I love this game, I just wonder if there will be a GTA: SA 2 for xbox?????? anyway this is a great game :)

please buy if you don't have it or haven't ordered it :)

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This is a game out of the Grand Theft Auto Series so you know it is a instant classic this is a lot more fun to me than the previous game however I might add that the previous games where like nonother at their time and I could not stop playing them this offers a little bit different missions than the previous games and is a lot bigger with a bigger map and there is so much to do this is a must for GTA fans Highly Recomended Parents watch out for the Cussing and Suggested Themes this is a Mature game

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Putting aside from the typical reactions one gets from those who are predisposed to dislike this game due to its controversy (such as so-called "attorney" Jack Thompson, whose crusade against this and other violent video games has become an unintentional self-parody), it seems that there are those who are quite vocal about disliking this game due to the ridiculous amounts of hype the series receives. I can't completely blame them; after all, certain magazines (such as Game Informer) seem to throw any semblance of journalistic integrity out the window in their quest to write slavishly glowing and obsequious previews and reviews of any games from GTA's developers, Rockstar Games. These publications make it seem that there are no other worthwhile games out there aside from the GTA games, to such a degree that it almost screams payola. Or does it?

By this point, you probably are familiar with the Grand Theft Auto premise, established by Grand Theft Auto 3 in 2001. You control a criminally inclined character in a city, who can take a variety of missions from characters scattered about the area, and can pretty much take over most any vehicle. While there is a storyline in the game, you are allowed a significant amount of freedom, to the point where you can choose to not take any story missions, and instead either take on minor side missions, or simply drive about and cause chaos. GTA 3's sequel, Vice City, was the beneficiary of relentless media hype arising from the swell of unexpected success from its predecessor. While it boasted a number of improvements, such as better graphics, a great licensed soundtrack, a more cinematic storyline (complete with celebrity voice acting), somewhat better targeting, and the addition of motorcycles and helicopters, Vice City was really not the quantum leap in gaming it was billed as. Not only did it fail to correct some of the failings of GTA 3, but it also took a step backwards in environmental design, as Vice City's flashy '80s neon cool couldn't make up for its flat and boring design (as opposed to Liberty City's multi-tiered, busy design).

When the hype over the next Grand Theft Auto game began to build, my reaction was more of a "so what"? Sure, I loved the GTA Double Pack (and had originally played a fair portion of Vice City on the PS2), but did I really need another stint in a small city, pursuing the same kind of missions and mayhem as before? However, when I found out the true scope of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, my interest grew exponentially.

GTA: San Andreas is certainly one of the most ambitious action games I've ever seen. Instead of providing one mere city, this game provides an entire state, albeit a relatively small and abridged one (when compared to the real thing). Three very distinct cities (based on Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas), a dozen small towns, a mountain, desert, woods, prairie, farms, rivers- this game's environment is the definition of "throwing in the kitchen sink". The number of missions has increased from the prior installments' 60-odd missions to over 100 story/side-story missions, plus the "career" missions (vigilante, ambulance, firefighter, valet, trucker, pimp, burglar, etc.), and the inevitable racing challenges. If that's not enough, several "just for kicks" mini-games are included, such as pool, basketball free-throws, and arcade games. But wait- there's more! The variety of vehicles has once again increased, and now includes a selection of "proper" airplanes (including a fighter jet!), ATVs, and mountain bikes, in addition to cars, boats, motorcycles, and helicopters.

Beyond these changes, the gameplay mechanics have been kicked up a notch. Your character, Carl Johnson, can now not only swim, but can also climb over fences if needed. In a move unheralded in the series, the developers threw in RPG elements: the more you perform an action (running, firing a certain weapon, driving), the higher your related skill stats go. You can customize your character to a certain degree (haircuts, individual clothing items), affect your characters physique by eating and working out, and even have a few girlfriends (who you can go on dates with). Targeting has also been improved, with the addition of a new manual aim mechanic for all projectile weapons, and a fully controllable camera. At several points in the game, you'll also get to lead your own posse of gang members, and engage in territorial conflict.

