GTA San Andreas: CJ's Play House

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, is perhaps the most controversial video game ever released. It had politicians blaming Rockstar and the entire gaming industry, for causing the moral decay of American youth, and plenty of community do-gooders wanted to have it banned. For awhile this worked, while Rockstar removed some questionable unlockable content, but thankfully cooler heads prevailed and realized that this game does nothing to create criminals or nefarious activity in real life. In fact the controversy that surrrounded this, and all of the media coverage, helped spur sales to record amounts.

As fans of the GTA series know, there have been a number of installments, characters, stories, and cities in this successful franchise. Its hard to believe how far this game has come, as the first one had terrible graphics and limited gameplay, but ever since Vice City came own, its improved greatly. While I do miss the lawyer bantering about his clients rights to dignity after going on a rampage, like that edition had, San Andreas offers a lot more bargain for the buck. And yes, even though I am partial to the 80's soundtrack that was on VC, there are some awesome songs from the 90's on this one.

In San Andreas, you are CJ, who already has a thuggish reputation before this game begins. You start out with nothing but a bicycle to ride, where you go through the usual missions, such as saving relatives, killing enemies, and either recruiting gang members or destroying rival factions. The missions do take awhile to load up, but once you get through the opening scenes, the action is impeccable. Some of the shady characters are voiced by famous actors, which gives this game a different edge than most competitors of this series, and I like how the graphics look fairly realistic in these animated movies leading up to the missions.

The graphics are a huge improvement, even over Vice City, which were actually pretty good. A lot of previous editions had people walking on the streets, that appeared to be doing the robot dance move, while walking down the street in awkward fashion. I almost felt bad the first time I blasted a pedestrian with the shotgun, because what you are looking at are graphics that look a bit too realistic for this situtation. They even react when you punch or kick them, and you can collect money from them by taking them out. This money helps you upgrade your clothing, get tattoos, eat food and drink, and even to gamble at casinos.

You can either go through missions, and accumulate money and weapons, or you can use the cheats. These are available at numerous places on the web, and they are a load of fun. This game has more cheats than any I have ever played, and you can start with weapons by picking Good #1, Better #2, or Best #3. All of these cheat codes are entered by hitting buttons on your controllers in the proper sequence, and they are fairly easy to do with a little bit of practice. Not much coordination is required either, so folks that have issues with Mortal Kombat codes, will be satisfied with these.

There are the usual weapons, such as knives, chainsaws, pistols, and machine guns. My favorites are the grenades, and the Rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher. You can cause a lot of damage to cars with these, and even blow up airplanes or boats if you get tired of them. Speaking of aviation, I have to admit spending a lot of time at Los Santos Airport. Its easy to get onto the runway, by either jumping on top of a car to climb over the gate, or to use the jetpack which is an available cheat.

Los Santos Airport looks very realistic, and I like being able to parachute off of the tower, which is another fun cheat to use. At this airport there are a couple of corporate jets, as well as a propeller plane that is difficult to use. I'm a big fan of the corporate jets, because they are the easiest to fly, and you can spend a lot of time just practicing taking off, steering the plane, and landing it. Its another fine way of getting to see the city from above, and its a joy to jump out of the plane on the parachute and land in Las Venturas.

Las Venturas is Las Vegas, and there is plenty to do here as well. You can go to the gentlemans club, and get a lap dance, by a dancer that has a g-string and bikini top on. My favorite thing to do in this game is gamble, and there are plenty of casinos to choose from. My favorite is the Red Dragon, which is located on the strip. You start out with a small amount of gambling capabilities, but as you play more machines, the amount the house will loan you goes up considerably. Here you can play video poker, or try your hand at Blackjack or Roulette.

Its hilarious when CJ loses. He gets really animated, and some of his expressions are so funny, even though I can't repeat them here. When he cusses out the casino after a big loss, I've actually doubled over with laughter, and when he wins big he often yells "Well look at that, " or "CJ!" Its very realistic, as you can easily lose a lot of money, but if you put a million dollars on the green zero in roulette, you can walk out with hundreds of millions in your pocket. Avoid the Spinning wheel, as its hard to earn anything on that game.

If you want a unique challenge, lose all of your money in the casino, and take out a loan there. If you lose that, then you will get phone calls reminding you that this loan must be repaid. All it takes is about five minutes, and the casino will dispatch a group of heavily armed thugs after you. It is loads of fun getting into gunfights with them, and they are actually pretty good shots, so be sure to have your armor level at its highest setting.

While in Las Venturas, be sure to get plenty of looks at the strip, which is very realistic. Also go see Area 51, and avoid being shot at by flying projectiles. One funny roadside stop is a UFO restaurant, and some of the small towns are populated by residents driving tractors down the main streets. Be sure to go to the Las Venturas Airport, because here you can actually fly a commercial sized jet liner. All you have to do is go to the main hangar, and stand in front of it. The doors will eventually drop down, and you walk into the large  jet by entering it on the walkway, and you can take it for a spin. It takes some time to master, as it flies like an oversized mosquito, but its another way of getting more enjoyment from this game. Of course, you can always use the helicopter and fighter jet cheats!

Next to Las Venturas is San Francisco copy San Fernando, which has the most realistic Golden Gate Bridge clone I've ever seen. Its truly spellbinding from the air, and I almost felt like looking for the rice-a-roni. The city is just like the others, with appealing graphics, realistic people abd buildings, but there is not as much to do there. However it is better than nothing, and it also has an airport that you can tool around in. You can literally play this game for weeks, and not see each part of these three cities, because the areas of play are just so huge.

The missions alone can take several weeks to complete, and the cars in this version are awesome as well. You can either carjack people for them, and there are even some mopeds and full sized choppers that you can tool around in. Of course the cheats give you loads of vehicle choices, which include race cars that absolutely fly and have much better handling than previous GTA's. Its actually nice being able to control these cars at high speed, without constantly losing control, and I just love outrunning the cops in some of these souped up vehicles. In addition to fast cars, luxury cars, and basic sedans, you can spawn tanks, eighteen wheeler trucks, and my personal favorite which is a monster truck. Its just so much fun to drive this, and you can run over cars just like a real one can!

This is one amazing game, and with its graphics, gameplay, and expansive environment it is a winner for video game fanatics. Even though it is around four or five years old, I still fully recommend it as a classic, and its graphics are almost as good as the xbox 360's GTA IV. This is quite an accomplishment for any game from an older platform, but even more so for Rockstar Games, which obviously understands the importance of providing stunning visuals along with the great story lines. I don't want to think about how much time I've wasted with this game, but it has been worth it, due to its high level of excitement, cheats, and replay value that is rarely seen.