Gta San Andreas interiors dislike thread

[BennyGod]

While I loved GTA San Andreas and its map so much, I do have a lot of criticism about the interiors. First of all there, are only three enterable casinos in the game, I wish they were more, especially since they did well with making casinos and making an accurate Las Vegas. second there should be hardware stores like in vice city. This could be  the place where you buy melee weapons. Do you have any criticism?

[Flymystical-DJ]

It's been said countless times but I dislike how much they reuse the same home interiors. I mean, how much space would have been taken up if they copied a burglary home or mission location for a couple?

 

Edit: All of this is coming from 12 y.o. me's perspective when I first bought the game in 2009. The idea of owning homes was so compelling to me but as soon as I realized how many of the interiors were similar I lost interest.  I don't care now-a-days but I still believe if the repeated interiors work against the fantasy of owning multiple homes then it kind of defeats the purpose of having them in general and is technically bad, despite how justifiable it is considering their time and technology constraints. 

Edited August 9, 2021 by Flymystical-DJ

[CynicalMexican]

Are y'all really complaining about this in a 2004 video game

 

I mean FFS other games have fewer interiors 

[bananaking13]

On 7/21/2021 at 6:36 AM, Flymystical-DJ said:

It's been said countless times but I dislike how much they re use the same home interiors. I mean, how much space would have been taken up if they copied a burglary home or mission location for a couple?

There are around 30 home interiors. If you go to Mulholland or Verona Beach you'll see a huge difference in interiors.

I think the interiors are great. It's an old game and really recoloring each interior isn't really one of my complaints because every house you see in the storyline is unique.

[Mehaniq]

In 2004's game there are more than 140 interiors in 18 interior universes. The game has an interesting solution, in which the interiors are in the game very high in the sky and thanks to these 18 dimensions we do not see one interior through the window of another interior, which creates an excellent illusion that there is nothing around until we leave the building.

If we compare the recently released Vice City and GTA3 - playing San Andreas I feel a breakthrough in the work of the creators of the game regarding interiors, so I do not agree with the idea of the author of this topic.

 

But there is another complaint - some interiors have an inappropriate size, number of floors and room layout. Remember what the Johnson house looks like when you look at it from the street. Now go inside and try to understand where the windows should be in the house and what the proportions of the rooms should be. And you will see a lot of disagreement in this

[T_o_r_e_n_o]

On 7/21/2021 at 12:11 AM, CynicalMexican said:

Are y'all really complaining about this in a 2004 video game

 

I mean FFS other games have fewer interiors 

 

 

Ha really. I thought the interiors were decent back then. 

[CynicalMexican]

On 7/22/2021 at 3:05 PM, T_o_r_e_n_o said:

 

 

Ha really. I thought the interiors were decent back then. 

I thought they were awesome to just explore with the detail too. No GTA game has matched it since. 

[nohaxdotcom]

On 7/12/2021 at 1:37 PM, BennyGod said:

 second there should be hardware stores like in vice city. 

Yeah I agree. Hardware stores would've been great. Another thing that could've been added from Vice City was robbing 24/7s. Wasted potential tbh 

[sanfierro06]

On 7/21/2021 at 7:11 AM, CynicalMexican said:

Are y'all really complaining about this in a 2004 video game

 

I mean FFS other games have fewer interiors 

This.

GTA 4 and 5 don't even have a proper interior.

[CynicalMexican]

On 7/26/2021 at 8:06 AM, sanfierro06 said:

This.

GTA 4 and 5 don't even have a proper interior.

GTA 4 did have a fair number of interiors, particularly apartment projects, but inferior to SA

 

[Evil empire]

The interiors cruelly lack of diversity but since you nearly only go in your houses to make a savegame it's not a very big problem save for the boring and repetitive aspect of the robberies sub-mission. And despite this flaw the houses are largely more immersion-friendly than in Vice City because at least you can visit them and the luxurious houses really look luxurious and not like empty nutshells filled with corridors and a junkyard as the entry hall.

Edited August 10, 2021 by Evil empire

[Official General]

On 7/12/2021 at 9:37 PM, BennyGod said:

While I loved GTA San Andreas and its map so much, I do have a lot of criticism about the interiors. First of all there, are only three enterable casinos in the game, I wish they were more, especially since they did well with making casinos and making an accurate Las Vegas. second there should be hardware stores like in vice city. This could be  the place where you buy melee weapons. Do you have any criticism?

