Mo Better Blues
You play the role of Carl Johnson, or CJ, as you’re called by all the characters in the game. After spending 5 years away from Los Santos, in the Liberty City of GTA:VC no less, you return for your mother’s funeral. Sadly, she’s been murdered and it’s up to you to put things right. GTA:SA sets the tone for the game right from the off with the start of multiple story threads all happening within the first 15 minutes of playing. You get picked up by corrupt cops who fleece you of all your money, you get dropped off in rival gang territory and then find that your own gang, the Grove Street Families, need some serious help.
In the tradition of GTA games, areas of the game are locked off until you get further into the game and the first few missions are really to familiarise you with the controls, of which there are now more than ever. Having covered most vehicles in previous games, Rockstar have chosen to refine the control you have over these, which is most apparent with the pedal bike. Moving your weight forwards or back on this makes the difference between landing a jump or not and is reminiscent of Microsoft’s Motocross Madness.
In fact, the more complex controls such as target locking and sight aiming and the increased freedom given to view control when in a vehicle make the use of a mouse and keyboard quite tricky at times. Hook up a gamepad and you’re laughing though. Interestingly, I found a couple of places where I seemed to lose mouse control for a few seconds… hitting escape and then resuming sorted it out but it was annoying to have to do that in the middle of a gunfight.