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** Blink and you'll miss it: During the convenience store/tanker robbery with Catalina, the convenience store's bulletproof outer glass has a logo in the corner that says [[MaxPayne Max Pane]]. You can see it most clearly just at the end of the mission's opening cutscene.
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** Blink and you'll miss it: During the convenience store/tanker robbery with Catalina, the convenience store's bulletproof outer glass has a logo in the corner that says [[MaxPayne [[VideoGame/MaxPayne Max Pane]]. You can see it most clearly just at the end of the mission's opening cutscene.
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* {{MIB}}: [[spoiler:Toreno]] has the vibe. Definitely the "people" on the mysterious plane that shows up at your airfield.
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* {{MIB}}: TheMenInBlack: [[spoiler:Toreno]] has the vibe. Definitely the "people" on the mysterious plane that shows up at your airfield.
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Actors are not tropes.
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* SamuelLJackson: Voice of Frank Tenpenny, the BigBad.
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* [=~This Is For Emphasis, Bitch!~=]
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* [=~This Is For Emphasis, Bitch!~=]ThisIsForEmphasisBitch
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''San Andreas'''s reception was like pretty much every other 3D ''Grand Ttheft Auto'' game. In other words, it was received with a hell of a lot of love from gamers. While not without [[RatedMForMoney controversy]] (the HotCoffeeMinigame scandal was especially idiotic), it enjoyed overwhelmingly positive reviews by critics and fans alike, and has made millions in sales. Even after the release of ''GrandTheftAutoIV'', many fans still consider ''San Andreas'' to be their favorite game in the series. One reason for this is because of its absolutely huge sandbox area -- three full cities and numerous towns and countryside areas, as opposed to the other ''Grand Theft Auto'' games which were positively claustrophobic by comparison. Even as the games moved into the next-generation consoles, allowing greater realism in how cities are depicted, to date none of the games that followed ''San Andreas'' have equaled the scope and sense of distance offered by this game.
to:
''San Andreas'''s reception was like pretty much every other 3D ''Grand Ttheft Theft Auto'' game. In other words, it was received with a hell of a lot of love from gamers. While not without [[RatedMForMoney controversy]] (the HotCoffeeMinigame scandal was especially idiotic), it enjoyed overwhelmingly positive reviews by critics and fans alike, and has made millions in sales. Even after the release of ''GrandTheftAutoIV'', many fans still consider ''San Andreas'' to be their favorite game in the series. One reason for this is because of its absolutely huge sandbox area -- three full cities and numerous towns and countryside areas, as opposed to the other ''Grand Theft Auto'' games which were positively claustrophobic by comparison. Even as the games moved into the next-generation consoles, allowing greater realism in how cities are depicted, to date none of the games that followed ''San Andreas'' have equaled the scope and sense of distance offered by this game.
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** Also true of certain jokes, for example Helena Wankstein's name being a reference to the British insult "wank stain".
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** Also true of certain jokes, for example Helena Wankstein's name being a reference to the British insult "wank stain".stain" and the asset "Wang Cars" being a semi-homophone of "wankers".
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** Also true of certain jokes, for example Helena Wankstein's name being a reference to the British insult "wank stain".
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** One of the radio ad parodies spoofs ''HarryPotter'', even though the first book wasn't published until 1997.
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** One of the radio ad parodies spoofs ''HarryPotter'', even though the first book wasn't published until 1997.1997...in ''Europe''.
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The original ''GrandTheftAuto'' had three cities: Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas. For their third game Rockstar expanded the last one into an entire state. San Andreas is a FictionalCounterpart for California, with some elements from Nevada. It has three major cities: [[LosAngeles Los Santos]], [[SanFrancisco San Fierro]], and [[VivaLasVegas Las Venturas]]. It also has nearly a dozen small towns, and loads of land in between them.
The game puts you in the shoes of Carl Johnson, a good guy, [[AntiHero relatively speaking]], which is a first for the series. Carl is a gangster who left the city of Los Santos, San Andreas after his brother was killed, but is returning home after a five-year stint in Liberty City to bury his murdered mother.
Shortly after arriving, [[DirtyCop corrupt cops]] Frank Tenpenny (SamuelLJackson!) and Eddie Pulaski (the late [[ReservoirDogs Chris Penn]]) pick him up and force him to work for them. If CJ refuses he will get framed for cop killing, a killing for which these cops themselves are responsible, as the unlucky officer was going to expose them. But that's just part of it. CJ gets thrown around a twisted world of crime all over San Andreas with many twists, betrayals and surprises, as well as unexpected cameos from quite a few familiar faces.
San Andreas's reception was like pretty much every other 3D ''GTA'' game. In other words it was received with a hell of a lot of love from gamers. While not without [[RatedMForMoney controversy]] (the HotCoffeeMinigame scandal was especially idiotic), it enjoyed overwhelmingly positive reviews by critics and the public alike, and has made millions in sales. Even after the release of ''GrandTheftAutoIV'', many fans still point to San Andreas as their favorite. One reason for this is because of its absolutely huge "sandbox" area -- three full cities and numerous towns and countryside areas, as opposed to the other GTA games which were positively claustrophobic by comparison. Even as the games moved into the next-generation consoles, allowing greater realism in how cities are depicted, to date none of the games that followed San Andreas have equaled the scope and sense of distance offered by this game.
Fans of the game may want to check out [[http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/GTASA/index.html this Let's Play told almost entirely from CJ's perspective]], which fleshes out the story and fills in some plot holes.
Rockstar announced that ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' will once again be set in San Andreas, though it's likely to be as different from this game as Liberty City is between ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' and ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV''. (A followup announcement, and the game's official trailer, has confirmed that the game will only be set in Los Santos and will not be a state-wide affair.)
The game puts you in the shoes of Carl Johnson, a good guy, [[AntiHero relatively speaking]], which is a first for the series. Carl is a gangster who left the city of Los Santos, San Andreas after his brother was killed, but is returning home after a five-year stint in Liberty City to bury his murdered mother.
Shortly after arriving, [[DirtyCop corrupt cops]] Frank Tenpenny (SamuelLJackson!) and Eddie Pulaski (the late [[ReservoirDogs Chris Penn]]) pick him up and force him to work for them. If CJ refuses he will get framed for cop killing, a killing for which these cops themselves are responsible, as the unlucky officer was going to expose them. But that's just part of it. CJ gets thrown around a twisted world of crime all over San Andreas with many twists, betrayals and surprises, as well as unexpected cameos from quite a few familiar faces.
San Andreas's reception was like pretty much every other 3D ''GTA'' game. In other words it was received with a hell of a lot of love from gamers. While not without [[RatedMForMoney controversy]] (the HotCoffeeMinigame scandal was especially idiotic), it enjoyed overwhelmingly positive reviews by critics and the public alike, and has made millions in sales. Even after the release of ''GrandTheftAutoIV'', many fans still point to San Andreas as their favorite. One reason for this is because of its absolutely huge "sandbox" area -- three full cities and numerous towns and countryside areas, as opposed to the other GTA games which were positively claustrophobic by comparison. Even as the games moved into the next-generation consoles, allowing greater realism in how cities are depicted, to date none of the games that followed San Andreas have equaled the scope and sense of distance offered by this game.
Fans of the game may want to check out [[http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/GTASA/index.html this Let's Play told almost entirely from CJ's perspective]], which fleshes out the story and fills in some plot holes.
Rockstar announced that ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' will once again be set in San Andreas, though it's likely to be as different from this game as Liberty City is between ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' and ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV''. (A followup announcement, and the game's official trailer, has confirmed that the game will only be set in Los Santos and will not be a state-wide affair.)
to:
The original ''GrandTheftAuto'' had three cities: Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas. For their third game game, Rockstar expanded the last one into an entire state. San Andreas is a FictionalCounterpart for California, with some elements from Nevada. It has three major cities: [[LosAngeles Los Santos]], [[SanFrancisco San Fierro]], and [[VivaLasVegas Las Venturas]]. It also has nearly a dozen small towns, and loads of land in between them.
The game putsyou the player in the shoes of Carl "CJ" Johnson, a good guy, [[AntiHero relatively speaking]], which is a first for the series. Carl CJ is a gangster who left the city of Los Santos, San Andreas after his brother was killed, but is returning home after a five-year stint in Liberty City to bury his murdered mother.
Shortly after arriving, [[DirtyCop corrupt cops]] Frank Tenpenny(SamuelLJackson!) (SamuelLJackson) and Eddie Pulaski (the late [[ReservoirDogs Chris Penn]]) pick him up and force him to work for them. If CJ refuses refuses, he will get framed for cop killing, a killing for which these cops themselves are responsible, as the unlucky officer was going to expose them. But that's just part of it. CJ gets thrown around a twisted world of crime all over San Andreas with many twists, betrayals and surprises, as well as unexpected cameos from quite a few familiar faces.
San Andreas's ''San Andreas'''s reception was like pretty much every other 3D ''GTA'' ''Grand Ttheft Auto'' game. In other words words, it was received with a hell of a lot of love from gamers. While not without [[RatedMForMoney controversy]] (the HotCoffeeMinigame scandal was especially idiotic), it enjoyed overwhelmingly positive reviews by critics and the public fans alike, and has made millions in sales. Even after the release of ''GrandTheftAutoIV'', many fans still point consider ''San Andreas'' to San Andreas as be their favorite. favorite game in the series. One reason for this is because of its absolutely huge "sandbox" sandbox area -- three full cities and numerous towns and countryside areas, as opposed to the other GTA ''Grand Theft Auto'' games which were positively claustrophobic by comparison. Even as the games moved into the next-generation consoles, allowing greater realism in how cities are depicted, to date none of the games that followed San Andreas ''San Andreas'' have equaled the scope and sense of distance offered by this game.
Fans of the game may want to check out [[http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/GTASA/index.html this Let's Play told almost entirely from CJ's perspective]], which fleshes out the story and fills in someplot holes.
plotholes.
Rockstar announced that ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' will once again be set in San Andreas, though it's likely to be as different from this game as Liberty City is between ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' and''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV''. (A ''Grand Theft Auto IV'' (a followup announcement, and the game's official trailer, has confirmed that the game will only be set in Los Santos and will not be a state-wide affair.)statewide affair).
The game puts
Shortly after arriving, [[DirtyCop corrupt cops]] Frank Tenpenny
Fans of the game may want to check out [[http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/GTASA/index.html this Let's Play told almost entirely from CJ's perspective]], which fleshes out the story and fills in some
Rockstar announced that ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' will once again be set in San Andreas, though it's likely to be as different from this game as Liberty City is between ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' and
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* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: As much shit as Sweet gives CJ, he still shows that he loves his brother dearly.
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*** Which in turn was an almost exact copy design-wise of the [[http://www.creativecrash.com/system/photos/000/128/324/128324/big/ford_gt40_classic_1.jpg?1297357986 Ford GT40]], but undoubtedly chosen with the new car's release.
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* SimultaneousWarningAndAction: The San Fierro Police are trained social workers. That means they try to "Open a constructive dialog" while beating Carl with their nightsticks.
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* StandBackHello: The San Fierro Police are trained social workers. That means they try to "Open a constructive dialog" while beating Carl with their nightsticks.
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* HufflepuffHouse: Varrios Los Aztecas. Their leader, Caesar, could be considered TheAragorn.
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* HufflepuffHouse: Varrios Los Aztecas. Their leader, Caesar, could be considered TheAragorn.a SupportingLeader.
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game detail added.
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* SomeDexterityRequired: A staple of the GTA series, some missions are made difficult NOT by actually being hard but by forcing the player to use cars with inferior to awful handling. Case in point: Race across San Fierro would be MUCH easier if the car didn't fishtail every time you tried to turn.
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* SomeDexterityRequired: A staple of the GTA series, some missions are made difficult NOT by actually being hard but by forcing the player to use cars with inferior to awful handling. Case in point: Race across San Fierro would be MUCH easier if the car didn't fishtail every time you tried to turn. Same goes for the 8-track stadium car racing.
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* HeroicSociopath: Catalina is also a quintessential HeroicSociopath (this could be argued for almost every protagonist in the game, though).
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* ChunkySalsaRule: Medics from the ambulances can often revive dead people, unless their heads have been blown off
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* LetTheBossWin: Woozie's men constantly do this whenever they play games with him. Ironically, Woozie seems like an nice enough guy - especially to his men, with whom he is very loyal - such that it's likely he wouldn't go BadBoss on them if he did lose once in a while.
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** Also, "Los Flores", the correct form being "Las Flores".
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** In one parking garage, you can take what appears to be Kaneda's bike from ''{{Akira}}''.
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* GameplayAndStorySegregation: CJ is not a nice man, but in the cutscenes at least he's more of an AntiHero who cares about his family and his neighborhood and [[EvenEvilHasStandards will not cross some moral lines.]] None of this prevents you from beating old women to death with a baseball bat or going on a Grove Street killing spree in the actual game.
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* GameplayAndStorySegregation: CJ is not a nice man, but in the cutscenes at least he's more of an AntiHero who cares about his family and his neighborhood and [[EvenEvilHasStandards will not cross some moral lines.]] None of this prevents you from from...say, beating old women to death with a baseball bat or going on a Grove Street killing spree in the actual game.just for kicks. Nor will anyone treat CJ differently for doing such things.
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* GameplayAndStorySegregation: CJ is not a nice man, but in the cutscenes at least he's more of an AntiHero who cares about his family and his neighborhood and [[EvenEvilHasStandards will not cross some moral lines.]] None of this prevents you from beating old women to death with a baseball bat or going on a Grove Street killing spree in the actual game.
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Rockstar announced that ''GrandTheftAutoV'' will once again be set in San Andreas, though it's likely to be as different from this game as Liberty City is between ''GrandTheftAutoIII'' and ''GrandTheftAutoIV''. (A followup announcement, and the game's official trailer, has confirmed that the game will only be set in Los Santos and will not be a state-wide affair.)
to:
Rockstar announced that ''GrandTheftAutoV'' ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' will once again be set in San Andreas, though it's likely to be as different from this game as Liberty City is between ''GrandTheftAutoIII'' ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' and ''GrandTheftAutoIV''.''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV''. (A followup announcement, and the game's official trailer, has confirmed that the game will only be set in Los Santos and will not be a state-wide affair.)
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* DeadFootLeadfoot: Almost always averted when you shoot a civilian dead while he or she is still in a car; this is par course for all ''GrandTheftAutoIII''-era games. However, shoot a cop chasing you in his squad car, and a glitch may occur, causing his lifeless/headless body to continue giving chase until you pull it out and jack the car.
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* DeadFootLeadfoot: Almost always averted when you shoot a civilian dead while he or she is still in a car; this is par course for all ''GrandTheftAutoIII''-era ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII''-era games. However, shoot a cop chasing you in his squad car, and a glitch may occur, causing his lifeless/headless body to continue giving chase until you pull it out and jack the car.
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* PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo ([[{{Prequel}} Sort Of]]): The [[SilentProtagonist quiet player character]] from GrandTheftAutoIII (Claude) makes a cameo as the new boyfriend of CJ's ex-girlfriend, Catalina. CJ refers to him as "[[LampshadeHanging that mute asshole]]".
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* PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo ([[{{Prequel}} Sort Of]]): The [[SilentProtagonist quiet player character]] from GrandTheftAutoIII VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII (Claude) makes a cameo as the new boyfriend of CJ's ex-girlfriend, Catalina. CJ refers to him as "[[LampshadeHanging that mute asshole]]".
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Not relevant to the trope
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* BuriedAlive: The mission "Deconstruction," a conga line of DisproportionateRetribution, ends with pushing the foreman, who is hiding in a porta-potty, into a hole - and then filling the hole with cement. [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel Don't think about it too hard]].
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* BuriedAlive: The mission "Deconstruction," a conga line of DisproportionateRetribution, ends with pushing the foreman, who is hiding in a porta-potty, into a hole - and then filling the hole with cement. [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel Don't think about it too hard]].
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That\'s trying to apply a fridge trope here, but using another trope, which is \'\'still subjective anyway\'\'. We have Fridge pages, and WMG pages if you want to take that up.
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** [[NightmareRetardant Fortunately]], the weight of all the wet cement would likely have crushed him and the potty before he had too much of a chance to suffer. Still, a truly gruesome death.
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** [[NightmareFuelRetardant Fortunately]], the weight of all the wet cement would likely have crushed him and the potty before he had too much of a chance to suffer. Still, a truly gruesome death.
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** [[NightmareFuelRetardant [[NightmareRetardant Fortunately]], the weight of all the wet cement would likely have crushed him and the potty before he had too much of a chance to suffer. Still, a truly gruesome death.
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** [[NightmareFuelRetardant Fortunately]], the weight of all the wet cement would likely have crushed him and the potty before he had too much of a chance to suffer. Still, a truly gruesome death.
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* SomeDexterityRequired: A staple of the GTA series, some missions are made difficult NOT by actually being hard but by forcing the player to use cars with inferior to awful handling. Case in point: Race across San Fierro would be MUCH easier if the car didn't fishtail every time you tried to turn.
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[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/grand_theft_auto_san_andreas.jpg]]
->''"After five years on the east coast, [[ProdigalHero it was time to go home.]]"''
The original ''GrandTheftAuto'' had three cities: Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas. For their third game Rockstar expanded the last one into an entire state. San Andreas is a FictionalCounterpart for California, with some elements from Nevada. It has three major cities: [[LosAngeles Los Santos]], [[SanFrancisco San Fierro]], and [[VivaLasVegas Las Venturas]]. It also has nearly a dozen small towns, and loads of land in between them.
The game puts you in the shoes of Carl Johnson, a good guy, [[AntiHero relatively speaking]], which is a first for the series. Carl is a gangster who left the city of Los Santos, San Andreas after his brother was killed, but is returning home after a five-year stint in Liberty City to bury his murdered mother.
