spots you ignored in las venturas | san andreas world tour
How well do you think you know Grand Theft Auto San Andreas? Because me, I don't know it very well. I only beat this game for the first time last month. But I'm curious about the perspective of the die hard fan. The perspective of someone who played this game to death back in the day. How familiar are you with it? I was genuinely surprised at this game's scale. I've seen a few video game world map comparison videos, and they literally always have San Andreas right next to Skyrim. And sure,
the math or methodology might be off in these videos, but the point is, they're relatively similar in terms of size. That genuinely rattled my brain for a moment. Just intuitively, Skyrim feels like a bigger game. And San Andreas felt so small in my mind. But as you start to play,
you really feel the openness. So many areas to explore and things to discover. Think of how much you never saw. How many details went completely unnoticed as you decided to follow the path ahead of you instead of going off-road.
I'm not gonna show you anything mind-blowing here. I don't proclaim to have discovered some long dormant secret hidden within this game's depths for 20 years. I just wanna show you some details and spots in this game's world that I think are neat. And maybe along the way,
you'll see a thing or two you haven't before. Welcome to Video Game World Tours. Today's tour sees us exploring the northern section of San Andreas, the final part of it to unlock. But before we cross the bridge into new lands, I thought we should take a brief look at a spot I didn't mention during our look at San Fierro. If you fly all the way to the tippy top of the Gant bridge, you'll notice some writing. "There are no easter eggs up here. Go away." And this is definitely not news to a lot of you. I feel like this is one of the
most popular easter eggs in all of video games. But I couldn't not talk about it, it's such a fun spot. The developers are breaking the fourth wall and literally speaking to people like me. People who love to go where we're not supposed to and look for weird little details. I love that meta aspect to it. The level designers probably liked this spot just as much as us.
Huh, we're pretty high up. It's interesting that we can't see THAT far, the atmospheric haze cuts off the horizon pretty close to you. I feel like people don't appreciate a shorter render distance in games these days. I remember seeing screenshots of the definitive edition's incredibly long render distance. Yeah, look at this. This is the same spot in the definitive edition, and look at how far you can see. That's literally Los Santos. In the original game, you can't even see to the other side of San Fierro!
This looks so much better to me, artistically. Earlier, I talked about how big the world feels and part of that feeling is because you can't see it all at once. My eyes are limited to seeing what the game technically renders at any given point, and mentally I kinda perceive it that way too. I don't even imagine Los Santos being in that direction. Or if I do, I imagine it being so
much further than it actually is. My feelings are independent of the actual factual distance in-game. This already pretty big game world feels even bigger when you can't see it all at once. Guess that goes to show that just because you CAN render out the whole map at once doesn't mean you SHOULD. Okay, okay. I promised to talk about the north and we're still in San Fierro. Off we go!!! Genuinely, I don't think I ever crossed this bridge before this video. The main story doesn't bring you to this corner of the map and there's barely any optional stuff to draw you in either. Do you truly know Bayside? I don't.
It feels like a richer town, I'll say that much. Some super nice homes around here. Look at this, what a nice and normal house. Ooh, and this paved path? This feels super comfy. The vibes in this town are off the charts. But I still can't shake the empty vibes. There are no enterable businesses here at all. I wonder if something was planned for this place early in the game's development but it was cut. It has those vibes.
There's a handful of smaller towns in this game like that. Everyone knows the big three. Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas. But do you remember Dillimore? Montgomery? Las Payasadas? I'm sure they all have at least one thing to bring you to the town. Whether it's a business or mission objective. Even Bayside here has a boating school. But the feeling I get driving through these places... it's weird. I guess it's a lot like pass-through towns on highways in real life. You just go by without giving them
a second glance. Or maybe you do for a moment, but then you get back to your main journey. But a lot of time and love went into crafting that town. The houses, the streets, businesses you'd have no reason to stop at. What's that word for the feeling you get realizing everyone around you has a life just as complex and real as your own? Uh...
