Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PlayStation 2, 2004)

When you talk about Groundbreaking, Grand Theft Auto 3 was the most Groundbreaking game in this series. It introduced gamers to a large environment where you can virtually do anything you want. When you talk about polish, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is as polished as you can get in the GTA series (besides graphics, which doesn't seem to have changed too much given GTA3 came out in 2001). The storyline, subplots, vehicles, environments are all bigger, bolder and have made national headlines in certain notorious and infamous minigames.

This is a game for adults, and it has always been since GTA3, so there is no shortage of sex, crime, drugs, violence, and virtual death and destruction. You can now pilot helicopters, private jets, motorcycles, bicycles, ice cream trucks, fire engines, police cars, and of course fast fast cars.

It covers a sprawling locale including what accounts to the real cities of San Francisco, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. There's so much detail that it even includes the desert and redwood back country of California. You can even become a trucker to make money.

Your character changes as well, adding tattoos, hair styles, clothes as well as weight lifting, exercise, and eating; chiseling your body or allowing your body to fatten out into the crime boss that you are.

Guns and missions are varied, and the plot can get pretty confusing with all the characters introduced. But it's a great gaming experience, as long as you can get over the video game violence and accidental deaths of pedestrians as you're running away from the mafia in your convertible.

If you can only own 1 game on the PS2, and you're over 18, this is the game to own.