Far removed from its headline-making launch back in the day, Grand Theft Auto returns with a drive-by mentality - Bushby cuts through the PR and previews its release.

Publicity is everything in videogames. Word of mouth is by far and away the most valuable marketing tool available to advertisers, yet it's unpredictability leaves publishers vulnerable to bad press.

At its best it allowed Sony to sell-out of its early PS2 stocks by advertising using a floating head meeting a duck in a suit, at its worst it can cripple - the sorry demise of Dreamcast being a case in point.

So when Grand Theft Auto first hit the shelves in 1997, word of mouth spread quickly, not just from gamers but also from the mouths of GMTV presenters.

Its controversial content gave the game more free publicity than any title has the right to expect, a case of bad press success, if you will.

Now there's a sense the shock factor has gone for good though. Rockstar raised their own bar with Manhunt after all. So it's a good job the Grand Theft Auto remains one of the best examples of sandbox gaming on any console.

The new GTA release will set a new bar for the genre...

So what of San Andreas? The plot, which we've shamelessly copied from Rockstar's press release goes like this…

"Five years ago Carl Johnson escaped from the pressures of life in Los Santos, San Andreas... a city tearing itself apart with gang trouble, drugs and corruption.

Where film stars and millionaires do their best to avoid the dealers and gangs. Now, it's the early 90's. Carl's got to go home. His mother has been murdered, his family has fallen apart and his childhood friends are all heading towards disaster.

On his return to the neighbourhood, a couple of corrupt cops frame him for homicide. CJ is forced on a journey that takes him across the entire state of San Andreas, to save his family and to take control of the streets."

Secret Level is therefore hoping for a early -nineties soundtrack to rival that of Vice City. We're expecting Snoop Dog, Tupac and with a bit of luck some Vanilla Ice!

One of the more interesting features to come from the screenshots we've been given, is that of 'drive-bys'. Taking out nuisances (like say, rival gang leaders) could be far more devastating, as could the fact that you're probably going to be liable to such attacks yourself in an environment estimated by Rockstar to be six times the size of Vice City.

Details are scarce, but expect to be far better informed by October when we expect to see the game on the shelves.

Bushby