• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

GTA SAN ANDREAS is genius best GTA

GigaBowser

The bear of bad news
best GTA hands down gangster

best missions story characters girlfriends and you can swim go to gym get muscles hair do stealth shooting rolls

why have GTA not as good anymore?

ah-shit-here-we-go-again-ah-shit.gif


Screenshot-2024-02-26-045427.png
 
Last edited:

GymWolf

Gold Member
The whole gangsta ghetto stuff didn't hooked me and i bailed out by half game tbh.

Gta3 or vice city are still the best old gta for me (especially 3).

Probably my least favourite rockstar game, and that include bully and manhunt.
 
Last edited:

Three

Member
I think after San Andeas Rockstar leaned into creating set characters rather than the RPG-like elements it had in SA. They relegated that to online for GTA5.
 
Last edited:

GymWolf

Gold Member
I think after San Andeas Rockstar leaned into creating set characters rather than the RPG-like elements it had in SA.
Cj was a set character, just not as interesting as niko or tommy or arthur or john or others.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
Yeah but you could make him fat by eating burgers, swoll by working out, give him an afro, blond mohawk etc. It had far more rpg-like elements. After that Niko, Franklin, Trevor, and Michael were far more set characters.
You can change his aspect but the character remain the same.

You can do the same with arthur and he is arguably the best character rockstar has ever written.

He was just dull and boring, this is why people remember him more like an avatar than a set character.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
Well yeah, but you choose more what the characters life is like, including choosing his girlfriend. In later games they got rid of that for more set characters and less RPG elements.
The writing doesn't change a bit so imo he still is a set character.

You can make arthur fat, she is still gonna have the same dialogue during missions and story bits, same for cj.
 

Markio128

Gold Member
It was probably my least favourite GTA tbh. Those things you see as positives I saw as negatives. I’m all for improving the environmental interactivity, rather than pissing around with the character - and the game seemed overly stretched out for me. I like my GTA’s simple, but fun, like pretty much all of the others. Even GTAV was a bit on long side for my liking.
 

Three

Member
You can make arthur fat, she is still gonna have the same dialogue during missions and story bits, same for cj.
I agree that Arthur is more fleshed out in RDR2. He has far better dialogue (SA is a PS2 game after all) and his facial features aren't 8 polygons but just like CJ he's a less set 'RPG-like' character than the likes of Niko or Trevor from more recent GTAs.

I would say that is the main difference between SA and the GTAs that followed. For whatever reason, for better or worse, they decided to move all those RPG elements outside of GTAs campaign and into its online. They did carry it on in RDR though.
 
Played this the first time in 2019 and even I would agree. Game totally blew me away. Loves how this starts out as the typical hood gangsta story and then gets crazier over time with hijacking airplanes and shit. Game’s a masterpiece.
 

ShakenG

Member
Enjoyed all of them growing up. Was the golden period for games and movies for me. Will never be topped.
I did however enjoy the Vice city theme a bit more, the lights, tropical water feel..music. the era in general.
But the map was absolute garbage in comparison to San Andreas. What a leap that was!!

GTAV will fix that for me i reckon. Gona be awesome.
 
Last edited:

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Recently 100%'d each game's definitive edition and yeah, SA is the "best game" overall - VC is still my favourite though, and also by far the best game to 100% complete. SA has some insane bloat in there because at the time they were just throwing stuff at the wall to see what stuck.
 

shamoomoo

Member
No, it was not the same thing of gta3 and vice city.

I don't enjoy the whole ghetto/rapper/my nigga type of criminal stuff.
Lol? Claude was a bank robber and Tommy was a potential drug dealer.

I'm not sure what you mean by the highlighted stuff as CJ only interaction with Rap was MC Loc.

San Andreas interaction with the world was different as CJ was more grounded than the previous characters in GTA so family and friends has a different impact with regards to relationships that could be built. Basically,Claude and Tommy are too independent from all the story non-playable characters in each game.
 

Hudo

Member
Lol? Claude was a bank robber and Tommy was a potential drug dealer.

I'm not sure what you mean by the highlighted stuff as CJ only interaction with Rap was MC Loc.

