GTA:SA anticipation, round 2 (a.k.a. new facts)
 

The following information apparently has leaked from the official UK PS2 magazine. I took it from www.gtareactor.de , where there are also some new screenshots (the site is in German, but the screenshots should be easy to find).

- All in all, SA will be five times as big as Vice City.

- You can get different hairstyles which cause comments from passers-by depending on their coolness.

- The police gets bikes and new tactics, for example holding on to driving cars or (seemingly) using helicopter rotors to attack. No news on if you will be able to do the holding onto cars thing.

- You can do a wheelie on the bicycle. Joy.

- You can get stealthy and hide, for example, in the shadows under a bridge [knowing Rockstar, the according RHCP song will be in the game...]

- If you lock on to somebody with your weapon, it shows you how much health they have left.

- The game will be on a double-layer DVD.

Nice things in there, if you ask me, though the "lock on/show health" thingie seems somewhat unrealistic. I like the hairstyle thing. I plan on getting the stupidest hairstyle available and mow down anyone who dares to mock me. :D

(... I mean in the game, by the way, although in real life I'm more or less only refraining from the mowing down part.)

And hey, seems like there's no hard drive going to be involved. That makes me rather joyous since there's no way I'm shelling out extra money for that when I'm only now going to buy a PS2 in the first place.

By the way it's sounding, It should be called:
Grand theft Auto: We've beening taking lesson from the sims.

With each new fact it sounds more and more like the Sims with added Crime.

It was in a different language. What the hell did it say?

I really wish the sims had crime that would be so great. Get fired from your job and go postal on your boss the next day with an automatic. lol

Keeps getting better though.

Meister: Erm... did you just make a complaint (albeit a very small one) about something in a GTA game being unrealistic?...

haHA!

Well... yes. I did it. But society is to blame.

So, some news from gtareactor.de (again: it's a German site and you'll just have to dig up your own sites for confirmation), taken from PSM US. No real biggies, just some engine and story stuff...

Engine:
- You'll be able to wear many different pieces of clothing
- You can use two differenweapons at the same time
- There will be more minigames
- Cars will rust and get dirty over time
- Things and abilities you can influence: your haircut, fitness, weight, driving abilities, clothing, property (buildings I guess), weapon abilities, character, gangs and their relations
- The difficulty will adapt to your playing; if you play badly, the missions will get slightly easier. Only marginally though.
- About eating: you'll have to eat only every few days.
- Eat too much, and you'll get fat and slower. You can work out to get stronger (has an effect on your melee fighting), but if you work out too much, you get slower again.

Story: (only minor setting things actually)
- There will be a version of Hollywood called Vinewood
- Gangs: Orange Grove Families (your gang), the Flats, the Ballas... and I heard that Salvatore Leone is in the game again, so possibly the Mafia...
- There's a guy called Cesar who sports a wifebeater and tattoos. El Burro, anyone?

Is it true you get to play a black guy!?!? :O

Yup, Carl Johnson.

I've got mixed feelings about this game...
It sounds like it'll be really kickass, but I've heard that 90% of the music is gonna be Rap/R&B/Urban/Hip Hop and stuff like that (ala True Crime). That's probably an exagerration, but I really hope they have a rock/metal station with Lazlow again :-D
And didn't GTA3 Guy kill Salvatore? Or is this game ALSO set in the past?

EGM states a few interesting things:

3 major cities:

San Fierro (based on San Francisco)
Los Santos (based on Los Angeles)
Las Venturas (based on Las Vegas. That's not in California? Shh!)

The entire fictional state of San Andreas is based on California, obviously.

There will probably be earthquakes everywhere, randomly, but this is unconfirmed.

Also, what's with the hatin' on rap? Everyone knows I don't even listen or really like rap that much, but I've realised how juvenile I was to just hate an entire culture and type of music. It's all music, people. Do you really want the burden of identifying with one genre, then "accidentally" liking a song from another one? "wait...did I just like a rap song? No I didn't, I hate rap. Rap sucks. Of course. Back to metal." I just say be open-minded, you might find something that's good. True, the glorified, fake, misrepresnting culture of MTV might be what you're hating, but just hate that, and not the music, eh?

This game is set in 90s. You play Carl Johnson.