Sorta a snapshot of Rockstar at their most bold and eccentric. In some ways it feels like peak GTA, the 'ultimate Rockstar game' the studio was able to pull off due to the inexpensive tech and development time the PS2 hardware brought. I'm still so fond of this game all these years later. It was the perfect balance between silly and 'hey, this game has a pretty solid story!' to think a GTA game could ever be endearing, but San Andreas really was. It didn't have the cold cynicism of GTA V, or the broody tone of GTA IV. Above all else, the game oozed with charm and character.

Maaaybe Fallout 3 and Skyrim, but as I get older the magic is sorta hard to see. Playing it as a kid was pure magic, I was so lost in that game I've never had that feeling replicated in the years to come with other video games. And I'm not simply talking about its landmass, but its variety in storytelling, atmosphere, content, and RPG-like stats. Even playing it today, it just feels huge. The game was certainly greater than the sum of its parts. It was a game that asked what can't you do, instead of what 'can you do?'. Additionally, it has a production value that's second to none, boasts a faithfulness to '90s source material with an eerie accuracy, and provides more hours of entertainment than all the previous Grand Theft Autos combined. It's larger than the biggest RPG, has more story than the heftiest adventure game, and has almost as many mini-games as Nintendo's Mario Party. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the single best PlayStation 2 title I have ever played. The IGN review from 2004 sums it up perfectly:

Fun things to do in gta san andreas