 

* How much more casinos do you need to enter ? It would just be more or less the same thing, the same activities. 3 casino interiors is more than good enough. 

 

* Hardware stores like VC ? Hmmm yes, they would have been nice additions. But when you consider that in SA we treated to many interiors for various homes, convenience stores, gun stores, gyms, restaurants, nightclubs, bars, and strip clubs - it's fair to say that this little omission of a hardware store interior can be easily overlooked and excused. 

 

* Criticisms of interiors ? Not much to be honest. GTA SA offered much more interiors to explore than all the other GTA games, even the ones after it like GTA IV and GTA V. So I cannot complain about the variety and quantity of interiors for this game. If anything, we were spoiled with interiors in SA. My only criticism for interiors in SA is that we could not rob the convenience stores or restaurants that we could enter, like in VC. 

 

On 7/21/2021 at 4:36 AM, Flymystical-DJ said:

It's been said countless times but I dislike how much they re use the same home interiors. I mean, how much space would have been taken up if they copied a burglary home or mission location for a couple?

 

Come on, give the game a break, it was made in 2004 and is now 16 years old. For what it achieved technically, is still something marvel at. 

[Lioshenka]

Actually, I always felt like the interiors were the game's weak part.

 

They were very poorly detailed and not very varied + they didn't match the house shape. I wonder if there was a practical reason as to why Save Houses don't have unique interiors, or was it simply due to R* laziness?

[Kris194]

This thread must be a joke or something. Come on, this game is almost 20 years old... Take off these rose tinted glasses and look what other games we had in 2004.

[Algonquin Assassin]

As much as I like San Andreas’ map for its landscape variety its interior designs are some of my least favourite in the series.

 

Not only only does it rely heavily on repetition to create an illusion it has more that it really does, but the interiors feel completely disconnected from the outside world. Almost claustrophobic. I hate how it feels like you’re put into a room and you can’t see out of it.

 

Even in Vice City and GTA III you can walk into an Ammunation off the street without having to walk into a marker for a loading screen and still see everything going on outside. A bit ahead of its time actually that obviously the HD era GTAs perfected on a greater scale. San Andreas also removed unique interiors Vice City introduced like an airport terminal and shopping mall . 
 

 

Edited August 8, 2021 by MiamiViceCity1986

[Darth_Cruiser]

6 hours ago, Lioshenka said:

Actually, I always felt like the interiors were the game's weak part.

 

They were very poorly detailed and not very varied + they didn't match the house shape. I wonder if there was a practical reason as to why Save Houses don't have unique interiors, or was it simply due to R* laziness?

Wasn't this due to the much larger map size? They had to sacrifice interiors for that

[CynicalMexican]

The 24/7s being useless was definitely weird especially given that they're so big and detailed. 

 

Wonder if you could buy stuff from them as well. We know furniture stores were cut.

5 hours ago, Kris194 said:

This thread must be a joke or something. Come on, this game is almost 20 years old... Take off these rose tinted glasses and look what other games we had in 2004.

I know right. The interiors were incredible for the time. 

[Lioshenka]

7 hours ago, MiamiViceCity1986 said:

Even in Vice City and GTA III you can walk into an Ammunation off the street without having to walk into a marker for a loading screen and still see everything going on outside.

 

I found SA interiors felt rather weird after VC. Of course, in the beginning before I unlocked the whole map I didn't judge them for quality, but how disconnected they were just didn't felt right after VC. I was expecting that as the game progresses we'll unlock some kind of wonderfully interesting interior that can match VC's hotel for example; but the most excitement I got was the house next to Millie's, because it had a unique interior, and it was mostly empty.

 

6 hours ago, StuntMaster100 said:

Wasn't this due to the much larger map size? They had to sacrifice interiors for that

 

I'm not sure about this... Have R* actually said that? Because even the standard SA can handle a fair number of extra models/details; and if the interiors world loads separately from the rest of the map then surely they could have at least made it as detailed as the main map in theory.

 

And to everyone who says that we shouldn't judge a 15 year old game harshly: I'm a huge SA fan, but I'll accept criticism where criticism is due. After VC I wasn't blown away by the SA interiors.

