Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Official Strategy Guide (Signature)

Rating:
Summary: what a load of crap
Review: For you people who actually found this guide helpful, did you even read it? I can get more accurate information listening to the White House talk about weapons of mass destruction. The photo ops map is so completely wrong it's ridiculous. As for the horseshoes, most of them are nowhere near where the book says. One of them, for example, is said to be on top of a building at the San Fierro Airport. Well, I found the horseshoe, and guess what? Not only is it not on top of a building, but it's in the middle of the freaking runway and there is no building anywhere near it!!! When you find a horseshoe, look at the picture in the book and then look at your screen. $1000 says they are nothing alike. And with the Los Santos Tags, how helpful is it to say "located on a building near the road"? In case the authors didn't know, there are about 5000 such buildings in the game. Not only that, one of the tags is not even located on the map! Okay, sure, it tells you what happens during a mission, but gives absolutely no advice on how to pass them, it's just a synopsis. I thought that the guides for both GTA III and Vice City were extremely helpful, they were great, but the guide for San Andreas is a disgrace to the publishing industry. Bradygames may consider, just consider, actually proofreading the material the put on the shelves for us to buy (and not cheap either). In my opinion, the authors should be ashamed to have their names on the cover. Yes, it will help you get closer to that ever elusive 100% (which is why everyone buys it of course), but it will not get you all the way. Take my advice, save your money. Consider using it instead as payment towards a lawyer to sue Bradygames for being such f*cking idiots.

Rating:
Summary: GRAND THIEF AUTO SAN ANDREAS GUIDE...IT'S NOT THAT BAD!!
Review: I JUST PURCHASED GTA SAN ANDREAS FOR THE PS2 AND I FIND THAT GUIDE PRETTY HELPFUL IN DOING MISSIONS THOUGH YOU ACTUALLY HAVE TO DO THEM...BUT IT'S AWESOME!!I MEAN GTA SAN ANDREAS SET THE WORLD RECORD FOR BEING THE BIGGEST SELLING GAME OF ALL TIME ECLIPSING VICE CITY-{BOY TALK ABOUT OUTDOING YOURSELF}3 CHEERS TO SAM HOUSER FOR ACCOMPLISHING THIS FEAT!!!ROCKSTAR GAMES IS THE BIG DOG THAT RUNS THE YARD WHEN IT COMES TO VIDEOGAMES IN THE MODERN ERA..I WONDER WHAT WILL BE THE NEXT IN THE SERIES OF THE GRAND THIEF AUTO SERIES??I EVEN HEARD ROUMORS OF A MAX PAYNE 3 COMMING OUT!!!BOY WOULDN'T THAT BE FUN TOO!!!OH WELL GOTTA GO!!!AND TO THE PEOPLE OF ROCKSTAR GAMES I SAY THIS.....ROCKSTAR GAMES IS GOD OF THE VIDEOGAME INDUSTRY!!......

Rating:
Summary: You need a guide for this game...
Review: If you plan on playing all the way through San Andreas and getting 100%, you are in way over your head if you do not get a strategy guide. Even if you are a purist like I am and hate using strategy guides, you are going to get stuck at some point and will need this guide. You will get several maps giving you locations of gang tags, photo ops, horseshoes, weapons, oysters, and all the other stuff you need to get through the game. There are overviews and helpful hints on every mission in the game, including all the extra side missions. Granted, you can probably find all this information and more in on-line strategy guides, but the full-color maps and illustrations are very nice.

Unfortunately, there were some errors in the guide, hence the absence of one star from my score. For example, the numbers for the photo ops on the map do not coincide the numbers on the next page where a description is given of what you need to take a picture of. But the map locations still tell you where you need to go to take pictures. Plus, some of the photo op descriptions appear to have been changed between the making of the guide and release of the game, but again, the general locations are still the same. I understand the same problem occurs with the locations of the horseshoes as well.

These errors aside, the guide has still been helpful and I refer to it often. There are a few other tips I would have liked to see in this guide, such as tips on where to find certain vehicles and a description of the benefits for dating girlfriends (I had to get these from a magazine). But overall, this is a decent guide.

Rating:
Summary: They should have modeled it after the Vice City guide...
Review: In addition to the things others have pointed out -- the inaccuracies in the maps and screenshots -- I find the guide hard to use. For example, the map for all the hidden horseshoes in Las Venturas is about 100 pages away from the screenshots of all the locations. The Vice City guide was a great guide, very high on usability. You'll spend a lot of time flipping back and forth with this one. The typeface is really tiny, and the mission descriptions tend to be very simplistic (at least the VC guide gave you some actual strategy tips; much less so, I think, with this guide).

