Grand Theft Auto SA sets the bar really high, and others aspire to it. It’s defiantly not the graphics that keep people coming back, and anyone would be really hard pressed to point out any one action, event, or situation that makes the game stand out. What it comes down to here is the relentless fun that the game assaults you with each and every time you play. It lets you attempt things you never would in real life then keeps you coming back to see what will happen next.

The tale of the hero, Carl Johnson is a very long one, meaning that you can spend hours and hours just exploring the main story. Then, there’s also the skydiving, mountain biking, dating, working out, swimming – the list of things you can do is basically endless. Every few minutes or so, San Andreas will confront you with another situation, another challenge to overcome. Nothing is out of bounds here, and if there’s something you’ve been itching to do in real life – chances are that you’ll find a place to do it in San Andreas.

Even though the XBOX holds superior graphics over the PS2 version of the game, the graphics aren’t the reason you’ll be playing. The game starts you out in only a small area of the game, and then gradually works you over the world of San Andreas. By the end of the game, you’ll travel all around the world. To put it in technical terms, you could walk from one end of San Andreas to the other in 22 minutes – if you attempt this feat however, you might as well cut the game off – you’ve officially run out of things to do!

Just like in real life, you have to feed Carl and keep him energetic. If you eat too much you get fat, if you don’t eat enough, you get too skinny. There’s everything from gyms to tattoo parlors and hair stylists, giving you the chance to do what you’ve always wanted with a video game. If we were to sit here and list everything that you could do with San Andreas, this review would never come to an end!

The XBOX version also boasts the availability of custom soundtracks. Another new feature to the game is a replay function that will allow you to re-watch the last few seconds of game play. This is perfect for showing your friends that ridiculous jump you made, or the plane crash that sent you jumping out of your seat!

Overall, it must be noted that this is an excellent game. You could spend 150 hours or more just exploring everything in the game, and still not see the end. If you like games that involve a high level of detail and quality – this is the one game that you should rush out and buy right now – it’s that good!

- TopXboxGames.com