Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the latest chapter in the GTA series, and it's riding the hype machine like nobody's business, but believe me when I tell you that it more than lives up to it. I've played Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for several days now, sucked into its world of deception, chaos, and brutality, and I can't tear myself away!

Like the previous GTA games, it has a super addictive quality, with its go-anywhere attitude that lets you literally carve out your destiny. If you're not up to riding with your homies and taking part in a drive-by, you can pig out at the local Cluckin' Bell and then go joyriding through Los Santos by stealing a few cars and having a whole police force try to bring you down, but there's something more to San Andreas. Instead of putting you in the shoes of a no-name thug or some Miami gangster wanna-be like Tommy Vercetti, you've actually got a solid story in place, allowing you to slowly gain power and respect in ways unimagined.

The game focuses on anti-hero Carl Johnson, a man who moved away from the San Andreas area five years ago to begin life anew, sick of his family's battles and rough urban life. Ironically enough, he made a living in Liberty City, the setting from GTA III, but soon, he's called back to return to San Andreas because his mother was viciously murdered.

Within five minutes of arriving back home, CJ finds himself in the hands of corrupt police officers, led by Officer Tenpenny. They remember Carl from the old days, and immediately strip him of his cash and toss his luggage. During the ride to his hometown, he's set up for the murder of a fellow police officer, and told to stick around, as Tenpenny and his men will have some use for him later on down the road. They then leave him in the middle of a corrupt neighborhood, where he has to find his way back home. When he arrives, he immediately bonds with some of the friends he left behind, although he finds himself at odds with his brother, Sweet.

The variety of missions in San Andreas is staggering, as there's literally hundreds of varied tasks that will help you gain respect. The first mission introduces you to bike riding, where you can pop wheelies and use your speed skills to outrun a car whose drivers are eager to gun you down. Then you've got other missions ranging from picking up a gun (and testing out the game's improved gun controls) from a local dealer whose stash is literally in the dumps, "tagging" particular locations with your own local flava (and avoiding some cops while you're at it), and taking the wheel in a local neighborhood while your homies perform a drive-by, all while keeping the car from exploding, and these are just the first few missions. Later missions will take you all over the area, across three cities including off-road terrain, high up in the mountains. One later mission even involves skydiving, a breathtaking new feature that, believe it or not, actually feels like skydiving.

One of San Andreas' best features is its unique level of customization. There are so many different paths that you can take your character that you may replay the entire game just to experiment with the various outcomes. Weight is now a huge factor in the game, and the local restaurants involved (including a hilarious take-off on Taco Bell, simply called Cluckin' Bell) will come into play. If you don't eat after period of time, your health will slowly deplete. However, if you overeat, you run the risk of becoming a fat-ass. Fortunately, there's a local gym, and you can work yourself out to get back in shape. You can also build up muscle tissue and give yourself some killer looks, which will come in handy when you're serving a beat-down on crack heads or rival gang members.

Appearance does in fact play a huge role in the game, as you'll need to show your allegiance to your homies by wearing colors that show which side you're on. A 24-hour clothing shop will help you with this, offering a number of items to change into, complete with an annoying saleslady to give you tips, but be warned! The colors you wear so proudly won't sit so well with gangs in different areas, and you can easily find yourself in a situation where they're gunning for you. You can also tweak your hair, right down to giving yourself a 'fro (and surprisingly, a beard), and it'll help you gain respect around the neighborhood.

In addition to all of the features, San Andreas has rock solid gameplay to back up its awesome presentation. The first thing you'll notice is how much better the vehicles handle, allowing you easily perform quick turns and precision stops. All of the vehicles handle differently, so be careful trying to take an ambulance through a high-speed turn. There's other vehicles to check out in the game as well, including ATV's (yee-ha!) and a helicopter, which allows you to literally get a birds-eye-view of the area.