Shortly after arriving, [[DirtyCop corrupt cops]] Frank Tenpenny (SamuelLJackson!) and Eddie Pulaski (the late [[ReservoirDogs Chris Penn]]) pick him up and force him to work for them. If CJ refuses he will get framed for cop killing, a killing for which these cops themselves are responsible, as the unlucky officer was going to expose them. But that's just part of it. CJ gets thrown around a twisted world of crime all over San Andreas with many twists, betrayals and surprises, as well as unexpected cameos from quite a few familiar faces.
San Andreas's reception was like pretty much every other 3D ''GTA'' game. In other words it was received with a hell of a lot of love from gamers. While not without [[RatedMForMoney controversy]] (the HotCoffeeMinigame scandal was especially idiotic), it enjoyed overwhelmingly positive reviews by critics and the public alike, and has made millions in sales. Even after the release of ''GrandTheftAutoIV'', many fans still point to San Andreas as their favorite. One reason for this is because of its absolutely huge "sandbox" area -- three full cities and numerous towns and countryside areas, as opposed to the other GTA games which were positively claustrophobic by comparison. Even as the games moved into the next-generation consoles, allowing greater realism in how cities are depicted, to date none of the games that followed San Andreas have equaled the scope and sense of distance offered by this game.
Fans of the game may want to check out [[http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/GTASA/index.html this Let's Play told almost entirely from CJ's perspective]], which fleshes out the story and fills in some plot holes.
Rockstar announced that ''GrandTheftAutoV'' will once again be set in San Andreas, though it's likely to be as different from this game as Liberty City is between ''GrandTheftAutoIII'' and ''GrandTheftAutoIV''. (A followup announcement, and the game's official trailer, has confirmed that the game will only be set in Los Santos and will not be a state-wide affair.)
----
!!Distinct tropes of this game:
* ADateWithRosiePalms: Maccer's addiction to masturbation is the subject of numerous gags.
-->'''Zero:''' No, no, I masturbate quite often, if that's what you're implying...
** One of the "I Say, You Say" segments also includes a masturbation joke.
* AFriendInNeed: Cesar leading CJ to the [[WhamEpisode Wham Mission]] is what solidifies their friendship.
* ActorAllusion: Axl Rose is the DJ of the classic rock station in ''San Andreas''. He mocks the modern/Grunge rock station, which includes his song "Welcome to the Jungle" in the rotation.
** Chris Penn, known for playing Nice Guy Eddie in ReservoirDogs, plays Officer Eddie Pulaski
* AdaptationDistillation: The trio of GTA III games are prequels of the original game and each other, and San Andreas combines the best elements of all the games that came before (large sandbox, gang respect, plethora of vehicles, contrast of gritty working-class environments/glossy upper class estates, not to mention [[SuperDrowningSkills a protagonist that actually knows how to swim]]) to make a thoroughly satisfying game.
* AffablyEvil:
** Mike Toreno, who's a pretty nice guy for a drug-runner [[spoiler:and government agent shoulder-deep in things you Do Not Need To Know About]].
** Same can be said for CJ, who comes off as being a centered, nice guy despite committing rather horrendous acts during the course of the game.
** And also Woozie, the leader of the San Fierro Triad, who despite being a crime boss is depicted as very sympathetic and likable. So much so [[spoiler: one expects Woozie to FaceHeelTurn on CJ, but he never does]].
* AlwaysClose: CJ's escape from [[spoiler: Big Smoke's]] crack palace during the final mission. He barely manages to OutrunTheFireball.
* AnachronismStew: Not overtly, but noticeable in some of the sights and sounds around San Andreas.
** Some of the songs playing on the radio, like "It Was A Good Day" by IceCube are released after 1992, which is when the game takes place.
** Certain cars, especially high-end ones, were based on real-life cars produced long after 1992, such as the [[http://www.grandtheftwiki.com/Bullet Bullet]], which is based on the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_GT 2005 Ford GT]].
** In one mission, Triad boss Ran Fa Li is seen playing a video game with a (wireless!) PlayStation2 controller. Sharp-eyed players can even catch the trademark button colors.
** One of the radio ad parodies spoofs ''HarryPotter'', even though the first book wasn't published until 1997.
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Completing some of the storyline and asset missions gets you some special outfits, which you may need to wear in order to progress through another mission. Also, achieving [[LevelUpAtIntimacy5 100% progress with most of the girlfriends gets you an outfit related to their profession]].
** DressingAsTheEnemy: The ability to dress as a cop returns from ''[[GrandTheftAutoViceCity Vice City]]'', allowing you to enter police stations all over the state, so long as you don't draw your firearms while inside. You gain this ability by getting 100% relationship progress with [[DatingCatwoman Barbara Schternvart, the only female cop in the game]], if not any ''GrandTheftAuto'' game.
* AntiHero: You, the rest of Grove Street [[spoiler:(well, Sweet at least)]], Cesar and Woozie.
* {{Area 51}}: Parodied with Area [[DoubleEntendre 69]], which [[spoiler:CJ breaks into to acquire a {{jetpack}}.]] Trying to enter the area will earn you an instant five-star wanted level, and if you fly over, you will be brought down by SAM sites and Hydra fighter jets.
* ArcWords: Big Smoke - Remember the name.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: During Vertical Bird. Notable for being pretty much the only instance in the game where Mike Toreno is given pause:
-->'''Toreno:''' Once you're on the inside [of the ship], I ''cannot'' help you.
-->'''CJ:''' Well can you help me ''now?''
-->'''Toreno:''' Uh, well, no. Actually, no...
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Due6WWdlsNU&list=FLaaNz2jd5DtlSN4XSJvqjUg&index=1 This moment]]. And it's actually ''the only way to reach the helicopter''. Open the parachute, and you won't be able to land on the roof where that helicopter is.
* AsTheGoodBookSays: Big Smoke often quotes the Bible ("'Man cannot live on bread alone'. I should know, I tried that shit.") but [[HypocriticalHumor he's not exactly a saint.]]
* AwesomeButImpractical: The Hydra: if you try to stafe ground targets with the thrusters pointed downwards. The trio of sluggish response, split attention and proximity to ground clutter ends many joyrides with a boom.
* AxCrazy: Cesar describes his cousin Catalina as "really intense, holmes." As C.J. finds out, "intense" doesn't even ''begin'' to describe her.
* BackToBackBadasses: Sweet and CJ get to do this in a mission near the end of the game, which is essentially a two man army against a horde of Ballas.
* BadAss: When the game starts, CJ is straight busta, but if you're playing right he becomes the baddest man in San Andreas by the end.
* BadExportForYou: Since German politicians are extremely touchy with the subject of violence in video games, the German version of this game had to undergo some censorship. Some of the changes are only visual (people don't get mutilated by headshots anymore, for example), but there are changes that directly affect gameplay as well. Most infuriating is probably the fact that people don't drop money anymore when killed, which effectively robs the player of one source of income.
* BaldOfEvil: Officer Tenpenny has a shaved head. CJ can have his head shaved if the player chooses to do so, making it BaldOfAwesome.
* BeefGate: Initially, CJ is restricted to Los Santos and Red County; there is nothing preventing the player from finding ways to enter the other regions before they are unlocked, but there is a penalty of a four-star wanted level if you do. Specifically, San Fierro, Whetstone and Flint County are inaccessible prior to completing "The Green Sabre" and Tierra Robada, Bone County and Las Venturas cannot be entered before completing "Yay-ka-boom-boom".
* BerserkButton: CJ likes being called a "busta" as much as Woozie likes being made fun of for his blindness. That is to say, not at all. CJ also seems to really hate reckless driving, ironically. And for the love of [[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses Santa Christ]], ''do not mess with his sister.'' So much as [[DisproportionateRetribution catcalling at her can trigger homicidal rage]].
** Ironically, however, this is one of the only GTA games to ''not'' include a "rampage" side-mission in the basic one-player game, though certainly the player is free to make up his own.
* BewareTheNiceOnes:
** Wu Zi Mu, or "Woozie" to his friends, is a laid-back, friendly, unassuming Chinese man who enjoys playing video games, racing cars, and golf. He's also the boss of the Mountain Cloud Boys, a Triad sect. And when he finds his men wiped out by the the Vietnamese Da Nang Boys, he rushes into the fray with a machine pistol and guns down everyone he can find, all the while shouting things like "Your blood will flow like wine!" -- all this despite the fact that he's ''[[HandicappedBadass blind.]]''. [[spoiler: CJ remains on his good side throughout the game, however, and as such is never a target of this himself.]]
** CJ himself is usually a pretty nice guy -- for a gangbanger, though this may have something to do with him moving away from the gang lifestyle in Liberty for five years. But do '''not''' talk bad about his family, especially his sister Kendl. Or his mother. Just ask [[spoiler:Pulaski.]]
* BilingualBonus: A ''very'' subtle one, overlapping with FridgeBrilliance. The leader of the Da Nang Boys gang is referred to as the 'Snakehead'. In several Oriental dialects the word for 'snake head' also happens to be a slang term for a smuggler of refugees. Guess what the gang's main source of income is?
* {{Bizarrchitecture}}: Some of the abandoned desert tourist traps.
* BritishEnglish: On rare occasions the fact the GTA games are actually made by a British company becomes evident. For example, the news radio station includes news reports referencing "the drugs trade"; Americans tend to singularize the word "drug" in that phrase, while the Brits use "drugs" in all uses.
** During an early mission in which CJ has to whack a GSF member who has been snitching to the Ballas, the subtitles advise you to kill the "grass".
* BrokenBridge: At the beginning of the game, the bridges had been damaged by an earthquake. Double subverted in that, although you can swim, boat, or fly across, you will get a four star wanted level for even trying, and you can't do anything at those points anyway.
** You actually can do a few things. The Courrier Missions on both Las Venturas and San Fierro, the NRG-500 Challenge, the Chiliad Challenge, any of the Vehicles Missions, and a few more. Only thing is that you have to do them with a 4-star wanted level.
* BurgerFool: OG Loc's parole officer lined him up for a job at Burger Shot as a "Hygiene Technician" (fancy talk for janitor). His uniform - and that of everyone else who works there - includes an oversized burger hat, which needless to say looks ridiculous. Not to mention the chicken hat that is part of the uniform at Cluckin' Bell.
* BuriedAlive: The mission "Deconstruction," a conga line of DisproportionateRetribution, ends with pushing the foreman, who is hiding in a porta-potty, into a hole - and then filling the hole with cement. [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel Don't think about it too hard]].
* ButThouMust: The first mission requires you to use a bike. If you "acquire" something else, the game ceases to show the people you are meant to follow on your minimap and the Ballas car continues to chase and shoot you no matter where you go.
** There are also many, many occasions in the game where the vehicle you arrive in for a mission will disappear and be replaced by one provided for the mission. A fact worth noting before you take your expensive, tripped out car to meet Woozie or Toreno for their next mission.
** There are also missions where CJ is forced to use a specific weapon, despite others in his inventory. For example, in "Freefall" it doesn't matter if he has a mini-gun, CJ is forced to make do with a dinky 9mm pistol in the shootout. It happens [[ExplosiveDecompression inside a plane,]] though, so keeping the caliber down is somewhat justified if the game runs on [[HollywoodPhysics Vinewood Physics]].
* CastingGag: CJ, voiced by then-aspiring rapper Young Maylay, claims he's not part the rap game during one of [=OG=] Loc's missions.
* CentralTheme: The betrayal and revenge theme found in the first two games is expanded upon. Loyalty to your [[TrueCompanions homies]] drives most, if not all the plot.
* ChainLinkFence: This works surprisingly well, since you can vault fences but it generally doesn't occur to the cops. They can still shoot you, though...
* ChekhovsGun: When CJ asks about his mother's murder, Big Smoke mentions in passing that a Green Sabre was seen at the scene of the shooting. A green Sabre shows up in a later mission [[spoiler:when CJ finds out that Smoke and Ryder are working with C.R.A.S.H. and the Ballas.]]
* TheChick: Kendl, Carl's sister and Cesar's girlfriend [[spoiler:(and later fiancee)]]. She's smart enough to not let herself become a DistressedDamsel, but she does stay on the sidelines.
* CleanUpTheTown: A large part of the story involves CJ and his homies [[spoiler:(Sweet, anyway)]] trying to clean up their crack-ridden 'hood.
* CloudCuckoolander: The Truth is ''weird.'' Mike Toreno can come across like this too, although he's much more balanced than most cuckoolanders.
* ClusterFBomb: This was the first GTA game to have prominent use of the word "fuck" in it, and ''[[SelfDemonstratingArticle fuck]]'', does it get used a lot.
** 365 times counting its variants and not counting random pedestrians/drivers curses and the in-game radio.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: All of the street gangs. The Grove Street Families are green, the Ballas are purple, the Aztecas are aqua, and the Vagos are yellow-orange.
* ConspiracyTheorist: The Truth again. Subverted by Toreno indicating that [[spoiler: many well-known conspiracy theories are, in fact, true.]]
* CrapsackWorld: As any GTA world, though San Andreas more or less plays it for dark humor.
* CriticalExistenceFailure: Played straight with cars, motorcycles, boats and helicopters; you can damage these vehicles as much as you want with no effect on their performance whatsoever, up until the moment they [[EveryCarIsAPinto catastrophically explode]].
** Averted with fixed-wing aircraft; taking damage to the wings or rudder can cause the stabilizer fins to snap off, resulting in a nigh-uncontrollable plane. Also, slamming into a surface at high speed, unlike helicopters, spells certain doom for a plane.
** And vehicles do not handle properly if their tires are damaged. It is common for tires to be shot out, or damaged by spike belts. Several missions become noticeably easier if the player thinks to have CJ shoot out an enemy vehicle's tires before a chase begins.
** Played straight [[PlayerCharacter with CJ]], [[MadeOfIron of course]]. Unless you fall from a [[JumpPhysics great height without a parachute]], that is. And even then, if the paramedic and vigilante side-missions are completed (giving CJ extra health and armor) it's possible for him to survive even these falls.
* CutsceneIncompetence: CJ is constantly pushed around by Tenpenny in their cutscene encounters throughout the game. Might maybe make sense in the beginning, but during the end of the game, after you've taken on Mafia, US Army, secret government agencies, and thousands upon thousands of gangsters of all kinds, and probably a fair share of cops, you can't help but wonder why on Earth CJ would let a single bent cop push him around. There's a cutscene in Las Venturas when Tenpenny punches CJ in the stomach, flooring him. If you have max muscle for that bit, it's just silly.
* DangerTakesABackSeat: T-Bone Mendez pulls a variation of this on CJ, trying to scare him into admitting he's a double agent. It doesn't work.
* DeadFootLeadfoot: Almost always averted when you shoot a civilian dead while he or she is still in a car; this is par course for all ''GrandTheftAutoIII''-era games. However, shoot a cop chasing you in his squad car, and a glitch may occur, causing his lifeless/headless body to continue giving chase until you pull it out and jack the car.
* DeadpanSnarker: The Cluckin' Bell worker clearly doesn't like his job.
-->"If you come again, you're a moron."
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Played for laughs on the news radio station WCTR...
-->'''Leanne''': Staying in Venturas: it used to be a patch of desert, then it was a mob town. Now, it is the corporate headquarters of America. Richard explains from the streets.
-->'''Richard''': That's right, Leanne. It used to be a patch of desert, then it was a mob town. Now, it is the corporate headquarters of America. Back to you in the studio.
* DiscOneNuke: If you go to the Los Santos Airport with a tall car, you can climb on top of the fence and access some nice airplanes, letting you get your flying skill up.
* DirtyCop: Officers Tenpenny and Pulaski.
* DisneyDeath: Mike Toreno appears to die around the time Carl turns on Jizzy, but [[spoiler:later reappears to give you missions]].
* DisposableWoman: Beverly Johnson.
* DisproportionateRetribution: The mission "Deconstruction". This mission appears to disturb a lot of players as it seems out of character for the violent, yet sympathetic CJ, as he buries a guy alive because his crew insulted his sister.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: After Tenpenny plays the gangs against each other, his acquittal set off a city-wide riot. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Los_Angeles_riots The game takes place in 1992.]] Considering that the cities in the GTA universe so obviously replace real ones, and combined with all the real-life based events, this might actually run into AlternateHistory.
* DoggedNiceGuy: CJ doesn't get sex after like the tenth date, he also never asks for it.
** Unless you collect all the oysters during the game in wich case the girls always invite him in for a "coffee".
** Also, if you weat the Gimp suit when meeting Millie, you automatically enter her house.
--> '''CJ''': Here we go again with the kinky shit...
* DonutMessWithACop: Three guesses as to where you receive missions from Pulaski and Tenpenny.
* DrivesLikeCrazy: ''You,'' according to your Grove Street TrueCompanions. Being a ''GrandTheftAuto'' game, this is probably a lampshade hanging.
** Every other AI-controlled vehicle in the game, especially during missions where you need to be someplace within a time limit, or you're transporting goods that can't be damaged, which is when some maniac driver will pick that moment to run into you from behind or run a red light.
* DrugsAreBad: The NeighborhoodFriendlyGangsters ain't down with that shit. CJ comes around to this realization when he sees that even a {{badass}} like Big Bear can be made into a bitch for rock. You can encounter drug dealers through out the game, and they will ask you if you want some rock. Even if you say yes, CJ, in no uncertain terms, tells the guy to take his business elsewhere. Also, each dealer carries $2000 without exception, more money than the vast majority of Los Santos missions provide. In the early chapters, waging your own personal war on drugs is to your extreme advantage.
** ...except when you play the German version of this game, which removes any money dropped by pedestrians.
* DualWielding: If CJ gets his weapon skill up to Hitman with the Pistol, Sawn-Off Shotgun, or Micro-SMG, he can pack one in each hand for double the devastation. You will lose accuracy when doing this, but when RuleOfCool is in full effect like this ''you simply won't care''.
