by RockstarRockstar Games' cornerstone Grand Theft Auto series returns for a third run through the 128-bit generation, with this violent, mature-themed third-person shooter and mission-based driving game. Set in the early-'90s gang culture of "San Andreas," a fictional U.S. region modeled after California, the adventure plays out across the entire virtual state, with action centered in its three main cities: Los Santos (based on Los Angeles), San Fiero (San Francisco), and Las Venturas (Las Vegas). Like its immediate predecessor, Vice City, San Andreas strives to provide a wide, deep foundation for its free-form criminal gameplay by setting the story in a slightly exaggerated representation of a familiar (if not glorified) American subculture. As Vice City seemed inspired by Miami Vice, and the pastel-decked, "me generation" ideals of the early '80s, San Andreas is set in a time and place suggested by films like Boyz N the Hood, Menace II Society, or Colors, where riots eventually brought a whole city to a halt and awakened new consciousness across the country. Players take the role of a young man named Carl "C.J." Johnson, who thought he had escaped the gangland lifestyle by moving away from his Los Santos home. When his mother is murdered, he returns to the neighborhood of his childhood, only to become embroiled with threats and danger from all sides. Because of his family and friends who remained in Los Santos, he's considered an enemy-on-...