As the dog days of summer begin to blend with the changing of the leaves, the world gets ready for the inevitable. It's not snow; it's not school; it's not even the Arizona Cardinals being eliminated from playoff contention. It's the return of Grand Theft Auto. Since 1999, October has meant the release of a new GTA game on Sony hardware three out of the five years. This October it will be four out of six, as all the taxi missions, drive-by shootings, insane stunts, and rockin' tunes that make up this blockbuster series are moving to California. Queue Lenny Kravitz.

In spite of the fact that the PlayStation 2 hardware is starting to show a little gray around its disc tray, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will still have some surprises for series veterans. Perhaps most impressive is the piece of land that Rockstar North is giving the player to explore. We're no longer talking just one locale like Liberty City or Vice City. Rather, San Andreas will serve up three separate cities in California, complete with the scenic routes between them. Gamers will have the pleasure of visiting the Los Angeles clone, Los Santos, along with San Fierro and Las Venturas. Amazingly, Los Santos alone has six sections: Orange Grove, Vinewood, Rodeo, Downtown, the Beach, and the Freeway. Odds makers already have a 1-to-3 line of Fox making a new teen drama based on Orange Grove. "The O.G." has such a nice ring to it.

While it seems that every new feature added to an installment of the GTA series has worked in the past, San Andreas has what is perhaps the first iffy one. The main character of this installment, CJ, has to watch what he eats. While Tommy Vercetti must have been munching while players' PS2s were turned off, it is now up to the man at the controls to choose the hero's menu. If CJ doesn't get enough to eat, he will physically appear scrawny and will receive many ass whippings at the hands of Los Santos' finest. If he gorges himself at Cluckin' Bell or Well Stacked Pizza, he will turn portly and become an easy target. The only remedy for in-game gluttony is to visit one of the gyms in the area. It is highly unlikely that much of San Andreas' target audience is made up of calorie counters, so this mechanic could be rather humorous at best but a total disaster at worst.

The only area where San Andreas will almost certainly take a hit is in the soundtrack department. Gone are the tearjerkers of the 1980s. In their place is a wide array of tunes from the 1990s. You remember the 1990s, right? It's when crap like alternative was popular. Oh well, here's hoping that Stone Temple Pilots makes the cut at least while we wait for a GTA set in the 1970s, when it was all about Rock 'n' Roll.

All kidding (and showing my age) aside, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas looks to be the most ambitious addition to the stellar series so far. As long as eating tofu burgers while listening to Ace of Base is not a requirement, it quite likely will also be the best installment yet. (Daniel Riley)

Can You Pinch More Than an Inch?

One of the additions to the gameplay that has gotten a lot of attention is CJ's hunger cycle. An on-screen message lets you know when he is hungry, and you'll have the option of a handful of places to eat. Fast food will be plentiful, from pizza, chicken, and burger restaurants to convenient roadside carts. The grease pits have their own little personalities and the accompanying humiliating accessories for the help to wear, like fake chicken heads and foam hamburger hats.

When to eat, where to eat, and how much to eat are all up to you. Eat too much all at once and you will vomit it all out and be back to square one, sans whatever you blew on the food. (Though I'm guessing it's not too hard to "find" a few bucks in this game.) If you manage to keep it all in, with increasing visits to the counter or hot dog stand you may find you're getting a lot heavier. Your clothes will fit differently, but weight is much more than an aesthetic consideration, and it will affect everything from how you run, swim, and fight to how you are treated by others.

Looking Good Is its Own Reward

Besides taking it easy on the fast food, there are other ways to look good in image-conscious S.A. Skinny is no better than fat if you want to live up to your potential, so the first place you should start is the gym. Equipment varies from gym to gym, but look for things like free weights, benches, treadmills, and stationary bikes. Working out will enable you to punch harder, run longer, and swim farther. You can also pick up valuable fighting techniques, which vary depending on the city you're in - some gyms are seedier than others. The fighting engine comes complete with lock-on and blocking.

If you have the cash, you can buy new clothes and hairstyles to help define your look. Every item of clothing you buy is saved, so as you get farther in the game, your closet will fill up and you'll have more dress options. Style is more about than how you play, and the details of CJ's personality are in your hands. San Andreas continues the trend of games accommodating different play styles and other player preferences.

Tattoos are available for a charge, and you may get one or several to show gang affiliation or just your general outlook. As with the gyms, you'll find the different cities favor different styles of artwork: Los Santos tattoos tend to be gritty and those in Las Venturas feature more good luck charms for the casino-goers.The developers worked with L.A. tattoo artist Mister Cartoon to ensure quality and authenticity.

Neat freaks will want their ride to reflect their personal appearance, but even the fanciest vehicles can get dirty if you're in the wrong line of work. Dirt will accumulate in the logical spots as you put your car through high-speed chases, so look for a car wash on your way to the barber. Or you can wait for night and you might not even notice the dirt.

The locations themselves look much different depending on whether the sun is out. Each object in the game has a daytime and a nighttime model. In addition, the cities vary significantly from one another. Los Santos has heavy, smoggy air and this differentiates its lighting from the neon glow of Las Venturas and the sunny lighting scheme of San Fierro.

Like a Thief in the Night

Being a gangster in today's world is as expensive as any other vocation. Keeping yourself and your ride looking sharp takes a lot of cash, and running missions won't pay all the bills. Sometimes you have to be just that much more resourceful. Grab yourself a getaway vehicle and scope the neighborhood for some prime real estate. Once you put on your ski mask, you'll enter sneak mode - the perfect posture for a little burglary.

Enter quietly, take what you can, and deal decisively with anyone that stumbles on you, and you'll live to rob another day. Remember, even the cutest, cleanest super-deformed RPG hero routinely breaks into people's houses and rifles through their pots and drawers. If it's all right for Link, it's all right for CJ.

Well, Link never stabbed the inhabitants of the house, but he never had to survive in South Central Los Santos, either.

Picking Sides

Gangs figure prominently in CJ's life and, in fact, their actions are what set the story in motion. Once you run with the pack, you can rely on them to watch your back whenever they're around. Of course, stray into rival turf and you might find yourself fighting for your life pretty quickly. Rockstar has worked to ensure gang members act as realistically as possible, both in the way they hang out and in the way they beat each other down, so following a group around might even help you get an A on your sociology paper.

A Thug's Life in the Big City

Gangs are tough to fight, but the police in San Andreas are not exactly bumbling backwater deputies. They will do anything they can to take you out, including ramming your car from all angles, shooting at you while in a high-speed pursuit, and shining a floodlight to blind you. But don't pretend you aren't giving them a reason for their aggressive behavior - remember the name of the game.

It starts with carjacking and gets worse from there. This time around you will run into more resistance from victims, but it's nothing a good pistol-whipping or face-slam against the dash can't fix. If you don't want to bother with feisty drivers (how dare they), you can always zoom around on a BMX. The bike offers size advantages when moving through congested streets and making an escape through an alleyway. It also helps you score style points with its full range of stunts. (Nick Vlamakis)

Download the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas trailer (QuickTime, 1:15, 320x240, 29.9MB)

Download the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas trailer - high-res version (QuickTime, 1:15, 640x480, 104MB)

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