It's may not be the sort of news a lot of us were hoping for, like Grand Theft Auto V coming to PC, Xbox One, or PS4, but it's still a move to be celebrated, as it'll make your next cross-country trip in a Greyhound a helluva lot more enjoyable. Not unlike what happened with the consoles, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is following in the footsteps of Vice City, and is heading to mobile devices next month.
According to a post on Rockstar's newswire, San Andreas is slated to hit "select" Android, iOS, Kindle, and Windows Mobile devices sometime this December:
"Before GTAV took us to the sun-bleached sidewalks and humming concrete freeways of present-day Los Santos and beyond, there was Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the biggest GTA of the PS2 era. Now, head back to the early 90s with CJ and the Grove Street Families when Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas comes to mobile devices next month. Encompassing Los Santos, San Fierro, Las Venturas and everything in between, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has been upgraded for its mobile release. Newly remastered graphics including dynamic and detailed shadows, greater draw distance, an enriched color palette, plus enhanced character and car models make this the best-looking version of San Andreas yet."
Not counting coming to the PS Store, it'll be almost ten years since we've seen San Andreas. Originally released in 2004, the game made quite a name for itself, and is regarded as one of the best game in the series, carving out a legacy.
an Andreas was (and might still be) the most massive games of the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Following the structure of past Theft titles, San Andreas added new vehicles, a re-worked targeting system, weapons, gang wars, burglary, car modification, multiplayer, side missions for days, and heavy character customization including clothing, hair styles, tattoos, weight gain and loss, and even fighting styles.
Modeled after several Californian and southwest cities and locations, San Andreas featured the biggest open world map ever seen in a sandbox game (at the time) for players to explore. The map was almost four times as large as the franchise's previous game, Vice City. It also featured an absurd amount of celebrities who provided voices to bring characters to life, including Ice-T, James Woods, Samuel L. Jackson, David Cross, and others.
The game was critically hailed, garnering high ratings from virtually every critic and consumer across the board. To date, it maintains an average score of 95% from Metacritic. The Guinness Book World Records even recognizes it as the PlayStation 2's most successful game of all time, selling over 17 million copies on that console alone, and 27.5 million copies worldwide.
Touchscreen controls tend to make console games a bit rough to play on smartphones and tablets, but having made them quite intuitive on mobile versions of Vice City, Rockstar's experienced at making sure they aren't a problem following a brief period of adjustment.
Like Vice City, San Andreas will feature touch controls "including contextual control options to display buttons only when you need them and three different control schemes for driving and maneuvering, as well as a reworked checkpoint system for easier progression." And for those of you who'd rather not bother with the touchscreen controls, the game comes equipped with full controller support.
There's no exact pricing details or date on when gamers can expect the game to arrive, but Rockstar is promising "more details in the weeks ahead."