I hate Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

I haven't really said much on the site about GTA: San Andreas since I got it last Tuesday (yay! Launch day game!) but I'll rectify that now.

I hate GTA: San Andreas.

For one thing, it's the official last game I am allowing myself to buy until at least next June when I go back to work. This really sucks because we're just ramping up for the Christmas release season where lots of great games come out, oh, EVERY THREE DAYS.

Games like Halo 2, Prince of Persia 2, Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age, Scrapland and many others.

So I have this self-imposed ban on new games. This isn't so bad, given that I have WAY too many games as it is, so I can deal with it...

Now I don't really hate GTA: San Andreas. It's great. So great, in fact, that I keep playing it even when I'm about ready to take the PS2 controller and toss it into the backyard.

The setting is great, the first city of Los Santos is enormous just on its own and the missions are incredible. I'm loving the various characters I'm meeting as I go around town (OG Loc, the wannabe 'gangsta' and rhyme-deficient rapper, is my current favourite) and from what I've read, the storyline and characters so far don't even hold a candle to the latter portion of the game.

Now, the reason I say I hate the game is because the potential of the game is making me continue to play it in the face of some insanely difficult missions. I'm in the very early sections of the game, and I think that most of my problems are just due to the fact that my character is pretty lame in almost every department, skill-wise.

This GTA has a quasi-RPG element to it. That means that unlike the other GTA's, I don't start out able to dual-wield pistols and drive like a maniac. At this point in the game, pebbles seem to be causing me to careen about like a drunkard. Ah well.

Thankfully I have Paper Mario to fall back on when controllercide is imminent. At least in Paper Mario I have a tangible sense of progress and a hyper-cute (and funny) story to contrast the gang-bangin' sensibilities of San Andreas. Speaking of which, I'm off to play one of the two, at least until bedtime.