control (instead of the rather clunky system used previously), the targeting system is said to be along the same lines as the shooting sections of Manhunt (which used right-stick targeting, taking cover and firing round corners), the vehicle physics have been tinkered with to improve the mechanics of "cruising and chasing", and technologically we're now looking at real-time reflections on most glossy surfaces (be it cars, windows, mirrors), radial lighting to help the shadowing, soft-shadows on interiors, and even independent day and night models to make the game look good through the 24 hour cycle.

Okay doll

Rag-doll physics will also make an arguably long overdue appearance, adding true floppiness to the murderous rampages we're all familiar with, and thanks to the... wait for it... improved AI (yes), NPC behaviour will now change depending on the skill level - easing the challenge to let Carl and his crew make progress when they run into trouble again and again. Which may annoy hardcore fans, but given the massive numbers of people who will buy it, it's an understandable decision.

In fact, a lot of what Houser and Rockstar told Game Informer this month makes sense, and is bound to work fans into a lather. Obviously the game will be loathe to sacrifice its core gameplay, but by the sound of it we can expect a game brimming with everything we enjoyed about the last one, and plenty more besides. Is that what we want? Given that wholesale changes were always out of the question, it's going to have to do - and we fancy that Rockstar North's dark and satirical sense of humour, and passionate obsession with minutely detailed gameplay will see us through many a lonely night in San Andreas.

Full details of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas can be found in an exclusive preview in this month's American Game Informer magazine.

Publisher

Rockstar Games

Developers

Rockstar North

Genre

Third-Person Action

Credit to sm sculay for posting -- Tue Jun 08, 2004

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http://codenamesa.co.uk/content.asp?page=screenshots - New Screenshots as well as info

http://www.GTASanAn.Com - "The guys who brought you gta3.com, gtavice.com and gtaforums.com have churned out their latest masterpiece to cover GTA: San Andreas. Be sure to check it out!"

Both San Andreas sites with up-to-date news and info

Credit to gtafreek for posting -- Fri Jun 11, 2004

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http://www.gtagaming.com/sanandreas/ps2uk - Taken from June PS2 magazine

The state of San Andreas contains three cities and miles and miles of interstates, valleys, freeways, deserts, coastline, and badlands - all of which you can explore. The game is five times the size of Vice City, more populated, more detailed, has more cars, weapons, challenges, characters, secrets, music, and more storyline than Vice City. Each of the three cities - Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturra - have their own individual style. Examples are architectural style, vehicle population, mission types, character’s accents, and the actions of pedestrians.

The countryside will be far from boring. There are new vehicles that can’t even be used in a town, such as a quad bike, that you can race in the country. The driving physics have been worked on and although GTA is not a racing game, it feels like a chasing game. The countryside racing feels super quick and a lot of fun. In the country you will also have inbreds and degenerates who give you missions reflecting their environment. The countryside is very refreshing to drive through. It has rolling fields, farms, rivers, forests, deserts, and hills. There is also a legendary mountain - it is nearly a half mile tall, takes a minute to fly from the base to the top in a helicopter, and much longer to ride down with a bicycle. The grass and plants have new techniques to really bring the countryside to life like no game ever before. San Fierro is very hilly and there is a big emphasis on driving in this part of the game.

Swimming was added because Rockstar knew about the constant request and was tired of being told it couldn’t be done. Now when you drive off a bridge, you will not drown. But that being said, it is not a swimming game. The way swimming will work is this: When your car hits the water you have two choices. The first is to climb out the window of the car. If you choose not to get out, you will sink with the car, and you will have a certain amount of stamina which you can build up. There are some missions that have swimming in them, but this won’t be a swimming action adventure game. The feature is there for playability.

In addition to eating, getting fat, and working out at the gym, another stat feature is cutting your hair. You can go to the barber and get your haircut how you want. If you have a bad haircut, pedestrians make fun of you and call you stupid. If you have a good one they are impressed.

The LA vibe is there with the smog, crystalline light, the thud of a basketball off in a court, the air filled with hip hop, the blazing sun, the light reflecting off low riders. The right analog stick will allow you to bounce your car. In missions, all of the familiar details are there like the yellow arrow above objectives, the blue type on the screen giving mission outlines, and the little music after a successful mission.

