Why San Andreas is superior

[Cyper]

I just looked though the content that San Andreas offers. It made me realize how empty and void GTA V is. Really, those who never played san andreas wont understand how much richer it is in terms of content compared to gta.v.

 

• 105 story missions (gta v had 69 missions)
• Nightclubs with dance minigames
• Lowrider competitions
• Courir missions
• Trucking missions
• Valet missions
• Quarry missions
• Car school missions
• Bike school missions
• Flight school missions
• Boat school missions
• Race Tournament missions (gokart, bikecycle, cars etc.)
• Stadium Competitions
• Firefighter missions
• Paramedic missions
• Police missions
• Taxi driver missions
• Pimping missions
• Import export missions
• Burglar missions
• Ammunation challenges
• Spray tag challange
• snap shot challanges
• Horse shoe challange
• oyster challange
• girlfriend challanges
• trilathon challanges
• Stunt bike challanges
• unique stunt jumps challenges
• Games such as pool, basketball, horse betting, blackjack, roulette, video poker, slot Machines, wheel of fortune, 
• Clothes from binco, suburban, victim, zipi, prolaps, didier sachs - and you can mix them in any order you want

• Special outfits such as pimp outfit, police uniform, gimp suit..
• Gang wars
• Martial arts movess such as boxing, karate kicks

• better fighting system compared to gta. V
• Make cj thin, fat muscular
• Buy tattos 
• Changes haircut (there are 23 different ones)
• Play arcadegames such as Duality, Go Go Space Monkey, lets get ready to bumble, they came from uranus
• recruit gang members which will follow u
• skydiving
• You can purchasr 24 safehouses
• visit strip clubs

 

Last: No Shark Cards. No extra fees. Its all there once the game is installed.

 

Rockstar can add seamless character switching and "improved graphics" to gta v all they want, but gta v still remains dead in terms of content and fun things to do.

 

Im far for excited about definitive edition than the gta v remaster.

 

Edited October 26, 2021 by Cyper

[ArmanCan]

27 minutes ago, Cyper said:

I just looked though the content that San Andreas offers. It made me realize how empty and void GTA V is. Really, those who never played san andreas wont understand how much richer it is in terms of content compared to gta.v.

 

 

Cyper.. actually (Frommy opinion) GTA San Andreas was the beginning of GTA IV and GTA V. They gathered so much ideas for their next games. For example Schools, Triathlons, Wardrop, Physical Condition of Characters. It wouldn't be possible without GTA San Andreas 

[R3LOADED]

True.

[DODI3OG]

I haven't touched GTA V story mode since 2018. In terms of content, GTA SA really had a lot of meaningful ones. GTA V also has a lot of missions, if you ad up side-missions.

 

GTA SA's story should have been subdivided 'cause some plotlines just don't add up to the story. The characters in GTA SA are also more likeable.

[MrBreak16]

On 10/26/2021 at 11:44 AM, Cyper said:

I just looked though the content that San Andreas offers. It made me realize how empty and void GTA V is. Really, those who never played san andreas wont understand how much richer it is in terms of content compared to gta.v.

 

• 105 story missions (gta v had 69 missions)
• Nightclubs with dance minigames
• Lowrider competitions
• Courir missions
• Trucking missions
• Valet missions
• Quarry missions
• Car school missions
• Bike school missions
• Flight school missions
• Boat school missions
• Race Tournament missions (gokart, bikecycle, cars etc.)
• Stadium Competitions
• Firefighter missions
• Paramedic missions
• Police missions
• Taxi driver missions
• Pimping missions
• Import export missions
• Burglar missions
• Ammunation challenges
• Spray tag challange
• snap shot challanges
• Horse shoe challange
• oyster challange
• girlfriend challanges
• trilathon challanges
• Stunt bike challanges
• unique stunt jumps challenges
• Games such as pool, basketball, horse betting, blackjack, roulette, video poker, slot Machines, wheel of fortune, 
• Clothes from binco, suburban, victim, zipi, prolaps, didier sachs - and you can mix them in any order you want

• Special outfits such as pimp outfit, police uniform, gimp suit..
• Gang wars
• Martial arts movess such as boxing, karate kicks

• better fighting system compared to gta. V
• Make cj thin, fat muscular
• Buy tattos 
• Changes haircut (there are 23 different ones)
• Play arcadegames such as Duality, Go Go Space Monkey, lets get ready to bumble, they came from uranus
• recruit gang members which will follow u
• skydiving
• You can purchasr 24 safehouses
• visit strip clubs

 

Last: No Shark Cards. No extra fees. Its all there once the game is installed.

