To praise a game like GTA with weird-origin adjectives like captivating, extraordinary, unforgettable or any other like these ones, is just lame and a total waste of time. I have to admit that writing this review instead of continuing to play San Andreas is an equally lame decision, but I'll take my chances and try to invite you to explore together this new universe from Rockstar. I've been waiting this game much like my dead grandpa waited for 50 years the Americans to come and save us from communism. Fortunately, Rockstar was a little bit faster than Uncle Sam, so last week I called sick at work, installed the game and enjoyed it until Saturday afternoon when all my phones suddenly went berserk. I've never imagined I'd forget about my own wedding, but I lost track of time and just two hours before the "unfortunate" event I was taking Carl Johnson to see Catalina and I was enjoying every minute from their lovely conversation. And when I finally got to church, my wife told me exactly what Catalina told CJ one time. "I'll castrate you first!" Fortunately, she didn't.

     If you think San Andreas is just another Vice City in a different location, you're so wrong. There are a few major differences between GTA3, Vice City and San Andreas concerning the universe where the entire story unfolds, a story that I'd call the personal nightmare of Carl Johnson. You'll instantly realize the huge map you have at your disposal and you'll be terrified. It's exactly that unique sensation you get when look at a MMOG's map and you haven't uncovered more than 1% of it. Imagine playing WoW for the first time now in June and thinking about raiding Molten Core on New Year's Eve. Fortunately, I was surprised by the diversity of the locations. You'll still encounter tall buildings, but most of them are small houses or villas, shops, gyms, fast-foods, farms, summer cottages or houses scattered though the woods, etc. It's a lot easier now to memorize the locations and the roads mostly because of the smaller size of the buildings, but also because of the disappearance of the suffocating sensation of the urban sky-scrapers. There is plenty of open space also and you'll see lots of fields, woods, parks, country roads, beaches and valleys with rivers. They gave up that modern urban look and implemented rural elements which are very important when building such a huge area from ground up. What's even more interesting is that these elements have not only a visual importance, but they play an active part too. Imagine an afro-american wearing sun-glasses and dressed with a t-shirt and some shorts. Could you picture him driving a harvester? That's just funny and that's not all of it. He's running away from some peasants who chase him with farm tractors. Damn!

     Well, the possibilities you'll get are almost endless and they range from a small bicycle and a few bikes to XX types of cars (including low-riders), pick-ups, trailers, police cars, ambulances, you name it. You can activate the special missions by pressing the “2” key (pimp, vigilante) and they'll bring you even more cash, as it's rather hard to get it these days. You should be aware of the fact that San Andreas is a little bit more difficult than Vice City, as your wanted level seems to grow faster and your life to empty in pretty much the same way. On the other hand, the cars get visually damaged even if you scratch them and it's just frustrating to tune a car and see it explode three minutes afterwards. One way for quick cash is conquering territories and killing rival bands members, but they usually walk in groups and if you unleash a war, then you must face multiple waves of enemies. In the first case, just try to drive over them and kill them instantly. It's a quicker and a smoother method. Later on, when you'll reach a four or five stars wanted level, you'll just wonder how they were able to hire so many policemen. Well, I never found out how. I was busy shooting and driving away from them.