"GTA:San Andreas'" is in many ways a much better game than "Vice City," but it starts out much less approachable. You WON"T get "San Andreas" at first, because the build-up takes a while. GTA:VC, in comparison, is much brighter and more approachable.

"San Andreas" starts off with a bicycling mission... it isn't very fun. The feel of GTA:SA is much grittier and more realistic than the "Miami Vice" influenced GTA:VC, and at first this put me off. As I got into the game, though, the plot unfolded, I became more comfortable with the controls, and the missions and plot became more intriguing.

I noticed that you seem to be enamored with the "sandbox" approach of these games, but I think it's a mistake to think that the primary appeal of the GTA games is the "sandbox" concept. The sandbox adds to the appeal, of course, but I think the PRIMARY appeal of the games is in the missions, developing plot, and characters. After all, if GTA:IV was merely a new, improved sandbox, I doubt that it would have had the biggest game launch in history, outperforming movie box-office!

GTA:VC was more approachable to me because of the "1980's" setting, with bright colors and 80's music on the in-game radio. GTA:SA has a "1990's" setting, and has a more subdued color palette, and the radio stations are rife with 90's rap and rock. Hey, I liked 90's rap (believe it or not, even the "gangsta" stuff), but 90's rock leaves me cold, so other than the funny DJ's on these stations, there's little appeal to me (except for the "talk radio" stations and commercials).

Another thing about GTA:SA that adds to the mission-based gameplay: at least 2/3rds of the world/map is inaccessible without completing the first dozen-or-so missions! GTA:SA forces you to complete the missions before progressing in the game and seeing the whole world (like pretty much any other large-scale game).

I suspect that you're not going to "get" GTA:SA without spending a lot of hours playing it (I didn't). I had the game in my collection for about a year myself before I finally started really playing it, and then I got into it (for a while). In fact, I'd have probably played it more if my computer didn't slow to a crawl after installing a "Creative X-Fi" sound card, making GTA (or pretty much any 3D game) unplayable until I pull the card out and reinstall Windows (which I will do eventually if I stop spending all my free time posting messages).

Summary: GTA:VC and GTA:SA are more than sandbox games, they are shockingly amoral (or anti-moral) mission-based games. The physics, active city, and largely non-linear gameplay are icing on the cake, but the heart of these games is in the plot and missions.

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