San Andreas interaction with the world was different as CJ was more grounded than the previous characters in GTA so family and friends has a different impact with regards to relationships that could be built. Basically,Claude and Tommy are too independent from all the story non-playable characters in each game.
I think he meant the whole ghetto vibe that SA was going for with "the hood" and gangbanging and the like. I had trouble with that as well, since I am not American enough to "get it". I found it much easier to "get" Vice City. But now that I've visited the US a couple of times I can appreciate San Andreas and its setting and vibes.
 

KaiserBecks

Member
I think he meant the whole ghetto vibe that SA was going for with "the hood" and gangbanging and the like. I had trouble with that as well, since I am not American enough to "get it". I found it much easier to "get" Vice City. But now that I've visited the US a couple of times I can appreciate San Andreas and its setting and vibes.
The whole „hood“ thing is only represented for roughly a third of the game though. Once you leave the city with the mothership, you’re introduced to a lot of diverse characters.
 

Rudius

Member
In 2004 I thought GTA San Andreas was the pinnacle of gaming as a technology and art form. It was an absolute pleasure to experience it.

I hope they haven't given up on releasing a VR por for Quest, as that would make me buy one.
 

Hudo

Member
The whole „hood“ thing is only represented for roughly a third of the game though. Once you leave the city with the mothership, you’re introduced to a lot of diverse characters.
True. That was also when I really started to like San Andreas. Every time I replayed it I would go as quickly as possible through the first act of the game. Nowdays I can also enjoy the first act.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
I think he meant the whole ghetto vibe that SA was going for with "the hood" and gangbanging and the like. I had trouble with that as well, since I am not American enough to "get it". I found it much easier to "get" Vice City. But now that I've visited the US a couple of times I can appreciate San Andreas and its setting and vibes.
Exactly.

I always found that type of criminals and vibe super fucking cringe or i just don't get the "cool" part of it.

Cloud was a bank robber but you end up working with the italian mob and the asian mob, the vibe was completely different, same for vice city.

And it's not a black people thing, i cringe like a motherfucker every time i see a white dude with a sport jersey 3 times larger than his size, huge gold necklaces, backwards baseball cap etc.
Italians also have their cringe stuff like some goons going around with a fucking sweatpants, but it stop there.

I don't remember jack shit about san andres but since i always cringe at black ghetto rapper criminal vibe, that's probably why i didn't liked the game.
.
I visited the us aswell but i still find that shit cringe as hell.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
The whole „hood“ thing is only represented for roughly a third of the game though. Once you leave the city with the mothership, you’re introduced to a lot of diverse characters.
Then maybe i abandoned the game before getting to the good part because the first part soured me on the game.

Maybe i'm gonna buy the collection when it's dirty cheap and give the game a second chance.
 

shamoomoo

Member
I think he meant the whole ghetto vibe that SA was going for with "the hood" and gangbanging and the like. I had trouble with that as well, since I am not American enough to "get it". I found it much easier to "get" Vice City. But now that I've visited the US a couple of times I can appreciate San Andreas and its setting and vibes.
Huh? How is that different from Claude and Tommy Vercetti? Being mobbed up is gangbanging.

Claude isn't an assassin, he's a bank robber turned into whatever criminal the game wants.

Tommy Vercetti has mob ties and is into drug dealing. Just because both characters aren't hillbillies doesn't remove them from CJ in anyway.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
Huh? How is that different from Claude and Tommy Vercetti? Being mobbed up is gangbanging.

Claude isn't an assassin, he's a bank robber turned into whatever criminal the game wants.

Tommy Vercetti has mob ties and is into drug dealing. Just because both characters aren't hillbillies doesn't remove them from CJ in anyway.
Just for the record, Cj wasn't an hillbillie neither, that would be trevor in gta5 if my understanding of the word hill billie is correct.

(or at least trevor was the closest thing to an hill billie, i think even michael call him hill billie)
 
Definitely my favourite GTA. I remember getting it just after it released, I was 14 years old and it just blew me away. The amount of stuff you could do was insane.
 

