Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Frankly, GTA: San Andreas is the game which got me interested in the franchise. Extremely well-written, expansive, innovative and incredibly fun. CJ is one of the strongest characters Rockstar has ever developed, along with the rest of the character list. The voice acting is incredibly well-done, the music selection is (or was) second only to GTA: Vice City in my opinion. The variety of things you can do in this game is arguably second-to-none in the entire franchise, which helps Rockstar in its portrayal of a truly open world.

The graphical stylings, while outdated by today's standards, still please the eye and many parallels can be seen between this game's environment and that of Grand Theft Auto V's more recent version of Los Santos which I can't help but think about as I play this game. GTA V's environmental design would undoubtedly have suffered in my opinion had Rockstar not made GTA: SA previously.

Overall, I'd consider it a must-play for anyone interested in sandbox games, GTA as a franchise or... hell, historically notable games. This game is widely considered one of the best of all time, which makes sense, considering it was the best-selling PlayStation 2 game ever.

However, the Steam version has just been updated (after several years with no updates whatsoever), and there are a few unfortunate setbacks I have to point out for people who are considering buying the Steam version.

Years ago, Rockstar updated GTA: SA for Steam with version 3.0. Among some bugfixes and miscellaneous improvements, the patch somehow inexplicably broke 16:9 resolution support entirely.

This problem is still around in the latest patch, which, if you're like the majority of PC owners these days and have a 16:9 widescreen monitor, will mean you will encounter letterboxing and a lower resolution than your monitor is capable of rendering. Only with an unofficial modification can you get around this, and it's deeply disturbing that Rockstar still hasn't noticed this problem yet.

Alongside this, Rockstar, apparently pressured by music publishers whose tracks they licensed for GTA: SA's soundtrack, has removed somewhere around 20 tracks from the game entirely. This was done retroactively, meaning that previous owners of the game before the latest patch, like myself, have no choice but to play the game now without musical content they purchased.

If you don't play GTA games for the radio stations, this may not impact you as much, but regardless, Rockstar's approach to enforcing licensing restrictions with this patch was in my opinion heavy-handed at best, criminally deceptive at worst. It can set a precedent for AAA publishers to unilaterally remove content at will, and while the change of content with/without notice is disclosed in most games' EULAs these days, that just doesn't work in an economic system where one pays for the ownership of a good.

Some of the artists in this game I first found out about thanks to GTA: San Andreas, including Helmet, Rage Against The Machine, NWA, Eazy-E, Ice Cube and Public Enemy, and it's a little heart-breaking that the game no longer reflects my childhood memories of it after a decade, with some of my favorite songs conspicuously absent. These are songs everyone who bought the game before the update paid for.

Rockstar hasn't even mentioned the update at all on their website (par for the course, though, they're very sporadic with their PR), or on the News page on Steam for the game, so I'm not sure whether or not they were even going to announce this. We shall see what happens.

I will be fair and include the latest patch's implementation of (apparent) DRM-free implementation and XInput control support, however. The XInput implimentation is not perfect but still playable and hopefully it is beneficial to people accustomed to GTA console controls.

Basically, if you try using an Xbox 360 controller's triggers for throttle control for vehicles similarly to GTA IV you've got your work cut out for you, as all inputs besides the thumbsticks are treated as digital buttons including the triggers. This makes it very difficult to regulate the speed of your vehicle in my personal experience, which is extremely important in multiple missions. Other than performing steering with thumbsticks, I gained absolutely nothing in playablility because of this but was still capable of beating the game.

It's due to these less-than-ideal changes to the game, as playable as it still is, that I cannot recommend you purchase the Steam version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, because at the end of the day you get less content than you would have had a week ago for the same price (at the time of writing) and have no choice in the matter. You owe it to yourself to find an original retail version with the soundtrack and resolution compatibility completely intact, at least then you won't be forced to update the game according the whims of music industry executives.

(As similar events in GTA: Vice City have resolved themselves positively, out of hope for a repetition of circumstances for this game I will accordingly update this review if things develop further.)

Originally written November 9, 2014 on Steam, edited for repost