Why GTA: San Andreas Isn't As Good As You Think, A Speedrunner's Perspective

In this video we'll be looking at GTA San Andreas, and showing a different side of the game in hope of detailing where it is unfinished in many areas.
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#GTA #speedrun
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
3:30 - Los Santos
11:53 - The Badlands
14:42 - San Fierro
19:44 - The Desert
23:07 - Las Venturas
26:14 - Return To Los Santos

[@dazitmane8905]

Even without nostalgia goggles(played this for the first time last year during lockdown), SA is still comfortably among the best games I've ever played.

[@fabrix199]

SA has its problems but it is really comfy, like Bully

[@LincolnAKAVenox]

I tried playing it and it is so dated and barely holds up at all. Sure it was probably great for its time but 4 and 5 are way better (I even liked vice city more).

[@crossdaboss8914]

@@LincolnAKAVenox what version did you play btw cause gta San Andreas has alot of bad ports

[@LincolnAKAVenox]

@@crossdaboss8914 I played the ps4 port and the mobile port, both really didnt do it for me. I also played a little bit of the ps2 version but it honestly felt the same as the ps4 version

[@crossdaboss8914]

@@LincolnAKAVenox the hd port is a really bad port as well it's the moblie version put on a console they have tons of videos of all the issues that version has

[@wojtekpolska1013]

The reason the train mission is so hard for people, is cause they drive too close to the train, and Big Smoke cant hit them due to the ridiculous angle if you drive about 2-3 meters away from the side of the train, he will quickly deal with all of the enemies.

[@lefroste6370]

i have no idea why people have trouble with this mission,yes it's frustrating if you don't know how to play it, but if you just understand how to make big smoke get an angle to shoot at the vagos properly,it's piss fucking easy,there are way harder missions,like Supply lines,learning to fly is hard to get used to on PC,You've Had Your Chips where you kill the people in the garage and the guy with the combat shotgun oneshots you every single time,pretty much all flying missions are harder than wrong side of the tracks,now don't get me wrong all GTA missions are easy once you figure them out,but wrong side of the tracks is even easier than these.

[@ngkn2008able]

@@lefroste6370 it's famous because it's oftenly the first wall people encounter in this game. And most casual will make that mistake "driving too close to the train" and then make the 2nd mistake "follow the path which the game guides" (which is pointed out in the vid)

[@lefroste6370]

@@ngkn2008able yeah ,the game doesn't make it intuitive or fluid to play which is on rockstar,but its not hard,the reason i hear so much about it is probably like you said,it's an early mission

[@Redisonthelaptop]

Don't get too far and don't get too close or else you'll get smoke with 0 accuracy

[@buzurk1754]

for me it was easy

[@Volkswagen_Yeetle]

Most of the issues are problems that only speedrunners run into, maybe because they are playing the game abnormally fast.

[@RetroPlus]

The fact that we're even talking about this near 20 year old game right now is proof in itself that it's as good as we remember

[@businessclown445]

People also still talk about hitler...

[@YoDzOnHalo]

@@businessclown445 you can’t be this dumb

[@johnhighway7399]

@@businessclown445 And he's even better than we remember

[@karlisulmanis3810]

@@johnhighway7399 lmao

[@cxlciummmiv]

mf didn't even watch the whole video

[@wundermax1993]

the random plane crashes as bad code? To me that's pure fun. The monster truck mission was one of my favorites in the whole game, just because the area was made for that vehicle and was super fun jumping around carelessly.

[@brennocalderan2201]

When I was kid, I used to say the random plane crashes is orchestrated by a person who really hates CJ as the damn planes crashed right close to him on point of nearly wasting him.

[@markustwot4689]

Its a 9/11 reference

[@bungle3912]

I agree. I loved this game as a kid.

[@Sunsetradi0]

Nah I think he meant the flight school being mandatory despite it telling you you already have a license

[@User-ge7ni]

@@markustwot4689 no it’s not idiot

[@Kacpa2]

Thing with Ryder is that he originally wasnt meant to betray Grove at all, he is haphazardly added to the reveal scenes and CJ doesnt react to seeing him alongside smoke, but only to Smoke. Also unlike Smokes missions, all missions ryder gives us are helping Grove. While Smokes are just his own shady dealings.

[@bookle5829]

You forgot to mention the reason why they changed it last minute is because the voice actor wanted to quit.

[@marcusstonito2833]

​@@bookle5829the VA confirmed that this is false

[@Stangrex]

literally not true 1- the reason he's not mentioned is because CJ was supposed to find out about it in the original version of photo opportunity (the one involving using a helicopter) and they for some odd reason went back on that and made the worst mission in the game 2- introduction cinematic 3- the reason ryder is so awkwardly reused in pier 69 is because they again for some odd reason switched his places with t bone mendez, meaning cj was gonna say you betrayed us blah blah and ryder said I'm a genius and gets shot and then mendez tries to escape, that's why cesar says "I see you...", mendez also has unused boat dialogue

[@NicknineTheEagle]

@@Stangrex 2 - Introduction does not count as it was written after the game. 3 - That still does not explain why Ryder seemingly uses recycled voice lines in Pier 69. "I'm a motherfucking genius!" is as generic of a Ryder line as it gets and "C-can't stop me." also could come from anywhere. There's also still the fact that Ryder's betrayal doesn't make sense in the grander scheme of things and we never learn of his reasons for betrayal. Big Smoke gets tons of foreshadowing and an actual dramatic death scene while Ryder is just awkwardly tossed aside and is never mentioned again.

[@Stangrex]

@@NicknineTheEagle 2- "as it was written after the game" Proof? You're not fucking Dan Houser. If you are willing to come up with the original script of the game proving it was written AFTER the main game feel free to do so. One of the last missions added to the game was High Noon for example, it is why Pulaski uses a 1911 instead of the Glock, compared to the whole introduction cinematic that has dated assets that predates the retail game. 3- There is unique dialogue for Cesar asking "what do you want to do with him holmes" which wouldn't make sense with t-bone, but in the beta it makes perfect sense. "Mendez, I see you...." also doesn't make sense in retail. These changes were rather stupid but were most likely caused by the game being dumbed down due to going from the intended two discs to one. Ryder's betrayal makes sense as he was high all the time and Rockstar has a decent history of making characters do stupid actions due to substance abuse. (Max Payne, Ken Rosenberg, Victor Vance...) They just chose to cut corners because they thought they could just reuse the already existing voicelines which would have worked if they didn't decide on changing it rather sloppily.

[@ballsrgrossnugly]

While you have a fair point with the random plane crashes and bad coding, I would also argue that part of the problem with the newer "open world" games are the lack of truly random events like this. A little bad coding in an open world, as long as it doesn't actually break anything important, might be an essential part of the mix! Every "random" event in a modern open world is entirely scripted to happen and will probably happen again before you finish the game. A random plane crash or two helps make the world feel a little more alive and dangerous IMO. I do have to agree wholeheartedly with the gang takeover thing at the end though, I remember that part in particular took me more than one play session to complete and I started to forget the story by the end. And the fact that I don't even remember that boat chase confirms that kill as being one of the most forgettable in the game for one of the main antagonists.

[@pavloshartas-moody8828]

its possible to kill ryder before he gets to the boat if your quick, another example of "bad coding"

[@MarksterC]

@@pavloshartas-moody8828 i wasnt aware there was even a boat chase i killed him before he even got there

[@Masta2Playa]

I agree with the first point. For example, in GTA 4, NPCs have Car crashes all the time. You could call it bad coding, but it adds so much to the world, since it is just very funny

[@PIP...33]

@@ballsrgrossnugly REALLY LIAR ??? YET U CRY HERE BOUT MY CAPS . HOW SHALLOW U NEED TO BE TO ASSIME ANYONE YELL WITH CAPS. ARE U BLIND ??

[@PIP...33]

@@ballsrgrossnugly NO I CHECK THAT U R SHALLOW. CAUSE ONLY SHALLOW PPL THINK CAPS IS FOR YELL. U LIAR !!

[@ketaminepoptarts]

why should we listen to someone whose main goal is to play as little of the game as possible

[@life4trinity]

I agree with your points, however I think they're rather minor. In the grand scheme of things, GTA SA is a very fun game even to this day. It's impressive considering it came out 17 years ago.

[@Elutai]

a fellow life is strange enjoyer! >:))))

[@n64freak38]

It's a speed runners critique. I thought the same thing until I realized hes not critiquing the game. Hes critiquing the issues that effect his way of playing the game. Otherwise I agree with you. The complaints are meaningless to us average gamers

[@Werorn]

How is bad mission design, bad AI, game changing bug (vehicle state while on foot) and overall trash writing and mistreating of the voice actors "minor" stuff?

[@k3njii218]

@@Werorn lol keep smoking crack

[@AnglosArentHuman]

@@Werorn Cope and seethe

[@DarrellThody]

A note on gang territories: you're introduced to it early, you might take over several or all territories available. Then the game will up and RIP all that away from you through story progression and insult to injury will ask you to pretty much do it again for the plot when you come back. Gang territory takeovers shouldn't have been introduced so early because the gang hits rock bottom anyway no matter what you do and you go most of the game not being able to engage with that content anyway.

