<Tr> <Th> Genre (s) </Th> <Td> Action - adventure </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Mode (s) </Th> <Td> Single - player, multiplayer </Td> </Tr> <P> Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is an action - adventure video game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games . It was released on 26 October 2004 for PlayStation 2, and on 7 June 2005 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox . A high definition remastered version received a physical release for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on 30 June 2015 and 1 December 2015, respectively . It is the seventh title in the Grand Theft Auto series, and the first main entry since 2002's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City . It was released on the same day as the handheld game Grand Theft Auto Advance for Game Boy Advance . </P> <P> Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is played from a third - person perspective in an open world environment, allowing the player to interact with the game world at their leisure . The game is set within the fictional U.S. state of San Andreas, which is heavily based on California and Nevada . The state of San Andreas consists of three metropolitan cities: Los Santos, based on Los Angeles; San Fierro, based on San Francisco; and Las Venturas, based on Las Vegas . The single - player story follows Carl "CJ" Johnson, who returns home to Los Santos from Liberty City after his mother's murder . Carl finds his old friends and family in disarray, and over the course of the game he attempts to re-establish his old gang, clashes with corrupt cops, and gradually unravels the truth behind his mother's murder . The plot is based on multiple real - life events in Los Angeles, including the rivalry between the Bloods, Crips, and Hispanic street gangs, the 1980s crack epidemic, the LAPD Rampart scandal, and the 1992 Los Angeles riots . </P>

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