Go buy San Andreas, right now.

[Lord Nepenthean]

I picked up GTA: San Andreas last night, and just like Vice City and even GTA3, this game is reason enough to own a PS2, even if you never bought anything else for the system.  You need to go buy this game, right now.

I played for about three hours last night, and San Andreas is HUGE.  The residential neighborhoods are enormous.  Right now I think I'm only allowed in one of the three cities, but I can't really say yet...  I haven't seen all of Los Santos (first city) yet.

There are some great control improvements over the last game.  You can actually climb up over fences, bushes, and walls.  No more jumping fifty times and hoping a glitch puts you on top of a fence.  You can also grab onto ledges mid-air when jumping from rooftop to rooftop.  You probably all also read about swimming.  One other more minor thing is that you can cancel getting into a car midway through the motion.  In Vice City, if you hit triangle to get in a car and then a cop came up as you were in mid-motion, you were screwed.  Not so anymore.

Another nice feature of this game is that you can set your own custom map markers.  In Vice City, when you were learning your way around the city, you had to keep switching between the map screen on the pause menu and the little mini map on-screen.  Now you can put a marker on the pause screen that will direct you via the on-screen mini-map.  Soooo nice.

The exercising and eating thing is interesting.  No final verdict on that yet, though my initial reaction is it's kinda cool.  I'm still not sure yet though, because if what I've built up declines too quickly, it could get annoying.

So far, so good.  Oh, the soundtrack is good, but it doesn't seem to be on par with the brilliance of the Vice City soundtrack.

[Zimbacca]

Must. Own.

[Hydrobond]

Have computer. Will wait.

[Izret101]

Do not have my own PS2. Will also wait.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

I think i'll go get a PS2 because of this game.

[Arrrhalomynn]

It's not out here till thursday. I won't get it though, I don't have money for it at the moment.

[sinning.dragon]

I'm in the same boat as Arr. If I had money, I'd go get a ps2 and then the game.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

If none of you guys have dough I guess my idea for "The Leon gamers fund" is bust then.

[Izret101]

Ahahahahahaaaaa. I don't give my hard earned cash out to anyone. I have a little story that emphasizes this point extremely but i'll save it for now.

I am debating getting the PSTwo or just waiting till after Xmas for sales, or just getting a used PS2 or just any PS2s that might be left in stock cheaper.  Or just not buy one and get like between 5 and a-crap-load games instead .

[Lord Nepenthean]

I don't think you guys understand.  This is the game of the year.  It's probably the best game to date on PS2, and possibly ever.  You need this game.  Sell your car.  Pawn your N64.  Steal it from your friend who bought it already.  Do what you have to do, but you need this game.

I've already put 15 hours into this.  Yup.  15 hours in about 35 hours of my life.  Sad?  Yeah.  But hey, I haven't really sat down and played a video game for more than 15 minutes since April, so you can't be too mean to me.

This game is ENORMOUS.  Take Vice City, multiply it times three, add some more to that, and add a whole buch of countryside in between too.  The graphics and effects (fire, water, weather in particular) are a lot better than in Vice City.  Also, cars take a lot more realistic damage.  In general, all of the graphic effects are better in this game.  Then, there are all of the control features that I mentioned before - swimming, climbing, etc.

Lots of new mission types as well, but I'm not gonna spoil any of that for you.
[hidden]DDR-style dance missions (which are kind of annoying honestly) and gang wars, allowing you to take over territory and earn money from it - these are sah-weeeet.[/hidden]

I'm telling you on% more time.  Go buy this game.  NOW.

[Antimind]

I can't and won't. I've tried to play GTA 3 and Vice City and I got motion sickness from both. Some games do that to me, mostly 3D which is why I'm stuck in old skool land..

[Izret101]

This happend to a girl i knew so i got 2 brand new PS2 games from her for 40 bucks. Dark Cloud and Jak and Daxter.
I think i am going to end up buying a PSTwo. I will ask for San Andreas for Xmas(or vice versa).

[Hydrobond]

I'll wait for the PC version.

[Lord Nepenthean]

WTF?  San Andreas is a two player game.  I'm not really sure how, but sure enough it says 1-2 Players on the box, and there's a spot in the game that tells you how to activate the two-player game.  I'd try it out, but I don't have anybody here right now to play alongside me.  Weird.

[Zimbacca]

Two player? That's just fucked up.