SouthFlorida.com | City Link Magazine

Home

Feature Story

News

Blogs

Is your favorite place to eat safe? Search the Sun-Sentinel restaurant health inspection database before grabbing that bite to eat anywhere in South Florida.

Killing time

The biggest video game of the year is finally here. Prepare to put your life on hold.

by Damon Brown

Important: This article was last updated on November 3, 2004. Please call ahead to confirm hours, prices, dates and other information.

E-mail story

Print story

PHOTO

Many gamers think the Grand Theft Auto series started on the PlayStation 2 with Tommy Vercetti's gangster-based tales of Liberty City. But the GTA series actually started on the PC back in 1998, when a no-name criminal wandered the streets of New York looking to make money. The game's visuals are 2-D and, unlike subsequent editions, the coolest thing about it is the ability to steal cars (hence the name). As in the sequels, cops and Mafia hits appear in the original, but the game is cartoonish, not unlike Grand Theft Auto on the Game Boy Advance now.

Grand Theft Auto 2 came out the following year, but it is really just a remix of the original game, kind of like Grand Theft Auto 3 and Vice City. It looks about the same as its predecessor, though gangs were added to the gameplay. Different ones give you assignments, but only after you gain their respect by killing members of the other groups. This became the blueprint for gang relationships in Grand Theft Auto 3.

The whole GTA world went 3-D in Grand Theft Auto 3, which made a big splash on the PlayStation 2. Rockstar Games created the fictional Liberty City, a world that pays homage to New York, Martin Scorsese and the Mafia. Released in 2001, GTA 3 expanded the game universe to include realistic weapons, complex story lines and, of course, eager prostitutes. It also picked up the torch from the video game Doom, quickly becoming the scapegoat for adolescent violence, ranging from attempted suicides to high-school murder sprees. It was an instant hit.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City arrived in 2002 and became a hit as well, but most gamers acknowledged that it is more of the same. Replacing the tough New York City grit with '80s-style pink Polo shirts and white pants, it is essentially a parody of Miami Vice. Vice City does expand the size of the game's setting, adding multiple story lines and more terrain to explore. Aside from the usual accusations of inspiring violence, Rockstar Games faced lawsuits by two New York-based Haitian organizations for one of its in-game missions that asks gamers to "kill the Haitians." The game company quickly issued an apology and promised to change the racist content in the remaining copies of Vice City. Of course, by that point, it had already sold several million copies.

-- Damon Brown

Tell us what you think!

Contact Damon Brown now.

Rockstar Games had a problem: How could it possibly top what had become its most wildly popular title, 2002's millions-selling Grand Theft Auto: Vice City? Well, consider this problem solved. Rockstar has outdone itself with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. It is quite possibly the best PlayStation 2 game ever made.

If Grand Theft Auto 3 were Goodfellas and Vice City were Miami Vice, San Andreas would be Menace II Society. You play Carl Johnson, a former Southern California gangbanger brought back to his old ways when his mother is murdered. His quest to find her killer sends him through the expansive western cities of San Fierro (standing in for San Francisco), Las Venturas (Las Vegas) and his hometown, Los Santos (Los Angeles). According to Rockstar, all of Vice City can fit inside Los Santos alone.

The game's visuals are outstanding. The graphics are pristine, from Carl's facial expressions, including furrowed eyebrows and sly smirks, to the shine off his lowrider's chrome rims. Bodies move with an unparalleled realism, making the animation in the previous editions seem jerky by comparison.

San Andreas' sound, however, is off the Richter scale and nearly overshadows the visuals. Rockstar made a deal with Interscope Records, home of Dr. Dre and other seminal hip-hop artists, to fuel the game with unedited classics such as "Deep Cover," "Nuthin' but a G Thang" and N.W.A's "Always Into Something." Beyond that, San Andreas features more than 100 songs, ranging from country to old-school funk, and I heard very few repeats during my hours (and hours) of play.

The sound effects are on the money, from screeching tires to shotgun blasts, and every character has an original voice, provided by dozens of actors such as Samuel L. Jackson, Ice-T and Chris Penn. Put simply, San Andreas could be mistaken for a game on the Xbox, a system almost twice as powerful as the PlayStation 2.

Any gamer familiar with Grand Theft Auto 3 and Vice City will be able to pick up this version in a second. The controls are the same, though tapping the run button will make Carl move faster. Driving also hasn't changed, except now, the right joystick makes Carl's lowrider jump (which can come in handy during competitions).

The most radical difference is in character development. Carl can get chiseled by working out at the gym, but eating only fast food will make him fat. Taking a page from role-playing games, San Andreas affords players experience points and meters that show Carl's progress. For instance, using a shotgun regularly to take out foes will eventually upgrade your shotgun skills (to, say, gangsta level), just as regularly using a BMX to get around town would increase your bike skills. Even more interesting are the little extras available, such as being able to go clothes shopping or give Carl a dope haircut. He looks extra badass wearing a tight, white T-shirt, Chuck Taylors and a high-top fade.

The game's secondary characters seem more alive than those in previous Grand Theft Autos. People hold conversations in the street and, if they know Carl, greet him by name as he walks past. It's not unusual to witness a police chase that has absolutely nothing to do with Carl and, if you're lucky, you may actually see a showdown between the police and a perp.

Like its predecessors, San Andreas is a mission-based game, but the distractions run deeper than ever. If you grab a storage van at night, you can sneak into random houses and steal things. Racing competitions are more plentiful, including a NASCAR-style face-off apropos of nothing. The funniest -- and, uh, funnest -- minigame has Carl dancing in time with the music � la Konami's Dance Dance Revolution. You'll swear you're at a Compton house party.

I do have two reservations about San Andreas: It's filled with bad firing and bad representations. Although aiming a gun is a tremendous improvement over the horrible control scheme in the previous two games, it can still be confusing -- yet only when six gang members are jumping Carl. Second, like all the other GTA games, San Andreas is based on stereotypes -- in this case, African-American and Latino gangbangers in South Central Los Angeles. The N word is used as flagrantly as a pistol, and it's easy to get offended. If Rockstar's goal was to emulate art depicting black-on-black crime of the early '90s accurately, it has achieved it.

Rockstar claims that one game of San Andreas can last more than 150 hours. With its dead-on style, fabulous music and addictive gameplay, I suggest you invest in No-Doz. (10)


	Best of 2005 \| News \| \| \| Music \| Bars & Clubs \| Movies \| \| \| Archives \| Event Search \| Music Search \| Advertise \| Staff