Immense effort has gone in to individualize each player’s experience and make the game as non-linear as possible. At times you’ll be following the storyline, but then the game will stop and open up, allowing you to do anything you want. Then the story continues, then it opens up, and it follows this pattern nicely for the best experience.

The engine has been rewritten. Now there are details like never before, such as tumbleweeds in the desert and other organic things. The map is much more densely populated than Vice City, even in the countryside. There are mirrors and real time reflections. The draw distance is now twice as much as Vice City in the urban environments and four times as much in the countryside. The lighting system has been improved to include separate models for daytime and nighttime. CJ can stand and sway slightly, with his jaw moving in a slow circular motion as he chews gum. The character models are much more detailed than previously.

Improvements have been made on the lighting to make neon spill onto the streets, streetlights light up buildings, and shadows from the sun fade to moonlight. Compression techniques have been used to detail all of the models - from the map to the cars to the pedestrians. The game is now more sharp, with weather effects and more crammed special touches than thought possible. Rockstar has borrowed a bit from Manhunt with the new lighting. Now you can see gang members in dark alleys and you can use the shadows yourself to hide under a bridge, watch an enemy run past, then leap out and jump him. Even with one star you will have to worry about the police, but hiding in shadows can help out. On missions you can do them Rambo style or you can sneak around and pick them off one by one. This means actual stealth techniques which adds a lot more variety to missions than before.

San Andreas returns with the Rockstar humor we love. The satire will be directed at American consumerism, action movies, weirdness, and pop culture of the time. The characters will be more serious but the game will still be hilarious.

Every part of the game has been aimed at making it feel like a living, fully realistic world. Each city as well as the districts in them will feel unique. Instead of adding content to GTA III or Vice City, Rockstar wanted to make this game so you could climb onto a roof and know your location. The amount of exploring in San Andreas has extreme depth, and it is not to be raced through because it is all unique and interactive. All the missions, even the most outlandish, are all designed to make use of the vehicles and to explore the map. Tons of work has gone into making the countryside look organic, the cities not looking square, and overall the game feeling real. The map is so big even Rockstar becomes lost in it from time to time. The population is more dense and more active than ever before. The city has been given life. Each pedestrian has his own actions and animations based on where they live, and where they are at in the city or the country.

One of the biggest challenges is compressing the massive detail in this game. Rockstar has loads of content and continues to add more. The only loading times in San Andreas are slight pauses when entering buildings. They have already packed the DVD and will be having to use dual layer. Although the game is very broad, all the missions, gameplay elements, and events will tie together and feel part of the same game thanks to the controls, art, and atmosphere. There are some parts where the game is in first person. There are also ties to the past games for hardcore fans. All of these things, even the most outlandish of missions, will make sense to you when you are playing.

You have new fist fighting techniques and the gun fighting has been overhauled. The physics of the gun fighting has been rebuilt from the ground up and now it is very elegant and easy to control. When you target someone green will be displayed if they have full health, yellow at half, and red if they can be killed in another shot. The auto targeting will also make much better choices based on threat level.

Working with your gang the Orange Grove Families, you can take over areas of the map. Controlling territories and personalizing the map is like personalizing your character. You can make money off your property if look after it. Some parts of the game you can take it over yourself, and for other parts you will need your gang. Car jacking has an even more threatening and sinister vibe than before, because now your gang is involved. By the way, being a gangster is 15% of the total game.

In the first mission Carl is picked up from the airport by the two corrupt cops. They don’t take him home, they drop him off in rival gang territory. You have to get out quick, so the first thing you do is steal a BMX. You rapidly hit X to pedal and CJ sways from side to side to pick up momentum. This is one of the stunningly realistic animations. You complete the mission when you reach the area where CJ grew up and where his gang lives.

One mission involves you meeting up with your old friend Ryder, who is a loose cannon and is very passionate about the Orange Grove Families. Your chat takes place in front of the Badfellas poster (which fans will recognize). The owner of a pizza store has erased the OGF tag from his walls, and Ryder wants you to join him in teaching the owner a lesson. You hop in a pickup and head to the pizzeria. Once you arrive but before you enter the pizzeria, you will be given the opportunity to give CJ a new haircut.

