History YMMV / GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas

* NarmCharm: A lot of people enjoyed making CJ look as silly as possible during cutscenes, and they were disappointed that the clothing customization disappeared in [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV the next numbered GTA game]].

** Taking over gang territories is a simple enough affair... about 95% of the time. The remaining five percent require you to take over strips of territory that are either the size of a building or a single strip of sidewalk. There is ONE tiny street controlled by Ballas that's incredibly hard to see due to its size and color issues in the [=PS2=] era. Many a frustrated players searched helplessly for that last bit of territory. Later versions of the game made the little strip easier to see. Taking over these tiny areas is also complicated by the fact that you need to make the requisite kills inside the territory to trigger the gang war. There are three territories (the area west of the Jefferson Motel, the area around the 24/7 in Temple, and the portion of the bridge connecting East Los Santos and East Beach which is located in Los Flores) that combine both small size and low pedestrian spawning, so starting a gang where in those three territories is an absolute pain.

** While the original PC version is critically acclaimed due to the much faster loading and support for custom soundtrack, it missed the color filter and proto-post-processing effects of the UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation 2}} version despite the readme file mentioning "heat haze". The "Frame Limiter" option isn't capping to 30 FPS like the readme suggests, but instead capping to 24 FPS, making the game choppy even on high-end PC released years after the game. Turning it off will make gameplay smoother, but may introduce broken gameplay elements due it rely on 24-30 frame rate mark. There is also the issue of the game's controls not being optimized for a PC experience; the controls were poorly ported from gamepad to keyboard, making several segments such as flying unnecessarily hard, although it's possible for controller users to install [[https://gtaforums.com/topic/562765-ginput GInput]] for modern controller support with the [=PS2=] or ''[=GTA=] IV''-styled controls. The Steam re-release of the game also made the egregious mistake of not including fixes from the previous patches the old version got while adding very barebones controller support, and later removing a fraction of the music due to expired licenses like in the mobile and remastered ports.[[note]]Although in Steam's case, it's later can reverted back to the original retail version thanks to this [[https://gtaforums.com/topic/927016-san-andreas-downgrader/ downgrading tool]].[[/note]] The problems inherent in the original PC port (that is still largely played to this day due to true mod support) are largely fixed by the [=SilentPatch=], available [[http://www.gtagarage.com/mods/show.php?id=25368 here]], fixing the broken widescreen support with Widescreen Fix [[https://thirteenag.github.io/wfp#gtasa here]], and restoring the original skies with the heat haze can also be fixed by [=SkyGfx=] [[https://gtaforums.com/topic/750681-skygfx-ps2-xbox-and-mobile-graphics-for-pc/ here]].

** For the game's 10th Anniversary, Rockstar out of nowhere removed the original UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}} port that was downloadable on the UsefulNotes/{{Xbox 360}} store and replaced it with an "HD remaster" version... that was actually a port of the ''mobile'' version, and a sloppy one at that. Even ignoring the graphical and frame-rate issues that come from this kind of port, the audio randomly cuts out during cutscenes. Some songs were cut (due to licensing issues), yet if you're willing to deal with the missing tracks, how they were removed caused the radio stations to bug out in bizarre ways. It also introduced game-breaking bugs and crashes on various missions that can make the game virtually unplayable. The UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation 3}} also has this version, which also replaced its downloadable [=PlayStation=] 2 version, and while it's ''slightly'' more playable than the Xbox 360 version, it also introduced its own unique problems that didn't exist in the original [=PlayStation=] 2 version or the Xbox 360 port.

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** Is Sweet a {{Jerkass}} who ran his brother out of town, blaming him for his little brother's death, and disrespects said brother for trying to get his family out of the ghetto instead of acknowledging that the glory days are long gone [[spoiler:and is ungrateful for CJ both getting him out of jail and making something of himself instead of staying in Grove]] and deserves everything he gets, or a stand-up guy who cares deeply about his home, family and friends, and wants to get everything back to what it was in the [[GloryDays good old days]] and ends up in a deep pile of crap he didn't deserve because of it? [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q3XcI6s0GU This video analyzes his attitude]].

** There's also CJ's relationship with Ryder. While the latter acts as an asshole towards CJ and doesn't give him much respect, as well as being a bit envious of CJ at times, it's easy for anyone to interpret Ryder's behavior towards CJ more as ToughLove rather than any actual hatred since like Sweet, Ryder too wasn't happy about CJ leaving for Liberty City five years prior, and let's face it, [[JerkassHasAPoint pretty much everything Ryder said about CJ was true.]] [[spoiler:This is what also causes most fans to interpret that Ryder's betrayal was nothing more than an afterthought to find some way to write him out of the story somehow.]]
** Was Cesar's statement about [[spoiler:Ryder trying to have sex with Kendl really true? If so, was it attempted rape? Or did Cesar just simply say that to make Carl feel better after showing genuine remorse for killing Ryder? The fact that it was randomly brought up without any evidence or even tiny hints just makes it more confusing.]]

** Why did Hernandez [[spoiler:sell out Tenpenny and Pulaski]]? Was it out of guilt over his actions, or to get back at them? Likewise, [[spoiler:was his tackling Pulaski an attempt to take Pulaski down himself, or to give C.J. a chance to deal with Pulaski and Tenpenny in Hernandez's stead]]? Additionally, [[spoiler:was he actually the snitch in C.R.A.S.H., or did Tenpenny kill him out of paranoia]]?

** CJ's somewhat LighterAndSofter personality in comparison to the other protagonist has led to many debates over whether it's a good thing or not.
** As well as how fans are divided between those who like CJ's talkativeness and those who didn't like his [[SirSwearsALot frequent swearing]] and [[TrashTalk trash talking]] tendencies during the game compared to the silent Claude and the stoic Tommy, to the point that some of the latter camp made a mod to make CJ silent outside of mission cutscenes.