Blast From The Past: GTA San Andreas

Today I took time aside to write about my favorite game, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, GTA SA for short. Even though it is a more up to date game than the others I have written about, It is still a game of the past for me. San Andreas was realesed in 2004 for older consoles such as PS2 and X-box, then a year later it was realesed for PC. San Andreas is an RPG (Role Playing Game) that takes place in San Andreas, which was suppose to represent California, or mainly the West Coast. The main character is CJ, Carl Johnson who comes home from the East Coast when his brother tells him that their mother was murdered.

Sgt. Frank Tenpenny

What I thought was cool about SA is that it featured a couple of celebrities including Samuel Jackson, whose role was a Police officer in a special operations unit called C.R.A.S.H (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums). His name was Sgt. Officer Frank Tenpenny. The game featured many metropolitan cities like Los Santos (Los Angeles) CJs hometown, San Fierro (San Fransisco), and Las Venturas (Las Vegas). When CJ returns home on Grove Street in Ganton (Compton), he finds his freinds and fellow gang memebers heading down the path to desturction due to the 1980s-1990s Crack epedemic. Throughout the game, CJ tends to stray away from drugs and gang violence and resorts to his entrepreneurial aspect, finding a better life for his remaining brother and sister, Sweet and Kendel. On CJ's way home Officer Tenpenny pulls him over and frames him for homicide of a cop. Throughout the game CJ is constantly harrassed by Tenpenny as he keeps black  mailing CJ. Eventually, the at the end CJ unravels the story behind his mothers death, the plot of the story is said to be related to the LAPD Rampart Scandal.

Some of the reasons I loved San Andreas was one, the radio stations. The radio stations played a lot of classic hip hop and rap, gangsta rap like Eazy-E, NWA , funk such as Zapp, soul, R&B and others. The music really reflected the time period, the early 1990s. I liked the stations because the music is kind of what I grew up listening to, a lot of oldies. Another reason is because of the setting. I loved the fact that it was set on the west coast, this is because previous GTA's seemed to be set on the east and SA was set somewhere different. Another attibute SA offered was the story. The story was one of the best I ever played and always kept me interested. But most of all, I enjoyed the gameplay.

Because SA is free roam, the player can do many things around the map. For example, character customization, if CJ wanted a haircut he can go to Old Reces barber shop and get a high fade or afro, if he wanted to work out and get buff he could go to the Ganton Gym, and if he wanted to be over weight he could eat at Cluckin Bell all day long. Car customization was awesome, you could mod cars with hydraulics and paint colors, and last but not least CJ had some interaction with people in the city and you were given the choice to respond positivley or negativley. I have always been a fan of Rockstar and GTA, and I look forward to thier upcoming title GTA 5 which is said to be set in Los Santos again. I am excited for this becuase the GTA 4 era was set in Liberty City (New York). I think that now graphics are improved and cities and landmarks are realistic, GTA 5 will be extremley sucsessful.

Until Next Time!

GTA 5 Trailer Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkkoHAzjnUs