"Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" is ridiculous.
There are more things to do in this one game than in your entire PS2 library at home.
There are missions that progress the story - and we'll get to that - but first consider the endless options.
Find a basketball court, and you can shoot some hoops. Find a pool hall, and you can take on local sharks for big money. Or you can pick up a lowrider and enter bouncing competitions for huge cash - the right stick controls the car's hydraulics, so you can stay in step with the beats.
You can lift weights to get buff, run on a treadmill to get fit, or spar local fighters to improve your hand-to-hand scrapping. You can even sneak into locked houses at night and steal an unsuspecting family's television while the people sleep quietly upstairs.
You can do all those things within the first half hour of "San Andreas," a game that will probably take more than 50 hours to beat.
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You can even date. Yeah, you go out and dance with different women, try to stay in step, and avoid making them mad.
"San Andreas" is a more-than-worthy successor to the Grand Theft Auto license that blew up five years ago with GTA3 and continued with "Vice City." It's much deeper and more involved than either game, but it's also funnier, scarier and more fun to play. It truly may be the single most entertaining videogame you'll ever play - until the next GTA comes out.
In "San Andreas," you play as Carl Johnson, a former gangbanger who left the hood of Los Santos - think Los Angeles - for the East Coast five years ago. He is forced to return home after his mother is murdered. Not five minutes after stepping off the plane, CJ is back in the thick of his old gang lifestyle.
While "Vice City" took inspiration from the movie "Scarface," San Andreas is like a playable "Menace II Society." You immediately latch on with your old crew, the Grove Street Families.
There are four of you to start. As you build your rep, more members join in. Some missions simply begin with your buddies getting stoned and asking you to drive them to get some fast food. No sooner do you pick up your meal than it becomes drive-by time, and you're shooting it out with your hated rivals, the Ballaz.
The details are all perfect. Your friends can't say three words without two of them being of the "F" and "N" variety. The houses are lousy and run-down in some areas, sprawling and beautiful in others. The guns sound real, and the variety of vehicles you can hijack will surprise you.
The missions are, in most cases, brilliant. You'll beat up crack dealers, hijack trains, and even pull off a tricky casino heist. You fly, swim and ride BMX and lowrider bicycles.
CJ's story gets pretty crazy, but you'll never want to skip a cutscene, partly because of some fantastic voice acting. Samuel L. Jackson, James Woods and even Charlie Murphy all have prominent roles. You may as well be playing a movie.
All this amounts to gaming heaven. Throw your other PS2 titles in the fire, because "San Andreas" is all you need. The cities are huge, the controls are perfect, and your options are limitless.
Buy - don't rent - this game as quickly as you can. Just don't expect to get much else done.
Grand Theft Auto: San
Andreas
Grade: A+
