Grand Theft Auto San Andreas escapes to Windows Phone, but without Xbox Live

Last November, gaming giant Rockstar Games surprised us all by announcing that their mobile pot of Playstation 2/Xbox striking Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas would be coming to Windows Phone viii alongside the iOS and Android versions. A lot of the larger console publishers stop up skipping Windows Phone with their mobile ports, so the announcement of a Windows Phone version seemed to prove that our platform has reached a new level of market place penetration and acceptance.

On December 11, Rockstar announced that San Andreas would release the following week. But then the release date rolled around for iOS and Android with no Windows Telephone version in sight. Rockstar went on to late explicate that our version would be coming presently. How presently? Here we are a calendar month later, and San Andreas has arrived at last! But exactly which Windows Telephone devices will it run on, and does information technology support MOGA controllers? And why doesn't it have Xbox features? Find out afterward the intermission!

Supported devices?

Displayed prominently at the top of the game'due south Store folio is this ominous warning:

"PLEASE Annotation: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is only supported on the following devices: Nokia Lumia: 1520, 1320, 822, 820, 810, HTC: 8XT."

Nobody with whatsoever sense expected San Andreas to run on 512 MB RAM devices like the Nokia Lumia 520 - developers ofttimes struggle to get technically demanding games running on low retentiveness devices. Then the exclusion of the 520 and its brethren comes as no surprise.

What is foreign is the exclusion of several devices with at least ane GB of RAM, starting with the Lumia 920. Because that the 920 was Nokia's flagship phone in 2022, San Andreas' failure to run on it would come every bit a blow. Nor is the Lumia 1020 (which bears twice the RAM: 2 GB) on the supported devices listing. Does that mean that 2 of Nokia's most pop and powerful phones tin't play this Grand Theft Car?

Luckily, that'south not the case. As yous can tell from the photo and video in this very article, San Andreas downloads and runs merely fine on the Lumia 920. We can only assume the 1020 plays the game every bit well. Possibly these devices (and their variants) have compatibility problems later in the game. Either that, or Rockstar's team simply left out a few compatible Windows Phones by fault.

Other reader-confirmed compatible devices include: HTC 8X, Lumia 925, 928, and 1020, Samsung ATIV S.

Note that when you beginning download the game, you're just downloading a twenty MB installer. The installer than downloads the residual of the two.five GB game. The advantage of this approach is that it appears to circumvent the demand for 4x the actress space that Windows Telephone 8 usually requires for game and installations. You should be able to install San Andreas with every bit little as 3 GB of complimentary storage. Allow us know your experience in the comments!

Screen time-outs will interrupt the download process, just thankfully the installer supports resuming. Notwithstanding, I recommend turning off screen time-outs while downloading (if your phone supports it) to brand things get smoother.

Controls and MOGA back up (or lack thereof)

San Andreas offers several control options, such as a traditional classic control scheme and an adapted one. Either manner, players control protagonist CJ's movement with a virtual thumbstick northward the left side of the screen. Activity buttons such as attack and "have vehicle" appear on the right side of the screen. Button positions can even be customized to your liking. After securing a vehicle, you tin can choose between three command methods for steering.

The touch controls piece of work very well, and anyone who plays console-style titles like those produced by Gameloft will experience right at home with them. But no bear upon scheme can ever match the responsiveness of a concrete controller – non when the game was originally designed for controllers. Hence many of us hoped for MOGA controller support, especially since the Android version of the game supports information technology.

Sadly, the Windows Phone version of San Andreas does not work with MOGA controls at nowadays. Developers tell united states of america that calculation MOGA controls is fairly piece of cake and painless, and so nosotros can merely assume that Rockstar's Windows Phone team did non know almost MOGA's Windows Telephone support. The MOGA website'south product pages and packaging make admittedly no mention of Windows Phone, after all – something I lamented in my MOGA Pro Controller review.

San Andreas is a massive game, and thus volition likely require a few championship updates for bug fixes and optimizations. There's nevertheless a adventure of Rockstar calculation MOGA support in a championship update. Whether or not you own a MOGA controller nonetheless, please email mouthoff@rockstargames.com and tweet @MOGAanywhere and @RockstarSupport to permit them know nosotros desire MOGA back up in San Andreas for Windows Phone!

No Xbox Live, no deject

Woe to Achievement hunters: the Windows Phone version of San Andreas does not support Xbox Live features. The original Xbox version of the game didn't offer Achievements either, so it's not like we're losing out on something that people got on other platforms. Only Grand Theft Auto IV and 5 on Xbox 360 do both take full reward of Xbox Live, so it'due south a shame that Rockstar chose to skip out on Xbox Live features for the Windows Phone version.

The decision to publish San Andreas as an indie championship is emblematic of the problems Xbox Alive on Windows Phone has faced for the last couple of years. Considering Xbox Alive certification is more fourth dimension consuming and costly than iOS's Game Heart and Android'southward Google Play, many publishers - even those with strong relationships with Microsoft - choose to forego Xbox Live on Windows Telephone. Microsoft yet seems to be securing a few Xbox Alive releases hither and there, but those releases are few and far between. Nor does the big MS make whatsoever real efforts to promote the few Xbox Live games that do sneak onto their mobile platform.

The lack of Achievements is one matter... After all, iOS and Android don't get Xbox Live Achievements either. But the Windows Telephone version of the game lacks the cloud salvage support that the other versions offer. Save data seems to be stored solely on the phone, which ways you'll lose it if you switch devices (equally I'one thousand almost to do) or have to reinstall the game for any reason. Combined with the lack of MOGA back up, it feels like we got slightly short shrift on this one. Not that we shouldn't be grateful for Rockstar'south support! Only Windows Phone users do need to tweet and email Rockstar to ask for those missing features.

Get your grand theft on

G Theft Auto: San Andreas is a massive open-world game that takes place in a fictional California setting in the year 1992. The game tells a thrilling crime story, filled with violence, expose, drug use, and harsh language. The story will take dozens of hours to complete, and with optional side missions and races you could easily get a hundred hours of gameplay from this one.

The game offers a number of graphical settings that let players to tweak the game'south appearance to their tastes. Want a huge draw altitude? Yous can do that, if you lot plow the item down a little. At default settings on a Lumia 920, the frame rate is smoother than any of Gameloft's 3D Windows Telephone viii games. The beefier Lumia 1520 should be able to brandish even more detail without losing as well many frames.

If y'all crave console-style games on the go or just love M Theft Auto (and your phone can handle it), don't miss San Andreas on Windows Phone. You'll live without the Achievements, I hope.

Thanks to SlimAndShady, TNTJudbud, and everyone else who tipped u.s. well-nigh the game's release!

• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – Windows Phone 8 (1 GB of RAM or more) – 2.five GB – $six.99 – Store Link

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/grand-theft-auto-san-andreas-arrives-windows-phone

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