It was clear during the press campaign leading up to the releases of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas PC and Xbox that the Xbox version was a higher priority for Rockstar. As they said it themselves, there’s an Xbox in every other household while good PCs are few and far between. Why then are we hearing complaints about the quality of the game on the Xbox version and everyone is so pleased with the game’s performance on the PC?
Joystiq wrote a rant about the Xbox version with things that I’ve personally experienced as well: “I’m running, running, running for my life, tearing through a series of backyards and BAM! I smack into an invisible wall. Huh?” It was well known that GTA3 (and VC) looked better on Xbox than even on the PC, but it seems like SA on the Xbox has taken a step back in visuals from the Xbox double-pack (GTAIII and GTA Vice City on Xbox). Joystiq posted a follow-up that seems to indicate that the game seems to start playing better after more hours of gameplay though.
A few days ago a topic appeared on our forums with screenshots of the Xbox version in action. While the screenshots themselves obviously don’t look as good as the promotional screenshots released by Rockstar, they don’t look too amazing either. With the flurry of amazing high-resolution PC screenshots we’ve been treated to lately it’s easy to say we are spoiled, but then again the GTA double pack for the Xbox looked positively stunning.
If you’re a proud Xbox owner and you’ve played San Andreas on the Xbox, go ahead and leave your impressions in our forums topic.