Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – Rockstar Games – Software
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – Rockstar GamesAfter playing GTA2 and GTA3, I decided to buy GTA: Vice City. The gameplay feels the same as GTA3, but there are a few minor improvements. Many of the things I didn’t like in GTA3 are still in Vice City (such as ability to start running after shooting a gun: you must wait a second or two, which is enough time to get slugged by a cop and get busted). Tommy still can’t swim (actually, nobody in town can swim), so avoid water. You can ride motorcycles and fly helicopters (can be hard to control, but fun to jump out of in mid-air), but I wish there were more minor improvements, especially real physics like Half-Life 2. Some bushes are 2D and almost non-existant, while other bushes are harder than concrete.Like Paul McGrath stated in his review, Vice City is a “first-person shooter, racing, real-time strategy, arcade, and to a smaller degree, even role-playing.” This game has almost everything and can please most people. It has fast cars, chics in bikinis and strip clubs, disgruntled cops, taxi and ambulance driving/missions, bombs, motorcyle and boat racing, helicopters, prostitution, disguising as a cop, pyro, sniping, high-speed chasing, protecting friends, running down stairs in your mansion, yelling at people, hijacking cars, being two-faced between gangs, fist fights, and more!The town is much bigger and fun to cruise. The AI is a bit stupid at times and act like zombies, but no biggie. Cars tend to disappear when you turn your back on them (if you see a car you love driving away from you, and you turn 360-degrees, it most likely will disappear). Game play is quite smooth (I’m using 1 GHz Athlon XP, 768 MB RAM, 64 MB GeForce4). You can go inside many buildings (and even buy some of them to generate revenue).If you fail a mission, you must go back to the guy that gives you the mission, then drive where he tells you to drive. It takes a long time to do this, and it gets tedious if you’re on a hard mission. To save, you must drive to a specific building, walk inside, and save; there is no QuickSave feature. If you die or get arrested, you lose a little bit of money, and you must re-buy all of your weapons. Realistic, but it takes a long time to do. The missions are very fun, nonetheless. The storyplot is great!The voilence is excellent, although Soldier of Fortune: Double Helix is much more realistic. Lots of blood, bone crunching, screaming, etc. The rating is Mature (ages 17+, although many people 35+ don’t appreciate it). The radio/music is great. I remember many of these songs, too (like Sunglasses At Night). If you have MP3 files, you can use them as a radio station. It doesn’t come with built-in multiplayer, but you can download unofficial add-ons that work. I played multiplayer with my friend on our LAN/network, and it worked smoothly. There’s also no mod tools included.Overall, this is the funnest and most accictive game I have ever played. On a typical Satuday, I can play it almost 10 hours straight without becoming nautious. Because of the features that are missing and the minor, tedious bugs, I give GTA: Vice City a 9.5 out of 10!
