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Boonedock's Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2)
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| [September 22, 2009 11:00:15 PM]
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While I love the San Andreas storyline, I suddenly remember what really pissed me off about this game. The ridiculously and unnecessarily drawn out mission times and objectives. It is not unique to GTA, but I have found in San Andreas that these missions are many. For example, Sweet is trapped at his girlfriend's apartment because enemy gang members from the Seville Boulevard gangsters are shooting at them. Your objective is to get him out and take him back to the hood. If only it were that simple, as I had to deal with exploding cars, firefighters, and dumb AI enemies that would run into the walls. The mission that should have taken 5 min ending up being 15 min long and annoying as all hell.
Even though that was quite annoying, the things I love best about GTA:SA were plentiful. The mission where you steal weapons with Ryder from an old man is a very fun and rewarding mission (from a GTA standpoint, not real life). Not only do you perform the robbery in the mission, but from that point forward can perform robberies at many houses in SA while not on a mission. I love the little things that you can do in this game that the other games don't have. I have found that in replaying GTA:SA, I tend to play all the missions closest to the save point (CJ's house) rather than driving to Big Smoke's house to finish those missions.
At this point in the story, CJ is still faced with animosity from his old friends and ends up getting back into old habits he originally stated he didn't want to do. He has pretty much broken some of the biggest laws in the books such as, murdering gang members and stealing guns & cars. CJ is fighting to find his mother's murder but is he doing more harm than good by doing all these acts? I don't think so because he just seems to be doing the dirty work of the Grove Street Families while getting no rewards so far. I look forward to continue playing this game and remember all what happens. All in all I enjoyed playing GTA:SA again and have found that it is still my favorite GTA game by far.
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| [September 20, 2009 11:12:15 PM]
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Deeper into the game now, more problems arise between the Grove Street Families and the archenemy Ballas. The plot digs a little deeper into the issues at hand such as CJ’s old friends distrust in him. The levels so far have dealt with the following: killing crack dealers/crack heads, killing Ballas and protecting Grove Street territory, working out, buying clothes and guns, and performing drive- by shootings. It is just another day in the life of CJ in San Andreas.
I begin to question CJ’s motive to keep doing all these things for Grove Street. Now being a GTA game it would be no fun to play if you did not do these things, but the question I ask from the outside looking in is why help someone who has a negative view of you? Ryder and Sweet have no love for CJ, Ryder constantly calling CJ a buster, and Sweet calling out things CJ does wrong. To me, the only friend CJ has right now is Big Smoke, who treats CJ with respect and as a true friend.
As far as graphics goes, I begin to respect the graphics even though they suck compared to today, they are much better than other PS2 games that came out around the same time (Madden 05 comes to mind as well as a few Star Wars games). The controls are still very easy to use and I have been re-taught some of the weapon techniques like crouching while shooting and switching from object to object to shoot. I completely forgot about the working out and clothes personalization of the game, which I am a huge fan of. Working out is just another thing that distracts you from the plot but also makes the game deeper and more fun to play. The costume customization is an aspect of the game that I feel was grossly overlooked in GTA: IV. Picking every little thing from sunglasses to Africa pendants, I loved the choices you had of what to wear and the fact that every store had different clothes from one another. I am deeply engrossed yet again in the San Andreas story and continue to enjoy the nostalgia (although only 5 years old) of playing such a great game.
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| [September 19, 2009 01:22:42 PM]
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After several years of not playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, I decided to start the game over from scratch. I realized there were many key details of the story I had forgotten so it was good to restart it. The game begins with the main character, CJ, leaving Liberty City to go back home to San Andreas. From the cut scenes to the gameplay, I realize how incredibly horrible PS2 graphics are compared to PS3 in high definition.
The one thing I thoroughly enjoyed about GTA: SA before and now is the gameplay. The controls are basic and have good response, and the things you can do in the environment are plentiful (even more so than GTA: IV). Getting back to the story, CJ returns to San Andreas because of his mother’s murder. He reunites with his old gang, the Grove Street Families that includes Big Smoke, Ryder, and Sweet.
I have played the Ryder and Sweet levels so far and have enjoyed relearning the way Grove Street has changed. With Ryder, you take his car and go to Grove Street territory to get a haircut and some clothes. I always laughed at how you can get any hairstyle w/o any hair (going from bald to Afro). In the Big Smoke level, you are tasked with tagging over Balla tags and taking back some turf from the Ballas. I hope when I get deeper in the game, it remains a great game like I remember it to be.
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