GTA: SA

Five years ago Carl Johnson escaped from the pressures of life in Los Santos, San Andreas--a city tearing itself apart with gang trouble, drugs and corruption, where film stars and millionaires do their best to avoid the dealers and gangsters. Now, it's the early 90s. Carl's got to go home. His mother has been murdered, his family has fallen apart and his childhood friends are all heading towards disaster. On his return to the neighborhood, a couple of corrupt cops frame him for homicide. CJ is forced on a journey that takes him across the entire state of San Andreas, to save his family and to take control of the streets...

It will come as no surprise [well, maybe] to you to hear that GTA: SA is without doubt the greatest PS2 game ever, and as essential as a memory card and controller are. Rockstar and specifically Rockstar North have created the game to end all games, graphically it's on par with previous efforts as it basically uses the same engine, the beauty here is that you can drive where the fuck you like from one city, out to the country side to another city, out to the deserts and to like another frickin' city with no loading times what-so-ever which is impressive when you consider the size and scope of the whole darn thing. The sound is Dandy-wow-fantastico, with brilliant voice acting from many great people [Sam 'the dude' Jackson to name but one, playing as a bent cop]. The script/story and or missions are brilliant and would rival that of a film in terms of characters, events and depth. The physics engine has been re-worked meaning that driving cars, bikes, boats, planes, combine harvesters!?!?! Is more enjoyable than ever before and much less fiddly. It's also by far the funniest game ever with jokes every-fukin-where [COKO' POPS anyone? "Start every day with Cok in your mouth" another nice touch is events that happen in the game sometimes get talked about on radio stations later on in news and stuff, oh and the music by the way...There are like 100's quality tunes in here ranging from Depeche Mode [Personal Jesus], Jane's Addiction [Been Caught Stealing] to Public Enemy [Rebel Without A Pause] and 2 Pac [I Don't Give A Fuck]. I could and probably should go on talking about this game for years to come, but will actually stop now so I can get back to the game of all games. No two gamers experiences of this game will be the same, there are endless ways of completing missions and objectives, with a million and two things on the side [Be a cop,fire-fighter, Taxi-Man, Valet, 2 player mini games, buy real-estate, get a girlfriend]. Also to note: No two gamers CJ [your character] will be the same [clothes, hair styles, tattoos, weight, amount of respect, weapon and driving skills].
So forget about everything else you got going on right now [work, friends, girls] this is your new life, or not it's just a game. 10/10 is the score, the only disconcerting thing is where the fuck do we go from here? Is there anything games can't do? Yes, but that's what the next Grand Theft Auto to appear on PS3 is for.