[@TheIrland09]

I think you're missing the point of why that was done. It was to establish how much power Tenpenney has over you and that he can take everything away from you on a whim.

[@DarrellThody]

@@TheIrland09 They designed a game, not a movie. The point is fun, and that wasn't fun. They tutorialize you on a new mechanic then for half the game you cannot engage with that mechanic. A bad choice. Still a good game, but one of the few iffy choices.

[@TheIrland09]

@@DarrellThody "Fun" doesn't mean handing everything to you on a silver platter. Sometimes games expect you to work for your fun and it can absolutely be in service of the story if it works. Otherwise you might as well just use cheats as soon as you start the game and give yourself max money, all weapons and infinite ammo and completely ruin the intended flow of the game.

[@DarrellThody]

@@TheIrland09 Firstly, I've finished San Andreas a few times, first ever time I did though I CHEATED LIKE CRAZY and man I had a blast. Did it legitimately later but both are acceptable ways to play. But that has no bearing on my point: a mechanic was introduced, then subsequently was not allowed to be engaged with for like three fourths of the game. If a player WORKS HARD to get those territories, like you say you'd want them to, it is a big kick in the teeth for the game to take that away from you. That's not a silver platter, that's the rug being pulled out from under you. If it was a plot where you're doing something terrible without knowing, or it's some big dramatic twist, pulling the rug out can WORK. But, as it is presented, it doesn't.

[@CoralCopperHead]

@@TheIrland09 You don't understand that fun is subjective, do you?

[@Zmeeed01]

Fun fact: Rockstar scrapped the mission which was supposed to replace the whole chore of taking enough enemy gang turfs to make the enemies reveal Big Smoke's location. In that mission, Big Bear was supposed to mention that when shit hit the fan, Big Smoke severed connections with the most of his subordinates except for one loose end - a Russian mafia member. CJ meets him, beats him up and makes him talk. He reveals the location and threatens that he will warn Smoke about what happened. After that we are supposed to go to the Vagos turf where Smoke's fortress is and take a few gang territories around it to loosen Smoke's influence in the district. And after that End of the Line was supposed to happen. Funnily enough, in the End of the Line mission Big Smoke says that he knew CJ was coming. This line makes very little sense and doesn't really hold any plot value in the final game, but if we had that mission coming before End of the Line, it would've made complete sense.

[@BygoneT]

What do you mean it has no plot value?! Ballas and vagos territory is getting wrecked by some mysterious grove street force, you think big smoke wouldn't know?

[@HeavyRaiden]

That's awesome, it's pretty sad that they removed this

[@TheIrland09]

Big Smoke knew that CJ was coming for him and would kill him one day. I figure he accepted it was his karma for what he'd done and he was just going to live it up until that moment, which explains why he isn't surprised to see him as he knew his death was coming. So that line does in fact make sense.

[@-10]

​@@TheIrland09 Agreed, I think the line fit perfectly fine the way it is. Big Smoke always talked vague and superstitious. Saying he had some sort of feeling he would see CJ again after betraying him sounds perfectly in character.

[@lefez9015]

My guy, a lot of territory that was once Smokes was getting taken back by Grove Street members. I'm pretty sure Smoke knew at some point that CJ was coming, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

[@TheStardustConspiracy]

I personally agree with most of the points mentioned but I’m gonna be one of those weirdos and defend a little the “Driving missions” by saying that driving isn’t such an issue with the radio stations as most of them have very likable announcers and adds some changes depending on what part of the game you are, but I get how frustrating must be without music so yeah I get the point.

[@HeavyRaiden]

Yeah i like driving a lot in this game, so i don't mind it. It also could count as missions to let you explore the map more, maybe. I don't mind the races too, even though they are super easy, it's just fun to drive around and they aren't really a problem to me. Dude made a good point though, i would have preferred if the races were tougher and we had 2 different zones to race on.

[@TheStardustConspiracy]

@@HeavyRaiden the funny thing is that they already coded some racing missions like that. If you go to the San Fierro car racing missions (just behind the car bussines) there's one or two races that takes place in the country side and those are more complex than the ones of the main missions it's such a weird decision that Rockstar didn't want to implement it into the main story

[@mado-wh4jv]

Ironic since I think none of his critics for the game are valid EXCEPT that one about missions being mainly driving, which is a reasonable complain.

[@dwarf9938]

@@mado-wh4jv I mean, tbh, if you're a speedrunner doing those same tasks constantly and can't even put up some amazing songs to distract you thanks to DMCA, I would also be completely burned out from driving in SA just like him.

[@coolioso808]

Good point. Radio stations are excellent so driving missions where you have time to sit and listen to them can be actually a great way of discovering some great music or commentary from those stations. What strikes me now, looking back, is the lack of Mission Checkpoints and Replay from Checkpoint features which are very common in games now. I played Marvel Spider-Man on PS4 and remember dying a lot in the first mission, even, and that would have been very frustrating if I had to start from scratch each time. Like in San Andreas or Vice City, if you roll of the road into the water during the end of a mission, just trying to get back, that loses the mission and have to start all over again. Overall, I really enjoyed the San Andreas experience. The radio stations are still some of my favourite parts of the game. The gameplay and world was vast. So many fun things to do at the time. However, graphics are poor, there is no doubt about that. Didn't matter at the time, but looking back now, I have no real interest in playing the game again. It is one of those games that is more fun in my mind as nostalgia but wouldn't want to go back and re-treat my steps again, now knowing what games are capable of. Maybe I'm too hard on past games, but not that many hold up still today as still fun and replayable. I have a bunch of games on the N64 that I find still very enjoyable, even today, and some even older classic games on NES or the old arcades that have quick jump in and play fun. However, most games for me, since about 2000 to 2012, I may fondly remember playing and appreciate that I got to play them, but I'm not rushing to replay them. Some games, I feel, are best left as memories.

[@unknown404x]

The copyrighted music is a stupid argument for this game. KZbinrs, Online Streaming/Gaming was not even a thing at the time. + Copyright was also barely an issue when KZbin was first created as well

[@Roc_Official]

Facts, good point

[@OkachaWasTaken]

It is complaining about how the options doesn't mute all the music.

[@advisorynotice]

It's not talking about copyright but the option of muting the music

[@parkourguyyy]

for those saying its about not having the option... There was literally no reason to include a mute ALL music option. You had to steal a music van from a party, and this guy would be complaining if there were dancing people with no music playing if you shut the option off lol. and then theres the lowrider meet, which is similar

[@mado-wh4jv]

@@OkachaWasTaken So? Why would that be an essential config option back then?

[@turbann8175]

As a guy that has played GTA San Andreas entirely only after my 20 years(i was very poor during my childhood), im still classifying it as one of the best games of my life.

[@uxiono.3026]

And that is called nostalgia.

[@acidspit14]

@@uxiono.3026 no, thats called QUALITY

[@uxiono.3026]

@@acidspit14 Not really, it didn't age well and it was very lame even for 2004, at least compared to other games.

[@JimBobat420]

@@uxiono.3026 Are you slow? he literally just said he only played it recently due to not being able to afford games when he was younger and you say "that's nostalgia"? Nostalgia for what? The game he DIDN'T PLAY? or do you not understand that word you use? I mean the latter would make sense considering you think SA didn't age well when most games from 20 years ago have literally nobody talking about them AT ALL let alone debating if it was overrated literal decades after it's release. You are proving it wasn't over-rated right now.

[@Nopers_]

@@uxiono.3026 either you’re stupid or I am. Did this man not just say the first time he played it was recently, because he was poor when he was a kid. Good god

[@therealchris5894]

I understand that this is from a speedrunners perspective and that's the issue with most of your complaints about the game. Most casual players wouldn't care about these issues because they're only going to realistically play through the game once. It does deserve the praise it gets.

[@IIIlIIIIlIIIII]

You're saying most players wouldn't be aware of these issues ... so the game isn't as good as they think?

[@therealchris5894]

@@IIIlIIIIlIIIII Most players wouldn't care* about these issues. They're minor inconveniences or not inconveniences at all to most people.

[@simplyskrypt3914]

Tbh i think most players just never finished the first section of the game and they think its great because they're just chilling in ls with cheats on. The moment i ended up in the badlands for the first time i started seeing the issues with the game. By the time i killed ryder i was completely disinterested and i gave up by the time i supposedly killed toreno (toreno cant have survived this fireball). The only reason i know what happens after that is KZbin exists. Oh and don't get me started on the driving. I always hated it with a passion even as a kid. Especially as someone who very much enjoys driving sims, rallye and racing games. Those damn controls drove me into an early grave and a mission failed screen more times than i care to count. Especially the god damn lowriders, which were so unstable i managed to flip my car over twice during cesar's intro mission (the lowrider meetup where you have to bounce to the beat) just by pressing the intended inputs. And yes, the car explodes, you fail the mission, lose your car and your guns, and you have to grind for another car and the money to modify it before you can attempt the mission again. All in all i had a much better time playing vice city than San Andreas

[@manikantamankala5031]

​@@simplyskrypt3914I think your driving has skill issue honestly ☠️

[@MarkoVuckovic32]

​​@@simplyskrypt3914Toreno survived the explosion by simply not being in that helicopter. As for the lowrider mission, you don't need to modify the car at all. It's doable even with the stock car. Just make sure to save at a safehouse before doing the mission so that you don't lose weapons if you die. As for the driving, I'm sorry to say but it sounds like skill issue on your part. In my opinion the only game in the series that has better driving than San Andreas is GTA IV. Vice City is also pretty good as far as missions are concerned but the map was literally two somewhat bigger islands and a bunch of smaller ones, it was too small even for the time because GTA III literally had bigger map.