Sonder! That's it. In real life, people live in those little pass-through towns and everything there is just as real as something in the big city. And in San Andreas here, even though the developers knew you probably wouldn't spend a lot of time in this town, they still put in the effort to make it distinct. They put down all these buildings, decorated the yards, hid some item pickups all over, they created a whole-ass town that the player might not ever see.
So even though there might not be any super interesting spots or details to notice in Bayside here, I kinda just wanna appreciate the fact that it exists at all. Some level designer had to put in the time to create this place. And I think they did a pretty good job. Let's head west to visit our next spot. This is really where you feel the scale of the game. Just driving down a long and
lonesome road with naught but the earth to look at. It's meditative. Rockstar has a pretty good grasp on the fact that empty space can be used to make the dense spaces feel that much more meaningful. All these long roads are kind of an underrated aspect of this game if you ask me. I found this gas station while driving around. There's a lot of gas stations in this game and this one didn't seem any different at first glance. But then I uh... notice anything unusual about it? This ground texture is stretched! I hope someone got fired for that blunder.
Oh man... night time really is beautiful in this region. For some reason, the sky turns purple. I have no idea why, I couldn't even begin to tell you if this is scientifically possible. But artistically? 10/10. Sometimes you just gotta give into those urges and create something that might not be 100% realistic.
Absolutely stunning. I wish I could camp out here for a night and just stare out at the stars. Might not be the BEST idea considering we're in the desert, but hey, I'm allowed a bad idea every now and then. As a treat. The Lil' Probe Inn is a bar OBVIOUSLY based on the ever-so-lovable grays. Considering this region of the map is pretty much Nevada, it's no surprise they'd lean into the whole alien thing. Inside is interesting because this is the only bar with a unique interior in the game. The three other bars that reside in the major cities,
including the one we looked at in the Los Santos video, all share the same interior. But they decided to give this one a special layout. I like it. All these UFO pictures. Man, I'm a sucker for a good blurry flying saucer. I can see why people might think you'd be able to find aliens in this game. You want to believe after coming to this place.
Ooh, a backroom. Lovely. I like the contrast of the cool lighting on this side versus the warm lighting on this side.
Wait, is that a map of this game? Yeah, it seems like it. I think it's different from the final version of the map. Look, this river on the map screen seems to be mountains in this texture. Yeah, according to the wiki this is definitely a pre-release version of the map. It points out
this island in the San Fierro bay. Oh wow, it also points out that bayside isn't on the map. Huh. Kinda hard to tell. Bayside is so small I would have assumed it's just right there. Wait, what are all these dots on the map? Nothing immediately jumps out to me as to what they represent in game. Ooh, maybe it's UFO sightings. That'd be fun. If I was a kid with more time than sense, I'd probably visit all these spots on the map and look for UFOs at night. And while we're on the topic of aliens, I guess I'll briefly mention Area 69. When thinking of areas to talk about in this video,
I remembered the whole interior mission area for the base. You go running through some labs shooting a bunch of bad guys, it'd be so cool to explore it after the fact. But of course, you can't go back in. I've talked about wishing this game let you go back inside mission areas in all three of these San Andreas tours. And I would probably do it in every future video on this game if I kept making them. There's something so alluring to me about a spot that you only get to see once and never again. Like Rockstar put a lot of love
and care into the Area 69 underground. Why not let me go in after the fact? Though maybe it wouldn't be as interesting if I could go back in. Would I even care about this spot if I could just waltz right in? I did say not 4/10ths of a second ago that I find these spots alluring BECAUSE you only get to see them once. Honestly? I think I still would. Being able to see an area in a context different from the one it was created for is inherently interesting to me. What was once a combat arena to fight
through could now be a mysterious government lab to explore. And come on, just let me appreciate the artistry put into these levels by the designers. If I wanted to see this space again, I'd have to start a brand new game and play through like 80% of the story. Thankfully,
later games like Grand Theft Auto 5 let you replay missions. That's how I was able to enter the Lifeinvader building for my tour on the game. But I say, let it all hang out. Keep the world open and free man.