 

Rockstar can add seamless character switching and "improved graphics" to gta v all they want, but gta v still remains dead in terms of content and fun things to do.

 

Im far for excited about definitive edition than the gta v remaster.

 

I agree with you for the most but there are some points to correct:

- GTA V has a flight school

- GTA V has street races (but they are limited to Franklin)

- GTA V has taxi driver side activities

- GTA V has ammunation challenges

- GTA V has more clothing options than GTA SA

- GTA V have some collectibles similar to tags, horseshoes and oysters (letter scraps, ufo parts, peyote plants, submarine parts)

- GTA V has triathlons

- GTA V has stunt jumps

- GTA V has tattoos

- GTA V has about the same level of haircut customization

- GTA V has skydiving side activities

- GTA V has a strip club with private dances

[Lonely-Martin]

11 hours ago, MrBreak16 said:

I agree with you for the most but there are some points to correct:

- GTA V has a flight school

- GTA V has street races (but they are limited to Franklin)

- GTA V has taxi driver side activities

- GTA V has ammunation challenges

- GTA V has more clothing options than GTA SA

- GTA V have some collectibles similar to tags, horseshoes and oysters (letter scraps, ufo parts, peyote plants, submarine parts)

- GTA V has triathlons

- GTA V has stunt jumps

- GTA V has tattoos

- GTA V has about the same level of haircut customization

- GTA V has skydiving side activities

- GTA V has a strip club with private dances

 

A mighty fine golf course too. Darts and tennis also.

 

And the most important aspect: Yoga!

 

[DODI3OG]

@above

IDK why the HD era games weren't that much replayable to me. Sure, they had those stuff, but there's something off about GTA V in spite of the realistic-looking game world.

 

I wouldn't have explored that much of South San An if it wasn't for GTA Online, especially East Los and Mirror Park.

GTA V had a lot of content I haven't touched on since 2015 since GTA Online was getting the attention.

[ThePlake0815]

8 hours ago, DODI3OG said:

@above

IDK why the HD era games weren't that much replayable to me. Sure, they had those stuff, but there's something off about GTA V in spite of the realistic-looking game world.

 

I wouldn't have explored that much of South San An if it wasn't for GTA Online, especially East Los and Mirror Park.

GTA V had a lot of content I haven't touched on since 2015 since GTA Online was getting the attention.

Same here, but are you sure you would've not played SP more, if Online would not be a thing? (looking at "wouldn't have explored south san an"...)

Edited October 28, 2021 by ThePlake0815

[DODI3OG]

5 minutes ago, ThePlake0815 said:

Same here, but are you sure you would've not played SP more, if Online would not be a thing? (looking at "wouldn't have explored south san an"...)

I would play it, just not as much as my current record of at least 1,500 hours playtime. Vehicles in vanilla GTA V feels boring. GTA SA spoiled me with the jetpack. The flying vehicles should have been exclusive to SP for that matter. I remember seeing that stairway by the LS river in Mirror Park for the first time. I didn't even know it was there. I was riding my Oppressor and happened to stumble upon that part of town.

 

Just driving by the road wouldn't help that much at spotting it. Also, I have been playing SP most of the time since 2013. I didn't jump into GTA Online full time since 2018. The only things I did in SP were roleplaying through Director Mode and shooting movies every now and then.

 

I haven't even shot all the pigeons in GTA IV because either I had to drive cars or land a chopper somewhere and start searching for those things.