[@McCaroni_Sup]

"You can't mute the music in San Andreas" First of all, why would a normal player want to do that? It adds atmosphere to mission cutscenes and the radio can be turned off, it's really not a big deal. Yes, I get it, you're a streamer. But Twitch didn't exist in 2004 and Rockstar could have never predicted it. That isn't a good point for why "it's not as good as you think", though I can see how a speedrunner would get annoyed by it.

[@eject.6177]

how tf yall find wrong side of the tracks hard? dont stay glued to the train and smoke will take them all by the time u get to the tunnel

[@aleksastamenkovic5526]

Its only hard if you dont understand how Smokes poor shooting works in this mission. If you are at a right distance from the train and keep it consistent its really easy, but i see how someone who playes it for the first time would struggle.

[@CinemaZiggy]

It’s like the only people who find this hard are the people who need their hands held through a game a little creative problem solving makes it fun once you realize the right distance to be from the train and the right route to take

[@versaceboi4762]

It's crazy because when I first played it a decade ago, it was so hard and I was frustrated. I played it for the second time this year and I was expecting to be frustrated and angry again but then sweet just shot TF out of them and I passed the mission before the train even got in the tunnel! I was so disappointed that I I passed it so easily. I was like wtf happened that made it so easy this time around.

[@richie.rich98]

The worst part about it is that, the mission is called " Wrong Side of the tracks" for a reason. Because you have to stay on the wrong side of the tracks to beat the mission. Then in the video showcases him doing the exact opposite and wonders why it's so hard.

[@veryveryreverie]

Idk how anyone can struggle at this mission blind unless they’re kids because logically speaking, duh, big smoke wouldn’t be able to hit something he’s directly under at from bike

[@thearousedeunuch]

Good video, but I found myself not agreeing with a lot of your points. That song is being played during the dance mission to prevent people from seeing a muted party (if they turn off the radio). This game was made back in the day when DMCA was not an issue. The race parts: I prefer the AI to be easy, because it being hard would force you to restart over and over again. As for the races being the same: sure, they could've used another track, but I don't consider it to be ruined for both those reasons. Regarding Amphibious Assault: it would make sense if they had a mission that levels up your Lung Capacity beforehand. On the mission where you kill Toreno: wasn't that sort of text a thing back in the days of GTA III? Back in the day, I didn't think of the question mark being Toreno, but I was young back then. The monster truck mission makes sense, as Toreno's testing if you can handle off-road driving. You need to do so on a few missions for him. It's not an exciting mission, but it serves a purpose. I consider Riot to be one of the best missions, from a narrative standpoint, in the game, as you're driving the same car you drove in the start of the game and watching the city crumble around you. Again, not exciting, but nicely done. Regarding Photo Opportunity: you forgot to mention that they're shouting from the top of the roof for no reason, which would have people hear you. Apparently that mission was meant to have a helicopter at some point.

[@englishben]

DMCA has been a thing since the 90s. Rockstar knew that licenses would expire eventually when they bought them, they knew this game would be played for years after release. There's no excuse to just let players suffer in the future. It's just short-sighted. I don't believe there's been any sort of spoiler text similar to Toreno, but even if there was, two wrongs don't make a right. As for the rest, I think your points are fair. This is a speedrunner's perspective, so it's only logical that my experience was way different my first time playing as well.

[@rb4593]

@@englishben Bullshit. The music was added to the mission scripts for the artistic appeal, nothing else. Can you mention any cases of DMCA being enforced with games in the late 90s

[@thearousedeunuch]

@@englishben Yes, but DMCA means nothing on physical copies, as people who bought the game won't lose access to them while the disk is still operational. I don't think that they predicted a massive rise in the use of Steam and frequent updates. Thus, temporary licenses sounded like the smart way to do things. I'd have to look into those lines, but I vaguely remember similar lines that ended up not being spoilers at all.

[@oddgbmo3036]

@@rb4593 DMCA was always enforced in the 90s. That's why you don't see gaming companies such as Sega and Nintendo not using copyrighted music they don't own. And why doom 1993 barely passed by taking inspirations from rock metal bands.

[@justsomeoldyoutuber6093]

Videos like this are not supposed to make you agree my goodness what is with people that cannot watch a vid without stating that they have a better opinion like it means something.

[@dhruv9370]

Why Gta San andreas isn't as trash as you think, a normal players perspective.

[@chrisungoed8793]

Never had an issue with the first mission in probably around 10 playthroughs.

[@sparkyphantom92]

Also you can just take a car and do it that way.

[@oboroth51]

It's still a shit first mission.

[@User-ge7ni]

@@oboroth51 easy

[@Needformadness2]

good for you

[@chrisungoed8793]

@@Needformadness2 Thanks

[@Gidgit]

Damn I didn’t realize that Pulaski had a death cutscene. When I played SA definitive edition, his AI drove into a lake and I insta-passed the mission. Very unsatisfying, as if Ryder’s death wasn’t unsatisfying enough.

[@-10]

Vadim M on KZbin has an interesting video on this, the mission was basically completely changed late in development. That's why it's so shitty and illogical.

[@nild9153]

Imagine complaining about twitch copyright music on a 2005. Game

[@jaronmarles941]

KZbin didn't exist until the 15th of December in the same year either. Streaming sites simply didn't exist, and even today only matters if you stream (there are still work arounds even then).

[@hurricanemixer]

That entire segment was embarrassing, lol

[@OkachaWasTaken]

It is complaining about how the options doesn't mute all the music.

[@OkachaWasTaken]

@@hurricanemixer It is complaining about how the options doesn't mute all the music.

[@johnhighway7399]

@@OkachaWasTaken Which is still a braindead zoomer thing to complain about lol

[@Maserati7200]

This video was interesting, but I feel like it was a lot of nit picking. A lot of the dynamics you described I actually liked

[@Ubeogesh]

badlands is my favourite part of the game. I love all those quirky little villages. I don't mind the extra driving.

[@sosamanotf642]

This nigga buggin, San Andreas is GOAT’d

[@FranciscoFJM]

No

[@karmitdafruge1]

I dont care what a speedrunner thinks and it just as good as I remember it cause I just played it a month or 2 ago

[@jamesduncan6729]

Same. Speedrunners are literally the worst

[@rockmork9121]

@@jamesduncan6729 "speedrunners suck they don't think the same way i do" That's you right now

[@ayrtonjoga]

Don't care but still added a comment to support the video lol

[@karmitdafruge1]

@@ayrtonjoga don't care

[@ayrtonjoga]

@@karmitdafruge1 Keep going, you're engaging this video even more

[@briantaffari9484]

The part where you "turned off the music" was actually you turning down the radio in the car. Music would still play outside the car.

[@nieass1]

His graph is just how speed runners view any game lol

[@isaacramirez2098]

After playing it for the first time in years. I never realized how many missions in the game are just driving or flying really long, unnecessary distances, and tedious tasks.

[@theyedmeister6981]

-Every GTA Game

[@brotbrotsen1100]

@@theyedmeister6981 True, never managed to play any of them more than once because honestly, the missions aren't that great.

[@OutlawedPoet]

IV is the worst in this regard. At least SA tries to spice things up.

[@HiCZoK]

@@OutlawedPoet I love 4. True there is too much driving but I find the boat like driving model super fun. Along with the city and physics

[@OutlawedPoet]

@@HiCZoK I love the game too. Just wish the missions were spiced up more. Not totally insane action packed "fight a million bad guys while you ride on a train" TBOGT crap, but more like TLAD.

