Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

The Good
Rockstar is at it again with Vice City, the sequel to the landmark hit GTA3, a title that broke new ground by crafting an exceptional cocktail of diverse gameplay mechanics in a free-roaming gameworld mixed with a distinct touch of politically incorrect humor and controversial content. Given the absolutely fantastic fun that it was to play GTA3 Rockstar could literally just shove the same thing down our throats with just new maps, and we wouldn't complain about it. However as it so happens Vice City is more than just a "mod" of GTA3 and manages to fix what was lacking in the original as well as add even more entertaining features.

The gameplay revolves around the same concept of being able to run around freely in a virtual city, stealing vehicles for fun and completing gangster-themed missions. As in the previous title you also have a pletora of optional challenges sprinkled all over the gameworld, that include "rampage" missions, races, obstacle courses and vehicle-specific missions that include chasing down perps in a police cruiser or making rounds as a taxi driver or (new to Vice City) being a pizza delivery boy in a moped. Oh yeah, didn't I mention it? Vice City now adds motorcycles to the vehicle pool! And to my pleasant surprise, riding a bike is exceptionally well done, with proper animations and distinct physics that make it a unique experience and probably the most fun you'll have in this new GTA. You also have choppers thrown into the mix, which allow you to easily take to the skies without the hassle that was trying to control GTA3's airplane. These vehicles open new possibilities for the many minigames that now include pilotwings-like air races, and enduro bike courses at the beaches with the list growing larger with each new secret location you uncover in the city. Car driving has also been added a couple of new tricks that include forward shooting and the ability to jump out of a moving vehicle and send it crashing into a group of unsuspecting enemies :D.

So far we have practically every forum-posted objection to GTA3 covered, which shows Rockstar listened to it's fans. However the real upgrade in Vice City is seen on the content side of things, a feature that became the target of some criticism for GTA3 by the always present boring old fools that like to dismiss titles that manage to reach stardom mostly by being good games instead of just an interactive book. Worry no more old geezers! Vice City adds that which you craved so much! A story!!

That's right, you no longer are a nameless thug raising havoc in the name of gangster rivalries. Now you take on the role of Tommy Vercetti, a former member of a big time mafia family that got shafted and had to do hard time due to some backstabbing. As the game starts you are fresh out of jail and the family sends you to "Vice City" a fictional 80's Miami (ripped right out of Miami Vice) to keep you out of trouble, but you have a different plan, and through the course of the game you set it upon yourself to take the city by the balls and become the new mafia boss. This eventually gets you back in the center of attention of your former employers, and a war begins for control of the city, war that deals richly in betrayals, backstabbings and assorted gangster stuff. The cast of characters is much richer and varied, now voiced by some real star power with the likes of Ray Liotta (who does an incredible job as Tommy), Tom Sizemore, Dennis Hopper, Burt Reynolds, Gary Busey, Lee Majors, Fairuza Balk and even Phillips Michael Thomas reprising his role as a Tubbs-like parter of Tommy (and look out for a cameo by porn star Jenna Jameson also! :D).

The storyline and characters work like a charm in the brand new Vice City, an 80's themed beach town that serves as a gigantic source of sight gags and in-jokes towards one of the most blatantly funny decades in U.S. history. Taking most of it's cues from the seminal Miami Vice, the game has that distinct "pink neon" art-deco feel and a lot of detail was poured into every little nuance such as the flashy clothes, giant mobile phones, cars and assorted gags (including Don Johnson/Phillip Michael Thomas wanna-bes gunning for you in a Ferrari Testarossa should your mayhem bar grow too high :D). As in the previous game music also plays a major role in selling the gameworld, and since few things say 80's like it's music, the developers made the fantastic choice of licensing a full soundtrack that not only manages to be the largest videogame licensed soundtrack ever, but also manages to act like an 80's who's-who of music. Michael Jackson, Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, David Lee Roth, Iron Maiden, even Crockett's Theme from Miami Vice and such pop hits as "Video killed the radio star" serve to complement the fantastic vibe of the game and make it a terrific experience. Plus for the PC release Rockstar took a cue from the technical issues in GTA3 and the installation now allows you to install all the audio files to disk, killing that nasty stutter effect whenever the game loaded a voiceover or radio station. The graphic engine is pretty much the same, but water has been improved with transparencies and visible sealife and loading times between areas have been almost completely obliterated by using some sort of streaming loading that makes it more or less a seamless environment (and bear in mind that Vice City is way larger than GTA3's city).