** This also makes the AmmuNation shooting range challenge slightly easier.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: Ok, you've completed all the [[GottaCatchThemAll collectibles]], [[AnEntrepreneurIsYou bought all property]], [[SideQuest completed all side missions]], [[BadassDriver you're a proven master of vehicles both on the land, water and in the air]], the grove street gang's territory is bigger than it has ever been and yet when your brother is freed from jail due to 'your connections with the government' he still treats you like a noob, chewing you out on leaving Los Santos behind again. Sweet's behavior is justified, since he has been in jail all the time without any contact to outside, and he has no way of knowing about your various exploits, or your reasons for leaving. Given this situation, it makes sense for him to react this way. Nevertheless, the sudden shift in mood can be a bit perplexing for the player.
* DumbMuscle: Jizzy specifically refers to CJ as this, repeatedly (apparently the game is assuming you've been working out). He's ''wrong'', but CJ was trying to get on his good side so he could snap at him when the opportunity arose, so whatever.
* DummiedOut: The sex minigame had to be removed in order to avoid an AO rating, but deleting the code for it would've required delaying the game by a few months to fix the girlfriend system. So Rockstar, to meet their release date, simply buried it under layers of code. The result was the Hot Coffee scandal. The "Second Edition" version, however, did get rid of the code. Also, lots of other stuff was coded, but never implemented. A GameMod by Deezire restores a crap ton of content, including cutscene dialogue that fills in so many plot holes you'll wonder why the hell Rockstar never bothered to activate it.
* EasterEgg: So, so many. Including a sign in an exotic location reading: "No Easter Eggs here, go away." Also many audio Easter eggs on the various radio stations.
* ElSpanishO: In one mission, Big Smoke is trying to negotiate with some Mexican gangsters, before he loses his patience and demands, "Cough-io - up el weedo - before I blow your brains out all over the patio!"
* ElvisImpersonator: Several hundred wandering the streets of Las Venturas. And they are played by different ethnicities! The hispanic ones just do ''really'' awful Elvis impersonations, but the black ones would more accurately be called "Little Richard impersonators" and act accordingly. Amusingly, the game keeps track of the number of Elvis impersonators you've killed on the stats screen. Uh huh.
* AnEntrepreneurIsYou: Carl goes from being poor in Ganton with only his late mother's house and the clothes on his back, to building a criminal empire across San Andreas.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Carl and Sweet Johnson, particularly. The death of his mother is why CJ went back in the first place. [[spoiler: Pulaski]] finds out how much CJ loves his mama, the hard way.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: The Grove Street Families, the Varrio Los Aztecas and the Mountain Cloud Boys do bad things, but all of them strongly oppose the sale of hard drugs.
* EyepatchOfPower: You can have CJ wear an eyepatch as soon as you get access to the Binco in Ganton. Having one of his eyes covered up doesn't negatively affect him a bit.
* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Big Smoke and Ryder.]] Subverted in that [[spoiler:[[TheMole they were never faces in the first place]].]] [[spoiler:Arguably, Ryder was, very early in the game. At least he was shooting with you and Sweet. Alternatively, at least he was ''pretending'' to shoot with you and Sweet.]] Perhaps it is a matter of Heel Heelier Turn.
** Averted with several characters (specifically [[spoiler: Toreno, Cesar and Woozie]]) who are depicted as having the potential to betray CJ but who never actually do.
* FatBastard: Big Smoke.
** Also CJ if you have him spend most of his free time at the Cluckin' Bell.
* FakeBand: The Gurning Chimps, although, unlike their predecessor Love Fist, they don't have any songs on in-game radio.
* {{Filth}}: The {{Gayborhood}} has a porn theater showing the rather unimaginative ''Wizard of Ass''.
* FiveBadBand:
** BigBad: Tenpenny
** TheDragon: Pulaski
** EvilGenius: [[spoiler:Ryder]]
** TheBrute: [[spoiler:Big Smoke]]
** SixthRangerTraitor: [[spoiler:Hernandez]]
* FiveManBand:
** Los Santos chapter:
*** TheHero: CJ
*** TheLancer: Sweet
*** TheSmartGuy ([[InformedAttribute or so he thinks]]): Ryder
*** TheBigGuy: Big Smoke
*** TheChick: Kendl
*** TheSixthRanger: Cesar
** San Fierro chapter:
*** TheHero: CJ
*** TheLancer: Cesar
*** TheChick: Kendl
*** TheSmartGuy: Woozie
*** TeamDad: The Truth
*** TheSixthRanger: Jethro and Zero
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: In the "Good afternoon, Balla dope pushers!" cutscene in the early mission "Cleaning The Hood", take a close look at the background. You can actually see a Balla getting some head.
** Computer controlled pedestrians will often stop and carry on non-sequetir-filled conversations reminiscent of Postal 2.
** San Andreas is depicted as a living environment, so while travelling around it's not uncommon for the player to spy police chases, fights, shootings, and general insanity going on completely separate from what the player is doing...
*** ...except for the random plane crashes that occur, usually right on top of where CJ is standing.
* {{Flanderization}}: Catalina is a total adrenaline junkie, unlike in ''GTA III''. Of course, since this is a prequel, one could argue that by the time ''GTA III'' rolls around she's undergone CharacterDevelopment.
* FreudianExcuse: CJ will sometimes mockingly say that he had a bad childhood when killing random people. That and "[[SocietyIsToBlame I blame society]]!"
* FriendshipMoment: Cesar has one with Carl when he shows Carl [[spoiler:that Smoke and Ryder are betraying the Families.]] This is what leads to his {{lancer}} status.
** CJ learning about Wu Zi's [[spoiler:blindness]] also qualifies, as the two become noticeably more buddy-buddy afterward.
* GameBreakingBug: The infamous Madd Dogg glitch. A glitch in a mission where you had to save him from his own suicide attempt by positioning a truck full of hay under him before he could jump off a building would become Unwinnable because he would jump off the building before the cutscene ended. This glitch also made the ''game'' {{Unwinnable}}, and this is compounded by the fact that no one is certain what triggers this glitch; it seems to be completely random. Many suggestions have been made, the most commonly accepted "cause" being that it's caused by cheating extremely often, or using common cheats. This is discredited, since many people who never cheated once the entire game still had the glitch occur, while some that cheated extensively never saw it. One cause is the "pedestrians riot" cheat (which cannot be turned off), causing everyone to become hostile to each other. This mission is affected because Madd Dogg's character attempts to run to the nearest NPC to fight them, and in doing so, runs off the roof and dies. This is made even worse by it being one of the last missions in the game, meaning that if you get this glitch, you're screwed and have to start all over and pray you don't get the glitch again. Though, mercifully, it seems as though it never happens in two new games in a row.
** Also, if you attempt to play basketball in Madd Dogg's mansion, all basketballs on the world map will be deleted from the game, meaning you can't play it again in that particular save. This one is minor, since basketball is not needed for HundredPercentCompletion, but another glitch involving the mansion that you should worry about involves saving there, which corrupts your file.
** There's one in the Woozie mission "Mountain Cloud Boys" (reported to occur in at least the PC and PS2 versions). After you take Woozie around the block to the [[spoiler:ambush]] Triad meeting, once you get out of the car and the cutscene plays, you won't be able to control CJ, the camera, or do ''anything'' except go to the pause menu. Fortunately, you can defuse this one by stopping at the target before Woozie stops talking about the Vietnamese gang, thus preventing the cutscene from running.
* GameMod: Ranging from improved textures to increased draw distance to gameplay changes to, most infamously, the Hot Coffee scandal. To begin with, you can replace CJ with [[{{Touhou}} Marisa Kirisame complete with Master Spark]].
* GameplayRoulette: Done right, since that's part of the fun.
* GangBangers: The Groves, the Ballas and the Varrios Los Aztecas.
* {{Gayborhood}}: The Queens district in San Fierro, based on, of course, the most famous {{Gayborhood}} in the world -- [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Castro,_San_Francisco The Castro, San Francisco]].
* {{Gayngster}}: OG Loc. You first encounter him when he's leaving prison and wants to kill his prison-boyfriend for spreading rumors about their tryst, though of course OG is in complete denial. Instead, you end up killing the boyfriend. OG Loc later does a radio interview where he stresses his macho-ness. Of course, it ''was'' a "prison thing".
* GeoEffects: Vehicles lose grip in the rain, especially on the grass. Aircraft experience wind and turbulence during a storm.
* GhostTown: There are quite a few in the deserts.
* GoKartingWithBowser: Done quite literally. CJ literally kills his way through Madd Dogg's organization so a friend, OG Loc, can jumpstart a music career. Then, in order to restart Madd Dogg's career after he came out of rehab (a move which greatly benefits CJ), he and Madd Dogg chase OG Loc through the streets of Los Santos...on go karts. In order to get a valued rhyme book back. The very same one CJ stole for OG Loc in the first place. M.D. has 'so far' not discovered that CJ was the one to kill his co-workers and leave his mansion filled with bodies.
* GratuitousSpanish: The name of the town El Quebrados is gramatically incorrect - it should be either "El Quebrado" or "Los Quebrados".
* GuideDangIt: One of the most common questions seems to be: "Where do I find this 'Euros' car for the export list?" And rightfully so, since it only spawns in one specific location and only when it is wanted for the export list (and you need to know what it looks like, to boot). Fortunately the exporting of cars is optional for completing the ''storyline'' of the game, but for those playing for the coveted "100% completion" awards, you gotta grin and bear it. Or find a walkthrough.
** In addition, for 100% completion CJ has to locate 70 photo locations, spray 100 gang tags, track down 50 oysters, and 50 horseshoes. The San Andreas map is so huge and complex, and many of these items/jump sites are in hidden locations, that the only practical way to find them all is with a walkthrough or guidebook (although subverted by the BradyGames official strategy guide that gives incorrect locations or unhelpful directions for many of these).
** Oh and there are also 70 hidden unique stunt jumps, too, though these aren't required for 100% completion. Many of these jumps are obvious (why else would a jump ramp be placed in the middle of trailer park?) but some - especially those that require the player to jump off a cliff or some such ([[spoiler: one jump actually requires CJ to launch a car from Red County, hope it flies high and fast enough to cross a bay, and land on the San Fierro Airport tarmac]]) - are not intuitive and need a manual to locate/become aware of.
** And without a guidebook, many players likely complete the storyline portion of the game unaware of things like the hidden courier challenges, the bicycle and motorbike challenges, the mountain biking races, and the two triathlons that are only accessible on certain days of the week! Although also not needed for 100% completion, several of the women available for dating are not located in obvious places, either (one is hidden in a park in San Fierro that CJ is not required to visit for any mission or item pick-up).
* GunsAkimbo: You can dual-wield the standard pistol (although not the Desert Eagle or the silenced version), the sawed-off shotgun, and the two machine-pistols after you max out your skill with each respective weapon.
* HelicopterBlender: The mission "Reuniting the Families" ends with both versions of this trope: a police helicopter tilts forward, threatening to slice up the protagonists' vehicle, and a police officer on the hood of said vehicle ends up minced in the process. Additionally, if you yourself gain control of a helicopter, you can practice this trope on any random passersby you run across, just as you can in any other GTA game with helicopters.
* HeroicFireRescue: CJ has to enter a burning house to rescue a girl. From fire he caused in the first place.
* HeroicSociopath: Catalina is also a quintessential HeroicSociopath (this could be argued for almost every protagonist in the game, though).
* HitSoHardTheCalendarFeltIt: Invoked when a guy called The Truth gets something CJ stole from a government base, he says "They shall call this YearZero".
* HollywoodNerd: Zero. For instance, he quips StarWars during his rooftop defense mission.
* HollywoodSilencer: A silenced 9mm pistol is available and used during some stealth-based missions. It makes the classic ''fwip!'' sound and does not alert moderately distant guards.
* HufflepuffHouse: Varrios Los Aztecas. Their leader, Caesar, could be considered TheAragorn.
* HotCoffeeMinigame: The TropeNamer. The original release of the game had a DummiedOut sex mini-game that played out when dates ended in "coffee". Given the graphics engine, CJ is dating blocky UncannyValley girls -- the game is about as saucy as banging Legomen together. When moders re-activated the game a scandal errupted and denials were issued, as [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/7/20/ mocked]] by PennyArcade.
* HundredPercentHeroismRating: There are various character ratings (fat, muscle, sex appeal, and respect), which affect how [=NPCs=] react in your presence. You can even say something back, determined by hitting Y or N. However, no amount of sex appeal or respect will completely stop people from telling CJ he smells bad.
* ICanSeeMyHouseFromHere: If you're getting chased by a ghetto bird (police chopper), one of the gunners may shout this. The other gunner tells him to shut up, acutely embarrassed.
* IdleAnimation: CJ will randomly start singing a song from the last radio station you listened to if he's standing still for a while. Amusingly, CJ's not so hot at recalling the lyrics.
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Throughout the game, you'll get in shootouts with all kinds of gangbangers, cops, "redneck survivalists", pedestrians, military, drug dealers, the Italian mob, the Russian mob, federal agents, federal agents who might be aliens, and not a single goddamn one of them can score a hit more than once per every ten bullets expended at the very most. Of course, due to the GTA games infamously wonky targeting system, neither can CJ sometimes.
* InappropriateHunger: Big Smoke eats the whole gang's takeout while being shot at by the Ballas. Of course, this is meant to foreshadow the fact that [[spoiler:Smoke has been with the Ballas all along]]. When called out on it, Smoke replies:
-->Big Smoke: If you can eat your food while everyone else is losing theirs and blaming you, you straight, homie.
** Gameplay-wise, to get fat or even get a lot of energy for working out, you often need to eat several of the largest combo available.
* InkSuitActor:
** Officer Tenpenny was clearly designed with the knowledge that Samuel L. Jackson was going to be his voice actor, because he looks exactly like Samuel L. Jackson. Hell, this game takes place in 1992, so maybe that ''is'' Samuel L. Jackson under an assumed name harassing CJ.
** Likewise, Zero looks exactly like his voice actor, David Cross. And Jizzy B. looks just like ''his'' voice actor, Charlie Murphy. And James Woods, the voice of Mike Toreno, could easily play the role in a live action adaptation.
** Cesar Vialpando is clearly modeled on Clifton Collins, Jr.
* IllTakeTwoBeersToo: There is a mission where you and your homies get drive-thru. One of your homies, Big Smoke, orders an absurdly long list of foods while the others order casually. And then, when everyone else is busy trying to keep a rival gang from invading your neighborhood, Smoke eats all the food, even the stuff he didn't order. Of course, [[spoiler: after you know he's betraying you, that scene can look much different]].
* ItsAllAboutMe: Tenpenny, [[spoiler:in his dying breath, claims that only he can set San Andreas in the right direction]].
* {{Jerkass}}: Sweet refuses to treat Carl with even the basest respect, and is willing to keep his family living in poverty for a chance to kill Tenpenny, even when they have a chance to become millionaires via the casino, car showroom, airstrip, and countless other properties that Carl has worked hard to earn. Justified in that Tenpenny gave his family hell, had a hand in killing his mother, and pretty much manipulated and/or coerced everyone (including [[spoiler:his own [[TheLancer lancer]], Big Smoke]]) into doing his bidding.
** Ryder, on the other hand, is just an asshole.
** So is Pulaski, repeatedly making racist remarks, insulting CJ, and making vulgar statements about his family.
* JigglePhysics: The one single stance, and easy to miss, in the ''whole series''; there's a particular female civilian near the beaches and pool areas, who's notable for having quite a big rack and a red bikini, whose breasts have a noticeable jiggle if she's laying around sun bathing, yes her breasts jiggle by standing ''still'', the melons will be in their place of she's walking around.
* KarmicDeath: Somewhat depending on your point of view [[spoiler:At the end Tenpenny ends up crashing right in the Grove cul-de-sac, with the people he harrassed and abused for years standing over him as he dies. More or less bringing the story full circle. CJ's last words to him are "See you 'round, officer". This is not only a reference to the situation, but a callback to Tenpenny's crack at the beginning of the game.]]
* KnightTemplar: Officer Tenpenny, according to him. Every action he takes in the game says otherwise.
** Toreno, too.
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Ryder is convinced he's a genius, but he's probably [[TedBaxter the stupidest person]] in the whole game.
-->'''Ryder''': Hey, CJ, tell me why I didn't finish high school.
-->'''Carl''': 'Cause you been dealin' drugs, man. Since the age of ten. Ha, ha, ha.
-->'''Ryder''': Ha, ha, ha. Nope. That ain't it.
-->'''Carl''': 'Cause you put your hands on that teacher for wearin' Ballas colours. Ha, ha, ha.
-->'''Ryder''': Ha, ha, ha. But, nope. That ain't it either. It's cause I'm too intelligent for this shit. I am the real deal fool, oh, yeah. A genius.
* TheLancer: Technically, [[InvertedTrope you are this to Sweet early on]]. Later, Cesar is this to you.
* LampshadeHanging:
** One Mission for Ryder is to break into a National Guard Depot. After the mission cutscene a van waits outside for Ryder and CJ. CJ comments on that: "That van wasn't outside when I came in!"
** "This is all about speed and commitment. You got a GPS in the cab. Get to each set of map coordinates as quick as you can. Make it to all the coordinates then get the truck back here. Lose the truck and you fail." CJ's Reply: First, what's a GPS? Second, fail what? Third, who the fuck are you?"
* {{Leitmotif}}: A specific hip-hop tune is played whenever Officer Tenpenny and Pulaski show up.
* LeParkour: The first game in the series (and probably WideOpenSandbox games in general) that allowed your character to grab and jump over objects taller than himself. A godsend when avoiding police or getting across the city. It also provides a boost to immersion: it removes the jarring InsurmountableWaistHeightFence. However, you still can't climb ladders...
* LetsYouAndHimFight: Tenpenny claims to be setting the gangs against each other to weaken them.
