Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas myths

San Andreas is distinct from the first two PlayStation 2 GTA games in its easter eggs and player-propagated myths. Shortly after the release of the game, several message boards sprouted claims of alleged Bigfoot sightings, and several alleged photographs were released, all of which have been proven to be faked.

Mysterious map

File:GTASA MysteriousSanAndreasMap.jpg

The mysterious map

A large map of San Andreas, found in Mike Toreno's home and in a diner called the "Lil Probe Inn" (a cameo to "The Little A'le'Inn", which is located in the tiny town Rachel, Nevada), has markers scattered randomly across the state. Fans initially thought the map was a key to the UFO appearances; however, Rockstar claims the map means nothing. One spot on the map also is pointed in the forest areas of San Fierro, causing some fans to believe that the infamous Bigfoot was hiding here.

Area 69

There is a "restricted area" in the desert at the Area 69 military base, which is a parody of the real world Area 51. This led to more speculation in the fan community about UFOs and aliens. The 69 in the name Area 69 is a reference to the 69 sex position. The number 69 is also found on all airport runways in the game (despite the fact that it is not a valid runway number), on various price tags, and is part of the name of the San Fierro 69ers (a football team in San Fierro, who are clearly based on the San Francisco 49ers).

Bodies in the desert

Even though there seem to be no UFOs near the Area 69 besides the fake one in the "Lil Probe Inn," you can find an easter egg to the northwest, near El Castillo del Diablo (The Castle of the Devil translated into English). To find this egg, look on the southeast corner of El Castillo del Diablo. There is a hole between some rocks that has 6 bodybags inside it, with a Bobcat parked near it. However, even this is something that can be easily explained. In The Introduction film (which can be seen when you purchase the soundtrack), there are two Mafia members who have just dumped the bodies in the hole, and even mention that they got rid of those "problems." A typical thing to do for Rockstar Games, since they like referring to the movies that inspired the games. This easter egg is a simple reference to Casino, in which both Sam Rothstein (Robert DeNiro) and Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) mention the fact that the mobsters get rid of their "problems" by burying them in the desert. Since Las Venturas is based on Las Vegas, and there are missions where you work for the Mafia, it is not strange that Rockstar included this.

Ghost cars

The ghost cars were infamous, and brought hope to the fanbase that other rumours would prove true. They are cars without visible drivers, moving with damage that isn't repairable. They do not take damage like other cars, staying intact until they eventually explode. They cannot be taken to Transfender Mod shops either, and for some reason, their radios are almost always set to PLAYBACK FM.

The most well known ghost car can be found in the remote forest region of Back O' Beyond in Flint County. It is a damaged, often red Glendale, which spawns at the top of a hill and rolls down. Other damaged Glendales and Sadlers can be found throughout countryside areas all over San Andreas. For example, one may also be found in Vally Olcutado next to a motel. These ghost cars are not actually regular Sadlers or Glendales, in fact, they are different vehicles. In the GTA3.IMG file (which contains all of the Textures and Models in the game), one can browse the index and see the files, which are named "GLENSHIT" and "SADLSHIT", respectively. They are named as such for obvious reasons. Some say these vehicles are most likely created to simulate abandoned vehicles throughout San Andreas.

Plane crashes

Several planes crash occasionally throughout San Andreas, and disappear seconds after doing so. Those that occur most often are crashes into Mt. Chiliad. Crashes also take place in other areas, including the lowland. Some say this was programmed intentionally by Rockstar, as when the planes spawn they are not being flown by anyone, they are just programmed to fly straight. Many players are often close to where the crash happened, and some claim the aircraft crashed just next to them, either in a car or other vehicle, and still survived. Some believe this has something to do with WWII planes as the planes look of the WWII era. They are sometimes referred to as "Ghost Planes."

Another theory as to why planes crash so often is that the planes were programmed to fly a certain height above the player at all times, so when, for instance, the player is on a path on the side of Mt. Chiliad, planes will fly overhead, and into the mountain. This is backed up by the idea that jet planes will not crash due to their altitude (Though a jet crash is arguably possible if shot at). However, at times planes crash into water or level land, so this theory doesn't seem to ring true.

A magazine interview with a Rockstar development member indicates that the crashes may be due to the planes spawning at an incorrect angle and thus flying into the ground instead of straight.

UFO's

Several UFO's fly past the lowland and disappear seconds after. The UFO's have blinking lights of several different colours. Many people think that the mysterious map (see above) depicts the locations of UFO's, but Rockstar Games claims that the map means nothing.