 

Not sure what you meant if GTA Online would not be a thing. If they put those vehicles, properties, and weapons into GTA V, sure I would play SP a lot more. But, if those vehicles totally stopped existing. Then, I wouldn't even touch GTA V that much other than for nostalgia trips.

[ThePlake0815]

27 minutes ago, DODI3OG said:

I would play it, just not as much as my current record of at least 1,500 hours playtime. Vehicles in vanilla GTA V feels boring. GTA SA spoiled me with the jetpack. The flying vehicles should have been exclusive to SP for that matter. I remember seeing that stairway by the LS river in Mirror Park for the first time. I didn't even know it was there. I was riding my Oppressor and happened to stumble upon that part of town.

 

Just driving by the road wouldn't help that much at spotting it. Also, I have been playing SP most of the time since 2013. I didn't jump into GTA Online full time since 2018. The only things I did in SP were roleplaying through Director Mode and shooting movies every now and then.

 

I haven't even shot all the pigeons in GTA IV because either I had to drive cars or land a chopper somewhere and start searching for those things.

 

Not sure what you meant if GTA Online would not be a thing. If they put those vehicles, properties, and weapons into GTA V, sure I would play SP a lot more. But, if those vehicles totally stopped existing. Then, I wouldn't even touch GTA V that much other than for nostalgia trips.

I meant exactly that, but doubt I would not have as much hours in SP then... The content that would've been added during the last 7 years surely would look different, but then again: I wasn't the biggestvfan of TLaD (TBoGT on the other hand was great!)...

 

Yes, Oppressor mk2 (still prefer the mk1 ;-P) and and deluxo are fun, but the Kuruma (unarmored!) and Shotaro are still my fav 4/2 wheelers online.

[boomboom5950]

Half of the things you mentionned in that huge list are also in GTA V, some even expanded upon and done better. I also noticed you mentionned "No Shark Cards. No extra fees", but I thought you were comparing San Andreas with GTA V, gta online has nothing to do with the singleplayer modes, so why mention shark cards when thats just an unfair point?

 

Look GTA San Andreas is my favorite game of all time, i like it more than GTA V but at least be fair when comparing the games 

[PhilPerlmutter]

Well, as mentioned by the previous posters, there are some points that indeed are in both games to a certain extent, and there are also things that sort of were in GTA V that were not yet in GTA San Andreas (gun customisation really comes to my mind here).

 

But I agree, GTA San Andreas is the far better game in my opinion, it still catches me today while I do not have the slightest motivation to play GTA V again.

Looking back, now that many of the deleted content could be found and analysed by reverse engineering, it really amazes me how ambitious some cut ideas had been back then when the game was developed: the vault locking minigame (would have been a great addition to the burglar missions), the drug trading and car cracking mini game (later introduced in GTA China Town Wars), furniture shops for customising flats and houses to name just a few. I must say although the game is still remarkable with all the features that have made it to the final release, I was almost a bit sad after I had seen the content mainly cut because of PS2 limitations (a proper open world multiplayer as well by the way, which almost certainly would have been great had it made it to the release, because micro transactions were not really a thing back then).

 

Whatever R* do in the future in terms of the GTA Series, I hope they will scrap the multi character system, add these light ability system (eating included) again, and most importantly, take a lock again how well designed missions were in the 3 era: no damn tunnel like design that let you fail a missions whenever you have a slightly different idea solving the problem (hell, you could use the harvester in San Andreas to "harvest" the weed in "Are we going to San Fierro" instead of just burning it, a thing I only have seen years later) or leaving the exact road you are supposed to drive.

And please scrap that mission mark system, it was ok in San Andreas for the Vehicle Schools or the Shooting Range, but missions are just the entities that are supposed to paint the story, not something to really be challenged all the time by meeting some criteria (again an element that makes it appear really tunnelish).