The storyline this time around is a little less tongue in cheek, and a little bit more serious. You control Carl Johnson, a former gang member, who is dragged back into the lifestyle by an unexpected death in the family. Even if you were never into the "Boyz In The Hood" genre of melodrama, the game is so well executed, and expands so far beyond that conceit, that it's hard not to be drawn in. (The downside is that this game may hit too close to home for anyone in a neighborhood terrorized by gang violence and the resulting "collateral damage".) The true breadth of the game really hits you when you first drive beyond the Los Santos city limits, into the countryside of Red County. Not only is there variety to be found in the three general country areas bordering the cities, but each of the three big cities is distinct from the others. Los Santos (the Los Angeles clone) combines the sun-drenched, beachcomber vibe of Vice City with the gritty sprawl of the L.A. seen in Quentin Tarentino and John Singleton movies, and the elevated highway interchanges and lofty downtown metropolitan look of more decadent depictions of the West Coast. San Fierro's (the fake San Francisco) vertical inclines and polished architecture come off as a more genteel, pleasant version of Liberty City. While the Las Vegas-inspired Las Venturas sports the weakest layout of the cities, being too reminiscent of Vice City's flat, low-rise tract design, its neon-lit casinos, scattered industrial depots and encircling highway system provide their own charms.

For the Xbox version, there's the good...and the bad. One of the greatest improvements is the inclusion of custom soundtracks. As huge as the included soundtrack is, I feel that Vice City's '80s soundtrack is better, and I'm not much of a fan of rap or grunge (I do sort of like the New Jack Swing station). The ability to make my own soundtrack is key for a game which depends a lot on cruising around; King Crimson, Deep Purple, Angra, The Four Tops, and more make the experience more unpredictable and just more fun. The graphics are improved in that the draw distance is better, textures are a bit nicer, and the almost-overwhelming orange glow present in the PS2 version has been toned down. However, the cool car reflections of the PS2 version are MIA, for some reason. In general, the graphics are not as shiny and "clean" as the Xbox version of Vice City, but do seem to provide more detail and variety (even if in a somewhat grainier fashion). Controls are a similar mixed bag; while the Xbox control sticks are a sight better for targeting, the controls for "drive-by shooting" are abysmal, compared to the GTA Double Pack (why the change?).

This game is so huge in scope that you'll find yourself playing for 70 or more hours, whether engaged in the more elaborate missions (which involve such diverse objectives as chasing a train, framing a DA, infiltrating a military base, a high speed mid-air dog fight, and even an assassination in far away Liberty City!), betting on the horse races, or in just exploring the huge environment. It's true that the "open world" genre is no longer new and enough in itself, with competition from Saint's Row, Just Cause, and True Crime: NYC. However, while those games may have better graphics, or a more refined targeting system, none of them has the depth of gameplay, variety and attention to environmental design as this game. For once, the hype was right. They finally made a game that feels almost as immersive as an actual world, but without as many limitations. (Note to the parents reading this: DO NOT get this game for any kid under 16. It's very entertaining, but the subject matter and context of the violence [of which there is plenty] is better for a "less impressionable" mind.)

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i can't say enough good stuff about this game, but i am a die hard gta fan. all the people that sue over this game and people that try to ban it are nothing but a bunch of morons. i have killed thousands of people in this game series, but never shot one person in real life. i guess it is not this games fault. this is a great game that is rated M for a reason. these kids that kill cops should not have had it in the first place, so now we have to blame their parents! anyway, endless gameplay. i played for like a month or two before i beat it. great tunes, but i mostly used songs on my hard drive. huge city with tons to do. work-out, eat, buy clothes to pimp CJ out, get girlfriends, buy houses, fix up cars, fly planes not to mention all of the missions and what not.

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If you already own the PS2 version, i don't see the point on spending 50 dollars. The only thing i miss from the Xbox version is the individual fingers on the hands. I loved that on GTA3 and Vice City for Xbox, it was a small feature, but it was nice to not see those huge baseball glove sized hands.