Finally, you have the ability to expand your empire by buying buildings in the city. From comfy condos to luxurious mansions, to more esoteric locations such as strip clubs, ice-cream companies and dance clubs. The later rewarding the player with extra specially-themed missions. And speaking of the missions they are a much more polished and carefully planned bunch than in the previous games, leaving the slightly meaningless races and time limits of the original in favor of more story-driven affairs (including a fantastic bank heist in which you have to assemble the team for the job and then hit it "Point Break"-style which is one of the coolest moments in the game).

Oh! And lest I forget, if you loved the quirky radio stations and those satirical ads. from GTA3 be advised that in Vice City they are back with a vengeance, including even more pop-culture references, and material that plays with the material from GTA3 (as you get to hear some of the same radio personalities in their earlier years). Excellently written stuff and priceless un-pc comedy.

The Bad
Well they fixed everything you could complain about... so what's left to bitch about?? Nothing I can think of.

The Bottom Line
Remember that fantastic game about carjacking and whore-shooting that you loved so much? Well they fixed everything you could bitch about, added it the coolest soundtrack ever, a kickass gangster story and the same fantastic un-pc humor the series is loved for. Plus... 80's Baby!!! What kind of a moron would pass this one up??

The Good
When I played through Grand Theft Auto III, I became an instant fan of Rockstar's work. The game was fun, complex, and open-ended. No game I had ever played before this had given me so much enjoyment from just futzing about between missions. And then the mission structure itself was well-paced and the storyline was great.

Enter Vice City. GTA: Vice City took what I loved about GTAIII and made it better while adding a great 80's theme to everything.

This time around you are no longer a nameless character as you were in the first one. You're Tommy Vercetti, bad-ass mobster. The addition of a real character with a real personality who actually talked in the cutscenes was a big improvement over the previous game. It added to the storyline and made you care about who you were a little more.

Graphics also saw an improvement. Granted, there was not that much of a change in the engine itself. But in my opinion, graphics are at least 50% about what you do with them. It is on that count that Vice City shines. The design and outlay of the city is superb. The atmosphere that is set in each neighborhood is spot on. And, to top it all, the lighting effects in the game are great. I should also mention that where GTAIII seemed overly drab and used too many dark tones, Vice City's presentation is much brighter and just driving about these scenic places in your hot ride can be a pleasure.

80's, 80's, 80's. From great 80's music to the distinctively 80's atmosphere and gimmicks like an early model portable phone, Rockstar really came through with their chosen setting.

And speaking of the music. Besides the music in the game being an excellent mix of authentic 80's tunes, as before you can add your own MP3's to the game. So load up some Huey Lewis and Skid Row before you go on your rampage. Maybe some Motley Crue also?

The game is packed with GTA's own special brand of humor too. The radio features two talk stations this time around and, as usual, no one is safe from being skewered. As well, little gags abound, such as the "Cherry Popper" Ice Cream company.

So all of this and I have yet to talk about the best part of the game: gameplay. After all, gameplay is king. Vice City brings it and keeps it coming.

As you work your way through the storyline, you become a mafia boss and eventually make a play to essentially run the town. The amount of sheer coolness inherent in this scenario is hard to describe. It feeds that little guy inside of you who watched Scarface and said "Cooooool".

Along the way, you get to go through a wide array of interesting and challenging missions. Some are as "mundane" as a street race while others are as elaborate as a multi-faceted bank heist. One mission has you jumping from roof-top to roof-top on a motorcycle. Yet another has you photographing a politician's perverted activities from a high-rise only to have to fight through the FBI on your way out.