Alas, Rockstar decided to not let it all "hang out". They almost always lock stuff up right after, the prudes. So now Area 69 is just this empty military base. Well, it's not normally empty, I just locked my wanted rating to 0 stars. Here's what it'd be like if I didn't do that. Not as welcoming, y'know?
The thruway on the outskirts of Las Venturas is a warzone. Cars flying through at 200 miles an hour, changing lanes in a picosecond seemingly at random, god save your soul if you crash. I like to drive bikes around, so I'm always falling off. That is practically a death sentence here. The vehicle behind you might come to a nice and polite stop, but to anyone behind them, this thruway is a demolition derby arena. They come speeding in with no intention to brake. Of course, they crash into the car in front, which very likely leads them crashing into you. And at that point, it's a pile up. There's no stopping the lemmings from jumping off this cliff,
they'll keep ramming into a heap of metal as far as the game will spawn in new cars. I love the chaos of spots like this. Funnily enough, I ended my Grand Theft Auto 5 tour talking about the same phenomenon in that game. There's just something so amusing about seeing the relatively normal driving AI freak out like this. I've been doing this ever since i was a kid. I said I didn't play Grand Theft Auto as a kid, that's because I had a gamecube. But I did play a bit of True Crime Streets of LA. And I remember doing the same thing there so many years
ago. I guess this is something deeply embedded in my soul. I just love to watch NPCs lose all reason and drive like maniacs. I will no doubt attempt this in my inevitable Grand Theft Auto 6 tour. I'll definitely include a section about that if it's anything as good as this.
Lets head over to the next spot. My god, driving in the oncoming lane here is stressful. Ow. Think I can cross this without getting hit? CJ is about to go frogger mode. I write these videos before I record footage, so I don't know how I'm gonna do. Hmm... what do you say we make this interesting? If I cross over without getting hit, I'll do tours of Vice City and GTA 4 before GTA 6 comes out. If I get hit, then I'll never do a video on either of those games. High stakes, right? I was kinda looking forward to playing those games and making videos on them, but why not live a little? Risk it for the biscuit, know what I'm saying? Alright...
Here we go! Well that's that I guess. Get subscribed to see those videos when they come out sometime in the foreseeable future. Alright, enough nonsense. The spot we came over here for. Well, maybe a bit of nonsense. I'm breaking out my nitpicking hat again to criticize this game for a MASSIVE flaw that is pretty much game-breaking.
I'm surprised I was able to even beat the game with this oversight existing. Here's this big 'ole chapel. Seems perfectly normal, doesn't it? Nothing out of the ordinary? Yeah... no. We got a problem. There's this rock bed that stretches all alongside the building.
I kinda dig the vibes of it. But then we go to the front door... and there's no path leading through to it. The rock bed just goes right up to the door. Same exact situation on the other side of the building. Though neither side really feels like the front door. It's like a cat-dog thing. Are the church-goers expected to walk through this uneven rocky foundation to get inside? That seems like a tripping hazard. I can't believe the level designers
and textures artists would overlook this, this is truly the worst thing I've ever witnessed. I really hope someone got shot into the sun for THAT blunder. And finally, we arrive at the strip.