The game is really good, the plot is the exact same as the PS2, features are the same, but it is nice to see the screen a little cleaned up, characters look more realistic, some of the enviroment looks more realistic, and you can even listen to your own music during driving, that is always a good Xbox feature. If you've never played it, go right ahead. Even if you want to buy it for the hell of it, go right ahead. The Xbox version might not be too different from the PS2 version but this is still a great game to own.

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Being a big fan of the others in this family of games, I hurriedly purchased it after waiting ohhh so long for it to come out on XBOX.

I was thrilled. The GTA family keeps the same formula for success, while adding enhancements and features to each predecessor, making them refreshingly challenging and fun upon each release.

Familiar friends return with the option of multiple weapons, social enactment such as purchasing power, and a multitude of soundtracks ranging from hip-hop, rap, rock, and old-school country. The storyline, action, and cinematic vision all meld together nicely for what makes to be one of the best games of the year, from a video-game line that is the most successful of the past 10!

With SA, the biggest 2 factors right off the bat are the expansion of land mass that you can cover. This thing does not go 16 blocks out to the waters edge and end, forcing you to turn back. It's AN ENTIRE CITY! Multiple Counties are tallied as you run through the hills on foot. Gang Members abound making what used to be the "average citizen" all the more dangerous to deal with. Cops on motorcycles are fluent as you travel through rich and poor neighborhoods that are connected by multiple, long sprawling freeways with several off and on ramps that help you jump down into a downtown area to garner your next mission or simple raise havoc in a community. The 2ND great feature, what with all the area you have to cover, is the "pointer pen"..this option is similiar to GPS in that you can mark your place on a map so you can easily continue on without getting disoriented, or even if you simply want to return to the "scene of the crime". Aircraft are abundant in it as well. What can I say, you could play this thing for hours!

Other fantastic features...well lets say it's a cross between SIMS and Boyz in the hood...

1) Walk into any pizza or burger joint and get your health back up with some food.

2) Customize yourself, you have a variety of things in wardrobe and will be able to shop for clothes. Don a Bandana, some cammo pants, a hockey mask, and high tops. Watches, Chains, hats, and glasses are also available!

3) Get a haircut of any kind, there are so many to choose from at the barber shop...even a pink mohawk!

4) Tattoo shop. Now this is pretty cool. I had CJ decked out with a giant AK-47 across his shoulderblades. There is a wide variety of tats to skin yourself with!

5) Go to the local gym and work out, you'll need to build your strength and stamina as you build your gang and take back your turf!

6) Accumulate money to buy real estate that will be your "safe houses". This feature we've seen before but is definitley a bennie!

7) Get points for pulling off great dancing moves at the clubs.

8) You can walk up to pretty much any arcade machine and play a classic video game!

Those are just some of the features that makes this game a cut above the rest. It's not just shooting and stuff...you are building your life in the XBOX world of SAN ANDREAS!

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As I walked out my house, I only had one thing on my mind. Sheer destruction. I looked around and saw a few drug dealers on my block. I walked up to one and he asked me if I wanted any. My being the good citizen that I was could have just walked away. Instead, I pulled out my knife and shanked him a couple times and collected the $2000 he had dropped in a puddle of blood. His buddy, just a few feet away, saw what I had done and pulled out his 9mm to cap me a few times.

I could have just avoided the situation and ran away. But I ain't no punk, so I whipped out my Silenced 9mm and shot him dead. Stand-byers that had not ran away after the killings ran away as I took aim on them.

As the ambulance came, I noticed I had a few gunshot wounds so as soon as the medics jumped out I hopped in a drove away. I drove the ambulance down the street to the gym. There I did a few minutes on the treadmill and exercise bike to work off the pizza I had eaten last night.