Along the road to success, you also get to buy and collect money from various properties. Yes, you can own property.Once you buy a property, you need to take on some missions in order to make it profitable. You can own anything from a counterfeiting factory to a adult movie studio. Nearly all offer you an interesting set of jobs to take on.

The Bad
There isn't much I can find wrong with the game. If anything, then it can be annoying that cars and people spawn and despawn in a weird way. If you see a car you want to steal, but you turn your back to it for a moment, it is indeed quite possible that it may have vanished completely. This can be really annoying when looking for a good ride in a junky part of town.

The Bottom Line
For the mafia boss in all of us! Highly recommended.

The Good
The obvious is the action. Getting chased around by cops, the SWAT team, and the military has never been so entertaining. The depth of story was excellent, it felt as though you were actually a PART of the game, and not just some guy (or girl) playing it. The freedom to walk up to a jogger and beat them to a pulp, or to steal and drive any vehicle, or just go wandering around the city for a while is a definite plus.

The Bad
They need to add an option to talk to people. I wanted to go to the clubs to hook up, not just to kill everybody. Aside from that, I have very few complaints. This game is bound to be remembered for ages and ages. It's a classic, and a landmark achievement in video games.

The Bottom Line
If you're into action and crime, this one's for you. I have to say that this is one of the very few games in which the point is to be the BAD GUY, and to get away with it! Very fun, and addictive. A good rental, but a GREAT buy. I don't think you can even do everything there is to do in the game with a week rental.

The Good
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is one of the games that has helped push video gaming into the mainstream consciousness. While some of the attention has been placed on the game's mature themes, the lion's share has been a positive focus on the unique gameplay (unlike some past "violent games" like Night Trap and Mortal Kombat).

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is not a true sequel to Grand Theft Auto III. Rather, it is a sort of "new campaign" - it uses the same game engine as GTA3, but is not a mere expansion pack. Rockstar has confirmed that not only is there another similar "side-sequel" in development, but there is also a TRUE sequel that will bear the name Grand Theft Auto IV. Therefore, anyone referring to Vice City at GTA4 is incorrect.

Vice City is a free-roaming 3D game in which players cruise a fully-modeled city (patterned after Miami circa 1985), taking on missions from various employers. The game features a somewhat linear storyline, but there are tons of optional side-missions that aren't required to complete the game's storyline. Most players will play through the majority of the side-missions. Best of all, if there's a storyline mission that is just kicking your butt, there's another mission to go play, and you can come back to the hard mission later.

Most people have heard about the basic premise of the gameplay by now. Your character, Tommy Vercetti, gets around town by stealing cars (usually by carjacking unsuspecting motorists), and pedestrians can be gratuitously run over. Vice City law enforcement will pursue those that go on law-breaking sprees (both inside and outside of missions), making running from the police a common theme of the game. Players have a "wanted level" (1 to 6 stars), which increases as one's disregard for the law becomes more blatant. Police officers can be shot and run over, which generally serves to raise the wanted level quickly and make the player's job much harder - on that token, the game discourages cop killing. Yet, most missions involve breaking the law in some form, so VCPD will always be close behind.

With voice actors that include "real" Hollywood talent like Ray Liotta, Dennis Hopper, Tom Sizemore, Bert Reynolds, Luis Guzman, Gary Busey, Lee Majors, and a score of others, GTA: Vice City is helping to usher the days of awkward game voice acting (think Resident Evil) into the past. Though attempts at fusing real actors into video game voice acting roles has not always been successful in the past, Vice City comes out glowing. These actors truly bring the game alive.

Just as good as the voice acting is the music. Drivers in Vice City have a number of radio stations to choose from. Unlike GTA3, Vice City comes with a full block of real 1980s radio hits - from Michael Jackson to Iron Maiden to A Flock of Seagulls. The game's soundtrack has been released on a 7 CD box set, and it is a best-seller with good reason. The music does more than anything else to bring the 1980s vibe alive. Everything old is new again.