* LevelUpAtIntimacy5: While it doesn't directly affect CJ's stats, dating the girlfriends bestows various abilities and bonuses to the PlayerCharacter, such as getting out of [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist the hospital]] or [[CardboardPrison police custody]] for free (and without losing his weapon inventory). Also, getting CJ's relationship progress with them to a certain value grants him access to [[{{Thememobile}} special vehicles]] and [[AndYourRewardIsClothes outfits]] which will affect his stats, particularly Sex Appeal. Here are a few notable examples:
** Attempting to date [[SexySecretary casino employee-by-day]]-{{Dominatrix}}-by-night Millie gets you a gimp outfit; almost certainly a ShoutOut to PulpFiction.
*** Dating Millie to a certain percentage of progress ([[VideogameCrueltyPotential or just killing her]]) is actually necessary to progress in the game, unlike the other girlfriends who can be completely ignored if the player chooses.
** Getting to 50% progress with [[WrenchWench mechanic Michelle]] gets you the keys to her Monster Truck.
** Reaching 100% progress with [[DatingCatwoman police officer Barbara]] gets you a [[DressingAsTheEnemy police uniform]], which allows you to enter most police stations in the state.
* LighterAndSofter: This game is in tone probably the lightest in the series. CJ [[hottip:*:at least in cutscenes]] and most of his allies are far closer to the antiheroic side of the scale than the protagonists from ''GTA III'' and ''GTA: Vice City'', the world is much lighter than ''GTA IV'' (still Crapsack, but amusingly so rather than depressingly so) and the story is lighthearted and fairly optimistic. Also unlike Claude and Tommy, CJ clearly has fun and smiles now and again.
* LocomotiveLevel: Three -- one where you rob a train by riding it and tossing boxes to Ryder, one where you're on a motorcycle keeping up alongside the train, and one where you're on a jetpack flying around the train. There are side-missions where you can drive a train, but nothing interesting happens. At all. Unless you go so recklessly fast that you derail the train.
* LudicrousGibs: An interesting case, as it's not one of the main reasons behind the [[HotCoffeeMinigame controversy]] [[DisposableSexWorker attached to]] [[MurderSimulators the game]]. It also occurs quite rarely, namely, in these instances:
** In "Reuniting The Families", you are being chased by a SWAT helicopter and a squad of motorcycle policemen. One of the biker cops jumps onto the hood of your car. Meanwhile, the chopper pilot, at a loss as to how to kill you after losing his door gunners, decides to tilt the chopper rotors-first towards your car. [[HelicopterBlender Guess what happens to the cop on the hood.]]
** You can also do this by driving over pedestrians with a Combine Harvester. Doing so causes the chute on the Harvester's rear normally used for ejecting bundles of hay to spew out a neat little cube of blood and guts.
* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: When you're being chased by the San Fierro PD, one of the pursuing officers may call out "You know, I can make this look like a suicide." And at the end of the game: [[spoiler:After a lengthy chase through half of Los Santos that results in Officer Tenpenny losing control of his firetruck and crashing off of the bridge overlooking the Grove Street cul-de-sac, CJ is about to finally shoot him dead when Sweet stops him, saying that there's no need to put a bullet in the dying Tenpenny. He's just a cop who killed himself in a traffic accident, with no one to blame.]]
* ManHug: Many -- CJ and his brother Sweet, CJ and his best friend Cesar.
* ManipulativeBastard: Officer Tenpenny, who's constantly getting people who are "beneath him" (like CJ) to do his dirty work for him, and he appears to take sadistic pleasure in manipulating those he has under his thumb.
* MeaningfulName: The Grove Street Families gang frontrunners all have special meanings to their nicknames.
** Ryder is a burglar and uses trucks to unload stolen goods from private property.
** Sweet spends most of the game conning CJ into doing most of his bidding (in other words, "sweet-talking,")
** CJ has no real nickname, just his initials, signifying his status as a [[{{AFGNCAAP}} player avatar]] with no strong personality traits.
** Smoke [[spoiler: [[FaceHeelTurn is Tenpenny's Dragon,]] [[XanatosGambit and helped orchestrate all of the game's events from killing CJ's mother on so that he could operate a crack-dealing empire.]]]] Not to mention his initials are "BS" which he is full of in more ways than one.
** The ''GTA III'' main character is finally given a name: Claude.
* {{MIB}}: [[spoiler:Toreno]] has the vibe. Definitely the "people" on the mysterious plane that shows up at your airfield.
* MinigameZone: Minigames are all over the place in San Andreas, but Las Venturas has the highest concentration.
* MyNameIsNotDurwood: OG Loc's name is ''not'' pronounced "Ogg Lock".
* NeighborhoodFriendlyGangsters: The [[MeaningfulName Grove Street Families]], especially Sweet and CJ, are very keen on traditional family values. Their allies, the Varrios Los Aztecas and the Mountain Cloud Boys Triads, fit as well.
* TheNineties: Specifically, 1992. Thug life, livin' in the 'hood, lowriders, [[{{Ptitlepr8pusaj}} N.W.A.]], PublicEnemy and IceCube on the radio.
* NintendoHard: GTA forums contain numerous accounts by players who have abandoned the game due to inability to complete a number of levels, with "Wrong Side of the Tracks" (a mission requiring the player to drive a bike alongside a train while Smoke, a terrible shot, attempts to shoot enemy gang member off the top) and the "Flight School" (aka "Learning to Fly") missions being declared impossible by some. The latter is affected particularly on PS2 and PC versions by poor controls, and forums include accounts of people making ''hundreds'' of attempts to complete just the third test (circling the airfield).
* NitroBoost: One of the two performance upgrades you can acquire for your car at the [[PimpedOutCar mod garages]]. Comes in the "Stored Nitro Charges" type. Also, the reward for finishing the Taxi Driver side missions includes unlimited nitrous on all taxis.
* NobleDemon: CJ may be willing to steal, murder, and do violent criminal acts, but he has a good side as well.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed:
** Madd Dogg is based on Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg and voiced by Ice T.
** One of the barbers looks and sounds exactly like Morgan Freeman, and another is pretty clearly Vanilla Ice (and has [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy hilariously bad street slang skills]], just like him).
** OG Loc's appearance is based heavily on Tupac Shakur, but his personality is anachronistically Ja Rule (apparently a leftover from when CJ was going to be voiced by Ja's then-rival 50 Cent)
** Ryder is very obviously Easy-E with the exaggeration turned UpToEleven.
** KurtCobain is commonly seen on the streets.
** A blonde woman dressed like SharonStone from BasicInstinct is seen everywhere.
** In the countryside one of the men seeing walking the streets looks like the villain from the original TheHillsHaveEyes. (This man also makes a cameo appearance in the game as [[spoiler:Millie's gimp]].)
** The scant details that the fictional band The Gurning Chimps are from "Madchester", Maccer's appearance and accent and the early '90s setting suggest that they are expys of TheStoneRoses. Or {{Oasis}}. Or The Happy Mondays, whose frontman provides the voice.
* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: Not only are the names of the cities parallels for real-world locations (Los Santos = Los Angeles, San Fierro = San Francisco, Las Venturas = Las Vegas), but the names of the districts also imitate those of their real-world counterparts (Compton = Ganton, Hollywood = Vinewood etc.). This leads into a bit of a CelebrityParadox when the music on the radio references places that the locations in the game are based on by their real names.
* NoGearLevel: Twice.
* NotTheFallThatKillsYou: This is the first ''GrandTheftAuto'' game to adopt a comparatively realistic set of JumpPhysics and the appropriate fall damage to accompany drops of varying distances. However, there are still some absurd methods of negating this damage, such as:
** SoftWater
** So long as you are in a vehicle, you will receive no damage from impacts, including falls from great heights. This becomes especially absurd when you fall while on a bicycle or motorbike. Even if the impact ejects you from the bike, you will only receive minor, if any damage.
* OfficeGolf: Woozie does this at the Triad's Las Venturas casino. His henchman makes sure his average remains low, despite Woozie being blind.
* OlympicSwimmer: And quite a drastic switch from the SuperDrowningSkills of all the preceding entries in the series at that.
* OmniscientMoralityLicense: Mike Toreno operates under one of these. And, as always, so do ''you''.
* OutlawCouple: Carl and Catalina are briefly this in the "Countryside" missions; the radio station even mentions your antics at one point. Catalina, being an AxCrazy psychopath, pretty much ruins their business (and physical) relationship in short order, though.
* OutrunTheFireball: A couple of times, but especially in one of the final missions in the game after you [[spoiler:kill Big Smoke]].
* PimpedOutCar: One of the many things to do in this game.
** RiceBurner: While all the mod garages give you the option to only customize your car's appearance and skip out on performance upgrades, Wheel Arch Angels in San Fierro technically specializes in these, given that they only accept import tuners of Asian makes and aforementioned "performance upgrades" are only limited to hydraulic suspensions ([[MundaneUtility which are actually useful for negotiating uneven terrain when deployed]]) and [[NitroBoost nitrous oxide]].
* PintsizedPowerhouse: While not immediately noticeable, it can be seen that CJ is much shorter than most pedestrians, standing a full head below some. However, nobody ever comments on his height, and even if they did, [[VideogameCrueltyPotential it's likely]] [[DisproportionateRetribution they'd regret]] [[OneManArmy it afterwards]].
* PlotTriggeringDeath: CJ comes back from Liberty City to attend his mother's funeral.
* PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy: OG Loc is pathetic as a "gangsta"[[hottip:*:he's black, but this trope covers that as well]]. He ''does'' manage to make a music career out of it for a while, but that's only because he had CJ steal Madd Dogg's rhyme book.
* PrettyInMink: Some of the women pedestrians walk around in a fur coat.
** Spoofed when a pimp claims he has loads of stuff made of mink.
** Also spoofed in [[GTARadio a radio ad]] about selling fur coats to guys in a mid-life crisis.
* PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo ([[{{Prequel}} Sort Of]]): The [[SilentProtagonist quiet player character]] from GrandTheftAutoIII (Claude) makes a cameo as the new boyfriend of CJ's ex-girlfriend, Catalina. CJ refers to him as "[[LampshadeHanging that mute asshole]]".
* ProdigalHero: CJ does it twice: first time, at the beginning of the game when he returns from Liberty City, and second time, when [[spoiler:Sweet gets arrested]] and spends most of the game in San Fierro and Las Venturas, only coming back to Los Santos near the end of the game.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Kendl gives one to CJ when he complains about the state of the garage he's received, telling him that he's wanted rewards without work, and can't see an opportunity when one falls into his lap.
* RecklessGunUsage: In [[GTARadio one of the radio segments]], [[TheAhnold Jack Howitzer]] threatens to kill host Billy Dexter unless he touches Jack's genitals (ItMakesSenseInContext... sorta) and then says he was just fooling around and that his gun was unloaded, only for it to [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace go off and kill Dexter]].
* ReverseMole: Late in the game, it is revealed that [[spoiler:Officer Jimmy Hernandez, who was never an overly willing participant of C.R.A.S.H. to begin with, has been feeding dirt on Tenpenny and Pulaski to Internal Affairs.]]
* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The bent cop Tenpenny works for an anti-gang unit C.R.A.S.H. -- Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums. The unit is (very loosely) based on a real life police counter-gang unit gone bad. In real life the Los Angeles Police Department was rocked by the C.R.A.S.H Rampart scandal.
** CJ's mother was killed in a drive-by from a green Sabre, [[spoiler:which is later found in a police garage.]] This is directly based off the black Chevrolet Impala SS in the drive-by which killed [[Music/TheNotoriousBIG Chris Wallace]], which although related happened in 1997.
** Towards the end of the game, [[spoiler:the riot that breaks out in Los Santos is reminiscent of the Rodney King beating trial riot]].
* RPGElements: The game has the player character's skill with guns increase as he used them, allows him to train in gyms to improve his strength, stamina and fighting skills, and has him having to eat occasionally in order to stay healthy. Fat and Muscle feed into CJ's relationships with his girlfriends. Progress in those relationship is increased in the dating mini-game. Compared to the [[GrandTheftAutoIV sequel]] the work required to keep on top of these elements is fairly light and often optional.
** In the case of CJ's physical appearance, however, Rockstar includes an out in that if CJ collects all 50 oysters hidden around the state, the appearance requirement for dating is removed. He still needs to avoid getting too fat otherwise it affects running and jumping; avoiding eating altogether eventually results in CJ losing muscle and health.
* SamuelLJackson: Voice of Frank Tenpenny, the BigBad.
* SatelliteCharacter: Kendl is for the most part CJ's Sister / Cesar's girlfriend.
* SceneryPorn: Being a sandbox game, ''San Andreas'' doesn't have much in the way of huge, time-consuming panoramic shots of the landscape, but the love and attention to detail is clear. [[FictionalCounterpart Las Venturas]] is, barring certain plot-and-legality-based changes and scale, almost perfectly accurate to the Strip and Fremont Street in real life.
* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: Officers Tenpenny and Pulaski. And Toreno. And CJ.
* SequelEscalation: If you were expecting more of the same ''GTAIII'' / ''Vice City'' gameplay, only set in the '90s and with RPG elements, boy were you in for a surprise.
* ShoutOut:
** In one parking garage, you can take what appears to be Kaneda's bike from ''{{Akira}}''.
** There's also the [[Series/TheATeam Mr.T]] hair and beard you can get. And The Lil' Probe Inn? And KurtCobain.
** Certain [=NPCs=] look like WillSmith.
** Look at a picture of [[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20060919024546/gtawiki/images/1/1e/Ryder-GTASA.jpg Ryder]], then a picture of [[http://www.layoutlocator.com/graphics/dldimg/c431c27a555841ff20a7dea259acaa7d_e3102807042323.gif Eric Wright]], a.k.a. EazyE, a pioneer of {{gangsta rap}}.
** The katana's mere existance in this game is at least partially a ''PulpFiction'' refence.
** Blink and you'll miss it: During the convenience store/tanker robbery with Catalina, the convenience store's bulletproof outer glass has a logo in the corner that says [[MaxPayne Max Pane]]. You can see it most clearly just at the end of the mission's opening cutscene.
** Clucking Bell may be a reference to ''{{Blackadder}}''; at a stressful moment Edmund says he's thinking of [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar "a phrase that rhymes with [it]"]]
** In the mission "Air Raid", you have to gun down RC planes that are coming to bomb Zero's antennas. After you gun a few down, Zero may call out "[[StarWars Great kid, don't get cocky!]]"
** In one of the [[PimpedOutCar car-modding garages]], one of the custom paintjobs for [[http://www.grandtheftwiki.com/File:Sultan-GTASA-modified-front.jpg the Sultan]] is very similar to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaru_World_Rally_Team#Vehicle_development one seen on the Subaru Impreza]] used by the company to participate in the World Rally Championship.
** The mission "Just Business" features a large truck breaking off of a bridge over a flood control channel into the channel below. It looks suspiciously [[hottip:*:read: overwhelmingly]] like a scene from ''[[TheTerminator Terminator 2]]'', released one year before the game is set.
** Certain [=NPCs=] are dressed as Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s character in BoyzNTheHood.
** One mission for [[TheStoner The Truth]] which has CJ stealing a combine harvester from a farm run by survivalists [[MythologyGag is entitled]] BodyHarvest.
* SignsOfDisrepair: A billboard shows a girl drinking a bottle of milky-white soda. At the end of a mission, CJ's out-of-control car changes its message from "A taste of what's to come!" to "A taste of come!"
* SoundtrackDissonance: Can happen at anytime when you listen to the radio while driving, but there is also at least one deliberate example: When you have to go to Liberty City to execute a hit in a restaurant (i.e. it turns into an [[MoreDakka action packed gunfight]]), quiet classical music is playing in said restaurant.
* StandBackHello: The San Fierro Police are trained social workers. That means they try to "Open a constructive dialog" while beating Carl with their nightsticks.
* StealthBasedMission: Some of the storyline missions and the "Burglar" side mission follow this formula. They are generally not too difficult, and actually quite engaging, as they take cues from [[{{Manhunt}} another infamous game by Rockstar]].
* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: Depending on the player and a little luck, this can happen. For example, CJ could be on one of The Truth's missions, in the hippe van and high as a kite while "In A Gadda Da Vida" by Iron Butterfly is playing on the radio.
** Also, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9lEr53rXaI this]] one might qualify.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: In one of the very first missions, Ryder puts his cap backwards and goes to rob the local Pizza Stack. But when the cashier recognizes him due to his height and voice (and, obviously, his PaperThinDisguise):
--> '''Ryder:''' Give up the money! This' a raid!
--> '''Cashier:''' Ryder! Not this again!
--> '''Ryder:''' It ain't me, foo'!
--> '''Cashier:''' I don't know anyone so small! I feel sorry for your dad!
* TakeThat: Quite a few at ''Driv3r'' and ''True Crime: Streets of LA'', most notably a billboard in Los Santos with "True Grime: Street Cleaners". Also, at the War Memorial in San Fierro, at the top and bottom are tombstones that read "R.I.P Opposition 1997-2004". Also [[HilariousInHindsight Hilarious in Hindsight]], due to ''[[SaintsRow Saints Row 2]]''.
* TankGoodness: A series staple, the Rhino, returns with upgraded speed and handling as well as a new look based on the M1 Abrams. Also, one of the rarest vehicles in the game, a bulletproof SWAT tank could be acquired in the final mission [[spoiler: where you use it to break into Big Smoke's Crack Palace]].
* TheDogBitesBack: [[spoiler: When Big Bear]] finally makes it clear that he's had it with [[spoiler: B-Dup's]] abuse and [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome punches his face in.]]
** Also, [[spoiler:Hernandez turning on Tenpenny and Pulaski, who had repeatedly treated him very poorly]].
* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy:
** The police: one can evade arrest by getting a haircut, or by changing shoes. Or putting on a pair of 'joke glasses', the type with fake nose and eyebrows attached. Or going into a ''gun shop'' and waiting. How does that look on their report?
** The military guards. It is really easy to break into Area 69 and other supposedly well guarded places because of how stupid the guards behave. They don't mind when their colleagues get shot right next to them and if you run fast enough they even forget about you after you've stood right in front of you. Not to mention that they are completely deaf. You can fire your M4 all you want and they won't even raise an eyebrow.