 

Some people might like other GTA Games more and I respect that, but for me, GTA San Andreas is an open world game that is very worthy to analyse for game developers with all its contents, cut or uncut, be it to see how a convincing atmosphere can be created (I was myself really sceptical before playing it, all that rapper hip hop stuff is not my thing at all, but it did fit as a whole), how to contain some great humor, but especially in terms how to create a very optimized map that manages to mimic a whole state although it is not that wide at all in terms of area size. Compare it to the map of GTA V, even if we ignore the missing two additional cities, there is so much wasted and ,although very impressively designed, unused space. The Lake, the mountains, wouldn't we have loved to have a safe house somewhere in a mountain village for example, or a safe house on a boat on the lake, somehow implemented into the story?

GTA San Andreas did that by placing missions over the whole countryside and by actually not having the quick save option, you actually had to drive around to save and had to buy properties, making the countryside actual thing.

 

Anyway, I got carried away with my few thoughts, sorry.

As I have mentioned before, I really hope feature GTA titles are more similar (in all positive ways) to the 3d era in terms of gameplay, but I am not that optimistic:

I am getting older and my generation was undoubtedly attracted by different elements and qualities of games than younger generations, and at the end, companies have to do what sells in the most profitable way I guess.

[DODI3OG]

On 10/28/2021 at 10:42 PM, ThePlake0815 said:

I meant exactly that, but doubt I would not have as much hours in SP then... The content that would've been added during the last 7 years surely would look different, but then again: I wasn't the biggestvfan of TLaD (TBoGT on the other hand was great!)...

 

Yes, Oppressor mk2 (still prefer the mk1 ;-P) and and deluxo are fun, but the Kuruma (unarmored!) and Shotaro are still my fav 4/2 wheelers online.

IMO GTA OL>GTA SA >GTA V>GTA IV and Episodes

 

If they'd just put San Fierro and Las Venturas into the game, GTA OL would be hands down the only game I'd play. Fingers crossed GTA VI will have Liberty State, Alderney State, Florida, and San Andreas,

22 hours ago, PhilPerlmutter said:

Well, as mentioned by the previous posters, there are some points that indeed are in both games to a certain extent, and there are also things that sort of were in GTA V that were not yet in GTA San Andreas (gun customisation really comes to my mind here).

 

But I agree, GTA San Andreas is the far better game in my opinion, it still catches me today while I do not have the slightest motivation to play GTA V again.

Looking back, now that many of the deleted content could be found and analysed by reverse engineering, it really amazes me how ambitious some cut ideas had been back then when the game was developed: the vault locking minigame (would have been a great addition to the burglar missions), the drug trading and car cracking mini game (later introduced in GTA China Town Wars), furniture shops for customising flats and houses to name just a few. I must say although the game is still remarkable with all the features that have made it to the final release, I was almost a bit sad after I had seen the content mainly cut because of PS2 limitations (a proper open world multiplayer as well by the way, which almost certainly would have been great had it made it to the release, because micro transactions were not really a thing back then).

 

Whatever R* do in the future in terms of the GTA Series, I hope they will scrap the multi character system, add these light ability system (eating included) again, and most importantly, take a lock again how well designed missions were in the 3 era: no damn tunnel like design that let you fail a missions whenever you have a slightly different idea solving the problem (hell, you could use the harvester in San Andreas to "harvest" the weed in "Are we going to San Fierro" instead of just burning it, a thing I only have seen years later) or leaving the exact road you are supposed to drive.

And please scrap that mission mark system, it was ok in San Andreas for the Vehicle Schools or the Shooting Range, but missions are just the entities that are supposed to paint the story, not something to really be challenged all the time by meeting some criteria (again an element that makes it appear really tunnelish).

 

Some people might like other GTA Games more and I respect that, but for me, GTA San Andreas is an open world game that is very worthy to analyse for game developers with all its contents, cut or uncut, be it to see how a convincing atmosphere can be created (I was myself really sceptical before playing it, all that rapper hip hop stuff is not my thing at all, but it did fit as a whole), how to contain some great humor, but especially in terms how to create a very optimized map that manages to mimic a whole state although it is not that wide at all in terms of area size. Compare it to the map of GTA V, even if we ignore the missing two additional cities, there is so much wasted and ,although very impressively designed, unused space. The Lake, the mountains, wouldn't we have loved to have a safe house somewhere in a mountain village for example, or a safe house on a boat on the lake, somehow implemented into the story?