The Bad
Vice City's 3D world really pushes the PlayStation 2 beyond its capabilities. The game looks and runs much better on the PC - even Grand Theft Auto III looked much better on PC than Vice City does on PS2. The first thing to do is turn the awful "trails" graphical feature off - they're annoying (to me, at least), and turning them off helps a ton for PS2 players.

Game control could be a little better in the on-foot areas. While the car control is very good, gun combat on foot can definitely be awkward. A number of other 3rd-person games have managed to implement much more natural control schemes. Rockstar would serve themselves well to take note and rip some control ideas off.

Also, the game is not without some bugs. Though they aren't frequent, I had a few crash/freeze bugs hit me during my hours of gameplay. Reports I've read from other people lead me to believe that it's not a unique case of my game copy and/or PS2 hardware.

Some critics have dissed Vice City as being nothing more than a GTA3 rehash. While the gameplay is largely similar, Vice City comes out as a much better game, thanks to all of the production values that bring the city and time period to life. There also aren't a ton of games in a similar style - and most of the others are direct clones of the GTA formula. One must wonder what formulaic archetype the favorite genres of these critics could be reduced to.

The Bottom Line
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is one of the biggest games of the past 5-10 years. It is not a game without flaws, but its status as an instant classic is well-earned. Due to some technical limitations of the PS2, players may opt to play the game on the PC or (soon) on the Xbox. Even still, the PS2 version is where the game gained immediate fame, and it is an excellent game, worth of purchase and many hours of play.

The Good
Lots of things about that game are good, where shall I start?

The 80s feel it's very good, I found myself driving along Vice City and listening to all kinds of 80s music in the radio while gazing at the luxurious neon lights that ornate the city by night, and I said to myself: "Is that a time machine?", needles to say that I was very pleased with the overall atmosphere of the game, from the buildings to the music.

Most of the missions are very fun to play and they aren't repetitive at all, one of the missions towards the end (the one of the bank) it's one of the best missions in a GTA game, it's great.

The graphics are also good, quite realistic and immersive but they weren't a great improve from GTA3.

The engine improvements are also very good, I liked to fly over the city and seeing all the buildings.

The Bad
I found myself swearing a lot while playing the remote control helicopter missions, they are unnecessarily hard and take too much time to get used to them in my opinion, luckily there are just two or three of them.

Also, I missed an option to see the cut-scenes or replay a completed mission.

The Bottom Line
Drive by night while listening to Cutting Crew or have a relaxed evening while flying aboard an helicopter over Vice City and listening to Jan Hammer, in other words get immersed in the 80s.

Lots of amusing missions and hours of playing, a must have!

The Good
The game is very fun! It's set in the 80s and the music is totally accurate to the time era. Lots of guns to choose from, lots of cars, its great! The missions are OK and the side missions are very cool! The "Vigilante" missions are fun as well as the paramedic missions. There are many properties to buy. The soundtrack is great! This game should deserve 5 stars! But unfortunately its not quite good enough for 5 stars....

The Bad
The game is frustrating at times and has some or shall I say major bugs. The games loading time is slow... And the pedestrian A.I. attacks you for no reason sometimes. The games missions are somewhat "impossible". At least a few of them are. The gangs are hard to evade as well as the cops. The games is super strict on shooting people and such as 1 shot to a pedestrian causes you 2 stars. The games physics are weird.... As if you flip in your car it starts doing strange things....

The Bottom Line
Good Game! It's awesome and I would totally recommend this game to others!

The Good
um jogo que fez parte da minha infãncia, zerei ele novamente adulto e continua maravilhoso

The Bad
não tem muito o que reclamar, é um jogo antigo e entregava muito para a época

The Bottom Line
um otimo jogo, recomendo jogar, principalmente agora que vai sair o gta 6

The Good
This is good all around with action, racing & driving all in one game instead of buying 3 games. Its all in GTA Vice City with none stop action. This game has a all star cast Ray Liotta of Goodfellas, and the supporting cast is voiced by Dennis Hopper (Speed), Gary Busey (Slapshot 2), David Paymer, Danny Trejo, Luis Guzman (Traffic), and Jenna Jameson (porn star).