 

I'm not saying the interiors were rubbish, they just were fairly basic compared to the main map, and it stood out too much. A lot of things about SA were groundbreaking and mindblowing for it's time; the interior system wasn't one of them.

Edited August 8, 2021 by Lioshenka

[Official General]

7 hours ago, MiamiViceCity1986 said:

As much as I like San Andreas’ map for its landscape variety its interior designs are some of my least favourite in the series.

 

Not only only does it rely heavily on repetition to create an illusion it has more that it really does, but the interiors feel completely disconnected from the outside world. Almost claustrophobic. I hate how it feels like you’re put into a room and you can’t see out of it.

 

Even in Vice City and GTA III you can walk into an Ammunation off the street without having to walk into a marker for a loading screen and still see everything going on outside. A bit ahead of its time actually that obviously the HD era GTAs perfected on a greater scale. San Andreas also removed unique interiors Vice City introduced like an airport terminal and shopping mall . 
 

 

 

Fair points....I did kinda feel that too. 

 

But we still have to consider that SA was a huge game in size that offered a lot more interiors AND variety of interiors than other GTAs for it's time, so something had to give. I just don't think the technology at the time was advanced enough in 2004 to do everything the way we'd have wanted it. For those reasons, I was able to overlook this. 

[Algonquin Assassin]

1 hour ago, Official General said:

 

Fair points....I did kinda feel that too. 

 

But we still have to consider that SA was a huge game in size that offered a lot more interiors AND variety of interiors than other GTAs for it's time, so something had to give. I just don't think the technology at the time was advanced enough in 2004 to do everything the way we'd have wanted it. For those reasons, I was able to overlook this. 

 

I get that, but if I were to consider the technology of any game made before the 2010s then there'd be no point discussing the things I don't like about them.  Maybe you could overlook it, but I couldn't. 

 

I still remember playing San Andreas for the first time in 2004 and after the initial "wow" factor wore off I started to realise how many shortcuts were taken regarding the interiors. The safehouses are probably the worst offenders since they recycle the same handful of interiors and it's even more ridiculous and sticks out like a sore thumb when apartments share the same interiors as regular houses.

 

And Lioshenka makes a great point. The fact interiors are loaded as separate assets probably took the load off processing power so in theory they could've been more detailed and less repetitive. In saying that I don't fully agree the technology wasn't up to the task. Games like Scarface that were only released a couple of years later on the same technology had detailed interiors. Even The Getaway that predates San Andreas by an entire year had detailed interiors that didn't feel like they were being held back by PS2 technology. 

 

Edited August 9, 2021 by MiamiViceCity1986

[CynicalMexican]

Yeah, if I recall correctly, San Andreas was in development possibly as early as late 2002 (and the first mention of it is from May 2002 via domain history) so there wasn't going to be a huge fundamental change.

 

In fact, maybe that's why GTA 4 was the game that it was. The initial concept was much different and would've had a giant map.

[Ash_735]

It's fair to point out, San Andreas DID get a downgrade with it's interior system, did we all forget this?

 

 

 

Each interior was going to be mapped to the building like it was in Vice City (and later LCS and VCS), but sadly the size grew too large and they were replaced by the generic in the sky interiors.

Edited August 9, 2021 by Ash_735

[CynicalMexican]

Wasn't there a rumor that GTA San Andreas was so big that it was going to be on two discs?

[Ash_735]

1 hour ago, CynicalMexican said:

Wasn't there a rumor that GTA San Andreas was so big that it was going to be on two discs?

That it was going to use a dual layer DVD (9.5GB) but in the end it only came on an original single layer DVD (4.7GB).

[Official General]

20 hours ago, MiamiViceCity1986 said:

 

I get that, but if I were to consider the technology of any game made before the 2010s then there'd be no point discussing the things I don't like about them.  Maybe you could overlook it, but I couldn't. 

 

I still remember playing San Andreas for the first time in 2004 and after the initial "wow" factor wore off I started to realise how many shortcuts were taken regarding the interiors. The safehouses are probably the worst offenders since they recycle the same handful of interiors and it's even more ridiculous and sticks out like a sore thumb when apartments share the same interiors as regular houses.