GTA San Andreas did that by placing missions over the whole countryside and by actually not having the quick save option, you actually had to drive around to save and had to buy properties, making the countryside actual thing.

 

Anyway, I got carried away with my few thoughts, sorry.

As I have mentioned before, I really hope feature GTA titles are more similar (in all positive ways) to the 3d era in terms of gameplay, but I am not that optimistic:

I am getting older and my generation was undoubtedly attracted by different elements and qualities of games than younger generations, and at the end, companies have to do what sells in the most profitable way I guess.

This is why I don't like GTA V at all. The missions are too "linearized". I really love experimenting in any game I play. I also love taking my time as I usually walk rather than drive unless I feel it's necessary to do so. I really hate the checkpoints in GTA V. GTA Online got rid of most of these quirks, except for the checklists.

 

I also hate the fact that given the billions of money we can get by the end of GTA V, we barely have anything to spend money on. Come on! The online stuff would have been more balanced if it was instead exclusive for SP.

 

On your point about the safehouse being scattered all around the map. I kinda loved it in GTA SA there were actually mission strands that necessitated a nearby safehouse for easier "replay". GTA IV kinda balanced this out by offering a replay feature, while still giving us a safehouse on a particular part of the map for the current mission strand.

 

Now that the DE is gonna have replays and probably quick save, the safehouses will function merely as nearest reload points should you die and lose money or get busted and lose all your weapons. I think it's only 1 less function this time with quicksave. Unless, I missed something.

 

Still, the safehouses in GTA V were kind dull. At a time, we had three safehouses in LS which is kinda useless since we had checkpoints and quick restart. They only served their purpose in the story. We could have had a house in Paleto Bay, Chumash (GTA Online, aheeem....when?????), Banham Canyon, some Farmhouse.... But no. Most of the missions have to be started in Los Santos, some in Sandy Shores. The little towns only served as backdrops, instead of actual hubs for plotlines. That's why Paleto Bay and Chumash are not as nostalgic as Angel Pine and a comparable, much smaller town in GTA SA.

 

In GTA SA, we were given a save point in Angel Pine, because we actually had to do a few missions there, also in Red County at Catalina's Safehouse. In GTA V, there was nothing to do in Paleto Bay, other than use it as a backdrop for a few missions. Also, Chumash was the setting for only 1 mission, as far as I can remember. Grapeseed was also underused even though Trevor's missions usually take place there.

 

I don't remember buying a lot of safehouse in GTA SA, other than the ones I really liked. But, the safehouses were really useful because there were actual mission strands either on that very safehouse or somewhere nearby. In GTA OL, safehouses kinda serve their purpose because some businesses can double as safehouse. I find them really useful in GTA OL for times like I wanna change lobbies and teleport at the same time to my hangar or some remote safehouse. The TVs in safehouses were also useful for AFKing. So, the more houses we got the closer we are to an AFK point.

 

I just wish at this point GTA OL was just like GTA IV's MP. GTA V SP should have been the one given the support. R*'s servers are bad, to be honest and I don't like waiting for others to join, waiting for the mission to load, and finally hoping nobody disconnects or else the mission would fail....

 

Instead of GTA OL being a fun hub for players, it's become more and more competitive with the advantages favoring mostly well-financed members or like me, people with barely a trace of life. hahahha GTA OL should have been grounded, with only paramedic, vigilante, firefighter, and other small-scale missions in it in freemode. Now, that would have been fun!! GTA V should have had the Over-the-top stuff in GTA OL, although most of them were designed for at least 2 players. But, nothing an accurate AI companion couldn't handle.

 

If things turned out this way, R* wouldn't have made a lot of profits. Here's hoping GTA VI wouldn't be as messy....