Rockstar has said, however, that these UFO sightings are merely bad airplane lighting effects.

The single obvious and confirmable presence of living extraterrestrials in the game comes during the mission "Stowaway," in the form of a group of "Men in Black." Encountered onboard a cargo plane, these black-suited characters (clearly based on a popular urban legend/UFO conspiracy theory) proceed to attack the player and shout out numerous utterances signifying their contempt for the inferior human race ("Carbon-based buffoon", "You evolved from shrews!" and more). This is most likely a parody of the agents in The Matrix.

There are also numerous reports of what are supposedly UFO sightings on the radio station "WCTR". On certain parts of the news on this station, the anchorwoman mentions "Strange lights seen over the desert." There is a possibility that this is somehow linked to the UFO rumor, but it is not yet confirmed. It may also be a reference to the jet pack in the game, which is taken to an aircraft base in the desert.

One of the most speculated locations of UFO's is the Area 69 base in the desert, where UFO's can be seen flying around. There are also flying silver orbs that frequent the San Andreas skies. Some claim that this is Rockstars implementation of UFO's, but Rockstar used the same style to animate commercial air traffic in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Rockstar has said nothing about the flying orbs.

Debunking the myths

Weeks after the myths had begun, and search teams formed, an e-mail message was received from "Mouthoff@rockstargames.com" and posted on several fan forums. Many questioned the authenticity of the letter, but upon further inspection, it did indeed seem to be from Rockstar Games.

After the initial letter, it is assumed that the address received many letters from fans, as it soon switched to an automated response system. The first automated return letters had a minor typo in it which led many fans to believe it was not an official Rockstar employee. Shortly after these claims were made the address owner soon issued a new return letter that validated new claims, but denied some of the ones in previous letters. This pattern continued, and some speculate that it is just a plot of Rockstar to create more publicity among the fan community.

The most important claim of the letter was that Bigfoot was false, and is not present in the game. Having been the shining light of the many search teams, many fans were dismayed. However, the letter mentioned that there was something in the woods.

Many rumors of Pigsy (from Rockstar's Manhunt) or Leatherface-type character (from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) soon sprung up. Though they would be consistent with Rockstar's previous in-game references to past video games and movies (e.g. Scarface references in GTA: Vice City), many of these claims were unsupported by video or picture evidence, and soon lost credibility with the community. The most popular picture of a masked man holding a chainsaw in one hand turned out to be nothing more than a picture of CJ wearing a gimp suit and an ice hockey mask.

The letters also detailed the idea of UFO landings in the game's desert. Though this is often thought to be plausible by fans, no reports or claims have been made.

There are also flying orbs that frequent the San Andreas skies. Many fans claim these to be Rockstar's implementation of UFOs, while others point out a much more terrestrial explanation: Rockstar used the same style to animate commercial air traffic in Vice City (bright lights, contrails, etc) but forgot to modify the names of the aircraft. This leads to mass-less 'airplanes', with active running lights, flying in the sky. Rockstar has not said anything about the orbs, and its intentions with them are still unclear.

Some fans soon found objects within the game's textures, such as deer and what they claim to be dinosaur skin. This would support one of the early claims that fans made in the very beginning of the game, of animals in the woods and an appearance of a dinosaur. Oddly enough, with the disproof of Bigfoot, many of these people took back their claims, saying that they may have been mistaken. However, it should be noted that in computer games occasionally textures can be misplaced by addons or sheer glitches, and so these oddities may have happened.

Easter eggs

There are also the commonplace Rockstar Easter eggs, such as hits at competitor games, or the classic signs. Billboards in Los Santos poke fun at the rival game True Crime: Streets of LA by calling it True Grime: Street Cleaners Most easter eggs appear in San Fierro, mostly dealing with the Golden Gate-inspired bridge and the video game and movie series Resident Evil (ZomboTech). These and other myths in the game have brought a new level of depth to the GTA games. Currently, many Easter egg-seeking search parties have websites with further information, the most noticable being the Secrets and Easter Eggs Listat GTAforums.com

Like all 3D GTA games, San Andreas contains an "underworld", an in-game limbo popularly dubbed "Oblivion", or "Blue Hell". "Blue Hell can be accessed by breaking down the wall of Smoke's Crack "Palace" before attempting the last mission, by driving or walking through the side of a building near the Transfender shop in Las Venturas, or by various other means. "Blue Hell" is not always blue, sometimes appearing black or even red. The name Hell part is derived from the fact that if you go in unprepared, you will most likely find yourself falling for some time before you reappear above the city. Aside from Blue Hell, there is the interior hell. Many unused and cutscene only interiors can be found here, such as an incomplete model of Liberty City from Grand Theft Auto III, and secret interior spaces. The partial Liberty City model is used in the mission "St. Mark's Bistro," where CJ flies back to Liberty City to do a hit for Salvatore Leone. Only a small portion of this mockup is solid, though, and most of the city is simply for decoration. The interiors for the girlfriend's houses can be found there as well. Much like Liberty City, many cutscene and unused interiors have unsolid areas also.