As I left the gym I saw a few members of a rival gang(The Ballas) dressed in purple walking on the opposite side of the street. They saw me and I jumped in the ambulance and start shooting me with Tec-9s. I slammed the pedal to the metal and drove straight toward them. Two of their dodged me and the other two weren't so lucky. I whipped the car around and tried to hit the other two. They dodged again and continued shooting as I ran into a telephone pole. Now with the ambulance smoking black, I got out and started returning fire with my Tec-9. I killed one but the other hide for cover behind the ambulance. I knew I that I didn't have much health left but could easily dispose of a single Balla with a gun. I wanted to make a statement so I carefully placed a remote explosive in front of the banged up hood of the ambulance. I ran across the street and detonated it. The car exploded with such force that the whole neighborhood shook! After all that killing, I was starving.

Since I had just exploded my only mode of transportation, I had to find another option. Luckily for me some dumb fool came riding a pretty nice BMX bike up the street. Before he had time to react, I capped him with a single shot from my Silenced 9mm. I got on the bike and pedaled quickly as up the street to the local chicken joint in East Los Santos. After a good meal, I decided I was going to go to see my girlfriend up in San Fierro. But I wasn't going to drive...

I walked out of Cluckin' Bell and jumped back on my BMX bike. I rode it down the street to the Los Santos International Airport. I had already gotten my pilot license so boarding the plane was a breeze. As soon as I got over Red County I realized I didn't change my clothes for the date. I didn't want to go in my gang (Grove Street Families) colors so I decided to fly to my safehouse at the Verdant Meadow Aircraft Graveyard. I didn't realized the mistake I had made till I had flown over the No Fly Zone and saw two heat-seeking missiles headed my way!!! I didn't have enough time to dodge the missiles so I jumped out the plane with a prayer and my parachute strapped on. The missiles hit my plane and it exploded on contact. I was now alone in the big open sky.

I safely landed a few miles south of the safehouse and hiked through the scorching desert. I landed too far from the nearest highway so I decided to suck it up and just run the rest of the way.

Once I got there, I changed clothes and decided to pull out something memorable for our date. I ran to the back of the garage and strapped on my jetpack, courtesy of my hippie friend The Truth. I soared through the sky at breckneck speeds. There was no way I was going to miss this date. I laughed as I saw a traffic jam on the Garver Bridge. That could have been me I thought. Once I got to Michelle's house I was ready for our date. But I forgot to bring a car. So I rode the jetpack to my safehouse in Doherty. I hopped in my hot pink Cheetah I had stolen from a wealthy patron of the city and sped off to Michelle's house.

The list of things you can do in this game is unbelievable. Well worth getting. Hope you enjoyed my story.

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its been a while but i finally bought this gamne and it is perfect, its violent and bloody, with mass killings that you can do at the tap of a button, there is nude pictures in the game too, in the 2.0 version. just gotta explore, so for all you parents and childish adults, who think sex is a bad thing, i wonder how you came to exsistance, i bet you all watch porn, but its not o.k for a video game marked with a mature rating to be played..you people make me sick, worry about the war in iraq, violence is 24-7 over there and worry about the streets cause violence is everywhere, and nothing is being done to fix it, like a video game will make me get up , go outside and start punching cops, or crashing my car into a crowd of people...GROW UP YOU SILLY IDIOTS, STOP BLAMING THE GAME AND START BLAMING YOUR SELFS, THE GAME DOESNT RASE YOUR CHILD....YOU DO!!!

but over all this game is flawless!! and

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By this point I've almost come to expect a new moral debate with the nigh-annual release of a new chapter in the Grand Theft Auto story. Whether it was the anti-police sentiment of GTA 1, the mass-genocide potential of GTA III or the heavy drug use of Vice City, the entire series hasn't exactly distanced itself from controversy over the years. The concept of pushing the envelope to the point of cultural war is far from novel to the men and women behind these games, so your average gamer is by this point powering up each new GTA with a certain set of expectations. If you remain loyal the series today, you're expecting to be shocked by the vulgarity and humbling potential reality of it all. Bearing that in mind, there's no denying the fact that San Andreas, "coffee" or not, is Rockstar's most ambitiously adult-flavored outing yet.