[SquoniX]

You can't really compare the content though, GTA:SA was ahead of its time but if you think of GTA V as an entity then you gotta include GTA Online also. It has far more content and I still have more hours in San Andreas than in GTA V but that's because of SAMP and MTA.

[GhettoJesus]

On 10/28/2021 at 6:54 AM, DODI3OG said:

IDK why the HD era games weren't that much replayable to me. Sure, they had those stuff, but there's something off about GTA V in spite of the realistic-looking game world.

I think there is something about 3D era games, especially San Andreas (for me at least) that later games will never be able to replicate. It's that magic. There is this nostalgic feeling when playing them. It's not just about the features. You see a location in the game at the right time with the right weather condition and boom, the memories start flooding.

 

As for OP, as Zerdical pointed out above, this list is a bit weird. Many of these features are in GTA V (worse or better) and SA misses some of V's feature. Though personally I prefer SA over V by a lot.

[PhilPerlmutter]

1 hour ago, DODI3OG said:

On your point about the safehouse being scattered all around the map. I kinda loved it in GTA SA there were actually mission strands that necessitated a nearby safehouse for easier "replay". GTA IV kinda balanced this out by offering a replay feature, while still giving us a safehouse on a particular part of the map for the current mission strand.

 

Now that the DE is gonna have replays and probably quick save, the safehouses will function merely as nearest reload points should you die and lose money or get busted and lose all your weapons. I think it's only 1 less function this time with quicksave. Unless, I missed something.

 

Still, the safehouses in GTA V were kind dull. At a time, we had three safehouses in LS which is kinda useless since we had checkpoints and quick restart. They only served their purpose in the story. We could have had a house in Paleto Bay, Chumash (GTA Online, aheeem....when?????), Banham Canyon, some Farmhouse.... But no. Most of the missions have to be started in Los Santos, some in Sandy Shores. The little towns only served as backdrops, instead of actual hubs for plotlines. That's why Paleto Bay and Chumash are not as nostalgic as Angel Pine and a comparable, much smaller town in GTA SA.

 

The thing really is, and that was my point of the safehouses and you kind of agreed (I guess?), many in GTA San Andreas were really useful.

It has very much to do with the fact that there was neither mission restart/checkpoints nor quicksave nor fast travel (taxi in HD era).

Most people I assume would not be happy without these elements these days (and taxi, although without fast travel, I would even agree), but I think they sort of fail to see the consequence of it: "wasting" time by driving/flying around from mission to mission stretches the storyline and creates an impression that the map has actually some distance. It also makes the player explore the details that have always in the maps of the GTA games (I mean think of the GTA IV and V map, so many details you surely miss when not driving around but taking the taxi only).

 

But then again, I am certainly not the average gamer anymore. My impression is that people prefer games that are more filled with actions instead of having calmer phases as well these days, the latter is seen as a waste of time by many.

 

Anyway, thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[BilinmeyenBey]

All of the reason you given, is true. It's a superior game. You can't get bored. Even If you do, you are free to leave and say "well, that was a good game / experience"

 

There is a lot of things you can do, if you don't like the missions. You can go RPG (Roleplay) and become Taxi Driver/Ambulance Driver/Fireman and such. It's... Perfect! 

[Americana]

Thanks for the list of things nobody really enjoys doing.

[Jokeman123]

That applies to GTA IV also...

[Ash Vercetti]

Gta V is indeed empty, to move players to Online maybe?

Once I 100% it I never touched it again, no point without mods.

[Collibosher]

To me it's the scale, diversity, detail, depth and mythology of the map that makes GTA:SA superior to any game ever. I'm really skeptical that any game could ever top that, especially since modern games require more work for the same amount of content, because you "have to" have more polygons and higher quality textures etc. these days. Back in the day you were able to get away with more smushy looking details here and there, because they didn't stick too much from the overall look, thus enabled developers to concentrate on creating more content.

