Well I've been playing the hell out of GTA4 on PC, and San Andreas on X-Box, often at the same time, and I can't help but pick SA as my favorite, and indeed Rockstar's flagship title.
The defining difference is activities to do after the storyline is over. GTA4 offers very little of this. Finding pigeons, jumps, the car stealing jobs, assassinations etc.
Now let's get one thing straight - I fucking love crime for money, it's that GTA4 has very little of it. I think nine assassination jobs, 36-something cars and bam, you're done.
Finding the pigeons is a boring, mindless chore, but it's still a giggle when they explode from a point-blank shotgun blast. And the jumps - hooboy. Some are ruthlessly difficult to do, some aren't even 'jumps'. The SA ones were more fun. Once you launched off them, you got the 500 dollars and credit no matter what, not to mention that getting airborne got you money anywhere.
Sure SA had scavenger hunts, but there seemed to be a point to them. The horseshoes for better luck in the casinos, and the oysters to have women love you.
In GTA4, that's about it. SA had all these, plus other jobs, safehouses to find and purchase (compared to 4's two or three), casinos, and the constant gang war to keep you occupied, and of course, my biggest gripe,
The game world
SA had a massive, massive game world, with varied settings and locals, from the sprawling Los Santos to the huge open plains between the cities. A big place where you could really open your throttle and do incredibly stupid stunts. Liberty City has none of this, just a succession of tightly-populated streets in one huge city. The islands are indeed varied, but not enough to call it anything other than city, more city, and revenge of the city. Six-star police chases are also ruthlessly difficult, while the inbredly stupid police in SA were just fun to mess with, while being just challenging enough to pose a threat as you jet in between them, which brings me to my next point,
Survivability.
If CJ is hit by a car, he goes "OOF" and walks it off. When he's rocketing at mach 4 on a motorcycle and hits something, he's launched off, but again he walks it off.
When Niko is hit by a car at the same speed, he takes a massive chunk of health off, which is a pain in the ass when you have shit to do. And with motorcycle crashes, he doesn't even have to go very fast before an impact launches him into the fucking stratosphere and is killed. And staying on a rocketing motorcycle is, again, much more difficult in the dense city. Speaking of getting killed,
Wasted/Busted
In SA, when you're killed, there's a little scene showing your corpse before you wake up at a hospital and off you go. If you're nailing Katie, you get out for free and don't lose your weapons. Getting Busted is the same if you're dating Barbara.
Niko, however, has the color wash out, slow-mo set in before fading out and appearing at the hospital. He pays a HUGE hospital bill, which from what I can tell is a percentage of your money. My first playthrough had Niko paying $350,000 total hospital fees. Mostly thanks to his total, total inability to operate a seat belt. (What's with that? He puts on a bike helmet but never a car seatbelt?) And getting arrested, Niko again pays huge dollars and loses tens of thousands of dollars of weapons. There's no way around this, the girlfriends instead 'helping' you prevent death/custody. Also,
Weapons
Weapons in SA are cheap, plentiful, and no limit to your ammo supply, and are much more varied to what you like. Niko's guns are expensive, and there's tier1 and tier2 weapons. Melee, pistol, shotgun, SMG, bla bla bla. The rockets are stupidly expensive, leaving me to never actually use them. At least CJ gets a minigun or flamethrower for free at the ranch. For free?
MONEY and income
At time of writing, my Niko has $600,000 from re-loading the last save every time he dies to avoid the fees and being ultra-conservative with expensive weapons. Once you do all the car and killing jobs, your ability to make money suddenly becomes a crisis situation.
CJ has exactly $168,486,065 from roulette tables, while carrying hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammo, every safehouse full of expensive, pimped-out cars and expensive clothes. Making enormous amounts of money and spending it irresponsibly in SA is fun and easy. Oh shit, cars and clothes.
Customization
Niko has three clothes stores to pick from with a laughable variety, and one of the stores does nothing but make him look like Bernie's playdate, which is strange considering his face is a permanent scowl (which by the way I am sick of looking at), can't change his hair or even supe-up his cars. (side-note: Niko can own and save a maximum of eight cars around the city. CJ can hold maybe 100ish) With GTA4's graphics, custom cars would look and sound fantastic, yet aside from PayNSpray, you're shit out of luck.
Why is this gone from GTA4 yet featured so prominently and with as much detail and options in SA? CJ could be a morbidly obese man spending the entire game in his underpants with a pink afro for all the player cares, and who hasn't thought of doing that?
Character
Niko is a whiny, angsty **** who never shuts the fuck up about his own problems. Jesus Christ.
CJ is more... sorry, is actually a three-dimensional character driven by different motivations for different circumstances. Not just "I MUZT FIND THIS MAN AND KEEL HIM" that Niko never, ever stops saying.
