Well I don't believe any other GTA websites have actually posted about this yet which I find suprising. As I was talking to Miller and Cal about the content we still need to get done, I realised we needed to get the radio stations page done. Well anyway I thought to myself *Vice City has an official site for the radio stations* (ViceCityRadio.com) and then I wondered... have R* put one up for San Andreas yet?
Well I headed over to SanAndreasRadio.com and found out something very interesting, the website's previous content is now unavailable and it is now up for sale. Have R* put in a bid for it?

From http://www.fseportal.com/

Here's Some Info reguarding San Andreas

• Other towns in GTA San Andreas include: Shady Creeks, Flint County, Whetstone, Fern Ridge, and Red County
  
• Each city will have it's own airport, with an accessible Dodo (which you can fly obviously)
  
• It's possible to pickup hitchhikers
  
• CJ can operate tow trucks
  
• You can adjust the camera angle using the right analog stick 360 degrees
  
• A myriad of different outfits are at your disposal (lots more than vice city)
  
• The change between city and countryside is gradual.
  
• The air in Los Santos has a bright, gritty feel, and occasional bursts of rain; San Fierro is foggy; Las Venturas has clear air and harsh lights; the countryside has a warmer, more natural vibe to it.
  
• The game has an improved use of partical effects. Exhaust smoke, tyres kicking up dirt, clouds of smoke when you stand on the brakes, and sparks flying from bullets.
  
• Carjacking animations have improved. Rather than pulling the driver out of the vehicle, CJ opens the door, wacks him in the face, and throws him onto the road.
  Country music is confirmed and will probably be picked up through radio stations in the countryside and small suburban towns
  
• Kendall is angry with CJ because he wasn't around to help the family.
  
• The number of recorded stats has increased. There will be a stat for just about everything you do; driving motorcycles, driving cars, swimming, running, sprinting and so on.
  
• Pedestrians call obese Carl a 'fat ba*tard'. Even your own gang members say "dude, you need to lose some weight".
  
• The pedestrian AI has improved greatly. You may see two pedestrians walking down a street, holding hands. If you break them apart, they'll react, and hold hands again.
  
• Each pedestrian lives a different life. You can literally 'stalk' a pedestrian, watch he/she get out of their house, goto a shop, meet up with a girl, and go home again (for example).
  
• Mt. Chilliad casts a massive shadow. All shadows are drawn by radiosity lighting, which covers the entire map.

Comments Welcome

Well, not exactly new, but GTASanAn has been granted exclusive access to two of the screens that were in ScreenFun, the Bravo magazine. While we can't host the actual screens here, I'll give you the link and a description of both the new screens.

The Winnebago (RV) Driving Through the Countryside
Well, this screen definitely shows more than its scanned counterpart. From what I see, it looks like a freeway is extending out over water, or at least into the air.

The LSPD Chopper Showing Off The New Lights
This is just a beautiful screen, as it show the new increased power of the graphics engine. The volumetric lighting here is top notch, and the fact that the light wraps around the body of the tanker show off some of the new radial lighting effects.

Anyway, hope you enjoy those screens, and a big thanks goes to GTASanAn for getting the exclusive.

Source: GTASanAn

EDIT: According to GTAGaming this info has been proven to be false but here it is to read anyway.

Here is the new info:

• CJ can now scavange in the streets to find things to fight with. TechToyz used an example of CJ being chased and finding a bottle to fight with.
  
• Phillet's is a fish orientated restuarant.
  
• Rodney's Roadside Diner is a restaurant in the countryside. TechToyz didn't say if CJ could eat there, but it appears that you probably will.
  
• No more rolling after falling from 30 stories, now jumping off tall buildings will result in ugly deaths.
  
• You can whack people across the head with weapons, such as bottles and more than likely bats (probably making a return from Vice City).
  
• Los Santos is 1 and a half times the size of Vice City, which shows exactly how huge this game is going to be...again.
  
• In Los Santos there is a dock which has a carnival.

AGAIN, this info has been proven false, but we put it here to read, because really all this would make great additions to SA.