 

You may think map is just one part of the game, which is true, but R* has said they usually create the concept of the map first and start creating story and mission for it after, so GTA:SA wouldn't be so amazing from the gameplay and story standpoint either, if it wasn't for the amazing map! Also an open world game should be totally enjoyable long after you have finished the story, which would be difficult with a little boring map. No matter how much you have played GTA:SA, I bet you can still discover something you have never seen before, or more meaning behind some detail you thought was insignificant and never really thought about it any further.

 

[Yinepi]

On 10/26/2021 at 3:17 AM, ArmanCan said:

Physical Condition of Characters.

Except this was never used outside of SA. GTA4 and 5 the characters stay the same body weight.

[60017 Silver Fox]

I'd say the greatest strength San Andreas had was how nicely everything pieced together and it never felt like it out stayed its welcome. The cities never felt too big that you could get lost in and the rural areas never felt like they just go on and on and on with little of interest in sight for miles. The only major downside for me was there was very little content underwater bar the set pieces for that sneaking mission.

[DODI3OG]

18 hours ago, BilinmeyenBey said:

All of the reason you given, is true. It's a superior game. You can't get bored. Even If you do, you are free to leave and say "well, that was a good game / experience"

 

There is a lot of things you can do, if you don't like the missions. You can go RPG (Roleplay) and become Taxi Driver/Ambulance Driver/Fireman and such. It's... Perfect! 

Thing is, GTA V doesn't have Ambulance and Firefighter missions. Roleplaying options in GTA V are kinda scarce, even for Director mode.

 

25 minutes ago, 60017 Silver Fox said:

I'd say the greatest strength San Andreas had was how nicely everything pieced together and it never felt like it out stayed its welcome. The cities never felt too big that you could get lost in and the rural areas never felt like they just go on and on and on with little of interest in sight for miles. The only major downside for me was there was very little content underwater bar the set pieces for that sneaking mission.

Yup. Most of the content in GTA SA really made use of the game world and vice versa. In GTA V, most of the missions are set in Los Santos that there's only a few things to do in the countryside. Even some parts of LS is underutilized until GTA OL made us of them.

21 hours ago, SquoniX said:

You can't really compare the content though, GTA:SA was ahead of its time but if you think of GTA V as an entity then you gotta include GTA Online also. It has far more content and I still have more hours in San Andreas than in GTA V but that's because of SAMP and MTA.

I played SAMP and MTA  back in the days, when we still had landline DSL.

8 hours ago, Collibosher said:

To me it's the scale, diversity, detail, depth and mythology of the map that makes GTA:SA superior to any game ever. I'm really skeptical that any game could ever top that, especially since modern games require more work for the same amount of content, because you "have to" have more polygons and higher quality textures etc. these days. Back in the day you were able to get away with more smushy looking details here and there, because they didn't stick too much from the overall look, thus enabled developers to concentrate on creating more content.

 

You may think map is just one part of the game, which is true, but R* has said they usually create the concept of the map first and start creating story and mission for it after, so GTA:SA wouldn't be so amazing from the gameplay and story standpoint either, if it wasn't for the amazing map! Also an open world game should be totally enjoyable long after you have finished the story, which would be difficult with a little boring map. No matter how much you have played GTA:SA, I bet you can still discover something you have never seen before, or more meaning behind some detail you thought was insignificant and never really thought about it any further.

 

Actually the opposite in terms of modelling. Most models are actually made in with more polygons, then the devs would lower them until the game runs smooth enough. Things would be easier nowadays that they don't have to go down that much.

 

The thing with GTA SA is that it wasn't half-assed. It's not a map for an MMORPG (GTA Online can be classified as such.)

It's a map with its own stories and a map where players cane make their own stories. I can't make that many stories in GTA V's map. Even with more advanced AI, they feel disconnected to the game world. There are no weird people in weird places, other than the armed rednecks and gangsters. Everything is too modern, as if the places have no history on them. Same for GTA IV.

 

They look like set pieces. As I said somewhere, the HD universe don't feel like actual settings, they feel like 3D backgrounds you can get into and find nothing interesting behind the background. Paleto Forest and Mt. Chiliad looks like a backdrop for the highway and the town.