After a brief hiatus into semi-homage with the Scarface meets Miami Vice storyline of Vice City, San Andreas effectively brings the series back into the territory of wholly original storytelling. The saga begins as Carl "CJ" Johnson, the story's focus, returns home to the city of Los Santos to discover his mother in the ground and his friends and family on the losing end of a bitter gang war. His old running buddies resent him for leaving them to try his luck in Liberty City five years ago, the streets where he was raised have been overrun by drug dealers, his brother hasn't forgiven him for missing out on their mother's funeral and a corrupt police department is breathing down his neck, just waiting for him to make a mistake. In short, things could be better. Fortunately, despite their uncertainty in his loyalties, CJ's friends have no qualms about bringing him back up to speed in the gang's business and allowing him to prove himself through blood, sweat and tears, (or various, mission-based tasks, as it were) and the driving force of the story revolves around this struggle to regain CJ's previous level of respect among his peers while making things right around the homestead. The main characters of the story are rock solid, and Carl is easily the most realistically flawed lead in GTA history. He made some mistakes before the story began and he'll make a few more before it ends, but he never crosses that thick line between sympathetic hero and irredeemable monster, even after curb-stomping a few grandmas. I think it's the game's incredible comedic timing and dry wit that keep CJ appealing; whether it's his brother picking at his driving or his often-venomous conversations with random pedestrians, there's always time for a snide comment or sarcastic remark after a brutal hit and run.

The setting, a dead ringer for early-'90s Los Angeles (with clones of San Francisco and Las Vegas playing supporting roles) is as much a player in the story as the individuals themselves. You can almost feel the weight of the town's imminent civil unrest pressing down on your shoulders throughout the early chapters, and as things build to a climax, that impending explosion just gets closer and closer to reality. There's an extremely angry tone to this game, even when compared to those that came before, and on the whole it feels much more mature (for lack of a better word) and true-to-life than its often-cheesy immediate predecessor. The feel of impending doom you're charged with throughout the game slowly, casually builds to a horrific boiling point that provides the backdrop for one of the most enjoyable, seat-of-your-pants final levels I've ever played. I never thought I'd play a game with a more rewarding, exciting, Hollywood action movie-style climax than I saw in the very first Halo, but if San Andreas doesn't surpass it, it undeniably comes extremely close.

Unfortunately, while the storytelling elements of San Andreas have markedly improved in the years since Vice City, the actual gameplay experience has taken a hit or two. Don't hear me wrong, the open-ended style of gameplay that defined the previous titles in the series is still here in full effect. It's still a blast to jog around the city with a blunt object and beat random civilians into submission, or to stand in the middle of the street and look around as motorists become more and more frustrated with you for blocking their way. There just wasn't as much room for innovation here as there was between GTA3 and Vice City. The addition of motorcycles, airplanes and helicopters were substantial changes to the game, natural steps forward from what had been established before. This chapter's additions of bicycles, an intricate character customization system and a variety of level-based skill power-ups isn't quite the same, and often serves to aggravate rather than amuse. Instead of pulling up to a destruction derby or BMX race and trying your luck right away, for example, you must first spend hours building up your "driving ability" or "biking ability." Some missions require you to gain some weight by eating a dozen fast food meals, while others ask you to lose some weight by running aimlessly on a treadmill for fifteen or twenty minutes. Playing a game shouldn't feel like work, and that's what a lot of the activities required to build your stats feel like.

This was my first experience with the series on the Xbox (I own PS2 copies of the last two GTAs) and I found the translation of controls to be a little awkward, to say the least. Most of the buttons are a simple, literal masking of the PS2's functionality onto the Microsoft controller, such as the "A" button as a run / fire button or the "X" button for jumping. Where the box really loses ground is with its lack of a second "L" and "R" trigger, as well as the additional freedoms bestowed upon players with the right analog stick and the camera angle it controls. Where the L2 and R2 buttons gave players the freedom to easily look to the left, right and behind them while behind the wheel of an automobile, that same functionality is mapped to the Xbox's mysterious black and white buttons with disastrous results. On my Type-S controller, those particular buttons are so small and out of the way that I was almost immediately screaming for the return of my old Dual Shock. Performing a precise drive-by shooting, which is a necessity on several missions, is nearly impossible with these tiny buttons... and forget about looking behind you while you roam the highways of Los Santos.