[@aaronchapa1117]

I literally just finished your essay on GTA V. Great video, this one is sure to be even more controversial! Great content

[@HeyyKaleb]

The fact he has to say why this game isn’t as good as WE remember when not all of us are SPEEDRUNNERS says he’s just nitpicking for views. Why can’t u say it’s not as good as we remember PERIOD. Why u have to add “A speedrunners perspective” -Ka Leb

[@fielynn7393]

That flying mission in Liberty City when I was younger blew my mind that it's the only time you're outside of Los Santos sandbox included

[@devangnivatkar2649]

The first mission actually spells out San Andreas' design philosophy perfectly for me. It is a game designed to be replayed multiple times with you getting better at it with every run. On your second time, you know that the Ballas car is going to attack you. You also have likely picked up on a few weapon spawns on the map during your previous runs. With this foresight and foreknowledge, you're now ready to deal with the Ballas yourself. Same goes for the train mission. You should know that your prime objective is to keep to the right side of the train, a good distance away from the train. If you cross the overpass and go to the other side, that's really on you. The correct logical path is to keep going straight down your current path (on the right). If you're wasting Smoke's bullets, the game gives a very clear visual feedback of the bullets sparking off the train. As for Badland A & B, if you're trying to speak for a casual player, their main enemy is going to be themselves. This goes for all the races on a first or casual playthrough. I'd even clump in 'Photo Opportunity' here. Most players in these situations are going to go pedal-to-the-metal and crash, flip their vehicle or drive into water/off route and fail. It teaches you to be patient and controlled with your driving. On replays, Badlands A is actually infinitely entertaining if you experiment with the vehicles you're allowed to use in it. I actually did my last playthrough on the Quadbike IIRC. The long drive from point A to point B missions, like the travelling you do in the Countryside missions (Catalina/Truth/Catalina), 'Photo Opportunity' and even 'Lure' are stealthy ways to increase your stats. Depending on what you chose i.e. car, motorcycle or bike, you can actually level up your stats significantly here. Maybe not the strongest point of the game, but it does have some logical design choice. Amphibious Assault IMO was designed with the assumption you've been collecting Oysters. If you have all the Oysters available to you at this point (around 30 IIRC), you should also have the corresponding Lung Capacity just due diving for them. It does bog down the direct storyline by a lot, but a large portion of the game fits like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle if you're working toward 100% from the get go. Just consider that you need 20% Driving Skill to participate in 8-Track. If you've been doing the vehicle based side missions, including even Ambulance in LS itself (instead of Angel Pine), you will have built towards the 20%. This comes back to my original point that this game was designed to be replayed again and again till mastered. Interesting that you actually like Venturas. To me it feels like the city with the least 'soul' of them all, once you look past all the razzle dazzle. All these big casinos and you can enter only two of them (along with a different smaller one). There are only two broad areas to the city, the strip itself and the industrial & residential areas around them. Even the peds are mostly reused from Los Santos instead of being unique like San Fierro. You should have touched up on the heist prep missions IMO. They're some of the weakest from a narrative PoV and sometimes even gameplay PoV. 'Architectural Espionage' randomly sics the cops on you despite you keeping it stealthy. Why do they suddenly start attacking you after showing up? What tipped them that you're the one causing mischief? 'Key to Her Heart' is a boring 'don't spook' chase and gives you another mandatory side activity of obtaining the keycard. 'Dam & Blast' requires you to fly a plane and jump from it, then you can kill all guards or even leave witnesses but the authorities investigating don't remove your planted bombs. 'Cop Wheels' requires you to steal those four specific police bikes. You can't store police bikes beforehand and drive those up the Packer instead. Nope, have to be those four bikes only. Then comes the worst mission of the bunch, 'Up! Up! and Away!'. Carl prevents the crew from highjacking a Caligulas Van on its rounds as 'it could get ugly'. Instead he decides to casually break into a military base, kill loads of soldiers, take down two Hunter gunships and steal their sky crane (Leviathan?). Then the really boring part of having to take the Securicar to the airstrip in the slowest helicopter ride of the game. Would have been worth it if you atleast got to keep the sky crane Leviathan but the one that spawns at the airstrip is bog standard. Feels like I'm beating a dead horse here, but with the finale gang territory requirement, you're coming back to it being better on replays. The perfect time to take over gang territories is right after Grove 4 Life and before Riot. That way you don't have to deal with the actual riot and can go for a smooth finale with Riot - Los Desperados - End of the Line back-to-back. This also goes to G4L mission, while the game requires you to take over only two hoods, it's best to take over all four in the mission itself. Plus if you've already played it before, you'll know you can ditch Sweet and come back for him after taking over all four territories.

[@zenithproductions8307]

Couldn’t have summed it up better myself. San Andreas is built to expect multiple playthroughs.

[@giratius9307]

He didn't talk about the most annoying part of freefall either, chasing a shamal with a fking dodo. 12yo me struggling so hard on that mission it took me like 3days of countless tries just to get to the plane, by the time i got in i'm just relieved the rest of the mission is easy. All his complain are so minor and the one really affect speedrun only a handful of them. And i feel the most annoying part of SA are from side mission if you want 100% the game like collectibles, couriers, zero etc. And I agree with his criticism on ryder's death but he forgot to mention the lack of presence ryder has starting from green sabre and only mentioned a few times like he's been forgotten, also all of his mission really benefits your gang member and upgrade their weapons. Why he only critics only small part when the whole part of ryder as a character doesn't even make sense. These are some major flaw but he stick to criticize mostly minor shit that cloud be ignored.

[@devangnivatkar2649]

@@giratius9307 With Freefall, the trick is to gain as much height as possible on the way out. That way, once you spot the Shamal, you can swoop in from above instead of trying to chase it at equal height. IMO that's the only way to be reliably faster than the Shamal in your Dodo.

[@giratius9307]

@@devangnivatkar2649 i learned that trick on my 2nd playthrough, but remembering my 1st playthrough always give me ptsd lmao

[@devangnivatkar2649]

@@giratius9307 I spent one whole month trying to pass 'Circle The Airstrip' test on my first playthrough!

[@Bahraini_Carguy]

You, alongside some of the comments over here, have brought up some pretty good points i will say. I think one of my very least favorite aspects that no one have yet to mention is the collectibles in San Andreas. I always found a lot of "collect x or y thing" in games to be quite tedious and this especially includes San Andreas as well as some later GTA games. GTA 3 & VC had some collectibles but they felt far less annoying since the maps were far smaller, the hidden packages are a lot close to each others, they rewarded you each time you've hit a milestone and you were only required to get 100 of them in total. San Andreas on the other hand required you to get 250 of them, with 100 Tags in Los Santos, 50 Snapshots in San Fierro, 50 Horseshoes in Las Venturas and 50 Oysters in the ocean. The rewards aren't as bad as say GTA 4 & GTA 5 but they were still a bit underwhelming for the amount of time you've spent doing them, especially with the Oysters and again, it's just a bit too dull. There's also the fact that if you accidentally missed one, you have to go through the entire map just to find said x thing since GTA games typicall never shows you the locations that you have collected or missed. The only two exceptions were GTA Vice City Stories (underrated GTA IMO) and GTA V, the latter of which requires using Rockstar's social club website as you can't see them within the in-game map. Sorry for my stupid rant but i can't stress how i dislike having to go through 200 pigeons, 100 tags or whatever for a meh prize.

[@ShiroyashaVince]

No this is understandable the oyster for me is the hardest collectibles to get in gta SA i LITERALLY MISSED ONE when i was collecting them for 100 im just glad i remembered the last one under the bridge

[@yekky22]

I mean u dont have to do that part lol

[@giratius9307]

You forgot 70 unique stunts on collectibles. I tried to 100% the game with no cheat or guides and completely give up on collectibles and several boring side mission like courier and export.

[@ShiroyashaVince]

@@giratius9307 i dont know if u know this but u dont actually have to do stunt jumps in gta sa out of all gta 3d games idk why but in gta sa i think they noticed that there was too much stunt jump so they dont wanna include it on 100% just letting you know

[@OutlawedPoet]

@@giratius9307 Stunt Jumps aren't required for 100% completion.

[@Jeffreycee]

It’s called wrong side of the tracks for a reason! If you stay on the wrong side aka the far right, smoke shoots with perfect aim. I’ve managed to get air from jumping off the little set of stairs, and smoke gets some pretty decent headshot damage as you are in the air. Also a bridge after the tunnel you can jump off and time you’re landing to actually land on the train

[@Val-1440]

You must be like the only other person with a brain

[@Kevine7001]

Honestly I love the gang missions. It was fun taking over Other territories and know that that area is under your command

[@mudfightmaster4275]

@Tom's Stuff same

[@MobiusLeader007]

Plus the enemy waves drop tons of cash so doing them in the first part of the game gives you lots of early money for unlocking properties with garages.

[@kneeofjustice9619]

@@MobiusLeader007 money, ammo, weapon exp. they’re beneficial to you in many ways.

[@RobertEdwinHouse9]

It's fun two or three times Having to do like 20 of these areas just to beat the game is mind boogling It's like arkham Knight where you have to beat riddler just so you can get the ending

[@JimBobat420]

@@RobertEdwinHouse9 wait what do you mean about having to beat them to beat the game? Like from an objective standpoint just because not everything is done or are you usually supposed to have another mission when you finish all of them because if it's the latter we might have a problem.

[@danielmccarthy3366]

I somehow enjoyed watching you tear apart a game I still love to this day, hasn't changed my feelings on it but its a breath of fresh air to be slapped with some reality.

[@brotbrotsen1100]

Wish people in every fanbase would think like that.

[@dubl33_27]

i mean, most of the stuff in the video are nitpicks which can't really be expected from a 2004 ps2 game

[@danielmccarthy3366]

@@dubl33_27 isn't really any video nit picks unless its an absolute disaster. We wont even go there with the recent release of the trilogy

[@Soniman001]

"Reality" you know just because he's negative doesn't mean he's automatically right nor do you have to automatically agree?

[@TheIrland09]

No such thing as "reality" when it comes to video games. Only opinions and this guy has some pretty odd ones.