 

As we said, a few safehouses throughout the map in GTA V would have made the world more believable. At least, players would associate that safehouse with the particular history of missions. Also the weather in Paleto Bay is more or less the same as the weather in Los Santos, except for sands getting blown off in the PS4 version.

 

Needless to say, GTA V is kinda half-assed. If it released sometime in 2016, it could have had more meaningful features at the cost of more money being poured in for production. That's why I'd rather have R* take time on GTA VI. But, if it turns out to be underwhelming, then F it.

 

 

[PhilPerlmutter]

12 hours ago, Collibosher said:

I'm really skeptical that any game could ever top that, especially since modern games require more work for the same amount of content, because you "have to" have more polygons and higher quality textures etc. these days. Back in the day you were able to get away with more smushy looking details here and there, because they didn't stick too much from the overall look, thus enabled developers to concentrate on creating more content.

 

I agree a lot with your post but is that part really that true? (Would be interesting to hear a comment from a game developer here). I mean certainly, the detail level did rise over the years, but so did the amount of ready to start elements (such as textures or sound databases).  Speaking of the GTA series, the teams also became larger as well as the budget (comparable to film productions).

There are loads of details in the GTA IV and V maps that I loved to discover, the problem in V for me was that they were kind of pointless, because playing the missions normally, you would never really go there.

Like you wrote, the GTA San Andreas map was very well designed, there are only a few locations that serve no purpose at all.

 

There has been a video that showed an analysis of GTAV in terms of its beta stages, and many screenshots had shown a lot more trees around mount chiliad for example, which were removed later on. It seems that the consoles were a really limiting factor there, who knows, probably they had to make cuts because of that.

 

Unfortunately, I have to agree with you that such a great game is rather unlikely, but them let's not loose hope.

Edited October 30, 2021 by PhilPerlmutter

[Pyschemat]

Really good game but I really wished you could skip some missions.

[Shrek Realista]

The fact GTA SA doesn't have shark cards or any kind of microtransactions and has an offline coop multiplayer plus a FREE online multiplayer made by the community, turns it 1000x better than GTA V and GTA Online.

 

 

Edited November 2, 2021 by Chief_Forasteiro

[S1aveUnit]

I think SA is superior for its map size and I feel R* recreated Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vegas and the 1990s setting perfectly for the game. I remember getting my Game Informer subscription magazine for the month the year it released and being impressed with the visuals in the magazine article. 

Theres also very small realistic aspects in San Andreas that puts other non-GTA games to shame. I personally don't care for GTA Online and I'm glad thats only in GTA V.

Edited November 9, 2021 by S1aveUnit

[.Sharingan]

GTA 3: most evolved GTA title compared to the previous version.

GTA Vice City: best soundtracks and style and atmosphere

GTA San Andreas: most expanded GTA with RPG elements and insane amount of content and details and little things to do, also the most polished gameplay out of the three.

Edited November 9, 2021 by .Sharingan

[DODI3OG]

1 hour ago, .Sharingan said:

GTA 3: most evolved GTA title compared to the previous version.

GTA Vice City: best soundtracks and style and atmosphere

GTA San Andreas: most expanded GTA with RPG elements and insane amount of content and details and little things to do, also the most polished gameplay out of the three.

I hope I was able to play GTA 3 when it came out. I might appreciate the GTA Series even more. Overall, GTA San Andreas was the best game overall I was able to get my hands on. I played the vanilla version for hours on end, and even more when I began modding. I hope R* would just greenlight modding and give us modding tools so we could come up with them ourselves.

 

Back in the days, I used to roleplay as a Modern Warfare character doing. The riot and gang war cheats were really fun to mess around with while playing as Captain Price. I also downloaded Niko Bellic skins way back 2009 because my PC didn't have a video card back then and I really wanted to get into action as Niko. XD

 

I don't know if the definitive edition will surpass those experiences, but the improved visuals alone are a huge game changer. I just can't imagine playing an updated vanilla GTA San An, after my last heavily-modded playthrough. I reckon it'll be like playing with Total Overhaul and ENB mods.