This is still the best GTA game, imo. I’ve had people tell me for years that um actually GTA V’s map is bigger, but San Andreas really feels like 2 or 3 times the size of V. Not just because of the massively varied world space, but because of how jam packed the world is with goodies for you to discover. I had already beaten the game by the time I found out about the courier missions and horse betting. The fact that you could go into almost any interior in the game for optional robbery missions, even if they were just the same few interiors recycled, really made the map feel lived-in. They did a perfect job of giving the game a massive sense of scale without making the world so big that half of the missions are just driving for miles on end. This is definitely subjective, but I think the car physics are the best in the series, too. GTA V has extremely fluid driving, don’t get me wrong, but San Andreas has that perfect balance between realistic weight and arcadey gameplay. You can turn on a dime, but you’re probably going to roll your car. Still the longest GTA story, too. Did you know the casino heist missions are completely optional?

I wanted to try the remaster but the state in was in at the time was less than impressive. Luckily I bought the original. So I modded it to have the old soundtrack plus some basic QoL fixes. Solid agree, last time I tried it on steam it was rubbish. This time, straight into the nostalgia zone. The music, the gameplay, the voice actors and super quotable dialogue.

Even if the mission I’m on is one of the less interesting ones, just cruising between waypoints listening to the solid soundtrack or hilarious talkback radio. Good shit.

Is it worth picking up if you have the originals on Steam already? I remember being interested until I saw the visuals when it first released.

Are the driving physics different from 3 and Vice City? I swear they’re terrible in San Andreas but I don’t remember that being the case for the others.