[Max Cow Disease]

What a remarkable game. This is one of those pinnacle titles that comes out only every so often that ends up ultimately destroying your life and gobbling every waking moment for a short/medium-term period.

The effort that's been invested into portraying detail this time around is staggering. That was also the case with GTA IV, but it has been amped up here and is presented on an even huger scale, given the size of San Andreas' map. Literally everywhere you go in this massive world, something is going on, someone can be shot, something can be jumped/stolen/destroyed/explored/humped, etc.

Everything in the game is near flawless so far. Everything feels a lot more "substantial"- even the firing of weapons and the movement of your character, physics-wise. My favourite moment up until now is landing one of the planes near the top of Mt. Chilead, shouting at a couple of sightseers causing them to run off the mountain, nailing them with my pistol from a mile up as they run down the mountain, and subsequently escaping the cops as I hop back in the airplane and soar off the mountain amid police sirens (their response time in getting to the top of the game's largest mountain was impressive...).