And actually, at the moment I'm fresh out of San Fierro, the game's second major metropolitan area. I'm in the Toreno missions, which seem to center mainly in the desert area that precedes Las Venturas (city #3.) I really liked the change in CJ's circle of friends in San Fierro... sort of a Scooby gang of toughs: Cesar, Woozie, and the Truth (what happened to him anyway? Haven't seen him in a while.)

I've saved almost 20 photos of my journey so far - which is enough to half fill a standard PS2 memory card, absurdly. I'm a sucker for games with cameras. I don't know of any way to snag them off the card, so I snapped some quickie Hiptop2 pics. (I'm sure there's some stupid PC/PS2 peripheral that would do it, but I foresee two problems with that: third party PS2 junk and Windows.) Enjoy my little virtual slideshow trip. You can click the thumbnail for a large version, but it's usually not worth the effort since the camera is lo-fi and the lighting is bad. That moire effect isn't as bad in the big versions though.

Here's a pair of arcade games, found inside the Green Bottle in Los Santos, right up the street from Mom's. Although it's nice that you can actually play these games, they are all awful. Does save high scores though.

Some ugly guys enjoying a meal at a Pizza Box somewhere in the countryside. I had popped in for a salad myself and was struck by how hideous that one pinhead is.

This guy is floating. I suppose this means the game is buggy. This was also in one of those northern Red County towns.

This is Helena, who is always practicing at a rooftop shooting range in Blueberry, Red County. She is dating material, but she wants you as skinny as possible. I stopped working out for days to drop my muscle weight... and now she won't go out with me because of the way I dress. A woman's perogative, I suppose. I have no idea what kind of clothes she wants, even after wasting an hour trying on different outfits and running back to talk to her.

The view from sunrise over Mount Chiliad, the highest altitude in San Andreas. There's a mountain bike race mission up there, which I failed when I missed a hairpin turn and dived down the mountain instead. Long way down.

I hadn't been in San Fierro more than a couple minutes when I heard a loud noise behind me. I turned around and saw this WWII plane crashing into the street in a ball of flame. It skidded on past me, shoving cars around... and I had the presence of mind to pull out the camera. Crazy.

Some Vice City action figures for sale in Zero's R/C shop. (He also has Manhunt figures, but who would want those?) Zero's place holds the game's worst mission. Probably the worst mission in the franchise's history: Supply Lines. You have to pilot a remote control plane around San Fierro and kill 5 couriers (some in vans, some on bikes.) Should be fun, but Rockstar managed to wring all the enjoyment out of it by: A) giving the plane terrible, floaty, touchy, non-intuitive controls, B) allowing the couriers to run off in random directions - which can make the mission absolutely impossible thanks to C) limited fuel. You're expected to drift a lot so as not to waste gas. Just maybe I could forgive them this horror if they allowed you to drift on in mid-air even after running out of fuel... but no, as soon as the fuel meter hits the end, your flight fails. Ugh. I'm happy it's more or less an optional mission.

Here's the famous mystery map, found inside Mike Toreno's cabin. Rumors have it that each dot in the map marks some sort of bizarre event - verified by the one in lower left that sits over the spot where phantom car wrecks appear every night in the early morning. But Rockstar has publicly debunked the theory. That's not much fun, is it. They also claim there's no Bigfoot in San Andreas.

Other notable memories of San Fierro:

• The crack factory with workers in bathing suits and gas masks.
  
• The "snakehead" guy from the enemy Da Nang gang who I killed with one stroke of my katana.
  
• Michelle, the mechanic babe who is never ever around when I want to go on a date.
  
• T-Bone Mendez saying "Mike can hear gulls!"
  
• The cutscene with CJ and Wu Zi playing video games; Woozie is blind, and winning.
  
• Trying (and failing) to take the collectible SF snapshots before the game activates the photo markers. And even then the marking points are invisible.
  
• Hearing "Hey Cesar, the yay is leaving for San Fierro, right?" twice a week.
  
• Realizing that CTR adds new radio content gradually, including the return of GTA favorites Lazlow and Fernando Martinez!