The Bad
There are some small bugs in the game. The AI is some what off.

The Bottom Line
Jameson is in the the game as Candy Sux, Also hookers. with fast cars and big guns what more could you want.

good graphics good cast good play-ability good replay-ability good cheat codes/ cheat to win! good story line good sound & music

The Good
Realism, size and scope - GTA:VC could just be, the biggest, most detailed and realistic virtual world created in a computer game. Bigger and better than GTA3, Vice City screams 80s from every pore. From the beach to ghetto, from the 80s cars to vesper scooters this game has been well researched, well put together and done with a healthy infusion of humor. It's graphically improved with high poly-counts and more detailed animation and buildings can now be entered and explored. There are more realistic options available - change of clothes, purchasing of property, other outlets for weapons of destruction; this game has a lot of options to get through!

The other stand out feature is the sound. First the acting is top-notch with the likes of Ray Liotta give voice-over to the main characters. Sometimes the script is a little cough hacky cough but for the most part it's heart is in the right place. Second is the soundtrack which includes a whole bunch of 80's radio stations with officially licensed tracks including artists like Run DMC, Grandmaster Flash and the inevitable Michael Jackson. Music ranges from Latino Dance to Rap to Jazz to Pop or Rock. There's hours of radio to enjoy, including chat stations and lots of very 80s advertising. Last but not least there's the sound effects - which are awesome as well. I particularly like the chainsaw.

You'd think adding all this content to the game would be enough work in itself, however Rockstar have also out done themselves by adding a series of sub-games to complete. There are too many to list however they include Remote Control car races, dirt bike challenges, destruction derbies, stealing specific sets of cars, street racing... the list goes on. This game has some serious replay value.

The Bad
Unbalanced difficulty - in GTA3, the missions generally got harder slowly and stayed that way. However in the GTA:VC, the missions ramp up in difficultly much quicker, however there is never any middle ground. At any one time the missions available are either really, REALLY, difficult, or quite easy. This can be frustrating and the really hard missions can take quite a number of attempts to find the winning strategy which means that you spend a lot of the time not feeling like you are progressing.

Frame-rates - although the graphics are a step up from GTA3, you can see the PS2 starting to struggle with the amount of detail displayed. It's not too bad, but if you leave GTA:VC and play something else, the lower frame-rate is immediately noticable. On the upside, it doesn't vary all that much, given more on screen, but is quite low to begin with.

Auto targeting - the auto targeting system does not work at all on large groups of adversaries. I remember a mission early on in the game where you had to blow up two cans of oil in order to destroy a bunch of trucks - the catch was you were in the middle of a violent protest with security guards and disgruntled workmen. The only way to effectively target the the cans of oil before being killed was to walk right up to them. Problem is when they explode - they kill you! There should at least have been a option to disable auto target temporarily for automatic weapons.

The Bottom Line
The most open-ended gaming experience available.

The Good
EVERYTHING about this game is great. If you've played GTA 3 this will be a walk-over. Missions can be quite hard, but the cars, motorbikes, choppers, scooters, buggys, trucks, and the plane are brilliant, the varity of models, and colours is outstanding, the size of the place is massive, the buildings you can go into are amazing. The possiblitys are endless. The weapons you can carry make for a bit of fun, fists, brass knuckles, golf clubs, uzi's, bazookas, to name a few!! The mindless violence possiblitys are infinite.

The Bad
Sometimes the graphics can let you down a bit, having a patch of sky instead of a road can be quite annoying sometimes, but turn a quick 360, and everything's back to normal.

The Bottom Line
A definite must have, not to be neglected from wish lists. Just enjoy, go crazy.