[@rb4593]

"Sweet and Ryder can get stuck in so many places and outright softlock the mission" Proceeds to not show any softlocked gameplay. The only people who have issues with this mission are speedrunners trying every single strat and they wonder why the game breaks 😂

[@jaronmarles941]

Because as I told him, you're not supposed to speedrun a fucking sandbox game (i.e. ANY GTA).

[@stealthiscool]

I have a problem with that mission and I'm not even close to a speedrunner, It's extremely obnoxious on repeat playthroughs, the NPCs are far too slow and I have despised it every time I have gone back to the game over the past 15+ years whether that be on the PS2, PC, Xbox 360, mobile, PS4 or the 'definitive' edition, the design is HORRIBLE

[@justanothergabs4710]

@@stealthiscool When i started replaying the game years ago, which ended up becoming a habit, the first mission was so annoying and stress indulcing, randomly getting 1hp because the ballas caught up to me, seriously, the first mission is so goddamn dumb

[@DonDadda45]

@@jaronmarles941 weird point. Sandbox games like gta are much more fun to speedrun than more linear games

[@jaronmarles941]

@@DonDadda45 It isn't weird at all, being "more fun" (subjective) doesn't invalidate the point.

[@nightmarezer0507]

The mission wrong side of the tracks isn't that hard. You just need to give Big Smoke enough room to shoot the gang members on top of the train. I killed them before I even got the grass paths. You also forgot to mention that before you return to Grove Street at the end of the game. If you have taken over territories before that part of the game you have to retake them to beat the game. I went on a spree taking over hoods and played the game up to returning to the grove and my territories were taken back by the rival gangs and I had to go take them back over.

[@teukufadel8293]

And IMO the mobile version of the game is actually easier (somehow) than the OG version

[@michazmuda1477]

@@teukufadel8293 game is easier, as they had optimize it to touch controls.

[@justanothergabs4710]

the problem with wrong side of the tracks is the enemies health, big smoke shoots weird but if it was just regular health this mission wouldn't be infamous, nowadays i know ways of getting him to kill them consistently, i think it was supposed to have more content, since there are paths layed out after the tunnels, but no dialogue, no nothing I had taken all territories prior to leaving LS, imagine my heartbreak finding that the map wasn't covered in green

[@LabiaLicker]

Yeah you can actually see the bullets impact the side of the train to tell you that you need to be further from the train. The issue is way over blown.

[@DisinformationAgent]

"Speedrunning is the most degenerate act man has ever come up with" - RWhiteGoose

[@Zerum69]

San Andreas isn't perfect, but it's the best GTA for the majority of players And that's kinda sad, because it's been years and you can see the wrinkles in the gameplay

[@ratking9577]

That’s why we needed a (good) remaster!

[@Needformadness2]

no it sure isn't the best for majority, stop making up shit

[@JonkoSplonko]

I agree with the points that the last segment feels rushed, because....well, it's ACTUALLY UNFINISHED and rushed. There are several unused content, lore and missions about that last section of the game (Specially about the character Big Bear, who was gonna play a bigger role)

[@acorpse.334]

I played this game for years and I’ve never encountered these glitches/bugs

[@TheDMG45]

Yeah I feel he is over emphasising the glitching missions because as a speedrunner he will be playing them hundreds of times, and in ways that are specifically likely to break missions.

[@Sum41rthe1]

Wow really, I am shocked, I can't do a graph, but I'll do a grading representation. Los Santos 1 - 9/10 Amazing opening, great mission variety and best characters in the game Badlands - 10/10 Can't beat cruising around with K-DST on late at night when it is foggy on a Sanchez, my fav part of the game easily. Missions are brilliant (plus you unlock trucking missions which oddly is my fav side mission to do) San Fierro - 9.5/10 My fav city and best missions, up and down the hills on a FCR900 is the bomb. Desert - 6/10 I always think I dislike this part, but there are some really fun missions but defo a downgrade Las Venturas - 8/10 Love the city, love the characters and the missions, the weakest city but not by much. Return to Los Santos - 3/10 Yeah it does go downhill here, can't deny That was fun, anyone else care to grade and have a discussion?

[@DonDadda45]

LS - 10/10 Badlands 8/10 San Fierro 9/10 Desert 6/10 LV: 8/10 RTLS: 7/10

[@Sum41rthe1]

@@DonDadda45 maybe I was a tad harsh on RTLS

[@DonDadda45]

@@Sum41rthe1 Yeah I think so, I think in the video it was also criticized way too harsh. When you are speedrunning the game, yeah it sucks ass, I agree. But barely anybody speedruns this game like this. In a normal playthrough, it's actually really fun and amazing story-wise. After all the shit CJ went through, you finally go back home and have to take over the whole of LS to take back your gang-glory. Nobody really does ALL gang at once like maniac speedrunners do, it's not that bad in normal plays and actually very fun. I agree it was a weird decision that you have to do all territories again even if you did them at the start of the game tho.

[@trueblueryu5713]

I’m actually surprised you didn’t mention some other aspects of Los Santos that are screwed up, although they’re more problematic from a casual perspective and not a speedrun. The drive-by intro mission will be an instant fail if you step out of the car too long to get the weapons the Ballas dropped. Caesar’s race shouldn’t be required, because, going off of the previous 2 games, the races through the pay phone in 3 aren’t required to progress to a new area, and in Vice City, the required races (bikers and that one dude in the Malibu club) aren’t until the second half of the game. Technically you can do them at the very end of the game based on the order you’re going through. There’s also the issue of the gang wars being basically pointless, since it all resets later, and you don’t need a minimum percent of territory at this point to progress with the story. There’s also the fact that your stamina and health are very low, so being in a major fight with NPC’s will most likely be over instantly. The badlands you nailed fairly well, but there were 2 other issues. In the races, falling in the water at any point is not only an instant fail, but it takes a significant amount of time to even get to a spot where you can escape the water. Also, you’re using 4 wheel ATV vehicles and large tanker trucks in some of the Catalina missions, which you’re not at all familiar with. San Fierro is the best part of the game, due primarily to the lore and how the missions naturally progress. The only mission I really have a problem with is the one where you have to sneak onto the ship, because it automatically takes away your weapons, which is absolute BS. The RC plane with Zero, trying to stop the couriers, is also potentially the worst mission in the game due to how you only get one shot, and you somehow fail if you don’t get the plane back to the roof of the shop. The desert is okay, at least this time the checkpoint system in the truck mission is forgiving and gives you time to get used to the mechanics. The pilot license BS is nonsense as well, since apparently going one atom’s distance past your target counts as failing. Las Venturas is amazing, but has too many gun fight missions, and the whole choice of what to do to get the security pass is irrelevant, since getting it through romance not only takes longer, but gives you less money, and doesn’t change the ending or anything. Return to LS is okay, but it does ask for too many territories to be taken over, and the OG Loc mission has you using vehicles you never had before, and it’s one of the last missions of the game. And yeah, the end of the game and having vehicles being destroyed almost instantly is complete BS for the final several missions. At least the final mission has a checkpoint where failing the final chase just skips you back to the final chase. Great game, but 100% could’ve purged a good 10-15 missions

[@davidtyierejian1033]

Caesar got tired of the Legion and went to live the gang life

[@southweststrangla9591]

RTLS is bad storywise, supposed to be calm before storm but you end up doing same thing you've been doing in first couple hours of game. At start it makes sense because you are small time thug, after LV you are rich man with own cassino, dozens of other properities, manager of one of biggest rapers on west coast and millions on bank account yet you still have to act like small time thug killing random people on street as if you didn't have very powerfull friends.

[@HeavyRaiden]

@@southweststrangla9591 Well, if you put yourself in Sweet's perspective, CJ walked away when they needed him the most with Brian. And when he came back, things started to get better, then after all the time he went to jail, he finally meets CJ to find out the left the hood again, he abandoned his homies again. So CJ decides to help him get back the hood, which is why he starts to act gangster again, but even before you just robbed a mf casino, so i don't really think it's gonna be calm lol. Also, we as players already knew that LS was gonna be even worse that when we started the game, cause Sweet was in jail and CJ left, without them Big Smoke and Tempenny gained even more power in the streets.

[@justanothergabs4710]

@@southweststrangla9591 If I had to define RTLS in simple terms, its wasted potential, character wise there is so much that could have been done but its just... Ugh

[@ramonce_yt]

The Heist missions for LV are optional. You don't need to finish them to unlock the finale. Definitely agree about the plane license, it's pretty hard to get a gold since you have to position the plane perfectly but in some ways I found it interesting.

[@18idlesuggest]

I agree with that downwards slope graph xD Everyone usually just remembers or meme out the Los Santos area of the game, maybe some SF and LV but usually the first part of the game.

[@alicev1500]

Personally San Fierro's my favorite, maybe 2nd favorite part of the game

[@ROMBOOMBEN]

@@alicev1500 imo the jizzy part is the most entertaining of san fierro

[@unimportantcommenter4356]

That's how every piece of media works. The most memorable parts happen during the introduction, the end, the climax of said media or it is repeated several times.

