San Andreas: It's Here! Final Preview

The biggest game of the year is finally on shelves this week. We take a final look at San Andreas before our imminent final verdict. New media & gameplay video!

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Approaching another armed bandit, we look towards him and strafe around as we approach, and CJ automatically targets the body or the head of a potential foe from quite a distance, depending on the skill he's picked up along his journey. But the enemy AI is of course improved as well, as evidenced by groups of baddies working against us in teams on this tanker - and most of them are armed with Mac 11 sub machineguns.

By pressing L1 while holding a weapon, players can easily view the skill status CJ has with the weapon he is holding. The stat displays a meter that fills in white as skill is gained (by using the weapon). CJ starts every weapon with a status of "Poor," but, with use, can upgrade his skills to 'Gangster' or 'Hitman'. The good news is that when your skill is up to Hitman level, you can "dual wield" - that is to say, take on two weapons at once, most recently made famous in Halo 2 at last year's E3. For each weapon, the skill level will result in different upgrades, as a general rule of thumb; reaching higher skill levels will increase the rate of fire and accuracy. Also, with some weapons, getting better skills will give CJ the ability to fire while moving and strafing.

Don't forget to eat

In attack mode, you can take advantage of either first- or third-person style play, and use your abilities to crouch, roll, look around and run while firing, all essential techniques you'll get better at with practise. Again we got to grips with the Manhunt influenced targeting and shooting system - which with some tweaks since its first outing, makes for a comprehensive style of shooting play with auto targeting - often much better in these gang warfare situations.

And don't forget to buy the latest styles.

After a successful shootout, a cut-scene ensues and CJ finds the refugees, shooting the lock to free them, but there is one more battle on this ship before your work is done, as you proceed to the control room to katana fight with official nasty bloke, Snake Head - who it must be said looked suspiciously like the master who trained us in the Cobra Martial Arts dojo beforehand. "Wait and see," teased Rockstar. All in a day's work for CJ.

After taking a speed boat back to bay, the session ended with a look at the fantastic San Andreas representation of the Golden Gate Bridge, known as the Gant Bridge - what Rockstar describes as the most amazing structure in the whole game.

And for all the excitement about gang territories in Los Santos, hostages in San Fierro, ride pimping in the garage, beefing up in dojos and shortie huntin' in Vinewood, there is just so much of San Andreas we haven't yet seen - or at least hadn't seen until we started playing it - including the exciting prospect of the game's third major city, Las Venturas, which promises poker, gambling aplenty, and perhaps a stripper or two. Oh, and we still want to know who some of these mystery characters are - the ones in all this stylish San Andreas artwork floating around. Especially the hot chick.

--> Las Venturas offers gambling opportunities aplenty.

Rockstar simply ran out of time in previewing absolutely everything for most of the gaming media - but that's OK, because the wait is finally over, the surprises in tact, and we're at last discovering all this astonishing surprise content. And now that a certain magazine has hit US shelves, we can also say that we're really looking forward to getting to grips with the game's two-player co-op mode (yes it's true).

Full review on its way a little later this week.

Now we just need to avoid sleeping in order to bring you our final verdict towards the end of the week. Don't miss it.

Adam Doree
Director, Kikizo.com

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Catch up with our massive GTASA coverage here:

• Announcement (March 2004)
• Preview 1: First Preview (June 2004)
• Preview 2: Tasty New Screens, Diet Info
• Preview 3: Workin' Out, Jackin' Cars
• Preview 4: Another Massive Update
• Preview 5: Livin' Los Santos
• Preview 6: Shops and Robbers
• Preview 7: First-Hand Impressions
• Preview 8: Near Final Build Impressions
• Preview 9: It's Here! Final Preview
• Review - our final verdict