* TheMafiya: CJ and Big Smoke butt heads with Russian arms dealers in an early mission. Whether they were true bratvas or just gopniki is rather unclear.
* {{Thememobile}}: The Truth's "Mothership", a repainted camper van, is a great example. Several other major characters have their own vehicles, but for the most part they're only distinguished by a unique license plate.
* ThemeTuneRap: CJ's voice actor is Young Maylay, an up-and-coming rapper. His debut album, "San Andreas: The Mix Tapes", features a song that has him rapping about the game in character as CJ.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: As the game progresses the player gains access to very powerful weaponry and vehicles, which can make a number of missions a cakewalk. The epitome of this is the Rhino, a near-indestructable tank, which can be used on everything from the game's Vigilante side-mission to running over hapless enemy gang members during the gang warfare stage of the game.
* TheStoner: The Truth and Ryder. A few of the recurring characters from ''Vice City'', as well.
* [=~This Is For Emphasis, Bitch!~=]
* TheTriadsAndTheTongs
* ThrowItIn: The random plane crashes were a glitch Rockstar discovered during beta testing, due to a spawned plane's randomly set trajectory sometimes intersecting with the ground. They found the crashes so funny and appropriate for the comedic CrapsackWorld setting that they left the glitch alone.
* ToastedBuns: Averted with the Black Project Jetpack, which has outboard shoulder-level thrusters. It is also a very practical vehicle to use; it is useful in collecting the [[GottaCatchEmAll hidden Horseshoes in Las Venturas]] and plays a central part in [[Awesome/VideoGameLevels one of the game's most memorable missions]].
* TrashTalk: CJ does this all the time in combat. "Oh, look, a gun." * Blam*
* TrueCompanions: The group CJ builds during the course of the game is large, diverse and bound together like family.
* SuperDrowningSkills: The first game in the series to [[AvertedTrope avert]] this. Unless you're an NPC character controlled by the AI whose name isn't CJ. Then you die the second you hit even a shallow pond.
* UpdatedRerelease: After the game was pulled from stores after the [[HotCoffeeMinigame Hot Coffee]] incident and the MediaWatchdogs had a field day with it, Rockstar tried to justify a rerelease of the game (while making the "offensive" bit truly inaccessible to keep the game rated M) by including a "behind the scenes" movie and a 30 minute cut scene showing events that occurred before the beginning of the game. Some say that some glitches and bugs were also fixed. PC modders tend to avoid the updated PC version as it made modding, well, harder.
* UrbanLegendOfZelda: Persistent rumors had it that Bigfoot is in the woods somewhere. It is a mod, and not a very visually impressive one at that. Similar rumors, disproven, held that it's possible to find aliens wandering the desert around Area 69 and Leatherface from ''Texas Chainsaw Massacre'' around The Panopticon. Another rumor involving the woods is the odd beat-up cars found in the Back O' Beyond, dubbed the "ghost cars", due to one of them rolling down a hill upon spawning, spooking some players.
* VerbalTic: T-Bone ends each and every sentence with "Ese", to sound more "cholo". Cesar Vialpando also does this, though less often, and also ends his phrases with "holmes" and "vato". (A number of pedestrians can be heard using these phrases in their conversations, too).
* ViceCity: Well, Vice ''State''.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: A staple and much of the point of the whole GTA series, but it especially comes into play here as an odd case of GameplayAndStorySegregation. CJ is, for the most part, presented within the story as a ruthless but well-meaning AntiHero rather than a VillainProtagonist, but the player's still free to go on genocidal rampages in between each mission.
* VillainousBreakdown: Both Tenpenny and Pulaski undergo one late in the game, because [[spoiler:the FBI has taken an interest in their involvement with the criminal underworld. Tenpenny is the one most visibly effected by it, as he goes from being smug, superior and cocky to edgy, paranoid and prone to outbursts. And when it's revealed that fellow officer Hernandez has been ratting them out... well, Tenpenny's reaction isn't pretty.]]
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: [[spoiler:Big Smoke]] appears as a respected public figure on the news in latter parts of the game, encouraging (of all things) to keep the streets drug free while building orphanages. Lazlow, of all people, remarks on this during a radio interview...
-->'''Lazlow''': [[spoiler:Big Smoke]] is doing a lot for the community. Or ''to'' it.
* ViolationOfCommonSense: There's one point where you jump out of a moving plane, onto another moving plane, open the door and start shooting everyone in sight. Impossibility notwithstanding, who the hell would ever think of trying to do this just for a second?
** CJ himself lampshades some of these missions himself occasionally, especially during the Toreno missions, in which he would have just walked away and never looked back if it wasn't for the fact that Toreno happens to be the key to getting Sweet out of jail.
* VirtualPaperDoll: For the first time in the series, you are given a highly customizable character in the form of CJ -- you can make him skinny, buff or fat, change his hairstyle and facial hair, and buy him a wide variety of clothes.
* WarpWhistle: The trains and airports.
* WarriorPoet: OG Loc refers to himself as one during a radio interview and it apparently is the image he tries to create. It doesn't quite work out that well.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Tenpenny claims that his approach to the job is about "percentages" and that his philosophy calls for overlooking some crime to achieve a greater good. It appears that he believes what he says, but in reality he's rotten to the core.
* WhamEpisode: "The Green Sabre". Not only are [[spoiler: your best friends Ryder and Smoke revealed as working with the enemies (C.R.A.S.H. and the Ballas), but your brother Sweet is shot and arrested, Grove Street goes to shit, you lose all the territory you'd captured up to this point, and you're taken out in the middle of nowhere to do an errand for Tenpenny and Pulaski. Just... Holy shit.]]
* WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife: CJ says a variation of this after [[spoiler: killing his friend-turned-crack-pusher Big Smoke]].
* WhatTheHellPlayer:
** You can have fellow gang members ride around in your car. Driving recklessly (excessive speed, driving off a cliff, etc) will result in them calling you out on it. The best is "Cars can't fly, you ''bitch!''"
** The "dates" respond to crazy conduct, as well. Police officer Barbara is prone to scream "This is not responsible driving!" if you speed (Katie appears turned on by it, however, even though your relationship status meter actually drops). Even worse, if you use the attack button while trying to give flowers you'll get a sharp message about abusing your girlfriend and the relationship status will go down.
** When CJ crashes into cars, he tends to shout insults at them. e.g. "did you buy your license!?" or, "Oh, you asshole, my shit!" While he is technically insulting the driver of the other car, some of the lines could be interpreted as insults to the player's own driving abilities.
* WhereItAllBegan: The last few missions take place in Los Santos again. The final cut scene takes right in Grove Street, where CJ started his adventure after coming back home.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Cesar is afraid of heights, as seen in a mission where he and CJ have to steal a car out of a cargo ship by lifting it out with a crane. CJ gets up in the crane while Cesar stays on the ground.
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim:
** In the mission "High Noon", [[spoiler: Officer Pulaski reveals that he's wanted to just shoot CJ from the beginning. The only thing stopping him was Officer Tenpenny, who kept coming up with reasons to keep CJ alive]].
** CJ could just shoot every villain near the beginning.
** Same with every villain towards CJ as well, an example being [[spoiler: when you first meet Smoke, he could have just easily bashed CJ's head in, seeing his true nature and all that. Big Smoke's approach may be justified, though, in that he may have preferred to convince CJ to come to his side a la [[StarWars Emperor Palpatine to Luke Skywalker]], especially when Sweet early was the guy heading the Families and CJ at that point was his [[TheLancer lancer]].]]
* WhyWereBummedCommunismFell: A couple of missions early in the game deal with this. In one, you have to stop an arms dealer from the post-Soviet black market who's been supplying the Ballas gang.
* WideOpenSandbox: Once all areas are unlocked, the player has access to a huge, open-ended, "living" region to explore, with widely varying geography, cities, and waterways. Even in the early stages of the game, when only Los Santos and countryside to the north is available, this still provides the player with more exploration space than most previous GTA games combined (and a cheat code, coupled with CJ's newfound ability to swim, makes it possible to explore the complete state from the start).
* {{Yandere}}: Catalina, particularly once she starts falling for you.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler: Tenpenny has Carl retrieve a dossier during his time in Las Venturas. Right afterwards, he has Carl dig his own grave, intending to have Pulaski kill him.]]
* YouKnowImBlackRight: Played with. CJ has been working with Wu Zi Mu (or "Woozie"), a Triad leader who tries to hide the fact that he's blind, but fails spectacularly. When CJ responds to Woozie's big reveal by saying "No shit!", he then asks if Woozie knows he's black. The Triad's response? "I'm blind, Carl, not stupid."
----
->''"After five years on the east coast, [[ProdigalHero it was time to go home.]]"''
The original ''GrandTheftAuto'' had three cities: Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas. For their third game Rockstar expanded the last one into an entire state. San Andreas is a FictionalCounterpart for California, with some elements from Nevada. It has three major cities: [[LosAngeles Los Santos]], [[SanFrancisco San Fierro]], and [[VivaLasVegas Las Venturas]]. It also has nearly a dozen small towns, and loads of land in between them.
The game puts you in the shoes of Carl Johnson, a good guy, [[AntiHero relatively speaking]], which is a first for the series. Carl is a gangster who left the city of Los Santos, San Andreas after his brother was killed, but is returning home after a five-year stint in Liberty City to bury his murdered mother.
Shortly after arriving, [[DirtyCop corrupt cops]] Frank Tenpenny (SamuelLJackson!) and Eddie Pulaski (the late [[ReservoirDogs Chris Penn]]) pick him up and force him to work for them. If CJ refuses he will get framed for cop killing, a killing for which these cops themselves are responsible, as the unlucky officer was going to expose them. But that's just part of it. CJ gets thrown around a twisted world of crime all over San Andreas with many twists, betrayals and surprises, as well as unexpected cameos from quite a few familiar faces.
San Andreas's reception was like pretty much every other 3D ''GTA'' game. In other words it was received with a hell of a lot of love from gamers. While not without [[RatedMForMoney controversy]] (the HotCoffeeMinigame scandal was especially idiotic), it enjoyed overwhelmingly positive reviews by critics and the public alike, and has made millions in sales. Even after the release of ''GrandTheftAutoIV'', many fans still point to San Andreas as their favorite. One reason for this is because of its absolutely huge "sandbox" area -- three full cities and numerous towns and countryside areas, as opposed to the other GTA games which were positively claustrophobic by comparison. Even as the games moved into the next-generation consoles, allowing greater realism in how cities are depicted, to date none of the games that followed San Andreas have equaled the scope and sense of distance offered by this game.
Fans of the game may want to check out [[http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/GTASA/index.html this Let's Play told almost entirely from CJ's perspective]], which fleshes out the story and fills in some plot holes.
Rockstar announced that ''GrandTheftAutoV'' will once again be set in San Andreas, though it's likely to be as different from this game as Liberty City is between ''GrandTheftAutoIII'' and ''GrandTheftAutoIV''. (A followup announcement, and the game's official trailer, has confirmed that the game will only be set in Los Santos and will not be a state-wide affair.)
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!!Distinct tropes of this game:
* ADateWithRosiePalms: Maccer's addiction to masturbation is the subject of numerous gags.
-->'''Zero:''' No, no, I masturbate quite often, if that's what you're implying...
** One of the "I Say, You Say" segments also includes a masturbation joke.
* AFriendInNeed: Cesar leading CJ to the [[WhamEpisode Wham Mission]] is what solidifies their friendship.
* ActorAllusion: Axl Rose is the DJ of the classic rock station in ''San Andreas''. He mocks the modern/Grunge rock station, which includes his song "Welcome to the Jungle" in the rotation.
** Chris Penn, known for playing Nice Guy Eddie in ReservoirDogs, plays Officer Eddie Pulaski
* AdaptationDistillation: The trio of GTA III games are prequels of the original game and each other, and San Andreas combines the best elements of all the games that came before (large sandbox, gang respect, plethora of vehicles, contrast of gritty working-class environments/glossy upper class estates, not to mention [[SuperDrowningSkills a protagonist that actually knows how to swim]]) to make a thoroughly satisfying game.
* AffablyEvil:
** Mike Toreno, who's a pretty nice guy for a drug-runner [[spoiler:and government agent shoulder-deep in things you Do Not Need To Know About]].
** Same can be said for CJ, who comes off as being a centered, nice guy despite committing rather horrendous acts during the course of the game.
** And also Woozie, the leader of the San Fierro Triad, who despite being a crime boss is depicted as very sympathetic and likable. So much so [[spoiler: one expects Woozie to FaceHeelTurn on CJ, but he never does]].
* AlwaysClose: CJ's escape from [[spoiler: Big Smoke's]] crack palace during the final mission. He barely manages to OutrunTheFireball.
* AnachronismStew: Not overtly, but noticeable in some of the sights and sounds around San Andreas.
** Some of the songs playing on the radio, like "It Was A Good Day" by IceCube are released after 1992, which is when the game takes place.
** Certain cars, especially high-end ones, were based on real-life cars produced long after 1992, such as the [[http://www.grandtheftwiki.com/Bullet Bullet]], which is based on the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_GT 2005 Ford GT]].
** In one mission, Triad boss Ran Fa Li is seen playing a video game with a (wireless!) PlayStation2 controller. Sharp-eyed players can even catch the trademark button colors.
** One of the radio ad parodies spoofs ''HarryPotter'', even though the first book wasn't published until 1997.
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Completing some of the storyline and asset missions gets you some special outfits, which you may need to wear in order to progress through another mission. Also, achieving [[LevelUpAtIntimacy5 100% progress with most of the girlfriends gets you an outfit related to their profession]].
** DressingAsTheEnemy: The ability to dress as a cop returns from ''[[GrandTheftAutoViceCity Vice City]]'', allowing you to enter police stations all over the state, so long as you don't draw your firearms while inside. You gain this ability by getting 100% relationship progress with [[DatingCatwoman Barbara Schternvart, the only female cop in the game]], if not any ''GrandTheftAuto'' game.
* AntiHero: You, the rest of Grove Street [[spoiler:(well, Sweet at least)]], Cesar and Woozie.
* {{Area 51}}: Parodied with Area [[DoubleEntendre 69]], which [[spoiler:CJ breaks into to acquire a {{jetpack}}.]] Trying to enter the area will earn you an instant five-star wanted level, and if you fly over, you will be brought down by SAM sites and Hydra fighter jets.
* ArcWords: Big Smoke - Remember the name.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: During Vertical Bird. Notable for being pretty much the only instance in the game where Mike Toreno is given pause:
-->'''Toreno:''' Once you're on the inside [of the ship], I ''cannot'' help you.
-->'''CJ:''' Well can you help me ''now?''
-->'''Toreno:''' Uh, well, no. Actually, no...
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Due6WWdlsNU&list=FLaaNz2jd5DtlSN4XSJvqjUg&index=1 This moment]]. And it's actually ''the only way to reach the helicopter''. Open the parachute, and you won't be able to land on the roof where that helicopter is.
* AsTheGoodBookSays: Big Smoke often quotes the Bible ("'Man cannot live on bread alone'. I should know, I tried that shit.") but [[HypocriticalHumor he's not exactly a saint.]]
* AwesomeButImpractical: The Hydra: if you try to stafe ground targets with the thrusters pointed downwards. The trio of sluggish response, split attention and proximity to ground clutter ends many joyrides with a boom.
* AxCrazy: Cesar describes his cousin Catalina as "really intense, holmes." As C.J. finds out, "intense" doesn't even ''begin'' to describe her.
* BackToBackBadasses: Sweet and CJ get to do this in a mission near the end of the game, which is essentially a two man army against a horde of Ballas.
* BadAss: When the game starts, CJ is straight busta, but if you're playing right he becomes the baddest man in San Andreas by the end.
* BadExportForYou: Since German politicians are extremely touchy with the subject of violence in video games, the German version of this game had to undergo some censorship. Some of the changes are only visual (people don't get mutilated by headshots anymore, for example), but there are changes that directly affect gameplay as well. Most infuriating is probably the fact that people don't drop money anymore when killed, which effectively robs the player of one source of income.
* BaldOfEvil: Officer Tenpenny has a shaved head. CJ can have his head shaved if the player chooses to do so, making it BaldOfAwesome.
* BeefGate: Initially, CJ is restricted to Los Santos and Red County; there is nothing preventing the player from finding ways to enter the other regions before they are unlocked, but there is a penalty of a four-star wanted level if you do. Specifically, San Fierro, Whetstone and Flint County are inaccessible prior to completing "The Green Sabre" and Tierra Robada, Bone County and Las Venturas cannot be entered before completing "Yay-ka-boom-boom".
* BerserkButton: CJ likes being called a "busta" as much as Woozie likes being made fun of for his blindness. That is to say, not at all. CJ also seems to really hate reckless driving, ironically. And for the love of [[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses Santa Christ]], ''do not mess with his sister.'' So much as [[DisproportionateRetribution catcalling at her can trigger homicidal rage]].
** Ironically, however, this is one of the only GTA games to ''not'' include a "rampage" side-mission in the basic one-player game, though certainly the player is free to make up his own.
* BewareTheNiceOnes:
** Wu Zi Mu, or "Woozie" to his friends, is a laid-back, friendly, unassuming Chinese man who enjoys playing video games, racing cars, and golf. He's also the boss of the Mountain Cloud Boys, a Triad sect. And when he finds his men wiped out by the the Vietnamese Da Nang Boys, he rushes into the fray with a machine pistol and guns down everyone he can find, all the while shouting things like "Your blood will flow like wine!" -- all this despite the fact that he's ''[[HandicappedBadass blind.]]''. [[spoiler: CJ remains on his good side throughout the game, however, and as such is never a target of this himself.]]
** CJ himself is usually a pretty nice guy -- for a gangbanger, though this may have something to do with him moving away from the gang lifestyle in Liberty for five years. But do '''not''' talk bad about his family, especially his sister Kendl. Or his mother. Just ask [[spoiler:Pulaski.]]
