Last night, I killed a hooker

Or how good is Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Yeah, I know - making a maiden post on GTA for gaming is kinda like a fishing magazine having a first cover that says "Marlin - Cool or what??" ... but the girl and I have been vacationing in San Andreas for quite some time now.

GTA:SA tacks on nearly everything I love about a really good game. It shares a heritage that dates back to Defender but is normally championed by titles like Zelda: Ocarina of Time  and Deus Ex. Yeah, yeah - we now have emergence as a buzz word. But it's not just that. Here you have a game that also includes a sense of inner game evolution. That is, the game gets better as you play it. As you dig into the game, you're rewarded with more choices and more perspectives. This is generally inherent in the RPG genre but not really seen much outside of it. This is where Deus Ex  succeeded but Deux Ex 2  somewhat failed. The augment system in DX2 felt much more like a schtick than integral to the experience.

GTA:SA is famous for it's violent nature. Yeah, there's no bones that the game is unabashadly mature - but it's in such an over the top manner that we shouldn't confuse it with taking itself seriously. That's the leg up the franchise has over Manhunt  or JFK Reloaded  - it gives you many clues that it's in on the joke while these other titles make it seem like they're simply challenging you to be depraved.

So hurrah to Rockstar. I'm set till Christmas.