Enough about vehicles and activities! Let's talk about the general gameplay. CJ has most of the basic moves from the other GTA games, but weight can actually be a factor. If you're fat, you'll find yourself chugging along, running out of energy quicker. Being in shape allows you to run faster, as well as being able to last longer in a fight. The gunplay improvement is also good, allowing you to auto or manual target. If you find yourself in a heavy firefight, you can easily switch targets or even use the right analog stick to select your victims. This allows for an unprecedented level of strategy in the series, since you can aim at a gas tank or take out an enemy's kneecaps first, then go to work on the rest of him. You'll also run into a variety of weapons in the game, including a samurai sword, a chainsaw (messy), and a flame thrower.

You can skip past the cut scenes, but you should definitely check them out. They provide details that you can use for later missions. The dialogue in the game is rock solid, although some may wonder why San Andreas is buried knee-deep in obscenities. Hey, it's part of the attitude, and it fits it to a T, but dialogue only works as far as the actors that can carry it. Thankfully, Rockstar North has gone out of its way to get a stellar voice cast. Chris Bellard (aka Young Maylay) does great work as Carl, providing a good sense of attitude and innocence. Other big names include Yo Yo, Big Bear, Charlie Murphy (yes, the one from Chappelle's Show), Ice-T, Chris Penn, James Woods, Peter Fonda, China Chow, and many others. However, Officer Tenpenny, played by Samuel L. Jackson, really steals the show.

The game features some excellent sound effects, including authentic gunfire (the popping you hear from behind you as a vehicle chases you down is chilling), car crashes and explosions, and a lot more. There's even various terrain sounds for when you take some vehicles off-road. The radio stations are fantastic, each complete with excellent music and discussion. The DJ's are authentic, providing great banter and "in-between talk" that sounds like a real station, and the commercials can be downright hilarious. Lastly, the music selection is perfect for the early 90's era, with particular favorites sticking out like "Amos Moses" by Jerry Reed (yeah, it's a country song), "Nothin' But a G Thang" by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, "Killing In the Name" by Rage Against the Machine, and "Rusty Cage" by Soundgarden, but there's a whole barrage of musical offerings here, ranging from Tom Petty to Rick James himself.

Now we come to the graphics. They're a little fuzzy looking, but the game's dirty and dark tone has been well executed. After all, you're not exactly a resident in Disney Land. This is a town that resembles the darker corners of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas, all renamed of course. Secondly, you can't have all your eggs in one basket. What Rockstar has taken away in terms of detail is given back with huge, sprawling environments, a living, breathing world with counties and cities to explore. One minute, you're climbing a rooftop on a Los Santos building, checking out the smog-riddled view, and the next, you're cruising down the Las Vegas-like streets, as you're blasted with glowing casino lights. Thirdly, San Andreas is running on the aged PS2, and the fact that Rockstar North can push it as far as they did without that many glitches is very impressive.

Even though the game's graphics are somewhat lacking, they're far from bad. The animation is top-notch, right down to hustling some chumps on a basketball court or jumping off a bike into a full-on assault. The lip-syncing is on track, a real stunner considering the amount of dialogue that went into the game. The lighting effects are excellent, as you'll be able to see details revealed from something as simple as a street light. Going through Las Venturas (aka Vegas) is a treat for this effect alone. The camera in the game works fine as well, especially during driving, although you can take a good look around anytime with a swivel of the right analog stick. The game, for the most part, uses the same sort of engine as the previous GTAs, but Rockstar North's done its homework and improved it to the absolute best of its ability.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas doesn't come with any online functionality. This may hurt a little bit for some, but brush off those worries. What the game doesn't have in online goodness it more than makes up for it with its off-line activities. Just being able to determine your own fate and go anywhere you want is a plus in itself, but there's so much more to this game. There's 100 spots in which to "tag" and show respect, different bonus items and jumps to find, tons of vehicles to jack and sub-missions to participate in (some of which involve a cop car and taxi cab), and a 24-hour clock that runs day and night. It's a huge, living, breathing world.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, like the previous GTAs, offers so many options that it's staggering, and it's better than its prequels because of its feature-packed gameplay. It rises above the hype and stands as one of the best games of the year. Buy it immediately.