GT A: San Andreas

[kpm547]

I was intrigued with GTA: San Andreas on the weekend. I've never played it, but it looks interesting. Is it worth buying for $30?

Is the game play any good? How's the language in the game? I have kids around and don't need them hearing F-bombs while I play.

[RockNRoll]

lol... IMO GTA is no game for your situation then. I played GTA: VCS for PSP. I was astonished at the frequent language use (yes F-bombs included), the heap of sexual references, and the all around violence factor. I knew it was bad, but not THAT bad. I'd avoid GTA if you want to keep your kids from hearing/seeing that kind of stuff.

[chriswhitelaw]

especially with the "coffee" trick being available for that game then kids should definately not be present.

[RockNRoll]

I thought that was patched??

[kpm547]

I think it was patched.

[leprechaun_40]

For the most part I was dissapointed with San Andreas not for the language, or sex. as I have played both GTA 3 and Vice city. I'm an adult and don't mind it. What I found dissapointing was the ghetto theme for the game. The previous games had a mob type main character and theme, etc. Guess I got used to it and liked it. They went with a new main character and the ghetto theme in San Andreas and I just never cared for it. Also, didn't like the constantly having to eat and do workouts to maintain health and strength, took time away from the jobs you have to do during the game and made it more tedious.

As far as the graphics and so on, it's great! The "map" is huge. You have an enourmous area to explore and do jobs in. If they'd stuck with the old main character and theme, I'd probably still be playing it, but I guess I'm just not into ghetto life, etc.

For $30, not a bad deal, just don't let the kids play!

[Bigjakkstaffa]

I really do think its one of many great Americanisms, the concern over what kids watch/play/hear as children, over here on the other side of the pond we're much less concerned about it.

Personally im pretty much of the opinion that as long as a parent has also seen/experienced the content and feels they are able to expalin it to the child in a suitable context (e.g. as a kid i was allowed to watch light hearted but violent films such as Robocop and Diehard - but not stuff like Scarface), good parenting far outweighs the influence of any external media.

As regarding San Andreas, its a really cracking game at any price, the best in the franchise next to the original GTA. If you are concerned about its effect on the kids, try renting a copy to demo it out and see how comfortable you are with the kids playing it.

Personally i'd invest in a copy of GTA3/Vice City (you can get the double pack for previous gen consoles for peanuts, our lass got a copy the other day for a tenner) to amuse the kids with, theyre pretty much the same game but nowhere near as explicit as San Andreas (nowhere near as much effing and jeffing and a lot more innuendo based) - meanwhile dad can slip off an play GTA:SA on his PC - plus when your done GTA3/Vice City are cracking games for you to play too.

--Jakk

[richard_cocks]

GTA:SA is fantastic, the best GTA around I think. (the original was fantastic but the size of SA is overwhelming!) It's scope is huge and while not suitable at ALL for children (get some headphones!) it's very fun for anyone else. I never liked vice city, which most people raved out, prefering instead GTA3, this overhauls everything.

I'd love a return to the "do anything" format of the original GTA, somehow everything since has focused too much on story and missions so it's lost it's arcade feel, (but then the quickest way to complete GTA was to sell loads of cars to the docks to blow them all up at once for a huge amount of money)

SA is a fantastic game that'll keep you hooked for hours, it has a good progression at the beginning taking you through the basics in a way that's well organised, it has the best tutorial style missions of any game, the missions are easy enough a beginner won't struggle but deep and involving enough it won't leave a seasoned player bored.