[@Wyte_Knight]

Wrong side of the tracks was really not that hard. I literally cannot understand why people struggled with it. Even when I was 12 I completed it easily once I understood that if you're too close to the train, Smoke just can't hit them. The countryside part is like a tutorial for me : You already failed, but you don't know why. Once you take the logical path of the countryside area, you'll notice right away the problem : First, too far = Smoke doesn't shoot. Then, too close = Smoke doesn't hit. Now, try again the mission and space yourself just right during the first part of the chase, and you'll kill them. And if you don't want to play fair, you can just climb onto the motel and jump on the train. Instead of retrying the mission 20 times in a row without any adjustement to theirstrategies, maybe people should think and try to develop new strategies, either by gathering intel (looking at the route you'll follow), or by experimenting with others strategies, idk. And don't launch me on Pulaski's death. Why does he run? He's armed, you're not! Why do you both look at Hernandes like morons when you were fighting just before it? Why does he starts running from the cimetery while in the cinematic you weren't even in it anymore? Why is there a fking Buffalo while there wasn't one the second before? And the BF too? That was just a really bad mission, lorewise. Specially since your mostly make his car explode, and the cinematic just after this doesn't acknowledge this fact. Sounds like they didn't even tested it.

[@MrJinglejanglejingle]

You really think people... Well, think? You have to remember that if you are of Average Intelligence, that means 49% of the world are dumber than you.

[@rept2902]

I finish it first try but after i hear other people say it is hard i started failing over and over again

[@grantmaxwell5361]

I know that the Buffalo is fire-proof from old game guides. However that would mean that ramming and firing bullets at the car would still damage it. Overall, it makes very little sense. Rockstar gave you a car with a pretty big perk without any rhyme or reason. It's Pulaski so fuck it.

[@madspunj1]

i just didnt listen to smoke to take the high road and drove alongside the train on the other side of the tracks

[@ballasog]

Wow this sux so hard. What I do when I start a new game is, I do the firetruck missions for $40,000 and fireproof CJ. Then I buy a house and save. Then I do the Burglar missions for infinite run. Then over time I work out on the beach gym until I have maximum muscle. Then I go to the tallest building in LS and get a parachute (and save) and then I take a Shamal from the airport (first taking an M4) and fly it toward SF, taking a path that avoids forbidden territory as long as possible, bailing out after the plane is hit and aiming for the Burger Shot sign near the park where Katie is located. I run to Katie, make a quick introduction and run away so she doesn't get killed. I try to get far enough away from Katie so if I get killed it's far enough away from her that I don't show up back at her house. If I keep going through and endless cycle of this, I get in a police car to make it easy to get busted. A few times I have managed to get back to Los Santos and save after meeting Katie. If you want to meet Barbara next, eat until you get maximum fat and fly up there. Now arm up. Pick up weapons of your choice around LS. I like M4, shotgun, MP5 (on top of the Jefferson Motel) and Molotovs. To get the Minigun you have to go to Las Venturas. Go to the dock where the Jetmax is, climb to the top of the stairs (DON'T go past the stairs) and persuade the authorities to give you a fire engine. Drive it to the parking garage where the minigun is located. If you get killed, well, Katie is your girlfriend so you won't lose your weapons. OK, notice that at this point I have not yet done the first mission. I think the reader will recognize that when you do the first mission equipped as i describe, the Ballas hold no terrors. The game is fun for everyone who doesn't deliberately cultivate a mindset of not having fun with it.

[@ooooothatsshit158]

Nice essay man

[@ballasog]

@@ooooothatsshit158 Meeting Katie early is fun fun fun. The keys to doing stuff in forbidden territories are: Plan your route. Adapt as needed. Keep moving.

[@chimps121]

the amphibious assault mission also doesnt make sense because the mission has a swimming tutorial at the start but expects you to have lung capacity anyway??

[@captsige1140]

Never realised how poor the gameplay for this piece of nostalgic but after seeing your point. This game is rush for the gameplay.

[@Gio954]

I played the definitive edition (due to some extreme masochism and curiosity) and it just has the AI accuracy at 1 100% of the time. It's infuriating.

[@rimaq_]

For real, I think it even happens on III and VC as well. And on III is unbearable because you can't even crouch or properly take cover

[@diegomedina9637]

I don't think that's in the definitive version. I know because i had a piss easy time doing the Sweet's girl mission while I drove with Sweet's car.

[@ShadowQueen1233]

Cockstar would have to pay ME to play that nonsense.

[@starfrost6816]

Any game will disintegrate after tens of thousands of hours

[@AneeshRanade23]

Ah no wonder "the wrong side of the tracks" was such a difficult mission. They didnt want us to experience the second half of the game

[@nabnoob]

Hey Ben, amazing video! One that sparked an entire series of thoughts from my mind! At 12:17 you mentioned that CJ wants to make some of his own money. From the storyline perspective this is incorrect. CJ needs the money to pay off The Truth for the weed CRASH wants to use to have the DA arrested later in San Fierro. This is explained in the cutscene for "Body Harvest". CJ is a passive protagonist, who never does anything on his own will. He only follows instructions and reacts to provocations by others. The only partial exception I can think of is "Deconstruction", where CJ's character turns inside out and goes on a rage. however, even this one could be classified as reaction to external provocation. At 16:28 you start talking about "Amphibious Assault", and how the requirement to have underwater experience to even start the mission blocks player from progression. However, you failed to note the biggest problem with this mission. Once you have upgraded your Lung Capacity and can finally start the mission, you are presented with an underwater tutorial section. So let's summarize this: you need underwater experience to start the mission. Once you start doing the mission, you find yourself in a tutorial that teaches you about swimming underwater. The tutorial comes after you are forced to learn this feature of the game by the same mission, that is meant to teach it to you. Nonsense! This is the biggest logical flaw in any video game I've ever seen, yet other people seem to completely ignore this gigantical mistake. At 28:32 you mention without a reason that "Riot" is a useless mission. As The Aroused Eunuch has already pointed out, this mission is good for its narrative, and as such is necessary to keep however little is left of the story rolling. You didn't spend much time on "Back to School" but at least you didn't criticize it unfairly either. I'd like to jump on the opportunity to protect this mission against casual people who bash Flight School for no reason - other than their inability to learn about one of the best features in the entire game, that the game teaches you first hand. People had complained that the flying missions in VC, namely "Demoliton Man" and "Dildo Dodo" are too difficult, and that the game doesn't teach you properly how to fly. Well SA gave people what they needed, yet a chunk of the players have always been complaining that the mission, which is in its entirety just a tutorial, is way too difficult, and blocks them from progressing the story. This includes people I know in real life. So these players just download a save file with the mission completed to continue the game, only to come back and scream that the flying missions are impossible. Some people are just ridiculous! Had they bothered to spend the 20 or even less minutes required to complete the tutorial, they would be able to fly and complete every mission the flying missions easily. The course of lessons is perfectly paced and allow people's brains to fully comprehend what they have just learned, before moving on to the next lesson. The texts are informative and show up at the right time. Some players (especially speedrunners) complain that lesson 4, being a combination of lessons 3 and 2, is pointless because it doesn't teach you anything new. This is simply wrong. The course teaches players to self-confidently be able to complete a full flying session from start to finish. To do this, there could not be a better way than to summarzie and combine everything the player has learned so far, from take-off to landing. In contrast to this, the pilot school in GTA V compresses all of these into just 2 lessons, and before the players have a chance to master the basics, has them fly upside down and do aerial stunts starting from lesson 3! This is just the plane part, but the helicopter segment suffers from the same issue. What makes all of this even worse is the stupid airflow mechanic, which makes it impossible to keep flying in a straight line until you improve your flying skills. You would think that the story not forcing the school on the player is a good thing, however, this is wrong again. If you don't do it in the first chapter with Franklin or Michael, you will be forced to learn it on the fly during Trevor's missions! I haven't touched Online yet but from what I read from the wiki, the school there seems to be even more ridiculous. Wow this turned out to be a really long post and ended up a rant somewhere down the line. Oops!

[@dubl33_27]

no problem man, i enjoyed reading it

[@kingofnothing6215]

The flying mission was indeed really hard on pc. But it was also very rewarding at the end cause it really made u fly!! I like how u mentioned that VC had the famous difficult missions cause i happened to play VC after finishing SA ans those missions where a piece of cakw for me. Thx to gta sa

[@user-uq1ig2ju1v]

His opinion causes me physical pain

[@jayrkos]

In the train mission, when you get to the overpass, jump onto the train

[@SuperGamerMiner]

I stumbled upon your GTA V video when I woke up today and see this video released not more than one hour earlier. Very coincidental timing! I’m sure this vid will deliver on info and humour! Keep it up! 👍

[@dxtei875]

You have a very unpopular opinion, most people are biased with nostalgia, but I agree with you. Good video

[@barathsreelal3390]

As an average gamer, except few here and there, I actually enjoyed all the aspects of the game, especially the gang war part at the end. I enjoyed capturing 35% of the territories! I enjoyed the riot part where the cars would randomly catch fire. Maybe these are the things that made me love the game even more!

