20 years ago, the capabilities of the PlayStation 2 almost cost GTA San Andreas dearly: Rockstar turned the problem around to create a real hit

Game news 20 years ago, the capabilities of the PlayStation 2 almost cost GTA San Andreas dearly: Rockstar turned the problem around to create a real hit

A desire to break the codes

As soon as it entered 3D, the GTA saga shook up the industry to the point of very quickly becoming one of its most emblematic pillars. The high point of the PS2 era was reached in 2004 with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, one of the most emblematic installments in the history of video games, with ultra-permissive gameplay, a unique atmosphere and a completely crazy playground with no less than three cities to explore freely: Los Santos, San Fierro and Las Venturas.

For once, offering all of this straight away on a single map, which was disproportionate at the time, proved to be extremely ambitious, especially since each one had its own specificities and there were numerous activities to do. in the shoes of the iconic CJ. reality, is that it was a terrible technical headache for Rockstar who, limited by the memory of the PlayStation 2, had initially decided to separate these three cities into as many distinct maps.

A decisive meeting

We therefore owe the anecdote of these last days to Obbe Vermeij, former developer at Rockstar and one of the thinking heads of GTA San Andreas. Onhe spoke about a decisive meeting which radically changed the future of the title, on the occasion of its twentieth anniversary:

The original plan was to place the three cities on separate maps. The player would have traveled between cities by train or plane (GTA 1 and 2 also had three cities on separate maps). Memory was very limited on the PS2 and with separate maps, the models of other cities would not have needed to be loaded into the console’s memory: it would have made it easier to have police cars, etc. different ambulance and fire brigade for each city, as well as different types of weather, etc. It would also have been simpler to contain the player in a specific city until he was allowed to move to the next city. Additionally, it would have been easier to organize the 3D/2D models on the DVD by classifying them city by city for easier streaming.

Just before the artists started working on the three maps, we had a final meeting at Rockstar North where we changed our minds and decided to create one big map. We still ended up including pickup trucks, police cars, and city-specific weather conditions.

Happy birthday San Andreas. You did well.

And indeed, we can only wish happy birthday to one of the rare games that has had such a strong impact on society. Happy birthday, CJ !

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