Laptop1991

Member
Yeah, 100 percent agree, still the goat of GTA games, i loved it, GTA 4 wasn't as good for me and lost the fun factor of SA until the dlc's came out.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
I really liked it except for having to constantly either save or eat. It felt like it made exploration and secret hunting more tedious than it needed to be.
 

Hudo

Member
Huh? How is that different from Claude and Tommy Vercetti? Being mobbed up is gangbanging.

Claude isn't an assassin, he's a bank robber turned into whatever criminal the game wants.

Tommy Vercetti has mob ties and is into drug dealing. Just because both characters aren't hillbillies doesn't remove them from CJ in anyway.
I mean there are completely different vibes going on in (at least the first act of) San Andreas vs. Vice City vs. GTA3. Of course CJ, Claude and Tommy are gangsters. But Claude and Tommy aren't "gangbangers in the hood" for some "crew". They speak differently, behave themselves differently, dress themselves differently and are generally less concerned with some sort of hood or gang.

Or are you trying to say that, for example, the Italian mobsters in Chicago are the same as the Cribs and Bloods in California in terms of general behavior, tone and etiquette? I want to stress that I am not saying that one is superior over the other or something. Just that I had trouble "getting it" when it came to the whole L.A. ghetto gangbanging culture as you'd see with the Bloods or Cribs, which inspired the gangbanging culture depicted in Los Santos in San Andreas.
 

Duchess

Member
I did rather rate Samuel L Jackson's performance as Frank Tenpenny. He made for a great bent cop, and I very much enjoyed killing him at the end.
 

Chuck Berry

Gold Member
I definitely think its the most impressive of the franchise in terms of its casting. Riding on the wave of celebrities they got for Vice City they really went all out with San Andreas.

Samuel L Jackson
Chris Penn
James Woods
Peter Fonda
Ice T
Clifton Collins Jr
David Cross
Frank Vincent
etc.
 

shamoomoo

Member
I mean there are completely different vibes going on in (at least the first act of) San Andreas vs. Vice City vs. GTA3. Of course CJ, Claude and Tommy are gangsters. But Claude and Tommy aren't "gangbangers in the hood" for some "crew". They speak differently, behave themselves differently, dress themselves differently and are generally less concerned with some sort of hood or gang.

Or are you trying to say that, for example, the Italian mobsters in Chicago are the same as the Cribs and Bloods in California in terms of general behavior, tone and etiquette? I want to stress that I am not saying that one is superior over the other or something. Just that I had trouble "getting it" when it came to the whole L.A. ghetto gangbanging culture as you'd see with the Bloods or Cribs, which inspired the gangbanging culture depicted in Los Santos in San Andreas.
That's surface level nonsense,those differences stem from how each group are organized and how race/ethnicity affects each character take on crime.


Claude is an outlier in the contemporary GTA games as he very few connections outside of his girlfriend.


Tommy and CJ are more similar to each other than Claude. Heck,I would say Tommy and CJ are closer to each other than the later characters in the series.
 
Last edited:

MarkMe2525

Gold Member
I don’t agree, the tacked on RPG Lite mechanics are more of an annoyance than something that is fun to engage with. I do like the map and CJ is a good protagonist, but I think Niko is goat.
 
Last edited:

Hudo

Member
That's surface level nonsense,those differences stem from how each group are organized and how race/ethnicity affects each character take on crime.


Claude is an outlier in the contemporary GTA games as he very few connections outside of his girlfriend.


Tommy and CJ are more similar to each other than Claude. Heck,I would say Tommy and CJ are closer to each other than the later characters in the series.
So, for you then the settings and characters of San Andreas, Vice City and GTA3 are the same? Well, for me there are fundamental differences.

Edit: I am actually not sure what you're trying to argue. Some people just don't like the setting of San Andreas as much because they find the "hood culture" (and I don't mean it in any derogatory way) unfamiliar or unappealing or whatever. To me, it was the unfamiliarity and also sometimes (I was a lad in school learning English back then) difficulty in understanding the way characters speak and certain mannerisms. It was easier to me to understand and get the feel of both GTA3 and Vice City. Later, with more knowledge, I also "got" San Andreas. That's all I am saying.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom