Yep, you read it right GTA IV: San Andreas, a mod that takes the art assets from San Andreas and puts them in the GTA IV engine. Still get the crappy textures from SA but you get all the benefits from the IV engine. It has MP too but I haven't tried it and don't get on the push bikes as it crashed my game, no BMX's in IV!

Pretty fun and might do me until GTA V .

If you want to try it out download here http://www.gamefront.com/files/22070523/IVSA3Setup.rar really easy to install as long as you have GTA IV installed.

Very nice!

If you're looking a hold over till GTA V, might I also suggest Saints Row 4? It's an amazing amount of fun!

Yeah they did an amazing job and great shots. You should look into ENBing the original San Andreas - It can turn into a seriously beautiful game, plus you get none of the bugs / missions work etc.

I can't use ENB's, they come with no instructions and have no idea how to install. If you have any instructions/idiots guide I would be grateful

@AB I have SR2 and 3 and play occasionally and agree are fun games but I thought 4 looked far too similar to 3. I could be wrong as I know there are powers involved this time but is it worth it as a new, stand alone game?

They are drag and drop installations, that's it. You obviously need to find a preset you like as there's quite a few of them but it's a cake walk installing them. ( Most of them should contain a readme )

Check out this thread for list of presets, videos of them, screenshots etc.

http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=488840 ( Stay away from the last 2-3 pages, some idiot is running the board format by posting massive shots ).

Then you can see SA can transform into something beautiful.

Just looking at that massive list of loads of different things is what I mean, what do I pick? Why are there so many? Why do none of them work and just make the game error out? I can't use them in Skyrim and countless other games I have tried because there are just lists like this and I choose one and doesn't work and then read somewhere that I need something else adding and so on and so on.

Under "Settings" near the top, you can see all the ENBs people have made - It's a matter of picking one you prefer. Either based on screenshots, videos etc. then each ENB needs the appropriate ENB .dll - Most of the templates come pre-packaged with the one you need, however if specified in the readme you need to manually download it, it'll probably link you directly.

Drop all those files into your main GTA SA directory and start the game. If the game is crashing it's most likely because you have software that interfere with the DX9 hook, some recording software, MSI Afterburner etc.

You need the .dll core file that a particular ENB setting mod says it uses. It is a bit confusing but I've gotten them to work in Skyrim.

I think what's irritating is that a lot of times in a ENB mod description they neglect to tell you which .dll their ENB uses.

There's an ENB for Skyrim that I use every once in awhile and it uses an older .dll that doesn't use all the fancy ambient occlusion and stuff so performance stays. If you want to try it out just to see how installing the .dll and ENB works, I could post you direct links and direct instructions. Its not hard its just made hard by folks who forget we can't read minds.

Also, here's a guide I wrote to GTA IV ENB over on NeoGAF - Just to give you an idea on how it works, maybe you want to dabble with that instead.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=485905

Jist of it is basically, find a properly packed ENB and it's drag'n'drop.

SR4 is basically SR3's general content (the city of steelport, most of the vehicles, weapons, and clothes) but with an all new story line and -most importantly- the addition of super powers for your characters. The short of it is that this one 'takes place' inside a giant simulation (in a nod to Matrix movies), and the super powers add a whole new dimension to the game play. The story is also a wonderful mix of action and comedy.

Basically, it's like where the GTA series would be today if it hadn't started taking itself (a little too) seriously.

In short, yes the devs recycled a lot of content, but they made up for it by delivering a new story and game elements, all of which actually runs incredibly smoothly on my machine and is actually quite stable.