This is just... hold on, we can't be here during the day. There we go. This is just weird to me. I hadn't played this game before but I did know some about it. I knew about Los Santos, I knew about Big Smoke ordering food, and ordering CJ to follow the damn train. I
don't think I knew that there was gonna be a Las Vegas inspired-location. Just seeing all the pictures and footage of San Andreas over the years, I thought of Los Santos when I thought of this game. I didn't even consider that a place like this would be in the same world. It was a great choice to include it. It has such a distinct vibe compared to the other two cities. I think Rockstar did a pretty good job at picking 3 distinct cities from
the west coast to include in the game. They each bring something unique to the world. The glitz and glamor here is unlike anything you'll find in Los Santos or San Fierro. This is a place to finally spend all that money you've been accumulating and maybe build up an even bigger fortune if you're lucky. Arriving to this major city last,
it feels like the culmination of CJ's journey so far. He owns a bunch of businesses now, is involved in the casino game, and probably has houses all over the state. He's definitely grown past the grove. And you feel like you have too. From humble beginnings, y'know? Let's visit Caligula's casino and get a taste of the high life. Look, I'mma keep it a buck twenty-two, I didn't finish the casino heist questline. I got caught up in the main story and just wanted to finish the game.
But it's a pretty safe guess that the heist would bring you inside. They did go all out for the games in here. Blackjack, roulette, video poker, slot machines. This is a gambler's paradise. But I don't wanna spend all day gambling. Well I do, but I'll do that in my own time. I wanna show YOU the backrooms in the southwestern side of the building. On the side of the... is this the cage? I know some casino terminology,
I think that's right. On the side of the cage here, there's an open door. That doesn't seem very secure. You'd think of all the doors a casino would like to keep shut, this would be pretty high up on the list. Through it and down some stairs leads you to some relatively unassuming rooms. There's a vent with the grate off. I bet you're supposed to throw a
smoke grenade in here or something. I know Rockstar mission design too well. Through here is a nice little office space. So cute. Definitely very 70s. Aww man, a locked door. And you can see stuff on the other side, so you definitely go through there during the heist. Alas, I will never see it. Those of you who have done the heist, I'll give you a moment to appreciate that you know more than me.
Some stairs leading even deeper. What could be lying at the end of all this...? That's uh... is that the vault? Did I really just meander my way into this casino's vault? Guess so.
Oh man, I covered a bank vault in my Grand Theft Auto 5 tour too, didn't I? It seems like I drift towards similar things in these games. What can I say, I love vaults and 83 car pile ups. Let's head back outside. Oh, I wanna stop at the pirate ship here real quick. This is fun. I bet the 3d
artists appreciated being able to make something like this instead of doing buildings all day. A katana pickup. It's not quite a cutlass, but it gets the message across. A bit of reflection before we visit my favorite spot in all of San Andreas. I gotta say, despite never getting into this game as a kid, it still feels like home to me. Even if I didn't play it a bunch, I can very easily put myself in the mind of a kid who did. I'd describe it as second-hand nostalgia. I can see the little bits of this game that I would have latched onto as a youngling and really sunk my teeth into.
And the world would most definitely be one of those. There is just so much to discover. So many weird little spots to come across. This feels like the perfect game for my Video Game World Tour series here. And with this being my 100th video, I feel like I couldn't have picked a better game to cover. It was so much fun to not only play through this game, but
go back and really go through with a fine-tooth comb, looking for bizarre spots that stand out. Unfortunately, I can only include so many. I could make a dozen videos on this game and I still wouldn't have talked about all the interesting spots. And that's saying nothing of the spots so uninteresting they wrap around to being interesting. And there is perhaps no place as uninteresting as the Tierra Robada Research Lab.
This is my trump card at potentially showing you something you've never seen before. Or at least showing you something you've never paid attention to before. This place has nothing going on. Not like Bayside where that town technically had a boating school, this has literally... nothing. No story mission brings you here, there's no item pickup to find, no collectable, no cars to steal, no stunt jumps to make, no... anything. I say it's a research lab, but you wouldn't know that from the exterior. There's not even a sign that says what the building is! The only way
we know it's a research lab is because of the building's model name in the code. This is why I love this game. I love a spot that makes absolutely no sense. This building doesn't exist for the player. And considering you never see a pedestrian or car around here, it seems to not exist for anyone in-world either! It exists only for itself. And I think that's beautiful.
Thanks for watching.
2024-07-28 01:49
