Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

This is without doubt the best gangster game made. Everyone who want's to be a gangster without that annooying risk of being incarsonated or killed should stop read right here and go out and by the damn thing instead. Superb voice-overs by Ray Liotta, Burt Reynolds and numerous others, awesome soundtrack with every song you either loved or hated from the eighties, graphics that still look good, an intriguing story, henious crimes, fast cars... This is love on a computer screen and my second favourite game ever. The ultra violence has caused somewhat of a stir in America and the general political incorrectness of the game should have you're mouths watering by now. This game is what gaming should be all about; you start it up for a quick play at eight P.M., at four A.M. you realize that you've been sitting by the screen in eight hours and you still aren't sure how to complete the printwork asset.

Go out and buy!

"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.

Since GTA III, The gta series had jumped into the mainstream. it had a great 3rd person view and a great in-depth storyline. bottom line, it was straight up fun. but one year later, the series was rather brought back, but not in the department of fun, and awesomeness, but rather, in time.

Set in vice city, a fictional Miami in 1986, Tommy Vercetti is sent from Liberty city, a Fictional New York, by his mob boss, Sonny Forelli. He is set up in a drug trade and loses all his cash. Sonny is now mad with him, and it seems the whole world is out to get him. his plan? Take over Vice City.

This Game makes several different references to many different events of the time. It emulates the movie Scarface almost completely, with the exception of the outcome of Tommy Vercetti. it also poses several references to Miami Vice, a TV show at the time. For music, there are different stations to listen to, From Reggae to talk radio, to what might be the best Radio station of all time...V-rock.

Bottom line, if you want to play a good game, want to have fun, or just jump back to the 80s for a nostalgic feeling, I say GTA: Vice city is the way to go.

10/10

"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

GTA: VC is nothing short of a masterpiece. The cast, the theme, the play. It all fits so well, the closest a game has come to being a complete life replacement. I had only played this in limited amounts when it first came out and wasn't really hooked, I then bought San Andreas for PS2 and decided to back track to Vice City for PC. Low and behold it contains an aura that San ADreas does not. The soundtrack fits the game like a glove, the map is quiet a lot like Miami and the fashions and vehicles available just made it near perfect. One thing different from San Adnreas is that Tommy Vercetti is a winner, he is respected, whereas Carl in San Andreas is always battling for it for some reason, Tommy just seems to be a tougher character, and his rise and rise throughout the game confirms this.

I guess there is a fault with this game, it came to an end, eventual I suppose, but it did not look open for a sequel, perhaps Rockstar can throw us back to the 70's?, imagine it, GTA: San Francisco