 

And Lioshenka makes a great point. The fact interiors are loaded as separate assets probably took the load off processing power so in theory they could've been more detailed and less repetitive. In saying that I don't fully agree the technology wasn't up to the task. Games like Scarface that were only released a couple of years later on the same technology had detailed interiors. Even The Getaway that predates San Andreas by an entire year had detailed interiors that didn't feel like they were being held back by PS2 technology. 

 

 

You can still state what you don't like and consider the technology here, because it was not possible to achieve what you would have preferred at the time. Vice City could achieve these things because it was a much smaller game in size, even smaller than GTA 3 (which came out before it). I don't think this can be ignored. SA was much bigger in size and content than Scarface and The Getaway, so I don't think those comparisons are valid either. 

 

But you are entitled to your opinion. 

[The Tracker]

On 7/26/2021 at 5:08 PM, CynicalMexican said:

GTA 4 did have a fair number of interiors, particularly apartment projects, but inferior to SA

 

 

In terms of density of unique interiors I would say VC and IV were superior.

 

Density of interiors > Quantity of interiors. 

[Algonquin Assassin]

3 hours ago, Official General said:

 

You can still state what you don't like and consider the technology here, because it was not possible to achieve what you would have preferred at the time. Vice City could achieve these things because it was a much smaller game in size, even smaller than GTA 3 (which came out before it). I don't think this can be ignored. SA was much bigger in size and content than Scarface and The Getaway, so I don't think those comparisons are valid either. 

 

But you are entitled to your opinion. 

 

I don't see how it's not valid. My comparisons to The Getaway and Scarface were more about showing that the technology was indeed up to the task because those games are incredibly detailed for that era. The point about size is more of a creative decision as far as I'm concerned as no one was forcing R* to make San Andreas as big as it ended up becoming. It's not like the game was made during the 1980s when developers were just finding their feet. 

 

Technology aside it still doesn't the fact most of the interiors are of low quality and aren't very interesting to be in. I guess it depends what you prefer though. A heap of low detailed, barely interactive interiors or a smaller concentration of more detailed interiors like Vice City, GTA IV and GTA V. I obviously prefer the latter because I'll always favour quality over quantity. 

[Official General]

4 hours ago, MiamiViceCity1986 said:

 

I don't see how it's not valid. My comparisons to The Getaway and Scarface were more about showing that the technology was indeed up to the task because those games are incredibly detailed for that era. The point about size is more of a creative decision as far as I'm concerned as no one was forcing R* to make San Andreas as big as it ended up becoming. It's not like the game was made during the 1980s when developers were just finding their feet. 

 

Technology aside it still doesn't the fact most of the interiors are of low quality and aren't very interesting to be in. I guess it depends what you prefer though. A heap of low detailed, barely interactive interiors or a smaller concentration of more detailed interiors like Vice City, GTA IV and GTA V. I obviously prefer the latter because I'll always favour quality over quantity. 

 

Who really knows, we can only speculate based on what we know of regarding how gaming software technology works and is utilized. I

 

I don't think SA's interiors were actually that bad. They were fairly detailed for what they were, and when you really check it, VC's interiors were not much more detailed. The main issue was the loading screen required to enter them and the repetitiveness of some of them. But hey, if you don't like it, that's fine, I get that. 

[Algonquin Assassin]

7 hours ago, Official General said:

 

Who really knows, we can only speculate based on what we know of regarding how gaming software technology works and is utilized. I

 

I don't think SA's interiors were actually that bad. They were fairly detailed for what they were, and when you really check it, VC's interiors were not much more detailed. The main issue was the loading screen required to enter them and the repetitiveness of some of them. But hey, if you don't like it, that's fine, I get that. 

To be fair the detail of the Johnson house is pretty good, but I just don’t like the “box” feeling that feels completely disembodied in general.

 

You’re right that the actual detail of Vice City’s interiors weren’t much more detailed, but that part of my post was more for GTA IV and GTA V.

 

Vice City doesn’t have a lot of interiors, but the ones it does have feel more unique across the board instead of just copy & paste house interiors, clothing shops, restaurants etc.

Edited August 10, 2021 by MiamiViceCity1986

[Ser_Salty]

A lot of interior designs were wasted for the burglary mission when they could've easily been repurposed to give more variety to player homes. Especially the Mulholland Mansion could've used one of the mansion interiors (I think there's two?)