RockStar Announce GTA: San Andreas News

RockStar Games today officially announced the worst kept secret in the videogames industry, with the official announcement of â??GTA: Sand Andreasâ??.

Regular TVG readers will know that weâ??ve been bringing the lowdown on 'San Andreas' since June last year, when we correctly claimed it would be inspired from the third city from the original GTA title. This will be the last title from RockStar North on the current generation, before they burry their heads and push the series truly forward with the release of 'GTA4' on the next-gen of systems.

That said we're expecting a host of innovations with 'San Andreas' as the likes of 'True Crime: Streets of LA' have proved that there's more to do with the genre; whilst it's questionable what other forms of transport RockStar North will be able to implement, after motorcycles and helicopters were added to 'Vice City' - Sinclair C5 anybody?

Sadly the only interesting information to come from the announcement stems from the release date; Americans will be able to get their hands on â??San Andreasâ?? on October 19th whilst European will have to wait a few days until October 22nd.

As we said many months ago, â??GTA: San Andreasâ?? will be released exclusively on the Playstation2, thanks to an amendment to the original agreement between Sony and RockStar, which saw the release of â??GTA: Double Packâ?? on the Xbox â?“ rest assured in true time-honoured RockStar fashion we expect the â??San Andreasâ?? to be released on Xbox and PC at some point in 2005.

"In the past couple of years, we have put an enormous amount of pressure on ourselves to ensure we do everything possible to exceed peopleâ??s expectations with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas,â? stated Sam Houser, President of Rockstar Games. â??Even though we still have eight months to go, we are starting to become very proud of what we have achieved and we canâ??t wait to get the game into playersâ?? hands.â?

Leslie Benzies, President of Rockstar North, stated, "We are extremely humbled by the success of the Grand Theft Auto series and it has made us push ourselves further than ever to create a title in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas that will hopefully redefine the Grand Theft Auto series and revolutionize open-ended gameplay and video game production values."