Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

I'm thirty-five and recently married. I hadn't played a video game since the late eighties--in fact, I hadn't even given them a second thought. Then everything changed. I watched my brother-in-law play GTA:VC one afternoon on his PS2. I was transfixed. I was appalled. I was, in a word, hooked. When it came out on XBOX, I bought a used copy at Blockbuster and haven't looked back.

First of all, the gameplay is phenomenal. The fact that you can freely roam the large Vice City map is worth the price of admission by itself.

Second, the voice acting is amazing--especially the commercials. Ray Liotta. Gary Busey. Burt Reynolds. Phillip Michael Thomas. Lee Majors. Robert Davi. Dennis Hopper. Luis Guzman. Fairuza Balk. Jenna Jameson. Danny Trejo. These are just a few of the names that make appearances. The radio material is so well produced, I can drive around all day listening to nothing but VCPR or KCHAT. The radio commercials are witty, sarcastic and spot-on.

Third, the story is great. You start as a nobody, recently released from jail. You finish (if you really ever do finish) as a Tony Montana-esque criminal psychopath.

Fourth--this is probably the most immoral game ever created... and it's beautiful. It's sick, sick, sick! Apart from the usual "waste him" missions, tasks include delivering drugs from an ice-cream van and driving a humvee drunk while avoiding the cops. I mean, one mission has you carving up a guy with a chainsaw! In addition, there are dozens of "rampage" icons throughout the game. When you run into one, you have two minutes to kill a certain amount of people a certain way (e.g. "kill 20 gang members in two minutes with a meat cleaver") It's never boring.

Conclusion: GTA:VC is the sickest, funniest, most engrossing and immersive video game ever made. It looks and plays better on the XBOX, but it's a blast on any platform. Rockstar's next GTA release, San Andreas, has immense shoes to fill.

Grand Theft Auto Vice City was waited for and well worth it.When I had bought this game I could not put it down. I just put my GTA3 on the shelf for a bit, because I'm not going to finish it right away as I have Vice City. This game has everything in GTA3 and more. You can pick up prostitutes , steal cars , kill people , and smash up cars/people. Now... who wouldn't have fun doing that!?

New features : This has actually come quite a way from GTA3. Instead of looking like the man from Rock Star's other title ''Max Payne'' you have your own look and attire. You're own attitude. Hell, you even have a face and a voice! Much different from GTA3 where you a faceless speechless tool , you will be very angry and arrogant (besides there are cheat codes to help you become other characters too!). There is about 50 different weapons in Grand Theft Auto Vice City.(including knives , bats , golf clubs chain saws , katanas , and glocks , machine guns , and explosives. Nearly 200 vehicles including the rumored motorcycle and helicopter. Also you know when you didn't start the fighting in Grand Theft Auto and the cops still arrested/shot you? Well In Vice City the cops will attack the real villain , and if you help the cops catch the villain you will be awarded with money for good citizen award. This also applies if you are being chased by cops (about 3-4 stars on wanted level), some citizens will go kama-kaze and attack you.

Another new feature that occurs is when you are being attacked by police they will shoot out your tires to make you slow down or crash , and also when having a high wanted level Police will drop down the helicopter from above. Also instead of having to stay at garages and alleys like in Grand Theft Auto 3 , in Vice City you have the ability to buy houses and apartments to stay and save your game at. Seeing as you can go into many buildings in the game , there is many stores and a mall where you can buy weapons such as grenades , machetes , knives , and also you can buy tools such as screwdrivers and hammers.Many other side missions such as Vigilante mode , Paramedic (with the ambulance) , Taxi driver (with the taxi and the zebra taxi) , and Pizza Boy (which IMO is very hard) , and fireman (with the fire truck) are offered in Vice City. Vehicles that include vigilante mode are the police cars , fbi cars , enforcers , boats , and the The Rhino .(the tank)

And of course, you get to re-live the 1980's with energetic music and colourful images.

I recommend this game to all you adults and older teens that have a sense a humor, or those whom CAN ACTUALLY tell fantasy from reality.