Source: GTA-SanAndreas

Woo another nice suprise in my inbox today, R* sent us the 9 food/restaurant screenshots that gamespot had posted, without the watermarks.
I wont bother posting them all here so head over to the Screenshots page and check them all out

We can also expect some new info very soon as it said this at the bottom of the email:

Thanks for the support and enjoy the new screens. More information will be coming soon so get ready!

PSM2 UK has a few more details about San Andreas:

After the logo screen loads up a huge map appears with various options to choose
The map is "America shaped" large, empty, beige shape, apart from a small square in the bottom corner, which was Los Santos
Don't expect to be frequently changing your hair, it costs 0 a cut.
In the mission 'Menace', you need to pass three times before you've killed all the Ballas
Streets glow orange due to the sunlight
The outcome of a mission directly affects what leisure options you can do.
Whlst doing a four person drive-by each person can have a different target. The car also has a damage meter

Source: GTASanAn

Gamespot have put up a preview of San Andreas regarding food, it describes what happens when you get fat and thin, and how you need to keep fit, it also looks at the new food stores. There are also 9 exclusive screens for yo to look at, so Click here to read the whole article, if you dont want to then here are a bunch of quotes I have picked out.

When CJ is hungry, a message will appear onscreen alerting you to his need for some chow. If you choose to ignore this missive, his energy level will start to decrease, and a host of other bad things will begin to happen.

As with the previous GTA games, you can expect the food service establishments in San Andreas to mirror real-life locales--but with satirical twists.

To wit, three of the franchise restaurants in the game are Cluckin' Bell, Well Stacked Pizza, and Burger Shot.

you will become fatter and fatter, resulting in the unpleasant sight of CJ bulging out of his clothes. Your tough saunter will become a waddle, and you won't be able to put your arms by your side.

If you let CJ reach obese proportions, expect the extra pounds to impact everything he does that involves physical exertion, such as lifting, climbing, swimming, cycling, running, and so on

plan on being taunted and not having much success with the ladies if you're too tubby

The key thing to note is that skinny doesn't necessarily mean fit. You'll have to manage CJ's development of fat and muscle to have him be in optimal physical condition.

Source: GTAGaming

There is some new info from a German games magazine called Play Playstation regarding San Andreas :

-Carl can attack enemies from behind after hiding and sneaking in the shadows.
-Carl can increase his stamina for the amount of time he can remain underwater for depending on his fitness and how much he practises swimming ( So if Carl is fat and rarely swims then he will not be able to swim for long , but if he regulary swims and is thin and fit then he can remain in the water for a longer period )
-The members of the Orange Grove Families ( the gang that Carl , his brother Sweet , Smoke and Ryder are part of ) will wear green clothes.
-The Ballas ( The rival gang of the OGF ) will wear purple clothes.
-Bicycles will move forward when the X button is held down , But tapping the X button will make CJ peddle faster.
-Carl can now roll to the side while engaged in combat.
-A choice of haircuts are available such as bald heads , dripping jheri curls , a towering flattop and the famous Afro haircut , but players will also be able to pick between a choice of beards and other facial hair.
-Players can now pivot the camera around the car to gain a better view.
-Models include 50% more polygons than those of vice city.

thanks to sean breen for submitting this.

ST.MU (Steve.M) of GTAForums has translated some facts and the first three mission details.

- The twelve small towns often consist of only two junctions and a few buildings, featuring a liquor store, bakery, pottery and much more.
- When flying, the radar map changes and shows a horizon, so orientation is easier.
- Realistic truck trailer physics

The three missions:

In the 1st mission CJ has to help his buddy, who is hunted by a motorbike gang and needs a diversionary maneuver. So carl races trough the forest in a jeep, with the gang after him - since they assume the victim is in the car. CJ has to avoid them destroying the doors to keep the secret. As soon as you passed the checkpoint race, your cellphone rings: your buddy is save, and you get 0 reward.

The 2nd mission starts at a trailer park. CJ is blackmailed into killing an important witness, who hides in a hut on Mt. Chiliad. Carl arrives there with a Sanchez, first killing two FBI agents and then the witness. Since the blackmailer wants to see evidence, CJ takes a photo of the corpse, and drives back to the trailer park.

For the 3rd mission R* used a cheat to spawn a dodo to save time (claiming that using a car would have taken them 15 minutes), and lands near a small hut in the forest. There the gas station mission starts, where CJ and the yet unknown girl try to steal the tanker.