* BilingualBonus: A ''very'' subtle one, overlapping with FridgeBrilliance. The leader of the Da Nang Boys gang is referred to as the 'Snakehead'. In several Oriental dialects the word for 'snake head' also happens to be a slang term for a smuggler of refugees. Guess what the gang's main source of income is?
* {{Bizarrchitecture}}: Some of the abandoned desert tourist traps.
* BritishEnglish: On rare occasions the fact the GTA games are actually made by a British company becomes evident. For example, the news radio station includes news reports referencing "the drugs trade"; Americans tend to singularize the word "drug" in that phrase, while the Brits use "drugs" in all uses.
** During an early mission in which CJ has to whack a GSF member who has been snitching to the Ballas, the subtitles advise you to kill the "grass".
* BrokenBridge: At the beginning of the game, the bridges had been damaged by an earthquake. Double subverted in that, although you can swim, boat, or fly across, you will get a four star wanted level for even trying, and you can't do anything at those points anyway.
** You actually can do a few things. The Courrier Missions on both Las Venturas and San Fierro, the NRG-500 Challenge, the Chiliad Challenge, any of the Vehicles Missions, and a few more. Only thing is that you have to do them with a 4-star wanted level.
* BurgerFool: OG Loc's parole officer lined him up for a job at Burger Shot as a "Hygiene Technician" (fancy talk for janitor). His uniform - and that of everyone else who works there - includes an oversized burger hat, which needless to say looks ridiculous. Not to mention the chicken hat that is part of the uniform at Cluckin' Bell.
* BuriedAlive: The mission "Deconstruction," a conga line of DisproportionateRetribution, ends with pushing the foreman, who is hiding in a porta-potty, into a hole - and then filling the hole with cement. [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel Don't think about it too hard]].
* ButThouMust: The first mission requires you to use a bike. If you "acquire" something else, the game ceases to show the people you are meant to follow on your minimap and the Ballas car continues to chase and shoot you no matter where you go.
** There are also many, many occasions in the game where the vehicle you arrive in for a mission will disappear and be replaced by one provided for the mission. A fact worth noting before you take your expensive, tripped out car to meet Woozie or Toreno for their next mission.
** There are also missions where CJ is forced to use a specific weapon, despite others in his inventory. For example, in "Freefall" it doesn't matter if he has a mini-gun, CJ is forced to make do with a dinky 9mm pistol in the shootout. It happens [[ExplosiveDecompression inside a plane,]] though, so keeping the caliber down is somewhat justified if the game runs on [[HollywoodPhysics Vinewood Physics]].
* CastingGag: CJ, voiced by then-aspiring rapper Young Maylay, claims he's not part the rap game during one of [=OG=] Loc's missions.
* CentralTheme: The betrayal and revenge theme found in the first two games is expanded upon. Loyalty to your [[TrueCompanions homies]] drives most, if not all the plot.
* ChainLinkFence: This works surprisingly well, since you can vault fences but it generally doesn't occur to the cops. They can still shoot you, though...
* ChekhovsGun: When CJ asks about his mother's murder, Big Smoke mentions in passing that a Green Sabre was seen at the scene of the shooting. A green Sabre shows up in a later mission [[spoiler:when CJ finds out that Smoke and Ryder are working with C.R.A.S.H. and the Ballas.]]
* TheChick: Kendl, Carl's sister and Cesar's girlfriend [[spoiler:(and later fiancee)]]. She's smart enough to not let herself become a DistressedDamsel, but she does stay on the sidelines.
* CleanUpTheTown: A large part of the story involves CJ and his homies [[spoiler:(Sweet, anyway)]] trying to clean up their crack-ridden 'hood.
* CloudCuckoolander: The Truth is ''weird.'' Mike Toreno can come across like this too, although he's much more balanced than most cuckoolanders.
* ClusterFBomb: This was the first GTA game to have prominent use of the word "fuck" in it, and ''[[SelfDemonstratingArticle fuck]]'', does it get used a lot.
** 365 times counting its variants and not counting random pedestrians/drivers curses and the in-game radio.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: All of the street gangs. The Grove Street Families are green, the Ballas are purple, the Aztecas are aqua, and the Vagos are yellow-orange.
* ConspiracyTheorist: The Truth again. Subverted by Toreno indicating that [[spoiler: many well-known conspiracy theories are, in fact, true.]]
* CrapsackWorld: As any GTA world, though San Andreas more or less plays it for dark humor.
* CriticalExistenceFailure: Played straight with cars, motorcycles, boats and helicopters; you can damage these vehicles as much as you want with no effect on their performance whatsoever, up until the moment they [[EveryCarIsAPinto catastrophically explode]].
** Averted with fixed-wing aircraft; taking damage to the wings or rudder can cause the stabilizer fins to snap off, resulting in a nigh-uncontrollable plane. Also, slamming into a surface at high speed, unlike helicopters, spells certain doom for a plane.
** And vehicles do not handle properly if their tires are damaged. It is common for tires to be shot out, or damaged by spike belts. Several missions become noticeably easier if the player thinks to have CJ shoot out an enemy vehicle's tires before a chase begins.
** Played straight [[PlayerCharacter with CJ]], [[MadeOfIron of course]]. Unless you fall from a [[JumpPhysics great height without a parachute]], that is. And even then, if the paramedic and vigilante side-missions are completed (giving CJ extra health and armor) it's possible for him to survive even these falls.
* CutsceneIncompetence: CJ is constantly pushed around by Tenpenny in their cutscene encounters throughout the game. Might maybe make sense in the beginning, but during the end of the game, after you've taken on Mafia, US Army, secret government agencies, and thousands upon thousands of gangsters of all kinds, and probably a fair share of cops, you can't help but wonder why on Earth CJ would let a single bent cop push him around. There's a cutscene in Las Venturas when Tenpenny punches CJ in the stomach, flooring him. If you have max muscle for that bit, it's just silly.
* DangerTakesABackSeat: T-Bone Mendez pulls a variation of this on CJ, trying to scare him into admitting he's a double agent. It doesn't work.
* DeadFootLeadfoot: Almost always averted when you shoot a civilian dead while he or she is still in a car; this is par course for all ''GrandTheftAutoIII''-era games. However, shoot a cop chasing you in his squad car, and a glitch may occur, causing his lifeless/headless body to continue giving chase until you pull it out and jack the car.
* DeadpanSnarker: The Cluckin' Bell worker clearly doesn't like his job.
-->"If you come again, you're a moron."
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Played for laughs on the news radio station WCTR...
-->'''Leanne''': Staying in Venturas: it used to be a patch of desert, then it was a mob town. Now, it is the corporate headquarters of America. Richard explains from the streets.
-->'''Richard''': That's right, Leanne. It used to be a patch of desert, then it was a mob town. Now, it is the corporate headquarters of America. Back to you in the studio.
* DiscOneNuke: If you go to the Los Santos Airport with a tall car, you can climb on top of the fence and access some nice airplanes, letting you get your flying skill up.
* DirtyCop: Officers Tenpenny and Pulaski.
* DisneyDeath: Mike Toreno appears to die around the time Carl turns on Jizzy, but [[spoiler:later reappears to give you missions]].
* DisposableWoman: Beverly Johnson.
* DisproportionateRetribution: The mission "Deconstruction". This mission appears to disturb a lot of players as it seems out of character for the violent, yet sympathetic CJ, as he buries a guy alive because his crew insulted his sister.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: After Tenpenny plays the gangs against each other, his acquittal set off a city-wide riot. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Los_Angeles_riots The game takes place in 1992.]] Considering that the cities in the GTA universe so obviously replace real ones, and combined with all the real-life based events, this might actually run into AlternateHistory.
* DoggedNiceGuy: CJ doesn't get sex after like the tenth date, he also never asks for it.
** Unless you collect all the oysters during the game in wich case the girls always invite him in for a "coffee".
** Also, if you weat the Gimp suit when meeting Millie, you automatically enter her house.
--> '''CJ''': Here we go again with the kinky shit...
* DonutMessWithACop: Three guesses as to where you receive missions from Pulaski and Tenpenny.
* DrivesLikeCrazy: ''You,'' according to your Grove Street TrueCompanions. Being a ''GrandTheftAuto'' game, this is probably a lampshade hanging.
** Every other AI-controlled vehicle in the game, especially during missions where you need to be someplace within a time limit, or you're transporting goods that can't be damaged, which is when some maniac driver will pick that moment to run into you from behind or run a red light.
* DrugsAreBad: The NeighborhoodFriendlyGangsters ain't down with that shit. CJ comes around to this realization when he sees that even a {{badass}} like Big Bear can be made into a bitch for rock. You can encounter drug dealers through out the game, and they will ask you if you want some rock. Even if you say yes, CJ, in no uncertain terms, tells the guy to take his business elsewhere. Also, each dealer carries $2000 without exception, more money than the vast majority of Los Santos missions provide. In the early chapters, waging your own personal war on drugs is to your extreme advantage.
** ...except when you play the German version of this game, which removes any money dropped by pedestrians.
* DualWielding: If CJ gets his weapon skill up to Hitman with the Pistol, Sawn-Off Shotgun, or Micro-SMG, he can pack one in each hand for double the devastation. You will lose accuracy when doing this, but when RuleOfCool is in full effect like this ''you simply won't care''.
** This also makes the AmmuNation shooting range challenge slightly easier.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: Ok, you've completed all the [[GottaCatchThemAll collectibles]], [[AnEntrepreneurIsYou bought all property]], [[SideQuest completed all side missions]], [[BadassDriver you're a proven master of vehicles both on the land, water and in the air]], the grove street gang's territory is bigger than it has ever been and yet when your brother is freed from jail due to 'your connections with the government' he still treats you like a noob, chewing you out on leaving Los Santos behind again. Sweet's behavior is justified, since he has been in jail all the time without any contact to outside, and he has no way of knowing about your various exploits, or your reasons for leaving. Given this situation, it makes sense for him to react this way. Nevertheless, the sudden shift in mood can be a bit perplexing for the player.
* DumbMuscle: Jizzy specifically refers to CJ as this, repeatedly (apparently the game is assuming you've been working out). He's ''wrong'', but CJ was trying to get on his good side so he could snap at him when the opportunity arose, so whatever.
* DummiedOut: The sex minigame had to be removed in order to avoid an AO rating, but deleting the code for it would've required delaying the game by a few months to fix the girlfriend system. So Rockstar, to meet their release date, simply buried it under layers of code. The result was the Hot Coffee scandal. The "Second Edition" version, however, did get rid of the code. Also, lots of other stuff was coded, but never implemented. A GameMod by Deezire restores a crap ton of content, including cutscene dialogue that fills in so many plot holes you'll wonder why the hell Rockstar never bothered to activate it.
* EasterEgg: So, so many. Including a sign in an exotic location reading: "No Easter Eggs here, go away." Also many audio Easter eggs on the various radio stations.
* ElSpanishO: In one mission, Big Smoke is trying to negotiate with some Mexican gangsters, before he loses his patience and demands, "Cough-io - up el weedo - before I blow your brains out all over the patio!"
* ElvisImpersonator: Several hundred wandering the streets of Las Venturas. And they are played by different ethnicities! The hispanic ones just do ''really'' awful Elvis impersonations, but the black ones would more accurately be called "Little Richard impersonators" and act accordingly. Amusingly, the game keeps track of the number of Elvis impersonators you've killed on the stats screen. Uh huh.
* AnEntrepreneurIsYou: Carl goes from being poor in Ganton with only his late mother's house and the clothes on his back, to building a criminal empire across San Andreas.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Carl and Sweet Johnson, particularly. The death of his mother is why CJ went back in the first place. [[spoiler: Pulaski]] finds out how much CJ loves his mama, the hard way.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: The Grove Street Families, the Varrio Los Aztecas and the Mountain Cloud Boys do bad things, but all of them strongly oppose the sale of hard drugs.
* EyepatchOfPower: You can have CJ wear an eyepatch as soon as you get access to the Binco in Ganton. Having one of his eyes covered up doesn't negatively affect him a bit.
* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Big Smoke and Ryder.]] Subverted in that [[spoiler:[[TheMole they were never faces in the first place]].]] [[spoiler:Arguably, Ryder was, very early in the game. At least he was shooting with you and Sweet. Alternatively, at least he was ''pretending'' to shoot with you and Sweet.]] Perhaps it is a matter of Heel Heelier Turn.
** Averted with several characters (specifically [[spoiler: Toreno, Cesar and Woozie]]) who are depicted as having the potential to betray CJ but who never actually do.
* FatBastard: Big Smoke.
** Also CJ if you have him spend most of his free time at the Cluckin' Bell.
* FakeBand: The Gurning Chimps, although, unlike their predecessor Love Fist, they don't have any songs on in-game radio.
* {{Filth}}: The {{Gayborhood}} has a porn theater showing the rather unimaginative ''Wizard of Ass''.
* FiveBadBand:
** BigBad: Tenpenny
** TheDragon: Pulaski
** EvilGenius: [[spoiler:Ryder]]
** TheBrute: [[spoiler:Big Smoke]]
** SixthRangerTraitor: [[spoiler:Hernandez]]
* FiveManBand:
** Los Santos chapter:
*** TheHero: CJ
*** TheLancer: Sweet
*** TheSmartGuy ([[InformedAttribute or so he thinks]]): Ryder
*** TheBigGuy: Big Smoke
*** TheChick: Kendl
*** TheSixthRanger: Cesar
** San Fierro chapter:
*** TheHero: CJ
*** TheLancer: Cesar
*** TheChick: Kendl
*** TheSmartGuy: Woozie
*** TeamDad: The Truth
*** TheSixthRanger: Jethro and Zero
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: In the "Good afternoon, Balla dope pushers!" cutscene in the early mission "Cleaning The Hood", take a close look at the background. You can actually see a Balla getting some head.
** Computer controlled pedestrians will often stop and carry on non-sequetir-filled conversations reminiscent of Postal 2.
** San Andreas is depicted as a living environment, so while travelling around it's not uncommon for the player to spy police chases, fights, shootings, and general insanity going on completely separate from what the player is doing...
*** ...except for the random plane crashes that occur, usually right on top of where CJ is standing.
* {{Flanderization}}: Catalina is a total adrenaline junkie, unlike in ''GTA III''. Of course, since this is a prequel, one could argue that by the time ''GTA III'' rolls around she's undergone CharacterDevelopment.
* FreudianExcuse: CJ will sometimes mockingly say that he had a bad childhood when killing random people. That and "[[SocietyIsToBlame I blame society]]!"
* FriendshipMoment: Cesar has one with Carl when he shows Carl [[spoiler:that Smoke and Ryder are betraying the Families.]] This is what leads to his {{lancer}} status.
** CJ learning about Wu Zi's [[spoiler:blindness]] also qualifies, as the two become noticeably more buddy-buddy afterward.
* GameBreakingBug: The infamous Madd Dogg glitch. A glitch in a mission where you had to save him from his own suicide attempt by positioning a truck full of hay under him before he could jump off a building would become Unwinnable because he would jump off the building before the cutscene ended. This glitch also made the ''game'' {{Unwinnable}}, and this is compounded by the fact that no one is certain what triggers this glitch; it seems to be completely random. Many suggestions have been made, the most commonly accepted "cause" being that it's caused by cheating extremely often, or using common cheats. This is discredited, since many people who never cheated once the entire game still had the glitch occur, while some that cheated extensively never saw it. One cause is the "pedestrians riot" cheat (which cannot be turned off), causing everyone to become hostile to each other. This mission is affected because Madd Dogg's character attempts to run to the nearest NPC to fight them, and in doing so, runs off the roof and dies. This is made even worse by it being one of the last missions in the game, meaning that if you get this glitch, you're screwed and have to start all over and pray you don't get the glitch again. Though, mercifully, it seems as though it never happens in two new games in a row.
** Also, if you attempt to play basketball in Madd Dogg's mansion, all basketballs on the world map will be deleted from the game, meaning you can't play it again in that particular save. This one is minor, since basketball is not needed for HundredPercentCompletion, but another glitch involving the mansion that you should worry about involves saving there, which corrupts your file.
** There's one in the Woozie mission "Mountain Cloud Boys" (reported to occur in at least the PC and PS2 versions). After you take Woozie around the block to the [[spoiler:ambush]] Triad meeting, once you get out of the car and the cutscene plays, you won't be able to control CJ, the camera, or do ''anything'' except go to the pause menu. Fortunately, you can defuse this one by stopping at the target before Woozie stops talking about the Vietnamese gang, thus preventing the cutscene from running.
* GameMod: Ranging from improved textures to increased draw distance to gameplay changes to, most infamously, the Hot Coffee scandal. To begin with, you can replace CJ with [[{{Touhou}} Marisa Kirisame complete with Master Spark]].
* GameplayRoulette: Done right, since that's part of the fun.
* GangBangers: The Groves, the Ballas and the Varrios Los Aztecas.
* {{Gayborhood}}: The Queens district in San Fierro, based on, of course, the most famous {{Gayborhood}} in the world -- [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Castro,_San_Francisco The Castro, San Francisco]].
* {{Gayngster}}: OG Loc. You first encounter him when he's leaving prison and wants to kill his prison-boyfriend for spreading rumors about their tryst, though of course OG is in complete denial. Instead, you end up killing the boyfriend. OG Loc later does a radio interview where he stresses his macho-ness. Of course, it ''was'' a "prison thing".
* GeoEffects: Vehicles lose grip in the rain, especially on the grass. Aircraft experience wind and turbulence during a storm.
* GhostTown: There are quite a few in the deserts.
* GoKartingWithBowser: Done quite literally. CJ literally kills his way through Madd Dogg's organization so a friend, OG Loc, can jumpstart a music career. Then, in order to restart Madd Dogg's career after he came out of rehab (a move which greatly benefits CJ), he and Madd Dogg chase OG Loc through the streets of Los Santos...on go karts. In order to get a valued rhyme book back. The very same one CJ stole for OG Loc in the first place. M.D. has 'so far' not discovered that CJ was the one to kill his co-workers and leave his mansion filled with bodies.
