Barber? Swimming? It's San Andreas!

Released in the latest OPS2 gaming magazine in the UK, is a whole bunch of new information for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. San Andreas is currently being developed for the PlayStation 2, and should be released near the end of this year. The following is a summarized version of the magazine article.

From the magazine, we are told such details about the size of the map, countryside and the cities (which we already know about), however we are also told that there will be new vehicles for use in the countryside such as a quad bike, for your racing pleasure. Aswell as this vehicle for you to race around on, there will be inbreds and degenerates occupying the rolling hills, farms, rivers and forests of the countryside. The mountain which we were told about a couple of weeks back has now been unveiled as being nearly half a mile tall, taking quite a while to get up and down it.

New features that are added this year will include swimming; added due to Rockstar being bombarded with the constant request of being able to swim. When driving off a cliff into the water you can either get out and swim, or stay and sink with the car to the bottom of the ocean. Another new feature which goes hand-in-hand with being able to eat and gain weight is going to the barber shop and getting a new haircut. Pedestrians will make comments directed towards you depending on how good your hair style is.

There are plenty of new details now, including tumbleweeds in the desert. The entire map is now more populated when compared to Vice City, and even in the desert there will be plenty of things to see and do. The draw distance is twice as much as Vice City in the city, and four times as much in the country. Lighting is also changed, it has been improved immensely, allowing you to hide in the shadows and then leap out when a cop or gang member walks past. This means the game will have much more stealth techniques compared with the all out shooting techniques in the previous GTA games.

San Andreas will be a dual layer DVD, and will be crammed full with extra detail not yet seen. The only loading times in San Andreas are small pauses when entering a building. The fighting engine has been redone, with different colour targets depending on how many shots it takes to kill that person. Four person drive-bys can also be done with the help from your gang.