They also wrote that the PS2 lagged during their presentation, but they hope R* get this fixed in the remaining months, as well as a few boring and stretched countryside textures.

Thanks to Codename: SA for the news

German magazine Screenfun have an exclusive article about San Andreas which also includes some screens and their own interpretation of the map.








Links:GTAGaming, GTA Reactor and Screenfun Article

Here are some screens featured in PSM Italy, I believe they are also in Play UK and Game Informer magazines too

The Play (UK magazine) has 23 awesome screenshots, all of them are new. Unfortunately we aren't allowed to post the screens on our websites but here are a few descriptions of the screens:

1. Two people on bikes (one is probabaly Carl but I havent looked closely yet
2. Two vehicles that look like a Sabre and a Linerunner
3. A dirt bike in a forest area (trees look very detailed)
4. Someone getting into a truck
5. Some guy on a quad bike in a high up dusty area
6. A Landstalker (or something similar) driving through a forest, with two guys on a dirt bike chasing them
7. close up of the back of someone on a quad
8. The HUGE mountain in the background with what looks to be a derelict area in the foreground
9. I think this is a Walton with a shop in the background
10. an offroad truck with a bridge high above it
11. a truck driving along a coastal road, you can see the sea in the background
12. Probably CJ running with a gun from some people
13. Probably CJ running with a gun


Also something I forgot to post about was the 4 new screens in the latest Game Informer magazine, however we aren't allowed to show these either.

Not long after the official boxart was released we have a new screen from PSM Italy. Thanks to GTAGaming for the news and GamesRadar.msn.it for the screen

I had a nice suprise in my inbox today, an email from Rockstar, with the official boxart for the game and for game retailers to show.

Hey guys,

I wanted to let you know that we are about to release the official box art for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. As we thought you would want to see it as soon as it came out I have attached it to this mail.

Thanks for the support and let me know if you have any questions.

Webmaster@R*

The information in the OPSM2 Germany article on San Andreas has been translated and this is what it said:

[*] Some parts of missions will take place in the countryside outside of the 3 cities.

[*] The game story will be tripled in length.

[*] If you get too fat, those that give you missions have the ability to tell you to get in better shape before starting a certain mission.

[*] The HUD (heads up display) will be similar to GTA III's and Vice City's.

[*] Orange Grove is the name of one of the towns/suburbs that's where the Orange Grove Families come from.

[*] There will be less pop-up of distant objects. Houses can be seen from far away.

[*] Groups of trees will be rendered as a group from distance. If you get closer, they'll be rendered seperately. Because of this, a bigger draw distance is possible.

[*] The magazine claims that the animations will be even better than in Vice City.

[*] The goal of the programmers is to achieve a constant frame rate of 30 frames per second. But, in extreme situations when there are lots of cars and pedestrians on the screen, the magazine says that the game still has some slowdown issues.

[*] The textures will be photographed ones as well as self-drawn ones.

[*] The camera will automatically zoom behind CJ at the press of a button. Then you can aim freely with the analog stick. But as an alternative to that, there will also be the aiming-aid.

[*] The number of licensed music tracks in SA will have tripled.

[*] The game is now about 80% finished (probably a month ago).

[*] Even the dual-layer DVD is actually too small for the game. Due to new compression techniques for the PlayStation 2, the game barely fits on it.


Thanks to Planet GTA for the info, and -NeMo- from GTA Forums for the translation in this topic

IGN have posted an article summing up most of the stuff we know about San Andreas in a Q&A style.
It's still good to read even though there is no new info

Link: IGN San Andreas Overload Article
Source: GTAGaming

I have updated the San Andreas Information page and it now has all the info that we were told by articles in recent magazines.

Also if you remember we posted about how Rockstar have launched a teaser site on the 1st of July for each GTA game, will we see one today? so far nothing has been said.

I added these earlier this week but forgot to post about them, anyway the German version of OPSM2 has some screens which most of them we have seen before. There is one new one and also a fake map of the game.
How do we know it's fake? Well Rockstar said that Los Santos is a small part in the lower right of the map, in the screen in OPSM2 De it is right in the center and is the same size as the other islands.



Click Here for the Scans