05-23-2004, 02:10 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: SC
Posts: 6,727
Rep Power: 325
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IGN
Quote:
Game Informer Magazine's issue 134, dubbed the "San Andreas Issue" is just that, a tribute to Rockstar's multi-million selling franchise. In it, Game Informer lays out the groundwork for what will ultimately become this year's biggest selling and most anticipated PlayStation 2 game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
The article is some ten pages deep and details many previously unknown aspects of the title and perhaps even some previously unimagined ones. San Andreas, which we surmise is technically the seventh in the series of Grand Theft games, is fundamentally very much like GTA III and Vice City, only with a hell of a lot more tacked onto the base drive / shoot game.
This early 1990s fictional interpretation of a combination of California and Nevada isn't just a greater Los Angeles called San Andreas (New York or Chicago's Liberty City of the west). As Game Informer goes on to elaborate, it is instead an amalgamation of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and all of the countryside that would lie between them. Each of the three areas corresponding to the three real-life cities upon which Rockstar drew inspiration is said to be as large as all of Vice City. Put them together and add in the in-between roads and you have a map that's substantially more than thrice the size of the last GTA. This is our backdrop for the latest crime spree. Replete with gangs, underlings, bosses, bystanders, and the promise of eventual cameos by GTA memorables, the adventure through San Andreas promises to be an extremely large one.
A new streaming technology will ensure the changes in scenery are immediate, but will also allow for more detailed environments than before. This technological expansion also apparently goes on to include subtleties like real-time reflections, softer shadowing, ragdoll physics applied to fallen adversaries, and independent models dedicated to day and night cycles. All of this visual splendor is only in place to help develop the actual game, of course.
As the Game Informer article continues, we learn that purchasing structures will play a more pivotal role in the title. This time around it will be possible to even own and operate a casino bought by money earned from completed missions and even that stolen from households and businesses in the after hours. Naturally, Rockstar also promises AI and control advancements that come hand-in-hand with the announcement of every sequel, making it possible to hire three companion thugs to join in the unlawful festivities and shoot in way compared to Manhunt.
When not criminal-ing, players will have to maintain their characters by consuming food. Eat too many donuts and you turn fat and lose stamina, speed, and respect. Go to the gym regularly and your boy will be a right and proper killing machine. Even his appearance will change, depending. So, if you want to swim with some skill (you sure can now), then you'll have to lay off the twice fried Twinkies.
Expect our fat, donut munching, bicycle riding, pistol wielding, ocean swimming, poker playing asses to come back with a hands-on as soon as it is made available. Until then, please check out Game Informer issue 134 for the full, unadulterated San Andreas scoop. And, be sure to also add San Andreas to your watched list, so that the latest updates can hit your inbox with haste.
-- Ivan Sulic
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