GTA San Andreas: Impressions, Gameplay Videos, New Screens & Uncut Trailer

Our 45-minute sit-down with San Andreas results in this huge preview and an onslaught of awesome new media.

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Coincident with this is the well-publicised eating system. CJ is much like an urban gangster-cum-tamagotchi, only without the constant screaming for attention. You'll be able to control your weight by dictating how much you consume, and how you approach this will have consequences in the game world. Eat too little, and you'll become leaner and weaker. Conversely, pigging out will leave you bloated and unable to move around as freely as your thinner self. Binging, on the other hand, won't solve anything, and if you carry on eating you'll just puke it all up later. It's emblematic of a design philosophy that emphasises actions and consequent reactions.

Perhaps most importantly, the eating system is not something that's going to require extreme vigilance on your part. Brown reassured us: "It's not going to encroach upon gameplay. You have to feed CJ to keep him healthy, but it's not like you have to feed him three meals a day. It just makes you look after him a bit more." There won't be occasions when you're unable to complete a mission because you ate one too few slices of pizza. The effect is much more nuanced, with a dynamic character model representing your ever-changing physical dimensions during the course of the game. These are cumulative effects, and you're going to have to work hard if you really want to attain that lofty goal of the "fat bastard" physique.

Just like Fable has multiple AI systems that ensure the smooth, dynamic, and consequential nature of the game world, GTA: SA will adjust to your status in the game. Brown explains how the AI will adjust its reaction to your presence in a rival neighbourhood: "If you hang out in Balla territory and you haven't caused any trouble, and they see your colours, they will immediately start giving you hassle. They wouldn't feel right with you in there and they would start pushing you around - they wouldn't just shoot you. If you then drive off, nothing would happen. If you stuck around, they'd start to get a bit more aggressive, and, obviously, if you then punch them, then they'd eventually start to shoot. They don't feel comfortable with other gang members being in their territory."

As it stands right now, the map (which for the purpose of our demo revealed only the Los Santos area, with the other two sprawling cities and much of the countryside in between to appear later in the game) does not mark off the territories of the different gangs. It's up to you to be observant and notice an increase in a rival gang's colours. When pressed on whether there will be a full-on gang war at any time, Brown simply responded, "You'll have to wait and see."

A key new gameplay element shown off in the demo is the four-person drive-by and its associated AI. In the scene we were shown, CJ was at the wheel while his gang mates, Smoke, Sweet and Ryder, were hanging out the windows, armed to the gills. As you approach rival gang members, the rest of your gang mates independently take out rivals as CJ drives just fast enough to make sure to keep them bullet-free. It's hard to gauge how well the AI works without playing ourselves, but the three gunmen at least appeared to react accordingly to hostility. The pace is frantic, with bullets constantly thwipping by, and the scene is over in a matter of minutes, after several spots in the neighbourhood have been hit. The cops aren't blind to all this tomfoolery though, and their eventual appearance introduces another obstacle into your path. The spray shop has made a return though, so once all your rivals have been taken care of and you've given the cops the slip, reprieve is only a quick paint job away.

During the course of the demo, one scene in particular served as a good primer for several of the new features GTA: SA brings with it. Set in an early part of the game, the level, named "Reuniting the Families," begins with the heads of the Los Santos gangs congregating in a motel parking lot to discuss what they can do about the escalating violence and drug-pushing that is starting to overrun their city. CJ's older brother Sweet is sent in to represent the Orange Grove Families, as Smoke, Ryder and CJ sit nervously observing in the car.

Before you know it, out of nowhere come the Los Santos Police Department, in full force. The cops, obviously tipped off by one of the rival gangs, have come to crack down on the city's gangs in one fell swoop. It's at this point that you assume control of CJ and you're tasked with finding Sweet and getting the hell out of there.

Running through the gangster-packed motel provides a good opportunity to show off GTA: SA's much improved targeting system. As we reported earlier, you can now make use of an auto-targeting feature "borrowed quite heavily" from Rockstar's recently controversial Manhunt. This system allows you to take aim at enemies with much more efficacy, just the thing when there are gangsters brandishing heavy firearms around every corner. While you're free to aim the reticule yourself should you want to, a green symbol will appear on auto-targeted enemies, who can then be dispatched with a satisfying pull of the trigger. This is, thankfully, more in-depth than it initially sounds. Brown clarifies: "It doesn't just lock onto the nearest person. It locks on to the nearest threat." This is clearly a useful system and a great improvement over the lacklustre targeting from previous series instalments. The threat sensing also eliminates locking on to closer, less imminent threats, thereby eliminating one of the inherent flaws in such a system. Statistics are still omnipresent during gameplay, and as you kill more baddies, you'll become more effective at killing baddies.

Once you've worked your way through the motel to find Sweet, you hightail it back to the car where Ryder and Smoke are waiting to make a getaway. The cops are not shaken off that easily though, and a significant amount of work is required on your part to make a successful escape, as you assume control of CJ in the back seat to take out your pursuers. The LSPD stop at nearly nothing to bring you down; they smash into you with their cars from all sides, with utter abandon for your well being, and the motorcycle-bound enforcers seem to be even more persistent. One officer - who looks remarkably like Ponch from seminal '80s TV show ChiPs - pulls alongside the car and jumps right on to the back of it. Nothing a few AK-47 shells to the face can't solve, but still thrilling nonetheless.

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