Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is finally coming to the PC this June, so in between typing your chemistry paper or donating money to an online charity you can visit the corrupt cities of Los Santos, Las Venturas, and San Fierro and slaughter thousands of innocent people. However, if you're a long time fan of the game, and therefore a PS2 owner, don't come snooping around here searching for new content. While the PC version of San Andreas boasts a few welcome improvements over its predecessor, it's still for the most part the same game you purchased last October.

This is usually the paragraph where I educate those of you who've been "living under a rock" and don't know a thing about the Grand Theft Auto series, but I've personally grown tired of reading such drivel in other website articles so I'm refusing to do it here. If you haven't heard of GTA by now, well, there's simply no hope for you. Anyway, the PC version of GTA San Andreas is basically the same game that can be found on the PS2. It tells the story of Carl Johnson, a gang banger gone straight who returns to Los Santos hood to grieve for his recently-deceased mother. However, no sooner does he arrive is he set up by two crooked cops and left to fend for himself on the city's crime-ridden streets. From here you begin your quest and it's quite a lengthy one. Featuring three enormous cities modeled after famous American locales (Los Santos is Los Angeles, San Fierro is San Francisco, and Las Venturas is Las Vegas), you must guide Carl through a series of missions that'll take him from one end of the game to the other, through alleys, back country roads, through small towns, and even in the air. There's tons of violence, mass death, and carjacking, and you'll also enjoy sophisticated RPG elements. Not only will you be able to customize your character by getting a haircut and lifting weights, but you'll also become skilled with certain weapons after repeatedly using them. You'll play videogames in Carl's home (a videogame within a videogame...what a concept), skydive, fly off cliffs on a bike, perform drive bys, and play some basketball, among other activities. San Andreas is just an incredibly massive and deep experience that'll take you a couple of months to truly complete.

Not much has changed in San Andreas' jump to the PC, save for some bonus options and graphical features. First, while the game boasts a very impressive soundtrack there will be an additional radio station and you can customize your own using your MP3s (which will actually be accompanied by jingles). Secondly, Rockstar North has made some minor improvements to the game's visuals, so you'll be treated to a much improved draw distance as well as sharper textures. Since the game's running in a higher resolution, all of the blurry stuff found in the PS2 game is now crystal clear, so if billboard reading is a hobby of yours, San Andreas won't disappoint. You'll also notice that there's been a lot more work done to the cars, as they're a lot shinier, and the shadows underneath them are well done. Finally, there's a replay mode that allows you to record your latest rampages and share them with others.

Unfortunately, that's all that Rockstar's done to improve the game, so if you've spent the last few months kicking the crap out of the PS2 version than this San Andreas is going to feel very familiar. Same goes for all you Xbox owners (me included), though the PC version is apparently the best-looking, so if you were looking for some bragging rights...well no, you don't have any bragging rights. However, you will benefit from some extra control schemes seeing as how a keyboard and a mouse are your weapons of choice. You're able to use WASD controls (and move the camera around and shoot with the mouse) but I strongly suggest that you ditch this scheme and use a regular game pad. Moving forward with W and backwards with S is an exercise in frustration, or in layman's terms, one big pain in the butt. I tried to get the hang of it for at least thirty minutes but that invested time didn't stop me from repeatedly getting stuck or moving in the wrong direction.

It may not feature any sneaky hidden content or bonus missions but the PC port of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is still just as cool and engaging as it is on the PS2. The sheer amount of stuff you can do coupled with the tried and true carnage that is the series' pedigree makes it a must buy especially if you missed out last year. Carefully drive to your nearest videogame retailer and politely request a copy when it releases June 7.