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Wait long enough down by the tracks west of the Palomino Highlands at a spot somewhere on Los Santos' left thigh, and eventually a freight train will clacket along. Some of its carriages are insurmountably tall, but others sit empty and ride low enough that, with a spirited jump, you can haul yourself up for a free trip. You won't have the leathery comfort of a stolen sedan's cabin, or the sky-rollicking freedom of a light aircraft, but there's no better way to see the city. You'll duck under the roaring flyovers of East Los Santos, race the freeway around the Tataviam Mountains, before wheezing through the Grand Senora Desert, where the air has an arid clarity. As you loop around hick-town Grapeseed you can gaze over Procopio beach to admire the Pacific as it sets sail into the horizon. Time it right and the sky will start its 5pm bruise into dusk just as you circle back into the city, where the traffic twinkles and skyscrapers stretch ambitiously.
You can't talk about Grand Theft Auto 5 without talking about the city. Los Santos exceeds the game in which it's set. It should have been called Los Santos, really. Grand Theft Auto is merely something that passes through the city, one of many stories that you pick up every now and again, in between following your own sojourns and distractions. A year on (or a decade, if you count the city's fuzzier debut in 2004's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas) and Los Santos remains the best world in a game, an eager tribute to Los Angeles that blends the real and imagined.
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