[@Goldfire345]

One thing I did notice was how Denise is the only girlfriend that actually feels like she has any reason to want to be with you since you saved her life she actually has a story reason to hook up with cj i wish the others were treated like that the others the others kinda feel like glorified mechanics

[@347Jimmy]

Michelle was literally a mechanic lol

[@imdebaws3715]

We all know Denise is the canonical gf

[@fdgvfdasgv]

I don't understand what you're comparing this too. No sandbox like this existed at the time and all this stuff added to the gameplay. Even the riot mode.

[@thebahrimedia]

GTA Vice city and GTA 3 got some of these parts correctly and they came before GTA San Andreas (unnecessary driving, recycling the missions...) . For the other parts other games at the time got them correctly (audio settings, not relying on NPC for missions that much ...) But yeah the sandbox aspect of the game is still good

[@UserHandle454]

Watch the fucking video and comment

[@10yearsinthejoint363]

Did u even watch the Video?

[@mike04574]

it seems like nitpicking to me

[@TheIrland09]

@@UserHandle454 Why do you just assume anyone who disagrees with him hasn't watched the video? Butthurt much?

[@ShadowGamer5551]

I'd love to see a video regarding Vice City and GTA IV, the latter being my personal favourite of the series

[@brancolt_]

just finished it again yesterday after years without touching it. Still the goat in this franchise

[@ShadowGamer5551]

@@brancolt_ I don't think there's a better Bowling and Drunk driving simulator out t here.

[@OutlawedPoet]

What IV lacks in mission design, gameplay, and overall content makes up for it with great physics, story, characters, writing, sound design, etc.

[@ShadowGamer5551]

@@OutlawedPoet I'd probably also add the fact money becomes quite useless, once you do the 3leaf clover i doubt you'll ever run out. So the choices that give you a high monetary incentive are just redundant.

[@KH0LRA]

Same! as much as I keep GTA IV to a very high regard I will sure as hell acknowledge that it had its flaws, almost all gameplay wise.

[@Xippone2093]

The bugs just make it harder. That’s all. I can see why a speed runner got mad

[@grimreefer213]

Speedrunning a game and running it for hundreds to thousands of hours really does highlight all of its flaws

[@CallOFDutyMVP666]

I love these analyses. I just know I'm gonna learn something and it's awesome, hard to explain.

[@AnglosArentHuman]

> English > Speedrunner > The year of our lord 2021, where dislikes don't exist anymore Surely this guy won't say the dumbest shit I've heard all month

[@OutlawedPoet]

Video only has 351 dislikes.

[@kissestoyouiskisandyou]

@@OutlawedPoetnow?

[@HECKproductions]

someone who eventually became responsible for gta online must have played photo opportunity and been like: "perfection"

[@SassyOnline]

You can argue it's nostalgia, or you can argue the fact it was released in 2004 and still to this day being talked about and played by you right now on KZbin most definitely makes it as good as we think and one of the greatest games of all time.

[@FraserSouris]

I feel that SA is the Black Sheep of the modern GTAs. 3 and VC do its design better and 4 and V improve on the core gameplay leaving SA as the worst of both worlds. SA really feels like R* went quantity over quality. For example, the map is massive with 3 cities and lots of wilderness in between. But said wilderness is boring to traverse and there's nothing really to explore. The game has so many features and side content but most of it is shallow and gets boring quickly. For example, home robberies repeat the same interiors and the stealth isn't satisfying. You can go to a gym, work out and learn new melee moves but since 99% of combat involves cars and/or guns, melee is useless. Hell, so much of the game is just "drive to a place, shoot enemies, done". GTA3 and VC flowed much better because they took advantage of the series' strengths at that point. The missions were somewhat open ended and since the maps were so small and dense, it was much more intuitive to learn the layouts and use that to your advantage by learning where spawns and shortcuts were. But since much of SA's map is wilderness which also hampers travel to older areas, you lose that aspect. 3 and VC were also far less padded with tedious gunfight after tedious gunfight. And GTA4 and V at least have more satisfying shooting and driving mechanics so those sections are more bearable.

[@10yearsinthejoint363]

@@FraserSouris Stop Copying and Pasting

[@FraserSouris]

@@10yearsinthejoint363 Am I wrong?

[@10yearsinthejoint363]

@@FraserSouris yes

[@TheIrland09]

@@FraserSouris 3 and VC hardly do anything better than SA. The map being bigger doesn't make it worse, it just means you lack patience to traverse it. If the side content is bad then that means 3 and Vice City's side content is bad too since it's mostly the same stuff.

[@ballsackgamingtv]

Glad to see I'm not the only one, wherever I go and talk about the issues with the game I'm not finding any people who want to acknowledge the flaws. "Nah man this shit is my childhood bro! No way!"

[@AlfieTrevor4444]

It's still my favourite game but it still has annoying aspects like the gang wars

[@mr.hotpockets3425]

@@AlfieTrevor4444 ONNGGGG

[@brotbrotsen1100]

Nostalgia is a dangerous drug.

[@brandonm8105]

Because they aren't debbie downers lmao. If you wanna focus on the flaws of every game, you won't enjoy any game for the rest of your life.

[@ballsackgamingtv]

@@brandonm8105 Nobody said you have to be a "debbie bloody downer", just don't be a blind noatalgic consooooomer either.

[@bennygameplays4090]

Great video would love to hear your thoughts on the other GTA’s you havent covered yet such as vice city or 4

[@SOBEKCrocodileGod]

I’m glad I’m not a speed runner I suppose. GTASA is still my favorite to this day and my favorite open world sandbox game of all time next to Saints Row 2.

[@panqueque445]

I had no idea the train mission was supposed to be hard until I got on the internet. I never had any problems with it. Then I saw how people play this mission. Riding the trains ass not giving Smoke space to look up. The mission isn't hard, people are just fucking stupid.

[@freelancepear87kakkoka11]

i'd say the best solution to the DMCA problem is just including the in-game copyrighted music into fair use, it's not like it's infringing upon anyone's rights when people are going to be listening to the music in the game anyways. or at the very least some kind of a streamer protection mode that says "hey, this is in-game. it's totally okay."

[@MarksterC]

That’s something that has to be accepted across entire countries as a law dude

[@frankbacon1002]

Dmca should simply be fucking abolished, terrible law which does nothing to "protect artists" as it claims, and just serves to sue people and companies by UMG and other massive music licence owners. It's the worst shit in the universe. In general the concept of copyright is insane to me. Like fair enough, nobody should be allowed to use music in their work without the artists permission, but for example, a streamer HAS THAT PERMISSION BY PROXY. The game has the licence, the streamer owns the game, therefore taking down streams over this is just absurd. Copyright laws NEED to become more lax. All they're doing now is stifling all kinds of artists and content makers by abusing pointless IPs and essentially copyrighting sounds and likenesses

[@LegioXXI]

Imho the game just lacks a clear focus, unlike Vice City and later GTA 4 had. GTA 5 also kinda repeats that problem. Gameplay-wise: Does San Andreas want to be a fun-over-the-top sandbox like the previous games, or an RPG life simulator? It kinda wants both - and ends up, not being either of them. Story-wise: The game tries address the 90s gang culture, racial conflicts, police corruption, drug epedemics, secret government agencies, street racing, crazy-hippie-drug-farms, mafia crimes, building a criminal empire, being a manager of a rapper, becoming a pilot in the middle of nowhere and god knows what iam forgetting now. Shortening the focus to 2-3 aspects and instead going deeper and more detailed about those topics would have helped the game very much. Just imagine Nico Bellic suddendly in the middle of the game becoming some passionate illegal street racer, tuning his cars with bright colors and starting his own mechanic store. This would just feel completely out of place and would remove a lot of immersion and believability of the game. This is what San Andreas feels like when reaching a new story chapter with a new focus. As kid i loved San Andreas for all its possibilites, but looking back i just see some unfinished mass of experiments. Nowadays i prefer something like Vice City or GTA 4 way more over San Andreas or GTA 5, since those games know what they want. Oh: and they don't (for the most part) waste your time with repetitive and boring RPG chores. If i want a real life simulation, i play The Sims. *But i still think San Andreas is a good experience overall, even with its weaknesses. Im also glad that this game tried so many things. Don't forget it was 2004, no one knew what an open world game should do and offer. In other to find out what works and what dosen't, someone simply has to try. And thats why San Andreas is a milestone just as GTA 3 was. While GTA 3 was a technical milestone, San Andreas is a gameplay milestone. Yes some experiments turned out to be failures, but thats better than never try anything new at all and becoming stale.*

[@reasons2live]

Easily the best comment/review in entire comment section

[@Gbonne1PSN]

I remember the train mission used to be difficult as a kid. But when I beat it I learned it's much easier if you just stay to the right of the tracks. The mission that always got me (even in the Definitive) was the one where you take Sweet and co. to perform drive-bys on Ballas. My car always blew up after the first group and I usually only passed it out of luck.

[@AryBoy_Photography]

Dude… everything you pointed out was exactly what made the game actually fun! 😊 the imperfections gave it character!

[@DylxnR]

The dumb running animations and the glitches , things like this is what makes it fun to play 😂 games try to hard now

[@MidnightGear1]

I actually never finished San Andreas as a kid and I managed to finally do that this year. I definitely enjoyed it, but I certainly agree that the game hasn't aged well in certain places, like the simplistic mission design and odd pacing. It really just shows that for the most part, games HAVE improved over the years. Our standards have just increased as we get older, and we reminisce the times when less polished games blew us away.

