[Yamer]

As expected:

The most amazingly thought out, gritty, powerful game of the series...and they did it at the tail end of this generation of gaming. The story is entertaining as all hell, the characters are varied and compelling, and the missions are complex and engaging. The sheer multitude of side-activities and missions means that you won't soon finish the game or get bored while doing it. Most everything has taken a marathon's step up from GTA IV...

However...

The flying missions have a long, LONG way to go before I ever enjoy them. I am at Trevor's first (of what I can only assume are a long line of) flying missions, and I am absolutely discouraged and frustrated at the mechanics and lack of instruction. They have made no headway in terms of making the flying in the game accessible for casual users, and expect you to be fluent/experienced in the advanced flying controls of the game right off the bat. The game offers no tutorial, no instruction, and no easing into the flying portion of the game. The slightest mistake results in a failure of the mission, and the checkpoint system has seen just as little improvement as GTA IV. I hate redoing 5 minutes of pointlessness because I failed at 5 seconds of gameplay (especially if that means having to deal with the ludicrous flying controls of the GTA series). Thankfully this version allows you to skip this atrocious portion of the game upon 3 mission failures, and I will happily dive into the ground or steer into a mountain (taking a meaningless bronze) to skip any and all flying missions in this game. This has been the downfall, IMO, of every iteration of this series, and continues to be the most frustrating aspect of it into 2013.

Sorry to bitch, but I hate....HATE the abysmal flying controls Rockstar implements in these wonderful and outstanding games. It ruined what should have been incredible memories of San Andreas, and it has already tainted this crowing achievement in gaming history.