![]() ![]() 4.) Lead character Tommy Vercetti opens doors and then walks inside them and after a short load time of five to 10 seconds, he's inside, be it a strip club, mansion, dance club, movie studio, apartment, hotel, what have you. ![]() Just as the city has expanded on the outside to include more waterways and more rooftops (you'll be surprised to see the lines of rooftop jumps designed for you Stunt Jump artists our there), it's also expanded internally. 3.) Yes, Rockstar expanded the use of boats, and just like the acquisition of cars, motorcycles and helicopters, players can now acquire a quiver of water-ready vessels to ride. Vice City is designed as two large, mostly symmetrical thumb-like islands, enclosing at least three smaller islands, providing channels of water in which to skipper boats. 2.) You can pilot helicopters through the skies, lifting up above everything and landing down on whatever permits a vehicle of that size. And you can pull off Stunt Jumps with them, adjusting the bikes in mid-air, thanks to a city specially designed with ramps, jumps and surfaces designed for launching you into the air. They all handle remarkably well: Some are incredibly fast, and others handle traffic better than others. The full list is far too extensive, but the crucial elements are as such: 1.) You can ride motorcycles (four different kinds, a high-powered street bike, a chopper, a scooter and a dirt bike) all over the city. GTA: Vice City does things GTA3 didn't do. Also, setting this game in the 1980s, the team expanded on ideas it previously wanted to implement - and also it incorporated ideas from its own fan base to create a game its fans would adore. That icon on the map was Vice City, an old section of the GTA universe, but yet one that's never been exploited to this degree. What's New, What's Not In re-imagining the GTA universe, Rockstar North looked around at its old maps, and there, staring up at the team appeared a shiny bright star, a tacky neon pink badge begging to be paid attention to, like a fleshy young Madonna on MTV or Michael Jackson singing Billy Jean and before the surgeries. It's genuinely impressive, but underneath the Don Johnson suit, it's the same old boy, and you already know him quite well. GTA: Vice City is like a new suit fitted on last year's model. But with last year's game the die was cast, the formula trademarked, and the medium made. Nothing right now comes close to Grand Theft Auto. It's enormous, packed with an immense amount of gameplay, and it's a truly unique gameplay experience. ![]() But before we get caught up in that very minutia, let me address this first: This year's model is bigger, badder and slightly prettier than 2001's effort, and most people will enjoy the game like few other games before it. The impressive details stretch on like the greatest roll of unending newspaper that ever was. And yes, you can take new weapons, such as a chainsaw and lay them into anyone, or for that matter you can grab machetes, samurai swords, screwdrivers or hammers. Branching out from a nearly 100% car-based game, Rockstar North has widened the vehicle gap, enabling players to drive cars, but also motorcycles, more boats than before, and now helicopters and airplanes - as a regular part of the game. A cursory overview of the game reveals several highlights: The missions are more substantial, woven more delicately into the storyline, and they get hard, real hard. It's painted with broader strokes and an absurdist's look at the 1980s. Although Rockstar North has solved a handful of problems and minimized others from last year's game, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City plays a whole lot like GTA3, with a giant bag of goodies thrown in. Now that I'm back on planet Earth, it's time to take a closer look at the good, the bad, and the ugly in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Over the last year a little of that sheen, that surprising magic, has worn off. Sure, it's still got all those qualities but I now expect them from the Grand Theft Auto series. It no longer shocks me with its ambitious gameplay design or the sharp hilarious radio sociopolitical commentary, or the deliberate presentation of mature and stylish themes that its predecessor did. But it's nowhere near the wake-up call surprise Grand Theft Auto III was. It's still wonderfully designed with a luxurious open mission structure, it's enormous, stylishly draped with '80s regalia, adorned with mature themes, and on and on, and it's as fun, if not more fun than last year's effort. So how is it? How does the sequel, prequel, or next iteration of the series (whatever you want to call it) play? It's a spectacular piece of videogame technology and design, a large-scale operation that no other action games can come close to replicating, at least so far. ![]()
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