Rocking Adeel KHamisani: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 open world action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar North in the United Kingdom and published by Rockstar Games. A sequel to the successful title Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002), San Andreas is the third 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto series, the fifth original console release and eighth game overall. Originally released for the PlayStation 2 in October 2004.

and on Intel-based Macs running a minimum of Mac OS X 10.6.6 in September 2011. The game was succeeded by Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories in 2005.

Expanding the size of the in-game map from previous GTA titles, GTA: San Andreas is set in the semi-fictional state of San Andreas (based on California and Nevada) and its three metropolitan cities: Los Santos (based on Los Angeles), San Fierro (based on San Francisco), and Las Venturas (based on Las Vegas). Set in 1992,[7] the game revolves around the gang member Carl "CJ" Johnson returning home to Los Santos after learning of his mother's murder. CJ finds his old friends and family in disarray, and over the course of the game, he tries to re-establish his old gang, the Grove Street Families, clashes with corrupt cops, and gradually unravels the truth behind his mother's murder. The plot is based on multiple real-life events in Los Angeles, including the rivalry between the Bloods and Crips street gangs, the crack epidemic, the LAPD Rampart scandal, and the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Like other games in the series, GTA: San Andreas is composed of elements from driving games and third-person shooters, and features open world gameplay, in which players can interact with the game world at their leisure. The game introduced several gameplay elements to the series, including gang wars, car tuning, and extensive player customisation.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas received wide critical acclaim and sold well on all platforms for which it was released. According to review aggregator website Metacritic, the game was the fifth-highest-rated release for the PlayStation 2. With over 17.33 million copies of the game sold for the PlayStation 2, it is the console's best-selling game. As of 2011, the game has sold 27.5 million copies worldwide. Like previous entries in the GTA series, San Andreas was highly controversial for its violent and sexual content. The game was briefly re-rated in 2005 by the Entertainment Software Rating Board as "Adults Only" after a player-made software patch, dubbed the "Hot Coffee mod", unlocked a previously hidden sexual minigame. Subsequent re-releases removed the content and retained the game's original "Mature" ratin.

San Andreas is structured similarly to the previous two games in the series. The core gameplay consists of elements of a third-person shooter and a driving game, affording the player a large, open world environment in which to move around. On foot, the player's character is capable of walking, eating, running, sprinting, swimming, climbing (the first GTA game in which swimming and climbing are possible) and jumping as well as using weapons and various forms of hand to hand combat. Players can drive a variety of vehicles, including automobiles, buses, semis, boats, fixed wing aircraft, helicopters, trains, tanks, motorcycles and bikes. Players may also import vehicles rather than steal them.

The open, non-linear environment allows players to explore and choose how they wish to play the game. Although storyline missions are necessary to progress through the game and unlock certain cities and content, they are not required as players can complete them at their own leisure. When not taking on a storyline mission, players can free-roam and look around the cities, eat from the restaurant, or cause havoc by attacking people and causing destruction. Creating havoc can attract unwanted and potentially fatal attention from the authorities. The more chaos caused, the stronger the response: police will handle "minor" infractions (attacking pedestrians, pointing guns at people, stealing vehicles, manslaughter, etc.), whereas SWAT teams, the FBI, and the military respond to higher wanted levels.

The player can partake in a variety of optional side missions that can boost their character's attributes or provide another source of income. The traditional side missions of the past games are included, such as dropping off taxi cab passengers, putting out fires, driving injured people to the hospital and fighting crime as a vigilante. New additions include burglary missions, pimping missions, truck and train driving missions requiring players to make deliveries on time, and driving/flying/boating/biking schools, which help players learn skills and techniques to use in their corresponding vehicles.

Not all locations are open to the player at the start of the game. Some locales, such as pay 'n spray, gyms, and shops, become available only after completing certain missions. Likewise, for the first portion of the game, only Los Santos and its immediate suburbs are available for exploration; unlocking the other cities and rural areas again requires the completion of certain missions. If the player were to try travel in locked locations they would end up attracting the attention of SWAT teams.

Unlike GTA III and Vice City, which needed loading screens when the player moved between different districts of the city, San Andreas has no load times when the player is in transit. The only loading screens in the game are for cut-scenes and interiors. Other differences between San Andreas and its predecessors include the switch from single-player to multiplayer Rampage missions (albeit not in the PC version), and the replacement of the 'hidden packages' with spray paint tags, hidden camera shots, horseshoes, and oysters to discover.

The camera, fighting, and targeting controls were reworked to incorporate concepts from another Rockstar game, Manhunt, including various stealth elements.