San Andreas released on Windows 8 (Not smartphone)

[emufan]

Anybody tried it yet? It was released on smartphones a while ago, and it was just released in the Windows store for Windows 8 on PC, with full Xbox360 controller support. I've only just gotten it myself, and it seems to be the exact same version released for iOS, Android and Windows Phone (This seems to include all graphical updates).

 

I'm enjoying the upgraded visuals so far, on our 64" TV, it looks pretty good there (Although a bit dated) I'm hoping for more GTA releases in the future, like III, Vice City, and of course GTA V.

[ChiroVette]

Anybody tried it yet? It was released on smartphones a while ago, and it was just released in the Windows store for Windows 8 on PC, with full Xbox360 controller support. I've only just gotten it myself, and it seems to be the exact same version released for iOS, Android and Windows Phone (This seems to include all graphical updates).

 

I'm enjoying the upgraded visuals so far, on our 64" TV, it looks pretty good there (Although a bit dated) I'm hoping for more GTA releases in the future, like III, Vice City, and of course GTA V.

 

It looks very good for a dated, almost ten year old game engine. The cars look fantastic. in truth, I bought this for two reasons even though I have owned all of the GTA games on PC for a very long time:

 

The first was the slightly stepped up visuals, and the second was that San Andreas seems to have all kinds of compatibility issues with Windows 8, including difficulty with a gamepad. I was able to fix all these problems on my Windows 7 machine with the program XPadder, but a few issues seem unsolvable on Windows 8 and a 360 wireless controller. So my brand new Windows 8.1 gaming laptop with all the bells and whistles has problems with San Andreas, including mysterious, intermittent crashes and other bugs.

 

So I figured, what the hell, I will pay a few bucks for this new version. Honestly?

 

This game crashes as much, if not more, than my regular PC version on Windows 8.1!

 

Second, the game seems to seriously favor touchscreen controls...and my gaming laptop does NOT have a touch screen! I thought this wouldn't be an issue, because the ads all rave about controller support, and yes, the 360 controller is supported, and it is cool to have the buttons named in the game. So I don't need Xpdader. However, there are some moderate to severe issues with the control mapping. First off, the sprint function is no longer tapping A repeatedly, but instead, you hold A. This would be all right except that swimming and bicycle riding are really f**ked now! I can't figure out how to continuously swim fast with the controller, because Carl intermittently treads water. When I try the classic San Andreas method of tapping A to make Carl swim fast, he just jumps out of the water! The bunnyhop function on the bicycle is now tapping A, which is really messed up when trying to time bunnyhops.

 

Additionally, it is very difficult, with a controller, to pedal fast and steer! Nearest I can figure, up on the D-pad is the only consistent way I can get Carl to sprint on a bike! I have been able to get him to pedal fast by ever-so-slightly pushing on the left analog stick, but that isn't consistent and more often than not, when using the analog stick Carl leans forward on the bike rather than accelerating or pedaling fast. Just holding A seems to only make him pedal at a jogging pace.

 

I had a helluva time passing the BMX Challenge in the Glenn Park skating area. The last checkpoint atop the wooden half pipe is almost impossible to get to with the new controllers. It was an absolute nightmare, but I finally got it.

 

Additionally, I keep getting strange artifacts that look like a white sheet over my screen and when this happens, I have to pause my game, wait a second, then un-pause it for the artifacts to disappear. The intermittent crashing has caused me to lose progress several times!

 

Another glitch I found (and mind you, I am early in the game!) is in the house robbing side activity, sometimes when entering a house to steal some of the goods, Carl gets caught in a slow animation and won't get out of it. When this happens, the only solution is to reload the previous save! The problem is that when you are doing this activity, for 100% completion, you have to rob a load of houses in a night in order to build up the required $10,000.00 in fenced goods. I had to ditch my save about ten times before I finally got one full game-night's worth of goods collected!

 

Honestly? This is a terrible port, horrible if you are going for 100% completion. There is no way to set the PC graphics other than a graphics/visuals slider instead of the way GTA PC games normally do it. So you have no way to know what the resolution is you are setting, other than "higher and lower."

 

There is NO WAY to map or change the controller buttons, which is really a mess to leave gamers stuck with. If I had to guess, I would say that this game, while advertised for "controller support," was really programmed for touch screens and the controller support is more of an afterthought. This is the poorest port of a GTA game I have ever seen, to be honest. I am getting through, but the controller configuration keeps getting in the way big time!

Edited March 25, 2014 by ChiroVette

[lil weasel]

Windows 8 is a Touch-Screen Operating System, cobbled with patches for keyboard and mouse.

 

Sprinting (swimming) is accomplished by Tapping the bottom button on the right of the controller. (#1, A)

[ChiroVette]

Windows 8 is a Touch-Screen Operating System, cobbled with patches for keyboard and mouse.

 

Sprinting (swimming) is accomplished by Tapping the bottom button on the right of the controller. (#1, A)

 

I understand the touchscreen concept, but the problem is that gaming laptops rarely come with touchscreens, and even if they did, few gamers would use them anyway, most preferring mouse + keys, and gamers like me gaming exclusively on controllers.

 

As for sprinting, yes, tapping A is supposed to be the way to sprint (pedal fast and swim fast) in San Andreas, but the new Windows 8 port changed all that. Sprinting on foot is fine, to be honest, since all you have to do is hold A. However, "sprinting" on a bike or swimming fast has been a huge problem for me because on a bike tapping A makes you bunnyhop, and while swimming, tapping A causes CJ to jump up out of the water trying to grab onto something to climb out.

 

As I said above, nearest I can figure, Up on the D-Pad works well, BUT the problem is you can;t steer with the D-Pad. So trying to maneuver while swimming or cycling becomes problematic when you need to steer with the analog stick and accelerate with the D-Pad. It seems like pushing slightly up on the analog stick also causes you to pedal and swim faster, BUT I can't consistently find the sweet spot, so on a bike CJ often leans forward and while swimming he tries to swim higher in the water.

[Wolf247]

Unrelated question:
Can I run GTA San Andreas for Windows 7?

[lil weasel]

it runs very well on Windows 7 (both 34/64) except the Professional has troubles sometimes.

[ChiroVette]

Yeah I agree. My Windows 7 machine runs San Andreas absolutely flawlessly without a hitch other than the fact that, by default, the game (because it was created so long ago) does not recognize the right and left triggers and has issues with the D-Pad and analog stick. But, a ten dollar program called XPadder takes care of that quite nicely and easily.

Edited April 1, 2014 by ChiroVette