* GratuitousSpanish: The name of the town El Quebrados is gramatically incorrect - it should be either "El Quebrado" or "Los Quebrados".
* GuideDangIt: One of the most common questions seems to be: "Where do I find this 'Euros' car for the export list?" And rightfully so, since it only spawns in one specific location and only when it is wanted for the export list (and you need to know what it looks like, to boot). Fortunately the exporting of cars is optional for completing the ''storyline'' of the game, but for those playing for the coveted "100% completion" awards, you gotta grin and bear it. Or find a walkthrough.
** In addition, for 100% completion CJ has to locate 70 photo locations, spray 100 gang tags, track down 50 oysters, and 50 horseshoes. The San Andreas map is so huge and complex, and many of these items/jump sites are in hidden locations, that the only practical way to find them all is with a walkthrough or guidebook (although subverted by the BradyGames official strategy guide that gives incorrect locations or unhelpful directions for many of these).
** Oh and there are also 70 hidden unique stunt jumps, too, though these aren't required for 100% completion. Many of these jumps are obvious (why else would a jump ramp be placed in the middle of trailer park?) but some - especially those that require the player to jump off a cliff or some such ([[spoiler: one jump actually requires CJ to launch a car from Red County, hope it flies high and fast enough to cross a bay, and land on the San Fierro Airport tarmac]]) - are not intuitive and need a manual to locate/become aware of.
** And without a guidebook, many players likely complete the storyline portion of the game unaware of things like the hidden courier challenges, the bicycle and motorbike challenges, the mountain biking races, and the two triathlons that are only accessible on certain days of the week! Although also not needed for 100% completion, several of the women available for dating are not located in obvious places, either (one is hidden in a park in San Fierro that CJ is not required to visit for any mission or item pick-up).
* GunsAkimbo: You can dual-wield the standard pistol (although not the Desert Eagle or the silenced version), the sawed-off shotgun, and the two machine-pistols after you max out your skill with each respective weapon.
* HelicopterBlender: The mission "Reuniting the Families" ends with both versions of this trope: a police helicopter tilts forward, threatening to slice up the protagonists' vehicle, and a police officer on the hood of said vehicle ends up minced in the process. Additionally, if you yourself gain control of a helicopter, you can practice this trope on any random passersby you run across, just as you can in any other GTA game with helicopters.
* HeroicFireRescue: CJ has to enter a burning house to rescue a girl. From fire he caused in the first place.
* HeroicSociopath: Catalina is also a quintessential HeroicSociopath (this could be argued for almost every protagonist in the game, though).
* HitSoHardTheCalendarFeltIt: Invoked when a guy called The Truth gets something CJ stole from a government base, he says "They shall call this YearZero".
* HollywoodNerd: Zero. For instance, he quips StarWars during his rooftop defense mission.
* HollywoodSilencer: A silenced 9mm pistol is available and used during some stealth-based missions. It makes the classic ''fwip!'' sound and does not alert moderately distant guards.
* HufflepuffHouse: Varrios Los Aztecas. Their leader, Caesar, could be considered TheAragorn.
* HotCoffeeMinigame: The TropeNamer. The original release of the game had a DummiedOut sex mini-game that played out when dates ended in "coffee". Given the graphics engine, CJ is dating blocky UncannyValley girls -- the game is about as saucy as banging Legomen together. When moders re-activated the game a scandal errupted and denials were issued, as [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/7/20/ mocked]] by PennyArcade.
* HundredPercentHeroismRating: There are various character ratings (fat, muscle, sex appeal, and respect), which affect how [=NPCs=] react in your presence. You can even say something back, determined by hitting Y or N. However, no amount of sex appeal or respect will completely stop people from telling CJ he smells bad.
* ICanSeeMyHouseFromHere: If you're getting chased by a ghetto bird (police chopper), one of the gunners may shout this. The other gunner tells him to shut up, acutely embarrassed.
* IdleAnimation: CJ will randomly start singing a song from the last radio station you listened to if he's standing still for a while. Amusingly, CJ's not so hot at recalling the lyrics.
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Throughout the game, you'll get in shootouts with all kinds of gangbangers, cops, "redneck survivalists", pedestrians, military, drug dealers, the Italian mob, the Russian mob, federal agents, federal agents who might be aliens, and not a single goddamn one of them can score a hit more than once per every ten bullets expended at the very most. Of course, due to the GTA games infamously wonky targeting system, neither can CJ sometimes.
* InappropriateHunger: Big Smoke eats the whole gang's takeout while being shot at by the Ballas. Of course, this is meant to foreshadow the fact that [[spoiler:Smoke has been with the Ballas all along]]. When called out on it, Smoke replies:
-->Big Smoke: If you can eat your food while everyone else is losing theirs and blaming you, you straight, homie.
** Gameplay-wise, to get fat or even get a lot of energy for working out, you often need to eat several of the largest combo available.
* InkSuitActor:
** Officer Tenpenny was clearly designed with the knowledge that Samuel L. Jackson was going to be his voice actor, because he looks exactly like Samuel L. Jackson. Hell, this game takes place in 1992, so maybe that ''is'' Samuel L. Jackson under an assumed name harassing CJ.
** Likewise, Zero looks exactly like his voice actor, David Cross. And Jizzy B. looks just like ''his'' voice actor, Charlie Murphy. And James Woods, the voice of Mike Toreno, could easily play the role in a live action adaptation.
** Cesar Vialpando is clearly modeled on Clifton Collins, Jr.
* IllTakeTwoBeersToo: There is a mission where you and your homies get drive-thru. One of your homies, Big Smoke, orders an absurdly long list of foods while the others order casually. And then, when everyone else is busy trying to keep a rival gang from invading your neighborhood, Smoke eats all the food, even the stuff he didn't order. Of course, [[spoiler: after you know he's betraying you, that scene can look much different]].
* ItsAllAboutMe: Tenpenny, [[spoiler:in his dying breath, claims that only he can set San Andreas in the right direction]].
* {{Jerkass}}: Sweet refuses to treat Carl with even the basest respect, and is willing to keep his family living in poverty for a chance to kill Tenpenny, even when they have a chance to become millionaires via the casino, car showroom, airstrip, and countless other properties that Carl has worked hard to earn. Justified in that Tenpenny gave his family hell, had a hand in killing his mother, and pretty much manipulated and/or coerced everyone (including [[spoiler:his own [[TheLancer lancer]], Big Smoke]]) into doing his bidding.
** Ryder, on the other hand, is just an asshole.
** So is Pulaski, repeatedly making racist remarks, insulting CJ, and making vulgar statements about his family.
* JigglePhysics: The one single stance, and easy to miss, in the ''whole series''; there's a particular female civilian near the beaches and pool areas, who's notable for having quite a big rack and a red bikini, whose breasts have a noticeable jiggle if she's laying around sun bathing, yes her breasts jiggle by standing ''still'', the melons will be in their place of she's walking around.
* KarmicDeath: Somewhat depending on your point of view [[spoiler:At the end Tenpenny ends up crashing right in the Grove cul-de-sac, with the people he harrassed and abused for years standing over him as he dies. More or less bringing the story full circle. CJ's last words to him are "See you 'round, officer". This is not only a reference to the situation, but a callback to Tenpenny's crack at the beginning of the game.]]
* KnightTemplar: Officer Tenpenny, according to him. Every action he takes in the game says otherwise.
** Toreno, too.
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Ryder is convinced he's a genius, but he's probably [[TedBaxter the stupidest person]] in the whole game.
-->'''Ryder''': Hey, CJ, tell me why I didn't finish high school.
-->'''Carl''': 'Cause you been dealin' drugs, man. Since the age of ten. Ha, ha, ha.
-->'''Ryder''': Ha, ha, ha. Nope. That ain't it.
-->'''Carl''': 'Cause you put your hands on that teacher for wearin' Ballas colours. Ha, ha, ha.
-->'''Ryder''': Ha, ha, ha. But, nope. That ain't it either. It's cause I'm too intelligent for this shit. I am the real deal fool, oh, yeah. A genius.
* TheLancer: Technically, [[InvertedTrope you are this to Sweet early on]]. Later, Cesar is this to you.
* LampshadeHanging:
** One Mission for Ryder is to break into a National Guard Depot. After the mission cutscene a van waits outside for Ryder and CJ. CJ comments on that: "That van wasn't outside when I came in!"
** "This is all about speed and commitment. You got a GPS in the cab. Get to each set of map coordinates as quick as you can. Make it to all the coordinates then get the truck back here. Lose the truck and you fail." CJ's Reply: First, what's a GPS? Second, fail what? Third, who the fuck are you?"
* {{Leitmotif}}: A specific hip-hop tune is played whenever Officer Tenpenny and Pulaski show up.
* LeParkour: The first game in the series (and probably WideOpenSandbox games in general) that allowed your character to grab and jump over objects taller than himself. A godsend when avoiding police or getting across the city. It also provides a boost to immersion: it removes the jarring InsurmountableWaistHeightFence. However, you still can't climb ladders...
* LetsYouAndHimFight: Tenpenny claims to be setting the gangs against each other to weaken them.
* LevelUpAtIntimacy5: While it doesn't directly affect CJ's stats, dating the girlfriends bestows various abilities and bonuses to the PlayerCharacter, such as getting out of [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist the hospital]] or [[CardboardPrison police custody]] for free (and without losing his weapon inventory). Also, getting CJ's relationship progress with them to a certain value grants him access to [[{{Thememobile}} special vehicles]] and [[AndYourRewardIsClothes outfits]] which will affect his stats, particularly Sex Appeal. Here are a few notable examples:
** Attempting to date [[SexySecretary casino employee-by-day]]-{{Dominatrix}}-by-night Millie gets you a gimp outfit; almost certainly a ShoutOut to PulpFiction.
*** Dating Millie to a certain percentage of progress ([[VideogameCrueltyPotential or just killing her]]) is actually necessary to progress in the game, unlike the other girlfriends who can be completely ignored if the player chooses.
** Getting to 50% progress with [[WrenchWench mechanic Michelle]] gets you the keys to her Monster Truck.
** Reaching 100% progress with [[DatingCatwoman police officer Barbara]] gets you a [[DressingAsTheEnemy police uniform]], which allows you to enter most police stations in the state.
* LighterAndSofter: This game is in tone probably the lightest in the series. CJ [[hottip:*:at least in cutscenes]] and most of his allies are far closer to the antiheroic side of the scale than the protagonists from ''GTA III'' and ''GTA: Vice City'', the world is much lighter than ''GTA IV'' (still Crapsack, but amusingly so rather than depressingly so) and the story is lighthearted and fairly optimistic. Also unlike Claude and Tommy, CJ clearly has fun and smiles now and again.
* LocomotiveLevel: Three -- one where you rob a train by riding it and tossing boxes to Ryder, one where you're on a motorcycle keeping up alongside the train, and one where you're on a jetpack flying around the train. There are side-missions where you can drive a train, but nothing interesting happens. At all. Unless you go so recklessly fast that you derail the train.
* LudicrousGibs: An interesting case, as it's not one of the main reasons behind the [[HotCoffeeMinigame controversy]] [[DisposableSexWorker attached to]] [[MurderSimulators the game]]. It also occurs quite rarely, namely, in these instances:
** In "Reuniting The Families", you are being chased by a SWAT helicopter and a squad of motorcycle policemen. One of the biker cops jumps onto the hood of your car. Meanwhile, the chopper pilot, at a loss as to how to kill you after losing his door gunners, decides to tilt the chopper rotors-first towards your car. [[HelicopterBlender Guess what happens to the cop on the hood.]]
** You can also do this by driving over pedestrians with a Combine Harvester. Doing so causes the chute on the Harvester's rear normally used for ejecting bundles of hay to spew out a neat little cube of blood and guts.
* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: When you're being chased by the San Fierro PD, one of the pursuing officers may call out "You know, I can make this look like a suicide." And at the end of the game: [[spoiler:After a lengthy chase through half of Los Santos that results in Officer Tenpenny losing control of his firetruck and crashing off of the bridge overlooking the Grove Street cul-de-sac, CJ is about to finally shoot him dead when Sweet stops him, saying that there's no need to put a bullet in the dying Tenpenny. He's just a cop who killed himself in a traffic accident, with no one to blame.]]
* ManHug: Many -- CJ and his brother Sweet, CJ and his best friend Cesar.
* ManipulativeBastard: Officer Tenpenny, who's constantly getting people who are "beneath him" (like CJ) to do his dirty work for him, and he appears to take sadistic pleasure in manipulating those he has under his thumb.
* MeaningfulName: The Grove Street Families gang frontrunners all have special meanings to their nicknames.
** Ryder is a burglar and uses trucks to unload stolen goods from private property.
** Sweet spends most of the game conning CJ into doing most of his bidding (in other words, "sweet-talking,")
** CJ has no real nickname, just his initials, signifying his status as a [[{{AFGNCAAP}} player avatar]] with no strong personality traits.
** Smoke [[spoiler: [[FaceHeelTurn is Tenpenny's Dragon,]] [[XanatosGambit and helped orchestrate all of the game's events from killing CJ's mother on so that he could operate a crack-dealing empire.]]]] Not to mention his initials are "BS" which he is full of in more ways than one.
** The ''GTA III'' main character is finally given a name: Claude.
* {{MIB}}: [[spoiler:Toreno]] has the vibe. Definitely the "people" on the mysterious plane that shows up at your airfield.
* MinigameZone: Minigames are all over the place in San Andreas, but Las Venturas has the highest concentration.
* MyNameIsNotDurwood: OG Loc's name is ''not'' pronounced "Ogg Lock".
* NeighborhoodFriendlyGangsters: The [[MeaningfulName Grove Street Families]], especially Sweet and CJ, are very keen on traditional family values. Their allies, the Varrios Los Aztecas and the Mountain Cloud Boys Triads, fit as well.
* TheNineties: Specifically, 1992. Thug life, livin' in the 'hood, lowriders, [[{{Ptitlepr8pusaj}} N.W.A.]], PublicEnemy and IceCube on the radio.
* NintendoHard: GTA forums contain numerous accounts by players who have abandoned the game due to inability to complete a number of levels, with "Wrong Side of the Tracks" (a mission requiring the player to drive a bike alongside a train while Smoke, a terrible shot, attempts to shoot enemy gang member off the top) and the "Flight School" (aka "Learning to Fly") missions being declared impossible by some. The latter is affected particularly on PS2 and PC versions by poor controls, and forums include accounts of people making ''hundreds'' of attempts to complete just the third test (circling the airfield).
* NitroBoost: One of the two performance upgrades you can acquire for your car at the [[PimpedOutCar mod garages]]. Comes in the "Stored Nitro Charges" type. Also, the reward for finishing the Taxi Driver side missions includes unlimited nitrous on all taxis.
* NobleDemon: CJ may be willing to steal, murder, and do violent criminal acts, but he has a good side as well.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed:
** Madd Dogg is based on Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg and voiced by Ice T.
** One of the barbers looks and sounds exactly like Morgan Freeman, and another is pretty clearly Vanilla Ice (and has [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy hilariously bad street slang skills]], just like him).
** OG Loc's appearance is based heavily on Tupac Shakur, but his personality is anachronistically Ja Rule (apparently a leftover from when CJ was going to be voiced by Ja's then-rival 50 Cent)
** Ryder is very obviously Easy-E with the exaggeration turned UpToEleven.
** KurtCobain is commonly seen on the streets.
** A blonde woman dressed like SharonStone from BasicInstinct is seen everywhere.
** In the countryside one of the men seeing walking the streets looks like the villain from the original TheHillsHaveEyes. (This man also makes a cameo appearance in the game as [[spoiler:Millie's gimp]].)
** The scant details that the fictional band The Gurning Chimps are from "Madchester", Maccer's appearance and accent and the early '90s setting suggest that they are expys of TheStoneRoses. Or {{Oasis}}. Or The Happy Mondays, whose frontman provides the voice.
* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: Not only are the names of the cities parallels for real-world locations (Los Santos = Los Angeles, San Fierro = San Francisco, Las Venturas = Las Vegas), but the names of the districts also imitate those of their real-world counterparts (Compton = Ganton, Hollywood = Vinewood etc.). This leads into a bit of a CelebrityParadox when the music on the radio references places that the locations in the game are based on by their real names.
* NoGearLevel: Twice.
* NotTheFallThatKillsYou: This is the first ''GrandTheftAuto'' game to adopt a comparatively realistic set of JumpPhysics and the appropriate fall damage to accompany drops of varying distances. However, there are still some absurd methods of negating this damage, such as:
** SoftWater
** So long as you are in a vehicle, you will receive no damage from impacts, including falls from great heights. This becomes especially absurd when you fall while on a bicycle or motorbike. Even if the impact ejects you from the bike, you will only receive minor, if any damage.
* OfficeGolf: Woozie does this at the Triad's Las Venturas casino. His henchman makes sure his average remains low, despite Woozie being blind.
* OlympicSwimmer: And quite a drastic switch from the SuperDrowningSkills of all the preceding entries in the series at that.
* OmniscientMoralityLicense: Mike Toreno operates under one of these. And, as always, so do ''you''.
* OutlawCouple: Carl and Catalina are briefly this in the "Countryside" missions; the radio station even mentions your antics at one point. Catalina, being an AxCrazy psychopath, pretty much ruins their business (and physical) relationship in short order, though.
* OutrunTheFireball: A couple of times, but especially in one of the final missions in the game after you [[spoiler:kill Big Smoke]].
* PimpedOutCar: One of the many things to do in this game.
** RiceBurner: While all the mod garages give you the option to only customize your car's appearance and skip out on performance upgrades, Wheel Arch Angels in San Fierro technically specializes in these, given that they only accept import tuners of Asian makes and aforementioned "performance upgrades" are only limited to hydraulic suspensions ([[MundaneUtility which are actually useful for negotiating uneven terrain when deployed]]) and [[NitroBoost nitrous oxide]].
