San Andreas: Near-Final Build Impressions

We get more first hand impressions with San Andreas direct from Rockstar. Come with us on an extensive tour of a near-final version of the game.

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For most of us, spending time with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas isn't an every day opportunity just yet, so the chance to take another trip down to Rockstar to sample the delights of a much newer build than the one we were shown a month ago was quickly snapped up.

Last month's build was ten weeks old at the time we saw it, but this version was described as near-complete. "It's not completely brand spanking new," offered Rockstar PR Manager Hamish Brown, "because sometimes the newer builds you get don't have the development options for us to give you a good demo, but it's pretty complete." And what a difference it has made.

San Andreas in this near final state looks absolutely awesome. The technical standard of visuals is highly impressive, with the framerate now in a very healthy shape and in fact seeming to go up as high as the magical 50-60 mark in open areas (intriguingly, at one stage when we were flying around in a helicopter, the frame rate was at its highest despite an incredible draw distance). Animation, lighting, art style and effects - it is looking mighty hot. Put it next to Vice City on Xbox - let alone PS2 - and this looks five times better.

Los Santos wasn't the main purpose of the demo this time, but returning there in a three month newer build really showed...

Towards the end of our demo we had returned back to San Andreas's Capital, Los Santos, and the feeling of a real, authentic world surrounding you seemed more pronounced than before, and indeed more so than in any previous title in the series, with aeroplanes and choppers flying around overhead, and impressively, police helicopters at night with their spotlights beaming down on gang contingents. That's just one example.

"There's so much stuff going on around you that doesn't involve you, but as a result you really feel part of the world," explains Product Manager, Dean Evans.

Some folks were hanging around chilling - we could have gotten fresh with them if we'd wanted, but many were rival gang members, so probably not advisable. Elsewhere, couples were walking around holding hands, others parking their vehicles.

The individual animation applied to all the different NPCs was stunning, with the tiniest details giving an insight into the exhaustive motion capture that has obviously taken place; a bunch of gang members walk with a distinguishing "bowl" while a hot chick may pass them and get a "hey, wassup girl!" from the guys. It's basically one of the most sophisticated 'real-world' environments we've seen this generation, and in my view makes a mockery of similar titles on more powerful hardware that fail to deliver this astonishing level of NPC individuality and immersive, believable environment as effectively.

And it may have been built using RenderWare, but even so, in just two years, an unfathomable amount has been achieved. "A lot of publishers come under a lot of corporate pressure that often forces a sequel to come out twelve months later," explains Dean. "At the end of he day, if you're going to take something a step forward and totally evolve it, the guys are going to need time - but still, two years really isn't that long in terms of games development."

"The team has grown bigger and bigger and its a really tight unit," added Hamish. "Nobody has dropped away and they all know how each other works. It's a well oiled machine." In fact, even the different departments in the team try to outdo each other all the time, something that's helped the project "go way and beyond what people might be hoping and expecting." according to the reps.

We were keen to learn more. "They're so competitive up there," says one employee, "if someone on the art team created some really cool modern houses in San Fierro, the guys on Los Santos will be like, 'Wankers! Right, let's go and do something even better!' So you'll be hard pushed to find something that doesn't look amazing."

Rockstar is still keeping the controller firmly in its grasp and not a single member of the gaming press has had a chance to play San Andreas yet (Rockstar was quick to point out the claim of one UK lifestyle magazine to have played it was totally unfounded). But from the demonstration it looks like the control and gameplay is shaping up wonderfully.

R1 remains the button that engages the targeting system and you can still fire your weapon randomly by pressing Circle at any point. However, a brand new targeting control scheme has been implemented.

Once you've held down R1, a number of options open up for targeting enemies. CJ will first attempt to target the closest hostile enemy, circumventing any non-hostiles. Failing that, he'll target the closest target in front of him within a range just over 90 degrees. If there isn't a target within this field, he'll go into free aim mode with the weapon - the camera settles down behind him and a cross appears in the center of the screen. Additionally, the analog sticks now behave very differently than in normal on-foot action; the left analog moves CJ forward and backward, and strafes him left and right, while the right analog moves the camera angle.

It's now possible for CJ to lock on to opponent while wielding a weapon. This enables the player to circle their enemy, choosing the right time to make their attack. Pressing square also makes CJ block in different ways according to the weapon held.

The Manhunt-style targeting system looked remarkably intuitive to use during the shooting moments but the newly tweaked driving system means you can independently and accurately control the view 360 degrees, so that, explains Dean, "when you want to turn the corner, you can look around it as you're approaching it, and then turn into it, and it completely changes the way you drive in GTA." And that makes for some really awesome cinematic moments as well, with the stunning police chase from our last demo standing out as a prime example.

Following the recent Interscope Records announcement, we were also keen to get an update on what further announcements will be made regarding the game's highly anticipated soundtrack. Hamish could only offer, "we may make a brief announcement before the game's release to reveal a few of the tracks, but the majority will be left for gamers to actually discover." And Dean added, "It's one of these things that literally goes right to the wire. Lawyers don't have much respect for release dates!"

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