"Vice City", now you're talking about something really special. As a sequel, it builds on and refines "GTA III" in every single way. More vehicles, massive replay value and even more inviting sense of freedom. What they created here was a living, breathing proxy of South Florida, a pastel '80s drenched world that was as fun to explore as it was to mock. I have spent countless hours (over the last 13 years) revisiting and plunging into this game. It's got "Miami Vice" written all over it and the sense of humor's light-hearted but pointedly satirical (back in the earlier days when their ribbing was fun but not overly cynical - I'm looking at you, "V"). And then there's that soundtrack! The heavy hitters they've got playing on the radio stations in this game are admirable, and it's wholly addicting. It's a big part of what makes this environment so fun.

No pretense of objectivity here. This might just be the greatest console game I've ever played. My love for this will never die.

10/10

"Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" (2002)

***** stars (out of five)

With an all-star voice cast that includes Ray Liotta (Goodfellas, Hannibal), Dennis Hopper (Speed, True Romance), William Fichtner (The Perfect Storm), Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down), Fairuza Balk (The Craft), Luis Guzman (Traffic), Gary Busey (Lethal Weapon), and Danny Trejo (Spy Kids, Con Air), how could this game be anything but a game? "Vice City" has so many elements of a major Hollywood production, that you almost forget that your playing a video game. This is heightened by the fact that there is a movie script floating around Hollywood right now and I'm seriously hoping Liotta gets the lead part.

Ray Liotta plays Tommy Vercetti, an ex-con who has just returned to the streets after doing a fifteen year stint in prison. The family sends him to Vice City, a hell hole that is actually WORSE than Liberty City. How could Vice City be worse than Liberty City you say? Well for one, no one really cares about Vice City. The place is also crawling with drug dealers and corrupt city officials that keep the city properly unsafe for anyone to live.

Anyways, from the start, problems arise for Tommy. A drug deal goes wrong and only quick thinking and some fast driving by his lawyer friend Ken Rosenberg (Fichtner) gets them out alive. As it turns out, this mess leads to missing money, missing drugs and dangerous crime bosses including a corrupt land developer named Avery Arrington (Burt Reynolds) and a rich gangster (Guzman), the latter who Tommy eventually has to deal with. Tommy decides right away that he is going to own this town and so begins his odyssey into Vice City...

"Vice City" is such an amazing improvement over "Grand Theft Auto III" that it is almost impossible to describe it. You basically take Liberty City's worst qualities and multiply them by ten. Everything that was in "Grand Theft Auto III" is here, including the insane jumps, rampages and hidden packages. The missions are a lot harder too. But they are more varied and have a much greater significance in the end.

There are plenty more cars too, but there are boats and helicopters as well. My personal favorite vehicle so far is the Sabre. The helicopters are from what I've seen so far, the only vehicles available that enable flight. Probably my favorite new feature so far, is the fact that with the right amount of money, you can actually buy up real estate. I also forgot to mention that this game is a hell of a lot bloodier than any other previous "Grand Theft Auto" titles.

The leading actors are amazing in this game, especially Liotta as Vercetti. He has a lot of charisma here and it shows in his character. The other voice actors are great as well.

"Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" is so far the most anticipated and best reviewed game to come out for the Playstation 2 this year.

(This review refers to the PC port.) This game is a much needed breath of fresh air. It's incredibly fun, and like Grand Theft Auto 3, it's very easy to pick up and play. You can easily play this game for hours on end, but you don't hours to be able to play. From the moment you start, it's seamless to start doing your thing and simply have fun.

The missions are quite fun. They're better than before, cooler, and just plain entertaining. I thought not being the nameless thug would be annoying, but it's better than ever. The story is perfect for a game of this type, and the game's atmosphere is flawless. Don't be surprised if you find a love for 80's music after playing this game.

The only downsides are like GTA3, there's bugs left in that really should have been taken care of. Also, it's rather obvious it's a PS2 port as the game's memory is rather short. You can clearly see a car coming, turn around so it's out of sight, and poof... gone. "Out of sight, out of mind." And like GTA3, after awhile the fun may wear thin and things may get repetitive depending on your tastes.

• Rirath_com