Finally,
What GTA4 has that I wish SA had
- horns on boats
- doing things with friends
The defining difference is activities to do after the storyline is over. GTA4 offers very little of this. Finding pigeons, jumps, the car stealing jobs, assassinations etc.
Now let's get one thing straight - I fucking love crime for money, it's that GTA4 has very little of it. I think nine assassination jobs, 36-something cars and bam, you're done.
Finding the pigeons is a boring, mindless chore, but it's still a giggle when they explode from a point-blank shotgun blast. And the jumps - hooboy. Some are ruthlessly difficult to do, some aren't even 'jumps'. The SA ones were more fun. Once you launched off them, you got the 500 dollars and credit no matter what, not to mention that getting airborne got you money anywhere.
Sure SA had scavenger hunts, but there seemed to be a point to them. The horseshoes for better luck in the casinos, and the oysters to have women love you.
In GTA4, that's about it. SA had all these, plus other jobs, safehouses to find and purchase (compared to 4's two or three), casinos, and the constant gang war to keep you occupied, and of course, my biggest gripe,
The game world
SA had a massive, massive game world, with varied settings and locals, from the sprawling Los Santos to the huge open plains between the cities. A big place where you could really open your throttle and do incredibly stupid stunts. Liberty City has none of this, just a succession of tightly-populated streets in one huge city. The islands are indeed varied, but not enough to call it anything other than city, more city, and revenge of the city. Six-star police chases are also ruthlessly difficult, while the inbredly stupid police in SA were just fun to mess with, while being just challenging enough to pose a threat as you jet in between them, which brings me to my next point,
Survivability.
If CJ is hit by a car, he goes "OOF" and walks it off. When he's rocketing at mach 4 on a motorcycle and hits something, he's launched off, but again he walks it off.
When Niko is hit by a car at the same speed, he takes a massive chunk of health off, which is a pain in the ass when you have shit to do. And with motorcycle crashes, he doesn't even have to go very fast before an impact launches him into the fucking stratosphere and is killed. And staying on a rocketing motorcycle is, again, much more difficult in the dense city. Speaking of getting killed,
Wasted/Busted
In SA, when you're killed, there's a little scene showing your corpse before you wake up at a hospital and off you go. If you're nailing Katie, you get out for free and don't lose your weapons. Getting Busted is the same if you're dating Barbara.
Niko, however, has the color wash out, slow-mo set in before fading out and appearing at the hospital. He pays a HUGE hospital bill, which from what I can tell is a percentage of your money. My first playthrough had Niko paying $350,000 total hospital fees. Mostly thanks to his total, total inability to operate a seat belt. (What's with that? He puts on a bike helmet but never a car seatbelt?) And getting arrested, Niko again pays huge dollars and loses tens of thousands of dollars of weapons. There's no way around this, the girlfriends instead 'helping' you prevent death/custody. Also,
Weapons
Weapons in SA are cheap, plentiful, and no limit to your ammo supply, and are much more varied to what you like. Niko's guns are expensive, and there's tier1 and tier2 weapons. Melee, pistol, shotgun, SMG, bla bla bla. The rockets are stupidly expensive, leaving me to never actually use them. At least CJ gets a minigun or flamethrower for free at the ranch. For free?
MONEY and income
At time of writing, my Niko has $600,000 from re-loading the last save every time he dies to avoid the fees and being ultra-conservative with expensive weapons. Once you do all the car and killing jobs, your ability to make money suddenly becomes a crisis situation.
CJ has exactly $168,486,065 from roulette tables, while carrying hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammo, every safehouse full of expensive, pimped-out cars and expensive clothes. Making enormous amounts of money and spending it irresponsibly in SA is fun and easy. Oh shit, cars and clothes.
Customization
Niko has three clothes stores to pick from with a laughable variety, and one of the stores does nothing but make him look like Bernie's playdate, which is strange considering his face is a permanent scowl (which by the way I am sick of looking at), can't change his hair or even supe-up his cars. (side-note: Niko can own and save a maximum of eight cars around the city. CJ can hold maybe 100ish) With GTA4's graphics, custom cars would look and sound fantastic, yet aside from PayNSpray, you're shit out of luck.
Why is this gone from GTA4 yet featured so prominently and with as much detail and options in SA? CJ could be a morbidly obese man spending the entire game in his underpants with a pink afro for all the player cares, and who hasn't thought of doing that?
Character
Niko is a whiny, angsty **** who never shuts the fuck up about his own problems. Jesus Christ.
CJ is more... sorry, is actually a three-dimensional character driven by different motivations for different circumstances. Not just "I MUZT FIND THIS MAN AND KEEL HIM" that Niko never, ever stops saying.
Finally,
What GTA4 has that I wish SA had
- horns on boats
- doing things with friends