The Good
Grand Theft Auto III was one of the greatest games of all time. That's not a opinion, that's a fact. GTA3 had a distinct gritty crime movie feel, like the Sopranos, and Goodfellas. GTA3 had a real, living breathing city to play around in to cause mass chaos, or deliver fares in. When i first got my copy, i beat it in one sitting. One 18 hour sitting, doing nothing but the story missions, and rarely using the bathroom for any purpose.

It's back.

If Grand Theft Auto III was a take on the Sopronos, then Vice City is a take on Miami Vice. Palm Trees, Cocaine, Fast Cars, Hot Women, and that's just the intro! Vice City is one of the best Crafted Cities i've ever seen in a video game, second only to Mafia. Area's range from neon-lit hotel strips (by the beach, of course) to a skyrise filled downtown area, to the seedy, degenerate filled slums and gang 'palaces'. Citizens range from Cuban immigrants, to ditzy blonde teens, generic thugs, and bums. You've seen this kind of variety in GTA3, but Rockstar has added many more details to make the city even more alive. Instead of the masses just walking around like the living dead at all hours, the local populace will skate around, sit on benches and stairs, or even wait at the bus stop. Rent-A-Cops will shoot at any thug trying to get into gated communities, and resident cops will run down purse snatchers and carjackers. That's right, they'll chase OTHER people, besides you.

The radio stations have gotten better as well. There are now nine stations, including two talk stations, a rock station hosted by Lazlow, and a romance station hosted by everyones favorite romance expert Fernado Martinez, built upon the same themes in GTA3 (rap, pop, techno, new wave, etc.) One of the joys of listening is hearing about these characters. Toni going on and on about old people (who she places around thirty or so) and how they shouldn't try to hold on to their youth, or Maurice Chavez (host of one of the talk station) going over his sad, sad life (you've got to hear it to appreciate all it.) You can even add in your own MP3's and listen to them while running over fat people or running from the law.

As far as gameplay goes, its an all-out fun fest for everyone. You can attempt some of the outrageous stunts around town, drive a cab for some extra cash, or blow up some preps when you pose as an officer of the law. The missions themselves are still very free form and have multiple solutions, and with the addition of a few motorcycles, these mission are much faster paced than the missions of GTA3. For example, i took a mission from a real estate developer to take out a man at a golf course. The problem is that at the entrance to the course is a metal detector that will take all of your weapons, so you have to beat him to death with a golf club... or do you? I looked around to find another way to get in, and i found it. Near the entrance is a small wall i could get over with by standing on a car and jumping over. So i did, and easily took out the target. That was only one of the many memorable moments of the game.

Some the things that can affect a mission is not only motorcycles, but the addition of helicopters, which fly much more easily than the Dodo in GTA3. Yet another factor is your clothing. Clean clothes can knock off two stars on your wanted rating, and what you're wearing helps too. A police uniform can get you into a military base, a suit and tie can can get hookers to your car faster, etc.

The Bad
There wasn't really much i DIDN'T like about the game, with only one exception: If Rockstar wanted a song by Ozzy Osbourn on V-Rock, why not Crazy Train instead of Bark at the Moon? Every other song was a hit except that! WHY?!?

The Bottom Line
This is the best. game. ever. Buy it. Now. Stop reading and buy it.

The Good
The rollicking, outrageous, un-PC fun, the voices... everything

The Bad
The "save game" bug, but it probably affects only one in a million (read on)

The Bottom Line
I have a bitch about saving your game. You can save your game only in certain locations. But that is OK. What is not OK is that, whenever I saved my game, I was told "game saved". Well, it wasn't. When I tried to load it, all the saved game slots were empty.