Many in-game pedestrians die in what seem to be bizarre suicides, although these may be due to oversights in the scripting of the pedestrians' movement rather than intentional Easter eggs. For example, photographer NPCs may take pictures and then drown themselves. In what some call a hint at Rockstar North's own Lemmings, pedestrians will sometimes appear on a ledge and walk off to their deaths. This can frequently be seen near the bomb shop in Las Venturas.

A corporate building called "ZomboTech" (Sinister Zombie Virus Research Corporation) in San Fierro is a joking reference to the Umbrella Corporation from the Resident Evil franchise. This has started unconfirmed rumors of zombies late at night in San Fierro. This rumor later turned out to be false, and there are, in fact, no zombies. If you want to find the building, it is in downtown, just up the road from the construction lot. It is the building with the giant DNA strand model in the center (this is one of San Fierro's "Photo Ops"). Another popular but unconfirmed myth is that CJ's mother and other ghosts may appear in photos taken in graveyards. Though no ghosts have been proven to exist in the game, there are "ghostly" occurrences. For example, the cemetery in Los Santos mysteriously becomes covered in graffiti at night. The graffiti ("Grove Street 4 Life") disappears once the sun comes up. This is mainly for those with sharp memories though, as at the start of the game, Sweet mentions that a lot of Grove Street gang members are buried there. Not only that, but there are other gangs' graffiti around the cemetery as well. Also in the cemetery is a crypt containing a television, recliner & pizza boxes - in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Spike had a similar set-up.

The January 2005 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly included a story on the San Andreas rumors. The CEO of Rockstar, Terry Donovan, denied the existence of Bigfoot by stating: "There is no Bigfoot, just like in real life." Rockstar also denied the existence of CJ's mother's ghost, as well as miscellaneous rumors. In the next issue of EGM, a subscriber sent in a photograph of such a mythical creature appearing on his game in the countryside. The magazine called the creature a Yeti instead of Bigfoot.

Following the Epsilon Program website, a website about a made-up religion in San Andreas, and related "clues", players have been looking all over San Andreas for the Epsilon cult and its meeting locations. Epsilon appears to be closely modeled on the Church of Scientology.

Players have found pedestrians who talk about Kifflom (the Epsilon Program's "deity") in San Andreas, such as a barber and backpackers. It has yet to be proven that these comments are intended for any purpose other than adding flavor to pedestrian dialog. Epsilon has scientifically ridiculous beliefs, such as "The World is 157 years old", and hidden information that one can only read if one pays money to the Epsilon Group (despite the fact that the "Epsilon Tract" has not even been written yet), popular celebrity endorsements (Jezz Torrent claiming the Group aided him in giving up drugs), and an openly shameless leader. The player can also hear about the Epsilon Group in the WCTR radio show Entertaining America with Lazlow, in which the host interviews Epsilon's founder, Cris Formage.

One of the biggest easter eggs in the game is located on top of the Gant Bridge in San Fierro. On the top beam located on the south side of the bridge, there is a sign that says "There are no Easter Eggs up here. Go away." Alongside this, although not as well known as the Easter Egg above, there is an easter egg hidden within "Blue hell" that gives you access to previously unreachable tattoos for CJ. Another easter egg is near the Gant Bridge, a sign next to the nearby cafe tells the player information about the bridge.

In the mission "Madd Dogg's Rhyme Book," if you sneak in without being caught, you can hear someone presumably playing Driv3r, for he states "Oh man, this sucks! Yeah, look how this Tanner guy runs! He moves like his bowels have let go. This sucks. I mean, how could Refractions mess up so bad? Tanner, you suck ass!" This is most likely due to the fact that Driv3r developer, Reflections, and Rockstar have often been at odds with each other. In Driv3r, the player had to kill 30 "Timmy Vermicellis", which is a parody of Tommy Vercetti in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. The "Timmys" in Driv3r all wore water wings, a dig at Vice City, because Tommy could not swim. The comment in San Andreas is Rockstar's subtle retaliation, for Driv3r was met with a wave of criticism and lackluster reviews.