[@FlavioxD_]

90% of current games don't even come close to the awesomeness of GTA SA

[@oscarg332]

@@FlavioxD_isn’t San Andreas the #1 game sold by PlayStation 2

[@nikoladjurovic518]

Little correction, actually 100% games in the last 10 years don't even come close to the awesomeness of GTA SA@@FlavioxD_

[@HYDRAdude]

Modern games are even more simplistic if anything.

[@alolanstarboy]

Honestly I feel the main appeal of the game to me as a kid was just messing around in the open world doing stupid shit you can’t normally do IRL. My cousin and I almost never did any of the missions cos we just found them too boring lol and I still haven’t beaten this game all the way through to this day

[@brotbrotsen1100]

Lol you would be surprised how many people share this experience, pretty much my whole school played it but no one ever finished it because we were to busy looking for Bigfoot and aliens. I finished it for the first time in 2015.

[@divecolosio4988]

@@brotbrotsen1100 ah, classic time -big foot -secret tunnels -secret islands Before Deryon and Madd Channel's are cool!

[@lainiwaku]

@@divecolosio4988 funny to think about it, since now rumor like that... you would just go to google and find answer about it in 2 seconds... but at that time it was taking us so much time to free roam with those rumors

[@Sanakedot]

I actually came here from the same video about GTA V - because I enjoyed that one and agreed with everything on it. Imagine my surprise, when I could not nod with agreement not even after one point made, let alone a whole segment... I will only agree about Ryder being killed off poorly, this also made an impression on me at the time. Oh, and the infamous mission Photo Opportunity - how come nobody realized there is literally a direct road you can take once you pick up Ceasar... You go back a little in the other direction and you just drive for literally a minute and a half at most. You follow the west side of the map which leads straight to Angel Pine, lmao. Not to mention there is a tunnel I am pretty sure you can use on your way to Ceasar, which is also a quick way to get there. I don't remember the specifics, it's been a while, but I do remember studying the map and discovering a path that was so quick, that this mission never bothered me as much again. While I do hold nostalgia, I am perfectly aware with the game's imperfections, but I heard none of those in here. And you don't think the gang wars are entertaining? That's a personal preference for sure; but this is not a flaw, lmao?? xD You turned off the radio but are pissed that there is music playing from a disco van, because there is literally a party going on? My dude, that girl is actually DJ-ing, not playing the radio, lmao. "Riot" serves a similar purpose as the mission in San Fierro you mentioned, where you explore the map. Only this time, you explore the consequences of corruption in the system in real time. Cars crash into you and kill you suddenly? Well yeah, a riot is going on, lmao. That's the whole point of this last segment. Your actions directly impact the surroundings - once you kill Tenpenny, the riot stops. It had a reason, you know. And so on. Once again, GTA V video was great. This one - as others have said, perhaps was made for views, idk. p.s.: I can actually agree on the Casino Heist missions making no sense being non-mandatory. So there, actually 2 points I can see reasonable.

[@zosonte129]

I love this, it's interesting how many people feel the need to justify how much they like the game despite its flaws like you're attacking them.

[@Vibrate69]

this

[@oboroth51]

Children and manchildren

[@vladimirlenin5409]

Big Smoke Stans REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[@ginova0817]

+++

[@Insanityltself]

Im surprised you know alot of technical faults of the game that casual players would never find yet everybody thinks Smoke in WSOFtT has horrible aim while in reality those 3 gangmembers just have increased health while Smoke's aim is spot on. Also p.s who turns the sound of? This game had such awesome Radio x).

[@BDozer666]

Yeah, as long as you're not hugging the train, Smoke will always bodyshot the Vagos with perfect accuracy (because the AI aim for center mass). On top of the stupid high health problem, there's also the fact that the Vago that hangs off the train has no hitbox during that animation (similarly to how you can't be shot while entering/exiting vehicles).

[@ratking9577]

KZbinrs and speedrunners do because of copyright

[@sevenkaylive]

Me: gta san andreas is the best game ever, change my mind. English ben: and I took it personally.

[@PeronJames]

You say the races are easy, but I remember having so much trouble beating woozie when I was a kid

[@alexsm3882]

To be fair, some things that should be pointed out: - I've never had any of the problems you mentioned in the 1st mission and I've probably replayed this game like 7 or 8 times. - the car shootout bug thing could be true, as in I may have noticed the enemies occasionally demolishing me after exiting a vehicle (the mission where you pick up OG loc when you have to get off a bike and straight into a shootout comes to mind), but I never noticed it having any meaningful impact on my playthroughs, hence why I'm not certain how true it actually is (meaning that even if it does happen it's not that noticeable for me). - I've managed to beat the train mission near the very end of the path, after the country section. It's a lot to do with keeping a certain distance from the train.

[@derpeth2101]

The AI accuracy bug is real, the game script changes the accuracy value for the AI.

[@lucasgraeff5391]

this video somehow made me love the game even more!

[@caiorezei]

What, you want me to keep Ryder and Smoke fresh in my mind? You busta, they as fresh as a recently-fried number 9, a number 9 large, a number 6 with extra dip, a number 7, two number 45s (one with cheese) and a large soda.

[@alexjackson9527]

My complaints with this game: •Paul and Maccer being absolutely useless in Don Peyote •Architectural Espionage and Up, Up and Away being harder than the actual heist you're setting up, and that heist only being worth 100k •Roads in the Badlands being designed to deliberately lengthen journey times •Gang members running away from turf wars or getting stuck in places you cannot reach •Being punished for using vehicles you earned to make missions easier I.e. being shot down in Up, Up and Away for using a Hunter And those are just the ones off the top of my head

[@veenajoshua9461]

Personally I love the gang war mini game

[@DonDadda45]

Video is well made but pretty much all of your points are nitpicky bs. Yes I know it's a "speedrun perspective" but the title is just unnessecary clickbait. Even with your point, GTASA is as good as I think.

[@pseudocode6506]

omg. I've played through this game a dozen times over the years and never knew about that accuracy bug. This explains all those times I found a mission ridiculously difficult then passed it with ease the next time

[@Neogears1312]

10:06 smokes aim is pin point accurate. You just need to stay off the track. He won’t miss a shot. In fact he doesn’t “miss” actually. He can’t aim high enough to shoot above the train From his position. It does lead you terribly but you if you just drive off tracks smoke kills everyone by the tunnel at worst. It’s really pathetically easy and most people are just poor craftsmen blaming their tools.

[@pokechamp3987]

Pretty sensational title for such minor gripes. Very few if any who loves the game will watch this and change their mind.

[@FranciscoFJM]

boo fucking hoo

[@michaelw6277]

the problem with this analysis is that it forgets that in its time it was dramatically bigger and more ambitious than anything that came before it. At the time if you went back and played Vice City again it felt like you were being restricted to an open world the size of a closet it comparison.

[@Xegethra]

Gang wars would have been better if they covered more ground. Larger but fewer areas to take over. A lot of areas aren't even areas, just a zone that covers an alley way or something, or a small square in a road...it's pointless. Those tiny areas should have been included in with the areas next to them.

[@kneeofjustice9619]

My one gripe with the story is how CJ got away with helping ruin Mad Dogg’s life. You could say that he was able to make up for his past mistakes but at the same time, CJ’s involvement in the matter is never brought up or creates any tension between him and Mad Dogg. Like they did exactly that with Johnny Sindacco. CJ played both sides of the fence and had to deal with the consequences.

[@paulbell3682]

Madd Dogg wasn't aware that CJ was involved in sabotaging his life.

[@kneeofjustice9619]

@@paulbell3682 that’s what I’m saying.

[@benjgabriel7013]

Once you mod the living hell out of it, the game just becomes infinitely better.

[@Ani-uw7mu]

no , it just crashes

[@mafteisilvian]

@@Ani-uw7mu bruh im done 🐋🐋🐋

[@princeargon6508]

@@Ani-uw7mu lmao

[@AzakiTheDemonWhoLaughs]

Na it's just gonna stop working

[@plat1n_]

I thougth you were going to talk about the huge bugs, performance issues and things related to that and also the story. There are a lot of game breaking bugs in this game.

[@DannyHDpsn]

Well I have been playing this game from start to finish this past week and even 1 playthrough is enough to spot these glaring issues. Excellent video

[@KH0LRA]

I remember enjoying SA in the past but now just hits differently too as I brought it back. The cracks began to show. However, doesn't demote it of its iconic status and I'm glad you gave out your thoughts in this worldview. I'd like to see your thoughts on GTA IV which I will always adore for its story and wonderful, gritty atmosphere. However, I will sure as hell remember how hollow it all felt afterwards without the bread and butter: its story and sides from hanging out with people. I'd like to see your thoughts on it next! and in addition to IV, I really never minded its driving lol. Its like the opposite to Sleeping Dogs' hard steering with being all on ice with many cars in the game

[@notsomoody5338]

You’re clearly a big fan of the game, this is just venting, great video!