Where the series has really begun to show its age with this installment is in its graphics. Though the size of the map is just insanely large, close to three times the size of Vice City, the contents are almost identical visually. Though the old engine from GTA III has been tweaked to the very limits with this release, it's still that same old engine at heart. Player models don't exactly hold up when compared with similar games released within the same year. The variety of city buildings and wall decorations is still impressive, but the actual quality of those textures leaves a lot to be desired. After hearing almost endless praise about the differences between the last two games on PS2 and on Xbox, I was left feeling extremely underwhelmed after my first experience in San Andreas.

Fortunately, the same shortcuts apparently taken with the visuals are not repeated in the audio department. The soundtrack to San Andreas, while not quite as awe-inspiring as that of Vice City, is still a behemoth of its own and does an outstanding job of setting the tone for an area and covering a wide range of genres, tastes and ethnicities. Hop into a car in the ghettos of Los Santos and you're likely to hear an excellent collection of the founding fathers of hip hop or the pioneers of gangsta rap. Steal a car in the forest-coated, far less populated towns well outside the city limits, and you're much more likely to hear some country. While the obvious focus is on rap and hip hop, there really is something for everyone here, and the collections showcased on each station are almost indisputable. The famed comedy of the on-air commercials, personalities and programming choices, while not quite up to the same level as the last two games, is still good for a laugh or two and far, far above the level of GTA's closest competitors. The sophomoric humor herein takes a step away from the sarcastic tone of previous games in favor of a slightly cheesier bathroom joke or two.

Well, when push comes to shove, I can't say that I got all I was expecting out of this package. I intentionally waited for the Xbox release for this one, hoping to enjoy it in all its glory on what's quickly becoming the most desirable platform, but in the end I would've been better off just buying it on the PS2 in the first place. The Box offered little to no visual separation over previous titles on the Sony system, and what difference I did notice in load time was balanced out by an occasionally poor control scheme and horrible problems with invisible buildings. Despite some weak innovations in the gameplay, this is still a lot of fun to play and I'd recommend it just for the ongoing insanity of that final stage, but don't expect to be completely blown away, because this is hot-and-cold stuff.

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These are the only two games that I own for Xbox and for good reason. I have bought many games in the past, but after I beat them I just sell them to at least get half the purchase price back. I have yet to be bored with Halo 2 (thanks to Xbox Live) and I know this game will be the same way after playing it for two days now. The world is HUGE and I have yet to make it out of the first of three cities. I have been wanting to play this game since it came out on PS2, but I am glad to have waited the 6 months now due to the improved graphics and 30 second replays that the Xbox version has to offer. Easily worth buying!

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Even though this is a good game and im glad its on xbox finaly its a lil too late for me. I beat this game a long ass time ago on ps2 and it was fun back then but they take too dam long to put it on xbox and by the time it came out i wasnt interested i wasnt gona pay 50$ for a game i beat almost a year ago on ps2.Even tho this is a good ass game and its alot beter on xbox than ps2 they just tak to dam long and i wont be payin 50 bucks for a game this old that i beat a while ago.So the only way im gona be buyin these games on xbox is if they start putin them on xbox alot sooner than they have wit all the other gta games. But if you never played gta on ps2 and this is new to you then pick it up its a realy good game and the lengh of the game makes it worth the price, but if you beat it on ps2 then dont get this theres not much new to it.

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No more violent than any other shooter game. I cannot believe parents are upset about the sex, yet shooting cops is okay. What a messed up set of morals.

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I've got the other GTA's and damn that I waited until now to pick this up. Production of this has been HALTED! I stopped inside a "Worst" Buy to get one and wouldn't you know it, the cowards pulled it off the shelves. If you've been stalling on this NOW IS THE TIME - BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!!

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This game is the best GTA game Thell' probobly ever come out with, everything in it is crazy!! It takes place in Southern Califas where I live, they got lowriders, Mexicans, guns, crime, everything you'd see down here!!

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finally this guy can swim can sneek behind a person with a knive and this games is also co-op

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