Current Events > Not denying that GTAV is good, but...

(+) Yeah! (+)

...in my opinion, San Andreas will always be the definitive GTA.
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I disagree, but they are both excellent games and I can respect your opinion.

I feel the same way, but let's be honest, it's entirely nostalgia. V is better in just about every way possible with an amazing engine.
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Slip-N-Slide posted...

I feel the same way, but let's be honest, it's entirely nostalgia. V is better in just about every way possible with an amazing engine.

I played SA after V and I still prefer SA.
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Kircheis posted...

Slip-N-Slide posted...

I feel the same way, but let's be honest, it's entirely nostalgia. V is better in just about every way possible with an amazing engine.

I played SA after V and I still prefer SA.

And I played V long after I played SA, and still prefer V, so it goes both ways.

Like I said, though, being slightly worse that either game is a major compliment in itself.

If SA had the GTAV engine...
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For sure, GTAV is more impressive graphically. That was never up for debate - SA was mid-PS2 era, GTAV was late-PS3 era. Superior hardware, and the developers would've been more used to using it by the time. And I say this even without having ever played the current-gen version. Likewise, there are mechanics that are great improvements, such as the random events. The controls are definitely far superior too, although to be fair this was already greatly improved in GTA4.

But just in terms of overall gameplay, and story - which are the more important factors to me, especially the former - San Andreas was clearly superior.
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San Andreas was a great single player game. 5 was a good single player game.
Once you get into the online with friends tho, 5 is a lot of fun.
That said, I rarely play it anymore, it's gotten stale long ago
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SA is the greatest gta game, way better than 4 or 5.

Good thing rdr2 is coming soon, that game last gen washed that horrible taste of gta4 out of my mouth.
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Vice City is still my favorite, but I replayed San Andreas and the game is just *fun*.

GTA V, while a huge step up from GTA IV, still felt way too up it's own ass for it's own good.

Also, the map had way too much useless fucking space. It's big for the sake of being big.

San Andreas being dense works so much better.

Dash_Harber posted...

Kircheis posted...

Slip-N-Slide posted...

I feel the same way, but let's be honest, it's entirely nostalgia. V is better in just about every way possible with an amazing engine.

I played SA after V and I still prefer SA.

And I played V long after I played SA, and still prefer V, so it goes both ways.

Like I said, though, being slightly worse that either game is a major compliment in itself.

I can respect that, I just didn't want the "it's entirely nostalgia" claim to be left unchallenged. I just think nostalgia goggles is a lazy way to criticize something. >_>
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I liked the journey in San Andreas so damn much. It felt so epic and varied. Even more varied than GTAV's three characters.

GTAV just sorta ends. It really needed a villain like Tenpenny.
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KillerKhan420 posted...

SA is the greatest gta game, way better than 4 or 5.

Good thing rdr2 is coming soon, that game last gen washed that horrible taste of gta4 out of my mouth.

Definitely looking forward to RDR2, and I'd say I like RDR more than any GTA, even San Andreas. (RDR, including the DLC, is one of only two games of this style that I've 100%ed, the other being the very-easy-to-100% Saint's Row: Gat Out Of Hell) Though I wouldn't say GTA4 is awful by any means; sure, it isn't amazing (aside from the graphics) in and of itself, but it wasn't terrible either. And then, take the DLCs into account, which were purely amazing (each one practically being its own game, with a combined length similar to the main game - GTA4 is a perfect example of the right way to do DLC)... overall, I was pretty impressed with it. :)
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GTA V has the better physics and graphics, but San Andreas just feels like the better game IMO.

Modern GTA, while still fun, is the perfect example of how games suffer when they try so hard to be cinematic.
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I really wish GTAV had the level of small detail GTAIV had. Like shooting someone in the leg and they'd react appropriately.
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I liked GTA V a bit better than SA tbh, alot of that is mostly just that it controls better tho, SA and older GTA games feel kinda dated in terms of gameplay and I care more about that than story
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OwlRammer posted...

I liked GTA V a bit better than SA tbh, alot of that is mostly just that it controls better tho, SA and older GTA games feel kinda dated in terms of gameplay and I care more about that than story

I would definitely agree with this in regards to all the other PS2 GTAs, but SA is at least decent.
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GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas are the most memorable GTA games to me.
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This is a reasonable opinion. SA changed the game. V is great mostly (,for me) because it hardened back to what SA was.
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Vice City is still the best in my book and replaying the PS2 trilogy recently I think I finally discovered a reason why as far as gameplay wise goes.

The Map is Perfectly Sized.

So much of San Andreas and every other GTA game after is just a lot of wasted space on the map. It can get tedious to get around. Anytime I had to get on a highway in San Andreas I got pissed off. Taxis in IV fixed a lot of this, but I think it's a huge reason why Vice City is better than San Andreas. I know every inch of Vice City. I know all the short cuts, where I can nab a bribe, some armor, good places to lose the cops, etc.

On top of that I prefer the music and 80s vibe of Vice City a bit more than San Andreas. Love San Andreas at the start, but when you start becoming a secret agent hijacking jets and doing crazy assassinations, I longed for the drive through where all you had to worry about were the cops and them Balla bitches.

Vice City gave you a sense that you were taking over. Tommy bought up multiple businesses and turned them around. He spread out all over the place and it felt like a steady incline from gangster trying to get his dope back to Vice City Kingpin on the rise.
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GTAV's sandbox alone is better than all of SA. Not even close. I would erase SA from existence just to be able to walk the earth in V.
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One other thing I absolutely loved about SA, the final mission felt like a final mission. Completely epic, even by the game's usual standards. This is something that very few other open-world games in general have managed to do; I would even say RDR fails here.

The only other cases I can think of that really did get the final mission right were GTA4's DLCs, and one of the endings in Saint's Row 3.
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So wait, what about SA's gameplay that was better? I mean the gunplay in that game was not nearly on the level as V and even IV. Was it the driving? Was it...the missions?

I mean the driving was ok I guess. Is it actually better than GTA V tho?
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