This is an example of many side tasks available during missions. Rockstar really wants to blur the line between on a mission and off a mission so you will see this a lot. You hop in the barber’s chair and he cuts your hair while you watch. You receive a new haircut which you can see in the mirror, and you choose to accept it or get a new style. Once you leave the barber Ryder will make a comment about your new hairstyle depending on what you chose. Now in the extremely detailed pizzeria you have even more choices. There are three different sized meals with prices based on size. You order the largest meal to distract the pizza boy for Ryder. But Ryder cannot be calmed and to his surprise as he becomes more irate, the pizza boy fires off a 12-gauge shotgun. You and Ryder run out to the pickup and drive back home.

Yet another mission has you driving a four person drive-by as your gang wants to hit the local gang The Ballas. As your roll by The Ballas, Sweet, Smoke, and Ryder all take aim and open fire. Your job is to move the car back and forth to dodge the returning fire. The four person drive by is amazingly real. As you drive by the three gang members adjust their aims. When you pass The Ballas, your guys will lean out the windows backwards and one will get up through the roof. After taking out this group, you go after another group of Balla members. But the cops have started chasing and you must take a detour into a Pay ‘n’ Spray. The mudded car actually becomes cleaned off, the cops stop chasing, and you go home. The Orange Grove Families are back in business, but every time you enter Balla territory, be ready for hostile activity.

The mission Reuniting the Families is about the heads of all the local gangs sitting down to talk and avoid a war. When you arrive at the hotel which is the meeting place, Sweet is the OGF representative. Suddenly a police chopper appears over the car park and cops start pouring out with guns blazing. The other members of the OGF run for their own safety, and leave you alone in the hotel to save Sweet yourself. As you march through the hotel with your shotgun you will see police flowing in from all directions and off balconies with their semi-automatics lit up. A nice shot from your shotgun will kill a cop, and the more you kill, the better your accuracy becomes (as displayed in a percentage in the top left). You can also strafe for cover now. Eventually you find a dying gangster who points you to Sweet.

The two of you escape to Smoke driving a car, who takes down the helicopter with a shotgun then speeds off. Following this is an intense car chase with Smoke driving and you shooting police cars in first person view. You can align the crosshair on the speeding cars and shoot out the tires to take them out. Suddenly a cop jumps right onto the back of the car, and you are forced to shoot him at point blank. Then another one leaps onto the front. Smoke turns down an alley and finds another helicopter in the way, with its rotors pointing at the ground. Smoke speeds up, then at the last second both of you bail out. The last image you see is the cop holding onto the front being shredded up by the spinning metal rotors.

Credit to ::w00t:: for posting -- Sat Jun 12, 2004

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http://www.gta-sanandreas.com/modules.p ... age&pid=24 - More Pics

Credit to sm sculay for posting -- Sat Jun 12, 2004

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http://www.gta-sanandreas.com/modules.p ... age&pid=18 - Confirmed features list

Credit to Ransom for posting -- Sat Jun 12, 2004

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^Listed in order they were discovered/released.

If you know of any new information, please post the link here. If its a reliable source, your resource will be added to the first post!

Edited by Guest
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Hey i wanted to post that! Everyone is much faster then me :P

I knew some other stuff but GTAGaming toke them away with almost all information that we needed :(

Ye , cause the magazine they took the stuff out contacted them and told them to take it off , and wait until the magazine is released for people outside E3

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Hey i wanted to post that! Everyone is much faster then me :P

I knew some other stuff but GTAGaming toke them away with almost all information that we needed :(

Ye , cause the magazine they took the stuff out contacted them and told them to take it off , and wait until the magazine is released for people outside E3

Yeah, but the damage is already done. They can't make people forget, and they can't stop people from discussing it.

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Hey i wanted to post that! Everyone is much faster then me :P

I knew some other stuff but GTAGaming toke them away with almost all information that we needed :(

Ye , cause the magazine they took the stuff out contacted them and told them to take it off , and wait until the magazine is released for people outside E3

Yeah, but the damage is already done. They can't make people forget, and they can't stop people from discussing it.

And i copied everything to notepad.exe :) . Yea smart move.

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Sorry about the previous site link madboy gave me people :oops:

Its obviously got some fakes on the last pages, but it had legit ones of the first. I got the original from Cray back in it's place again.

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By the way, all of this sounds a little too good to be true. Almost to the point of disbelief that the PS2 can handle it all...

:shock:

There'll have to be more frequent loading points for PS2 users for sure. Hopefully Rockstar won't be lazy with their conversion this time around and optimise it for modern PCs.

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