I searched the Web high and low, and saw that a chap in Sweden had had the same problem with Grand Theft Auto III, but no solution. Now Vice City is copy-protected of course, and I got to thinking... does it see Alcohol on my hard disk? Does it decide, then, to play silly buggers, like Windows XP when it sees stuff that would make Baby Billy cry? More Web surfing took me to forums where they were discussing how to make copies of GTA, but no-one mentioned this failure of "save" to save games. Those people must have had Alcohol, or CloneCD, or BlindWrite, or whatever, so that could not be it. Eventually I stumbled on a No-CD crack, downloaded it, installed it... and... I could save my games! No, I am not making this up, I am not drunk, and I have an explanation. My CD drive shows up as drive R: and is sandwiched between Q: and S: which are both virtual drives put there, I suspect, when I installed Alcohol. Strange, but I think this is because I have two primary partitions on my hard disk and Windows just got its knickers in a fine twist there. Now I suppose that when GTA Vice City checks for the legit CD, it wrongly sees my drive R: as a virtual drive, and decides to teach me a lesson. It stinks all right, but the worst thing is that you cannot even blame the programmers. Put yourselves in their place, and see. Be warned, though, if you ever need it, that the CD crack disables the cheats. But I can live without cheats easier than without being able to save a game.

Now what a game! Totally un-PC, shockingly objectionable, in a word: wonderful. The baddies (I haven't met any goodies) look like the baddies out of B-grade gangster movies, they talk like the baddies out of B-grade gangster movies, they give you... er... quests??? that would make the Avatar blush and Iolo keel over with a heart attack. Great stuff. And you don't have to do it either. You can just mooch about town, bashing the odd passer-by for gun money, "borrowing" a car or a motorbike for a joy ride. I haven't found any little old lady whom I could help across the street, though, so it's a bit one-sided. But I am sure that if the designers are reading this... how about it, folks?

I don't have a joystick, and I found maneuvering a car quite a bit of a challenge (read: a pain in the bum). But still, it's fun. You crash into a pole, your bonnet flies off, steam billows out of the engine, but you can keep on going full blast. They don't build cars like that anymore ;-)

Final score.

Graphics. What graphics? You don't notice the graphics, they are so well matched to the gameplay. It's like wearing soft hand-made Italian shoes, you don't feel them. Oh, all right, there are some annoying features, like when you switch to the bird's-eye view. Great for finding your way around, but when you go under a bridge for instance, the bridge hides you from view, you and that power pole, and... kaboom!

Gameplay. To be handled with care, extreme care. When I sat at the wheel of my car (the real one), I had to tell myself, "Hey, slow down, watch out, don't swerve, this is not Vice City anymore". If I were the type to carry a baseball bat everywhere, I would have had to keep telling myself: "Careful! you are not supposed to go about bashing people in this town".

Replay value. Difficult to say, short of playing it several times over. But once is rollicking good fun, and bis repetita placent for sure.

The Good
First of all, this game's cast actually had a lot of big named actors in it. This includes Ray Liotta, Gary Busey, Lee Majors, Dennis Hopper, Burt Reynolds, Fairuza Balk, and even Miss Cleo. One good addition is the ability to ride motorbikes (which were absent from the previous installment). There are many new weapons including a screwdriver (which is pretty useless for me), swords and knives, a chainsaw, and more. I especially like the chainsaw because if you want to steal a locked car, you can just cut the door off. Another new feature is the ability to change clothes, so you're not stuck with the same outfit all through the game.

The Bad
The non-mission gameplay is almost exactly the same as GTA III, so it sometimes it feels as though I'm just playing a modified version of GTA III.

The Bottom Line
Since this does not take place after GTA III, newcomers to the series can play it without getting confused.

The Good
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a 3rd person game and it feels like you're in 1986 or 1985, and you'll hop in a car or a motorcycle and you will listening to the best music from the 80s. I've always like 80s music and movies and games. I know Grand Theft Auto is all killing people and getting away with murder, but there missions to complete and after you the game, you can have some fun with this game and it's awesome.

The Bad
What I don't like about the game is that it's just too hard to beat the missions and trying to avoid the cops and everything that is about to kill you or arrest you.

The Bottom Line
This game is so good, it is a little hard but not that much, and if you are into 80s music and a lot of good stuff, give Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for the PS2 or PC a try.