"Decaf" GTA: San Andreas Available Oct 18

By Geoff Duncan Published September 23, 2005

Take Two Interactive’s Rockstar Games publishing arm has announced it will resume sales of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the PlayStation 2 gaming console on October 18, 2005. The new "special" edition of the game will include a DVD with game backstory and a documentary film entitled Sunday Driver.

The new edition of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will not include the now-infamous hidden "Hot Coffee" segment in which a player’s character could simulate sex with a female game character. Take-Two was forced to pull the game from retail distribution in mid-2005 when tinkerers found and exposed the segment, causing the Entertainment Software Ratings Board to revoke the game’s "mature" classification and re-rate it AO or "adults only." Most retailers will not stock AO games.

Recommended Videos

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was the best-selling video game of 2004; its predecessors were the best-selling games of 2001 and 2002. Despite these successes, Take-Two Interactive posted a $30 million loss for its fiscal quarter ending in July 2005 due to costs associated with withdrawing and reworking the San Andreas game.

Take-Two’s Rockstar Game’s also announced it will release a Grand Theft Auto trilogy pack for Microsoft’s Xbox gaming console, including Grand Theft Auto 3,Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Former Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Gaming

The next Xbox may be backward compatible with every past Xbox generation, if publishers agree

A leaked memo details Microsoft's next console could play games from every Xbox generation, but there's a catch.

A leaked internal memo suggests the next Xbox console, codenamed Project Helix, could play games from every generation the company has ever released. If true, that would make it the largest game library on any console, especially since it's also said to support PC games.

Backward compatibility for four console generations

Gaming

Xbox may have a surprisingly smart plan for keeping physical games alive

Xbox’s leaked roadmap could rescue your old games from the disc-drive grave

Book, Publication, Comics

The fate of physical game discs seems to be set in stone, with an all-digital library becoming increasingly inevitable. Microsoft, though, may at least give Xbox owners a way to bring their shelves full of physical games along for the journey.

A leaked Microsoft roadmap sent to game publishers details the planned rollout of Xbox’s Disc-to-Digital program alongside a much larger backwards-compatibility push. The document reportedly targets August for general availability, October for the full launch of original Xbox games on PC, and a gradual Xbox 360 rollout beginning in 2027.

Gaming

Pwnage’s new gaming mouse lets users adjust click force and travel with a screwdriver

The 49-gram Pwnage Vanta also features a movable sensor and 8,000Hz wireless polling

Computer Hardware, Electronics, Hardware

Gaming mice usually let you adjust sensitivity, polling rate, and button assignments through software. Pwnage’s new Vanta goes a step further by letting you physically change how each primary click feels.

The company describes the Vanta as the world’s first lightweight gaming mouse with mechanically adjustable clicks. Turning a pair of screws changes how much force and movement the left and right buttons require, without replacing the switches or adding more electronics.