
If I lost too much, I would simply reload the game and try again. Winning, as unlikely as it was, would multiply the sum by the total amount of numbers, which meant I could walk away with $35M on a good day. I used to frequent The Four Dragons and bet $1M on roulette, on a specific number.

If you were in Las Venturas, a visit to one of the casinos was a must. Who would say no to a personal tank or assault aircraft? I’m a Player, Not a Payer In the desert, it was almost mandatory to jetpack into the army base and steal one of their vehicles. One of my favourite activities was to parachute onto the peak of Mount Chiliad and then rush down its entwining roads on a mountain bike.

No matter which part of San Andreas you were in, something would distract you from the main plot. And just south of San Fierro is the equally humongous Mount Chiliad.

Dividing the cities of Los Santos and San Fierro is an expansive countryside, home to the Bigfoot legend. Next to Las Venturas, there’s a desert area with various landmarks and a ghost town. And finally, Las Venturas up north is a beautifully recreated version of the sin city – Las Vegas – which featured a number of casinos and even the pyramid-shaped hotel – that same pyramid from which people were sliding down in Fear Factor. Based on San Francisco with its steep slopes, we have San Fierro to the west. This area takes after the real-world Los Angeles and many of its landmarks are later expanded upon in GTA 5. Starting out in CJ’s neighbourhood, we have Los Santos.

It featured three distinctly different cities along with vast countryside and desert environments. San Andreas was bigger than both of the previous GTA maps combined, and was absolutely packed with content. With San Andreas, however, I felt like I was only just getting started. By the time I completed the main storyline, I was already familiar with most of the city’s layout. But as beautiful and enticing as they were, both exhausted their options fairly quickly. I loved every inch of Liberty City and especially Vice City.