It's big and slick and pretty to leaf through... but that can't justify its cost. You will find less than 50% of what the game has to offer without it, so you're stuck with buying it. Brady should publish a second edition with corrections, or at least publish online corrected versions of the maps and an errata page.

Rating:
Summary: GTASAfan
Review: OK, if you want 100%, you will probably need to buy this guide. Being somewhat a purist, I waited until I had finished all the missions before I bought it, just for "clean-up". I don't think I would have EVER finished without it. Oysters are a great example, jumps as well.

HUGE GRIPE: There are SO many mistakes in this thing. They must have been on a super-tight deadline, had a fourth-grade class proof it, or both. Body armor that is on the map, but not in the game. Body armor that is in the game but not on the map. Same is true for wanted stars, and I understand photo-ops as well. VERY annoying!!! If they are going to call this the OFFICIAL guide, proof the sob!

It is, however, like a mechanic. Eventually you will need one to get from point A to point B. It also tells you what is, and more importantly, what IS NOT necessary for 100%. example: I spent many hours trying to find all the unique jumps (good luck on your own, you'll need it) only to find out they are not required for 100%.

Brady should be FORCED to issue an ammendment with ALL corrections to everyone who payed way too much for it. My advise? Get one at Target or someplace other than a game store with a minimal markup. I'm out!

Rating:
Summary: Minor inaccuracies hinder this from being a great guide.
Review: The strategy guide to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is useful, despite its inaccuracies on some of the maps. While internet guides are incredibly helpful (and I encourage gamers to use them, by all means), the internet guides are often not at one's fingertips while playing the game, something this guide can make up for.

That is a huge plus. Now, on to the inaccuarate maps I mentioned above. A little research on the Web turned up that the locations of the collection items like horseshoes, photo ops, etc. are not labeled wrong in their placement on the map, but the numbering sequence is out of order.

For example, the screenshots in the guide label photo op #2 as being on top of an airport storage tank north of Foster Valley. The photo op is there, but it is incorrectly labeled as #32 on the San Fierro map, while photo op #2 is labeled on the map as located near Avispa Country Club. In short: The placement is right, the numbers are wrong, and that's why I give this guide four stars.

Apart from those errors, the guide can be a helpful thing to have at your side while playing the game, and it can provide some tips and help one become familiar with the game.

Rating:
Summary: Wrong where it matters most
Review: The whole reason I bought this guide was for the horseshoes,tags,oysters, and photo ops. Well first off I found mistakes in all of the above. The photo ops are completely off 100 %. The horshesoes are all wrong on the map and a couple of the descriptions look like they just photoshopped a picture of a horseshoe onto another picture and made up a spot. If your gonna make a buisness of doing books like these hire someone to double check your info at least. Not to mention the lack of real in depth info on how to really pass any of the side missions. Like someone before me mentioned it almost felt like they just played through the story missions and wrote down what the game already tells you. I just wanna say thank you Brady for wasting my 20 Bucks. Spend it well, I didn't.

Rating:
Summary: bit boring we want Ass Whooping
Review: This book is great if you are going for 100% as it is so hard just strolling the ghetto scoping out for tags and dont get me started on 50 oysters, 50 Photos,50 Horseshoes. I have the guide and find it quite useful but i am constantly distracted and want to chop someones head of or blow up a Crack Dealer

Rating:
Summary: Horrible!!!!
Review: This guide is filled with soo many errors it's ridiculous!
I had a lot of trouble finding all the photo snap shots & horse shoes because they give the wrong description & location of where many of them are suppose to be. And they don't offer much help with any missions......it's pretty much a narrative of what goes on in the missions. You can find more accurate information on the internet.
I'm not gonna buy a Brady Strategy guide ever again.

Rating:
Summary: Helpful but not essential; there's better info online
Review: With a game that's the size and scale of "San Andreas," you need every bit of help you can get. And this guide offers bits of help -- maps, captures, hidden features and, most importantly, an overview of the story and each mission so you'll know what to expect.

Most of the time the guide is great at telling you what you'll be doing... but doesn't offer much advice on how to do it. And, sure, part of playing this game is figuring stuff out for yourself. At the same time, this is a GUIDE and too often when I was repeatedly struggling with a mission, I'd flip to it in the book and get no help at all.

There's a wealth of better material online for 100% less than the guide's considerable cover price (my favorite is: www.bellaonline.com/gaming/w/sanandreas/). However, my computer is two floors above where I game, so... I keep my hard-copy guide by the TV and every so often it helps out.