Sam Houser: "GTA IV crazier than ever"

San Andreas

- "Is there any such thing as too big?" Houser demands to know, in response to the issue of San Andreas being just too epic for some gamers to enjoy. "You know, if you don't like driving over that distance, the point of the game is don't go there, then. You don't have to go there. We give the people an infinite amount of choice, and for every person who felt it was too big there were probably a fair amount that really got off on the scope of the whole thing, and wanted to take one of those single-propeller aircraft through the canyons."

- Why LA? "Well, what's after Miami in the '80s? Well, of course, the Bloods and the Crips and the LA early-'90s gang-banger culture. I remember being in the UK at the time it was going off and being completely fascinated and terrified by it. Fascinated by how they looked - they dress amazingly - but these guys are all like soldiers, and are treated like armies, and this is very serious, scary stuff."

- "We immediately embraced it - I didn't see it as a risk," Houser says of choosing to have a black lead for San Andreas. "It was certainly leftfield for the industry at that time but, you know, I'm proud to do things like that. And anyone who has a problem with that, we don't want you buying the game anyway, mate, quite frankly."

- "One of my fears when the Hot Coffee thing happened was that it was going to take this really beautiful piece of work and it was just going to be known for something else."

- He's an undeniably potent fountain of ideas, but Houser explains that even he goes too far: "When we were making [San Andreas] one of the things I talked about - and thank God they didn't give in to my idiocy - was, 'Hey, we've got to make it interesting to drive four hours on a freeway and you have to stop to fill up on fuel'. And the team were like, 'God, give it a rest, mate'."