* PintsizedPowerhouse: While not immediately noticeable, it can be seen that CJ is much shorter than most pedestrians, standing a full head below some. However, nobody ever comments on his height, and even if they did, [[VideogameCrueltyPotential it's likely]] [[DisproportionateRetribution they'd regret]] [[OneManArmy it afterwards]].
* PlotTriggeringDeath: CJ comes back from Liberty City to attend his mother's funeral.
* PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy: OG Loc is pathetic as a "gangsta"[[hottip:*:he's black, but this trope covers that as well]]. He ''does'' manage to make a music career out of it for a while, but that's only because he had CJ steal Madd Dogg's rhyme book.
* PrettyInMink: Some of the women pedestrians walk around in a fur coat.
** Spoofed when a pimp claims he has loads of stuff made of mink.
** Also spoofed in [[GTARadio a radio ad]] about selling fur coats to guys in a mid-life crisis.
* PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo ([[{{Prequel}} Sort Of]]): The [[SilentProtagonist quiet player character]] from GrandTheftAutoIII (Claude) makes a cameo as the new boyfriend of CJ's ex-girlfriend, Catalina. CJ refers to him as "[[LampshadeHanging that mute asshole]]".
* ProdigalHero: CJ does it twice: first time, at the beginning of the game when he returns from Liberty City, and second time, when [[spoiler:Sweet gets arrested]] and spends most of the game in San Fierro and Las Venturas, only coming back to Los Santos near the end of the game.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Kendl gives one to CJ when he complains about the state of the garage he's received, telling him that he's wanted rewards without work, and can't see an opportunity when one falls into his lap.
* RecklessGunUsage: In [[GTARadio one of the radio segments]], [[TheAhnold Jack Howitzer]] threatens to kill host Billy Dexter unless he touches Jack's genitals (ItMakesSenseInContext... sorta) and then says he was just fooling around and that his gun was unloaded, only for it to [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace go off and kill Dexter]].
* ReverseMole: Late in the game, it is revealed that [[spoiler:Officer Jimmy Hernandez, who was never an overly willing participant of C.R.A.S.H. to begin with, has been feeding dirt on Tenpenny and Pulaski to Internal Affairs.]]
* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The bent cop Tenpenny works for an anti-gang unit C.R.A.S.H. -- Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums. The unit is (very loosely) based on a real life police counter-gang unit gone bad. In real life the Los Angeles Police Department was rocked by the C.R.A.S.H Rampart scandal.
** CJ's mother was killed in a drive-by from a green Sabre, [[spoiler:which is later found in a police garage.]] This is directly based off the black Chevrolet Impala SS in the drive-by which killed [[Music/TheNotoriousBIG Chris Wallace]], which although related happened in 1997.
** Towards the end of the game, [[spoiler:the riot that breaks out in Los Santos is reminiscent of the Rodney King beating trial riot]].
* RPGElements: The game has the player character's skill with guns increase as he used them, allows him to train in gyms to improve his strength, stamina and fighting skills, and has him having to eat occasionally in order to stay healthy. Fat and Muscle feed into CJ's relationships with his girlfriends. Progress in those relationship is increased in the dating mini-game. Compared to the [[GrandTheftAutoIV sequel]] the work required to keep on top of these elements is fairly light and often optional.
** In the case of CJ's physical appearance, however, Rockstar includes an out in that if CJ collects all 50 oysters hidden around the state, the appearance requirement for dating is removed. He still needs to avoid getting too fat otherwise it affects running and jumping; avoiding eating altogether eventually results in CJ losing muscle and health.
* SamuelLJackson: Voice of Frank Tenpenny, the BigBad.
* SatelliteCharacter: Kendl is for the most part CJ's Sister / Cesar's girlfriend.
* SceneryPorn: Being a sandbox game, ''San Andreas'' doesn't have much in the way of huge, time-consuming panoramic shots of the landscape, but the love and attention to detail is clear. [[FictionalCounterpart Las Venturas]] is, barring certain plot-and-legality-based changes and scale, almost perfectly accurate to the Strip and Fremont Street in real life.
* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: Officers Tenpenny and Pulaski. And Toreno. And CJ.
* SequelEscalation: If you were expecting more of the same ''GTAIII'' / ''Vice City'' gameplay, only set in the '90s and with RPG elements, boy were you in for a surprise.
* ShoutOut:
** In one parking garage, you can take what appears to be Kaneda's bike from ''{{Akira}}''.
** There's also the [[Series/TheATeam Mr.T]] hair and beard you can get. And The Lil' Probe Inn? And KurtCobain.
** Certain [=NPCs=] look like WillSmith.
** Look at a picture of [[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20060919024546/gtawiki/images/1/1e/Ryder-GTASA.jpg Ryder]], then a picture of [[http://www.layoutlocator.com/graphics/dldimg/c431c27a555841ff20a7dea259acaa7d_e3102807042323.gif Eric Wright]], a.k.a. EazyE, a pioneer of {{gangsta rap}}.
** The katana's mere existance in this game is at least partially a ''PulpFiction'' refence.
** Blink and you'll miss it: During the convenience store/tanker robbery with Catalina, the convenience store's bulletproof outer glass has a logo in the corner that says [[MaxPayne Max Pane]]. You can see it most clearly just at the end of the mission's opening cutscene.
** Clucking Bell may be a reference to ''{{Blackadder}}''; at a stressful moment Edmund says he's thinking of [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar "a phrase that rhymes with [it]"]]
** In the mission "Air Raid", you have to gun down RC planes that are coming to bomb Zero's antennas. After you gun a few down, Zero may call out "[[StarWars Great kid, don't get cocky!]]"
** In one of the [[PimpedOutCar car-modding garages]], one of the custom paintjobs for [[http://www.grandtheftwiki.com/File:Sultan-GTASA-modified-front.jpg the Sultan]] is very similar to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaru_World_Rally_Team#Vehicle_development one seen on the Subaru Impreza]] used by the company to participate in the World Rally Championship.
** The mission "Just Business" features a large truck breaking off of a bridge over a flood control channel into the channel below. It looks suspiciously [[hottip:*:read: overwhelmingly]] like a scene from ''[[TheTerminator Terminator 2]]'', released one year before the game is set.
** Certain [=NPCs=] are dressed as Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s character in BoyzNTheHood.
** One mission for [[TheStoner The Truth]] which has CJ stealing a combine harvester from a farm run by survivalists [[MythologyGag is entitled]] BodyHarvest.
* SignsOfDisrepair: A billboard shows a girl drinking a bottle of milky-white soda. At the end of a mission, CJ's out-of-control car changes its message from "A taste of what's to come!" to "A taste of come!"
* SoundtrackDissonance: Can happen at anytime when you listen to the radio while driving, but there is also at least one deliberate example: When you have to go to Liberty City to execute a hit in a restaurant (i.e. it turns into an [[MoreDakka action packed gunfight]]), quiet classical music is playing in said restaurant.
* StandBackHello: The San Fierro Police are trained social workers. That means they try to "Open a constructive dialog" while beating Carl with their nightsticks.
* StealthBasedMission: Some of the storyline missions and the "Burglar" side mission follow this formula. They are generally not too difficult, and actually quite engaging, as they take cues from [[{{Manhunt}} another infamous game by Rockstar]].
* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: Depending on the player and a little luck, this can happen. For example, CJ could be on one of The Truth's missions, in the hippe van and high as a kite while "In A Gadda Da Vida" by Iron Butterfly is playing on the radio.
** Also, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9lEr53rXaI this]] one might qualify.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: In one of the very first missions, Ryder puts his cap backwards and goes to rob the local Pizza Stack. But when the cashier recognizes him due to his height and voice (and, obviously, his PaperThinDisguise):
--> '''Ryder:''' Give up the money! This' a raid!
--> '''Cashier:''' Ryder! Not this again!
--> '''Ryder:''' It ain't me, foo'!
--> '''Cashier:''' I don't know anyone so small! I feel sorry for your dad!
* TakeThat: Quite a few at ''Driv3r'' and ''True Crime: Streets of LA'', most notably a billboard in Los Santos with "True Grime: Street Cleaners". Also, at the War Memorial in San Fierro, at the top and bottom are tombstones that read "R.I.P Opposition 1997-2004". Also [[HilariousInHindsight Hilarious in Hindsight]], due to ''[[SaintsRow Saints Row 2]]''.
* TankGoodness: A series staple, the Rhino, returns with upgraded speed and handling as well as a new look based on the M1 Abrams. Also, one of the rarest vehicles in the game, a bulletproof SWAT tank could be acquired in the final mission [[spoiler: where you use it to break into Big Smoke's Crack Palace]].
* TheDogBitesBack: [[spoiler: When Big Bear]] finally makes it clear that he's had it with [[spoiler: B-Dup's]] abuse and [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome punches his face in.]]
** Also, [[spoiler:Hernandez turning on Tenpenny and Pulaski, who had repeatedly treated him very poorly]].
* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy:
** The police: one can evade arrest by getting a haircut, or by changing shoes. Or putting on a pair of 'joke glasses', the type with fake nose and eyebrows attached. Or going into a ''gun shop'' and waiting. How does that look on their report?
** The military guards. It is really easy to break into Area 69 and other supposedly well guarded places because of how stupid the guards behave. They don't mind when their colleagues get shot right next to them and if you run fast enough they even forget about you after you've stood right in front of you. Not to mention that they are completely deaf. You can fire your M4 all you want and they won't even raise an eyebrow.
* TheMafiya: CJ and Big Smoke butt heads with Russian arms dealers in an early mission. Whether they were true bratvas or just gopniki is rather unclear.
* {{Thememobile}}: The Truth's "Mothership", a repainted camper van, is a great example. Several other major characters have their own vehicles, but for the most part they're only distinguished by a unique license plate.
* ThemeTuneRap: CJ's voice actor is Young Maylay, an up-and-coming rapper. His debut album, "San Andreas: The Mix Tapes", features a song that has him rapping about the game in character as CJ.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: As the game progresses the player gains access to very powerful weaponry and vehicles, which can make a number of missions a cakewalk. The epitome of this is the Rhino, a near-indestructable tank, which can be used on everything from the game's Vigilante side-mission to running over hapless enemy gang members during the gang warfare stage of the game.
* TheStoner: The Truth and Ryder. A few of the recurring characters from ''Vice City'', as well.
* [=~This Is For Emphasis, Bitch!~=]
* TheTriadsAndTheTongs
* ThrowItIn: The random plane crashes were a glitch Rockstar discovered during beta testing, due to a spawned plane's randomly set trajectory sometimes intersecting with the ground. They found the crashes so funny and appropriate for the comedic CrapsackWorld setting that they left the glitch alone.
* ToastedBuns: Averted with the Black Project Jetpack, which has outboard shoulder-level thrusters. It is also a very practical vehicle to use; it is useful in collecting the [[GottaCatchEmAll hidden Horseshoes in Las Venturas]] and plays a central part in [[Awesome/VideoGameLevels one of the game's most memorable missions]].
* TrashTalk: CJ does this all the time in combat. "Oh, look, a gun." * Blam*
* TrueCompanions: The group CJ builds during the course of the game is large, diverse and bound together like family.
* SuperDrowningSkills: The first game in the series to [[AvertedTrope avert]] this. Unless you're an NPC character controlled by the AI whose name isn't CJ. Then you die the second you hit even a shallow pond.
* UpdatedRerelease: After the game was pulled from stores after the [[HotCoffeeMinigame Hot Coffee]] incident and the MediaWatchdogs had a field day with it, Rockstar tried to justify a rerelease of the game (while making the "offensive" bit truly inaccessible to keep the game rated M) by including a "behind the scenes" movie and a 30 minute cut scene showing events that occurred before the beginning of the game. Some say that some glitches and bugs were also fixed. PC modders tend to avoid the updated PC version as it made modding, well, harder.
* UrbanLegendOfZelda: Persistent rumors had it that Bigfoot is in the woods somewhere. It is a mod, and not a very visually impressive one at that. Similar rumors, disproven, held that it's possible to find aliens wandering the desert around Area 69 and Leatherface from ''Texas Chainsaw Massacre'' around The Panopticon. Another rumor involving the woods is the odd beat-up cars found in the Back O' Beyond, dubbed the "ghost cars", due to one of them rolling down a hill upon spawning, spooking some players.
* VerbalTic: T-Bone ends each and every sentence with "Ese", to sound more "cholo". Cesar Vialpando also does this, though less often, and also ends his phrases with "holmes" and "vato". (A number of pedestrians can be heard using these phrases in their conversations, too).
* ViceCity: Well, Vice ''State''.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: A staple and much of the point of the whole GTA series, but it especially comes into play here as an odd case of GameplayAndStorySegregation. CJ is, for the most part, presented within the story as a ruthless but well-meaning AntiHero rather than a VillainProtagonist, but the player's still free to go on genocidal rampages in between each mission.
* VillainousBreakdown: Both Tenpenny and Pulaski undergo one late in the game, because [[spoiler:the FBI has taken an interest in their involvement with the criminal underworld. Tenpenny is the one most visibly effected by it, as he goes from being smug, superior and cocky to edgy, paranoid and prone to outbursts. And when it's revealed that fellow officer Hernandez has been ratting them out... well, Tenpenny's reaction isn't pretty.]]
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: [[spoiler:Big Smoke]] appears as a respected public figure on the news in latter parts of the game, encouraging (of all things) to keep the streets drug free while building orphanages. Lazlow, of all people, remarks on this during a radio interview...
-->'''Lazlow''': [[spoiler:Big Smoke]] is doing a lot for the community. Or ''to'' it.
* ViolationOfCommonSense: There's one point where you jump out of a moving plane, onto another moving plane, open the door and start shooting everyone in sight. Impossibility notwithstanding, who the hell would ever think of trying to do this just for a second?
** CJ himself lampshades some of these missions himself occasionally, especially during the Toreno missions, in which he would have just walked away and never looked back if it wasn't for the fact that Toreno happens to be the key to getting Sweet out of jail.
* VirtualPaperDoll: For the first time in the series, you are given a highly customizable character in the form of CJ -- you can make him skinny, buff or fat, change his hairstyle and facial hair, and buy him a wide variety of clothes.
* WarpWhistle: The trains and airports.
* WarriorPoet: OG Loc refers to himself as one during a radio interview and it apparently is the image he tries to create. It doesn't quite work out that well.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Tenpenny claims that his approach to the job is about "percentages" and that his philosophy calls for overlooking some crime to achieve a greater good. It appears that he believes what he says, but in reality he's rotten to the core.
* WhamEpisode: "The Green Sabre". Not only are [[spoiler: your best friends Ryder and Smoke revealed as working with the enemies (C.R.A.S.H. and the Ballas), but your brother Sweet is shot and arrested, Grove Street goes to shit, you lose all the territory you'd captured up to this point, and you're taken out in the middle of nowhere to do an errand for Tenpenny and Pulaski. Just... Holy shit.]]
* WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife: CJ says a variation of this after [[spoiler: killing his friend-turned-crack-pusher Big Smoke]].
* WhatTheHellPlayer:
** You can have fellow gang members ride around in your car. Driving recklessly (excessive speed, driving off a cliff, etc) will result in them calling you out on it. The best is "Cars can't fly, you ''bitch!''"
** The "dates" respond to crazy conduct, as well. Police officer Barbara is prone to scream "This is not responsible driving!" if you speed (Katie appears turned on by it, however, even though your relationship status meter actually drops). Even worse, if you use the attack button while trying to give flowers you'll get a sharp message about abusing your girlfriend and the relationship status will go down.
** When CJ crashes into cars, he tends to shout insults at them. e.g. "did you buy your license!?" or, "Oh, you asshole, my shit!" While he is technically insulting the driver of the other car, some of the lines could be interpreted as insults to the player's own driving abilities.
* WhereItAllBegan: The last few missions take place in Los Santos again. The final cut scene takes right in Grove Street, where CJ started his adventure after coming back home.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Cesar is afraid of heights, as seen in a mission where he and CJ have to steal a car out of a cargo ship by lifting it out with a crane. CJ gets up in the crane while Cesar stays on the ground.
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim:
** In the mission "High Noon", [[spoiler: Officer Pulaski reveals that he's wanted to just shoot CJ from the beginning. The only thing stopping him was Officer Tenpenny, who kept coming up with reasons to keep CJ alive]].
** CJ could just shoot every villain near the beginning.
** Same with every villain towards CJ as well, an example being [[spoiler: when you first meet Smoke, he could have just easily bashed CJ's head in, seeing his true nature and all that. Big Smoke's approach may be justified, though, in that he may have preferred to convince CJ to come to his side a la [[StarWars Emperor Palpatine to Luke Skywalker]], especially when Sweet early was the guy heading the Families and CJ at that point was his [[TheLancer lancer]].]]
* WhyWereBummedCommunismFell: A couple of missions early in the game deal with this. In one, you have to stop an arms dealer from the post-Soviet black market who's been supplying the Ballas gang.
* WideOpenSandbox: Once all areas are unlocked, the player has access to a huge, open-ended, "living" region to explore, with widely varying geography, cities, and waterways. Even in the early stages of the game, when only Los Santos and countryside to the north is available, this still provides the player with more exploration space than most previous GTA games combined (and a cheat code, coupled with CJ's newfound ability to swim, makes it possible to explore the complete state from the start).
* {{Yandere}}: Catalina, particularly once she starts falling for you.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler: Tenpenny has Carl retrieve a dossier during his time in Las Venturas. Right afterwards, he has Carl dig his own grave, intending to have Pulaski kill him.]]
* YouKnowImBlackRight: Played with. CJ has been working with Wu Zi Mu (or "Woozie"), a Triad leader who tries to hide the fact that he's blind, but fails spectacularly. When CJ responds to Woozie's big reveal by saying "No shit!", he then asks if Woozie knows he's black. The Triad's response? "I'm blind, Carl, not stupid."
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